But Ferrari’s shares dropped the day after the Luce’s launch, following backlash over the car.
Amongst those criticising the car were Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini and former Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who said the car was “risking the destruction of a legend”.
Ferrari’s chief design officer Flavio Manzoni said in an interview in May that critics are part of the innovation process and that he believed people would come to appreciate the Luce.
The company has not disclosed its target for Luce sales but, according to a Financial Times report, it has hit this year’s goal thanks to strong demand from China.
Ferrari did not respond to a BBC request for comment on the FT’s report,
Sotheby’s said in a statement, external that the auctioned vehicle marked an “unbeatable opportunity” to own the first production car of the Luce.
The car has special wheels, customised brakes and a white finish.
The charity sale marks a “tangible expression of innovation, responsibility, and long-term vision for future generations,” Sotheby’s said.
Ferraris often attract some of the highest prices at car auctions.
A bespoke Ferrari Daytona SP3 supercar raised $26m for the carmaker’s education initiatives at an auction in 2025. At the time it set an auction record for the highest-price paid for a new car.
The current record for the highest price paid at auction was an ultra-rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé, which was sold for $142m in 2022.
Neighbouring countries send personnel to help keep the blaze from crossing into Germany.
Published On 16 Aug 202616 Aug 2026
Firefighters are battling Belgium’s largest wildfire on record as it burns through the High Fens nature reserve near the German border on Sunday.
The fire broke out on Friday in Belgium’s Liege province and has been spreading east towards Germany. It has burned more than 27sq km (10.4sq miles).
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Belgium’s previous record fire occurred in 2011, burning 14sq km (5.4sq miles) of the same reserve, the European Forest Fire Information System said.
More than 250 emergency services personnel have been deployed, among them firefighters from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Firefighters focused on containing the advancing front of the fire, spokesperson for the government of Belgium’s Wallonia province, Stephanie Ernoux, told the Reuters news agency.
About 600 people in the Belgian border municipalities of Waimes and Butgenbach were told to leave their homes on Saturday as winds shifted and smoke spread.
Authorities said no homes had been affected as of Sunday morning, but urged people to stay away from the fire zone.
In Germany, the town of Monschau said the fire had come within about 3km (1.9 miles) of the border. Officials did not expect the flames to cross the border, the town said, but it advised residents of three of its districts to leave temporarily due to the smoke.
The fire came as Belgium had just come through another burst of severe heat, the thermometer touching roughly 37C (98.6F) in places on Friday, on top of weeks with barely any rain.
Like other parts of Europe, Belgium is in the middle of a summer of repeated heatwaves. Weather agencies logged temperatures above 35C (95F) in several European countries on Thursday, and the United Kingdom had its hottest day of the year when west London reached 38.1C (100.5F).
Fires have frequently followed the heat. Thousands of people have been driven from their homes in Germany, France, the UK, Croatia and Greece in recent days, and about 500,000 hectares (about 1.24 million acres) have burned across the European Union this year.
Makhachev was greeted by loud cheers as he made his walkout and made a statement in the first round as he took Machado Garry down at the first attempt.
The Irishman defended on the ground admirably, but it was a sign of things to come as Makhachev controlled the rest of the round with the challenger trapped against the side of the cage.
Makhachev’s dominance continued into the second round as he knocked Machado Garry down with a head kick, before slamming the dazzled Irishman to the canvas.
Again Machado Garry survived until the end of the round and although he found some success with a number of kicks midway through the fight, Makhachev continued to assert control when the pair grappled.
Machado Garry bloodied Makhachev’s face with some punches in the clinch, but the Russian shrugged it off to reach the final bell ahead in a number of key stats.
He secured seven unanswered takedowns and clocked over 12 minutes of control time to Machado Garry’s 34 seconds.
Although the Irishman landed 29 significant strikes to Makhachev’s 22, it was not enough to convince the judges of the win.
In a show of respect, the pair embraced before Machado Garry raised Makhachev’s arm in victory.
“To all my fans, Ireland, everybody, I’m sorry I couldn’t get this done,” said Machado Garry.
“But I stand here as a man proud of what I’ve done, proud of where I came from and proud where this will take me. To all the fans who doubt me, I’ll be back.”
At 28, Machado Garry has plenty of time to realise his dream of becoming a UFC champion, while Makhachev’s victory adds weight to claims he’s closing in on being regarded as the greatest UFC fighter of all time.
Growing up in a hiking family with a history along the Appalachian Trail, I became obsessed this summer with 91-year-old Dale “Greybeard” Sanders’ attempt to recapture his record as the oldest person to complete the more than 2,190-mile trek across 14 states. Known as “thru-hikers,” these backpackers walk the entire trail within a 12-month period. Each week, I’d search online for videos showing Greybeard’s journey, a pep in his step or the grueling grind across the miles. The current recordholder, M.J. “Nimblewill Nomad” Eberhart, who knew my parents, achieved this feat at age 83 in 2021, taking the honor from Greybeard, who set a record at age 82 in 2017. I wasn’t surprised to learn the two men were close friends; they even look alike, with their long white beards and sparkling eyes.
But Monday morning this week, with only 142 miles remaining, Greybeard announced he was heading home for rest in Tennessee. He’d spent a night in a Maine hospital due to complications from a fall and then learned his mother-in-law had died. “When it rains unfortunate incidents, it seems to come in buckets,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
These age-defying records and pivots felt personal.
It wasn’t accidental how the Appalachian Trail became my family’s backbone.
When I was about 7, my parents brought my younger siblings and me to Springer Mountain in Georgia, our daypacks filled with cans of Vienna sausages, boxes of raisins, a change of clothes and a sleeping bag.
“If you continue on this trail, you can walk all the way to Maine!” my dad said, pointing northward.
The path felt like a magical forested portal far from coastal Alabama where we lived. As a child, I couldn’t imagine how hiking would shape my parents as they got older: their physical fitness, spiritual connection to nature and access to community — all assets in aging well, according to extensive research. But more importantly, the outdoors would help them, and ultimately me, learn to adapt to change. That’s a survival skill for us all.
With the trail name “Fairhope,” my brother Laurence became the first in our family to complete the Appalachian Trail in 1992, followed by my parents, known as “Annie and the Salesman,” in 1994. Then my sister married a thru-hiker from north Florida.
“Hiking is a walking meditation, a way to carry everything we need,” my mom told me. “We may not leave you much money, but our legacy will be lives of adventure.”
Pursuing a trifecta of long-distance hikes after the Appalachian Trail, my parents completed the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada and nearly half of the Continental Divide Trail when I had my own health crisis. An amniocentesis revealed a serious genetic defect in the chromosomes of the child I was carrying — years before the current extreme restrictions on abortion care. When my parents happened to call from a payphone near the trail, I shared my heartbreaking decision to end the pregnancy.
“We’ll find a way there,” my mom said.
I don’t remember much discussion about abortion when I was younger, and I believe the community of young hikers over many years helped shape my parents’ evolving mindsets on many issues (as well as my mom’s newfound comfort cussing with her Southern drawl).
