At least 44 dead after overcrowded ferry capsizes on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe
The Guardian

At least 44 dead after overcrowded ferry capsizes on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe

Operation under way to rescue dozens missing after boat overturned by waves at world’s largest human-made lakeAt least 44 people have died after an overcrowded ferry capsized on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe, police said.The boat had a capacity of 90 people, but was carrying 114 adult passengers, five crew members and an unknown number of children, Zimbabwe’s civil protection unit (CPU) said earlier on ...

Inglorious Twelfth? Calls for grouse season to be banned to prevent wildfires and peatland damage

Inglorious Twelfth? Calls for grouse season to be banned to prevent wildfires and peatland damage

The Guardian

As London restaurants say wild birds are smaller and fewer this year, experts say countryside should not be ‘playground for bloodsports’Every year on 12 August, fans of traditional British cuisine flock to plush restaurants in Mayfair to dine on grouse served with bread sauce and game chips.But those hoping to find the small wild birds, sourced from the UK’s moorlands, may be disappointed. Wildfir...

Cambridge agrees to hold independent inquiry into Jason Arday appointment

Cambridge agrees to hold independent inquiry into Jason Arday appointment

The Guardian

Vice-chancellor Deborah Prentice says she recognises the ‘difficult case’ has damaged the universityCambridge University’s leadership has bowed to internal pressure for an independent investigation into its appointment of Jason Arday as professor, with its vice-chancellor admitting the affair had damaged the institution.Prof Deborah Prentice said she recognised the “anger and anxiety around this d...

Parts of Spain plunged into darkness as eclipse moves across Europe

Parts of Spain plunged into darkness as eclipse moves across Europe

France 24

Parts of Spain were briefly plunged into darkness on Wednesday as a solar eclipse that began in Iceland and the Arctic progressed across the continent. It was the first total eclipse to be seen from mainland Europe in two decades. Read our blog to see how the event unfolded.

Live: Parts of Spain in darkness as solar eclipse progresses across Europe

Live: Parts of Spain in darkness as solar eclipse progresses across Europe

France 24

A solar eclipse that will briefly plunge a small part of Europe into darkness began Wednesday in Iceland and the Arctic before becoming visible in regions of France and Spain, where it will be the first total eclipse seen from mainland Europe in two decades. Follow our liveblog for updates.

Live: Solar eclipse visible in parts of France and Spain

Live: Solar eclipse visible in parts of France and Spain

France 24

A solar eclipse that will briefly plunge a small part of Europe into darkness began Wednesday in Iceland and the Arctic before becoming visible in regions of France and Spain, where it will be the first total eclipse seen from mainland Europe in two decades. Follow our liveblog for updates.

Live: Solar eclipse becomes visible in parts of France and Spain

Live: Solar eclipse becomes visible in parts of France and Spain

France 24

A solar eclipse that will briefly plunge a small part of Europe into darkness began Wednesday in Iceland and the Arctic before becoming visible in regions of France and Spain, where it will be the first total eclipse visible on mainland Europe in two decades. Follow our liveblog for updates.

Live: Solar eclipse begins in parts of France and Spain

Live: Solar eclipse begins in parts of France and Spain

France 24

The total solar eclipse, which will briefly plunge a small part of Europe into darkness in broad daylight, began Wednesday in regions of France and Spain. It is the first total eclipse – the moment when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun – in mainland Europe in two decades. Follow our liveblog for updates and reactions.

Live: Solar eclipse begins in parts of the Arctic

Live: Solar eclipse begins in parts of the Arctic

France 24

The total solar eclipse, which will briefly plunge a small part of Europe into darkness in broad daylight, began Wednesday in a remote region of Russia on the edge of the Arctic, the Russian space agency Roscosmos has announced. It is the first total eclipse – the moment when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun – in mainland Europe in two decades. Follow our liveblog for updates...

Live: Millions of skywatchers in Europe prepare for total solar eclipse

Live: Millions of skywatchers in Europe prepare for total solar eclipse

France 24

Millions of people are set for a rare celestial treat as they prepare to view the total solar eclipse on Wednesday evening. It is the first total eclipse – the moment when the moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun – in mainland Europe in two decades. Follow our liveblog for all the updates and reactions.

Palm oil to cool data centres? Malaysia explores option as water demand surges

Palm oil to cool data centres? Malaysia explores option as water demand surges

SCMP

Malaysia is taking palm oil from the frying pan to server racks, as it banks on its biggest agricultural commodity to crack a code plaguing its data centre boom – keeping servers cool. Researchers at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) are developing a palm-based liquid to cool computer servers without relying on copious volumes of water, as the country grapples with high resource demands to suppo...

WHO chief warns Trump’s vaccine policy overhaul is against ‘decades of evidence’

WHO chief warns Trump’s vaccine policy overhaul is against ‘decades of evidence’

SCMP

The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s bid to overhaul child vaccination in the United States went against “decades of evidence”. Trump signed an order on Monday pushing for a rethink of school vaccine mandates and repeating calls for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to be separated into three separate shots. His Health Secretary Robert F. Kenn...

What can we learn from eclipses?

What can we learn from eclipses?

France 24

A total solar eclipse will sweep across northern Spain on August 12 in one of Europe's most anticipated astronomical events of the decade. From the Sun's corona to animal behaviour and human emotions, these rare celestial events continue to provide scientists with valuable insights more than two millennia after they were first observed. Head of Space Science at the Centre National d'Études Spatial...

Hong Kong murder suspect faces retrial after jury deadlocks on psychosis defence

Hong Kong murder suspect faces retrial after jury deadlocks on psychosis defence

SCMP

A Hong Kong court has ordered a murder suspect to face a retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict on whether he committed the crime while suffering from a delusion that authorities were harassing him with electromagnetic waves. The 23-day High Court trial of former software developer Matthew Choi ended with a hung jury on Wednesday. Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping discharged the seven-memb...

From solar to AI: why China may be entering its ‘Go Global 3.0’ era

From solar to AI: why China may be entering its ‘Go Global 3.0’ era

SCMP

Chinese corporate expansion overseas is shifting from solar equipment to artificial intelligence-enabled industrial technology, with a new generation of companies targeting global markets from inception, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs. “China has entered the ‘Go Global 3.0’ era,” wrote the investment bank’s team, led by Jacqueline Du, in a research note published on Tuesday. The evolution ...

Could the rise of left-wing Democrats reshape America’s policy on China?

Could the rise of left-wing Democrats reshape America’s policy on China?

SCMP

The Democratic Party’s ascendant left wing is likely to push American foreign policy further “inward” and away from big-power rivalry, according to a Chinese political scientist. Meng Weizhan, an assistant research professor at Fudan University’s Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences in Shanghai, also said it was time for Beijing to move away from the notion that all American political f...

Anger after Trump’s secret flight swap appears to offer up staff and media as decoys | First Thing

Anger after Trump’s secret flight swap appears to offer up staff and media as decoys | First Thing

The Guardian

Democrats demand congressional briefing after passenger-laden Air Force One sent on decoy flight despite security scare. Plus, the 11 biggest wellness trends of 2026 so farGood morning.Democrats have called for a congressional briefing after a charade in which Donald Trump was secretly spirited into a different plane than the one the public and press believed he was travelling on.How did the plot ...

Double murderer and rapist Simon Levy handed whole-life tariff

Double murderer and rapist Simon Levy handed whole-life tariff

The Guardian

Errors by police and prosecutors left serial sex offender free to murder Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl WilkinsSimon Levy, the sexual predator left free by police errors to murder two women, will never leave prison after being sentenced to a whole-life tariff.Levy was convicted on Friday of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later. He was also ...