Month: June 2026

Spain will progress as one of the top two sides if they avoid defeat against Uruguay on Saturday (01:00 BST).

Even if they lose, they will still finish inside the top two unless Cape Verde beat Uruguay. If that happens, Spain will finish third on four points, which is likely to be good enough.

Spain will top the group with a draw, unless Cape Verde win and overturn a goal difference deficit of four.

The group winners go on to play the runners-up of Group J.

Uruguay will be through if they beat Spain. If they draw, then a top-two finish is only possible if Cape Verde also draw.

Cape Verde will make the top two if they beat Saudi Arabia. They can also definitely go through with a draw if Spain beat Uruguay.

If Uruguay and Cape Verde both win they will be tied for top spot, or if they draw for second spot. As they drew with each other, placings would be determined on goal difference – which is level at zero.

If goal difference is identical, positions will be decided first by the better disciplinary record (Cape Verde -3, Uruguay -2) and then by Fifa world ranking, which Uruguay hold.

The second-placed team will face Argentina.

Neither team will qualify if they lose.

Saudi Arabia must beat Cape Verde, and will also need Spain to avoid defeat against Uruguay, to finish second. Four points would likely be enough in third anyway.

June 25 (Asia Today) — A South Korean civic leader proposed creating a satellite communications network modeled on SpaceX’s Starlink to provide outside information to people in North Korea.

Jang Man-soon, chairman of the Committee for Ten Million Separated Families and a co-chair of Citizens’ Solidarity for ONE KOREA, called the proposed system “Korea Link.”

“If we place a system similar to Starlink over North Korea, we could inform North Koreans who have access to approximately 8.5 million mobile phones about the realities and conditions in South Korea,” Jang said during an interview Thursday at the National Assembly in Seoul.

The figure was Jang’s estimate and could not be independently confirmed.

Jang said the network could communicate the importance of freedom to North Korean residents and correct historical accounts and information distorted by the North Korean government.

He said it could also help North Koreans develop pride in the goal of Korean unification.

Jang argued that a new means of communication is necessary because traditional methods of reaching North Koreans, including radio broadcasts and border loudspeakers, have become increasingly restricted.

He said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s “two hostile states” policy is partly intended to isolate residents from outside information.

“North Korea is at a disadvantage in politics, economics, culture and military power, so the government is trying to block outside information from reaching its people,” Jang said.

Jang also discussed the declining prospects for families separated by the division of the Korean Peninsula and the 1950-53 Korean War.

“The wish of separated families is no longer simply to reunite with relatives,” he said. “It is to set foot in their hometowns.”

Many first-generation separated family members are now in their 90s, and few still have living parents in North Korea, he said.

“Their greatest wish is to visit their hometowns before they die,” Jang said.

He warned that public awareness of separated families is fading with each generation.

Jang called for expanded unification education for young people, opportunities to hear testimony from first-generation separated family members and educational visits to areas near the inter-Korean border.

“The reality is that only about half of the public now believes unification is necessary,” he said. “We are preparing various activities, including youth education, testimony from first-generation separated families and visits to border regions.”

Jang urged the South Korean government to participate in practical projects intended to support North Korean residents and preserve awareness of freedom and unification.

“If we view the people of North Korea as members of the same nation, I hope the government will participate in the practical plans we are pursuing,” he said.

“We must work together to establish a foundation that will allow future generations to understand the meaning of genuine freedom in the Republic of Korea.”

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260625010009002

The Pentagon and the U.S. Air Force have fully abandoned an attempt to axe the acquisition of E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft, and to use E-2D Hawkeyes to help fill the resulting gap. In something of a twist, the Pentagon has proposed cutting U.S. Navy E-2D purchases, as well as raiding a classified Air Force account, to keep the E-7 program going. The House Appropriations Committee has now pushed back on the E-2D part of that plan. The back-and-forth underscores the critical importance of airborne early warning and control aircraft and the strain on existing U.S. fleets.

Defense News drew specific attention to the new jostling over funding for the E-7 in a report earlier today. Breaking Defense had been among the first to report the basic points yesterday. The House Appropriations Committee had released the details in a report accompanying a draft defense spending bill for the 2027 Fiscal Year, which we will come back to in a moment.

To recap quickly, roughly a year ago, the Pentagon and the Air Force disclosed their intention to axe the E-7 program, which had suffered delays and cost overruns, and acquire additional E-2Ds as an interim gap-filler. Questions about the future survivability of the Wedgetail were also raised. The Air Force’s long-term goal was then and still is now to eventually push most air moving-target indicator (AMTI) tasks into space, though that is still years away from truly becoming a reality. Congress subsequently intervened to save the Wedgetail, appropriating billions for the effort in Fiscal Year 2026. The E-7 was again missing from the Air Force’s proposed 2027 Fiscal Year budget, which raised the prospect of a new battle with Congress.

Top Pentagon and Air Force officials subsequently said that the viewpoint on the Wedgetail had fundamentally changed, and submitted an amendment to the budget request to include funding for the program. Per a memo earlier this month from Russell Vought, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) at the White House, this was done in two ways. $898,549,000 was taken from “Other Procurement, Air Force” section of that service’s budget proposal, while another $650,549,000 came out of “Aircraft Procurement, Navy.”

The combined $1,549,098,000 was moved into the “Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Air Force” account. According to Vought’s memo, the funding would go toward “priority requirement to deliver two E-7 Wedgetail prototype aircraft and continue Engineering Manufacturing and Development activities for a program of record.”

The Air Force already has seven E-7s on order now, including the two jets to support rapid prototyping efforts. It is unclear when the service expects to begin flying Wedgetails operationally. Before the attempt to cancel the program, the target date for initial operational capability had already slipped from 2027 to 2032. It should be noted here that variants of the E-7 are already in service in Australia, South Korea, and Turkey, and that the United Kingdom is set to field a fleet of Wedgetails, too.

The report the House Appropriations Committee released yesterday included important additional context about the latest funding plans.

“While the President’s budget request for fiscal year 2027 did not include funding for the E–7 Wedgetail program, the Secretary of the Air Force and Secretary of Defense testified before the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee that they support this critical platform and have submitted a budget amendment to the Office of Management and Budget to restore funding for the platform,” it explained. “The shift in mindset at the Department of Defense translated to requested transfers from the Special Update Program in Other Procurement, Air Force, and the E–2D program in Aircraft Procurement, Navy for a total investment of $1,549,098,000 for E–7 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Air Force in fiscal year 2027.”

“While the Committee wholly supports the E–7 program and funding realignment, the Committee also restored the E–2D program to six aircraft for fiscal year 2027,” the report added. “The Committee understands the operational necessity of the E–2D platform; the complementary nature of the E–2D and E–7; and believes that more aircraft, not fewer, are necessary to support our warfighters now and in the future.”

It is not immediately clear whether the draft spending plan that the House Appropriations Committee has now put forward still includes the full $1,549,098,000 for the E-7 program, as well as the restoration of funding for the E-2D purchases. The memo from OMB had stressed that its intent in shifting funding around was not to add to the roughly $1.5 trillion topline for its proposed 2027 Fiscal Year defense budget. Congress can, of course, appropriate additional funds as it sees fit, and often does.

