2026/08/25 Daily Edition

Scientists say the growing El Niño weather pattern is an "unprecedented event" and means 2027 is likely to be the world's hottest year on record.

Dr Kirk Heilbrun says he believes Clancy took children’s lives so they wouldn’t ‘suffer’ after she killed herself With just days to go before the murder trial for Lindsay Clancy concludes, a forensic psychologist called by the prosecution testified on Monday that he did not believe she was experiencing acute psychosis when she killed her three children. Kirk Heilbrun, who reportedly performed psychiatric tests on Clancy in April, told the court that he questioned her claims that a hallucinated voice commanded her to commit the act, and that he believed she took their lives so they wouldn’t “suffer” after she killed herself...

Trade body says local chains would have to balance concerns with potential benefits of AI-enabled technology Cinemas across the UK are considering banning customers from wearing Meta’s smart glasses amid fears they could be used to pirate films. The UK Cinema Association (UKCA) trade body said that a number of local chains could end up introducing policies that restrict camera-enabled smart glasses at the big screen, adding to a growing list of venues concerned about covert use...

The prominent landowner has added a nearly 200-year-old estate to his holdings. Archival information says it can take “a brisk walk of 4½ minutes to reach the dining room from the kitchen.”

Study of long-clawed shrew skulls from Japan shows that while skulls get smaller in winter, snouts elongate Humans turn to heated blankets and fluffy socks to cope with winter, but long-clawed shrews have a very different adaptation: they increase the size of their snouts. Researchers have previously discovered that certain small mammals, including the common shrew and European mole, reversibly shrink their body mass, skull size and brain mass in winter, with regrowth seen in the spring – a strategy that has been named Dehnel’s phenomenon...

‘Emma’ the Rotherham chatbot has 17 languages says AI firm – but health watchdog says system struggling with local ‘twangs’ Patients in a South Yorkshire town are frustrated by an AI GP receptionist not understanding their “broad accents”, a health watchdog has said. Healthwatch Rotherham, a local health and social care watchdog, said a number of practices in the area had introduced a new AI receptionist called Emma...

More than 3,000 products were shown at the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing as China showcased its rapidly growing robotics industry. The event, which ran from 19-23 August, showcased the latest advances across the robotics industry, from humanoid robots to embodied intelligence and cutting-edge components..

The end of "roadless rule" protections would open millions of acres of pristine forests to commercial use. Supporters say it will lead to better managed forests.

The US has put the world on notice to cease doing business with Iran, but experts say Washington is wary China could retaliate against any sanctions The US has unveiled an expansion of sanctions that it says will cut off Iran’s economic lifeline but stopped short of the most punishing measures, instead putting the world on notice to cease doing business with the Islamic republic. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent ⁠warned other countries would need to sever ⁠business ties with Iran or risk being ​forced out of the dollar-based financial system. He previously urged cooperation from China – the biggest buyer of Iranian oil for several years – although the US blockade of Iran’s ports, renewed in mid-July, has already cut much of the Iranian oil flows to China...

Rise in claims linked to heat-related deaths and illness, especially among older people, could drive up premiums Europe’s intense heatwaves could hit insurers’ earnings as companies face a rise in claims linked to heat-related deaths and worsening health conditions, the rating agency S&P has said. While a long summer of extreme heat will have increased drought and wildfire-related claims, the rating agency said there would also be fallout for life and health insurers, and for the reinsurers who provide financial protection to insurance companies...

The role marks Harington's third collaboration with HBO, after starring in the tentpole Game of Thrones and financial drama The Industry.

The comments on BBC Newsnight come after the UK announced it has agreed to hand over blueprints for British-made missile components to Ukraine.

The trial of a Libyan man is delayed for a third time, after new evidence on the 37-year-old case came to light three days ago.

True figure likely to be much higher as it only covers about half of continent and does not include August totals At least 35,000 more people died during Europe’s four record-breaking, back-to-back heatwaves this summer than would normally be expected, according to incomplete figures from barely half the continent. Excess mortality in three of the EU’s larger countries – Germany, France and Spain – alone has already exceeded 25,000, according to the provisional national figures, and experts say the toll will rise significantly once August totals are consolidated...

Zvezdelina Stankova says she used AI to ‘help edit’ an article about some of her students being ‘five to eight years’ behind A math professor at the University of California, Berkeley, criticizing a “severe” math deficiency among students in an op-ed for the San Francisco Standard, admitted to using artificial intelligence to help edit the piece. The Standard published a 2,000-word piece by Zvezdelina Stankova last week, in which the professor said some of her math students were “five to eight years” behind and lacked a “middle school” education on fractions and basic algebra. Stankova said the UC system’s test-blind admissions were to blame, suggesting that students who weren’t sufficiently prepared for the rigor of Berkeley’s mathematics program were admitted because a longstanding benchmark like the SAT had disappeared...

Exclusive: Economic harm of CO2 pollution from Rosebank and Jackdaw forecast to far outweigh any boost to UK The climate damage caused by developing the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields under consideration by the UK government would destroy their economic benefits many times over, according to an analysis. It estimates the economic damage caused by the carbon pollution from the oil and gas produced would be between £119bn and £336bn in the coming decades, compared with the £28.7bn in value to the UK estimated by Adura, the fossil fuel company promoting the new fields...

