UK and 13 allies have accused Iran of plotting killings and kidnappings on Western soil.
The United Kingdom and 13 allied nations have publicly accused Iran’s intelligence services of orchestrating a wave of assassination attempts, abductions and intimidation campaigns against individuals residing in Europe and North America.
In a joint statement issued on Thursday, governments including the United States, France, Germany and Canada denounced Tehran’s alleged extraterritorial operations as a flagrant breach of national sovereignty.
“We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty,” the group said.
The signatories – which also included Albania, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK – urged Iranian authorities to halt these activities, which they claimed were increasingly carried out in partnership with international criminal groups.
A UK parliamentary committee recently attributed at least 15 plots targeting individuals in the UK since 2022 to Iranian intelligence operatives.
British officials have responded with tighter measures. In March, the UK government said Iran would be required to register any political influence activity inside the country, citing “escalating aggression” from its intelligence services.
In May, UK police arrested seven Iranians over alleged threats to national security, which Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced as “suspicious and unwarranted”.
Similar concerns have emerged elsewhere in Europe. Dutch security services said Tehran was behind a foiled 2024 attempt to assassinate an Iranian dissident in the Netherlands – charges Iran denied.
Authorities arrested two suspects, one of whom is also linked to the shooting of Spanish politician Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a vocal supporter of the Iranian opposition.
Across the Atlantic, the US Department of Justice charged three European-based gang members and later a senior Iranian official with plotting to kill an Iranian-American journalist. Two were convicted earlier this year, while the third pleaded guilty. Prosecutors claimed the men acted at the behest of the Iranian state. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called such statements “baseless”.
The allegations come at a time of renewed tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme. Talks between Iran and Western powers remain frozen. Last week, Iranian officials held “frank” discussions in Istanbul with diplomats from the UK, Germany and France.
The meeting marked the first engagement since Israel’s mid-June air strikes on Iran, which triggered a 12-day flare-up involving US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
While Israel insists Iran is covertly pursuing nuclear weapons, a claim it has not substantiated, Tehran maintains its nuclear activities are for civilian use only.
US intelligence agencies, meanwhile, assessed in March that Iran was not actively developing a bomb, contradicting former President Donald Trump’s claim that it was “close” to doing so
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday plans to reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test for American schoolchildren, a program created in 1966 to help interest young people in following healthy, active lifestyles.
Children had to run and perform sit-ups, pull-ups or push-ups and a sit-and-reach test, but the program changed in 2012 during the Obama administration to focus more on individual health than athletic feats.
The president “wants to ensure America’s future generations are strong, healthy, and successful,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, and that all young Americans “have the opportunity to emphasize healthy, active lifestyles — creating a culture of strength and excellence for years to come.”
In a late afternoon ceremony at the White House, Trump intends to sign an order reestablishing the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition, as well as the fitness test, to be administered by his Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The council also will develop criteria for a Presidential Fitness Award.
In 2012, the assessment evolved into the Youth Fitness Program, which the government said “moved away from recognizing athletic performance to providing a barometer on student’s health.” Then-First Lady Michelle Obama also promoted her “Let’s Move” initiative focused on reducing childhood obesity through diet and exercise.
Reinvigorating the sports council and the fitness test fits with Trump’s focus on athletics.
The Republican president played baseball in high school and plays golf almost every weekend. Much of the domestic travel he has done this year that is not related to weekend golf games at his clubs in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia was built around attending sporting events, including the Super Bowl, Daytona 500 and UFC matches.
The announcement Thursday comes as Trump readies the United States to host the 2025 Ryder Cup, 2026 FIFA World Cup games and the 2028 Summer Olympics.
The Youth Fitness Test, according to a Health and Human Services Department website last updated in 2023 but still online Thursday, “minimizes comparisons between children and instead supports students as they pursue personal fitness goals for lifelong health.”
Expected to join Trump at the event are several prominent athletes, including some who have faced controversy.
They include Trump friend and pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau; Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker; Swedish golfer Annika Sorenstam; WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, the son-in-law of Trump’s Education secretary, Linda McMahon; and former New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor, a registered sex offender.
The NFL distanced itself from comments Butker made last year during a commencement address at a Kansas college, where he said most of the women receiving degrees were probably more excited about getting married and having children than entering the workforce and that some Catholic leaders were “pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America.” Butker also assailed Pride Month and railed against Democratic President Biden’s stance on abortion.
Butker later formed a political action committee designed to encourage Christians to vote for what the PAC describes as “traditional values.”
Sorenstam faced backlash for accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump on Jan. 7, 2021, the day after rioters spurred by Trump’s false claims about his election loss to Biden stormed the Capitol in Washington.
Taylor, who has appeared on stage with Trump at campaign rallies, pleaded guilty in New York in 2011 to misdemeanor criminal charges of sexual misconduct. He was sentenced to six years of probation and ordered to register as a sex offender.
Price writes for the Associated Press. AP writer John Wawrow in Buffalo, N.Y., contributed to this report.
Third time’s a charm for Josh Tongue as he finds a way to remove Ravindra Jadeja after giving away four wides and then a boundary in successive deliveries, with the wicket leaving India 123-5 on day one of the fifth and final Test against England at The Oval.
July 31 (UPI) — President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he won’t raise tariffs on Mexican goods Friday for 90 days, in hopes that a new trade deal can be arranged.
Trump posted to his Truth Social account that he had spoken with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on the phone, in a call he described as “very successful in that, more and more, we are getting to know and understand each other.”
Sheinbaum also spoke of the call Thursday, posting to X that “We had a very good call with the President of the United States, Donald Trump.”
“We avoided the tariff increase announced for [Friday] and secured 90 days to build a long-term agreement through dialogue,” she added.
“The complexities of a deal with Mexico are somewhat different than other nations, because of both the problems, and assets, of the Border,” Trump said. “We have agreed to extend, for a 90 day period, the exact same deal as we had for the last short period of time, namely, that Mexico will continue to pay a 25% fentanyl tariff, 25% tariff on cars, and 50% tariff on steel, aluminum, and copper.”
The “25% fentanyl tariff” refers to a levy described in an Executive Order Trump put forth in February as applicable to “goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption” from Mexico as a punitive measure based on allegations that Mexico failed “to devote sufficient attention and resources to meaningfully stem the tide of unlawful migration and illicit drugs.”
