Wildfires rip through Greece as France, Spain and Italy brace for record temperatures

Wildfires have ripped through Greece as Europe is braced for extreme temperatures of up to 40C in some popular holiday hotspots.

Rome and Madrid set to hit almost 40C on Saturday and warnings are in place for cities including Paris and Rome over the weekend and into next week as the continent is hit by a heatwave.

Five villages south of Athens were evacuated after a large wildfire, fanned by strong winds, raged near the capital.

The fire department has deployed 90 firefighters, supported by eight water-dropping planes and five helicopters, to battle the inferno.

Met Office spokesperson Stephen Dixon warned that southern and western Europe was experiencing a heatwave which was also extending into southeastern parts of the continent.

“Temperatures are expected to be 5-10C above normal fairly widely in Europe, with the potential for a few locations to reach around 40C in the southeast,” he said.

“[This could be] possibly even higher across parts of Iberia from Friday, likely challenging some June records,” Mr Dixon added.

NHS keeps patients away, new boss admits before reform plan unveiled

Patients are an “inconvenience” to the NHS, which has “built mechanisms to keep them away”, said the new boss of the health service.

Sir Jim Mackey, who was made chief executive of the NHS on 1 April, spoke of the 8am daily phone scramble for a GP appointment as one example of the difficulties patients face in seeking help.

“We’ve made it really hard, and we’ve probably all been on the end of it,” he told The Telegraph.

“You’ve got a relative in hospital, so you’re ringing a number on a ward that no one ever answers. The ward clerk only works nine to five or they’re busy doing other stuff; the GP practice scramble every morning.

“It feels like we’ve built mechanisms to keep the public away because it’s an inconvenience,” he said.

And he warned that failing to listen to public frustrations could mean the end of a national health service.

Failings in maternity services, he said, were cultural and “thinking we know best when mothers know best, listening to them and families and building the service around them”.

He said: “The big worry is, if we don’t grab that, and we don’t deal with it with pace, we’ll lose the population. If we lose the population, we’ve lost the NHS. For me, it’s straightforward. The two things are completely dependent on each other.”

Sir Jim, who earlier this month said the NHS should “tear up” the way it offers hospital outpatient appointments, said cutting back millions of routine follow-ups would be a priority, since the NHS spent more on hospital outpatients than on the whole of the GP system.

“Outpatients is glaringly obvious. Of 130 million outpatients a year, about 85 million or so are follow-ups,” he told the paper, adding that it felt wrong that the NHS diverted so many resources to follow-ups at the expense of patients waiting for diagnosis and treatment.

Moving care out of hospitals into local neighbourhood centres was crucial, to tackle waste and make care more convenient, Sir Jim said.

Shifting treatment from hospitals to the community will be a key aim of the government’s major 10-year health plan, which health secretary Wes Streeting is set to unveil next week.

Mr Streeting has also pledged to “end the postcode lottery” of care, focusing more on working-class communities.

Trials will be set up of “patient power payments”, under which hospitals receive the full payment for treatment only if the patient is satisfied, The Telegraph reports.

The Times also reports that funding for hospitals could depend on patient feedback.

Sir Jim, who from 2003 to 2023 was chief executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS foundation trust – the most highly rated trust in the health service, said that in that role he tried to read every email and spoke to every family that approached him.

He described the 8am race for a GP appointment as “that heart-sink moment, someone’s got to sit by the phone, they’ve got to ring forever, don’t get through and then have to do it all again tomorrow”.

He said: “It feels like we’ve built mechanisms to keep the public away because it’s an inconvenience.

“We’ve got to somehow reorient it; think about how do we find people who need us, how do we stop thinking ‘it’s going to be a pain in the arse if you turn up because I’m quite busy’ and instead think about how do we find out what you need and get it sorted.”

But he said the NHS performs best when money is tight. “There’s got to be some tension in it, otherwise we’ll waste money.

“There is a strong argument that we have wasted a lot of money in the last few years, we haven’t spent it as wisely as we could have done.”

The NHS needed to be “de-layered” because it was expensive and slowed down decision-making, he insisted, warning that the NHS has too many “fossilised” ways of working.

And he said: “We’ve got too many people dying in hospital when they want to die at home.”

He told how the system “failed” his elderly mother, with inconsistent care over seven days, a lack of weekend services and a “disjoint” between services.

He praised the staff involved, but said “a hell of a lot of learning” was needed.

“My dad died in a hospital where the local folklore was terrible about the hospital, but the hospital was deaf to it and didn’t know what was actually being said,” he recalled.

“I wasn’t long into the NHS, it was a long time ago now, and I felt really powerless.”

