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A fast-moving wildfire has hit the resort town of Jasper, in the Canadian Rockies’ largest national park, causing significant damage and forcing thousands of residents and tourists to flee. Jasper national park officials said the fire entered the southern edge of the town on Wednesday evening and crews were battling multiple structural fires and working … Read more

Boring. That was the universal response to Wednesday’s first prime minister’s questions of the new parliament. Where was the screaming, yelling, insulting and air punching? This is supposed to be Strictly Come Politicking. Get off stage, the two of you. Zero points. The Telegraph condemned the new PMQs as a “love-in”. The prime minister was … Read more

Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech was hailed as historic, powerful and moving by his supporters in Israel and derided as absurd and cynical by some of his critics. Much of the nation is focused on the need to end the war in Gaza and bring home the hostages held by Hamas. Instead, the Israeli prime minister delivered … Read more

Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street team rejected advice a year ago that they should consider the early release of prisoners who had served less than half of their sentences to relieve prison overcrowding, the Guardian has been told by multiple sources. Discussions took place inside No 10 in June 2023 over the proposals, a version of … Read more

Culture, thinks Melvyn Bragg, is not a bonus feature of reality: it actually is life itself. Or – as the veteran broadcaster puts it in his new Sky Arts documentary – art “isn’t the cherry on the cake; it’s the cake”. To this end, the 84-year-old interviews a series of modern greats, including Tracey Emin, … Read more

The scale of harm done by gambling in Britain could be as much as eight times higher than previously thought, according to the largest ever survey into the impact of the industry. An estimated 2.5% of British adults have struggled with “problem gambling”, according to new research. This would equate to 1.3 million people, though … Read more

USA basketball star Stephen Curry threw his support behind Kamala Harris’s bid for the White House on Thursday and said he believed a successful US Olympic campaign could help unite a divided nation in the run-up to America’s bitterly contested presidential election. The four-time NBA champion and Olympic debutant, back in the national team for … Read more

It comes as little surprise after the events of last summer that John Eliot Gardiner has formally severed all links with the three pioneering ensembles that he established, the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. Gardiner apologised and publicly stated remorse over the incident after a performance of Berlioz’s Les … Read more