fires

Argentinian international taken to hospital for precautionary tests after a head clash with Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite.

Pedro Neto’s double condemned Everton to a first defeat of the season as Chelsea won 2-0 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium despite the loss of goalkeeper Emi Martinez to a head injury.

Neto opened the scoring inside the first minute of the second half on Saturday and secured the three points during the 11 added minutes following the lengthy treatment given to the stricken Martinez.

The Argentinian international was involved in a sickening head clash with Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite and was taken to hospital.

“As far as I know he left the stadium conscious. Right now he’s in the hospital doing the precautionary tests, so let’s see,” said Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso.

A first away win of the season lifts Chelsea above the Toffees into the top four and the Blues also recorded a first clean sheet in 23 Premier League games.

“We needed one of these wins away. We have played very professional, very serious, looking solid. It is a very good win,” added Alonso.

“We need to get many more clean sheets for the rest of the league games but for sure the first one of the season feels good and now we need to keep going this way.”

After a slow start, a fiery-tempered encounter sparked into life when Everton midfielder Harrison Armstrong launched into a tackle on Josh Acheampong for the first of five first-half yellow cards.

‘This win is for him’

That challenge also enlivened the home crowd and spurred Everton on to their best spell of the game.

Thierno Barry was guilty of another wasteful day in front of goal as the Frenchman planted a header from Jack Grealish’s cross too close to Martinez.

Chelsea have made a habit of fast starts under Alonso, but it took until four minutes before half-time to threaten when Moises Caicedo blasted off the bar from a well-worked corner.

Everton were furious that Morgan Rogers escaped a second booking just before the break after a thunderous clash with England teammate James Garner.

That proved to be a huge decision as the visitors this time flew out of the blocks at the start of the second period.

Jorrel Hato got to the byline and his low cross fell to Neto, who had time to control before firing low past Jordan Pickford.

Chelsea had not kept a Premier League clean sheet since January, but were rarely troubled by an Everton side short on forward options, despite the loss of Martinez.

“I just felt that Chelsea had that little bit more flair and ability which we didn’t possess at the right moments today,” said Everton boss David Moyes.

The treatment for Martinez threatened to halt Chelsea’s momentum as they controlled the second half.

Belgian Mike Penders replaced the Chelsea number one for his first Premier League appearance but had little to do bar dealing with a few desperate Everton crosses.

At the other end Pickford made a fine save to deny Joao Pedro.

But Chelsea did get their second goal when Neto coolly stroked into the bottom corner after Jordan Henderson’s free-kick was blocked by the Everton wall.

“We are really ‌‌pleased. Shame for Emi but we wish you all the best. This win is for him,” Neto told TNT Sports after his first Premier League brace.

“We need a clean sheet, to be honest. I think we did a very good game. Emi deserved this, Mike did as well.”

Latest missile launch appears to be a show of force since South Korea’s hypersonic missile test-fire, Seoul says.

North Korea has fired multiple ballistic missiles towards the sea off its east coast, South Korea’s military says.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said one of the missiles flew more than 900km (559 miles) from the Pyongyang area on Monday. The joint chiefs did not specify how many missiles were detected.

Japan’s coastguard said on Monday that North Korea had fired two unidentified projectiles, believed to be ballistic missiles, which appeared to have already fallen.

South Korea’s presidential office said that Pyongyang’s repeated missile launches violate United Nations Security Council resolutions, urging an immediate stop.

Monday’s missile launch adds to heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, as both countries have been conducting weapons tests.

Escalating tensions

JCS spokesperson Jang Do-young said the latest missile launch appears to be a show of force since South Korea’s hypersonic missile test-fire.

On Thursday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung oversaw the country’s first test-firing of a hypersonic missile, a rare public showcasing of a missile test by a South Korean president.

Lee’s office said the hypersonic weapon, once fully developed, would enhance South Korea’s ability to strike key targets by surprise in the “Korean Peninsula theatre of operations”.

On October 3, North Korea also tested a hypersonic intermediate-range missile designed to evade missile defences in South Korea and Japan.

Last week, Seoul demanded an apology after a landmine blast wounded three soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone between South and North Korea. A joint South Korean-UN investigation concluded that two landmines were planted by North Korean forces about a year ago. Pyongyang dismissed the claim and accused South Korea of provocation.

Prior to the border mine blast, Seoul said it was conducting “preliminary coordination efforts” to facilitate dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.

Lee pledged to reopen dialogue with North Korea in his first speech after taking office in 2025.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to flaunt his nuclear weapons programme, while rejecting US and South Korean offers to resume stalled diplomacy.