Regardless, this new debate over how and where to find funding for the E-7 highlights larger issues surrounding airborne early warning capacity within the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy.

“The conflict in Iran has reinforced the need for the Air Force to maintain a credible airborne battle management capability, currently being met with the Air Force’s E–3 Airborne Warning and Control System and the Navy’s E–2D Hawkeye programs,” the House Appropriations Committee’s report also notes. “As the E–3 is set to retire, the E–7 Wedgetail will serve as [a] modern replacement for lost battle management capability, commensurate and interoperable with assets already being utilized by key allies.”

This is all true, as TWZ has previously stressed in detail, long before the latest conflict with Iran erupted in February. Airborne early warning and control is absolutely vital to the prosecution of modern air operations, and even more so now in an age of exploding drone and cruise missile threats. The substantial deployment of E-3s to Saudi Arabia was one of the clearest indicators that a major campaign against Iran was increasingly imminent. The same had been true about the lead-up to the operation to capture ex-Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

Not mentioned in the report, however, is the Air Force’s slashing of the E-3 fleet in recent years, the service’s repeated deferral of any plans to acquire a replacement for those aircraft, and the loss of Sentry on the ground in an Iranian attack in March. The strain on the Air Force’s E-3s has been readily apparent for years now.

The House Appropriations Committee report also leaves out any broader context about the planned E-2D purchases for Fiscal Year 2027. When it released its proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2025 back in 2024, the Navy had no plans to order more Hawkeyes, at least over the next five years. In its 2026 Fiscal Year budget request, the service asked for funding for four E-2Ds, presumably as part of the plan to cancel the E-7. Congress subsequently appropriated funding for three Hawkeyes in that fiscal cycle.

When it rolled out its latest budget request earlier this year, the Navy outlined all-new plans to buy 12 E-2Ds – six in Fiscal Year 2027, two in Fiscal Year 2028, and four in Fiscal Year 2029 – explicitly “to replenish accelerated service life burn down of existing force structure due to Overland Airborne Early Warning (AEW) tasking.” This underscores operational strain on the Hawkeye fleet, which can only have been further added to by operations in relation to Iran over the past few months. This also points to E-2Ds supplementing E-3s in providing overland coverage.

Just yesterday, the White House sent Congress a separate supplemental funding request for nearly $90 billion, primarily to help cover various costs associated with the war against Iran.

How exactly the E-7 program gets funded in Fiscal Year 2027, as well as what happens to the plans to order more E-2Ds, remains to be seen. The House Appropriations Committee’s draft defense spending plan could still evolve in various ways in the coming weeks and months, and will need to be reconciled with companion legislation making its way through the Senate. Once Congress passes the bill, President Donald Trump will still need to sign off on it, too.

It’s also worth noting that other potential options for providing additional airborne early warning and control capacity in the interim are emerging.

What is clear is that both the E-3 Sentry and E-2D Hawkeye fleets remain as critical as ever, but have been even more stressed by recent operations against Iran, with new E-7s still years away from entering service.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

AFTER years of writing about politics, technology and the chaos of the modern world, Matt Bellamy wanted something different for Muse’s tenth album.

“The theme was to get back into mystery a little bit,” he says. “The mysteries of the universe, mysteries of spirituality and returning to the rawness of the unknown.”

Inspired by the 1977 Wow! Signal — an unexplained radio signal from space once seen as possible evidence of alien intelligence — and a turbulent period in his personal life, the record finds Bellamy searching for meaning on both a cosmic and personal level.

“I’ve turned completely apolitical,” he admits. “It’s weird when you go through things in your personal life — the news just becomes an annoying noise.

“When your life’s going great, you get drawn into the news and what’s going on in the world.

“But when you’re actually going through something yourself, the news and politics just become a headache.

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“I’m a little bit gloriously out of touch. I’ve normally been so in touch, my finger’s always been on the pulse, and a lot of the albums I’ve made talk about the rise of populism. But this album and my life for the last year-and-a-half has been different.”

Bellamy has split from US model Elle Evans, his wife of six years, who he quietly separated from in October 2025.

“I’ve been through a separation involving two young kids,” he says carefully.

“I can’t really talk about the reasons behind it, but it was not your normal run-of-the-mill situation. I became a full-time single parent for a period of eight months.

“She’s doing a lot better now and she’s getting better, but it was an unusual situation to go through. It made writing the album so much easier.

“It’s hard to talk about what’s behind the album because I don’t throw people under the bus. And I don’t want my kids to grow up reading stuff.”

Bellamy, 48, is in London for band rehearsals and when we meet, he’s just back from the gym in a bid to shape up for the tour.

“I’m not that old,” he laughs. “But I met Mick Jagger at a party and I went straight in on the fitness. I was, like, ‘What is your secret?!’ He said when he was in his 30s, he started working out a few weeks before a tour.

“By the time he got to his 40s, he was working out for the same length as the tour.

“If it was a three-month tour, he’d work out for three months before. And by the time he got to his 50s, he was just working out all the time, all year round.”

The 1977 Wow! Signal fascinates Bellamy because it remains unexplained and happened around the time the band members were born.

“The Wow! Signal is probably, to this day, still the most interesting signal that’s ever been seen in space,” he explains.

“It happened in 1977, which is basically within 12 months of all the band being born.

“Chris [Wolstenholme] and I were born in 1978 and Dom [Howard] in 1977, so I just thought it was funny that this little Wow! Signal appeared around the time we came into this world.

“I think this album was really me letting go a little bit and engaging with the unknown.

“What is this thing inside me, or all of us, that wants to not be alone? I don’t mean with a partner or friends. I mean this thing in the universe. At the moment, we appear to be so alone, and we have this drive, which you see through religion and science.

“Behind all of it, we just don’t want to be alone.”

That search drew Bellamy back to one of his formative influences.

“I grew up watching Contact, the Jodie Foster film from the 90s,” he says. “I used to read Carl Sagan’s books and that film really stayed with me.”

It has also led him into the world of AI.

He adds: “I’ve spent time in the tech world, in California’s Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, and I had some involvement in that world.

“I went to a private talk where Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) was talking off the record about his thoughts on AI.

“I saw (Meta CEO Mark) Zuckerberg talking about it, too, and I was interested in what they were saying.

“When you really hear them, they know they’re ushering in an intelligence which is beyond us. They start to see it as, ‘Well, we’re just kind of messengers bringing in this thing that is going to be more intelligent than us’.”

Bellamy says he enjoys asking AI philosophical questions — and that is where Hexagons began.

“That’s actually my favourite thing to do with AI, and where I got the idea for Hexagons,” he says. “And again, I think that is part of the same human condition.

“Whether it be religion, looking for aliens in space or trying to bring in artificial intelligence, it’s kind of all the same thing.”

Epic, organ-led Be With You was the first song that made the album’s direction clear.

“You can look at it as a love song, or you can look at it as a religious song, almost,” he says.

“I’m not a religious person, but I decided to play the song on a church organ.

“I went to the biggest church organ in Los Angeles, so the song was recorded in this church-like setting.

