Conflict in Ethiopia

• The United States has experienced a pause in direct fire exchanges with Iran, though experts suggest this is driven by more than just diplomatic efforts. • A critical shortfall in the inventory of ballistic missile and drone defense systems has emerged as a primary challenge for the U.S. military during the conflict.

• The UN Security Council convened on Monday at Ukraine's request to address the escalation of large-scale Russian military strikes. • Recent attacks, including an overnight strike on Kyiv on July 19, resulted in at least one civilian death and over a dozen injuries.

• Iraq continues to struggle with severe political instability and recovery challenges six years after the war against the Islamic State. • Humanitarian needs remain critical, with three million people requiring assistance and over one million individuals still internally displaced.

• Africa is home to 9 of the 10 poorest countries in the world as of 2026, facing a combination of compounding systemic issues. • These nations are struggling with severe climate conditions, widespread corruption, and ongoing civil wars fueled by ethnic and sectarian strife.

The new prime minister is linking the need for better vocational education in school with his belief in localismGood morning. In his last speech to Labour’s annual conference as party leader, Keir Starmer called for a fundamental shift in the way education in England operates. While saying he would never “denigrate the aspiration to go to university”, he said that aiming to get 50% of pupils into university was wrong and that it was finally time to show equivalent respect to apprenticeships and technical education. “So, today I can announce we will scrap that [50%] target and replace it with a new ambition, that two-thirds of our children should go either to university or take a gold standard apprenticeship,” Starmer said, to loud applause.So heaven knows what Starmer is thinking this morning as he hears his successor, Andy Burnham, announce his own plan for “a fundamental change to the education system” that sounds – well, very similar.For too long, we’ve built an education system around the idea that there’s only one route to success: university, a degree, a desk. That opened doors for millions of people, and rightly so. But somewhere along the way, we sent another message too: that if your ambition was to do something that required more technical skills, somehow you were aiming lower.I think that was one of the biggest mistakes this country has made. In the age of AI, practical and technical skills haven’t become less valuable — they’ve become more valuable than ever. Britain will need brilliant engineers, electricians and cybersecurity experts more than ever before.These new [technical education] routes won’t be designed by Westminster. They’ll be shaped by the people and places they serve. Working with mayors, local leaders, employers and schools, we’ll identify the industries driving growth in local areas and make sure that local kids have a clear route into them.We all want to see better opportunities for young people and a boost to technical education, but this announcement is all over the place. Labour have literally just legislated to strip schools of their freedom to choose what’s best for the pupils they’re teaching, yet now they imply it should be locally tailored. It’s not clear whether or not Labour intends to replace GCSEs, which would be a disaster. The focus should be on the knowledge rich curriculum that has helped the most deprived children. Continue reading...

Cockroach Janta party says government has broken promise, with detentions in Delhi, Assam, West Bengal and BiharIndia’s youth-led “Cockroach” movement, whose nationwide protests forced the resignation of the education minister, has accused the government of backtracking on its promise not to act against student protesters and has threatened to restart demonstrations.The Cockroach Janta party (CJP), which organised mass protests over exam paper leaks and other irregularities, said it had received reports of hundreds of students being detained or “harassed” by police. Continue reading...

Co-presenter of former BBC motoring show given penalty after being caught twice in three weeksThe former Top Gear host Richard Hammond has been fined £999 by a court after he was caught speeding twice in three weeks while driving his luxury cars.The 56-year-old was in a Porsche when he broke the speed limit on 2 December last year, and was caught out again just 20 days later while driving a Bentley. Continue reading...

Emmanuel Macron warns that ‘we have to hold out’ as fires burn near city; Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sanchez warns of ‘difficult hours’ aheadFrance and Spain race to contain huge wildfires before fresh heatwave beginsThe return of searing temperatures, from today in France and tomorrow in Spain, will complicate efforts to fight massive wildfires raging in the Bordeaux region and a number of sites in Spain.On a visit to a crisis centre in Bordeaux, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, warned:“The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out.” Continue reading...

TUC leader says lender’s ‘bonanza’ quarterly profits of £3.3bn mean it ‘can easily afford to pay more tax’Business live – latest updatesBarclays has increased its banker bonus pool by nearly 30%after a rise in second-quarter profits that has fuelled calls for a tax raid on UK lenders to help fund Andy Burnham’s spending plans.Fresh corporate filings released on Tuesday showed the bank put £1.3bn towards its bonus pool for the first half of the year. That figure, which includes annual and deferred bonuses, was up from £1bn last year. Continue reading...

Chief executive, Frank Calabria, apologises and advises customers to look out for suspicious activity amid heightened scam risk Origin Energy has admitted it was warned of the hack that accessed 900,000 current and former customers’ personal data three weeks before it first made the data breach public.Australia’s largest energy retailer said a “significant” proportion of the 900,000 had been former customers, with those affected to be notified in the coming days. Continue reading...

Nostalgic foods like toad-in-the-hole also in demand at Waitrose as people pivot towards familiarity amid climatic and political upheavalForget a crisp salad and glass of chilled rosé. Enervated Britons are seemingly more likely to crave a rich cottage pie and a robust red in heatwaves.In a trend termed “reverse comfort eating”, Waitrose’s cottage pie sales have soared 110% in the last month and South African red wine is up 68% compared with the same period last year. The surprise spike in demand for winter comfort foods also includes retro chicken, bacon and leek pie (up 41%), chicken korma (up 67%) and chicken and ham gratin (68%). Continue reading...