Read the daily news to learn English

Ontario free to axe Toronto bike lanes, regions top court rules

The Ontario government is now free to rip out Toronto’s bike lanes on its busiest streets after the region’s top court ruled in favour of the province on Friday, overturning a lower court’s decision that decreed removing the lanes would violate constitutional rights. The win is significant for Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, and his government, who have long railed against Toronto’s bike lanes, blaming the protected zones as the cause of the city’s traffic ills. In 2024, the Ford government passed legislation that would allow Ontario to axe Toronto’s lanes, despite the recent installation of the infrastructure by the municipality. But the effort to tear up the lanes covering 19 kilometres of road was paused after cycling advocacy organisations levelled a legal challenge against the province. Their challenge was supported in July 2025, when a superior court judge ruled removing the lanes was unconstitutional, as it would create a heightened risk of death or injury, in turn violating the right to life and security of the person. Those rights are protected under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Friday’s decision from the Ontario court of appeal reverses that ruling. Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto, one of the groups that launched the legal challenge, said he’s disappointed in the decision. “This isn’t just about keeping people on bikes safe. It helps pedestrians. It helps other drivers. It has a very strong traffic calming effect that we need in major cities,” he said. The court of appeal judges in their decision wrote that there is no charter right to bike lanes and the government is free to change legislation on the lanes if it wishes. They explained that courts cannot find legislation unconstitutional because experts predict the government’s policies will fail. “Neither the government nor the legislature is under any obligation to accept policy advice,” wrote Justice Huscroft in the decision. In reaction to the ruling, Toronto’s mayor, Olivia Chow, said she has been working with the province to negotiate a path forward “that keeps every road user safe”. There’s hope the municipality will negotiate an alternative with the Ford government that still makes room for cyclists, said Longfield. Ontario’s transportation minister, Prabmeet Sarkaria, said in a statement the top court’s decision is a “victory for common sense”. The government has not yet announced when or if they plan to remove the lanes. It was estimated by a city report in 2024 that ripping up the lanes would cost taxpayers an additional C$48m (£26m). Internal briefings obtained by the Trillium also found the province’s own staff reported that bike lane removal would not reduce congestion and could make it worse. Those staff members also warned Ontario may be seen as encroaching on municipal decision-making. Fundamentally, Ford targeting bike lanes is a gross overreach of the provincial government into city affairs, said Longfield. It’s “frankly ridiculous”, he said, to believe the key to solving urban congestion is barring bike lanes. “The more we can focus on real, evidence-based solutions … the better it will be,” he said.

Emergency alert warning of wildfire risk sent to phones in England and Wales

Millions of people across England and Wales received an emergency alert to their phones on Friday as the government warned against activities that could start fires. The deputy prime minister, Louise Haigh, said it was the most extensive use to date of the emergency alert system, with phones beaming a siren noise about 7pm, with the warning: “There is a serious risk of wildfires nationally.” People have been urged not to light barbecues, campfires, fireworks or anything else that could spark a blaze while the wildfire risk remains high. They have also been urged to call 999 immediately if they spot a fire. Andy Burnham spent time in Stourbridge in the West Midlands on Friday after homes were destroyed and residents were left injured by a series of fires. The prime minister warned that Britain “is a tinderbox right now” with the public set for a “difficult weekend”. He announced a temporary national ban on the sale of disposable barbecues to be enforced immediately. The ban will remain in place as long as the risk of wildfires remains high. The military was called in to assist stretched emergency services in south Wales. About 100 personnel were deployed with about 100 more due to arrive on Friday evening, distributing water and providing logistical support. It has been a record year of wildfires in England and Wales: the number so far this year has passed the 1,017 recorded in 2025. Fire services have declared 11 major incidents in a 24-hour period starting on Thursday. Haigh said: “In response to the continued risk proposed by wildfires, the government has taken the decision to issue an emergency alert to England and Wales. “This is the most extensive use of the UK’s emergency alert system in response to an active incident, and reflects the seriousness with which the government is acting to safeguard people and property. “During this period of extreme heat, we are asking people to take simple steps to limit the risk of further fires. “By following the safety guidance, everyone can play their part in protecting local communities and supporting our frontline services who are working around the clock to keep people safe. “The government will continue to provide every assistance to communities being impacted by these fires, including the deployment of 100 additional military personnel in major incident areas.”