“I liked the idea that it could be perceived as searching for alien life, or searching for alien intelligence of some kind, or God. That was the first song that felt right, lyrically and musically.

“There are a lot of personal elements in the album that are quite unusual for me.”

Bellamy says the album came from a difficult period, but that made the music flow.

“This was actually the easiest album for me to write and make for 15-plus years,” he says.

“Space Debris is probably the biggest reveal of what I went through, especially lyrically at the end,” he says.

“It’s the rawest moment of explaining what really happened over the last year. I like using space analogies — space debris, things breaking up and falling apart in gravity — to describe the chaos and feeling in your life.

“It also fits the theme of connecting this search into outer space for a higher power with the chaos and feeling in your own life.

“I hope the fans don’t ask me to play that one live.”

If Space Debris is the album’s rawest confession, Bellamy says it also opened the door to bigger questions running through the record.

“What I went through threw me off into the unknown,” he explains.

“When things go wrong in your life, that’s when you’re most likely to seek meaning or search for answers.

“In my case, it was a blend between religious thought, alien intelligence and AI.

“I don’t know what it is, but you’re searching for this higher power to guide you, or to give you answers.

“Music became my catharsis. It became my way to understand my situation.

“Making this album gave me flashbacks to these periods where music was my everything.

“It wasn’t something I had to do to pay the bills. It wasn’t something I had to do for the record label. It was something that I had to do for myself.

“That’s why I think this album is probably, since the 2000s anyway, the most raw, emotionally raw and honest album I’ve done.”

Bellamy says despite the personal nature of the album, Chris and Dom were central to every song.

“I’ve always been in charge of the lyrics, and I’m the leader in terms of the concepts,” he says.

“But musically, this is the most equal album we’ve had for a long time.”

The Wow! Signal includes some of the best tracks Muse have made in years.

Cryogen has already been compared to early Muse, while Shimmering Scars shows off the vulnerability in Bellamy’s voice.

“Cryogen is deliberately Muse from 2001,” he says.

With Shimmering Scars, he explains: “I felt like I needed to do five or six takes, so we could edit the best bits in.

“But producer Dan Lancaster was, like, ‘Nah, let it be raw, let it be weird.’

“To me, it sounded a bit off — not quite what I wanted it to be. But he was, like, ‘No, that’s the whole point. That sounds a little bit raw’.

“This is the first album where we said, ‘Let’s give Dan a go at producing it’. The last two albums were self-produced, so it was nice to hand the reins to someone else.

“He did a great job keeping us towards that more raw, vulnerable state in the performances.”

Bellamy believes AI is pushing younger listeners back towards authenticity.

“My stepson with Kate [Hudson], Ryder, is 22 and he’s just graduated from NYU,” he says. “Then Bing is 14, and I’ve got the two little ones as well.

“Having a boy who’s 22 and a boy who’s 14 means I get a real sense of what’s going on in their generation.

“I think that generation is turning away from pop, hip-hop and dance a little bit. They’re seeking raw, chaotic-sounding music.

“I think the reason why is because that generation is drowned by AI. AI is dominating everything they do, from schoolwork to music and the arts.

“I could be wrong but from what I sense from them, they’re gravitating towards what they know to be real.”

Recent single Nightshift Superstar was the band wanting to go French disco.

“I love Daft Punk, Justice and ABBA,” Bellamy says. “I went to see ABBA’s show and I loved it. They’re some of the best songs ever written. So after that and seeing Justice in Paris, I was, like, ‘How do we do that? Let’s just go there’.

“The song has a late-70s feel but with a more cutting-edge tone associated with modern dance music.

“But the good thing about it is that it really is us playing.”

One surprise on The Wow! Signal is Hush — a collaboration with pop star Ellie Goulding.

“Ellie was in the studio next-door, working with Marshmello on something,” says the singer.

“We have known each other for years and always wanted to try and do something together.

“Muse fans will read online that we’ve done a song with Ellie Goulding and think it’s going to be a pop song.

“But it’s got one of the biggest, heaviest riffs we’ve done in a long time. To me, it sounds a bit like New Born or something from 2001.

“The verses get a little bit poppy, I guess, but the main riff is pretty hard rock, so I thought it was quite fun to get Ellie’s voice over that kind of heaviness.

“I think it’ll be a nice surprise.”

Bellamy says the song came together by chance.

“This was an experiment,” he says. “It’s the only song on the album that really involves multiple writers.

“Ellie popped her head in towards the end of the day, at about 11pm, and went, ‘Hey, what are you guys up to?’ We played the song and she said, ‘Oh, can I sing on it?’ We tweaked the lyrics and turned it into a duet.

“It came completely by chance. It wasn’t planned to be a collaboration.”

Bellamy says the reaction from Muse fans to the new songs has “been the best we’ve had for at least 15 years” and he’s looking forward to getting back on the road following their special Brixton Academy show in April to launch the album.

The show marked Muse’s first appearance at the venue in 25 years, just before the release of Origin of Symmetry.

“I didn’t realise it had been so long,” Bellamy says.

“I remember the last time we played there, it was around the second album and I was so nervous because it was the biggest show Muse had ever done.

“We got to debut Be With You for the first time, and we had a great time.”

Visually, Bellamy says the full Wow! Signal world will come to life properly when Muse return to Europe in November.

“The American tour starts with what I’d call a medium-level production,” he says.

“But when we come to Europe, including London and Manchester in November, that’s when we’re going to ramp it up to a really sophisticated production.

“I think there’ll be a lot of geometry, a lot of hexagons, shapes and lasers, and strange, interesting visuals.

“Hopefully we’ll build the spaceship you see on the album cover in the arena.”

• The album The Wow! Signal is out today.

The Wow! Signal

WASHINGTON  — Licensed gun owners have a right to carry a concealed firearm into stores and other private places unless the owner objects, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The 6-3 decision extends gun rights and strikes down laws in Hawaii, California, New York, New Jersey and Maryland.

Those measures would prohibit carrying guns onto private property that is open to the public unless the owner has expressly authorized them.

“This regime hobbles what the 2nd Amendment protects: the right of Americans to carry arms for self-defense as they go about their daily lives. We hold that the law is unconstitutional,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said for the court.

The new laws, if upheld, would “impose severe restrictions on the daily activities of residents who have satisfied the state’s rigorous requirements for the issuance of a carry permit. When these permit holders leave home in the morning, … they may also be barred from entering many places that people routinely visit in the course of their daily routines, such as gas stations, convenience stores, restaurants, coffee shops, drug stores, grocery stores, ‘big box’ stores, home improvement stores, barber shops or hair salons, dry cleaners, and laundromats.”

The three liberals dissented, saying the law would protect property owners who don’t want guns in their stores.

“There is no constitutional right to enter private property without the owner’s permission, let alone with a firearm,” said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Trump administration lawyers had joined a coalition of Hawaii gun owners in urging the court to strike down these blue state laws in the case of Wolford vs. Lopez.

They said the laws, if enforced, would mean “a person carrying a handgun for self-defense commits a crime by entering a mall, a gas station, a convenience store, a supermarket, a restaurant or a coffee shop.”

This litigation is part of much broader debate over where guns may be permitted or prohibited.