Somehow they hitchhiked to find a rental car and drove cross-country to Warren Wilson College in western North Carolina, where I still live and teach environmental education. This is a work college where all students hold jobs on campus like farmer, fiber artist and genetics lab tech. Like the trail, it’s a place with steep learning curves.
“Sometimes you have to change course,” my mom said, “when you sense the right path to take.” While she spoke, she held my 3-year-old, who would stay home with my dad while we drove more than five hours to a hospital in Virginia.
More than a month after returning to the Continental Divide Trail, my mom came down with a severe stomach virus, which my father caught a few days later. Much like Greybeard’s pivot, they decided to pause the hike. “The trail will still be here, but mom had a feeling it was time to go home,” my dad said.
Less than a year later in 2003, my mother, 58, was killed in a cycling accident, hit by a teen driver in Fairhope, our hometown. With time and a few trial runs, my dad returned to hike for a month on the Continental Divide Trail without her.
“I was never lonely, but I missed her every day,” he said.
In 2005, wearing a reflective vest and biking on the shoulder of the road, my dad, 64, was hit and killed by another teen driver. At their gravesites, we placed two metal sculptures, the “Final Blaze,” gifts from the Appalachian Trail community, many members of whom came to shovel earth upon the graves.
Since then, I’ve corresponded with Nimblewill Nomad, the record holder and caretaker of a hostel at Flagg Mountain, the start of the Pinhoti Trail in Alabama. There he has dreams to create a community where elders who are hikers can live together in the montane longleaf pine ecosystem.
“Your parents’ heart was years ago divinely placed in trust, in a chest — yours,” he wrote to me years after their deaths.
Now 60, I have outlived my mother, and I’m also surrounded by young people — my two daughters and my students — just as my parents were on their long-distance adventures. My undergrads are rightly fearful about the climate crisis but working in community to find their way. They’ve read the research documenting how the outdoors, including urban green spaces, improves cognition, social connection and physical strength, while decreasing depression and anxiety in all ages, but especially seniors. Nature helps humans adapt to change, and not everyone has proximity to it.
My students also know the Trump administration has cut funding for and even decreased the size of our public lands. They’ve met alums with careers in conservation whose federal jobs no longer exist. And we’re still recovering here from Hurricane Helene, a devastating climate disaster almost two years ago.
But what I know for sure, I tell them, is we must join with others to protect both people and places, even when we don’t know how this path will end. That’s my parents’ legacy to me.
While prepping for classes this week, I checked updates from Greybeard, who was home under the care of his physician for exhaustion after the rugged southern mountains in Maine — but he was cleared to hike again and intended to complete the trail. Regardless of the record-breaking deadline of Sept. 6, he’s adapting to a new “finish plan” and shared this truth for us all: “Together we will conquer this seemingly impossible task.”
Mallory McDuff is the author of several books, including “Our Last Best Act: Planning for the End of Our Lives to Protect the People and Places We Love.” She teaches environmental education at Warren Wilson College.
Aug. 14 (UPI) — Violent crime, including the estimated rate for murders and certain manslaughters, showed record year-to-year decreases in the United States during 2025, the FBI reported Friday.
Figures from its Uniform Crime Reporting Program showed murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses decreased an estimated 18.1% with the murder rate falling to 4.1 per 100,000 inhabitants — tied with 1955 and 1956 for the lowest murder rate ever recorded, the agency found.
The numbers from 2024 to 2025 “marked the largest year-to-year decline in violent crime rates since FBI estimations began in 1936,” the FBI said.
Meanwhile, while rape offenses decreased an estimated 7.6%, aggravated assault figures went down an estimated 7.2% and robbery offenses fell an estimated 18.5%.
Both the violent crime and murder rates have decreased annually since spiking in 2022, NBC News reported.
Friday’s release of the detailed numbers came after a May announcement in which FBI Director Kash Patel touted the lower crime numbers.
“The 2025 crime data in this report shows the single largest decrease in violent crime and murder since 1937 — as well as huge decreases across the board in terms of aggravated assault, rape, and robbery,” he said.
“Over the last 14 months, we made major transformations at the FBI, and these results show those changes are working. This FBI will continue to stack these wins for the American people under President [Donald] Trump and always Back the Blue every step of the way.”
Trump himself praised the FBI’s findings Friday during a rally-style appearance in front of law enforcement officers in Garden City, N.Y.
“I’d like to thank all the people in this room and say I am thrilled to announce that the FBI have released the new uniform crime report that in 2025 we achieved the single largest reduction in violent crime in American history,” he said.
Trump tied the lower crime numbers to his administration’s crackdown on immigration enforcement.
“Last year there were over 3,000 murderers and we allowed them through this stupid open borders policy… 25 million people to come into our country many of them, the people, that I just said, drug dealers, prisoners, from all over the world, they came in from the Congo, South America,” he claimed.
“Despite that, we have the best crime record in recorded history.”
The Los Angeles Lakers are to be sold for a reported record-breaking $12.5bn, external (£9.3bn) – less than a year after Mark Walter took a majority stake in the NBA franchise.
Josh Kushner, the brother of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, and former Disney chief executive Bob Iger are buying the controlling interest in one of the world’s most iconic sports teams.
Walter bought his share, reportedly worth an estimated $10bn (£7.45bn), from the Buss family in a deal that was unanimously approved by the NBA Board of Governors in October 2025.
Kushner and Iger said in a statement: “As lifelong NBA fans, we are deeply honoured for the opportunity to become stewards of the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world.
“We have immense respect for the leadership and vision of Jerry and Jeanie Buss.
“Our long-term commitment is to build on that foundation, compete at the highest level, and serve this extraordinary team, its fans, and the city of Los Angeles.”
More to follow.
Aug. 12 (UPI) — A retired Royal Air Force fighter pilot who is the only person to have traveled faster than the speed of sound on land, set a world land speed record for a hydrogen-powered car of more than 400 mph in Utah.
Powered by two 800 horsepower hydrogen internal combustion engines, Briton Andy Green‘s bullet-shaped Hydromax Streamliner, averaged across two runs, reached a speed of 406.32 mph on Tuesday at the Bonneville Salt Flats, smashing the previous record set in 2004 by more than 220 mph.
World motorsport’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the governing body of world motorsport, verified the attempt as the highest speed ever achieved by a hydrogen-powered vehicle.
The engines were from an earth-moving machine made by the British heavy plant manufacturer JCB, delivering massive power to the drivetrain by mixing pressurized hydrogen gas with air which is then ignited, similar to combustion engines, but with no emissions.
Green also set a world land speed record of 350 mph for diesel power in another JCB-developed car in 2006.
“Setting a world land speed record with hydrogen power, 20 years after Dieselmax, is a huge privilege. This record is a huge achievement by a world class team and superb technology,” Green said.