Starmer used to defend the kinds of protesters he now calls terrorists

Two days before the missiles started raining down on Baghdad in March 2003, Josh Richards packed a mixture of petrol and washing-up liquid into his rucksack and headed off to RAF Fairford base in Gloucestershire. His plan was to set fire to the wheels of a B-52 USAF bomber to prevent it from joining in the imminent shock and awe.

He was caught before he could act, but he was not the only person with the idea of mounting a last-ditch attempt to hinder a war which many considered illegal. A few days earlier, Margaret Jones and Paul Milling had cut their way into the same airbase and damaged a number of fuel tankers and bomb trailers. Another two men in their thirties, Philip Pritchard and Toby Olditch, armed themselves with paint, nuts and bolts, with the intention of damaging the bombers’ engines.

Today, this group of five would be labelled terrorists. See the government’s reaction last week when pro-Palestinian activists broke into RAF Brize Norton and – just like their earlier counterparts at Fairford – damaged two military planes with red paint. “A disgraceful act of vandalism,” said the prime minister, Keir Starmer.

Within days, home secretary Yvette Cooper was on her feet in the House of Commons announcing that the group involved, Palestine Action, would be added to the list of organisations proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000. If you dare donate so much as a fiver to it in future, you will be committing a crime.

Twenty-odd years ago, we lived in a kinder, gentler age. Society was not so harsh in its judgements about the group which became known as the Fairford Five. The protesters lawyered up and their briefs decided on an original defence, arguing that their actions were justified, morally and legally, because they were aimed at preventing a greater evil – ie the war in Iraq and its probable consequences. They were, in short, willing to commit crimes in order to prevent greater crimes.

Among the barristers who came up with this intriguing defence was a rising star of the human rights bar, Keir Starmer QC. He argued the case on behalf of Josh Richards, first at the Court of Appeal in June 2004 and then again before the House of Lords in March 2006. The presiding judge, Lord Bingham, went out of his way to praise the “erudition” involved.

The appeal did not totally succeed, but in his judgment Lord Hoffmann articulated a humane view of how, in the UK, he believed we have traditionally regarded such acts of protest.

“Civil disobedience on conscientious grounds has a long and honourable history in this country,” he wrote (at paragraph 89). “People who break the law to affirm their belief in the injustice of a law or government action are sometimes vindicated by history. The suffragettes are an example which comes immediately to mind. It is the mark of a civilised community that it can accommodate protests and demonstrations of this kind.”

Hoffman outlined the “conventions” he thought should govern such acts of civil disobedience in his “civilised community”. The law-breakers had to behave with a sense of proportion and avoid excessive damage. The law-enforcers, on the other hand, should “behave with restraint [and] … take the conscientious motives of the protesters into account”.

I imagine Mr Starmer QC read those words with some pleasure at the time: they have been quoted many times in courts over the years by his learned friends in defending clients acting on conscientious grounds.

But now, at the behest of his government, such people are to be defined as terrorists. Forget trying to understand their conscientious motives. Lock them up and ban them. What happened?

Let’s try some hypotheses.

The first possible explanation is that Starmer in 2004 was just operating on the “cab rank” principle. He didn’t actually believe all that stuff he argued in the posh courts: he was just making the best case he could. But one former Doughty Street Chambers colleague told me Starmer “totally” believed in the right to protest.

Some argue he is simply a massive hypocrite. He couldn’t care less that there’s a yawning gulf between what he then argued and what he now advocates. Or maybe he has just changed his mind? Perhaps he had some sympathy with the Fairford cause (Iraq) and less for the Brize Norton protests (Palestine)?

Perhaps he still holds the same views he expressed 20 years ago, but has been advised it would be politically unwise to voice them. Reform is storming ahead in the polls and is demanding tough action. Now is not the time to out yourself as a bleeding-heart liberal. So you can show your toughness by outlawing the very sort of people you once defended. And, while you’re about it, tell Glastonbury to drop another “terrorist” – in this case, the Irish language rap group Kneecap.

Or maybe he believes in nothing? That, after all, is what a significant slew of even his own backbenchers are coming to assume.

Twenty years ago, the public took a more forgiving view of protesters. Juries initially failed to agree on a verdict on charges against four of the Fairford defendants. Olditch and Pritchard were subsequently cleared of all charges after two trials. Josh Richards was also tried twice after admitting he wanted to set fire to a B-52 bomber. Twice, he walked free. Only Margaret Jones and Paul Milling were found guilty – at the second attempt – and were treated relatively leniently. Milling was given a conditional discharge and a £250 fine. Dr Jones was given a five-month curfew order.