Four years ago, the justices ruled that law-abiding persons had a right to obtain a permit to carry a concealed gun when they left home. They also agreed there are “sensitive places” where guns may be prohibited, such as schools, courts and other government buildings.

In response, lawmakers in California and Hawaii adopted their own lists of “sensitive places.” They imposed restrictions on concealed weapons at parks, beaches, playgrounds, places of worship and public transit as well as bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.

Gun owners sued but the 9th Circuit Court refused to block most of those restrictions in a single 83-page opinion covering Hawaii and California. Both states would prohibit carrying guns onto private property open to the public without the owner’s consent.

The 9th Circuit upheld that measure in principle but said California went too far by requiring the owner to post a prominent sign expressly authorizing guns.

“While today’s ruling in Wolford is disappointing, owners still have every right to decide whether firearms are allowed in their stores and businesses,” said Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment Litigation at Everytown Law. “The Supreme Court may have changed the default rule, but it cannot take away a private property owner’s authority over their own land.”

The Firearms Policy Coalition said the court had properly protected gun rights and barred states from carving out their “own regional version of the 2nd Amendment.”

“The historical record does not support forcing peaceable people to obtain advance permission before carrying for self-defense in places held open to them,” the group said.

Last week, the court upheld gun rights in a Texas case and said the government may not make it a crime for an “unlawful user” of a drug such as marijuana to own a gun.

Daizen Maeda’s smart finish to Japan’s team goal is cancelled out by Anthony Elanga’s long-range strike as Sweden fight back to earn a 1-1 draw, ensuring both sides progress to the World Cup knockout stages.

MATCH REPORT: Japan 1-1 Sweden – Group F

Available to UK users only.

June 25 (UPI) — Authorities in northern Canada on Thursday confirmed that three people are dead after a plane responding to forest fires in the Northwest Territories crashed the night prior.

NWT Fire said responders were able to access the crash site on Thursday and confirmed the fatalities.

“Our organization is grieving alongside the families, friends, colleagues and the broader wildfire community as we process this unthinkable loss,” it said in a statement.

“We will honor those who lost their lives in the line of duty at the appropriate time and in accordance with the wishes of their families.”

The bird dog aircraft, with three people aboard, crashed Wednesday evening near Fort Simpson where it was deployed along with an airtanker group to fight a nearby wildfire.

Though the identities of the victims have not been made public, Yellowknife-based Buffalo Airways confirmed one was an employee.

“It is with heavy hearts that we confirm the loss of one of our aerial firefighting pilots while actioning fire west of Fort Simpson,” Buffalo Airways said in a statement.

Buffalo Airways said the involved plane was a Turbo Commander 690 aircraft operating as a bird dog during the wildfire operations.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada announced in a statement that it is deploying investigators to the scene.

“My thoughts are with the families of the pilot and two firefighters who died in the plane crash near Fort Simpson,” Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said in a statement.

“Protecting Canadians from wildfires requires profound sacrifice and courage. We owe them our deepest gratitude.”

Officials were responding to 19 forest fires throughout the territory Thursday.

The aircraft involved in the Wednesday evening crash was supporting wildfire suppression efforts on FS009-26, a lightning-caused fire located in the Marten Hills area.

Officials said Thursday night that the fire was about 100 hectares and responders were working to suppress its growth. It presented no risk to communities, infrastructure or buildings, they said.

Brent crude rises after cargo ship comes under attack in key waterway.

Oil prices have jumped after the United Nations maritime agency called off its planned evacuation of ships stranded around the Strait of Hormuz following an attack on a cargo vessel in the waterway.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose as much as 4 percent on Thursday after the International Maritime Organization paused its evacuation plan amid renewed violence in the strait.

Brent futures for August delivery stood at $74.89 per barrel as of 02:00 GMT, after earlier dropping below $72.48, their closing price the day before the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran.

After dropping sharply following the US and Iran’s signing of a memorandum of understanding on ending the war last week, the price of Brent currently stands at about 3 percent above its pre-war level.

Asian markets opened lower on Friday, with key indices in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan seeing steep losses.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and Seoul’s Kospi both fell more than 3 percent in morning trading, while the Taiex dropped about 1 percent.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was down about 1 percent.

The latest attack in the strait, through which about one-fifth of global oil and liquified natural gas supplies transit in peacetime, dealt a blow to hopes for a return to normal shipping in the region after a recent resurgence in traffic.

On Wednesday, 70 vessels transited the waterway, a more than twofold increase from the previous day and the highest daily figure since March 1, according to ship tracking platforms MarineTraffic and Kpler.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said on Thursday that a cargo vessel reported being struck by an “unknown projectile” on its starboard side while attempting to cross the strait near the Omani coast.

Multiple media outlets, including The New York Times, CBS News and the Reuters news agency, cited unnamed US officials as saying the attack had been carried out by Iran.

Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which claims the right to regulate shipping in the strait, said after the attack that any vessel attempting to use routes outside its designated “framework” would not be guaranteed safe passage.

“The consequences arising from passage through unauthorized routes shall be the responsibility of the owner, operator, and vessel commander,” the authority said on X.

June Goh, a senior oil market analyst at Sparta in Singapore, said the attack was a reminder to markets of the fragility of peace in the strait amid the tenuous US-Iran ceasefire.

“There is a pressing need for tankers to enter and offload the high crude stocks from onshore tanks in order for normal production to resume again,” Goh told Al Jazeera.

“Thus, security of the passageway is paramount to recover the lost supply.”

Emmerdale’s Charity Dingle has confessed all about her baby lie, Dr Todd’s blackmail and sexual assault to partner Mackenzie Boyd in dramatic scenes on the ITV soap

Emmerdale’s Charity Dingle confessed all to Mackenzie Boyd in the latest episode of the ITV soap. The Woolpack landlady, who has been played by Emma Atkins, certainly has had a lot to deal with in recent weeks and finally told her partner everything after weeks of hiding away and suffering a breakdown.

Last year, Charity tried become a surrogate for her granddaughter Sarah only to find out that she was naturally pregnant by Ross Barton. Still, she kept this all a secret and Sarah believed that all had gone to plan with the surrogacy.

Unfortunately, Dr Caitlin Todd, who had relentlessly bullied Sarah’s partner Jacob when she was in charge of him at the hospital, found out the truth and used it to blackmail Charity into handing over money. This all culminated in harrowing scenes where she sexually assaulted a drunken Charity.

Earlier this week, newcomer Serena Sugden, played by former Wicked star Casey Al-Shaqsy, made Charity see that she needed to expose Todd, even if that meant revealing everything to her family and on Thursday night’s episode, Charity bravely faced the music.

Having candidly informed Mack that Sarah’s baby was the product of a one night stand she had with Ross, Mack stormed out and looked set to tell all to Charity’s granddaughter. But when he returned home, he told Charity that he couldn’t do it.

It was then that Charity told Mack about Dr Todd’s blackmail against her after she discovered the truth about the child in question, and then disclosed that she had been the victim of rape at the hands of the retired medic.

Clearly taken aback by the shock revelation, on top of everything else he had heard that day, Mack (Lawrence Robb) calmly told Charity that the only thing they could do now was to go to the police – even after it seemed that Todd had got away with it all when she previously claimed that everything was consensual.