JCB chairman Lord Anthony Bamford said going after the record was in part a proof of concept exercise to show that hydrogen was a viable solution to the demand from heavy industries for a clean energy that could rival traditional fuels in efficiency.
He also believes hyrdogen is more effective for construction and agricultural machinery and plant than electric battery power.
In October 1997, Green pushed his twin jet-engine powered Thrust SSC to 763.035 mph, smashing through the sound barrier as it streaked across the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada.
The record stands to this day.
People cool off in a swimming pool at Ttukseom Hangang Park in Seoul on Saturday. The first 10 days of August were the hottest on record in South Korea. Photo by Yonhap
South Korea saw a record hot summer this year with the nationwide average temperature, excluding Jeju Island, coming to 29.1 C in the first 10 days of August, the highest on record, the state weather service said Tuesday.
The reading is on par with the 10-day average of August 2018, making it the hottest first 10-day period of August in 53 years since 1973, when the weather observation network was expanded nationwide, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).
The average daily maximum temperature in the first 10 days of this month was 34.4 C, the second highest after 34.7 C recorded in 2018, the KMA said.
The average daily minimum temperature, which is an indicator of night heat, was 24.8 C for the same period, the third highest on record following 25 C in 2022 and 24.9 C in 2018.
The highest temperature recorded during the 10-day period was 42.5 C observed in the southeastern city of Yangsan at 1:26 p.m. on Aug. 2. It was also the highest temperature recorded in the country since 1904, when modern meteorological observations began, according to the KMA.
In total, the daily maximum temperature exceeded 40 C at 32 locations nationwide in the first 10 days of this month, the KMA noted.
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Two outcomes that scream failure on a baseball diamond are striking out and making an error. Jacob Wilson avoids both.
The third-year Athletics shortstop played his 111th consecutive game without an error Sunday, setting a major league record at his position.
Wilson, 24, also ranks among the top 5% of MLB players most difficult to strike out, making contact in more than 90% of his at-bats during his three-year career. The shortstop was a first-round draft pick out of Grand Canyon University in 2023 and played for Thousand Oaks High.
Failure is even more infrequent when he puts on his glove. Wilson surpassed Mike Bordick’s 2002 mark with the Baltimore Orioles for consecutive games played at shortstop without an error.
No wonder the A’s signed him to a seven-year, $70 million contract before the season.
Wilson, whose last error occurred July 6, 2025, credits his dad with prioritizing defense. Jack Wilson was a shortstop with elite range and a powerful arm during a 12-year MLB career from 2001-12, yet he never played a full season with fewer than 10 errors.
“He’s a very defensive-first guy for me growing up by teaching me defense first before the hitting side of things and making sure you’re always prepared to play defense every day,” Wilson told reporters after the Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox 4-3 on Sunday at Fenway Park.
Based on advanced metrics, Jacob doesn’t have the range of his father, but so far he has been more consistent. He made only eight errors in 124 games last season and none in 27 games after being called up from the minors in 2024. That’s a total of eight errors in 216 career games and 1,899 innings at shortstop.
“He definitely has the consistency side of things down pat,” fellow A’s infielder Tommy White told reporters. “The stats don’t lie. He really takes in the second half of the play. Everyone sees the glove, but it’s the accuracy of the arm.”
Putting the bat on the ball is also a Wilson trademark. He was the toughest player to strike out in NCAA Division I, whiffing just 12 times in 438 at-bats as a Grand Canyon sophomore and junior. At Thousand Oaks High, where his dad was head coach, Jacob struck out a mere five times in 343 plate appearances.
Likely out of reach is the MLB record for consecutive games without an error at any position, held by outfielder Robbie Grossman at 440 games, a streak that ended in 2022.
Meanwhile, Wilson plans to focus on staying healthy: He missed a month earlier this season with a dislocated left shoulder after diving for a ball, and missed a few more games when the shoulder flared up again in late June.
Making plays and putting the bat on the ball should continue as long as he’s on the field. Wilson was an American League All-Star last season and finished second in voting for Rookie of the Year to teammate Nick Kurtz after batting .311 and striking out only 39 times in 523 plate appearances.
Before this season, Wilson told Foul Territory that his focus was on improving areas he considered deficient — a quicker first step toward the ball on defense and putting on 10 pounds of muscle to increase his power at the plate.
As for avoiding errors and strikeouts, that should continue to come naturally.
“I know how to stay in my lane, do what I do and help this team win,” he said.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service says historically low rainfall has worsened the situation in several countries.
Published On 10 Aug 202610 Aug 2026
Western Europe has experienced its hottest June and July on record this summer, according to the European Union’s climate change monitor.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Monday that the region’s average temperature over the two-month period was 21.62 degrees Celsius (70.9 degrees Fahrenheit), 2.79C (5.01F) above average and higher than the previous record set in 2022.
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This reflected “the exceptional persistence of heat” so far this summer, C3S said.
The climate change monitor also said levels of soil moisture were “significantly lower” than in July 2022 when the last severe drought gripped Western Europe.
“July 2026 was the third consecutive month of exceptional heat in Western Europe, bringing the combined temperature for June and July to a new record for the region,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
“Persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over Western Europe. The extreme temperatures also amplified widespread drought. As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily. This is a clear example of how climate change is intensifying heat extremes with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another.”
Several rivers experienced exceptionally low water levels, including the Seine, Rhine and Danube. The low flows affected water supplies and irrigation and led Hungary and Slovenia to operate their only nuclear power plants at reduced capacity.
France and Spain also registered record levels of drought, which fuelled devastating wildfires.
A megafire burned nearly 42,000 hectares (103,785 acres) and forced the evacuation of more than 220,000 people in southwestern France’s Gironde department in late July.
At the same time, Spain’s largest wildfire in recent history scorched almost 44,000 hectares (108,725 acres) in Avila province near Madrid.
The report also warned that large fires can send smoke high into the atmosphere, allowing it to travel thousands of kilometres and affect air quality in other countries.
The C3S also said the highest sea surface temperatures on record outside the polar regions were recorded in July. The average sea surface temperature was 20.96C (69.7F), slightly higher than the previous record of 20.89C (69.6F) in 2023.
A small boat has crossed the English Channel carrying 230 people, the largest-ever recorded number to make the journey in a single vessel.
The boat arrived in the UK on Saturday, when a total of 258 migrants on four boats made the crossing.
The 230 people on one boat breaks the previous record from July when 165 people made the crossing on a single vessel.
A Home Office spokesperson said this latest incident demonstrated the “reckless and dangerous tactics employed by criminal gangs… who continue to put lives at risk by cramming ever greater numbers of people onto unseaworthy vessels”.
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World number one Judd Trump lost to Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham, while Shaun Murphy set a new scoring record and Ronnie O’Sullivan made a winning start to his campaign on day two of the China Open.
Trump could lose his world number one ranking before the end of the month after a 6-3 loss to Saengkham, ranked 45th in the world.
In round two, the Thai player will face seven-time world champion O’Sullivan, who made a century break and four further breaks over 60 as he recovered from losing the opening two frames to beat Wales’ Jackson Page 6-2.
