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Deadly wildfires ravaging Spain have burnt the equivalent of nearly half a million football fields this year, setting a new record for the country, a European monitor said Monday.

Russia's illegal seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 was quick and bloodless, and it sent Moscow's relations with the West into a downward spiral unseen since the Cold War.

A stronger and bigger Hurricane Erin pelted parts of the Caribbean and was forecast to create dangerous surf and rip currents along the U.S. East Coast this week.

For decades, Pakistan's military has wielded its nuclear arsenal not as a deterrent, but as a diplomatic cudgel - a tool to intimidate India, extract concessions, and shield itself from accountability.

President Donald Trump's administration denied assisting an Israeli official who was reportedly charged with child sex crimes in Nevada.In a statement last week, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said that eight individuals had been arrested in a sting targeting child sex predators. Israeli government cybersecurity official Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, 38, was charged as part of the operations, Las Vegas officials said.By Saturday, Alexandrovich had been released and returned to Israel, according to The Guardian.Independent journalist Sean King reported that "the Trump administration personally intervened, at Israel's request, to override U.S. law enforcement, including their own federal agents involved in the sting, to make sure that Alexandrovich got back to Israel quickly and safely."On Monday, however, the U.S. State Department denied any involvement in Alexandrovich's return to Israel."The Department of State is aware that Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, an Israeli citizen, was arrested in Las Vegas and given a court date for charges related to soliciting sex electronically from a minor," the department said in a statement. "He did not claim diplomatic immunity and was released by a state judge pending a court date. Any claims that the U.S. government intervened are false."

A few hours ahead of a scheduled White House meeting between President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and European leaders, the former took to his social media to reassure critics: "I know what I 'm doing."Posting to Truth Social on Monday morning, Trump claimed, "I’ve settled 6 Wars in 6 months, one of them a possible Nuclear disaster, and yet I have to read & listen to the Wall Street Journal, and many other who truly don’t have a clue, tell me everything that I am doing wrong on the Russia/Ukraine MESS," Trump ranted. The six wars claim has been made before, with Trump crediting himself in halting conflicts between Israel and Iran; the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda; Cambodia and Thailand; India and Pakistan; Serbia and Kosovo; and Egypt and Ethiopia.Experts, however, have suggested he's exaggerated his role in at least some of them.Trump went on to blame former President Joe Biden for Russia's invasion of Ukraine — though Trump did promise that he would end the war within his first 24 hours in office."I know exactly what I’m doing, and I don’t need the advice of people who have been working on all of these conflicts for years, and were never able to do a thing to stop them," Trump claimed. He went on to whine that those people offering advice were "STUPID" and had "no common sense, intelligence, or understanding, and they only make the current R/U disaster more difficult to FIX."Trump closed by calling his critics "jealous" and "lightweight." He also claimed he "always" can get things done. Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Trump on Friday, where Trump failed to secure a ceasefire.

President attacks ‘highly inaccurate, very expensive, and seriously controversial’ voting machines in Truth Social postAn aid group that coordinates medical care in the United States for badly injured children from Gaza has said it is “distressed” by the US state department’s decision to stop issuing visitor visas for Palestinians after a far-right influencer complained directly to the secretary of state about their work.Laura Loomer, who has previously described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”, told the New York Times that she had spoken to Marco Rubio on Friday night to warn the secretary of state of what she called the threat posed by “Islamic invaders”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Treasury examines options including tax on homes sold for more than £500,000 as well as overhaul of council taxBusiness live – latest updatesThe Treasury is considering a new tax on the sale of homes worth more than £500,000 as a step towards a radical overhaul of stamp duty and council tax, the Guardian has been told.As Rachel Reeves prepares the ground for tax rises in this autumn’s budget, senior ministers have tasked officials to study how a new “proportional” property tax could be implemented and model its impact before reporting back to ministers, who have been briefed on the proposals. Continue reading...