NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says the military organization has sent 700 more troops to Kosovo to help quell violent protests and has put another battalion on standby in case the riots spread

The same day owner Elon Musk abruptly dropped Twitter's name and bird logo as part of its supposed transition to an “anything app,” TikTok impishly announced it will begin letting its users post — you guessed it — text-based messages

Pride organisers in Florida have called off events that were to take place during the Pride Month in the wake of the latest anti-LGBT+ laws signed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Organisers based in the town of St Cloud outside Orlando announced on Thursday that they have cancelled the upcoming 10 June event, saying they are aware that it is “unsafe to hold the event”. “As you know, Florida has recently passed a number of laws that target the LGBTQIA+ community. These laws have created a climate of fear and hostility for LGBTQIA+ people in Florida,” the organisers said. “We believe that holding an LGBTQIA+ event in this environment would put our community at risk.” Officials and organisers in Port St Lucie city announced the cancellation of Pride parades last month and limitation of other activities for those who are 21 years or older. Mr DeSantis, a 2024 presidential hopeful, has signed several bills last week that banned gender-affirming care for minors, restricted pronoun use in schools and forced individuals to use restrooms corresponding with their biological sex – an expansion of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill enacted into law last year. The laws have been dubbed as a “slate of hate” by activists and opponents. The new laws will target drag shows in the state, limit the use of preferred pronouns for pupils in schools, and ban trans people from using public bathrooms that do not match with their gender assigned at birth. NAACP, a civil rights group, issued a formal travel advisory for Florida, stating that the state has become “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of colour and LGBTQ+ individuals”. It denounced the state’s "aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes in Florida schools”. LGBT+ advocacy group Equality Florida also issued a similar advisory after Mr DeSantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law. "That law, along with additional proposals being considered, has turned the state’s classrooms into political battlefields and is telegraphing to LGBTQ families and students that they are not welcome in Florida," the group said. Florida’s Lake County Pride, however, pushed back against the laws, saying: “No unconstitutional law will keep us from celebrating our PRIDE event”. “Lake County Pride will never back down, and we stood firm and united in fighting against the "Drag Ban,” it said. Read More E Jean Carroll targets Trump again after his derogatory CNN town hall smears MLK’s daughter backs call for tourists to boycott ‘racist’ Florida and blasts Cruz Founder of student aid startup Frank pleads not guilty to fraud Haley vs. Scott: From South Carolina allies to 2024 rivals Who is Tim Scott? 5 things to know about the newest 2024 GOP presidential candidate Two fishermen bitten by sharks just hours apart in the Florida Keys

Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic is scheduled to be arraigned on an assault charge in connection with his arrest this weekend

A fan of the rapper is overwhelmed at her responding after asking Minaj to add Nigeria to her tour.

Hungary’s foreign minister says that his government wants guarantees from Kyiv that a Hungarian bank that was removed from a Ukrainian list of sponsors of Russia’s war will not be placed back on that list in the future

Evacuations are set to continue in Greece as Corfu and Evia have become the latest Islands to issue orders while the country grapples with the devastating wildfires. The Greek fire service has said around 2,500 people have evacuated from Corfu so far. Thousands of people have also been forced to leave their homes and hotels - with those in Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia Perithia and Sinies being told to evacuate to Kassiopi. A spokesperson from the Met Office told The Independent: “Temperatures on Rhodes are likely to peak on Wednesday, and could be close to 39C in some spots. Temperatures are then expected to move back towards average for the time of year later in the week, likely around 30C. “However, windy conditions could impact efforts this week. There are some northwesterly winds today, with these likely to ease on Tuesday and Wednesday. “However, a return of windy weather is possible later in the week, albeit accompanied by that drop in temperatures,” the Met Office added. What will the weather be like this week in Greece? According to the Met Office website, the temperature in Rhodes will be as follows: Monday 24 July - Highest temperature: 36C and Lowest: 31C Tuesday 25 July - Highest: 37C and Lowest: 28C Wednesday 26 July - Highest: 39C and Lowest: 27C Thursday 27 July - Highest: 36C and Lowest: 23C Friday 28 July - Highest: 34C and Lowest: 24C Saturday 29 July - Highest: 32C and Lowest: 22C Sunday 30 July- Highest: 33C and Lowest: 24C How long will the wildfires last? The climate crisis is increasing the risk of larger, more intense and erratic wildfires around the world due to hotter and drier conditions. Other factors also play a role including soil moisture levels, and the presence of vegetation which acts as fuel for fires. “It’s important to note that these wildfires are happening in environments that are naturally prone to fire during hot and dry summers, with vegetation that is highly adapted to live with fire”, Dr Matthew Jones, NERC Independent Research Fellow, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Environmental Sciences, UEA, said in a statement. Dr Jones added that under climate change and frequent changes to weather conditions across the globe, fires are more likely to break out and “also burn so intensely and synchronously across the Mediterranean.” “The Mediterranean has seen a dramatic increase in the frequency of the hot-dry conditions that were considered extreme at the end of the last century, and these increases are expected to accelerate for each added degree of warming in future,” he noted. According to the Joint Research Centre, last year was the second-worst wildfire season in Europe. In 2022, damages exceeded those of 2021, as per data from the EFFIS - an advanced report on Forest Fires in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The EFFIS looked at fires in 45 countries and found that these places suffered from 16,941 fires that burnt 1,624,381 hectares. Looking at just European countries, July 2022 was the month when the most significant proportion of damage occurred in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece. According to Safer Scotland’s Wildfire Operational Guidance, a wildfire can burn for a “period of time” and this is heavily dependent on the landscape, which contributes to how fast the fire might move. The “behaviour” of the wildfire depends on the following factors: the area, its combustibility and arrangement, the arrangement of the area, the weather and time. Dependent on stable or unstable weather conditions the Wildfire Operational Guidance said time “can have a positive or negative effect on fire development throughout the day and this will bring both advantage and disadvantage to firefighting operations.” Space is another important factor as the area in which the fire is burning brings changes to the shape of the fire, altering the fire’s alignment. For example, as fire changes its location and moves across the area “topographical and climactic conditions will work for and against the first altering its intensity and speed.” What impacts does fuel have on wildfires? When a wildfire occurs, the main source of fuel is vegetation. This type of fuel, its size and the way the vegetation is arranged across the landscape will affect the way the fire burns. The Wildfire Operational Guidance has said the size and shape of the fuel are important especially “in regard to their ease of ignition. Smaller fuels, referred to as ‘fine fuels’, are more receptive to fire, while larger or more coarse fuel types generally rely on their interaction with fires in finer fuels before they will ignite.” Fine fuels are considered to be those with a diameter of up to 6mm, this includes grass, small stems and the leaves of low-lying shrubs. These fine fuels can also be found in large quantities in plants - such as needles on conifer trees. “Fuels that are over 6mm in diameter are described as ‘coarse fuel’ and include twigs, branches, and tree trunks,” the guidance has said. Fine fuels can affect the intensity of the fire, the rate and motion of the fire, the flame length, the fire activity and increased ignitions caused by spot fires. When asked about how long the wildfires might last in Greece, Jim Dale, founder and senior Meteorlogical Consultant at the British Weather Services told The Independent: “For as long as there is ‘fuel’ as in combustible brush. The wind is the enemy as far as people and infrastructure are concerned; there is no sign of rain. “The two main fire zones of Rhodes and Corfu will almost certainly be added to as the Mediterranean basin continues to bake with record and near-record temperatures.” Read More Greek fires ‘big warning’ for tourists to Mediterranean, says climate expert Greece fires – live: Corfu evacuations begin as tourists fleeing Rhodes inferno spend second night in airport Greece wildfires: Rhodes tourists sleep on airport floor awaiting evacuation