The China Open is the first main ranking tournament of the 2026-27 season and former world champion Murphy made some snooker history in his 6-0 victory over fellow Englishman Matthew Selt.
Murphy, who lost 18-17 in the World Championship final to China’s Wu Yize in May, made breaks of 18, 61, 132, 103, 139, 113 and 41 in frame six, before playing safe for a record total of 607 unanswered points before Selt potted a ball.
His tally surpassed the previous record of 556, set by O’Sullivan during a 6-0 win over Ricky Walden at the 2014 Masters.
Murphy, who turns 44 on Monday, told the World Snooker Tour (WST) website: “I can’t believe it, I’m over the moon.
“I knew I was close – at the interval I didn’t want to go looking on any websites to check what the record was. If you find yourself in the bubble and in the flow, you just want to stay in it.
“It was a delight to play for a great crowd out there and put on a good show. I haven’t set that many records throughout my career and I am sure someone will go out and beat this one at some stage. But to be part of snooker history in this way is a great thrill.”
As well as setting a new record for most points without reply, Murphy also equalled the record for the most consecutive centuries with four, something he has now done twice. Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen and Australia’s Neil Robertson are the others to have achieved that feat.
Murphy’s incredible day could have got better in frame five as he was on course for a maximum 147, only for the run to end at 113 as he missed the 15th black.
Abigail Aguirre has been sleeping terribly.
Too many times, she said, residents of a nearby homeless encampment have partied late into the night — sometimes yelling, sometimes blasting music. The noise is especially hard on her husband, who frequently leaves for his job before 5 a.m.
“Oh my God, they don’t let us sleep,” said Aguirre, whose home sits just east of the 110 Freeway in South Los Angeles. “They do drugs in there. They play the loud music. They don’t care.”
Three years ago, workers with Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program moved dozens of homeless people from Aguirre’s neighborhood into nearby hotels and motels. Sanitation crews cleared the streets and sidewalks of trash.
But more people, and their tents, kept arriving, not just near Aguirre’s home but on many of the east-west streets that pass over the 110 south of downtown: 43rd, 49th, 51st and Vernon Avenue, to name a few.
About This Story
The Times’ reporting on Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program was undertaken as part of the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2025 Data Fellowship.
Unsheltered homelessness — people living on the street or in their vehicles — went up nearly 8% citywide in this year’s homeless count, dealing a setback to Bass, who is running for reelection and has made homelessness a core part of her agenda.
The streets that line the 110 Freeway between 42nd and 58th are a potent symbol of the challenges facing Bass and her program. According to records obtained by The Times, outreach workers carried out Inside Safe operations 25 times on that one-mile stretch during her first three years as mayor, returning again and again to bring people indoors.
Frank Gordon, 51, has been living on Cahuenga Boulevard at the 101 Freeway in Hollywood. Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe program has moved people indoors from that location several times since 2022.
During one operation, Inside Safe brought 42 people inside. A month later, 54 more people came indoors. On other occasions, progress was measured in single digits: two people during one visit, five on another, eight on the next.
Despite those efforts, many of the overpasses and side streets still have encampments. Things have been especially grim on the 51st Street overpass, where tents, makeshift structures and huge mounds of trash lined the sidewalks. In the street, a refrigerator missing a door was on its back, overflowing with garbage.
Joel Galarza, who lives in a house nearby, said the encampment has brought crime, fires, prostitution, open-air drug use and other problems. In May, a man was found stabbed on the overpass.
Galarza said his family has called the city and the LAPD many times, only to see the situation get worse.
“It feels like there’s no more hope, that your voice doesn’t matter,” he said.
Since taking office, Bass has made the removal of street encampments a top priority, arguing that they are unsafe both for unhoused residents and for the neighbors. She said early on that Angelenos will not view her work as a success until their communities are free of tents.
Inside Safe, her signature homeless program, has moved more than 6,200 people into hotels, motels and other interim housing. But by June 30, 43% of them were back on the street, with some getting kicked out and others walking away.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park, left, and residents of Venice thank Mayor Karen Bass in 2023 for overseeing efforts to move more than 100 people into temporary housing from sidewalks in Venice.
Bass, in an interview, said she understands the frustration of people who live near the encampments. She said she hopes to overhaul the city’s approach to the crisis in the coming months by securing greater control over services such as medical care, addiction treatment and case management.
At the same time, she contends that her administration has made major strides, keeping about 80% of the locations visited by Inside Safe free of tents in recent weeks.
“Inside Safe has been a success in terms of getting people off the streets and clearing encampments,” Bass said. “What Inside Safe has not been able to do is reach the scale that is needed.”
Bass said Inside Safe has conducted 137 encampment operations so far, when many more are needed. To expand the program’s reach, the city will need to move away from expensive hotels and motels and toward high-quality homeless shelters, the mayor said.
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1. A man sits with his belongings on Cahuenga Boulevard under the 101 freeway in Hollywood. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) 2. A torn copy of a notice announcing a cleanup of homeless encampments hangs from a stop sign along Grand Avenue at 51st Street in South Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
The repopulation issues have not been limited to the 110 corridor. By December, the end of Bass’ third year, 23 Inside Safe areas across the city — about a fifth of the total at that time — had received at least five visits from the mayor’s outreach team, records show.
Inside Safe went to a handful of streets just east of MacArthur Park 10 times over two years. In Hollywood, around Franklin and Argyle avenues, the program conducted eight operations over 18 months.
By the fourth quarter of 2025, 80% of Inside Safe encampment operations — 36 out of 45 — involved areas that had repopulated, records show. Nine were new to the program.
City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who is running for mayor against Bass, said Inside Safe is ineffective and too expensive, forcing taxpayers to pay a premium to “shuffle people around rather than get them housed for good.”
“When 40% of the people who participated in the program return to homelessness, and some locations need repeat outreach visits five, 10, even 25 times, it tells us that something is wrong,” she said in a statement.
Bass and her team said many of the most problem-plagued Inside Safe locations are at freeway overpasses, which are attractive to homeless people because they provide shelter from scorching summer sun and the winter’s pouring rain. Freeways and industrial areas are also popular because they provide some degree of privacy, they said.
In some cases, people move to an Inside Safe location hoping to be offered housing, just as previous residents were, Bass said.
In other cases, she said, people have returned to the street because they need intensive care, such as a psychiatric bed. Those beds, which are provided by L.A. County, are not always available, Bass said.
Estela Lopez, head of the Downtown Industrial Business Improvement District, which represents businesses in Skid Row, said repopulation happens for a simple reason: a lack of enforcement. Once an encampment is cleared and people are moved indoors, police should be allowed to enforce city laws and make sure an area stays clear, she said.
A pedestrian walks into the street to get around a homeless encampment on Alameda Street. The Inside Safe program went to that area 12 times over a single year.
Lopez said she regularly receives complaints about a row of encampments on Alameda Street between 4th and 6th streets. Inside Safe visited that two-block stretch 12 times last year, records show.
