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France 24 - World News

2026-08-01 05:03:00 (2 weeks ago)

Ceuta: What triggered mass migrant crossing?

The massive influx of people was equivalent to around 70% of Ceuta’s resident population. As the first reports of migrants reaching the Spanish enclave spread, more people headed north in the hope of reaching EU territory. It remains unclear what triggered the influx, but social media was awash with posts encouraging people to enter Ceuta in the days before the chaos began. Clémence Waller has more.

France 24 - World News

2026-08-01 05:03:00 (2 weeks ago)

Ceuta: What triggered mass migrant crossing?

The massive influx of people was equivalent to around 70% of Ceuta’s resident population. As the first reports of migrants reaching the Spanish enclave spread, more people headed north in the hope of reaching EU territory. It remains unclear what triggered the influx, but social media was awash with posts encouraging people to enter Ceuta in the days before the chaos began. Clémence Waller has more.

New York Times - World News

2026-08-01 05:02:04 (2 weeks ago)

A French Village Becomes a Ghost Town After the Wildfires

Wildfires in France have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes and left entire towns deserted along the southwest coast. We visited Claouey, an empty beach town, and found a handful of residents who chose to stay, including one man who’s made it his mission to care for all the village pets.

France 24 - World News

2026-08-01 05:01:24 (2 weeks ago)

West Bank: Settler violence hits "all-time high"

Locals in the West Bank say Israeli forces shot and wounded at least one Palestinian and arrested three others on Friday, as they protected Israeli settlers marching through a number of villages. One focal point was the village of Tell, near Nablus in the northern West Bank. Israeli troops sealed off the village on Friday, after carrying out near-daily raids and arrests there since last weekend. Peter O’Brien has more.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 05:00:49 (2 weeks ago)

From Ozempic to eye creams: demand for bathroom mini fridges is heating up

Sales soar as consumers seek maximum convenience, though experts say most products don’t need to be kept cool

When it comes to essential fixtures and fittings for bathrooms, the most common are tubs and taps. But now there is a new must-have emerging: a mini fridge.

Used to store everything from beauty products to GLP-1 medication, the growing demand reflects a wider trend in how the wellness industry and weight-loss drugs are reshaping homes.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 05:00:49 (2 weeks ago)

Gregg Araki on sex, film and queer resistance: ‘All the terrible shit in the world is because of sexual repression’

As his 12th feature film, I Want Your Sex, hits theaters, the cult gay film-maker is as fired up as ever

Is straight sex the most perverse sex of all? Gregg Araki’s new film makes a convincing case. Titled I Want Your Sex, the movie is a deliriously fun and often hilarious study of desire, power and art that features bondage, full-frontal and a vagina made out of pink chewed-up bubble gum. “For me, it is a very queer story,” the director says, speaking the week of the film’s release in a video call from his Los Angeles home. “It’s a take on kink and alternate sexuality that goes right across the straight-queer spectrum.”

While it is not the first heterosexual movie by Gregg Araki – that honor goes to his 1995 acid trip of a road movie The Doom Generation – it features the new queer cinema pioneer’s starriest cast in years, perhaps in a sign that Hollywood at large has caught up to the cult director’s anarchic vision. Forty years into his career, we still want Araki’s sex: the film is set to reach the director’s biggest audience to date, opening to 700 US screens this week, a stunning figure for an independent film and a wider opening than recent films by indie veterans like Nicolas Winding Refn and Jim Jarmusch.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 05:00:49 (2 weeks ago)

‘We didn’t feel safe’: Booking.com users face battle to get money back

From melted electric sockets to shabby alternatives, readers tell of dealings with platform when things go wrong

Jane Ripley* spent some time researching the best apartment to stay in for her family’s trip to Batumi in Georgia, eventually settling on one with an “exceptional” rating on Booking.com.

But when the Ripleys arrived at 11pm on the first day, they were directed to another property that was shabby and had stains on the furniture and ceiling.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 05:00:49 (2 weeks ago)

The US war on Iran is spinning out of control | Mohamad Bazzi

Trump’s conflict keeps escalating, with Saudi Arabia joining airstrikes in Iraq and reportedly planning an attack on the Houthis. A recession could follow

The US war against Iran is spiraling out of control. Over the past week, the conflict has expanded across the Middle East, with attacks and counterattacks in at least five other countries. Instead of a quick war that sought to topple Iran’s regime, Donald Trump has started a regional conflict that risks severely disrupting energy supplies and prices – and triggering a global recession.

After a few days of relative calm, the conflict resumed with the Pentagon carrying out almost nightly strikes against Iran, and Tehran retaliating against US military bases in the region. The conflict also extended to attacks in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Jordan and Egypt. And there’s little sign that peace negotiations between the US and Iran, which are being brokered by Pakistan and Qatar, are making much progress.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 05:00:49 (2 weeks ago)

The Democrats have one last chance to halt the erosion of US democracy – and it’s less than 100 days away | Timothy Garton Ash

American democrats need a Hungarian-style landslide to overwhelm Trump’s attempts to rig November’s midterm elections

In these days of extreme weather events, it seems odd to say that the US needs a big landslide. But a landslide defeat for President Donald Trump in November’s midterm elections is exactly what is required if the country is to start reversing his deliberate and rapid erosion of its democracy.

The respected Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute at Gothenburg University argues that in 2025 the US saw one of the most rapid declines in liberal democracy on record. “Democracy in the USA,” says its Democracy Report 2026, “is now at its worst in 60 years.” As the imperial republic marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, the danger seen at the very beginning of its constitutional order by anti-federalists such as Patrick Henry – that of an overmighty president abusing his executive power in an attempt to become a new king – has come closer than ever before.

The Guardian - World News

2026-08-01 05:00:48 (2 weeks ago)

Fiona Allen: ‘The closest I’ve come to death? A trip in a black cab with John Worboys. I had a lucky escape’

The actor and comedian on her hatred of selfishness, her unhappy resting face, and why she dropped her agent

Born in Lancashire, Fiona Allen, 61, went to drama school in Salford. From 1999, she co-wrote and starred in the Emmy-winning and Bafta-nominated TV sketch show Smack the Pony. She had roles in Shameless, Skins, Waterloo Road and EastEnders, and her films include 24 Hour Party People, Fat Slags, Gladiatress and Finding Emily. In 2023, she took her show On the Run to the Edinburgh festival fringe and later toured the UK. This year, she performs White Lies at Edinburgh’s Gilded Balloon Teviot from 5 to 29 August. She is married with three children and lives in Berkshire.

What is your greatest fear?
My kids navigating the world as it is today – and daddy longlegs.

New York Times - World News

2026-08-01 05:00:09 (2 weeks ago)

The U.S. Deported Him to Jail in Russia. Then He Escaped.

Facing a long prison sentence or a forced trip to the front line of a war he opposes, Artyom Vovchenko believed it was worth taking a risk.

France 24 - World News

2026-08-01 04:59:54 (2 weeks ago)

Donald Trump presses Israel to accept deal with Hamas

It’s been hailed as a potential breakthrough in Gaza, after Donald Trump announced late Thursday that Hamas had agreed to disarm, a key next step in the US-brokered peace plan for the enclave. But while the US President says Israel is “very happy” with the agreement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to publicly endorse it. Israeli sources say there will be no withdrawal of Israeli forces without genuine disarmament, while Hamas insists Israel must withdraw first before it will lay down its weapons. Charlotte Lam brings us reaction to the latest developments from people in both Gaza and Israel.