Israeli military plans to transfer law enforcement in occupied West Bank to police

Israel’s defence minister wants to transfer law enforcement powers for Israelis in the occupied West Bank over to the police, a plan that Palestine’s vice-president described as a “flagrant violation of international law” and step towards full Israeli annexation. Israel Katz announced that he had ordered the military to draw up plans for the handover of responsibility for policing Israeli settlers amid domestic and international criticism of the army’s failure to tackle militants besieging three Palestinian families. The Palestinian vice-president, Hussein al-Sheikh, called for international intervention to enforce international law and stop a move that would “entrench the illegitimate annexation of Palestinian land”. Katz unveiled his plan as a settler siege in the Palestinian village of Qusra entered its sixth day. The Israeli army has proved unable or unwilling to remove the group of militants trying to drive out Palestinian residents through a campaign of terror. Michael Sfard, a leading Israeli human rights lawyer, said a transfer of law enforcement powers could constitute a major step towards formal annexation. “The military can delegate enforcement but not responsibility [of the law],” Sfard said. “If they want to create a normative legal framework that absolves the army from responsibility and transfers it to police, that would be another brick, a very major one, of annexation.” However, Israel could also legally expand police powers in the occupied West Bank under the current occupation framework, he added, and the lack of detail in Katz’s statement indicated it may have been driven more by politics than clear policy. “This is a cowardly statement made by a minister of defence who is under scrutiny, because the army that reached Syria, Iran and Lebanon and annihilated Gaza cannot evacuate a few Jewish terrorists that invaded a Palestinian home in an area under occupation for six decades.” There has been a surge in attacks on Palestinians and construction of new settlements across the occupied West Bank, as extremists backed by the most far-right government in Israel’s history intensify a campaign of ethnic cleansing ahead of national elections set for October. On Thursday Katz celebrated the re-establishment of a settlement evacuated by Israel in 2005, under then-prime minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan. “Here, this is the land of Israel. Here, we are staying forever,” Katz said at the ceremony in Ganim, where two dozen prefabricated homes have already been installed, and the hillside is being levelled to make space for more. On the road that leads to the settlement the army had levelled Palestinian property and used piles of rubble to block access roads for Palestinian communities. On Friday the commander of Israeli forces for the occupied West Bank, Gen Avi Bluth, made a second visit to Qusra. Two days earlier he told Palestinians the army would remove the settlers, but soldiers retreated from confrontation with the group. Instead they forced one of the Palestinian families out of their home, saying they needed it as a base for the unsuccessful military operation against the settlers. One of the homes is owned by a US citizen, and US ambassador Mike Huckabee described the Israelis besieging it as terrorists, and said he had requested the Israeli police and army act to remove them. Huckabee, who supports the settlement movement’s vision of establishing a “Greater Israel” on land seized from Palestinians and neighbouring countries, said the militants in Qusra represent a “very small minority” of the settler movement. State and settler violence has driven a surge in displacement of Palestinian communities in the past three years. Since October 2023, Israel has forcibly displaced 64 entire Palestinian communities and parts of 15 additional communities, affecting nearly 5,000 people, according to data from Israeli rights group B’tselem. On Friday Israeli gunmen opened fire at a group of unarmed Israeli and Palestinian activists as they attempted to peacefully reclaim Palestinian land seized by settlers in Beit Sahour, just outside Jerusalem. A Catholic bishop and journalists covering the event were also targeted by the attackers. Israeli settlers had put a large Star of David and Israeli flags on the roof an old, dilapidated house, owned by Palestinians, just 500 metres from a Palestinian family home. Mia Biran, from the group Combatants for Peace, said: “They are all the time threatened by the settlers. We were about a hundred activists, our goal was to clean the area, plant some trees, to show presence and to stand with the residents who are very scared. We were on private Palestinian land.” A few minutes after they started work, the group heard gunfire from the settler outpost and were forced to take cover. One gunman moved close to the group, opened fire in the air and aimed the gun at activists, in an attack videoed by the group. He was later joined by three or four others. “We screamed in Hebrew ‘do not fire’ and then they understood there are Israelis among the crowd,” Biran said. “I called the police to tell them we are threatened by settlers, the activists who were at the roof saw there was a military Jeep all the time in the area who did nothing.” After they withdrew from the area, settlers visited the nearby Palestinian home and threatened to burn it down, she added. Settlers regularly launch arson attacks on Palestinian homes. One such attack in 2015 killed a baby and his parents, orphaning their only surviving son. Quique Kierszenbaum and Sufian Taha contributed reporting