Last month, the area had about a dozen tents, which forced pedestrians to leave the sidewalk and walk on Alameda, where large trucks travel to and from nearby industrial businesses.
Lopez offered another reason that homeless people keep coming back.
“That’s where the drugs are,” she said. “It’s Skid Row, and Skid Row is where the drugs are, and has the fewest consequences for open-air drug use and sales.”
Bass’ first Inside Safe operation, more than three years ago, hit a stretch of Cahuenga Boulevard under the 101 Freeway in Hollywood, an area represented by Raman.
Inside Safe went to Cahuenga and the 101 six times over 18 months, according to the city’s records. Two blocks south, the program made five separate visits to Franklin and Cahuenga.
Frank Gordon said that he and his girlfriend lived in an RV on Cahuenga next to the 101 during the COVID era, when the streets were lined with encampments. Outreach workers eventually moved them into the Stuart Hotel in Westlake, he said.
From there, the couple relocated to the Highland Gardens, a hotel in Raman’s district converted into homeless housing. Gordon said they left the facility after one of their rooms was destroyed in a fire, going to yet another interim housing site.
Last month, they were back at Cahuenga and the 101. He called it “familiar ground.”
Sanitation crews remove belongings from a homeless encampment during an Inside Safe operation on Laurel Canyon Blvd. in North Hollywood in March.
Kevin Paz, who has been sleeping on the 51st Street overpass in South L.A., said he used to live a few blocks away. He still has friends in the area, including high school classmates.
“It made more sense to stay here than to live anywhere else,” he said.
Seated on the overpass on a swelteringly hot day, the 32-year-old said he picked his particular strip of sidewalk for the shade it gets from the elevated 110 Freeway carpool lane. He said he would accept a motel room if offered one.
“Honestly, nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘Hey, I wanna go live on that street,’” he said.
Bass’ team has highlighted the scores of locations where encampments have not returned. They pointed to the success of an Inside Safe operation at 6th and Fairfax, where the sidewalk was later narrowed and new landscaping was planted, making it difficult to camp there.
West of downtown, streets and sidewalks also remain clear around Angelus Rosedale Cemetery, where 48 people were brought indoors in April 2025. To keep people from living in their cars at that location, city crews turned a stretch of Washington Boulevard into a no-parking zone, Bass’ team said.
Even some places that had severe repopulation issues are now clear of tents.
In Harbor City, Inside Safe went to the same intersection a dozen times between 2023 and 2025. That location has been free of encampments for 17 months, said Councilmember Tim McOsker, who represents the area.
McOsker credited the mayor’s team, as well as his staff, for going to the location over and over to offer interim housing to new arrivals. He also asked a group that delivers glass pipes and clean hypodermic needles to relocate, saying the service was attracting newcomers to an area that had been cleared.
In Baldwin Hills, Inside Safe workers went to Jim Gilliam Park 14 times over three years. Last week, encampments no longer occupied the grassy area around the tennis courts on La Brea Avenue or the sidewalks along the nearby Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Complex.
Johnnie Raines III, who serves on the local neighborhood council, knows some of the people Inside Safe brought indoors. He said the program has been “life-changing” for them.
Still, Raines, 79, has no illusions about the challenges the city faces.
“If you house these three people that are in this space today, three more will show up,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that you were not successful in housing the first three people. That just means that three more people come.”
Elmer Roldan, who lives in South Los Angeles, points out the spot where an encampment burned on Grand Avenue near 54th Street.
In the neighborhoods that abut the 110 in South L.A., some residents have lost patience.
Elmer Roldan, who lives on 55th Street, said some of his homeless neighbors have been causing fires — sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose. Earlier this year, he called 911 after seeing a man set fire to vines hanging from the freeway’s sound wall.
Roldan, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in June, said he sees plenty of people living in their vehicles, but fewer tents. Still, he said, it’s been demoralizing to have so many come back.
“I certainly don’t want it to get worse,” he said.
Times staff writer Doug Smith contributed to this report.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has claimed that Russia’s army suffered 42,800 casualties in July, which, if accurate, would be the highest rate of losses so far this year estimated by Kyiv.
At the same time, Russia has responded to its poor battlefield performance and domestic energy crises by doubling down on the two weapons Ukraine has not found an adequate defence to – glide bombs and ballistic missiles.
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Russia unleashed 8,300 glide bombs in July, more than in any other month of the war, said Ukraine’s defence ministry.
Ukraine’s kill rate is rising to meet what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes will be a call-up of up to half a million Russian reservists in October.
Al Jazeera is unable to independently verify either side’s claims of casualties in the war, now raging on in its fifth year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far refrained from using regular army conscripts and reservists in what he calls his Special Military Operation in Ukraine, fearing a political backlash. Should Ukraine force him to do so, it could mark a political inflexion point in Putin’s popularity at home.
As for Ukraine’s casualties, Zelenskyy recently told Fox News they amounted to 450,000, of whom 50,000 are fatalities.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has recently estimated that “the Russia-Ukraine casualty rate has likely risen to nearly 8:1 in the first half of 2026, up from between 2:1 and 3:1 for much of the war, in large part due to Ukraine’s use of drones”.
Drones were responsible for 30,272 of Russia’s casualties in July, said Zelenskyy.
Russia’s rising casualty rate is accompanied by a falling rate of performance on the battlefield.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank that assesses territorial control using geolocated open-source material, estimates that Russia occupied a total of 37.85sq km (15sq miles) of Ukraine in July, compared with 455,000sq km (176,000sq miles) in July of 2025.
That is demonstrative of Russia’s poor showing this year.
The ISW estimates that on balance, Russia has lost 183.5sq km (70sq miles) of Ukrainian territory this year, compared with the 2,198sq km (848sq miles) it seized during the first seven months of 2025.
Moscow has succeeded in infiltrating areas of Ukraine – a tactic of sending individual troops to pre-position themselves and await reinforcements, thus placing Ukrainian control of territory in dispute, if not firmly controlling it.
Russia infiltrated 121.6sq km (47sq miles) in July, according to the ISW, bringing total infiltrated territory for the year to 379.9sq km (147sq miles).
Many of these infiltrations have been reversed by the Ukrainian military, but they may yet prove effective in Kostiantynivka, the southernmost of Ukraine’s fortress cities, where Ukrainian defenders have recently expressed doubt about their ability to hold the city for more than a few more months.
Ukraine has also been holding its own in the air.
Zelenskyy declared a 40-day air strike campaign a success and renewed it on August 4.
The three-tiered campaign aimed to hit military production and oil refining inside Russia, energy and weapons flows in occupied territories close to the front line, and front-line positions.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said it had struck 14 refineries, dozens of oil depots and loading terminals, 14 aircraft and four airfields over 40 days.
