The Guardian

Layoffs will come in admin and development divisions in Germany, with production operations unaffected BMW is planning to cut as many as 8,000 jobs in Germany, according to reports, in the latest sign of Europe’s largest carmakers reducing costs under pressure from Chinese rivals. The Munich-headquartered company has started a voluntary redundancy programme agreed with employee representatives, a…

French authorities investigate death of musician who performed at Paris Olympics, but say ‘no suspicious elements’ at play The French electronic musician Kavinsky, known for the song Nightcall which achieved iconic status after its inclusion in the Ryan Gosling film Drive , has died aged 50. A police source speaking to French newspaper Le Figaro indicated that the suspected cause of death was a s…

Environment Agency names seven regions affected by unusually hot and dry weather and shortage of water Half of England is officially in drought, with July set to be the driest on record after winter floods, the Environment Agency has said. The “flash drought” developed quickly because of unusually low rainfall and high temperatures. Continue reading...

Exclusive: British garden staple becomes most frequently reported plant for hot weather problems, charity reports With their lush foliage and blooms which turn pink, purple or blue depending on the soil, hydrangeas are a firm favourite in Britain. The shrubs bloom throughout summer and have historically thrived in the mild, damp British climate. But hotter summers and heatwaves such as the one hi…

Districts are reducing routes and exploring new ways to get students to class as transportation costs climb Education officials across the United States are increasingly facing a fundamental challenge: how do they ensure that school students can actually get to their classrooms? The bright yellow school bus might be a visual icon of US education famous around the world, but in reality it is becom…

Rise to £1.1bn in first six months of year for bakery chain largely down to opening of new stores Iced matcha lattes and a bigger range of salads and chicken rolls helped Greggs to boost its sales during the string of summer heatwaves, as the bakery chain continues to expand across the UK. Total sales at Britain’s biggest fast food business rose to £1.1bn for the first six months of the year, 7.2…

Veteran medical adviser likely to face questions over disputed ‘lab leak’ theory in investigation seen by scientists as ‘vilification and harassment’ of 85-year-old Sign up for US Breaking News email Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. Senators are expected to question Anthony Fauci, the former veteran director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), abou…

US military says it intercepted all Iranian missiles, as fighting threatens to resume. Plus, how Armenians seek to breathe more easily by heading underground Good morning. The US military has claimed it knocked down an Iranian missile barrage and worked with Saudi forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days. In what Washington cast ⁠as “an…

Rescuers pulling people from the wreckage in southern Japan in a haunting repeat of disaster that struck 10 years ago ‘Race against time’: Japan earthquake death toll rises as rescue teams search for missing “There was a voice coming from the collapsed house, and I could see a hand,” Tomohide Nagata, a volunteer firefighter, told the Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun. “One of our senior members crawled…

Drop comes after South Korean company SK Hynix’s results undershot investors’ expectations Business live – latest updates Shares in companies linked to AI have plunged further after disappointing results from the South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix, sending the country’s stock market tumbling for the second day in a row . Seoul’s Kospi index, which is dominated by semiconductor manufacturers, slid by…

PM will not discuss details but will focus on need to find ‘common ground’ and to build political consensus In her interview on the Today programme, Louise Casey said that dementia was a “big hidden problem” in society. She explained: It is absolutely extraordinary to me that we do not recognise or see dementia within society, but also within the kind of public services. It’s like it’s a big hidd…

Hearing is part of a longtime Republican investigation into pandemic’s origins, led by Senator Rand Paul Anthony Fauci, the former veteran director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid) who served as a key adviser to Donald Trump and Joe Biden on the Covid-19 pandemic, is due to testify on Wednesday at a high-profile US Senate hearing. Senators are expected to quest…

Police say search for three-month-old a ‘retrieval effort’ after bodies of mother Helena Wright and toddler found in the ocean near Port Macdonnell Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Hopes of finding a three-month-old boy alive have faded as South Australian police investigate the death of his mother and sister as a murder-suicide. The bodies of Helena Wright, 36, and he…

Committee apologises for not concealing email addresses when alerting witnesses to final report Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A Victorian parliamentary committee investigating the harmful impact of cults accidentally sent the email addresses of anonymous survivors who made submissions to current members of such groups and to journalists. The committee, which had its…

Authorities fear progress in containing the fires in the Gironde and Madrid regions may be set back by temperatures expected to hit the low 40s France and Spain are braced for the fourth heatwave of the summer to hit just as they were making progress battling destructive wildfires, with temperatures once again expected to cross into high 30s and low 40s celsius later today. Sophie Brocas, the ⁠pr…