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Anonymous individual arrested after claims of sexual misconduct on reality TV show and police calls for contact

A cast member from Married at First Sight UK has been arrested on suspicion of rape, after claims of sexual misconduct on the reality TV show.

The individual and the alleged victim are not being named. Alleged victims of rape have the legal protection of anonymity.

Family find answers via social media after their furry friend returned home with an unusual makeover

Wilbur the cat is usually a rather elegant grey, black and white creature, so her human family were a little taken aback, to say the least, when she came home bright blue.

Concern that Wilbur might have been the target of an unkind paint attack turned to relief when it turned out she had gatecrashed a neighbour’s gender-reveal party and rolled around in blue dye.

Migratory giant petrel discovered near Hawks Nest north of Newcastle infected with H5. Testing under way to determine if it’s highly pathogenic H5N1 strain

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New South Wales has its first suspected case of the deadly H5 bird flu in a giant petrel that was found near Hawks Nest, north of Newcastle, on the state’s coast.

If CSIRO testing confirms it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, it would mark the first detection of the deadly disease on the Australian east coast.

Weekend’s high temperatures and humidity ‘virtually impossible’ without climate crisis, researchers say

The scorching heat blanketing much of the US this week would have been “virtually impossible” if not for the climate crisis, researchers have found, warning that the high temperatures could threaten Independence Day celebrations and World Cup matches this weekend.

“The climate the country has today is fundamentally different to the one it had when the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence,” said Theodore Keeping, extreme weather and wildfire researcher at Imperial College London, in a press release.

In one area 76% of fishing boats were followed, with baby dolphins learning the technique from their parents

Bottlenose dolphins in the Adriatic are increasingly following trawlers to scavenge for food, with baby dolphins learning the technique from their parents, a study has found.

“These days the easiest way to find [bottlenose dolphins] is to look for trawlers,” said Giovanni Bearzi, a co-author of the study and the president of Dolphin Biology and Conservation in Italy. “Many of them are followed by the dolphins that go to forage and scavenge in their wake.

Sound of thunder varies depending on distance of listener from lightning as atmosphere muffles and absorbs sound

A bolt of lightning heats the air almost instantly to as high as 30,000C, causing explosive expansion and a supersonic shock wave that becomes thunder. What that thunder sounds like to a listener depends largely on where they are.

Nearby lightning produces a distinctive snap or crack, or a startling explosive boom. Large, complex lightning with multiple segments generates a peal of thunder, a series of booms of different pitches as the sound from each of the segments reaches you in turn.

Official statement offers the most detailed official account yet of the highly unusual and fatal incident in Beijing

Chinese authorities said the man who flew a small plane into Beijing’s tallest skyscraper last week was a 66-year-old who had mental health problems.

The statement published on Thursday offered the most detailed official account yet of the highly unusual incident that occurred in Beijing’s central business district on the evening of 26 June.

In latest legal twist, appeals panel rules US does not have to reinstate signage on climate, immigration and slavery

The Trump administration does not have to reinstate materials related to climate change, immigration and slavery that it has removed from national parks, a US appeals court ruled on Thursday.

It’s the latest twist in a legal battle over how history is remembered at American public monuments.

Former intern and employee awarded 5,000 yuan (£554) in emotional damages after court found former manager had harassed her

A woman in China has won a rare legal victory in a workplace sexual harassment case.

The woman, a former intern and employee at Beijing Grassland Alliance, an environmental NGO, was awarded 5,000 yuan (£554) in emotional damages, to be paid by her former manager, who the court ruled had sexually harassed her. The manager was also ordered to write an apology to her.

One of 11 surviving copies of ‘Exeter printing’ and only one known outside US was taken from American privateer ship

For Michael Scurr, a volunteer at the National Archives in Kew, west London, it was “just a boring old Thursday morning” when he sat down in late May to catalogue a collection of documents from the British national collection that had never previously been recorded in detail.

As he opened a volume of 18th-century Royal Navy correspondence, however, Scurr unfolded a document whose opening words he recognised. “In Congress, July 4, 1776. A declaration by the representatives of the United States of America …”

Nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated in southern France as the country swelters through a record-breaking heatwave. The fire started at a campsite, destroying dozens of mobile homes before spreading to the marina area, where thick, toxic smoke blanketed boats. The fire broke out in the town of Sainte-Marie-la-Mer and spread to Canet-en-Roussillon on Thursday [• This gallery’s headline and subheading were amended on 3 July 2026; an earlier version referred to south-western France]

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Annual celebration on 12 July enables social players and children to challenge some of England’s best

On Sunday, 12 July, ChessFest, the game’s annual celebration, returns to Trafalgar Square in central London and offers a unique opportunity for ordinary players and their children to experience top chess free of charge. Complete beginners are welcome and will receive helpful instruction from Chess in Schools and Communities tutors.

The action starts at noon and continues until 7pm. Throughout the day, experts including nine-time British champion Michael Adams, three-time champion Gawain Maroroa Jones, and many other international players will give simultaneous displays or be available for one to one speed games in the Challenge the Chess Master tent.

