The Polish authorities are consistently preparing the public for the event of war, going beyond an ambitious rearmament programme, according to the Swiss daily ‘Neue Zuercher Zeitung’. Among the examples it cites are summer military training courses for young people and marksmanship training.more

Bin collections have undergone huge changes across England this year. There are now separate collections for food waste, paper and card, glass, metal and plastic. The changes were implemented to make separating waste easier.more

Another heatwave is heading for Italy and, from today, will bring temperatures that could reach 45 degrees in the south of the country, including in Apulia. Since the end of May, there have been over 50 days of record-breaking heat.more

Robert Lewandowski played the whole match but failed to score as his Chicago Fire side lost 1–2 to CF Monterrey in the quarter-finals of the Leagues Cup, a tournament featuring clubs from the US-Canadian Major League Soccer and Mexico.more

The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Healey, has backed the extension of US sanctions against Iran. In a statement on Tuesday, he declared that London wants a diplomatic solution to the conflict in the region.more

Dolly Parton, an American country singer, songwriter, actress and philanthropist, died yesterday at the age of 80. Her management team announced that she had passed away following a short battle with cancer.more

Motorcyclists without a full driving licence could be banned from working as delivery drivers in London. Last month the London Assembly passed a motion calling on the government to prohibit the use of provisional licences for commercial work, to improve road safety.more

The ball with which Diego Maradona scored his famous ‘Hand of God’ goal during the 1986 World Cup was sold at auction in Dallas for $3.35 million.more

The European Earth observation programme Copernicus announced on Monday that the 21.1 degrees Celsius recorded last Saturday was an “all-time daily record” for ocean surface water temperature. The previous highest reading was 21.09°C and was recorded in March 2024.more

America is renowned for doing everything on a grand scale, from its cuisine and cars to huge cities that make London look like a quaint village. And then there are the trees. The Sierra Nevada mountains are home to the legendary Californian Redwoods, which remarkably, are now more common in Britain than across the pond. Yes, you read that right.more

Yellow thunderstorm warnings have been issued for London on Wednesday, with a threat of flooding in some areas. Forecasters at the Met Office are predicting “a band of heavy showers and thunderstorms” will hit the capital on Wednesday morning and further showers and storms may break out in the afternoon.more

Graduate job vacancies in the UK have sunk to their lowest level since they started being tracked a decade ago, according to a recruiting website. Just 8,383 jobs for people leaving university were advertised in July, Adzuna reported on Monday, down 45% compared with the same point last year and the lowest since the company started gathering the data in 2016.more

The British should be prepared for the possibility of cyber-attacks and “paramilitary actions”, for example against drone factories, warned Andrei Fyodorov, an adviser to Vladimir Putin, in an interview with the BBC. This would be in response to London’s announcement on Monday that it would provide Kyiv with data enabling the construction of long-range missiles.more

Magnus Lopez, a 20-year-old Norwegian footballer who until recently played in the fourth tier, has joined Santos Laguna of the Mexican top flight and made his debut in a match against Chicago Fire. After the match, he expressed his admiration for Robert Lewandowski and the opportunity to play against him.more

Ministers have announced where more than 70,000 social and affordable homes will be built in England over the next 10 years as part of an initial allocation of almost £10bn, in a bid to address the housing crisis. Funding has been granted to Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, North East England, and Liverpool. more

Millions of women in England who have missed cervical screening appointments will be offered free home testing kits on the NHS. The move comes amid concerns that only two-thirds of women attend in-person cervical screening appointments when asked to do so, leaving as many as 4 million women not up to date.more

Eight million Germans drink alcohol in quantities that are harmful to their health, warns an addiction expert in the weekly magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ . In his view, the influential spirits industry lobby is preventing an effective fight against addiction.more

Today, the legendary Swiss tennis player Roger Federer will take to the courts at Flushing Meadows to play an exhibition match ahead of the main singles draw at the US Open in New York, in a long-awaited farewell to his fans.more

Something new might appear in your change when you pay in cash from now on: a 10p coin featuring the portrait of King Charles and the world's largest grouse. Sufficient demand for the coins mean newly-minted 10p pieces are entering circulation for the first time for about four years, this time with a new design. more

Yesterday, Ukraine celebrated Independence Day on the 35th anniversary of its declaration. A coalition of supporters of Ukraine also met yesterday. The UK’s Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, who was in Kyiv, announced that the UK would transfer the technology for producing Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine.more

Many people pay for fast track to get through security lines, but a growing number of airports are offering a free alternative to let you skip the queue, and all you have to do is register. Two UK airports, you can actually use a little-known service to get through security so much faster, skipping the main queue for a dedicated lane without needing to spend a penny.more

Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane has been named Footballer of the Year in a poll by 'Kicker' magazine. His club manager, Belgian Vincent Kompany, was named Coach of the Year. Giulia Gwinn, who also plays for FC Bayern, was named Female Footballer of the Year.more

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Despite being called the London Underground, nearly half of the 250-mile (400km) network is above the ground. In fact, only two of the 11 lines are actually underground: The Victoria line and the Waterloo & City line (which is also the shortest by some way).more

Barcelona’s players began their defense of the Spanish league title won last season with a 5–0 away victory over Elche. Raphinha and Fermin scored two goals each, while Karim Adeyemi—signed from Borussia Dortmund in the summer—added another.more