Trump also said that in return for the 90-day pause, Mexico has agreed to “immediately terminate its non-tariff trade barriers, of which there were many.”
He further noted that there will be “continued cooperation on the border as it relates to all aspects of security, including drugs, drug distribution, and illegal immigration into the United States.”
United States Attorney General Pam Bondi has emerged as one of the most embattled top officials in the administration of United States President Donald Trump, amid fallout over her handling of disclosures related to the sex trafficking case of billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump has so far stood by Bondi, who has been instrumental in his reshaping of the Department of Justice, but the president has continued to voice frustration that public fixation on the scandal – and criticism from both within his base and among his opponents – has refused to die down.
Democrats have adopted the issue as their latest political cudgel, while Republicans in Congress have promised to continue their own probe when they return from summer recess, with plans to hear testimony from Bondi, as well as subpoena the case files and testimony from Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.
Two lawmakers are even pushing a bill that would compel Bondi to release the documents in question, a move Republican Thomas Massie has said is aimed at “justice for the victims and transparency for Americans”.
So who is Bondi and how did the 59-year-old attorney general come to be one of Trump’s most loyal cabinet members?
What did Bondi do before becoming attorney general?
Bondi spent 18 years as a public prosecutor in Hillsborough County, Florida before breaking into statewide office.
The lengthy career gave her more direct prosecutorial experience than any preceding US attorney general, according to the Heritage Foundation, the conservative group that has had an outsized role in shaping the policy of Trump’s second term.
Speaking last year to the Tampa Bay Times, former colleagues recounted Bondi’s reputation for jury-turning charisma that saw her quickly rise through the ranks of felony prosecutions.
But it was regular media appearances as a legal analyst on national news networks that helped her to build public recognition, which was credited with her victory in Florida’s open attorney general race in 2010. Bondi, who took office in 2011, was also buoyed by the endorsement of former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
As attorney general, Bondi led crusades against so-called “pill mills”, clinics that loosely prescribe pain medications, while leading some Republican pet causes, including a multi-state effort to overturn former President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act.
She also led efforts to uphold Florida’s ban on same sex marriage, before its nationwide legalisation by Supreme Court order in 2015, as well as the ability for same sex couples to adopt.
During that period, Bondi sought to establish herself as a champion against sex trafficking and child sex abuse, launching the state’s council on human trafficking and an investigation into past abuse by Catholic priests.
As Florida’s top cop, she also had her first brush with Epstein, with critics accusing her of remaining willfully silent on a controversial non-prosecution agreement Epstein and his co-conspirators had struck with her predecessor.
They have said Bondi could have intervened as victims launched lawsuits challenging the deal, which saw Epstein plead guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution but serve only months in prison.
“But Bondi kept her distance from the state’s most prominent sex-trafficking case, even as Epstein’s victims pleaded with the courts to invalidate provisions of his non-prosecution agreement and filed lawsuits alleging he abused them when he was on work release from jail,” wrote Mary Ellen Klas, a Bloomberg opinion writer and former Miami Herald Bureau Chief.
“Her inaction helped to perpetuate what victims describe as a government cover-up that, along with Epstein’s death, has robbed those victims of their chance to get answers and hold their abusers to account,” she wrote.
Then-Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, right, speaks as Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, centre, and his wife Ann, left, look on during a campaign rally, Sunday, October 7, 2012, in Port St Lucie, Florida [Lynne Sladky/AP Photo]
How did Bondi enter Trump’s orbit?
Bondi’s connections with Trump drew scrutiny even before he entered office, after it was revealed in 2016 that authorities had launched an ethics probe related to the soon-to-be president. At question was whether Bondi had solicited contributions from Trump in 2013, as her office was weighing joining a lawsuit against Trump University.
Her office denied any wrongdoing, and the investigation was later dropped.
Despite those early contacts, Bondi was not an early adherent to Trump’s presidential ambitions or his nascent “Make America Great Again” movement.
Instead, she initially supported former Florida Governor Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican primary. When Jeb dropped out of the race, she threw her lot in with Trump. From there, things accelerated quickly.
While still Florida’s attorney general, Bondi served on Trump’s first White House transition team. She left her post in Florida in 2019 and soon joined the Ballard Lobbyist group, representing the interests of Amazon, General Motors, and Uber, among others.
From there, she joined the White House legal team, defending the president during his first impeachment trial in the US Senate, in which Trump was accused of conditioning weapons to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on then political opponent Biden.
After Trump’s election loss, Bondi was among those spearheading unfounded claims that the vote was marred by widespread fraud. She helped coordinate former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s infamous news conference at the Four Seasons Landscaping in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she flatly and falsely claimed that Trump had “won Pennsylvania”.
She went on to chair the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a pro-Trump think tank that oversaw “a series of concerning lawsuits in recent years, particularly in the voting rights and elections arena”, as described by the Brennan Center for Justice. Publicly, she also floated prosecuting career federal law enforcement officials who investigated Trump.
In criticising her appointment, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in January said that Bondi had “the ultimate qualification” to be Trump’s attorney general: “loyalty”.
Bondi’s tenure at the Justice Department
That loyalty has generated much consternation since Bondi took office, with opponents accusing her of shaping the country’s top law enforcement agency in Trump’s likeness.
That has included hundreds of layoffs at the department, including investigators and prosecutors in the two federal criminal cases lodged against Trump before his November election victory last year.
She has also launched a task force to probe those investigations, while publicly decrying what she has framed as a conspiracy against Trump amid the career staff, saying the staff of the FBI and Justice Department were rife with employees “who despise Donald Trump, despise us”, as she told Fox News.
More recently, she launched a strike force to investigate how the intelligence community, under former President Obama, handled information related to Russian influence in the 2016 presidential election, in what some have seen as an attempt to distract from the Epstein imbroglio.
Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at a news conference at the Drug Enforcement Administration, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Arlington, Virginia [Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo]
She has also announced a misconduct complaint against federal Judge James Boasberg, escalating a standoff over judges who have ruled against Trump’s early actions, most notably his use of the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members with little requirement for proof.
But it was Bondi’s embrace of theories pushed by Trump’s staunchest supporters that has landed her in the current predicament. In February, she brazenly told Fox News that she had Epstein’s long-sought “client list” – thought to contain the names of the powerful figures the billionaire blackmailed via his sex scheme – “sitting on my desk right now”.