Many of those strikes took place in the past week, when Ukraine set fire to a Lukoil refinery in Volgograd, three refineries in the city of Ufa, 1,600km (994 miles) from Ukraine, the Slavneft-Yanos oil refinery in Yaroslavl, the Engels 2 and Saratov airfields, and a factory in Izhevsk manufacturing Shahed drones.
Unlike the larger Shahed factory in Alabuga, which relies on Chinese parts, this one uses almost exclusively Russian parts, said military technology expert Serhii Beskrestnov.
Ukraine has destroyed about a third of Russia’s actual refining capacity, a recent Financial Times analysis of satellite photographs found.
Ukraine has been launching close to 10,000 long-range drones a month to achieve these results.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 6,225 Ukrainian drones flew towards Moscow in July, representing approximately two-thirds of all Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian soil.
When Ukraine launched its drone campaign at the end of 2023, its goal was to manufacture 11,000 long-range drones in all of 2024. It has since contracted agreements with nine allies to manufacture drones on their soil, sending 50 percent of production to Ukraine, and says 15 more agreements are pending.
The results of the 40-day campaign have been most dramatic in occupied Crimea, where Ukraine has struck 201 electricity substations.
“The Crimean Peninsula’s power grid faced an unprecedented load and operated in critical mode. Rolling blackouts occurred in all Crimean districts,” said the Kremlin’s ambassador-at-large, Rodion Miroshnik.
Things were not much better in the adjacent occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhia, where he said “large-scale power outages … were recorded throughout the week in all regions”.
Ukraine said it has also sunk or disabled 206 Russian tankers and ferries carting oil and war materiel to Crimea across the Black and Azov seas. The head of its unmanned systems forces said it had run out of targets.
The energy crisis has forced the Kremlin to spend billions of roubles subsidising the peninsula, including placing a 100 rouble ($1.20) price cap on petrol in the past week.
Meanwhile Ukrainian strikes have continued, levelling a 60,000-tonne petroleum products tank farm in Taman, on the Russian side of the Kerch Strait, used to supply Crimea, and causing a catastrophic fire on July 31. Ukraine followed up by striking aircraft hangars in Yevpatoria, a naval boat yard in Chornomorske and an artillery brigade’s supply base, all in Crimea.
Russia’s glide bombs are inertial ordnance fitted with fins giving them extra range and accuracy, so they can be dropped at safe distances of 20 to 30km (12 to19 miles) from the front lines.
Some carry three tonnes of explosives. They fly too fast to be intercepted by drones and cannot be disoriented by scrambling.
As well as glide bombs, Russia also unleashed its greatest monthly tally of missiles against Ukrainian cities – 376 in July, compared with a previous record of 288 in March. Of these, 120 were ballistic, and their density has depleted Ukraine’s stock of Patriot interceptors – the only missile that has proven effective against them.
During the past week, Ukraine stopped only one out of 51 Iskander-M ballistic missiles.
The Russian penetration rate translated directly into hits and civilian deaths – at least nine on August 1 and 17 on August 5 in Kyiv alone.
Russian production of Iskander-Ms is estimated at 70 a month, but North Korean ballistics may now be coming into play.
A missile fired at Radushne, Ukraine last month was of Korean manufacture, claimed Zelenskyy – only the second such missile to be used in the war.
Zelenskyy has pleaded for countries to send some of their stockpiles of an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 Patriot interceptors.
“The United States knows what we need. Europe knows what we need. Anti-ballistic missiles must protect people – not sit in stockpiles,” he said.
Ukraine’s vulnerability is clear from figures shared by its air force. It has intercepted 4,626 missiles of various types since the beginning of the war, but only 437 ballistic missiles.
European equities keep reaching new highs.
The pan-European STOXX Europe 600 climbed to another record on Wednesday, closing at around 657 points after touching a fresh intraday high and extending its winning streak to a third consecutive session.
The blue-chip EURO STOXX 50, which tracks the euro area’s largest listed companies, also set a new all-time high during the day. The broader benchmark has now gained about 10% since the start of 2026.
The rally is broad-based. Germany’s DAX broke above 26,100 for the first time. France’s CAC 40 climbed to a record 8,700, while Italy’s FTSE MIB reached an unprecedented 53,540.
Yet the companies leading Europe’s bull market bear little resemblance to the household names that have long defined the continent’s equity story.
Luxury groups are nowhere to be seen. Neither are the pharmaceutical giants that traditionally anchor European portfolios. Even banks, despite a strong year, have largely been overtaken.
Instead, the biggest winners of 2026 are the companies building the infrastructure behind the artificial intelligence boom: manufacturers of semiconductor wafers, chip-testing equipment, advanced substrates and industrial technology.
Europe’s stock market is no longer being led by brands consumers recognise. It is increasingly being powered by the suppliers enabling the world’s AI capital-spending race.
Several forces have come together to fuel the rally.
The immediate catalyst was geopolitical.
Reports that Washington and Tehran are moving towards a new agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz pushed oil prices sharply lower, easing inflation fears and reducing cost pressures for Europe’s manufacturers and airlines.
The economic backdrop has also surprised investors.
Eurostat’s preliminary estimate showed the eurozone economy expanded 0.4% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter, double economists’ expectations, following flat growth in the first quarter. Annual growth accelerated to 1.0%.
Pantheon Macroeconomics’ chief eurozone economist Claus Vistesen said the euro area “comfortably beat expectations yesterday, posting GDP growth of 0.4% quarter-to-quarter in Q2, after upwardly revised zero growth in Q1. This was 0.2pp above the consensus and 0.1pp above our forecast.”
Corporate earnings have added another pillar of support.
Second-quarter reporting has generally exceeded expectations, while global enthusiasm for artificial intelligence infrastructure has transformed a small group of European technology suppliers into some of the world’s best-performing stocks.
These are the 10 best-performing European stocks with a market capitalisation of €1 billion or more, ranked by share price performance through 5 August.
Europe’s steel champion has quietly become one of this year’s biggest industrial winners.
Shares of ArcelorMittal have gained 65.3% since the start of 2026, making the company the tenth-best performer in the STOXX Europe 600 through 5 August.
The Luxembourg-based group reported revenue of $16.5 billion in the second quarter and underlying operating profit of $2.1 billion, its strongest performance in Europe for three years.
Profitability improved as new EU import quotas reduced competition from cheaper foreign steel, while the company continued buying back its own shares, returning more cash to investors.
Higher interest rates and resilient economic activity across Central and Eastern Europe have helped the Austrian lender outperform most of its European peers. Raiffeisen Bank International shares have climbed 67.6% year-to-date through 5 August.
First-half profit excluding Russia rose 25% to €708 million, prompting management to raise its full-year forecast for net interest income to €4.4–4.5 billion.
Investors have also welcomed stronger capital levels and easing concerns over the bank’s Eastern European operations.
The Italian engineering group has benefited from the global revival in offshore energy investment.
Saipem stock is up 75.8% in 2026 through 5 August, extending one of the strongest rallies among European industrial companies.
