Burning

Incoming PM has deigned to answer some quickfire questions on TikTok – also revealing his stance on socks with sandalsUK politics live – latest updatesIt was Tony Blair who wrote that the “leader sets out for the people what they need and not simply what they want. Otherwise, the leader is just a follower”.The incoming prime minister, Andy Burnham, must have been channelling his predecessor when this week he started to set out his views on the big issues facing the UK: should milk go in the cup before the tea? What items belong in a Christmas dinner? Continue reading...

• NASA has launched the LINK spacecraft to rendezvous with the aging Swift observatory to prevent it from burning up in Earth's atmosphere. • The mission aims to boost the telescope into a higher orbit, extending its operational life and avoiding atmospheric reentry. • This operation marks the final flight of the historic Pegasus rocket, signaling the end of an era for the launch vehicle.

• Northrop Grumman is scheduled to launch a rescue mission on June 30 to save NASA's Swift space telescope. • The mission will utilize a unique deployment method, launching a rocket from an airplane to boost the telescope's altitude. • This intervention is critical to prevent the Swift telescope from falling out of orbit and burning up upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

Anthony Albanese presided over ceremony in Canberra last night. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA major new gallery at the Australian War Memorial will keep the “flame of memory” burning for future generations, the prime minister told the opening ceremony in Canberra last night, Australian Associated Press reports.Anthony Albanese was among those on hand last night for the opening of the memorial’s atrium and Anzac Hall, a gallery that focuses mainly on Australia’s commitments to the Middle East, Afghanistan and peacekeeping operations.That most unadorned of sentences that dwells within us like a heartbeat – we vow to keep the flame of memory burning so brightly that its glow reaches future generations.Today we adjourned the parliament so that everyone who wished to could come mark the opening of this Atrium and Anzac Hall, an addition to the Australian War Memorial that makes that flame burns so much brighter.Look at the faces and get lost amid the smiles, the hope and camaraderie – the counterpoint to war’s relentless, inhuman arithmetic. They are its true cost.Yet, amid this loss and sacrifice, what pulses so powerfully is life, and an abiding sense of what is worth fighting for. Continue reading...

While warehouse fires are often extinguished in a day, the Boyle Heights blaze is on its sixth day. Here’s what to knowLos Angeles firefighters are on their sixth day of battling a fire at a massive warehouse near downtown that stores frozen food.Smoke has billowed from the warehouse, which was covered in solar panels and insulated like a freezer, filling the air surrounding the roughly 500,000-sq-ft (46,450-sq-meter) facility. Continue reading...

Merlin Lu faces felony and misdemeanor charges after police released images of a suspect fleeing the sceneA 21- year old man who admitted to setting fire to a cross in Chicago’s Grant Park last week is now in police custody on hate crime charges, per Chicago police.Merlin Lu was arrested and charged with four felony and four misdemeanor counts related to the incident on 9 June. Continue reading...

• The author argues that a growing disconnect between governing elites and the general public is creating a volatile political environment across Europe. • Key grievances include the perceived hypocrisy of elites who demand tolerance for their own views while suppressing dissent and ignoring public opposition to migration policies. • This dynamic is fueling a belief that a "monocultural governing class" operates under a different set of rules than ordinary working people, leading to deep societal resentment.

Claims of two-tier policing and uncontrolled immigration may not be borne out by the facts, but that has not stopped them being played up for political endsAs the people of Glengormley, on the northern edge of Belfast, tidied up and prepared for more violence in the midst of what has been described as a modern-day pogrom, a court 500 miles away in Southampton, on the south coast of England, started to deal with its own outbreak of thuggery.The trigger for this week’s riots in the Northern Irish capital had been the image of a black assailant who appeared to be stabbing and slashing his supine white victim in the face and neck while shouting in Arabic. The suspect was later revealed to be a refugee from Sudan. Continue reading...

Smoke drifts into Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, as air quality declines and 50 homes destroyedSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxWildfires burning across the south-eastern US intensified on Wednesday across parts of south-east Georgia, where 50 homes were destroyed, and across north-east Florida, forcing evacuations and school closures in some communities.The Georgia forestry commission issued its first mandatory burn ban in the state’s history, effective across 91 counties in the lower half of the state, due to worsening drought conditions and rising wildfire activity. Continue reading...

Mandelson received two ‘clearance denied’ red ticks yet top Foreign Office civil servant says he did not have access to file – which he later readUK politics live – latest updatesThe verdict on Olly Robbins’ parliamentary testimony, among fellow knights of the civil service realm at least, was unanimous. Lord Sedwill, a former Cabinet secretary, called on the prime minister to “retract his accusations against Olly Robbins and reinstate him”.Simon McDonald, who once held Robbins’ job as top civil servant in the Foreign Office, said if Keir Starmer had only waited to hear his evidence to the foreign affairs select committee he would never have sacked him. Continue reading...

Company has received about £8.7bn in renewable energy subsidies since 2012, despite claims wood pellets are not sourced sustainablyThe owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire received record subsidies of almost £1bn for burning trees to generate electricity in 2025, a climate thinktank has calculated.The company was paid £999m last year for generating about 4.5% of Great Britain’s electricity from its biomass plant, costing each household £13 a year, according to analysts at Ember. Continue reading...

The EU’s reluctance to replace petrol cars and gas boilers keep it hooked on foreign fuels, say industry groupsEurope has made “staggering progress” in producing clean power but neglected efforts to phase out fuel-burning machines, the head of an industry group said as the global oil crisis deepens.Adrian Hiel, director of the Electrification Alliance, said the EU has “radically transformed” its power supply and must now focus on getting “more electricity into the stuff we use every day”. Continue reading...

Pakistani strike on Afghan capital kills 400 people, who burned in their beds or were crushed by collapsing wallsWitnesses and survivors have described the horrific scenes of a Pakistani air raid that hit a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, killing more than 400 people, who burned in their beds or were crushed by the collapsing building.Afghan rescue crews were still digging bodies out of the rubble on Tuesday after the strike, the deadliest single attack so far in a three-week war between the two countries. Continue reading...

Death comes two months after Alford was jailed for eight-and-a-half years for sexually assaulting two teenage girlsThe actor John Alford has died in prison two months after being jailed for sexually assaulting two teenage girls. Alford, 54, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years in January after he was found guilty of the assaults which occurred during a party at a friend’s home. The actor, who appeared in the drama London’s Burning and BBC show Grange Hill, died at HMP Bure, Norfolk, on Friday, the Prison Service said. Alford, who was tried under his real name, John Shannon, was convicted of four counts of sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl and charges of sexual assault and assault by penetration relating to a 15-year-old girl at a property in Hertfordshire in 2022. Jurors heard during the trial that he had sexually assaulted the girls while they were drunk after a night out at the pub. A Prison Service spokesperson said: “John Shannon died in prison on March 13 2026. “As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.” Continue reading...