Months later, the White House would say Bondi was referring to the entirety of Epstein’s case files, and not specifically the list long sought by MAGA’s most influential voices.
That came shortly after the Justice Department in July released a memo, stating flatly: “This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list’”.
Of the 97 BBC episodes still missing from the early years, there are more yet to be discovered, thanks to private collectors
More of Patrick Troughton’s episdoes as the Doctor are likely to turn up(Image: BBC)
Several more lost episodes of 1960s Doctor Who are probably owned by private collectors and will turn up at some point, an expert has revealed. At present, 97 shows starring the first two Time Lords, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, are missing from the BBC archives.
The master tapes were believed to have been destroyed in the 1970s when it was thought no one would want to watch the black and white episodes again. But the BBC’s first archive selector, Sue Malden, said she believes some copies still exist and has made a plea for their return.
Speaking at the Recovered festival in Leicester, hosted by archive recovery project Film is Fabulous!, she added: “As far as Doctor Who goes, we do not have a statement or anything to make at the moment. We do know fairly certainly that there are episodes missing in private collections. Some members of the Film is Fabulous! team are in a considerably significant position to help on that.
Episodes starring William Hartnell, seen here with Peter Purves and Maureen O’Brien, could yet be reidscovered
“So, when the time is right, we really do hope that it will be Film is Fabulous! that manages to return at least one or two, I don’t know, of the missing episodes of Doctor Who to the BBC.”
Only eight episodes of the show were ever repeated during the 1960s, with copies being made for sales overseas. A source said: “There’s a lot of grounds for optimism that some episodes could be returned before too long. The films will be donated to De Montfort University in Leicester, and carefully restored.”
Lost episodes were as earlier returned by collectors Francis Watson, Terry Burnett and Bruce Grenville. Since the early 1980s, a trickle of copies have been sent back to the BBC, with a batch of nine shows starring Troughton being recovered in 2013 after being found in Nigeria. The most likely stories to turn up are:
Patrick Troughton in a later episode of Doctor Who, in colour(Image: No Name)
1 The Tenth Planet, episode 4, October 29, 1966 Final Hartnell show where he defeated the Cybermen for the first time.
2 The Daleks’ Master Plan, episode 4, December 4, 1965 The Daleks’ Master Plan serial was never shown outside the UK but three episodes of this 12-part epic survive.
3 Marco Polo (broadcast from 22 February – March 4, 1964) Many copies of this were sold around the world.
More adventures involving the Daleks from the 1960s could yet be found in private hands(Image: Handout)
4 The Web of Fear, episode 3 (broadcast February 17, 1968) Featuring Troughton battling the Yeti on the London Underground, other episodes were returned in 2013.
5 The Macra Terror (broadcast from March 11 – April 1, 1967) Introduced the first set of opening titles to feature Troughton’s face. Doctor and friends encounter a race of giant alien crabs.
Less than half of Americans believe racial minorities face substantial discrimination, in a reversal of the previous trend.
Only 40 percent of people in the United States believe that Black and Hispanic people face “quite a bit” or “a great deal” of discrimination, according to a new poll highlighting a reversal in previously held perceptions.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released on Thursday also found that 30 percent of those surveyed felt the same way about Asian people, and only 10 percent believed that white people were discriminated against.
“The number of people saying Asian people and Black people are experiencing a substantial amount of discrimination has dropped since an AP-NORC poll conducted in April 2021,” according to a statement on the NORC website.
The poll comes as US President Donald Trump continues to attack initiatives that promote diversity at universities and the workplace, and to pressure institutions not aligned with his political agenda in the name of combatting left-wing ideas.
In the spring of 2021, amid massive protests against racial injustice following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 60 percent of people polled believed that Black people face “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of discrimination in the US. That figure has now dropped to less than 50 percent.
About 74 percent of Black people say their communities continue to face substantial discrimination, while just 39 percent of white respondents said that Black people face serious discrimination.
People in the US have also become more sceptical about corporate efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, often referred to as DEI. Many large companies have started to roll back such efforts.
Between 33 percent and 41 percent said that DEI made no difference at all, and a quarter said it was likely to increase discrimination against minorities.
“Anytime they’re in a space that they’re not expected to be, like seeing a Black girl in an engineering course … they are seen as only getting there because of those factors,” Claudine Brider, a 48-year-old Black Democrat in Compton, California, told the Associated Press. “It’s all negated by someone saying, ‘You’re only here to meet a quota.’”
But the Trump administration has gone far beyond criticisms of DEI efforts, wielding a wide definition of the term to exert pressure on institutions and organisations that he sees as hostile to his political agenda. The president has threatened, for example, to withhold federal disaster aid from states that do not align with his efforts to roll back anti-discrimination measures and open probes into companies with DEI policies, which he has framed as racist against white people.
A majority of those polled also believe that undocumented immigrants face discrimination, as the Trump administration pursues a programme of mass deportations that have caused fear in immigrant communities across the country.
“Most people, 58 percent, think immigrants without legal status also face discrimination — the highest amount of any identity group,” AP-NORC states. “Four in 10 say immigrants living legally in the United States also face this level of discrimination.”
The poll also found that more than half of the public believes Muslims face substantial discrimination, and about one-third said the same for Jewish people.
WASHINGTON — Slightly less than half of U.S. adults believe that Black people face “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of discrimination in the United States, according to a poll. That’s a decline from the solid majority, 60%, who thought Black Americans faced high levels of discrimination in the spring of 2021, months after racial reckoning protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd.
Significant numbers of Americans also think diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, also known as DEI, are backfiring against the groups they’re intended to help, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, including many people who belong to those groups.
The findings suggest Americans’ views on racial discrimination have shifted substantially since four years ago, when many companies launched efforts to promote diversity within their workforces and the products they sold.
Since then, many of those companies have reversed themselves and retreated from their diversity practices, a trend that’s accelerated this year under pressure from President Trump, a Republican who has sought to withhold federal money from schools and companies that promote DEI.
Now, it’s clear that views are changing as well as company policies.
Claudine Brider, a 48-year-old Black Democrat in Compton, California, says the concept of DEI has made the workplace difficult for Black people and women in new ways.
“Anytime they’re in a space that they’re not expected to be, like seeing a Black girl in an engineering course … they are seen as only getting there because of those factors,” Brider said. “It’s all negated by someone saying, ‘You’re only here to meet a quota.’”
Reversal in views of racial discrimination
The poll finds 45% of U.S. adults think Black people face high levels of discrimination, down from 60% in the spring of 2021. There was a similar drop in views about the prevalence of serious discrimination against Asian people, which fell from 45% in the 2021 poll — conducted a month after the Atlanta spa shootings, which killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent — to 32% in the current survey.
There’s no question the country has backtracked from its “so-called racial reckoning” and the experiences of particular groups such as Black people are being downplayed, said Phillipe Copeland, a professor at Boston University School of Social Work.
Americans’ views about discrimination haven’t shifted when it comes to all groups, though. Just under half of U.S. adults, 44%, now say Hispanic people face at least “quite a bit of discrimination,” and only 15% say this about white people. Both numbers are similar to when the question was last asked in April 2021.
Divisions on the impact of DEI on Black and Hispanic people
The poll indicates that less than half of Americans think DEI has a benefit for the people it’s intended to help.
About 4 in 10 U.S. adults say DEI reduces discrimination against Black people, while about one-third say this about Hispanic people, women and Asian people. Many — between 33% and 41% — don’t think DEI makes a difference either way. About one-quarter of U.S. adults believe that DEI actually increases discrimination against these groups.
Black and Hispanic people are more likely than white people to think DEI efforts end up increasing discrimination against people like them.
About 4 in 10 Black adults and about one-third of Hispanic adults say DEI increases discrimination against Black people, compared with about one-quarter of white adults. There is a similar split between white adults and Black and Hispanic adults on assessments of discrimination against Hispanic people.
Among white people, it’s mostly Democrats who think DEI efforts reduce discrimination against Black and Hispanic people. Only about one-quarter of white independents and Republicans say the same.
Pete Parra, a 59-year-old resident of Gilbert, Ariz., thinks that DEI is making things harder for racial minorities now. He worries about how his two adult Hispanic sons will be treated when they apply for work.
“I’m not saying automatically just give it to my sons,” said Parra, who leans toward the Democratic Party. But he’s concerned that now factors other than merit may take priority.
“If they get passed over for something,” he said, “they’re not going to know (why).”
About 3 in 10 say DEI increases discrimination against white people
The poll shows that Americans aren’t any more likely to think white people face discrimination than they were in 2021. And more than half think DEI doesn’t make a difference when it comes to white people or men.
But a substantial minority — about 3 in 10 U.S. adults — think DEI increases discrimination against white people. Even more white adults, 39%, hold that view, compared with 21% of Hispanic adults and 13% of Black adults.
The recent political focus on DEI has included the idea that white people are more often overlooked for career and educational opportunities because of their race.
John Bartus, a 66-year-old registered Republican in Twin Falls, Idaho, says that DEI might have been “a good thing for all races of people, but it seems like it’s gone far left.” It’s his impression that DEI compels companies to hire people based on their race or if they identify as LGBTQ+.
“The most qualified person ought to get a job based on their merit or based on their educational status,” Bartus said.
Brider, the Black California resident, objects to the notion that white people face the same level of discrimination as Black people. But while she thinks the aims of DEI are admirable, she also sees the reality as flawed.
“I do think there needs to be something that ensures that there is a good cross-section of people in the workplace,” Brider said. “I just don’t know what that would look like, to be honest.”
Tang and Thomson-Deveaux write for the Associated Press. The AP-NORC poll of 1,437 adults was conducted July 10-14, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
A BELOVED children’s author who wrote over 150 books has died aged 87.
Allan Ahlberg produced a host of bestselling nursery classics during a stellar career as an author.
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Allan Ahlberg has died aged 87Credit: Alamy
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The children’s author left behind an incredible legacyCredit: CLPE
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He worked with his late wife Janet on books together
Some of his most famous work includes lasting favourites Peepo!, The Baby’s Catalogue and Each Peach Pear Plum.
He came to writing in his late thirties, when his wife Janet grew tired of illustrating non-fiction and asked him to write a story for her to illustrate.
Allan later recalled the moment was “as if she turned a key in my back and I was off”.
The Ahlbergs went on to produce 37 books together, and Allan also wrote more than 100 others, some in Janet’s lifetime, and some since her death from breast cancer in 1994.
Following Janet’s death, Allan worked with illustrators such asRaymond Briggsand Bruce Ingman.
His career came full circle in a series of collaborations with his daughter Jessica including Half a Pig and a pop-up set of anarchic variations on the tale of Goldilocks.
Belinda Ioni Rasmussen, CEO of Walker Books Group, which published some of his books, said: “He was enormously playful in spirit and language and had the ability to make you smile in one sentence.
“Allan inspired generations of children’s writers, inspired all of us who worked with him, and inspired artists to make some of their very best work.”
A proposed international league described as the F1 of basketball gained attention over the weekend when Misko Raznatovic, the agent for Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, posted a photo on Instagram of him meeting in shorts and bare feet with LeBron James and the Lakers star’s business partner Maverick Carter on a yacht off the coast of the French Riviera.
Raznatovic accompanied the photo with an intriguing comment: “The summer of 2025 is the perfect time to make big plans for the fall of 2026! @kingjames@mavcarter
The post triggered speculation that perhaps James and Jokic could team up on either the Lakers or Nuggets, but more likely it suggests James has more than a peripheral interest in the new league.
Front Office Sports reported in January that Carter was advising a group of investors trying to raise $5 billion to jump-start the league but that James wasn’t involved. That may have changed.
So what’s the league about?
Early discussions are of a touring model with six men’s and six women’s teams playing in eight cities, none of which is likely to be in the United States. Investors include the Singapore government, SC Holdings, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, a Macau casino operator, UBS, Skype founder Geoff Prentice and former Facebook executive Grady Burnett, according to the Financial Times. Reports have linked VC firm Quiet Capital, tech investor Byron Deeter and Hong Kong-based Galaxy Entertainment to the effort.
Investors are leaning toward not allowing players in the league unless they cut ties with the NBA, making the model somewhat like LIV Golf — the professional circuit funded by (PIF). A better comparison in terms of format and scale might be Formula 1 Racing, which holds 24 races a year across five continents.
