Caught in an escalation spiral, US and Iran agree to stand down — for now

• Israel has recognized Somaliland, a self-declared statelet, signaling a strategic move to expand its influence within the Horn of Africa. • This development aligns with a June 1 report from the Global Conflict Index, which warns that separate conflicts in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa are merging into a singular system.

Crew is in ninth month at sea and has spent 250 days consecutively without making land, record for an aircraft carrierMilitary families and Congress members are sounding the alarm about an intensifying mental health crisis aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as its 5,000 sailors and marines endure a record-breaking deployment at sea tied to the war with Iran.Two leading specialist military papers, the Navy Times and the Stars and Stripes, are reporting that there have been multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard as poor conditions and mental stresses on the Lincoln reach breaking point. The crew is in its ninth month at sea, and has spent 250 days consecutively without making land – a record for an aircraft carrier in modern times. Continue reading...

Managing director says guidelines will ensure no individual will ‘be the subject of comedy that is violent in its description in our programming’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA pledge by the ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, to change editorial guidelines on satire and violence after the broadcaster aired a program featuring offensive comments about Gina Rinehart, has sparked concerns about overreach.The four-minute film, titled A Very Relaxing Video, ran on documentary-reality show Race Around the World on 12 July and sparked a furore over comments made about the billionaire. Continue reading...

Exclusive: ‘Peaceful community rally’ of more than 150 people was walking in Broadmeadows when car travelling in same direction allegedly approachedGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastVictorian police are investigating allegations that a car was deliberately driven at speed towards a protester taking part in an anti-racism rally in Melbourne last month.More than 150 people gathered in the outer-north suburb of Broadmeadows on 25 July for what organisers described as a “peaceful community rally”. Continue reading...

Proposal to cut building costs by scrapping the construction code would increase bills for the poorest households, critics sayGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA Coalition plan to abolish compulsory energy standards for new homes that help reduce people’s exposure to heat and cold has been criticised by advocates as a “cost-of-living timebomb” that would deepen inequality.The opposition’s housing and environment spokesperson, Andrew Bragg, said a Coalition government would cut the National Construction Code from more than 2,000 pages to 80, and strip away all requirements for new homes beyond demanding they were “basic and safe”. Longstanding compulsory energy and accessibility measures would become “optional extras”. Continue reading...

Mortgage and student loan balances saw ‘small decline’ with increases elsewhere, says post alongside Fed reportCredit card debt in the United States is growing close to a record high, having creeped up from $54bn to $1.26tn between April and June compared with the same period last year, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.That figure is just shy of last year’s record high of $1.28tn. Continue reading...

Air traffic controllers are short-staffed and exhausted – and new recruits face a difficult aptitude test and must train in MelbourneGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastTravellers flying in and out of Sydney airport had already been dealing with heavy delays even before a Jetstar plane narrowly avoided colliding with a Qatar Airways plane on the tarmac early on Sunday.The day before, more than 150 flights passing through Sydney were delayed as the airport grappled with a lack of air traffic controllers, highlighting how just how delicate the rostering situation is. Continue reading...

Female staff alleged company failed to maintain safe workplace, after allegations of sexual assault against pilotThe Canadian airline WestJet has agreed to pay C$4.5m (£2.4m) to settle a decade-long sexual harassment class action lawsuit levelled by its female flight attendants, who alleged the company failed to maintain a safe workplace.The suit followed allegations by Mandalena Lewis, a former flight attendant, that a pilot had sexually assaulted her and a colleague, but that WestJet kept the pilot flying, thereby putting other employees at risk. Continue reading...

PM to look at imposing restriction on devices in public spaces, though campaigners fear it does not go far enoughThe government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the country, prime minister Andy Burnham has said.Disposable barbecues have been the cause of a number of serious fires over the last few years, but campaigners were critical of the PM’s failure to link those fires more broadly to the climate crisis.Macclesfield, Cheshire, July 2026: A large woodland fire which was tackled by dozens of firefighters. Cheshire Fire and Rescue service said a discarded barbecue was the probable causeThree separate fires in one day around London, July 2026: In Feltham, six hectares of heathland close to houses were damaged. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has urged people not to use disposable barbecues and to properly extinguish cigarettes after crews tackled three grass fires on Wednesday.The Trossachs, Scotland, May 2025: Covered two hectares in the Glen Finglas region of the national park. Glen Finglas is the biggest Woodland Trust site in the UK. The BBQ understood to have sparked that fire was found with a burger still on the grill. Continue reading...

As social media shrinks and distorts the EU’s crises, the Venice film festival is delivering politically forthright epics from directors such as Sergei Loznitsa and Alex Gibney• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereEurope is in an economic crisis that, unlike the eurozone downturn at the beginning of the millennium, cannot be measured in ratings downgrades and borrowing costs. For metrics, try engagement depth and consumer trust instead.The unedifying spectacle of the European Union’s falling out over the Ceuta crisis looks like the latest symptom of Europe’s shrinking attention economy. When more than 70,000 people crossed over from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta at the start of the month, Rome hastily reintroduced air and sea border checks with Spain for one month; Madrid retaliated with spot-checks on travellers to Italy. Continue reading...

Thanks to the drought, these black-and-white beauties are struggling to catch worms in the rock-hard earth. But there’s still good foraging on well-watered fairways and greensName: Badgers.Age: European badgers live for five to eight years in the wild. They have been in the UK, where this story is set, for half to three-quarters of a million years. Continue reading...

Incident marks second familicide in midwest in two weeks, with the children who died ranging in age from three to nineA father killed his four young children and their mother before turning the gun on himself, said authorities in Wichita, Kansas – marking the second incident of familicide in the midwest in two weeks.The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Winfield police department said a man identified as 53-year-old Ronald Williams Sr called police at 8.50am on Tuesday to say he had killed his entire family and was about to take his own life. Continue reading...