French court blocks Macron’s social media ban for under-15s

France’s top court has blocked a ban on social media access for under-15s, ruling that it infringed freedom of expression and privacy. The decision is a blow to President Emmanuel Macron as momentum builds around the world for Australian-style restrictions on children’s use of social media. A law approved by parliament in July would have barred under-15s from opening social media accounts from the beginning of September. Tech platforms would also have been required to close existing accounts within four months and use age-verification tools approved by ⁠France’s privacy regulator. However, the constitutional council found that while the law required users to provide proof of age, it failed to specify the “conditions and limits” ‌under which this should happen. It also found that the restrictions infringed freedom of expression and privacy. “The council holds that the contested provisions, on ‌the one hand, disproportionately infringe upon the freedom of expression and communication and, on the other, fail to provide the legal safeguards necessary to ensure the right to respect for private life,” it said. Several countries have followed the example of Australia, which barred under-16s from leading social media platforms in December last year. Indonesia and Malaysia have introduced restrictions for under-16s on certain platforms, while the UK is preparing to block leading apps for the same age group next year. In Australia, the affected platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X and YouTube. The EU has also said it plans to seek stronger protections for children from harmful social media features, building on the digital services act that already sets rules for tech platforms. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said last month that “it is clear we need age-appropriate restrictions to platforms”. She did not refer to a specific age limit, instead raising the prospect of “phased and gradual access for different age ranges”. Social media companies generally oppose blanket bans, arguing that they already have measures to protect younger users, including a minimum age of 13. They ⁠have also said they would comply with government restrictions. Macron, who in April urged teenagers to turn off their devices and read in order to become better citizens, has asked the French prime ‌minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to rework the legislation to address the constitutional council’s concerns, according to the Élysée. The Élysée said Macron remained determined for the reform to take effect before spring 2027, when France holds its presidential election. Macron is ineligible to stand for a third term.

Hundreds arrested on suspicion of arson in France as wildfires rage across Europe

Almost 500 people have been arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires in France since the start of the summer, authorities have said, as firefighters in half a dozen European countries tackle ferocious blazes amid a record-breaking heatwave. A fire engulfed ⁠homes in a Croatian holiday resort on Friday, killing one person, injuring 40 and forcing 1,200 to evacuate, officials said, as the EU warned that pockets of “very extreme” wildfire conditions stretched across the continent. Hundreds more people were evacuated from villages in western Germany and south-west France, while stranded holidaymakers were picked up from beaches threatened by flames in Greece, and the army rescued historic relics in Spain. With three in five Europeans facing temperatures of at least 30C on Friday and about 150 million enduring 35C or more, France’s interior ministry said 474 people, including 183 minors, had been detained over wildfires in the country since 1 July. About 70% of those arrested were suspected of deliberately starting fires and the rest of doing so accidentally. French media said a 15-year-old boy had been detained in connection with a fire near Bordeaux airport that killed two firefighters in July. French authorities on Friday evacuated more than 525 people from the village of Luglon in the south-west region of Landes after a new wildfire tore through almost 1,100 hectares (2,700 acres) of tinder-dry pine forest in less than 24 hours. “The situation is unfavourable and the fire remains raging,” Gilles Clavreul, a regional official, told reporters, adding that 500 firefighters were tackling ‌the flames and six water-dumping aircraft ‌had been sent to assist. Roads to the village were closed. Luglon is about 62 miles (100km) south-east of the popular holiday destinations of Arcachon Bay and the Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula where two huge wildfires destroyed more than 50,000 hectares in late July, forcing the evacuation of as many as 220,000 people. Scientists say climate breakdown is causing more frequent and more extreme weather events, evaporating soils and waterways, fuelling wildfires and leading to thousands of excess deaths in France. Europe is heating at about twice the global average rate. The EU’s Copernicus climate change service warned in its weekly outlook of “very extreme” conditions across a large area of central and eastern Europe, with other pockets over southern Britain, Ireland, northern France and southern Sweden. The average high across western Europe on ‌Friday was forecast to be 31.2C, which is 8C above what was typical from 1961 to 1990, data from the Reuters Climate Monitor showed. The temperature for Europe as a whole was 1.6C above the 1961-1990 norm. In western Germany, more than 2,000 people fled their homes early on Friday morning to take shelter in a nearby primary school after a ⁠wildfire in the nearby Hürtgen forest spread to within a few hundred metres of the village of Gey. “This forest fire threatens to hit the local ‌community hard,” Mona Neubaur, the deputy premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, posted on social media. Unexploded second world war ordnance was also hampering firefighting efforts. The news agency dpa reported explosions could be heard as munitions detonated in the flames, forcing firefighters to stay out of the area, not far from the Belgian border, for safety. German army tanks and helicopters were providing support. In Croatia, a wildfire driven by strong winds descended on the tourist town of Lokva Rogoznica on the Dalmatian coast overnight. Police said they had located the body of one person while searching burned areas on Friday afternoon. Emergency shelters opened in several nearby towns. Of 36 people treated by ambulance services in the city of Split, about 15.5 miles to the north, 14 were admitted to hospital and seven had life-threatening injuries, local health officials said. “It was a strong fire, it swept everything on ‌its way ... there has been huge material damage,” Slavko Tucaković, the regional chief fire commander, said on Friday, adding that the blaze appeared to have calmed by Friday morning. The country’s prime minister, Andrej ‌Plenković, said on a visit to nearby Omiš, where the evacuees were sheltering in a sports hall, that the blaze was “one of the worst fires in recent years” but “most importantly” there were no confirmed fatalities so far. In north-east Spain, an army unit removed the remains of three 11th-century Aragonese kings from the San Juan de la Peña monastery after it was threatened by a wildfire and took them to a museum in nearby Huesca. The fire, which began on Monday, intensified on ⁠Thursday, authorities said, driven by higher temperatures and strong winds that have enabled it burn through more than 9,000 hectares, forcing the evacuation of 16 towns and villages. A much larger wildfire in southern Spain also worsened on Thursday. It has so far burned 31,000 hectares in the province of Huelva and forced the evacuation of about 700 people. In northern Greece, a fleet of small boats evacuated about 500 holidaymakers from beaches on Thursday as a forest fire threatened Siviri and Fourka, two popular resorts on the Halkidiki peninsula, south of the city of Thessaloniki. The 2-mile-long fire front, with flames up to 30 metres (98ft) high, was brought under control later in the day, the regional civil protection chief said, though crews remained on alert for flare-ups. Two injured firefighters were taken to hospital, the fire service added. A maximum level-five alert for fires was issued for much of the Greek mainland and local officials in Halkidiki have banned access to the region’s dense pine forests. Winds of up to 62 mph are forecast for Friday. In the UK, wildfires raced across the West Midlands, burning several houses to the ground in “one of the most significant” incidents the region’s fire service has ever had to deal with, the regional fire chief, Simon Tuhill, said. Reuters and Agence-France Press contributed to this report

