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Turkey’s central bank has raised its key interest rate by an aggressive 7.5 percentage points, in a new sign of a return to more traditional economic policies

Major wildfires burning for days in northeastern Greece and on the fringes of the country’s capital are incinerating forests forced more evacuations overnight

Selling Sunset star Amanza Smith has shared an update after undergoing surgery to treat an infection that spread from her bloodstream to her spine. The interior designer, who works at the real estate company The Oppenheim Group, has revealed in a new interview how osteomyelitis, a painful bone infection, had affected her lower vertebrae. Smith, 46, discovered the infection after experiencing severe backache that lasted nearly a month. After she collapsed while at her Los Angeles home back in May, her friend encouraged her to visit the hospital. “I thought I had a backache, and I almost died,” Smith told People in the magazine’s latest issue. “The doctors and my friend saved my life.” Smith told the publication that she was given antibiotics to treat the infection but faced some complications. She underwent surgery on her lower spin to “clear the infection from the bones” but later found out that the osteomyelitis had affected another area at the front of her spine. “The risk was the antibiotics wouldn’t penetrate the bone, and my entire back could collapse,” she said. Smith had two surgeries to treat the osteomyelitis, which included having part of her spine replaced after it “deteriorated” as a result of the infection. The second operation lasted six hours, in which doctors inserted a titanium mesh cage in her back. She previously said: “Part of my spine has completely deteriorated due to the infection and I’ll be getting a new vertebrae and a couple of screws and rods in my spine to replace what has been eaten away from the bacteria.” In the new interview, she told People: “I am an iron woman, with rods and screws.” Smith returned home from hospital in early July, but her recovery period involves six months of antibiotics, physical therapy and “treading lightly on her feet”. “There are so many things I can’t do, because I can’t lift more than five pounds,” she told the publication. “Sometimes my purse is too heavy. You can’t speed up time, but I’m very anxious to be able to do the things that I love to do. I like to decorate. I like to rearrange. I want to be able to hang things, but I’m very limited right now.” Reflecting on her period in hospital, Smith said that she would never take her mobility “for granted” again. “When I can walk and jog again and do Pilates or ballet, I hope I stick to them because I plan on living to be 107,” she said. According to the NHS, osteomyelitis is a painful bone infection that usually goes away if treated early with antibiotics. However, it can cause serious long-term problems if not treated. Anyone can develop the infection, but a person may be more at risk if they have diabetes, a broken bone, a weakened immune system or recently had an infection or surgery. Smith joined Netflix’s hit reality show Selling Sunset in the second series in 2019. The show follows the drama surrounding employees at The Oppenheim Group, an elite real estate brokerage selling luxury properties in Los Angeles. Read More Queen’s service to inspire young writers in Commonwealth challenge High infidelity: why do people have affairs? Bride tries on mother’s wedding dress 30 years after parents’ wedding Revlon hits back at Selling Sunset star after she found makeup in her husband’s van Strictly’s Amy Dowden finding it ‘so hard’ as she shares hair loss update amid cancer How to help your teen with comparison culture on GCSE results day

Hospital care across England is coming to a standstill as senior doctors launch another 48-hour strike amid an ongoing dispute over pay

A former MI6 spy chief has said “all indications” suggest Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was “taken out” by Vladimir Putin, two months after staging a mutiny that dented the Russian president’s authority. Russia's civil aviation agency said that Mr Prigozhin, leader of the private mercenary group, and six top lieutenants were among 10 killed when a jet crashed soon after taking off from Moscow on Wednesday. Mr Prigozhin’s supporters claimed on pro-Wagner messaging channels that the plane was deliberately downed. Numerous opponents and critics of Mr Putin have been killed or gravely sickened in apparent assassination attempts. The Wagner group chief had mounted a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in June and marched on Moscow with his mercenary fighters, with Mr Putin denouncing the rebellion as “treason” and vowing to punish those behind it. Sir John Sawers, head of the MI6 between 2009 and 2014, said on Thursday that all signs suggest the Russian president had “taken him out”, making it clear to Russians he was not going to “brook any challenge”. Former intelligence officer Christopher Steele also claimed it was an “inside job” and suggested a bomb inside a “wine crate” could have caused the explosion. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Sir John said: “All the indications point to the fact Putin has taken him out. He has reasserted his control. “He’s making clear to everyone inside and outside of Russia that he’s not going to brook any challenge. If there’s a slim chance that he’s not dead and he wasn’t on that plane, he will be soon.” The plane carrying three pilots and seven passengers was travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg, according to officials cited by Russia’s state news agency Tass. Footage shows the flaming wreckage after a private jet came down. Sir John explained the MI6 “wouldn’t have any extra information’ on Prigozhin’s death yet, but said it was likely there would have been “some device” on board that took the jet down. He said: “If there had been some air defence missile that took him out then there would be traces of that which would be detectable through satellite means. But I would have thought there would have been some device on board that brought the plane down suddenly and killed all those on board. “Of course, those on board were not only Prigozhin but those around him like his military commander Dmitry Utkin, some other long-standing aides, so it’s a way of taking out the entire Wagner leadership all in one go.” Meanwhile, Mr Steele, who was with the Secret Intelligence Service and ran the MI6 Russia desk, claimed a bomb inside a “wine crate” could have caused the explosion. He added that the crash looked like part of a “pattern of state-backed activity” by FSB or GRU forces. He told Sky News: “I think it is unlikely that Wagner commanders were actually behind this ultimately. I would suspect very much that it was an FSB or GRU operation. “Certainly it’s an inside job, the suggestion is that it’s a bomb in a wine crate. That’s a kind of ironic end for Putin’s former caterer.” He added: “[The crash] followed the day after General (Sergei) Surovikin, who you will remember was the commander first of all in Syria and later in Ukraine, was sacked from his job which was to be in charge of the security over the Russian homeland. “He was seen as somebody that was one of the generals who was supporting Prigozhin and was an ally of his. For him to have been removed a day before does rather suggest a pattern of state-backed activity here.” So far, the Kremlin has not commented on the crash. Mr Putin did not mention the incident during a speech in Moscow to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Kursk during the Second World War. Read More Ukraine war - live: Wagner chief Prigozhin and co-founder ‘killed’ in Russia plane crash as Putin at concert Minister warns against jumping to conclusions over Wagner chief’s reported death Plane crash believed to have killed Russian mercenary chief seen as Kremlin's revenge The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

Asked in the first primary debate about climate change, only one candidate said it was real.

