Netanyahu orders Iran strikes despite Trump claiming ‘I call all the shots’ | First Thing

• The article examines whether a potential military failure in Iran would fundamentally change U.S. strategic approaches to warfare and foreign intervention. • It notes a historical trend where veterans and voters punished previous administrations for the high costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Organoids and tissues grown from human cells promise more accurate results, with £20m Cambridge project to create standardised modelsMiniature human organs and other tissues are to be grown from NHS patients’ cells in a drive to improve medicine testing and reduce the number of animals used in drug development.Scientists will use the clumps of tissue to learn how diseases vary between patients, helping them identify which treatments are best for different people based on the particular pathology underlying their condition. Continue reading...

Verdant thinktank says cost could top £25bn a year by 2030 and calls for maximum temperature for working and urban redesign to cool down citiesRepeated debilitating heatwaves this summer are likely to have cost the UK economy more than £4bn in lost economic output by the end of July, new analysis shows.Green thinktank Verdant had suggested June’s unseasonally hot weather had an economic cost of £2.36bn. Updating its assessment to include last month’s high temperatures, it finds a £4.4bn hit to output. Continue reading...

First responders, residents and environmental groups say military dropping flares to destroy forests and cropsFirefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing.Environmental groups said the fires in recent weeks were part of a longstanding Israeli practice of targeting Lebanon’s natural environment. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Horace Mason, 74, who has lived in Sweden for 25 years, faces being deported after court rulingA 74-year-old British man who has been living in Sweden for 25 years who needs round-the-clock care for dementia has been given 10 days to leave the country after he lost a post-Brexit migration court case.The deportation order comes after a Swedish court ruling in July that the government’s drive to reduce immigration trumped the needs of a man in full-time care. Continue reading...

State’s Democratic lieutenant governor bests Angie Craig in another election contest pitting a progressive against a moderatePeggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, won the Democratic primary for US Senate in the state, in another election contest that pitted a progressive against a moderate, this time with immigration issues at the center.The US Senate race in Minnesota, in which Flanagan ousted congresswoman Angie Craig, was yet another example of progressive campaigns toppling moderates as an anti-establishment wave continues across Democratic primaries. But the state’s race was also a response to the long shadow of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in January. Continue reading...

The Comac C919 will fly from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, although experts say it could take generations for it to challenge the west’s dominance of the industryChina hopes to break into the world of commercial aviation with the first international flight of a Chinese-made passenger jet scheduled for Wednesday.The Comac C919 will take off from Beijing capital international airport at 3pm, landing in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, just over two hours later. Continue reading...

Ahmed, who maintains his innocence, was accused of putting his father in a headlock in MarchThe man who disarmed one of the gunmen allegedly responsible for the Bondi Beach massacre has had an assault case against him tossed out.Ahmed al Ahmed, 44, had been accused of putting his father in a headlock on 9 March and intimidation over an alleged incident in June. Continue reading...

Prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul calls for tighter gun controls and ‘decisive penalties’ after nine dead in school shooting Thailand has suspended firearms licences after last week’s deadly school shooting, as the bodies of the teenage attacker and the grandparents he killed were cremated.The prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, said he had ordered the interior ministry and police to stop issuing licenses to possess, purchase and carry firearms, and called for “tighter controls and decisive penalties”. Continue reading...

Officers may not have fully unzipped the bag containing the sex doll to avoid destroying evidence, one expert saysRevelations that a “body” found inside a suitcase was actually a lifelike doll may have been embarrassing for police, but experts say officers followed the correct procedure.New South Wales police on Sunday were called to Oallen, a town near Goulburn, after two members of the public found a suitcase containing what they believed to be human remains, dumped on the side of the road. Continue reading...

Lindsey Graham’s sister, appointed to replace the Republican, held a narrow lead in the Senate primarySign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailSenator Darline Graham, appointed to complete the Senate term of her late brother, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has advanced to a runoff election for the Republican nomination of the seat. It remains unclear who she will face on 25 August.Graham held a narrow lead in the polls going into the abbreviated special primary on Tuesday, which predicted a close contest for second place. Congressman Russell Fry, Congressman Ralph Norman and former governor Mark Sanford polled within a point of each other in the most recent survey from the Trafalgar Group. Graham has loudly trumpeted her endorsement from Donald Trump, but also enjoys the support of South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, and John Thune, the Senate majority leader. Continue reading...

The prime minister tells the Guardian that last year’s diplomatic rift with ally New Zealand could be on voters’ minds as they head to the pollsAs voters in the Cook Islands prepare to head to the polls in a high-stakes general election, they will have much to reflect on. Over recent years, politics in this small island nation has been defined by fierce debates about deep-sea mining, diplomatic rifts with ally New Zealand and a major reshaping of the country’s foreign partnerships.In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, days before Wednesday’s poll, Cook Islands prime minister Mark Brown defended his four-year term and the decisions he made that have seen this South Pacific nation of 17,000 people pushed into the international limelight, turning it into a battleground for influence between Beijing and western powers. Continue reading...