The New Zealander was the right man to take on the job of persuading a group of jaded senior players to play brilliant cricket, but may not suit a rebuild

Wait, what? Four days on, and nothing about the weekend that’s just gone seems to make much sense. It was England’s seventh defeat in nine Tests, and somehow, at the end of it, they’ve lost the last man anyone really wanted to go. Ben Stokes, his own man all the way to the end, has apparently decided he would rather spend his remaining days in the game playing championship cricket for Durham. A man whose career has been marked by copper-bottomed self-conviction has left English cricket facing a whole lot of questions.

The first of them is whether Brendon McCullum is really the right man to try to rebuild this England team in the years ahead.

• England beat South Africa by 40 runs

• Women’s T20 World Cup hosts through to Lord’s final

England launched themselves into the T20 World Cup final after defeating South Africa by 40 runs at the Oval on Thursday evening.

Emotions ran high, especially after England were left reeling at 23 for three having been put in to bat. But with a crowd of 21,000 roaring them on, the World Cup hosts were jubilant at the end as a record partnership of 133 from 90 balls between Nat Sciver-Brunt and Heather Knight put them in the driving seat. Sunday’s battle against Australia at Lord’s will be their first T20 World Cup final since 2018.

• Teenager wins 3-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in match held over

• Zverev and De Minaur reach round three in straight sets

This is Rafael Jodar’s first Wimbledon and yet the way the 19-year-old plays and talks, you would think he is playing his 10th. Trailing two sets to one to another Spaniard, Pablo Carreño Busta, in a match held over from the previous evening when the light ran out, he could easily have been nervous when the encounter resumed, thinking his first time here could be about to end.

Not a bit of it. Jodar quickly levelled and then edged the fifth to win 3-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 and move into the third round. “I knew I had to get my body ready for the next day, because obviously I was down,” said Jodar, who has burst on to the scene this year and who reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last month. “But I believed in my chances. I believed that I could come back and win the fourth set and then the fifth set. That’s what happened.

• Third seed more at ease in dominant 6-1, 6-3 victory

• ‘Today I felt like it was a normal day at the office’

In the final minutes of her quick afternoon on Centre Court, two points from defeat, Karolina Pliskova curled a precise first serve out wide that landed dead on the line, sending a wisp of white titanium pigment flying through the air. Against most other players the serve would not have come back, but Iga Swiatek is not any player. The Pole frantically shuffled to her right and brilliantly improvised with a low, cutting slice return that died on the grass, leaving Pliskova with little chance of a response.

There are days when everything goes one player’s way, and the unique aspect of Swiatek’s career is how frequently she is the protagonist on such afternoons. Here she put together a dominant performance as her title defence gained some momentum, dismantling Pliskova 6-1, 6-3 to reach the third round.

• ‘There was that fall last summer. I knew it was over’

• Injuries hampered the final years of rider’s career

Chris Froome, the four-time winner of the Tour de France, who also took the 2018 Giro d’Italia and 2011 and 2017 Vuelta a España titles, has confirmed his retirement from professional cycling.

The longest retirement saga in the sport finally ended on Friday when the 41-year-old, speaking in Barcelona at the Grand Départ of this year’s Tour, said: “Unfortunately, there was that fall last summer. That wasn’t the way I wanted it to end. But even then, I knew it was over.” Asked if he had now definitively retired from racing, he replied: “Yes.”

Foreigners are not to blame for unemployment, crime and the state of public services. Leaders should have the courage to say so more clearly

Just over 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela expressed his sadness and anger at the rising hatred of foreigners in South Africa. “We had a legacy of unity and solidarity here,” the president told an African National Congress rally. “We are not victims to the influx of foreign people.”

Since then, xenophobic violence has periodically erupted. In 2008, anti-migrant attacks killed at least 62 people. Now a new wave is sweeping the country. Thousands marched in the streets on Tuesday – the arbitrary “deadline” that campaign groups had set for migrants to leave the country. More than 25,000 people did so in the run-up, with some countries evacuating their nationals and individuals fleeing in fear. Mozambique says five nationals were killed in anti-foreigner violence in May, and Ghana says a citizen was killed on Monday, though South African officials have offered different accounts. Migrants have been systematically blocked from health and other services by the Operation Dudula and March & March movements.

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Across the world, political uncertainty is being exploited to fan the flames of hatred. Now, the very principles that make South Africa great are at risk

This week, South Africa has been rocked by protests that have caught the world’s attention. These have been led by anti-immigration civic groups campaigning against what they describe as a crisis of illegal immigration. But to understand these protests, it’s key to view them as part of a broader conservative nationalist turn, as has been seen across countries in the west.

For the past two months, these groups have marched through townships and city centres demanding identity documents from African foreign nationals, ordering non-citizens to close their businesses and calling on undocumented migrants to vacate the country. They declared 30 June as the deadline for immigrants to leave and as the date of a nationwide shutdown.

Zanele Mji is a writer, investigative journalist and podcaster based in Johannesburg

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Despite a deadly heatwave sweeping through Europe, the US president’s ineptness has created reason for optimism on the climate crisis

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Two real-life climate-themed movies are playing in parallel across the globe. They are about the world today, but they are also a snapshot of the future. The first is a slow-building horror story; the second, a feelgood summer hit. Both are worth watching.

Horror films are suddenly box-office gold, so let’s start there. The World Health Organisation says the extreme, record-breaking heatwave blanketing Europe has killed more than 1,300 people. But everyone knows that number will end up a dramatic understatement.