So perhaps this explains what’s going on in Starmer’s mind. He, of all people, knows that juries are quite likely to side with conscientious protesters on an issue like Gaza. So it is cleaner simply to outlaw protest groups from the start. For someone who believes in the rule of law, it’s a clever way of getting around the rule of law.

“Yes, they should stand trial. Yes, they’ve committed criminal damage,” Baroness Helena Kennedy, a fellow civil rights lawyer told me. “But to label them terrorists seems extraordinary to me. It’s going down the old Trump road, and I don’t like it at all. There’s a sense in which you have a US government which has no respect for the rule of law and there’s now a kind of poison seeping into our own legal aquifer.”

As I write, another four protesters have been arrested by counter-terror police at Brize Norton. You can’t help wondering whether the concept of terrorism itself is being somewhat watered down by the Starmer government.

And you can’t help wonder at the philosophical somersaults taking place in Starmer’s mind as he stands everything he argued for 20 years ago on its head.

David Beckham in hospital as wife Victoria shares well wishes

David Beckham is in hospital with an unknown injury, with his wife Victoria by his bedside.

On Friday (27 June), the former Manchester United player, 50, was photographed by his wife, former Spice Girl singer Victoria, recovering in a hospital bed with one arm in a blue sling, smiling at the camera.

Posting the picture on Instagram, Victoria wrote: “Get well soon daddy.”

A second post picture showed David lying in bed wearing a beaded bracelet that spelt out the words: “Get well soon.”

While Victoria did not share any further details about David’s condition, several news outlets have speculated that Beckham has undergone surgery to treat a long-term wrist injury he sustained during his professional football career. The Independent has contacted his representatives for comment.

It comes after the former England captain received a knighthood for his services to sport and charity, after being named in the King’s Birthday Honours earlier this month.

Reacting to the news of his knighthood, David said in a statement that he “never could have imagined I would receive such a truly humbling honour” while “growing up in East London with parents and grandparents who were so patriotic and proud to be British”.

His son Romeo, 22, reacted to the news online, telling his dad: “So so proud of you.”

Cruz, 20, also shared a tribute, posting a picture of David in the countryside and writing: “I’m so proud dad I love you. Sir David Beckham. Has a nice ring to it.”

Victoria recently poured cold water on rumours of a rift between the Beckham family and their eldest son, Brooklyn, after she shared pictures of the entire clan alongside their dad to mark Father’s Day earlier this month.

Recent reports have suggested a divide in the family after Brooklyn, 26, and his wife Nicola Peltz, 30, missed a recent run of family events, including David’s birthday party. The rest of their children – Romeo, Cruz, and Harper, 13 – were all in attendance.

Victoria presented a united front to mark Father’s Day on 15 June, sharing a video of David and Harper, Brooklyn and Cruz sitting arm-in-arm on a sofa, singing “Sherry” by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.

David posted his own Father’s Day post, featuring a range of throwback pictures of the family, with the main photo showing Brooklyn holding Harper as a baby.

Sons Cruz and Romeo both shared warm messages under the post – but Brooklyn did not leave a comment.

Cruz wrote: “You mean the world to us and inspire us every single day dad I love you,” as Romeo said: “Love you always.”

Starmer reveals fears for his sister-in-law after ‘arson attack’

Sir Keir Starmer has revealed fears for his sister-in-law after an alleged arson attack on his home, saying he and his wife were “really shaken up.”

The prime minister said his wife’s sister and her partner had been in bed at the house, which they had been renting from the prime minister, when the fire occurred late at night.

“She happened to still be awake,” Sir Keir said. “So she heard the noise and got the fire brigade. But it could have been a different story.”

The incident took place the night before the prime minister gave a press conference on migration, which saw him use the phrase “island of strangers” – a remark which drew immediate backlash and comparisons to the divisive rhetoric of Enoch Powell.

He has now said he “deeply regrets” the phrasing, claiming that the alleged arson attack had left him “not in the best state” to deliver the press conference.

Sir Keir explained that he had considered cancelling the event, which took place just hours later.

In the speech, he warned Britain risked becoming “an island of strangers” without tougher immigration controls – rhetoric that sparked an immediate backlash and was denounced by critics, including within Labour ranks, as divisive.

At the time, Downing Street doubled down on the remarks and said Sir Keir “completely rejects” suggestions he had echoed Powell’s infamous 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech, which whipped up a frenzy of anti-immigration hatred across the UK.

But in an emotive interview with The Observer, Sir Keir walked back from the remarks, saying the language “wasn’t right”.

“I wouldn’t have used those words if I had known they were, or even would be interpreted as an echo of Powell,” he said.