Charity told Mack: “The only way through this is telling the truth and facing the consequences of what I have done. No matter what.”

“I tell Sarah. And then I go back to the police. If I tell the police about the blackmail, it’s going to open a can of worms and that’s gonna drag Sarah into it. I think that girl Serena was right. I have to see this through.”

However, Mack told Charity that telling Sarah that she is not the mother of her baby might not be the best idea just yet, meaning that the secret could stay secret a little while longer – but he was absolutely convinced that she had to “fight” for justice above all else.

He said: “It’s gonna be a lot for everyone to deal with it, so maybe we cross that bridge when we come to it. What matters right now is that you go to the police.”

“I can be angry with you and still be there for you when you need me the most. Charity, I need you to listen to me for a second here because – Dr Todd is not karma. She’s a rapist who took advantage of you when you were vulnerable. So I need you to get out of that way of thinking because it lets her off the hook.

“You’re gonna fight back, you’re gonna go to the police, you’re gonna get them down here and you’re going to tell them absolutely everything.”

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads .

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Thursday to crack down on inflated profits stemming from car crash lawsuits, blessing a hard-fought compromise between Uber and the state’s trial attorneys that averts a November showdown between two of California’s most powerful and moneyed lobbying forces.

The deal, the fruit of months of negotiations, takes aim at the lucrative way doctors can charge for procedures on patients referred to them by personal injury lawyers.

If a law firm has a client who was hurt in a car accident, the lawyer will often send them to a doctor who will perform surgery on a “lien” basis, meaning the doctor will be paid from money that comes from a lawsuit settlement rather than through insurance.

Uber contends this arrangement has created an incentive for doctors and attorneys to collude to dramatically inflate medical bills. The more expensive the bill, they say, the bigger the resulting payout.

The law, SB 623, caps how much these doctors can charge when their patient is involved in a lawsuit against a ride-share company, which are frequent targets of litigation due to their top-of-the-line insurance policies. The new law will also require Uber to ramp up background checks of its drivers.

“We’re going to have a much safer state both for medical patients and passengers in Ubers,” said Nicholas Rowley, a prominent Texas attorney who helped bankroll the fight and took a leading role in the negotiations.

The law only applies to cases that involve ride-share accidents that take place after Jan. 1, 2027.

“This legislation puts meaningful guardrails in place to better protect accident victims, increase transparency and accountability in the medical lien system and strengthen safety,” said Ramona Prieto, Uber’s head of public policy for the Western U.S., in a statement.

For months, Uber and lawyers from across the state poured tens of millions into dueling ballot measures that threatened to devastate the profits of whichever side lost.

Uber fired the first shot with a ballot measure that sought to cap how much attorneys can earn in lawsuits involving auto accidents. The company argued attorneys were swindling their own clients, inflating medical bills of car crash victims to increase the value of the settlement and then pocketing a hefty chunk of the payouts.

The state’s trial attorneys countered that the fee cap would make small or difficult cases a money-losing endeavor and block scores of accident victims from the courts. They shot back with their own ballot measure that would increase legal liability for ride-share companies if a passenger or driver is sexually assaulted while on a ride, seizing on investigative reporting that highlighted assaults in Ubers.

“They were waiting for us to blink and we didn’t,” said Douglas Saeltzer, the head of the Consumer Attorneys of California, the lawyer trade group that pushed for the measure against Uber. “Their starting place, I don’t believe, was in the interest of protecting victims — it was in the interest of protecting Uber.”

With the passage of Thursday’s law, both sides have agreed to pull their respective measures from the November ballot, halting campaigns that had both parties amassing tens of millions in funding and blanketing the airwaves with ads.

“Now we can stop seeing all the commercials,” said Assemblymember Blanca Pancheo (D-Downey) at a Tuesday hearing.

The law, put forward by Assemblymember Diane Papan (D-San Mateo) and Sen. Thomas Umberg (D-Santa Ana), also caps the amount that can be earned by third-party investors who buy out a doctor’s lien in a personal injury case. These companies will purchase a doctor’s stake in the case at a reduced rate, then pocket a share of the payout if the case settles.

“Private equity and hedge funds buy them at a steep discount, then turn around and collect the full inflated amount,” Saeltzer said at a Tuesday hearing on the bill. “That’s money flowing to Wall Street investors, not patients.”

The law will require annual background checks for ride-share drivers and expand the list of offenses that disqualify someone from the job.

In addition to the ballot battle, has Uber sued two of LA’s most well-known personal injury firms — the Law Offices of Jacob Emrani and Downtown L.A. Law Group — accusing them of inflating medical bills and forcing clients to undergo needless and expensive surgeries to inflate the value of the claim. The firms asked the judge to dismiss the case Wednesday, arguing Uber had failed to prove fraud. Both firms have vehemently denied wrongdoing.

The lawsuit, filed last year, has put the plaintiff lawyers in the unusual position of playing defense. Listening in the audience at Wednesday’s hearings were the partners of Downtown L.A. Law Group and Jacob Emrani.

“Let’s be clear about what this Uber case really is,” said John Hueston, outside counsel for Emrani. “It’s brought by a $150 billion dollar company … to intimidate the plaintiff’s bar, exhaust its resources and chill the suits that hold Uber accountable.”

Michael Huston, one of the lawyers who represents Uber, countered that the case is “not an attack on the plaintiff’s bar.”

“We have brought suit against the two in this state … that are engaged in naked fraud,” he said.

TORONTO — Marina Mabrey matched the WNBA scoring record with 53 points to help the Toronto Tempo rout the Sparks 125-97 on Thursday night.

Mabrey tied the mark set by Liz Cambage for Dallas against New York on July 17, 2018, and by A’ja Wilson for Las Vegas at Atlanta on Aug. 22, 2023.

Mabrey was 17 of 28 from the field, hitting nine of 18 three-pointers, and made 10 of 12 free throws.

The Tempo opened a nine-game homestand.

June 25 (UPI) — A cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz was attacked Thursday, prompting officials to halt the evacuation of sailors stranded in the chokepoint by the war.

It was unclear who attacked the cargo ship. According to the British navy’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations office, the vessel was struck on its starboard side by an unknown projectile at about 5:40 p.m. local time. It was about 7 1/2 nautical miles southeast of Dahit, Oman, when it was attacked, it said.

The vessel’s bridge sustained damage, but no casualties or environmental impact were reported.

Following the attack, the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization paused its evacuation operation in the Strait of Hormuz.

“I have decided to temporarily pause its implementation in order to reconfirm that the necessary safety guarantees continue to be in place for the ships on our evacuation list and all those in the region,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement.

The war, which began Feb. 28, left some 11,000 sailors stranded in and around the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy shipping route. The IMO announced the evacuation operation Tuesday, after the United States and Iran agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding that seeks to pave a path to ending the war.

Under the U.N. plan, a number of vessels have already been evacuated.

The vessel struck Thursday was not transiting the Hormuz under the IMO’s evacuation framework, the U.N. agency said.