Canadian plasma clinics pause collections after deaths of two donors

A chain of private plasma donation clinics in Canada has said it is pausing collections after the deaths of two donors and a new government investigation into potential unsafe practices. Grifols, a Spanish healthcare company which runs 17 clinics in Canada and is the country’s only private clinic for plasma donation, said it informed Health Canada of its decision to temporarily pause collections on Wednesday. On the same day, the agency had issued a formal notice of non-compliance for failure to follow blood regulations, a senior official told the Globe and Mail newspaper. The two deaths occurred after plasma donations in October 2025 and January 2026, Health Canada said in March of this year. The donors, both of whom were in the province of Manitoba, went into “distress” while donating, people familiar with the cases said. Though Health Canada did not release the identities of the donors, friends said one was Rodiyat Alabede, 22, an international student and aspiring social worker who donated plasma in Winnipeg on 25 October. Patient advocates reported at the end of May that there were concerns about whether Alabede had been properly screened. “They had staff taking plasma from donors who did not know how to extract plasma in a safe manner,” alleged Kat Lanteigne, a safe blood campaigner who represents Alabede’s family. “The [failures] were so egregious that … now we have more questions than answers,” she said in May. An autopsy showed Alabede died of cardiac arrest shortly after donating. Health Canada reported that it found “no link” between Alabede’s death and plasma donation. Patient advocates have called for a new inquest into her death, however, after alleging that “significant medical discrepancies” had been uncovered between her autopsy, which was completed two days after her death, and the medical summary drafted by Health Canada published on 27 March of this year. The Guardian has also seen Health Canada inspection reports from May that found deficiencies at Grifols clinics, including inadequate training for staff, failures in standard operating procedures, poor record-keeping and a failure by Grifols to remedy past issues. The Health Canada report also found that staff did not stop plasma collection when alarms went off, and described the company’s reporting as “incomplete” and “inaccurate”. Prior to the newly announced pause, donations were permitted at Grifols twice a week. The company paid donors up to C$100 (£55) for each donation. Plasma is a pale yellow, protein-rich liquid in blood that assists in moving red and white blood cells, along with platelets, through blood vessels, according to Canadian Blood Services, the non-profit that operates Canada’s national blood supply. Plasma also helps prevent excessive bleeding and is used to create medications for a variety of conditions including haemophilia, liver disease and various cancers. The plasma donation process differs from donating blood overall. A medical device called an apheresis machine draws the blood, separates it into individual parts, collects the components needed and then returns the remaining blood back into the body, according to Canadian Blood Services. The process takes about 90 minutes, whereas a general blood draw takes about 10. In Canada, provinces and territories decide whether paid plasma clinics are permitted. British Columbia and Quebec do not allow the practice, for example, but Manitoba, where the deaths occurred, does not prohibit companies from paying donors for plasma. Grifols said it decided to pause collection “proactively and voluntarily” due to what it deemed “unfounded attention”. It said the pause would allow it to work with Health Canada and Canadian Blood Services. The company has denied the two deaths were connected to plasma donation. On Friday, Health Canada said it found “various deficiencies” specifically at the Taylor Avenue Grifols location in Winnipeg. A spokesperson for that location said it was working closely with the company so that it could return to operations. “Canadians can be assured that this decision will have no impact on the safety and security of Canada’s blood and plasma supply,” Grifols said.