“I had no idea – and my speechwriters didn’t know either. But that particular phrase – no – it wasn’t right. I’ll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it.”

He added: “It’s fair to say I wasn’t in the best state to make a big speech… I was really, really worried. I almost said: ‘I won’t do the bloody press conference.’

“[His wife] Vic was really shaken up as, in truth, was I. It was just a case of reading the words out and getting through it somehow … so I could get back to them.”

But the PM stressed he was not seeking to use the alleged arson attack as an excuse and does not blame his advisers, saying he should have read through the speech properly and “held it up to the light a bit more”.

He also backed down on language in his foreword to the policy document linked to the speech, which said record high numbers of migrants entering the UK under the last government had done “incalculable damage”.

Sir Keir insisted the issue needed addressing because the party “became too distant from working-class people on things like immigration”, but said “this wasn’t the way to do it in this current environment”.

At the time of the speech, Sir Keir’s own MPs drew parallels between the phrase and a passage from Powell’s speech in which he claimed white Britons were at risk of becoming “strangers in their own country”.

Norwich South MP Clive Lewis said: “It’s simply not sustainable for the prime minister to echo the language of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech – invoking the idea of ‘living in a land of strangers’.

“This kind of language doesn’t just alienate communities, it drives people away from our country altogether. And if those at the top think this is a clever tactic to win another five years by rolling out the red carpet for Nigel Farage, they’re mistaken. We are losing far more progressive voters than we are gaining from Reform UK.”

Meanwhile, Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, argued the “step-up in anti-migrant rhetoric from the government is shameful and dangerous.”

Asked about Sir Keir’s remarks on Friday, his official spokesperson said he has “always been clear that migrants make a massive contribution to our society”.

“We never denigrate that. Britain is an inclusive, tolerant country, but migration needs to be managed within rules”, he added.

The 7 best outdoor adventures in Sydney and New South Wales

Whether you’re lacing up your hiking boots, throwing on a wetsuit to catch some waves, or hitting the wide-open roads of New South Wales (NSW) by campervan, this Australian state is home to some of the country’s most exciting outdoor adventures – all easily accessible thanks to Qantas’ extensive domestic network.

Flying into Sydney with Qantas is the ideal way to experience a slice of Australia before you’ve even landed. And with onboard wellbeing perks, plus the option to book more discounted domestic legs using Qantas Explorer, it really is the savvy traveller’s best way to explore Australia.

Here are seven next-level outdoor adventures in NSW, and the best way to get there.

Sydney might be a modern metropolis, but it’s also home to an extraordinary natural playground, the star attraction of which is Sydney Harbour National Park. This protected area weaves through the city’s coastline, offering walking trails, secluded beaches, and panoramic views that blend wild bushland with iconic urban landmarks. Away from the National Park, you can paddle a kayak at dawn beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge, go on a cycle tour and sunset cruise around Manly and North Heads coastal cliffs, or follow the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk for sweeping ocean views and refreshing swim spots.

Just a 90-minute trip from Sydney by road, the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains is an endless landscape of towering eucalyptus forests and striking sandstone cliffs as far as the eye can see. There are few places quite as grand as this so close to a city. Don your hiking boots and traverse spectacular scenery to Wentworth Falls or take on the Grand Canyon Track – a 6km loop of dramatic cliffs, fern-fringed valleys and thundering waterfalls with lookouts to match. If you’re an early riser, watch the sunrise at Echo Point, where the Three Sisters rock formation is lit up by the glow of first light.

Wildlife lovers need to head north to Port Macquarie for some of the best marine encounters on the east coast. Humpback whales are almost guaranteed from May to November, and dolphins can be spotted all year round. For front-row views, jump on a whale-watching cruise, or pitch up with a picnic on a headland and watch the breaching giants from afar.

Swap the sandy beaches for subtropical rainforest in Coffs Harbour’s hinterland in Dorrigo National Park, where winding roads serpentine through flourishing banana plantations, dense palm-filled forest and endless rolling hills. The region’s cycling trails range from casual loops to more challenging rides with jaw-to-the-floor sea views.

Aussies love their surfing, and Byron Bay is the epitome of surf culture Down Under, with beaches to suit all skill levels; from the gentle swell at The Pass to barrel-laden breaks at Tallows. If you’ve got any stamina left, soak up the view from Cape Byron Lighthouse post-surf – the easternmost point of mainland Australia.

With over 8,000 islands to its name, Australia offers the ultimate in island adventures. Lord Howe is one of them, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed pristine island, where only 400 visitors are allowed at any one time. You’ll find rare birds, kaleidoscopic coral reefs, and Mount Gower, offering one of the best day hikes in the country, with epic coastline views and dizzying drops.

For those who need more than a beach stroll to get the heart pumping, grab a kayak and explore the Sapphire Coast from the water in Merimbula. Glide over crystal-clear waters, past secluded coves, pristine beaches, and the untouched beauty of surrounding national parks. Keep an eye out for dolphins and other marine life as you paddle. Once back on shore, refuel with the region’s famous fresh oysters and enjoy a refreshing dip at Bar Beach.

Book your flight to Sydney today at qantas.com and start your Australian adventure.

Trump says Gaza ceasefire is possible within a week

President Donald Trump has suggested that a ceasefire in the Gaza could be reached within a week.

The US president told reporters on Friday that he believed a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas was close.

Mr Trump’s administration has been working on a deal after Israel shattered a two-month truce with Hamas by launching strikes in April.

Interest in resolving the conflict has picked up steam this month after the US and Israeli bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities. A ceasefire to the 12-day Israel-Iran conflict went into effect early this week.

On Friday, at an Oval Office event celebrating a Congo-Rwanda accord, Mr Trump said he had been just been talking to some of the people involved in trying to reach a cessation of hostilities in the Palestinian enclave.

“I think it’s close. I just spoke to some of the people involved,” he said. “We think within the next week we’re going to get a ceasefire.”

Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza under any deal to end the war, while Israel says it can only end if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms.

Mr Trump’s surprise prediction of a possible ceasefire deal in the coming days comes at a time when there have been few signs that the warring parties were ready to restart serious negotiations or budge from entrenched positions.

A spokesperson for US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s office said they had no information to share beyond Mr Trump’s comments.

Mr Witkoff helped former President Joe Biden’s aides broker a ceasefire and hostage release agreement shortly before Mr Trump took office in January but the deal soon unravelled.

The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer plans to visit Washington starting on Monday for talks with Trump administration officials about Gaza, Iran and a possible White House visit by Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Mr Netanyahu said on Thursday the outcome of Israel’s war with Iran presented opportunities for peace that his country must not waste.

“This victory presents an opportunity for a dramatic widening of peace agreements. We are working on this with enthusiasm,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Gaza’s health ministry says Israel’s post-October 7 military assault has killed over 56,000 Palestinians.

New MI6 chief’s grandfather was Nazi spy

The new MI6 chief is reportedly the granddaughter of a Nazi spy known as the “butcher”, according to unearthed documents.

Blaise Metreweli made history as she was appointed as the first ever female head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 earlier this month.

But according to German archives, seen by the Daily Mail, her grandfather was Constantine Dobrowolski, a Nazi spy known as the “butcher”.

Mr Dobrowolski was a Ukrainian who reportedly defected from the Red Army to become the Nazi’s chief informant in the region of Chernihiv.

Ms Metreweli never met her grandfather as he stayed in Nazi-occupied Ukraine while his family fled the Red Army liberation of the region in 1943.

The documents held in Freiburg, Germany describe how Mr Dobrowolski was dubbed ‘Agent 30’ by his Nazi commanders.

Born to a German-Polish father and a Ukrainian mother in 1906, the Daily Mail reports he hated the Soviet Union when his family’s estate was seized after the 1917 revolution.

He joined the Nazis in 1941, and was paid a monthly wage of just 81 Reichsmark, around £250 today, for spying.

In letters to his Nazi officers, he signed off “Heil Hitler” and said he took part in a massacre of Jewish people near Kyiv.

The Daily Mail reported that there are also accounts of him looting the bodies of Holocaust victims and laughing at the sexual assault of female prisoners.

The Soviets put a 50,000-rouble – the equivalent of £200,000 today – bounty on Mr Dobrowolski and labelled him “the worst enemy of the Ukrainian people”.

He remained in Nazi-occupied Ukraine after his family fled the Soviet advance in 1943. The last record of him is from August 1943, a month before the Red Army took Chernihiv.

After the war, his wife, Barbara, and son, Constantine, arrived in Britain. Barbara remarried and Constantine – Ms Metreweli’s father – took his stepfather’s name. Neither he nor Ms Metreweli knew his father.

Ms Metreweli is a career intelligence officer, having joined the secret intelligence service in 1999, shortly after graduating from Pembroke College, Cambridge. Most of her career has been spent in operational roles in the Middle East and Europe.

A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesman said: “Blaise Metreweli neither knew nor met her paternal grandfather. Blaise’s ancestry is characterised by conflict and division and, as is the case for many with eastern European heritage, only partially understood.

“It is precisely this complex heritage which has contributed to her commitment to prevent conflict and protect the British public from modern threats from today’s hostile states, as the next chief of MI6.”