Though it unclear who was responsible for the attack, the Iran’s U.S.-sanctioned Persian Gulf Strait Authority, newly created by Tehran to oversee and manage the strait, issued an advisory Thursday, stating it is not responsible for the protection of vessels transiting “outside designated routes.”

“Any consequences arising from unauthorized routing shall be the sole responsibility of the vessel owner, charterer and master,” it said.

Control of the strait has been a focus of ongoing U.S. efforts to end the war.

Iran effectively closed the strait after being attacked Feb. 28, causing energy prices to surge and threatened nations with worsening energy crises.

Since then, Iran has attempted to maintain control of the strait and has sought to impose fees on ships that transit it.

The United States is seeking to secure free maritime travel through the strait as part of the MOU. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is currently in the Middle East trying to sell the MOU to allied nations.

However, the Institute for the Study of War said in a report Thursday night that Iran’s alleged attacks and threats directed at vessels in the strait “advance its objective of establishing control over the waterway” as well as “undermine international efforts to guarantee safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”

“Iran is using military threats and economic incentives to try to convince Gulf states to support its efforts to control the strait, but the Gulf states appear to be resisting Iranian pressure at present,” it said.

Former German player’s comments that ‘African football’ is ‘a bit unorthodox sometimes, a bit wild’ sparked controversy.

Even in one of the most joyous moments in his country’s footballing history, Ivory Coast manager Emerse Fae found himself managing sadness over the remarks of a former role model that have sparked debate about potential racist connotations.

Nicolas Pepe’s brace guided the Ivory Coast to a 2-0 win over Curacao and took his nation to their first-ever World Cup knockout phase on Thursday.

But afterwards, Fae was asked to respond to analysis given by former German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger on German public TV ahead of Germany’s 2-1 win over the Ivorians in both teams’ second Group E match in Toronto.

Here is how DW.com characterised what Schweinsteiger said: “Ahead of the Group E clash in Toronto, which Germany won 2-1, Schweinsteiger said in his role as a pundit for German public broadcaster ARD that the Ivorians played ‘African football’, which he characterised as ‘a bit unorthodox sometimes, a bit wild, not quite as tactical.’”

In his response, Fae noted how he once admired the former Bayern Munich man so much that he sometimes was called “Bastian” by his friends.

“I think it’s sad,” said the 42-year-old Fae, who is only several months older than the 41-year-old Schweinsteiger. “He was a very, very good player; a great player.

“I’ve always loved him, personally. As a midfielder, I’ve always liked the way he played, the way he understood football. … So when I heard his comments, I was disappointed, disappointed in the man.

“Because when you know football the way he knows it, it’s odd that you would speak that way, which we could call racist if we were calling a spade a spade, but that’s the way it is.”

Schweinsteiger played parts of 13 seasons for Bayern Munich, helping the German club giants win eight league titles and one UEFA Champions League crown. Internationally, he was a key contributor to Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning squad.

He has not publicly commented on the remarks in the days since.

On Thursday, Fae’s side got the better of one of the game’s most famous managers, the 78-year-old Dick Advocaat, who, in guiding Curacao, was managing in his third World Cup.

Fae’s group also earned a 1-0 victory to open the tournament against Ecuador, a team that came into this World Cup unbeaten in 19 matches and hailed for its defensive solidity.

“I can’t change the way he talks,” Fae said of Schweinsteiger.

“But all I can do is show on the pitch that Africa is not just the physical game. We are very technical as well, very tactical. And all I can hope is that this was just a clumsy statement, that it wasn’t particularly reflective of what’s in his mind.”

Coronation Street’s Sarah Platt has confessed to Todd that she killed Theo but a short time later she was the one who had to deal with a shock truth that came her way

Sarah Platt confessed to Todd Grimshaw that she killed Theo on the latest episode of Coronation Street. The legendary Weatherfield resident, who has been played by Tina O’Brien since 1999, hit the evil scaffolder over the head with a pipe during a confrontation above the builder’s yard – seemingly sending him plunging to his death.

For months, viewers were left guessing as to who had killed Theo, who spent almost a year abusing partner Todd Grimshaw, but Sarah was never one of the official suspects and is yet to even be a person of interest to police, most likely thanks to the fact that on the night in question, she was knocked unconscious in the living room of number eight.

Viewers are aware that Jodie Ramsey (Olivia Frances-Brown) was the mystery attacker who hit her over the head with an ornament that night, but no one else is. Via the medium of a flashback, viewers learned earlier this week that Sarah had killed Theo (James Cartwright) after he insulted her, Todd and the baby they had together more than 20 years ago who died shortly after his birth.

Sarah is currently dating, and looks set to get engaged to DC Kit Green (Jacob Roberts), so she felt it was unwise to involve him. Instead, she roped Gary Windass (Mikey North) into the whole sorry mess, who has been helping her keep the whole thing secret, much to the chagrin of his wife Maria (Samia Longchambon), who thought they had been having an affair.

To make matters even worse, DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers), who has a habit of putting innocent people in prison, charged Todd’s adoptive daughter Summer (Harriet Bibby) with murder and, although she was recently released, Sarah said nothing and allowed her to be put behind bars.

Having had enough of Todd constantly blaming Gary for the murder, Sarah finally confessed all to her best friend in Thursday night’s instalment of the world’s longest-running TV soap.

Through tears, Sarah said: “It was me. I knocked Theo off the scaffolding.” as he looked on in shock. “You’re wrong and I’m not even gonna let you think it. He is not corrupt – he wants to marry me!

“Afterwards. I was in shock and…Theo was…dead. And I couldn’t ring Kit, I couldn’t. I didn’t know who else to turn to. “

“He was talking like he’d killed you, and I believed him because why wouldn’t I? You thought he was capable. That’s why you ran.

“Don’t look down your nose at me, Theo ruined your life and then you brought him into mine. I didn’t have the option to run – not when I was 20ft up, on scaffolding on a plank that wide with a psycho waving a bottle in my face. A psycho who was ten times stronger than me and two times the size of me.

“He got in my face and I pushed him away and then he came back at me. All the time, he had this little white fleck in the corner of his mouth when he was ripping into me and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. That I was a sl*g, a w***e, three different kids to three different men and no wonder our baby died because it was an abomination.

“Those were the words he said about an innocent, newborn child. There was a pole. It was just instinct, I closed my eyes and swung and he crumpled.”

Later on, Sarah presumed Todd was going to go to the police but when she found him in the Rovers Return later on, he admitted he just couldn’t do it – even though he angrily told Sarah she had robbed him of the chance to make sure Theo got justice for all the abuse he had subjected him to.

He added: “The most annoying thing about all of it is the fact that I love you…so much. And I can’t see you go to prison.” Todd and Sarah were teenage sweethearts amid the programme’s first coming out story in 2004 and, even after Todd came out as gay, the pair have remained close.

Initially, Sarah threw her arms around Todd as she thanked him, but he then dealt the final blow as he vowed to cut her out for good.

He said: “Listen to me Sarah, this is it, for you and me. We’re done. I don’t want you in my life anymore,” leading Sarah to march back into the pub and continue to drink as she she stumbled round to Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody before her family escorted her out.