Late last year, Stability AI Ltd., a startup based in London, was at the center of the AI

At least four people have been killed and others are being treated for gunshot wounds after a mass shooting at a popular bikers’ bar in California’s Orange County. The Orange County sheriff said those killed included the suspected gunman, with local TV station KCAL News reporting that the incident began with a domestic dispute between the gunman and his wife. Local media reports described the shooter as a retired law enforcement officer. California governor Gavin Newsom was monitoring the shooting “and coordinating with local officials as more details become available,” his office tweeted. Cook’s Corner is a popular, longtime watering hole for the biker community in Southern California. Many motorcycle riders and enthusiasts gather there on weeknights and during the weekend for live music, open-mic nights or just a cold beer after a long ride. Hours before the shooting, customers were stopping by for an afternoon drink and meal. Rows of motorcycles and bikes framed the gravel entrance as plaques described the storied history of the bar built in 1884.

Pope Francis on Saturday hammered home his message that European governments must do more to care for migrants crossing the Mediterranean, saying "those who risk their lives at sea do...

By Olivier Sorgho Zurich Insurance on Thursday reported a better-than-expected half-year operating profit, helped by its Life business

Donald Trump has floated a new excuse for refusing to return classified documents — he was “very busy”. The former president claimed in a new interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier that the hundreds of top secret papers he took to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House were “interspersed” with his personal effects. “I want to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out. I don’t want to hand that over to (National Archives) yet. And I was very busy, as you’ve sort of seen,” he said. Mr Trump was arraigned in Miami last week on 37 federal counts related to willful mishandling classified documents, obstruction of justice and making false statements. In the Fox interview which aired on Monday night, Mr Baier asks the former president why he failed to comply with the request from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to return the documents. “The only way NARA could ever get this stuff, this back, would be ‘please, please, please, could we have it back?’” he replied. Mr Baier then points out that NARA had asked for them back, and then sought a subpoena from the Department of Justice when he refused. The sensitive documents included the US’s nuclear capabilities, invasion plans and defence capabilities, according to the DoJ indictment. The Fox host then asked Mr Trump about allegations in the indictment that he ordered his aide Walt Nauta to move documents “after telling lawyers to say you’d fully complied with the subpoena when you hadn’t”. “Before I send boxes over, I have to take all of my things out. These boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things.” Mr Trump went on to repeat lies about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, insult his Republican primary opponents, and quip that Fox was losing viewers. Watchdog Citizens for Ethics tweeted that Mr Trump’s comments would be admissible in court. “The most damning evidence against Trump is Trump talking.” His excuses echoed a speech Mr Trump made to supporters at his Bedminster private club last Tuesday. “Many people have asked me why I had these boxes, why did you want them?” he said. “The answer, in addition to having every right under the Presidential Records Act, is that these boxes were containing all types of personal belongings — many, many things, shirts and shoes, everything.” Read More Trump news – live: Trump gives Fox News interview after attacking network over poll showing 2024 Biden win The indictment has helped Trump in the primaries – but there’s a catch Sketch artist defends controversial take on Trump arraignment Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement