Emergency alert sent to tourists as wildfires see more than 1,500 evacuated from Crete

Thousands of people have been evacuated from homes and tourist resorts in Crete as a wildfire tears through forests on the Greek holiday island.

The Greek fire department said that more than 230 firefighters are continuing to battle the blaze, which broke out on Wednesday afternoon in the forested hills near Lerapetra on the island’s southern coast.

At least 5,000 people were evacuated from Ierapetra, southeastern Crete, by Thursday, as 50mph winds spread the blaze across the region.

Several people were treated for breathing difficulties, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

The government issued mobile phone alerts for the evacuations and appealed to residents not to return to try to save their property.

The risk of wildfires remains very high across Crete and parts of southern Greece on Thursday, according to a daily bulletin issued by the fire service.

Wildfires are frequent in the country during its hot, dry summers, and the fire department has already tackled dozens across Greece so far this year.

Deputy head of Russian Navy killed in Ukrainian attack on Kursk

The deputy head of the Russian Navy been killed in Russia’s Kursk region, a Russian official confirmed on Thursday.

Major General Mikhail Gudkov, who also led a brigade fighting against Ukraine, had been killed alongside 10 other servicemen in a Ukrainian attack on a command post, unofficial military Telegram channels reported earlier.

The news of the death comes after Ukraine summoned the acting US envoy to Kyiv to warn the Trump administration that any “delay or procrastination” in supplying the war-hit nation with weapons will only benefit Russia.

The US has blocked a number of planned shipments to Ukraine that included Patriot air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, warning that its own domestic stockpiles were running low but said that “robust” options for Kyiv were still lined up.

Ukraine has complained that this pause in military aid has allowed Russian forces to advance further inside Ukrainian territory.

Russian forces have penetrated up to 7km (4 miles) into the northern Sumy region from different directions along the border and the war’s largest battle is being waged in Donetsk as Russia inches toward its stated goal of capturing all of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Mystery over ‘unusually large’ Roman shoes unearthed

Archaeologists were left baffled after unearthing “unusually large” 2,000-year-old Roman shoes in Northumberland.

Eight shoes at least 30cm (11.8in) long – the equivalent of a UK size 13 to 14 – were discovered at Magna Roman Fort earlier this year.

Archaeologist Rachel Frame said the leather shoes had all been found in a defensive ditch, which the Romans also used as rubbish dumps.

“We have to assume it’s something to do with the people living here, having bigger feet, being potentially taller but we don’t know,” she told the BBC.

“Are the people living there from a specific region? Could that be why their shoes are so much larger? But at the moment, it’s sort of, well, this is unusual.”

Due to low oxygen conditions in the soil at the sites, the leather shoes have been preserved for centuries, according to Dr Frame.

Dr Elizabeth Greene, associate professor at the University of Western Ontario and Vindolanda’s shoe specialist, has seen and measured every shoe found at the site.

She said: “I think there is something very different going on here at Magna. Even from this small sample uncovered, it is clear that these shoes are much larger on average than most.”

Last year, a section of one of Britain’s most important Roman roads was unearthed in south-east London in a “remarkable” archaeological discovery.

The 2,000-year-old road, known as Watling Street, ran from the Roman port at Dover through London to the West Midlands.

The 276-mile route was built shortly after the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43 and was used by visiting emperors, including Hadrian in AD 122 when he ordered the building of his wall separating England and Scotland.

Archaeologist Gillian King said the discovery had redrawn the Roman road map in the capital. She added: “It is a key finding for archaeological research for London.”

The section of road revealed lies to the south of the junction of Old Kent Road and Ilderton Road and was well-preserved, measuring about 19ft (5.8m) wide by almost 5ft (1.4m) high.

Southwark Council said distinct layers could be seen, and showed a solid foundation of compacted gravel sealed by two layers of chalk, before it was topped with another layer of compacted sand and gravel.

It added that the original surface of the road would likely have been made from the same material and would have sat at a similar level to the modern road, but over time, this had been lost.

The London portion of Watling Street was rediscovered during Christopher Wren’s rebuilding of St Mary-le-Bow in 1671 to 1673, following the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Such Brave Girls is bleakly funny, realistic and truly brave TV

“Remember the family crest,” Louise Brealey’s Deb hisses at her eldest daughter Josie (Kat Sadler) in the opening episode of Such Brave Girls’ new season. “Ignore, repress, forget!”

As far as familial mantras go, it’s arguably not the healthiest or the most uplifting message to pass on to your two grown-up daughters. And over the course of the second season of the Bafta-winning BBC comedy, created by Sadler and co-starring her real-life sister Lizzie Davidson, it will prompt all three women in this dysfunctional family to make some frankly woeful decisions.

That’s bad news for Sadler’s characters, but very good news for us viewers, because much of the show’s appeal lies in watching this mother-daughter trio plumb the lowest emotional depths, while giving voice to the sort of dark thoughts you might file away to stew over at 3am, rather than actually saying out loud. Mental illness, sexual repression, parental estrangement: nothing is off limits here, and it’s all attacked with an almost feral comic energy.

This time around, Deb is bustling around like Mrs Bennet on SSRIs, obsessed with the idea of marrying off her eldest daughter so that Josie can achieve her mother’s dream of becoming a “kept woman”. The only catch? Josie is more interested in women than in the overbearing attentions of her “boyfriend” Seb, a steady charisma vacuum who keeps insisting on playing “Everybody in Love” by JLS whenever they sleep together (which would surely be a passion killer even if Seb wasn’t barking up the wrong tree).

Their dynamic sometimes gets a little repetitive – would an adult man really be so deluded in his affections? But this sense of stasis and inertia also feels true to Josie’s character, and her total inability to confront some aspects of her life while being gruellingly honest about others.

Deb’s deranged mission is, as ever, part of her bigger game plan to lock down the affections of her avoidant, mildly unsettling partner Dev (Paul Bazely) – and acquire the keys to his massive house. “It’s extremely important for him to see us as the sort of women men marry into, instead of avoiding in Morrisons,” she whispers to her daughters.

The strange juxtaposition of her marriage plot with the rollercoaster of all three women’s mental (in)stability sometimes has an almost surreal quality, which is aided and abetted by the fact that Davidson’s Billie spends a lot of time flouncing around in a Cinderella gown (her job involves playing a “princess” at a local kids’ party venue, having been promoted from dressing up as a green-faced witch last time around).

Billie, the bolshiest, most confident of the three, with a knack for spitting out devastatingly cutting one-liners (it’s a youngest child thing, I reckon), is embarking on an affair with Graham (Daniel Ryan). This underwhelming, middle-aged (or, in Billie’s parlance, “really f**king old”) man can only meet her in the mornings otherwise he’s too tired for sex. He also happens to be terrified of his neurologist wife.

Davidson’s character seems more in thrall to the idea of being the “other woman” than she is to the reality of Graham and their Travelodge trysts. “There’s nothing wrong with having an affair, right?” she asks her sister in a brief moment of vulnerability. “I honestly think it might be the most feminist thing you can do,” Josie replies, deadpan.

Watching these two buoy each other up to make terrible life choices is an unhinged delight. Over the past decade or so, TV viewers have been bombarded by various iterations of the so-called “messy” woman, who has a slightly unsettled love life, likes a wine and is drastically underpaid, but somehow also looks like she shops entirely at Cos, Arket and all the other more upmarket H&M spin-off shops.

But Josie, Billie and Deb feel actually, properly messy, rather than adhering to a TV exec’s more palatable version. Such Brave Girls is not a show where it’s “OK not to be OK”. Instead, the characters’ mental health struggles are shown unvarnished, and often greeted with a total lack of empathy by others. It’s bleakly funny, refreshingly realistic and never tries to reduce mental illness into a fridge magnet-style slogan – brave indeed.

I’ve walked 10,000 steps a day for three years – here’s why

Movement is good for you, and walking is one of the most accessible forms of movement there is. You don’t need a gym membership, shiny new running shoes or any other expensive equipment to do it – just leave the house and put one foot in front of the other.

The return on investment for doing so is vast. Sure, there are surface-level impacts such as increased calorie burn to aid weight management. But you’re also likely to experience a boost in your mood and improved heart health, among other perks.

As a fitness writer and an active person, it’s this second group of benefits that persuaded me to start walking 10,000 steps a day – a habit I enjoyed so much I’ve stuck with it for the last three years.