But there was another twist in store back at number eight when Sarah, sat stroking David the dog, was having a conversation with Jodie. Without realising what she was saying, Jodie said: “It’s not easy to get over an attack like that – it takes time. Maybe this wasn’t the best place to bring you to, it must be triggering.”

As Jodie stroked the dog, she said: “At least you’re not barking your head off, this time, eh?” and Sarah immediately began to put two and two together as she said: “How did you know he was barking that night?”

Jodie tried to play the whole thing down but the cogs were already turning for Sarah, who has seemingly worked out that it was Shona’s mysterious long-lost sister all along.

Coronation Street airs Monday to Friday at 8:30pm on ITV1 and is available to stream from 7am on ITV X.

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Proponents of a tax on California billionaires vowed on Thursday to move forward with their November ballot measure despite mounting opposition from many of the state’s most powerful political forces.

A labor union spent $31 million gathering signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot in an effort to offset federal healthcare funding cuts that will affect millions of California’s most vulnerable residents. A representative for the campaign supporting the ballot measure pushed back at opposition to the effort as self-entitled wealthy Californians and entrenched Sacramento interests.

“While a few morally bankrupt billionaires and their buddies in Sacramento want to see California’s hospitals close, and tax breaks for billionaires protected — I assure you, the vast majority of voters do not,” said Debru Carthan, a spokesperson for the Billionaire Tax Now Coalition, which is funded by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, the sponsor of the proposal.

The California secretary of state is expected to officially certify the measure for the Nov. 3 ballot on Thursday evening.

Carthan said their effort has support in public opinion polls, and from lawmakers, unions, community organizations and volunteers across the state, “something the billionaires and their buddies will never have.”

However, a coalition of healthcare, education, public safety, housing, business and labor leaders opposed to the proposal warned that it would make the state’s notoriously unstable budget even more unpredictable.

“The dangerous wealth tax directly threatens vital funding for education and schools, healthcare and clinics, public safety, and infrastructure projects by making California’s revenue even more volatile,” the leaders of the California Medical Assn., the California Primary Care Assn. and the California School Boards Assn. said in a statement. “That’s why so many leaders – both Democrats and Republicans – are joining us and saying NO. We look forward to ensuring voters have the facts, know the stakes, and resoundingly reject this reckless experiment in November.”

Supporters of the one-time proposed 5% tax on the assets of the state’s wealthiest residents pitched the effort as a stop-gap measure to offset devastating federal healthcare funding cuts passed by the GOP-led Congress and signed by President Trump nearly one year ago. The federal legislation is expected to result in $100 billion in cuts that would affect California’s most vulnerable residents.

The proposed tax, which would be retroactive to billionaires who lived in the state as of Jan. 1, drew predictable opposition from the wealthy, notably Silicon Valley tech leaders.

But it notably divided liberals. While Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) supported the proposal, Gov. Gavin Newsom was among the Democrats who opposed it because of fears about the potential impact on the state’s volatile budget.

Despite being the fourth largest economy in the world — the home of Hollywood and Silicon Valley — California’s budget is extremely dependent on the state’s most prosperous residents.

Newsom and others who generally support increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans also argued that the proposed billionaire tax in California was poorly crafted and that any such levies ought to be enacted nationally, because varying state policies would be ineffective.

Opponents also argued that the political priority in the 2026 midterm election should be squarely focused on efforts to make sure Democrats regain control of Congress to serve as a counter balance during the final two years of Trump’s presidency.

“It’s disappointing. This is a critical election where we need to concentrate on flipping the house and undoing the damage that was done” by Trump’s legislation that led to the healthcare funding cuts, said Jodi Hicks, chief executive and president of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. The wealth tax “is short term and doesn’t address what is the long-term problem. And I’m not even sure the policy is a viable solution. It’s so critical to be sending the right message — holding Congress accountable and how we need to find long-term solutions to make sure Californians have access to healthcare.”

Rob Lapsley, co-chair of Californians Against Tax Increases and president of the California Business Roundtable, argued that the proposed wealth tax would ultimately affect every Californian.

“Strip away the spin, and this measure forces every California taxpayer, not just billionaires, to file a sworn declaration of their net worth with the Franchise Tax Board under penalty of perjury,” Lapsley said in a statement. “And it hands the Legislature the power to extend the wealth tax to all Californians and every kind of property, including home equity, retirement savings without ever returning to the voters – effectively gutting” voter-approved caps on property tax increases.

Supporters of the tax submitted nearly 1.6 million signatures in April to qualify the proposal for the ballot, roughly double the number required. However, support for the effort has grown increasingly shaky. Newsom’s team created a broad coalition of opponents, including healthcare and education activists, that undercut the foundational argument for the tax.

The union that crafted the proposal responded last week by proposing a legislative alternative that would create a 2% tax on billionaire’s assets. It was flatly refused by the Newsom administration. No deal was reached by the Thursday evening deadline for the union to withdraw the proposal from the November ballot.

Two efforts that were crafted to sink the proposed billionaire tax — dubbed as poison pills — also qualified for the Nov. 3 ballot, according to the California Secretary of State’s office. One would bar new state taxes on personal property, while the other prohibits any new taxes being exempted from existing state spending rules and to be regularly audited. If the billionaire tax proposal is approved by voters but either of the other proposals receives more votes, the tax measure would be voided.

The proposed billionaire tax would apply to more than 200 Californians, some of whom proactively left the state or moved their companies out of California because of the proposal.

The prospect of the wealthy fleeing the state is among the reasons that prominent Democrats such as Newsom opposed it, given California’s budget being so reliant on the state’s most prosperous residents.

Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, is among the billionaires who have reportedly moved out of California because of the tax proposal. He donated at least $82 million to an organization that is funding efforts to invalidate the proposed billionaire tax.

Ballot measure proponents had a Thursday evening deadline to withdraw their proposals.

Other policy proposals that will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot include:

• Requiring government-issued voter identification to cast ballots in elections.
• Reforming the California Environmental Quality Act, once a third-rail in Democratic politics that has become increasingly scrutinized in the rebuilding in the aftermath of the Palisades and Eaton wildfire.
• Creating a $11.3-billion affordable housing bond.

Two notable proposals were pulled off the ballot after negotiations between the California Hospital Assn. and labor unions:

• An effort to limit healthcare executives’ compensation.
• A union proposal by the same union backing the billionaire tax that would have required many healthcare clinics to spend 90% of their revenue to serve low-income and underserved residents.

Shohei Ohtani was the first Dodger to be named a 2026 All-Star, after leading the majors in Phase 1 voting for the All-Star game on July 14 in Philadelphia. Six other Dodgers were finalists through the fan ballot, giving them a chance to claim starting spots in Phase 2 of voting.

Ohtani locked down the starting DH spot for the National League squad, with 3,341,257 votes. The top vote-getters in each league bypass Phase 2. Second baseman Ernie Clement of the Toronto Blue Jays was the top vote-getter in the Amlerican League, with 3,232,932 votes.

Ohtani was the expected choice, despite a slow offensive start. His red-hot June boosted him up the leaderboards. He entered Thursday with the second-highest OPS in the National League (.963), barely trailing Mets outfielder Juan Soto (.965).

