Morning Briefing: Saturday 4 July 2026
- Heat From Midday: Yellow heat-health alerts covering the East and West Midlands, London, the East, South East and South West activate at noon today and run until next Saturday evening, with temperatures near or above 30C — check on older relatives, and take care around open water: seven people died in water incidents during June’s heatwave.
- Children’s Photos: The National Crime Agency’s first-ever guidance of its kind asks parents not to post children’s images publicly and to set social accounts to private, responding to a surge in AI-generated abuse material — a five-minute privacy check this weekend covers it.
- Summer Travel: From Wednesday 8 July, children aged eight and nine can use airport eGates when travelling with an adult — families flying at the start of the school holidays should clear the border faster.
Iran’s Funeral for Khamenei Begins With Vows of Revenge
Iran’s days-long funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began this morning at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla mosque, his casket displayed in a glass case beside the coffins of family members killed with him in February’s opening strikes. Crowds chante…
Trump Opens America’s 250th With Communist Menace Warning
President Trump launched the United States’ semiquincentennial with a partisan address at Mount Rushmore, declaring “a resurgence of the communist menace in our land” that he tied to immigration, and telling the crowd: “You can be a commun…
NATO Leaders to Affirm Ironclad Commitment at Ankara Summit
NATO leaders including President Trump will affirm an “ironclad commitment” to collective defence under Article 5 at next week’s summit in Ankara, according to the draft summit text. President Zelensky, who also attends, arrives pressing f…
Damascus Bomb Toll Hits Ten With Six Lawyers Among Dead
The death toll from Thursday’s cafe bombing in central Damascus rose to ten, with more than twenty injured, as mourners buried victims and Syria’s Bar Association confirmed six lawyers were among those killed. The cafe sits beside the Pala…
Iran Wields Hormuz Control as Leverage in Settlement Talks
Iran is explicitly using its hold over the Strait of Hormuz as leverage in negotiations with Washington over a permanent end to the war, with Tehran and Oman exploring transit charges that could reach $40bn a year. All tankers have been or…
Starmer Warns Burnham Diplomacy Cannot Be Delegated
Sir Keir Starmer used his first interview since resigning to warn his successor that foreign affairs cannot be set aside, saying of Andy Burnham’s domestic-first pitch: “It is not sensible to think you can just separate these two things ou…
US Officials Warn Burnham Against Miliband as Chancellor
Senior officials in President Trump’s administration have privately warned that appointing Ed Miliband as chancellor would be a “mistake”, with concern centring on his opposition to new North Sea oil and gas drilling. Miliband’s allies cou…
Heat Alerts Activate at Midday as New Heatwave Builds
Yellow heat-health alerts covering six regions — the East and West Midlands, London, the East, South East and South West of England — come into force at noon today and run until 8pm next Saturday, an eight-day window. The UK Health Securit…
Parents Told to Stop Posting Children’s Photos Online
The National Crime Agency issued landmark guidance asking parents and carers not to post images of their children publicly online and to switch social media accounts to private, in response to a surge in AI-generated child sexual abuse mat…
Rochdale Ringleader Was Ruled Unsafe to Release, Reports Say
Shabir Ahmed, the Rochdale grooming gang ringleader freed this week, was judged unsafe for release into the community just twenty months before he walked out of prison, according to newspaper reports. The disclosure raises questions about…