But why 10,000? This common fitness goal is arbitrary, scientifically, and stems from the marketing campaign for a 1960s Japanese pedometer called the manpo-kei (which roughly translates as “10,000-step metre”). Its main selling point is that it’s a nice round number, with a 2023 University of Granada study claiming 8,000 is “the optimal number of steps at which most people obtain the greatest benefits”.

In spite of this, I’ve found the five-figure step target works for me. Here’s why.

Why does anyone form a habit? Usually because it serves a purpose, or because you enjoy it. For me, walking ticks both boxes, which is the main reason why I try to do rather a lot of it.

When I’m working from home, a quick lunchtime loop of the park never fails to send my mood skyward, while a post-work walk with my dog remains my favourite way to unwind. As someone who grew up in the countryside, there are bonus feel-good points on offer if the walk is somewhere green.

Research seems to support this. A 2020 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health concluded that regular walkers “had better emotional health than those who did not exercise regularly”.

“The average number of walks per week was significantly and positively associated with emotional health,” it adds. “However, the average walk duration had no significant impact on the emotional health of respondents.”

This goes some way to showing that you don’t need to take 10,000 steps to enjoy walking’s myriad perks – simply getting outside is likely to do you a whole lot of good. But I’ve found this number is a good fit for my lifestyle.

It reminds me to take regular breaks from my desk during the work day, and encourages me to spend enough time outside to keep my happiness levels at a premium. On the flip side, if I’m feeling a bit sluggish in the afternoon, a glance at my smartwatch inevitably tells me I’m falling short of this goal.

Read more: What is interval training, and how could walking intervals boost your health and fitness?

Only a small portion of my daily steps usually come from long, formal walks. Instead, I tally them up gradually throughout the day via a few simple behaviour changes – trading escalators for stairs, for example, or using a bus stop slightly further from the house rather than waiting for the next bus to arrive.

Another tip I picked up from a chat with sports scientist and WalkActive founder Joanna Hall is to identify a place I often find myself, then plan a five, 10 and 15-minute out-and-back route I can do from that spot. That way, whenever I’m at a loss during my lunch break or stuck waiting somewhere, I can squeeze in a quick walk and feel all the better for it.

A little can do a lot too. A 2023 study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that “walking at least 3,867 steps a day started to reduce the risk of dying from any cause, and 2,337 steps a day reduced the risk of dying from diseases of the heart and blood vessels”.

The research later adds: “An increase of 1,000 steps a day was associated with a 15 per cent reduction in the risk of dying from any cause, and an increase of 500 steps a day was associated with a seven per cent reduction in dying from cardiovascular disease”.

In other words, movement shouldn’t be seen as pointless just because you’re not hitting the 21st century gold standards of 10,000 steps a day or an hour-long gym session. Small amounts of activity accumulated consistently over time (an approach sometimes called exercise snacking) can make a big difference.

Read more: The 80:20 training routine that can help you live longer according to a specialist trainer

I watched a fitness influencer get ready for a run on Instagram the other day and, between the energy gels, sunglasses, specialist vest and other running paraphernalia, it looked like a military operation. And I’m all for that – if you’re passionate about something, why not throw the kitchen sink at it?

But for busy individuals seeking a time-savvy way to add movement into their day, walking could be a more accessible solution: simply lace up your shoes and leave the house.

Unlike the gym, there’s no commute to factor in, nor are there any membership fees to worry about, but you’re still getting your fitness fix. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends adults aged 19-64 do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week, so one brisk 20-minute walk per day leaves you just 10 minutes shy of this target. The pay-off is impressive too.

“People who exercise regularly have a lower risk of developing many long-term conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and some cancers,” the NHS reports. “Research shows that physical activity can also boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy, as well as reducing your risk of stress, clinical depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.”

All the more reason to lace up those trainers.

Read more: Rage and autoimmune disease: is there a link between suppressed anger and the women’s health crisis?

How many times have you heard someone say they “have” to go for a run or commit to a HIIT session? People feel they need to sweat and suffer for a workout to count, but exercise is hardly going to become a habit if you hate every second of it. Instead, I believe the workout you consistently do is always going to be more effective than the one you consistently don’t.

Walking has something to offer pretty much everyone because it’s more approachable than other types of exercise, and there are so many different ways to make it enjoyable. You could meet friends for a social stroll, explore somewhere new on foot or pair your walk with a podcast to keep things interesting.