Pitchers aren’t chosen through the fan vote — hurlers and reserves have to wait for the player ballot (which includes votes from players, coaches and managers) and commissioners picks. But Ohtani has been just as impressive on the mound this year.

He has a 1.58 ERA, the fourth-best mark among NL pitchers who have thrown at least 50 innings this season.

Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman (2,666,008 votes), third baseman Max Muncy (2,890,181) and outfielder Andy Pages (2,158,664) also led their respective NL position groups in voting. Other Dodgers finalists, who advance to voting Phase 2, include catcher Will Smith (1,871,805), shortstop Mookie Betts (1,762,343 ) and outfielder Teoscar Hernandez (1,569,932).

The vote totals reset for Phase 2, which runs from next Monday through Thursday. The remainder of the All-Star starters are set to be announced on July 4 on Fox Sports.

June 25 (Asia Today) — A South Korean court has again rejected a request to preserve ballots, ballot boxes and other election materials kept at a counting center in Seoul’s Songpa District.

The First Civil Division of the Seoul Eastern District Court, led by Presiding Judge Joo Jin-am, dismissed an appeal Tuesday filed by the Freedom and Innovation party against the chair of the Songpa District Election Commission.

The materials were stored at a counting center inside the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium.

The court rejected the party’s initial evidence-preservation request on June 12, prompting the party to appeal.

Freedom and Innovation claimed that ballot-paper shortages, the transportation of ballot boxes and other alleged irregularities during the June 3 nationwide local elections could have affected the voting and counting results.

The party sought court preservation of ballots, ballot boxes and related materials for possible use in future litigation.

The court, however, found that the application failed to satisfy legal requirements including relevance and necessity.

Judges said there was no sufficient connection between the ballot shortages and the requested preservation of ballots and ballot boxes from polling places where voting had been completed normally.

The court also determined that obtaining the materials would not help establish the disputed issues in an underlying lawsuit.

It said a separate preservation order was unnecessary because election law already requires the materials to be retained.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260625010009154

The U.N. International Maritime Organization (IMO) paused its plan to evacuate hundreds of ships stuck in the Persian Gulf after a vessel was attacked in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. A U.S. official told us the attack was carried out by an Iranian drone, which was confirmed by Iranian officials.

The evacuation plan, which IMO developed with Oman, was designed to provide safe passage to vessels in the Persian Gulf that are still unable to transit the Strait, which has been largely closed since Iran was attacked by the U.S. and Israel. The announcement came as traffic was beginning to move through the Strait again amid ongoing, albeit tense peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. However, these transits represent a tiny fraction of what took place before the war.

The IMO decision today also came after a warning earlier on Thursday by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N) that safe passage through the Strait was limited to routes designated by Tehran and that other routes were “unacceptable and completely dangerous,” according to The Washington Post. The publication cited Iranian state-run media. The IRGC-N also claimed it turned back several ships trying to transit the Strait through the southern route suggested by IMO. There is also a northern route, near the Iranian coastline while concerns remain about mines in the main route, down the middle of the Strait.

IMO said it is pausing its evacuation plan even though the ship that was attacked was not taking part in that nascent effort.

“Following the launch of the IMO’s evacuation plan, through which several vessels have already been successfully evacuated, I have decided to temporarily pause its implementation in order to reconfirm that the necessary safety guarantees continue to be in place for the ships on our evacuation list and all those in the region,” IMO Secretary-General Mr. Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement. “I have been informed of an attack today in the Gulf of Oman on a vessel which passed through the Strait of Hormuz. This vessel did not transit under IMO’s evacuation framework. I have always reiterated that the safety of the seafarers remains paramount. Therefore, to ensure a coordinated approach and navigational safety, the evacuation plan will be paused until further clarity is obtained.”

“Today marks the Day of the Seafarer, underlining the importance of ensuring that the continued evacuation of the thousands of seafarers stranded in the Persian Gulf can proceed without the risk of them becoming collateral victims in this geopolitical conflict,” Dominguez added.

A maritime security official told us the ship that was attacked was the Ever Lovely, a Singapore-flagged cargo ship, according to MarineTraffic. The incident occurred about 7.5 nautical miles southeast of Dahit, Oman, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center.

“A cargo vessel has been hit on the starboard side by an unknown projectile, causing damage to the bridge,” UKMTO stated on X. “Master has reported no casualties and no environmental impact. Authorities are investigating. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO.”

The Other Bennet Sister is returning for a three-part special this Christmas, with Ella Bruccoleri reprising her role.

Star of The Other Bennet Sister Ella Bruccoleri has revealed her fears for the hit period drama to return.

The Call the Midwife actress played Mary Bennet the BBC series, the over-looked middle sister of Pride and Prejudice.

Based on Janice Hadlow’s novel, The Other Bennet Sister followed Mary living a different life to her sisters, as she left Longbourn behind and travelled to London with her aunt and uncle.

After being forgotten in the original Jane Austen novel, this time, she stepped into her own story on her journey of self-discovery.

The Other Bennet Sister captured hearts of fans and proved to be the biggest launch of a new drama in the UK in a year, and is now set to return with a three-part Christmas special following its success.

However, just before the BBC confirmed its return, Ella admitted her nerves over the possibility of a second season.

She told Variety: “When something has felt really perfect and is being received in a lovely way, I’m a bit scared of touching it again.”

Following the season finale, which saw Mary receive her happy ending and getting married, she revealed her plans for her character.

Ella told the publication: “I can see them having this beautiful, equitable, quite progressive relationship for the time, where they both make decisions equally, and prioritize each other’s happiness. And I can see Mary continuing with her governessing.”

She continued: “It felt really important to me that Mary wanted to pass something on that she’d learned being a young woman, so I think she would want to pass that on in some way. I could see them being happy together and living a kind of bohemian London life.”

The Other Bennet Sister is now set for its return this Christmas, with the BBC having teased: “The final episode of the series saw Mary agreeing to wed Tom Hayward, but fans will be keen to know what challenges the future holds for the happy couple…”

In the announcement, Jane Tranter, Executive Producer and CEO of Bad Wolf, said: “We always hoped audiences would fall in love with Mary Bennet’s story, but the response to The Other Bennet Sister has exceeded even our most optimistic expectations.

“These Christmas specials give us the chance to spend a little more time with characters audiences have taken to their hearts, and to explore what happens after the wedding bells fade and real life begins.

“Returning to the world of Mary Bennet with our brilliant partners at the BBC and BritBox feels like the perfect way to celebrate the success of the series and give viewers a treat this Christmas.”

Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama also said: “It’s been incredibly exciting to see Mary Bennet cause such a sensation in 2026, and we could not be happier to announce this new three-part Christmas gift to her millions of fans.

“Marriage was just the beginning for the no-longer-so-overlooked Bennet sister, and it’s a joy to be working with Sarah, Janice and the Bad Wolf team to let viewers discover what comes next.”

Jess O’Riordan, Commissioning Executive of BritBox North America, added: “We know how much audiences have fallen in love with Mary Bennet, and we’re thrilled that her story isn’t over yet.

“We are so pleased Mary’s story will continue for three more chapters and to welcome audiences back into the world of The Other Bennet Sister this holiday season.”

The Other Bennet Sister is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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