First-half revenue increased to €7.35 billion, while underlying operating profit rose 9.4% to €836 million. Its order book expanded to a record €29.9 billion, giving the company years of work already secured despite trimming guidance to reflect around €70 million of conflict-related costs.
The Franco-Italian chipmaker has emerged as one of Europe’s biggest beneficiaries of renewed enthusiasm for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Shares of STMicroelectronics have more than doubled in 2026, rising 105.7%.
Second-quarter revenue climbed 26% to $3.49 billion, while the company returned to an operating profit after several difficult quarters. Management forecast around $3.7 billion in revenue for the current quarter, signalling that the semiconductor downturn is gradually easing.
The German company manufactures highly specialised equipment used to produce advanced semiconductors.
AIXTRON shares have surged 121% since the beginning of the year, placing the company among Europe’s biggest AI winners.
Second-quarter orders jumped 81% to €214.5 million, driven by booming demand for photonics and power-chip manufacturing equipment. Management reaffirmed its full-year revenue forecast of €560 million.
Few investors know Technoprobe, yet almost every advanced semiconductor relies on its testing technology before reaching customers.
Technoprobe has rallied 135.1% in 2026 through 5 August, making it one of Europe’s strongest-performing technology stocks.
Following a record first quarter with €187 million in revenue, management raised its full-year sales forecast to between €950 million and €1.05 billion, reflecting growing demand for AI-related chip testing equipment.
The Austrian sensor and photonics specialist has staged one of the European market’s biggest turnarounds.
ams-OSRAM stock has gained 136.2% since January.
Second-quarter revenue reached €805 million, at the top end of company guidance, while management continued making progress towards commercial production of its microLED technology for augmented-reality glasses.
Investors also welcomed the sale of its non-core sensor division to Infineon, strengthening the company’s balance sheet.
The oil producer is the only energy company among Europe’s top-performing stocks this year.
Shares of Tullow Oil have advanced 136.4% year-to-date through 5 August.
Management recently increased its forecast for 2026 free cash flow to between $170 million and $250 million, more than doubling its previous guidance after benefiting from stronger oil prices during the first half of the year.
Ironically, the stock fell on Wednesday as hopes of easing tensions in the Middle East pushed crude prices lower.
Austria’s AT&S manufactures the advanced substrates that connect artificial intelligence processors with memory chips inside high-performance servers.
AT&S shares have soared 343.5% in 2026, making the company Europe’s second-best-performing stock.
When reporting quarterly results on 4 August, management forecast 30%–35% revenue growth this year, driven by continued investment in AI data centres.
Despite the spectacular rally, the shares remain about 40% below the record highs reached in June.
No European company has benefited more from the artificial intelligence investment boom than France’s Soitec.
Soitec shares have skyrocketed 414.5% since the start of 2026 through 5 August, making the company the best-performing constituent of the STOXX Europe 600.
The semiconductor materials specialist reported annual revenue of €592 million, down 34% as the industry worked through excess inventories. However, investors focused on signs that the recovery had begun.
Revenue from its fast-growing photonics business exceeded $100 million for the first time, while free cash flow reached €63 million, far ahead of analysts’ expectations.
Management expects revenue to return to growth during the current financial year, reinforcing confidence that Soitec is becoming one of Europe’s biggest beneficiaries of the global AI infrastructure build-out.
The dried banks of the Danube River are exposed due to the record low water level caused by extreme heat and drought in Budapest, Hungary. Photo by Zsolt Szigetvary/EPA
Aug. 5 (UPI) — Hungary is facing an energy crisis as the Danube River, which cools the nation’s largest power plant, dries to record lows.
Water levels of the 1,800-mile river, which flows through 10 countries in Europe, has fallen amid a three-month drought across the continent.
The Danube is an integral component in the running of Paks, Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, as it flows into the reactor and cools it down.
Three of the plant’s four reactors were not in operation on Wednesday, while the fourth is operating at 50% power, CBS News reported.
The plant is responsible for generating half the electricity needed by the country’s 10 million people.
“Several factors will determine whether Hungary’s most important power plant can avoid a complete shutdown in the coming days,” said Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar, CBS News reported.
“There are a few critical days left — today and tomorrow are certainly that,” Magyar added, according to the outlet. “I ask everyone to continue the national unity that has developed in the country. Let’s do what our country demands.”
But the drying of the Danube has brought a silver lining for some. Residents and researchers have marveled at several discoveries that have emerged as water levels drop.
In Serbia, researchers have found some 200 boats that had been hidden deep in the Danube, including World War II-era Nazi warships, Smithsonian magazine reported.
A ship that likely sank in 1937 was exposed in Croatia.
And in Bulgaria, residents discovered the remains of a woolly mammoth.
Chad le Clos says his apartment in South Africa was destroyed by a fatal fire – the night after the swimmer became the most decorated athlete in Commonwealth Games history.
Le Clos picked up his 21st medal to overtake Australia’s Emma McKeon as the athlete with the most medals in Commonwealths history, when South Africa took bronze in the men’s 4x100m medley relay in Glasgow last week.
It was the 34-year-old’s third medal of the 2026 Games, having won silver in the mixed 4×100 medley and bronze in the men’s 4×100 freestyle relays.
Only days later, Le Clos has revealed that a fire destroyed his home of more than a decade in Sea Point, Cape Town and killed one of his neighbours.
“It has taken me a while to process this heartbreaking tragedy,” the 2012 Olympic gold medallist wrote on Instagram, external.
“On the evening of 30 July, amid breaking the all-time Commonwealth record, a fire started in my apartment block, which quickly spread to my home. Sadly my home, where I’ve lived for more than a decade, burnt down and there is nothing left to salvage.”
In the post, Le Clos also paid tribute to his “neighbour of many years” who died in the fire, offering his “deepest and most sincere condolences” to the victim’s family and friends.
“No words can truly ease a loss like this, but I hope the family knows that the thoughts of an entire community are with them,” the Durban-born swimmer said.
According to reports, external, a 93-year-old resident died in the incident.
Le Clos added: “To my fellow neighbours whose homes and lives have been severely affected by this fire, please know that you are not alone. This is a tight-knit community and it is in moments like these that we lean on one another.”
Le Clos, who famously beat Michael Phelps to win 200m butterfly gold at the London Olympics in 2012, said he has launched a fundraising campaign to help his neighbours affected by the blaze.
Phelps was a 14-time Olympic champion and had not lost in the event since 2001 when the United States icon was beaten by Le Clos.
The South African won his first Commonwealth medal in Delhi in 2010 at the age of 18 and now has seven gold, five silver and nine bronze medals across five editions of the Games.
Over his career, he has won four Olympic medals, 16 world titles, seven Commonwealth golds and 10 African titles.
Oil prices fall as US officials tout progress in talks to reopen critical waterway.
Published On 5 Aug 20265 Aug 2026
The US stock market has hit an all-time high amid growing hopes for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and a flurry of bumper corporate earnings results.
The S&P 500, the most popular gauge of US stocks, surged 1.8 percent on Tuesday to top 7,700 for the first time, blasting past its previous record of 7,620.90 set on June 2.