My favourite approach is to use Google or Instagram to find a new, interesting spot near where I live, then go and have a mosey around. I’ve uncovered plenty of hidden gems this way, and I’m always surprised by the amount of ground I’ve covered when I take a peek at my Apple Watch afterwards.

Read more: I just ran my first Hyrox race – here are six things I wish I’d known

The physical benefits of walking are well-documented, particularly for those newer to exercise. Walking puts the large muscles in your legs to work, and these muscles need oxygen to help fuel their efforts, so your heart rate rises to meet the increased demand. Regularly raising your heart rate through cardio exercise can improve your heart health, burn calories and boost your cardiovascular fitness (your body’s ability to take in and use oxygen).

The real-world benefits are plain to see. Whether you’re running around with your children or chasing down a bus, improved cardiovascular fitness will make these activities feel significantly easier. If you sit at a desk all day, taking regular movement breaks can keep you fend off related impacts such as tight hips and lower back pain, while increased activity levels also reduce your risk of heart disease and many other chronic conditions.

Walking can be a handy weight loss tool too, if that’s your goal. A calorie deficit (burning more calories than you consume) is the common denominator behind weight loss, and walking increases energy expenditure. Paired with an appropriate diet, this can be used to create a sustainable calorie deficit and help you lose weight.

Experienced exercisers may need more intense activities to spark an increase in cardiovascular fitness, as they will already have a good base level. Research also points towards a “brisk walk”, rather than an amble, being needed to see some fitness benefits.

A 2018 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found a cadence of 100 or more steps per minute was linked to “absolutely defined moderate-intensity”, tying into the WHO weekly physical activity guidelines of “at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity” per week.

Read more: Fitness has a class problem – here’s what we can do about it

“Doing some physical activity is better than doing none,” is the official line from the World Health Organisation. If walking allows you to introduce some exercise into your week where you wouldn’t otherwise have had any, or you’re able to ramp up your existing activity levels, chances are it’s going to do you a lot of good.

But that doesn’t mean you need to walk 10,000 steps a day. Instead, try finding an achievable goal that’s slightly higher than your current step count, stick with it and then experiment with increasing this figure if it feels good.

For all my waxing lyrical about walking’s many plus points, I’d also recommend adding more variety into your exercise plans if you have time – variety is, reputedly, the spice of life after all.

Strength training in particular offers impressive bang for your buck, doing exactly what it says on the tin by strengthening your bones, muscles and joints. It also improves your mobility, helping you handle everyday tasks with ease and lowering your risk of injury.

Lifting weights is something I love to do, along with any number of other activities from gymnastics to football to padel – as a fitness writer, inhaling exercise in all its forms comes with the territory. Yet, I always come back to walking. For me, the mental health benefits are hard to beat, and I find it’s a great way to slow down and gather my thoughts. My three-year-old pup Archie might have something to say if I suddenly stopped, too.

Read more: I drank kefir for a month and it made me feel like a superhuman – what’s the secret behind this gut-friendly drink?

While I’ve found that walking 10,000 steps per day works for me, I always advise against cookie cutter fitness prescriptions. Everyone is different, and goals should be individualised.

For example, a desk-worker who struggles to squeeze in any exercise is going to have very different expectations to a run club stalwart with an active job.

“One thing we need to be conscious of is setting realistic targets,” says Dr Elroy Aguiar, an assistant professor of exercise science at the University of Alabama. “If someone is doing 4,000 or 5,000 steps per day, and you tell them to do 10,000, that’s doubling their amount of daily activity, which can be problematic or even demotivating.”

He says the best place to start is to take a look at your phone or fitness tracker and see how many steps you currently average per day. From here, set a goal of walking 10-20 per cent more than your average daily step count each day.

“Generally speaking, if you improve your baseline steps by about 2,000 per day, that’s a sufficient amount of extra activity to improve health markers like blood pressure and body composition,” he adds.

When maintaining this new target feels manageable, try setting a fresh goal of 10-20 per cent more than your updated average, then slowly build this up over time to reach the health-promoting total of 8,000 (or more).

Read more: I walked 10,000 steps with a weighted backpack every day for a week – here are five reasons I’m not stopping

How to host a Macmillan Coffee Morning like you’ve never seen before

What comes to mind when you think of a fundraising coffee morning? Soggy digestives, weak tea and sitting in a school hall having forced fun? Think again.