A fundamental rupture in the values that have united North America is not a problem that can be wished away: this is a warning to the western alliance The Canadians are exceedingly angry. I realise this can sometimes be difficult for foreigners to deduce, given our national struggle to express the full range of human emotion outside ice hockey riots. However, let me assure you that the prime minister Canadians saw take the stage on Saturday morning in the wake of the collapse in trade negotiations with the US was a Mark Carney practically vibrating with fury. “You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked,” he said, in a rare press conference that was as candid and clear as he ever tends to be. “That’s fine … We’ve got the reserves, we’ve got the resilience, we’ve got the plan, we’ve got the focus. We’re gonna respond, we’re going to focus on what we can control and what we’re going to build.” Jen Gerson is a Canadian commentator and co-founder of The Line. She lives in Calgary, Alberta..

The move comes weeks after a DJ admitted using AI to remix a Madonna song that topped the Australian charts.

Theme park project is among a raft of deals spanning energy, defence, AI and tourism signed during MBS's visit to Paris.

Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa thanks his nation for getting off US state terror list.

Meta argued social media addiction does not exist, as a trial stemming from a major lawsuit brought by US states started.

In Indonesia’s Kalimantan, fires have ravaged tens of thousands of acres, with suffocating smoke reaching Malaysia and putting Singapore on alert Suwadi can barely see five metres in front of him when he steps outside his home in Indonesian Borneo. Each breath, he says, feels “like smoking a cigarette”...

The body of 70-year-old Shulai Wang was found near a marina in Auckland in 2024.

From killings in Gaza to the alleged use of a sonic weapon on a vigil in Belgrade, the Lebanese-British artist reveals how his work for activist group Earshot is inseparable from his art Lawrence Abu Hamdan has a double identity. He is an artist who, in 2019, jointly won the Turner prize; and one of his works is, for my money, among the most striking on show at this year’s Venice Biennale. But he is also the director of a young NGO, founded in 2023, called Earshot, which investigates human rights abuses using sound evidence. In less euphemistic language, that means, on occasion, investigating horrific killings. He and his team might analyse the direction and position of bullets Israeli soldiers have fired at emergency workers in Gaza, or build evidence that a sonic weapon was likely used to disperse a mass silent vigil in Belgrade. The foundational work he did in this field was a project with the London-based research agency Forensic Architecture for Amnesty International. Back in 2016, he interviewed rare survivors of the unimaginably barbaric conditions in Syria’s Sednaya prison. There was a paradox at play in this murderous place – prisoners were held in complete darkness, and enforced silence, killed for making any sound. Listening was both the inmates’ only source of information, and a tool for survival and resistance. Their acute sonic memories of screams of distress and pain; keys turning in locks; bread being slapped down outside their cells; even of lice being snapped – helped Abu Hamdan and his colleagues build a picture of the prison architecture and its conditions, nearly a decade before it was opened to the light after the fall of the bloody Assad regime...

Footage shows a rare tornado making its way through southern France.

Australia confirmed its first case of H5N1 in June in migratory seabirds. Since then, the virus has spread rapidly, straining government responses.

An oil tanker was struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman, causing damage but no casualties, the the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said early Tuesday. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.

Tens of thousands of people faced another night away from home on Monday as a wind-driven wildfire threatened Reno, Nevada, blanketing the city in smoke and closing schools. About 24,000 people remained under evacuation orders, down from more than 40,000 at the peak, while tens of thousands more were on alert.

Amnesty says India used lethal weapons on ‘Cockroach’ protesters.

The 68-year-old man was found dead in California's salt flats amid 116°F (46.6C) heat.

Experts have warned that he and Chancellor John Healey will have little room to manoeuvre in their first Budget.

Muslims in Iraq, Libya and Morocco gathered for Mawlid al-Nabi, marking Prophet Muhammad’s birthday

Gang members killed around 40 displaced people sheltering in a church near Haiti’s capital, a local mayor said on Monday. The victims were killed in an attack on Sunday night in Kenscoff, in the hills above Port-au-Prince, Mayor Massillon Jean said, describing a “night of terror”. Some people remained missing.

The world’s largest open road bullfighting event turned deadly when a 29-year-old man was killed.

The south-western village of Pomas was hardest hit, with hundreds of homes damaged and fifteen people taken to hospital.

What leverage does Canada, which sells about 70% of its goods to the US, actually have in this spiraling trade dispute?

At least 30 people have been killed in a gang attack on a hillside community that overlooks routes into Haiti's capital.

If the action happens, it will be the largest single mass revocation of visas in US history, AP reports.

A former fisherman from South Yorkshire is believed to have become the first British citizen to die fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

After repairs to Hirosaki Castle in Aomori prefecture, officials employed a technique known as hikiya to move the structure more than two metres To chants of “so-re, so-re”, about 1,800 people came together in northern Japan over the weekend to pull a 360-tonne castle keep a little more than two metres closer to its original resting place as part of ongoing renovations. The keep – a fortified tower within a castle – had to be moved to repair a wall that was damaged in a major earthquake...

Tshisekedi’s reform push is fuelling a political battle over DR Congo’s 2028 succession and rules for the next election.

Far-right leader echoes ally Donald Trump and says operations to ‘track down illegal immigrants’ should begin this week, amid earthquake aftermath Colombia’s far-right president, Abelardo de la Espriella, has announced a crackdown on immigrants, ordering authorities to detain and deport people who are in the country irregularly or have committed crimes. In office for just over two weeks, the millionaire former lawyer made the announcement on Sunday as the country continued to grapple with the aftermath of a 7.4-magnitude earthquake on 10 August that killed more than 300 people and destroyed more than 30,000 homes...

The tornado has injured more than 40 people and destroyed homes in villages.

US tells countries to choose between Washington and Tehran, warns Iran's trade partners they will face consequences.

The director of American Doctor and two physicians in the film discuss the challenges of treating Gaza's wounded civilians and why they believe the world must see what is happening there.