Talks between Kim and US President Donald Trump abruptly ended in 2019. Kim Jong Un’s government continues to demand that Washington abandon its “hostile” policy towards Pyongyang and drop demands for North Korea’s denuclearisation as a condition for talks.

In the Cairngorms national park, the bracken is changing from dark green to russet and umber. Birch leaves are lined with gold, while the Scots pines remain proudly green. Autumn is arriving with a little sigh of relief here, after a summer few will forget.

The wildfire that began near Glenmore and Abernethy on 15 July burned more than 33 sq km (13 sq miles) of moorland and forest. More than 500 firefighters were involved; homes and businesses were evacuated; and the emergency response lasted over a month. Visiting now, it’s hard to see, or even imagine, the damage. Much of the burned area is high on the hill and far from the roads. It’s a huge loss but, in a national park stretching 4,528 sq km (1,748 sq miles), surprisingly easy to miss.

I have come with a gravel bike to retest new bikepacking routes with Kees Wouters and Yannick Ferbeek from Legendary Rides, which offers self-guided tours, and Bikepacking Scotland founder Markus Stitz, who helped develop the routes.

I arrive in Aviemore from Edinburgh on an electric Ember bus, which allows bikes to be booked on board, a welcome development in Scottish public transport. Soon I’m heading out of town through heather and Scots pines, my bike bags stuffed with everything I need for the next few days.

The original route would have taken us through Glenmore, past Loch Morlich and Ryvoan bothy, but there are still path closures. Instead, we take a new line towards Nethy Bridge. Sunlight falls through birch and rowan and the track is soft with pine needles. At Loch Garten, where ospreys nest in spring and summer, it is hard to imagine the smoke and helicopters of July.

Graham Niven lives in Nethy Bridge with his wife, Amy, and runs the self-catering business Arbor Nethy beside the forest. He joined the local volunteer firefighting effort coordinated by the RSPB, part of a huge community response. “We see the forest as an extension of our home,” Graham says. The Abernethy forest is ecologically rich, filled with ancient Caledonian pine trees that are hundreds of years old. “It’s a unique and special habitat, and it’s very fragile. We were all just grieving for the forest,” he tells me.

The news cycle has long moved on, but locals are still dealing with the effects of the wildfire. “Only in the last few weeks have we been able to look back on it as something that’s come to an end,” Graham says. Peat smouldered underground for months, meaning firefighters had to keep returning to hotspots.

While business has largely returned to usual, Graham has noticed a dip in bookings for photography workshops and holiday lets. “What is less measurable is people’s confidence in booking or coming back. The buzzwords were ‘apocalyptic fire’ and Abernethy and Nethy Bridge, Cairngorms, and that does stick in people’s minds. People think of Abernethy and say: ‘Oh, it’s been burned down.’ I think it’s less than 10% of the old forest affected.” Nearby, Polly Cameron at The Dell of Abernethy has seen the same effect: “Bookings wise, we certainly experienced a dip, and October has still been much slower to fill.” That matters in a landscape where tourism is a vital part of the local economy.

We ride on along the Speyside Way, following the river through woods and farmland. Then the landscape opens. The Cairngorms change character as you head east: deep forests give way to sheep, grouse moors, abandoned crofts and long gravel roads. This is whisky country too, and we ride through the grounds of Glenlivet Distillery. It’s after hours, or the smell of malted barley would have tempted me to stop.

By late afternoon the hills have turned heather-purple. We started late and by the time we reach Hotel Square in Tomintoul, darkness has settled. Our bikes go into a storage room and, happily, hot curry and cold beer are still available.

The next day is shorter but steeper, taking us on to sections of the old military roads built in the 18th century after the Jacobite risings. I’m reminded of that history later at Corgarff, a white fortress on the crest of a hill. Built in the 16th century and later converted into a barracks, it was used to suppress Jacobite sympathisers and, later, the illicit whisky trade.

We spend the second night at Cairngorm Bothies, off-grid cabins surrounded by Scots pines. In each, there’s a little nature journal and I leaf through pages of children’s handwriting with tales of red squirrels and deer. When the rain starts, any disappointment about missing out on seeing the dark skies is replaced by relief not to be camping.

With a flexible route we stop often, for photos, snacks and whenever the fancy takes us. We walk through woodland to visit Burn O’Vat, a huge glacial pothole in the Muir of Dinnet national nature reserve. At Ballater we stop for coffee and morning rolls at The Bothy while one of our group gets a quick bike repair. The route is deliberately forgiving, and Legendary Rides provides shorter alternatives for challenging weather or tired legs, with prebooked accommodation, a personalised plan, GPX routes and WhatsApp support. “It allows you to relax and just enjoy the ride,” says Yannick.

From Ballater we wind towards Loch Muick, through the Balmoral estate. After a long, winding ascent over Capel Mounth the riding becomes rougher, with a rocky descent. The gentle undulating roads that follow to Glen Clova are a welcome contrast as we roll to Alyth.

I’ve visited the Cairngorms region often in the past, but this trip broadens my awareness of the diversity of landscapes it holds. To mountain peaks and forest trails I add river valleys, whisky country, high moorland, farmland and roads so empty that the only sound is the freewheel of a bicycle.

But this is not untouched wilderness. We cross private estates managed for deer stalking and grouse shooting, as well as national nature reserves. Debates over the right ways to manage this land span centuries, with wildfire prevention now a key part of that conversation. Scotland’s right to responsible access allows us to pass through this landscape, provided we leave no trace, close gates and avoid disturbing livestock and wildlife.

Autumn is an ideal time for this kind of journey. The midges have retreated, the roads are emptier and there is still plenty of golden light in the days. Cycling through the area helps to support local cafes, shops and accommodation providers, and there’s never been a better time to do so. “We want people to know we’re still here, we’re still awesome,” says Graham.

My tired legs power me to a final Pitlochry cafe stop before my Ember bus back to Edinburgh.

The trip was provided by Legendary Rides and Bikepacking Scotland. Legendary Rides offers four-day bikepacking trips from £759pp, including detailed route planning, accommodation, breakfast and personal support via WhatsApp

A ballistic missile is fired from the North Korean port city of Wonsan, South Korean military says.

South Korea’s military says North Korea has fired at least one ballistic missile towards the sea off its east coast.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Saturday morning that its northern neighbour fired a ballistic missile from the port city of Wonsan on the eastern shore of the Korean Peninsula.

The South Korean military raised an alert for further launches.

Japan issued an emergency alert on Saturday, saying: “North Korea has launched a suspected ballistic missile.”

The launch came a day after Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ridiculed South Korean demands for the North to apologise over landmine blasts that South Korea and the US-led United Nations Command said were caused by North Korean mines planted south of the Military Demarcation Line.

The blasts seriously injured three South Korean soldiers on a reconnaissance mission inside the 4km-wide (2.5-mile) border zone that stretches across the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea has also called on the North to halt recent efforts to fortify its border, including the installation of mines and anti-tank barriers.

Kim Yo Jong dismissed Seoul’s demands as “utterly pathetic”, saying the North intends to permanently cut ties with the South.

Saturday’s launch was the latest in a series of North Korean military displays in recent weeks, including tests of a purported hypersonic missile system, live-fire exercises and the commissioning of a new warship.

OpenAI has fired three researchers for allegedly mishandling information, including work that involved an external organisation that analyses artificial intelligence (AI) models.

“Our investigation confirmed that these individuals mishandled sensitive information outside established company procedures, violating our policies and breaking the trust essential to our work,” a spokesperson told the BBC.

The ChatGPT-maker did not name the sacked workers, but at least two of them were involved in safety research at the firm.

The firings come as the debate over AI safety and the risks the technology may pose to humanity has intensified in recent weeks.

“We have parted ways with three individuals for violating our policies on accessing and handling sensitive company information,” OpenAI’s spokesperson said.

The BBC understands the former employees were not let go for raising safety concerns but for allegedly mishandling sensitive information.

Concerns over AI safety have made headlines after some researchers and industry executives called for more guardrails around the technology.

OpenAI has come under under intense scrutiny after its models went rogue and hacked several platforms, including Australian government websites.

In an earlier incident an OpenAI system accessed the internet and breached the open-source developer platform Hugging Face.

That incident led OpenAI to conduct a broad review of the activities of its AI models – called agents, which are designed to execute tasks autonomously based on simple instructions.

The AI lab said this week that it has notified more than 100 organisations about incidents involving unauthoritised activity linked to its AI systems.

Being notified “does not mean that any private information was accessed” or that a system was compromised, OpenAI said.

Police have detained hundreds as students protest overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities.

French students have set fire to bins and erected blockades outside schools in several cities, protesting overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities.

Several school principals were injured, harassed or assaulted during blockades at high schools on Thursday, according to reports from regional education authorities, prefectures and union representatives.

Police have already detained hundreds of protesters at the lycees, which students aged 15 to 18 attend for their final three years of secondary education in France.

At Marseille’s Victor Hugo high school, the teachers were inadvertently splashed as a student attempted to throw petrol into a rubbish bin, local authorities said. Earlier, the prosecutor’s office had ⁠said the teachers had been assaulted and “doused in petrol”.

At another school in the city, Saint-Exupery high school, hundreds of young people surrounded a firetruck that had arrived to put out a blaze in the morning, police said. The attackers forced the firefighters to flee the vehicle, then set it alight.

In Nantes, firefighters extinguished a fire at a high school entrance following what regional education officials called a gathering “marked by violence towards staff”. In Strasbourg, trams were halted to “restrict the movements of rioters and demonstrators”, and students burned barriers on tram tracks, authorities said.

“There are 35 of us per classroom. With 35 degrees Celsius [95 degrees Fahrenheit] in summer, it’s unbearable. There aren’t enough toilets, and there are water leaks in some rooms,” Raphael, a 17-year-old who withheld his surname for fear of reprisals, told the AFP news agency outside a protest in Strasbourg.

“The building is falling apart, the cafeteria is too small. There’s zero budget, zero resources, not enough supervisors.”

His frustration echoes a wave of student anger that has spread across France since last week, as high school pupils protest and grievances snowball into nationwide unrest.

Some 340 demonstrations were under way outside high schools by mid-morning on Thursday, with more than 160 schools shut down as a result, police said.

University students joined in, blocking access to about 30 campuses, including in Paris and Marseille, according to a student union.

Authorities have reported many dozens of injuries – some from thrown objects, others reportedly from police riot-control projectiles.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said police have opened internal investigations into brutality allegations involving three students.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting and asked ministers to cancel upcoming official travel so authorities could focus on the demonstrations, his office said.

French Education Minister Edouard Geffray said that he would successively meet representative staff unions and parent and student associations on Friday.

The unrest has become entangled in the race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron next May. The government has accused the far-left France Unbowed party of encouraging the protests. Presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon said Wednesday that his party “called for nonviolent methods of struggle” and criticised the government’s response as repressive.

LAFC, mired in a slump having won just two of its last 13 games in all competition, fired first-year coach Marc Dos Santos on Sunday with six matches left in the MLS regular season.

The firing, announced in a three-paragraph statement, comes less than 24 hours after Saturday’s 1-0 loss to FC Dallas dropped the team to sixth in the Western Conference table.

“Marc has given a great deal to this club over the years, and we are grateful for his commitment, care and contributions to LAFC,” said John Thorrington, the team’s president of soccer operations, in the release. “We wish Marc and his family all the best moving forward.”

LAFC (11-9-8) said it will begin the search for a new manager immediately but didn’t say who would coach the team in its next game on Oct. 10, after the two-week FIFA international break.

Dos Santos, 49, was an assistant on Bob Bradley’s staff in LAFC’s inaugural season in 2018. He left after the season to take over the Vancouver Whitecaps but struggled to a 22-39-20 record in 2 ½ years that were heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the team to play many of its games on the road.

Dos Santos returned to LAFC as an assistant in 2022, this time for Steve Cherundolo, helping the team to a Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup. When Cherundolo stepped down after last season, Dos Santos was given the head coaching job just two weeks later, becoming the third manager in the team‘s history.

His two stints as an assistant at LAFC taught him that the team’s fans are among the most demanding in MLS, something he said he embraced.

“It’s a privilege when you coach a team in Los Angeles,” he said at the time. “Every sport here is pressure. Every team here is win, win.

“It’s a winning city and the culture of the city. So I understand that.”

Dos Santos, who is fluent in four languages, was born in Montreal and split his childhood between Quebec and Portugal. With the exception of Vancouver, he has won everywhere he’s managed, from the Ottawa Fury of the NASL, where he was named the league’s coach of the year in 2015, to the San Francisco Deltas, whom he guided to an NASL title.

LAFC was unbeaten in its first 11 matches in all competition under Dos Santos, outscoring opponents 27-3 and advancing to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, where it lost to Mexico’s Toluca, the eventual winner. But the team has gone 6-9-7 in MLS play since then, including Saturday’s loss when Dos Santos was without six key players — including leading scorer Denis Bouanga and captain Son Heung-min — who were with their national teams.

Afterward, he spoke about his plans for the two-week international break.

“It’s a hard moment right now for us. And we have to face it,” said Dos Santos, who was popular with his players. “It’s been hard for us to get wins. A lot of draws, a lot of close games.

“We need to have everybody together and start working on what this team can be. That’s the big objective during the break.”