Police are continuing to investigate after the 10-year-old's body was found at her home in Woking.

Futures tracking the Nasdaq 100 index jumped on Thursday after a stellar forecast from Nvidia boosted investor confidence

Maple, Malee, and Zeni didn't have much of a chance when six feet of floodwaters rushed into their Washington DC doggy daycare last week, their owners say, with some of the dogs locked in cages as the waters rose.

Officials say a top court in Pakistan’s capital is expected to issue a crucial ruling on an appeal from the country’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan against his recent conviction and three-year sentence in a graft case

China has lost no time in slapping a full ban on Japanese seafood - which could cost Japan millions.

Major wildfires burning for days in northeastern Greece and on the fringes of the country's capital have incinerated more tracts of forest and forced additional evacuations Thursday as firefighters struggled against strong winds and arid conditions to bring the multiple fronts under control. The wildfires have left 20 people dead over the last week. Eighteen of those, including two boys aged between 10 and 15, are believed to be migrants who crossed the nearby border with Turkey. Their bodies were found by firefighters near a shack in a burnt forest area in northeastern Greece. Sixty firefighters have been injured battling the flames, fire department spokesman Ioannis Artopios said Thursday. Elsewhere in Europe, fires on Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, northwestern Turkey near the border with Greece, Portugal and Italy were being brought under control, officials said. In Greece, dozens of firefighting aircraft, including from other European countries, assisted hundreds crews on the ground trying to beat back multiple fires raging across the country. On Wednesday alone, firefighters battled 99 separate blazes across the country, authorities said. In Greece’s northeast, a major fire in the Alexandroupolis area that forced numerous evacuations, including of the city’s general hospital, was burning for a sixth day with few signs of abating. According to the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service, the Alexandroupolis fire had scorched more than 723 square kilometers (280 square miles) by Wednesday, making it one of the largest on European soil in several years. Copernicus is the EU space program’s Earth observation component and uses satellite imagery to provide mapping data. On the outskirts of Athens, a major fire that destroyed homes in the foothills of Mount Parnitha on Wednesday was racing across the mountain’s forested slopes and threatened the heart of a national park that's one of the last wooded areas near the Greek capital. Evacuation orders were issued for several outlying suburbs overnight into Thursday, while other neighborhoods were put on standby for possible evacuation. With firefighting forces stretched to the limit, Greece has asked other European countries for assistance. Germany, Sweden, Croatia and Cyprus have sent aircraft, while dozens of Romanian, French, Czech, Bulgarian and Albanian firefighters have been helping on the ground. Artopios, the Greek fire department spokesman, said 260 firefighters, including more than a dozen from France, were battling the Parnitha fire supported by a multinational force of 10 planes and 11 helicopters. Bulgarian, Albanian, Romanian and Czech firefighters with vehicles were helping in the Alexandroupolis fire. With their hot, dry summers, southern European countries are particularly prone to wildfires. European Union officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires in Europe, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017. Gale-force winds combined with hot, dry weather to whip up the flames over the past week in Greece, making the blazes exceptionally difficult to bring under control. Weather conditions this summer have been “the worst since meteorological data have been gathered and the fire risk map has been issued in the country,” Greece’s Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Wednesday. Extensive parts of the country have been placed at Level 5 - the highest for fire risk - seven times this year. Kikilias said that was double the number of 2021, four times that of 2019 and seven times more than in 2012. In Spain’s Tenerife, a fire that has scorched 150 square kilometers (58 square miles) was being brought under control by Wednesday night. “It’s a very tough battle that the firefighting teams are winning,” Canary regional government counselor Manuel Miranda said Wednesday evening. In Turkey, firefighters in the northwestern Canakkale province on Thursday brought a wildfire under control less than 48 hours after it erupted amid high temperatures and strong winds, Turkish Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said. Yumakli said the fire, which had forced the evacuation of 11 villages, had affected 40 square kilometers (15 square miles) including 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) of agricultural land. A firefighting volunteer who was injured and six other people who suffered from smoke inhalation were being kept under observation in hospitals, Yumakli said. “We are extremely happy that there was no loss of life,” Yamukli said. “However, we are heartbroken for other creatures of the ecosystem that were affected.” Shipping traffic through the Dardanelles Strait, a major maritime thoroughfare linking the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara, was being partially restored to one lane only, after being completely suspended as fire-dousing aircraft use the waterway to pick up water. Yumakli said another fire in central Turkey has also been brought under control and there were no other active wildfires in the country on Thursday. Two large fires in Portugal and a smaller one in Italy were brought under control by Thursday, those countries' authorities said, but temperatures - and the risk of new fires - remained high. ____ Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide From Europe to Canada to Hawaii, photos capture destructive power of wildfires Tropical storm hits Caribbean, wildfires rage in Greece. What to know about extreme weather now ‘Frustrated’ British Museum boss says dealer did not mention more missing items