Raznatovic’s involvement would be key. His Belgrade, Serbia, agency BeoBasket has a partnership with Excel Sports Management and represents dozens of top European players, including Clippers center Ivica Zubac.
The EuroLeague is currently recognized as the world’s second-best basketball circuit, but can’t come close to paying players NBA-level salaries.
If Raznatovic’s social media post is an indication, the new league could launch as soon as the fall of 2026. Until then, fans wanting an alternative to the NBA can check out Ice Cube’s tour-based Big3 basketball league, which makes its single stop in Los Angeles on Aug. 9.
A former flight attendant and TikTok creator has shared a warning about the window seat
I’m a flight attendant and the window seats are the worst(Image: Getty)
Cabin crew understand the realities of air travel better than most passengers. Their knowledge stems from years of hands-on experience rather than just theoretical training, which is why their advice about flying should be taken seriously. When a flight attendant reveals what they personally avoid doing whilst aboard an aircraft, it’s definitely worth listening.
Many travellers book their preferred seats well in advance, hoping for a more pleasant journey. Most flyers opt for either window seats to lean against or aisle positions for additional leg room, but one former flight attendant has issued a stark warning about choosing the window spot, reports the Express.
TikTok user and former cabin crew member Cierra Mistt has raised serious concerns about window seats and explained her reasoning.
Breeding ground for bacteria
Cierra explained: “While it is true that cleaners do come on most after passengers are done getting off the plane, they don’t do a deep clean like you might think they do.
“In fact, they only did that during Covid, and the only thing they really deep-cleaned was the tray tables and seatbelts. Nowadays, it’s mostly just to tidy up and getting the trash off the floor.”
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Noting that some carriers provide sanitising wipes when passengers board, she continued: “If I were you, instead of wiping down the tray tables and seatbelts that they just cleaned, I would use that wipe to clean off the window that you’re next to, because just like the bathroom floor, those things have never been cleaned.”
Taking to the comments section of the video, most viewers urged others to always pack cleaning wipes to sanitise the window area.
One viewer remarked: “I can’t believe they get away with not cleaning anything! That is horrible!”. Another commented: “I always clean the window and the head seat. Sometimes looks greasy.”
A third confirmed: ” I can verify this. They didn’t even remove the melted chocolate from my seat and tray left by the previous passenger before I sat down. I had to sort it myself.”
Someone else explained: “You have less than seven minutes to clean a whole plane. Sometimes, only two people are there to clean a plane.”
Other travel experts actually say this is the best seat (Image: Getty)
Defending the airlines, another viewer countered: “They do a deep clean and search EVERY single night, including disinfecting everything with cleaner.”
According to Aviation Job Search, standard cleaning takes place between flights, whilst aircraft also undergo regular thorough cleaning to uphold high hygiene standards.
These comprehensive sessions involve scrubbing cabin walls, wiping down overhead compartments, and clearing out air vents. Seats and cushions are meticulously hoovered and disinfected to eliminate any concealed grime or debris.
Is the window seat actually the safest?
Specialists at Travel & Leisure disclosed that choosing a window seat might be the most effective method to avoid catching illnesses from other travellers.
They explained: “A 2018 study said that window seats are best because they’re the most isolated (other than in certain ultra-luxe first-class mini cabins).
“Window-side passengers are seated next to just one passenger, with seats separating them from the people in front and behind. Most importantly, they are furthest from the aisle, where crew and other passengers can frequently pass by.”
Additional studies also discovered that travellers positioned nearer to the aisle are more prone to standing up mid-flight, boosting their likelihood of coming into contact with bacteria whilst moving throughout the aircraft.
Given the research available, it appears the window seat offers the greatest protection against picking up bugs, though it remains wise to take precautions and clean your space before departure.
Ever wondered why you have to put your phone on airplane mode during a flight? Here, people share the real reason behind the long-standing rule, and it may surprise you
Some people are only just finding out the real reason why you should put your phone on airplane mode on a flight (stock image)(Image: Mongkol Chuewong via Getty Images)
As your plane ascends, you’re well aware that your mobile phone must be switched to airplane mode. But have you ever pondered why this is necessary, especially considering your phone probably wouldn’t function at 42,000 feet anyway? One curious traveller took to Reddit’s ‘ask’ forum to find out what could possibly go wrong if they used their phone mid-flight and whether it could lead to disastrous consequences.
And they finally uncovered the true reason behind the need to switch off your phone on a plane. They queried: “Why do they ask us not to use our phones during flights? I am just curious, what are the stakes here? Will it go boom?”
A response came: “No. There are two reasons for this:
Against popular thinking, the main reason is that it was feared that as the plane is taking off and landing, the phones would be connecting/disconnecting to multiple phone towers rapidly, which would cause issues with those towers. However, this isn’t really a problem in this day and age, especially. It was a precaution anyway.
It could mess with flight instrumentation, especially the radio. Ever had a speaker or radio open and when you get a call, you can hear sounds from the speaker? This does still happen, but is more rare nowadays as you need to receive GSM call really”.
Another Redditor chimed in: “And to have a better chance that people will listen to the safety briefing. Pay attention, people! It might just save your lives!”
“Honestly, that’s probably 100% the reason. Using your mobile on a plane shouldn’t interfere with any instruments. Doesn’t even make sense. We are surrounded and being bombarded and flying through all sorts of electronic signals. Plus they offer WiFi ON some planes,” someone else added.
Another person shared: “It’s for peace and quiet and to control a herd of people. It’s the only place left on earth where you can disconnect and nobody cares. I hope it never changes”.
One bloke stated: “I’ve read it largely has to do with potential interference with the pilot’s headset”.
When somebody responded saying it’s been tested and showed no interference, he replied: “That small sample size doesn’t dismiss the risk, nor does it take into account future headsets. I’d rather play it safer than sorry during the statistically most dangerous parts of flying”.
What is the real reason you can’t use your phone on a plane?
The genuine reason you’re told not to use your phone for calls or texts during flights is chiefly down to regulations and potential interference concerns, rather than any immediate threat to the aircraft.
Previously, there were worries that signals from numerous phones might potentially disrupt the delicate navigation and communication systems on board, particularly during take-off and landing.
Today’s aircraft are well-protected, and the likelihood of interference is now deemed extremely minimal.
Nevertheless, rules have stayed cautious.
Another factor is that at flying altitude, your mobile would attempt to link with several ground-based cell towers, potentially creating network issues for phone companies and rapidly depleting your battery.
Furthermore, airlines and aviation authorities wish to preserve a peaceful cabin atmosphere, and permitting voice calls might disturb fellow travellers.
For these reasons, you’re usually required to activate aeroplane mode, which switches off cellular connectivity whilst still enabling Wi-Fi access if the carrier offers it.
Therefore, it’s advisable to turn off your phone, or activate flight mode, whenever you step aboard an aircraft.
German Olympic biathlete Laura Dahlmeier was struck by falling rocks while scaling Laila Peak in Pakistan on Wednesday.
Authorities have abandoned efforts to recover the body of German Olympic biathlete Laura Dahlmeier, who died in a mountaineering accident in Pakistan this week.
Dahlmeier was confirmed dead on Wednesday, having been hit by falling rocks while climbing at an altitude of 5,700 metres (18,700 feet) on Laila Peak in the Karakoram range.
Attempts to recover her body were abandoned due to “dangerous” conditions at the site, Dahlmeier’s management agency said Thursday.
In consultation with the Alpine Club of Pakistan, the agency said her relatives would “continue to monitor the situation … and are keeping the option of arranging a rescue at a later date”.
Several of Dahlmeier’s colleagues confirmed the two-time Olympic gold medallist had said she did not want her body recovered if it put any would-be rescuers at risk.
German mountaineer Thomas Huber was part of a team that had attempted a rescue, but told reporters on Thursday, “We have decided she should stay, because that was her wish.”
Another member of the rescue team, American Jackson Marvell, told AFP it would be “disrespectful” to recover her body contrary to her wishes.
Marvell said, “The recovery of Laura’s body will be possible, but it involves incredible risks, both on foot and by helicopter.”
Marina Eva Krauss, the climbing partner of the German double Olympic biathlon champion Laura Dahlmeier, who died after a mountaineering accident at an altitude of approximately 5,700m (18,700 feet) at Laila Peak, addresses a press conference in Skardu in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan [Qasim Shah/Reuters]
Dahlmeier’s climbing partner Marina Krauss, who was with her at the time of the incident, said at a press conference on Thursday that the former Olympian did not move after being caught in a rockfall.
“I saw Laura being hit by a huge rock and then being thrown against the wall. And from that moment on, she didn’t move again,” Krauss told reporters.
Krauss said she was unable to reach Dahlmeier and called for outside support.
“It was impossible for me to get there safely,” she said.
“It was clear to me the only way to help her was to call a helicopter. She didn’t move, she didn’t show any signs [of movement]. I called out to her, but there was no response.
“She only had a chance if help arrived immediately.”
Dahlmeier won seven world championship gold medals, and at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, she became the first woman biathlete to win both the sprint and the pursuit at the same Games.
Dahlmeier retired from professional competition in 2019 at the age of 25.
Khamis Ayyad, 40, died of smoke inhalation after settlers set fire to vehicles in town of Silwad, Health Ministry says.
A Palestinian man has been killed after Israeli settlers set fire to vehicles and homes in a town in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says.
The ministry said on Thursday that Khamis Ayyad, 40, died due to smoke inhalation after settlers attacked Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, around dawn. Ayyad and others had been trying to extinguish the fires, local residents said.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the settlers also attacked the nearby villages of Khirbet Abu Falah and Rammun, setting fire to more vehicles.
A relative of Ayyad’s, and a resident of Silwad, said they woke up at 2am (23:00 GMT) to see “flames devouring vehicles across the neighbourhood”.
“The townspeople panicked and rushed to extinguish the fires engulfing the cars and buildings,” they said, explaining that Ayyad had been trying to put out a fire burning his brother’s car.
Ayyad’s death comes amid burgeoning Israeli settler and military violence across the West Bank in tandem with Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
Settlers have been attacking Palestinians and their property with impunity, backed by the Israeli army.
Earlier this week, Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian from Masafer Yatta, the community whose resistance to Israeli settler violence was documented in the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, with which he helped, was killed by an Israeli settler.
The suspect, identified as Yinon Levi, was placed under house arrest on Tuesday after a Magistrate Court in Jerusalem declined to keep him in custody.
People gather next to a burned car after the Israeli settler attack in Silwad [Ammar Awad/Reuters]
According to the latest data from the UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA), at least 159 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank between January 1 and July 21 of this year.
Hundreds of Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians have also been reported so far in 2025, including at least 27 incidents that resulted in casualties, property damage, or both, between July 15 and 21, OCHA said.
Observers have warned that the uptick in Israeli violence aims to forcibly displace Palestinians and pave the way for Israel to formally annex the territory, as tens of thousands have been forced out of their homes in recent months across the West Bank.
Earlier this month, the Israeli parliament – the Knesset – overwhelmingly voted in favour of a symbolic motion calling for Israel to annex the West Bank.
On Thursday, Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that “there is a moment of opportunity that must not be missed” to exert Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, according to a Times of Israel report.
“Ministers Katz and Levin have been working for many years to implement Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” the statement said, using a term used by Israeli settlers and their supporters to refer to the occupied Palestinian territory.
Haleema Ayyad holds her son’s photo after he was killed in the attack [Ammar Awad/Reuters]
Back in Silwad, Raafat Hussein Hamed, a resident whose house was torched in Thursday’s attack, said that the settlers “burned whatever they could and then ran away”.
Hamed told the AFP news agency that the attackers “come from an outpost”, referring to an Israeli settlement that, in addition to violating international law, is also illegal under Israeli law.
The Israeli military told AFP that “several suspects … set fire to property and vehicles in the Silwad area”, but forces dispatched to the scene were unable to identify them. It added that Israeli police had launched an investigation.
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Hani Abu Rizq walks through Gaza City’s wrecked streets with two bricks tied against his stomach as the rope cuts into his clothes, which hang loose from the weight he has lost.
The 31-year-old searches desperately for food to feed his mother and seven siblings with the bricks pressed against his belly – an ancient technique he never imagined he would need.
“We’re starved,” he says, his voice hollow with exhaustion.
“Even starvation as a word falls short of what we’re all feeling,” he adds, his eyes following people walking past.
He adjusts the rope around his waist, a gesture that has become as routine as breathing.
“I went back to what people did in ancient times, tying stones around my belly to try to quiet my hunger. This isn’t just war. It’s an intentional famine.”
The fading of Gaza’s heartbeat
Before October 7, 2023, and the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, food was the heartbeat of daily life in Gaza.
The days in Gaza were built around communal meals – breakfasts of zaatar and glistening olive oil, lunches of layered maqlooba and musakhan that filled homes with warmth, and evenings spent around trays of rice, tender meat and seasonal salads sparkling with herbs from gardens.
Abu Rizq remembers those days with the ache of someone mourning the dead.
The unmarried man used to love dining and gathering with family and friends. He speaks of comfortable dining rooms where home-cooked feasts were displayed like art and evenings were filled with desserts and spiced drinks that lingered on tongues and in memory.
“Now, we buy sugar and salt by the gram,” he says, his hands gesturing towards empty market stalls that once overflowed with produce.
“A tomato or cucumber is a luxury – a dream. Gaza has become more expensive than world capitals, and we have nothing.”
Over nearly 22 months of the war, the amount of food in Gaza has been drastically reduced. The besieged enclave has been under the complete mercy of Israel, which has curtailed access to everything from flour to cooking gas.
But since March 2, the humanitarian and essential items allowed in have plummeted to a frightening low. Israel completely blocked all food from March to May and has since permitted only minimal aid deliveries, prompting widespread international condemnation.
Hani Abu Rizq on Gaza’s shores before the war [Courtesy of Hani Abu Rizq]
Watching children suffer
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 159 Palestinians – 90 of whom are children and infants – have died of malnutrition and dehydration during the war as of Thursday.
The World Food Programme warns of a “full-blown famine” spreading across the enclave while UNICEF reports that one in three children under five in northern Gaza suffers acute malnutrition.
Fidaa Hassan, a former nurse and mother of three from Jabalia refugee camp, knows the signs of malnutrition.
“I studied them,” she tells Al Jazeera from her displaced family’s shelter in western Gaza. “Now I see them in my own kids.”
Her youngest child, two-year-old Hassan, wakes up every morning crying for food, asking for bread that doesn’t exist.
“We celebrated each of my children’s birthdays with nice parties [before the war] – except for … Hassan. He turned two several months ago, and I couldn’t even give him a proper meal,” she says.
Her 10-year-old, Firas, she adds, shows visible signs of severe malnutrition that she recognises with painful clarity.
Before the war, her home buzzed with life around mealtimes. “We used to eat three or four times a day,” she recalls.
“Lunch was a time to gather. Winter evenings were filled with the aroma of lentil soup. We spent spring afternoons preparing stuffed vine leaves with such care.
“Now we … sleep hungry.”
“There’s no flour, no bread, nothing to fill our stomachs,” she says, holding Hassan as his small body trembles.
“We haven’t had a bite of bread in over two weeks. A kilo of flour costs 150 shekels [$40], and we can’t afford that.”
Hassan was six months old when the bombing began. Now, at two years old, he bears little resemblance to a healthy child his age.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned that Israel’s siege and restrictions on humanitarian aid are creating man-made famine conditions.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, only a fraction of the 600 truckloads of food and supplies required in Gaza daily, under normal circumstances, are coming through. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system has placed northern Gaza in Phase 5: catastrophe/famine.
Amid a lack of security, the trickle of humanitarian aid allowed to enter Gaza is subject to gangs and looting, preventing people in need from accessing scarce supplies.
Furthermore, hundreds of desperate aid seekers have been shot dead by Israeli soldiers while trying to get humanitarian aid provided by the United States- and Israeli-backed GHF since May.
Abundance as a distant memory
Hala Mohammed, 32, cradles three-year-old Qusai in a relative’s overcrowded shelter in Remal, a neighbourhood of Gaza City, as she describes how she has to watch him cry in hunger every morning, his little voice breaking.
“There’s no flour, no sugar, no milk,” she says, her arms wrapped protectively around the child, who has known only war for most of his life.
“We bake lentils like dough and cook plain pasta just to fill our stomachs. But hunger is stronger.”
This is devastating for someone who grew up in Gaza’s rich culture of hospitality and generosity and had a comfortable life in the Tuffah neighbourhood.
Before displacement forced her and her husband to flee west with Qusai, every milestone called for nice meals – New Year’s feasts, Mother’s Day gatherings, birthday parties for her husband, her mother-in-law and Qusai.
“Many of our memories were created around shared meals. Now meals [have become the] memory,” she says.
“My son asks for food and I just hold him,” she continues, her voice cracking. “The famine spreads like cancer – slowly, silently and mercilessly. Children are wasting away before our eyes. And we can do nothing.”
This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Canada’s announcement that it will recognize a Palestinian state “will make it very hard” for the U.S. to reach a trade agreement with its northern neighbor.
Trump’s threat, posted in the early hours Thursday on his social media network, is the latest way he has sought to use his trade war to coerce countries on unrelated issues and is a swing from the ambivalence he has expressed about other countries making such a move.
The Republican president said this week that he didn’t mind British Prime Minister Keir Starmer taking a position on the issue of formally recognizing Palestinian statehood. And last week he said that French President Emmanuel Macron’s similar move was “not going to change anything.”
But Trump, who has heckled Canada for months and suggested it should become the 51st U.S. state, indicated on Thursday that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s similar recognition would become leverage ahead of a deadline he set in trade talks.
“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine,” Trump said in his Truth Social post. “That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!”
Trump has threatened to impose a 35% tariff on Canada if no deal is reached by Friday, when he’s said he will levy tariffs against goods from dozens of countries if they don’t reach agreements with the United States.
Some imports from Canada are still protected by the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is up for renegotiation next year.
Carney’s announcement Wednesday that Canada would recognize a Palestinian state in September comes amid a broader global shift against Israel’s policies in Gaza.
Though Trump this week said he was “not going to take a position” on recognizing a Palestinian state, he later said that such a move would be rewarding Hamas, whose surprise Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel prompted a declaration of war and a massive military retaliation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump’s new cudgel against Canada comes after he moved to impose steep tariffs on Brazil because it indicted its former president Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally who, like the U.S. president, has faced criminal charges for attempting to overturn the results of his election loss.
Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to impose his threatened 50% tariffs on Brazil, setting a legal rationale that Brazil’s policies and criminal prosecution of Bolsonaro constitute an economic emergency under a 1977 law.
Trump had threatened the tariffs July 9 in a letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The legal basis of that threat was an earlier executive order premised on trade imbalances being a threat to the U.S. economy. But the U.S. ran a $6.8-billion trade surplus last year with Brazil, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
A statement by the White House said Brazil’s judiciary had tried to coerce social media companies and block their users, though it did not name the companies involved, X and Rumble.
Trump appears to identify with Bolsonaro, who attempted to overturn the results of his 2022 loss to Lula. Similarly, Trump was indicted in 2023 for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The order would apply an additional 40% tariff on the baseline 10% tariff already being levied by Trump. But not all goods imported from Brazil would face the 40% tariff: Civil aircraft and parts, aluminum, tin, wood pulp, energy products and fertilizers are among the products being excluded.
The order said the tariffs would go into effect seven days after its signing on Wednesday.
Also Wednesday, Trump’s Treasury Department announced sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over Bolsonaro’s ongoing trial and alleged suppression of freedom of expression.
Citing a personal grievance in trade talks with Brazil and now Canada’s symbolic announcement on a Palestinian state adds to the jumble of reasons Trump has pointed to for his trade war, such as stopping human trafficking, stopping the flow of fentanyl, balancing the budget and protecting U.S. manufacturing.
Price writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.
Five jockeys missed their rides on day three of Glorious Goodwood after their plane was forced to make an emergency landing.
The flight, from Bagby Airfield in north Yorkshire, suffered what was thought to be an engine problem.
But jockeys Rowan Scott, Callum Rodriguez, PJ McDonald, Tom Eaves and Jack Garritty were all fine.
Scott was booked on two rides at Goodwood, including Magellan Cloud for John and Sean Quinn in the first race.
Scott’s agent Niall Hannity said: “They set off from Bagby and something went wrong with the plane so they started to get a bit panicky, as you can imagine.
“The pilot, who has 25 years experience, said nothing like it had ever happened to him but they were able to get turned round and land back at Bagby, which must have been frightening.
A travel expert has shared what free products that airlines will give away for free when asked for on any long-haul flight but she has warned that the items ‘aren’t always offered’
A travel expert has shared which products you could get for free on long flights (stock photo)(Image: Me 3645 Studio via Getty Images)
A travel guru has spilled the beans on the freebies that airlines can give out for any long-haul flight, but she warned they ‘don’t always offer them to you’ and the secret to bagging them is to ‘ask nicely’. The summer season is when many people jet off on their holidays.
This often involves gearing up for a journey that includes hopping on a plane. Flying is the perfect way to reach far destinations that holidaymakers may have been fantasising about for ages. Not many people are aware that on all long-haul flights, passengers can snag certain items for free regardless of what they’ve paid for their seat. Rachel Bernabeu is a content creator based in Barcelona who’s an expert in travel.
She recently posted a video on TikTok explaining what products passengers could nab for free on long haul flights.
In the clip, she revealed: “Did you know you can ask for loads of free things on a plane and almost nobody does?”
The travel content creator clarified that she got this tip from a flight attendant and that it applies to all long haul flights.
She continued: “All airlines have these things, but they don’t always offer them to you.” For her, the trick is to “ask very nicely”, as she wrote in the caption of her TikTok video.
Rachel first brought up “the classic plane socks”, which are usually quite long and “save your feet from freezing.”
She also highlighted earplugs, stressing that “if you end up near crying babies or expert-level snorers, these are essential”.
The travel enthusiast shares that airlines frequently provide complimentary dental kits featuring a toothbrush and miniature toothpaste, ensuring you don’t get off the plane with unpleasant breath.
Similarly, she highlights that female sanitary products are also accessible for travellers during unexpected situations.
For families, Rachel explains there are activity packs for children, including colouring books or puzzles.
Finally, the specialist revealed that airlines carry surplus food, and if meals remain after the lunch or dinner service, passengers can request them at no charge.
Content cannot be displayed without consent
Rachel’s TikTok clip has attracted 212,100 views, over 5,000 likes and almost 90 comments within two days.
Several followers have asked whether these amenities are available to economy passengers.
She confirms that on long-distance flights this is certainly possible, referencing multiple airlines in comments section, but she clarifies this doesn’t apply to low-cost airlines.
Numerous TikTok users contributed details about their personal encounters about the validity of these claims, and which airlines provide them, within the comments area.
One stated: “Lufthansa offers all that, it’s true.” Another remarked: “Emirates gives it its all.”
A third noted: “I’ve been to China a couple of times and they only gave us blankets. Iberia from Barajas to London did have paints for the children.”
Another added: “Qatar provides it. When we went to Thailand, the service was good.”
Some viewers weren’t as optimistic, with one saying: “Very few airlines do this, and it depends greatly on the countries of departure and destination.” Another user quipped: “Now they don’t even say good morning to you.”
July 31 (UPI) — The Federal Reserve‘s preferred inflation gauge rose more than expected in June, according to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released Thursday.
The personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE, rose 0.3% in June from the previous month and 2.6% from June 2024. Core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy prices rose 2.8% on an annual basis.
Additionally, when measured at a monthly rate, Americans saw their income increase by 0.3%, or $71.4 billion. However, after taxes that increase in dollars dips to around $61 billion, and the value of the goods and services bought by or for American citizens, or personal consumption expenditures, also rose 0.3% to $69.9 billion.
As for savings, residents held on to $1.01 trillion in personal savings in June, and when measured as a percentage of disposable income, those personal savings came in at 4.5%.
Inflation was also evident via the consumer price index, or CPI, as that rose 0.3% for urban consumers increased 0.3% since June when seasonally adjusted, and 2.7% over the last 12 months not seasonally adjusted, despite dipping as low as 2.3% in April.
The Fed continues to hold short-term interest rates steady at a range of 4.25% to 4.5% following its meeting earlier this week, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell citing earlier this month that the impact of President Donald Trump‘s reciprocal tariff strategy is the reason the Fed hasn’t gotten back to cutting rates.
Trump, who has been pushing for the Fed to lower rates, posted to Truth Social Thursday in regard to the Fed’s hold, saying Powell “is costing our Country TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS,” and called him a TOTAL LOSER.”