Belgian student strikes gold worth €9m while digging a new sewer

For a student with a summer job working on a Belgian building site, “money down the drain” has taken on a whole new meaning: excavating the trenches for a sewage system, he stumbled across a hidden trove of gold worth an estimated €9m (£8m). “We suddenly saw something lying there,” 18-year-old Kobe told the Belgian news network VTM. “At first I thought it was €1 coins. So we started digging them up. Then we saw a gold bar. It turned out to be a bit more than we thought.” The student, who has not been further identified, was working with colleagues on the site of a former brewery on Van Langenhovestraat in Sint-Gillis-Dendermonde, about 19 miles (30km) north-west of Brussels, when they made the discovery on Tuesday. The hoard, which includes gold coins, nuggets and numbered bullion bars, was stashed in a bag in a bricked-in cellar wall beneath the grand villa originally built for the brewery’s owner, Theophilus Van Assche, in the late 19th century. Kobe said: “It’s just not something you expect when you’re working on a regular Tuesday morning,” adding that the treasure trove appeared to have been deliberately hidden. “It was really bricked in there – not in a safe or anything.” Brewing on the site began in 1899 and ceased in 1970, and the listed property – the wrought-iron gates of which still bear the initials “VA” – is being completely renovated by the social welfare organisation CAW Oost-Vlaanderen to create new offices and housing. “The Brouwershuis was a beautiful building, but it is being completely gutted,” Geert Hillaert, of CAW, told the news outlet HLN. “Ultimately, only the walls will remain. Labourers were laying drainage pipes when they stumbled across the gold.” Kobe and his colleagues called the police and notified CAW as soon as they came across the gold hoard. The treasure has since been transferred to a secure facility in Brussels pending a detailed official investigation to establish its legal ownership. Hanne Ollevier, of the East Flanders public prosecutor’s office, told HLN that authorities must first verify that the bullion was not stolen property or the proceeds of criminal activity, and was likely to spark a complex civil dispute. The building contractors, the welfare organisation and any descendants of the once-wealthy Van Assche family could all have a claim to part of the fortune. Belgian law requires finders to wait at least five years for potential owners to claim any treasure. A former mayor of Dendermonde, Piet Buyse, told HLN that the Van Assche’s fortune had “certainly stayed in the family. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they had decided to put at least some of it in gold, and then to hide it in a safe place.” For his part, Kobe said he and his colleagues had understood straight away that they had to hand over such a big find. “If it had been a few coins, maybe not,” he said. “But maybe we’ll get some kind of finder’s reward eventually.”

One dead, dozens injured and thousands evacuated in Croatian wildfires – as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. At least one person died and 42 were injured in major wildfire near Lokva Rogoznica and Omiš on the Croatian coast (10:19, 11:25, 11:47, 13:15, 15:48, 16:58). 14 people were hospitalised, and seven remain in life-threatening condition, including four transported to specialist hospitals in Zagreb. Over 1,000 people were evacuated, including many tourists, with reports that Czech and Hungarian citizens were among those affected by the fire (11:25, 15:57). Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenković said it was “one of the worst fires in recent years,” as he hailed firefighters for their efforts to stop the blaze (11:47). Significant wildfires were also reported in England (9:39, 12:38, 13:54, 14:36), France (15:08), Germany (10:09), and Greece, among others. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.