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Wall Street’s benchmark index has risen 12.80 percent so far this year, comfortably beating its historical average of about 10.5 percent.
Palantir Technologies, a data analytics company closely tied to the US and Israeli defence sectors, was among the biggest gainers, with its shares soaring 29.5 percent on the back of forecasting-busting second-quarter revenue of $1.94 bn.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which tracks 30 blue-chip companies, set a new record for a second straight day, climbing 1.7 percent to 54,085.88.
The rally continued in Asia on Wednesday morning, with key indexes in Japan and South Korea making major gains.
Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 3 percent as of 01:00 GMT, while the Kospi in Seoul was up 4.6 percent.
Brent crude, the primary international benchmark for oil prices, edged lower after falling about 5 percent overnight on hopes for an end to the months-long disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for about one-fifth of global oil supplies before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran in late February.
Brent futures for October delivery stood at $79.11 per barrel as of 01:00 GMT, down about 13 percent from the previous week.
The growing market optimism came as both US and Iranian officials touted progress in talks between Iran and Oman aimed at restoring shipping in the strait.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that while an agreement had yet to be reached, he hoped that a deal would “happen very shortly”.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with CNBC that an agreement on the strait could be reached as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said talks with Omani officials on designating safe routes for vessels have been “positive”.
Maritime traffic in the Gulf has been severely constrained since the start of the war amid the threat of Iranian attacks on vessels in and around the strait, as well as a US blockade of Iranian ports.
Just nine vessels transited the critical waterway on Sunday, according to ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic, compared with roughly 130 daily crossings before the start of the war.
The US military said on Tuesday that the strait was “free and open” to all commercial vessels despite Tehran’s repeated insistence that it has the right to control the movement of traffic in the waterway.
“Over the past three months, US forces have assisted more than 1,000 vessels in successfully transiting the strait despite unwarranted Iranian aggression, and these transits continue today,” US Central Command said in a post on social media.
With great power comes great box office.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” swung to a record $360-million domestic debut, surpassing “Avengers: Endgame” to become the film with the biggest opening weekend in box office history.
The fourth installment of Tom Holland’s blockbuster series also set records for its Thursday preview gross. Paired with another film starring newlyweds Holland and Zendaya, the earnings of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” have helped give new meaning to the phrase “power couple.”
Here are the records “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has broken so far:
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” surpassed “Avengers: Endgame” as the biggest opening weekend at the domestic box office. “Brand New Day” earned $360 million, exceeding the previous record set by Disney’s final movie in the Infinity Saga, which made $357 million.
The previous record belonged to the third film in the Holland era, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which earned $260 million domestically. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” reigns supreme over nine live-action movies and two animated features.
Since midnight showings of movies were moved up due to safety concerns after the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, “Avengers: Endgame” earned the biggest preview opening with $60 million, a record broken by “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” after it collected $72 million Thursday.
The success continued into Friday. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” earned $169 million — 47% of its total gross — beating out the previous record set by “Avengers: Endgame,” according to Box Office Mojo.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” became the fastest to reach $250 million domestically, hitting the milestone in two days, according to Box Office Mojo. The previous record was held by, you guessed it, “Avengers: Endgame.”
The buddy comedy “Deadpool & Wolverine” had its claws into July after it earned $211 million domestically in its opening weekend in 2024. It was overtaken by “Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s” $360 million.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” also held the record for the best debut weekend of any summer film. That total was no match for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”
Holland and Zendaya are taking their box office prowess to new heights after their two movies and other films currently in theaters earned roughly $430 million — the biggest collective weekend in box office history.
“The Odyssey,” which also stars Holland and Zendaya, made $51 million in its third weekend. Zendaya’s banner year will continue this winter when “Dune: Part Three” hits theaters Dec. 18 — the same day as “Avengers: Doomsday.”
It is unknown if Holland will appear in the upcoming “Avengers” film, but “Brand New Day” concludes with the message “Spider-Man will return.”
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Ameresco (AMRC) up 26.7% post-market Monday after reporting in-line Q2 adjusted earnings but easily exceeding expectations for revenue, which gained 9% Y/Y to $515M, and said its total project backlog rose 32% Y/Y to $6.73B, citing strong demand for
Welsh star Emma Finucane has created history by becoming the first sprint cyclist to win four track gold medals at the same Commonwealth Games.
Finucane added keirin success to the golds she had already won in the team and individual sprints and 1,000m time trial.
Olympic champion Ellesse Andrews finished second when defending her Commonwealth keirin title.
In Birmingham in 2022, New Zealand cyclist Aaron Gate won four gold medals with three on the track and one in the road race.
Finucane has achieved her quartet of successes in four successive days in the Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow.
Australian legend Anna Meares and New Zealander Andrews had previously won three track titles in 2010 and 2022 respectively.
The 23-year-old has also become the first Welsh woman to collect four golds at a single Commonwealth Games.
Finucane is also Wales’ most successful female athlete in Games history after overtaking Para-sprinter Olivia Breen, who held the record for two days.
Weightlifter David Morgan remains Wales’ most successful Commonwealth Games athlete with nine golds and three silver.
Finucane won Wales’ 31st medal of the Games with nine gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze.
As the threat of artificial intelligence continues to creep into the music industry, major record labels are proposing new guidelines for how music generated by artificial intelligence should be treated on the charts.
The coalition of labels, which includes the industry’s biggest players like Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, as well as some smaller independent labels like BMG and Concord, is trying to establish a new framework for official charts that better separates human creativity from purely synthetic and unauthorized AI creations.
The proposed guidelines unveiled Wednesday say that AI music would qualify for the charts if the AI service used to create it is “properly authorized and lawful” and if it doesn’t violate any copyright laws. The track also has to be “substantially human-made,” and it shouldn’t raise concerns about stream or chart manipulation.
“The principles are intended to provide a unified roadmap for the consideration of official chart compilers, industry bodies and affiliated stakeholders worldwide,” wrote the coalition. “Together, the organizations proposing these principles stand ready to work with charts and industry bodies around the world to discuss these principles and support implementation of these important safeguards for human creativity by charts and industry bodies.”
The labels are hoping that official charts can both “accommodate appropriate use of AI” and maintain “an authentic celebration of human artistry.”
AI-generated tracks are becoming increasingly prevalent on streaming platforms.
Recently, Spotify added a verification badge to distinguish human artists from AI, and Tidal banned AI-generated music from receiving royalties on its platform. Deezer, a French streaming platform, was the first to detect, tag and exclude AI-generated music from algorithmic recommendations.
The company recently disclosed that up to 90,000 AI tracks are being uploaded to the platform daily, representing more than 50% of its new music uploads.
Despite the coalition’s effort to introduce AI guardrails, some labels involved have already inked partnerships with AI companies such as Suno, Udio and Nvidia. Several music advocacy groups have previously raised concerns about artists facing “non-negotiable AI usage clauses.”