Macmillan Cancer Support are celebrating 35 years of the iconic Coffee Morning fundraiser, and we’re here to help you give your next Coffee Morning a glow-up. Behind the fun, Coffee Mornings help raise vital funds for people facing one of the toughest challenges of their lives.

Almost one in two people in the UK will get cancer in their lifetime, and no two experiences are the same. Where you live, who you are, or whether you have another health condition can all affect the care you receive – and that’s not fair. Macmillan is working to change that, doing whatever it takes to make sure everyone gets the best possible care, whoever and wherever they are.

So while tasty treats and fundraising fun of course get to stay, we’re leveling up the atmosphere with fresh ideas to keep everyone entertained.

Want to be a Coffee Morning Host?

Best of all, these new ways of raising vital funds don’t have to be expensive. In fact, they might even save you a bit of time, wardrobe space and money. Here’s how to host a Macmillan Coffee Morning like you’ve never seen before…

Organise a ‘style swap shop’

Clear out your wardrobe, raise money and bring your community together all at the same time by organising a ‘style swap shop’ – with all your finest, unworn or unwanted clothes and accessories.

Pack up the majestic hats you bought for a wedding but only wore once, the satin gloves that make you feel like Audrey Hepburn but don’t go with anything you own, or maybe that lace vintage dress your aunty wore to Glastonbury in the 70s, which now lives in an unexplored drawer in your bedroom.

Fill up a bag with your best cast-offs and get your friends, family and neighbours to do the same. Everyone pays £5 entry to the ‘style swap shop’ and then you all get to browse through each other’s preloved treasures – grabbing what takes your fancy.

One person’s hand-me-down is another person’s new look – so elbows at the ready! Want to raise extra cash? Add a £1-£2 price tag on each item that’s been donated.

Strut your stuff at a cake walk

We know that staying healthy and being physically active can reduce the risk of cancer, so why not combine the classic Coffee Morning with a walk around the block? Creative costumes, silly hats and streamers at the ready as we leave behind the school hall and instead take our cakes and cookies for a little jaunt to stretch our legs.

Up the fun, and the stakes, by upgrading from a cake walk to a cake race – the bigger and messier the dessert, the better!  And get the kids involved in the baking and racing too.

Or if you want to keep it indoors, turn your catwalk into a cake walk and give your best strut with your favourite pudding in hand. It’s giving egg and spoon race, jelly wobbling on a plate and doubling over with laughter as you sashay along clutching a platter filled with your finest roulade.

Dance away the morning at a sober rave

Why sit or stand when you can dance? Sober raves are all the rage – and ideal for a morning of fun with friends, family and neighbours. There’s no hangover, no late night and the kids can join in too – so, no need for a babysitter.

Grab your glow sticks for a Coffee Morning like no other, and you can still eat cake and have a brew or a cold drink. It’s a club night where nobody has to worry about the morning-after-the-night-before! You can host it in any hall, all you need is music and a disco ball.

You might feel silly at first, but soon you’ll be grinning with joy as dancing is proven to release endorphins (natural painkillers and mood boosters) as well as reducing stress and keeping you fit. Now, who does a good Big fish, little fish, cardboard box?

Run an Is it cake? competition

If you haven’t seen the Netflix hit Is it cake? – an American game show-style cooking competition, you’re missing a treat. Contestants compete to both identify and recreate their best version of everyday items – in cake form.

That could be fire hoses made from vanilla sponge and icing, kitchen utensils that cut open to reveal red velvet cake, replica designer handbags that are actually edible, and even other food items such as burgers, which are of course, cake.

Up the baking ante by running your own cake lookalike competition inspired by the show. The best thing about it is that even if your cake looks like a pair of stinky old sports shoes, it’ll still taste great!

Whether you’re swapping styles, raving sober or sculpting a sponge handbag, every slice of fun helps Macmillan Cancer Support do whatever it takes to help everyone living with cancer.

Signing up to host your own Macmillan Coffee Morning this year couldn’t be easier! Find out more today on the Macmillan website

Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). Also operating in Northern Ireland.

Diddy denied bail despite being cleared of most serious crimes in sex trafficking trial

Sean “Diddy” Combs is set to remain in custody as he awaits sentencing after a jury found him guilty on two out of five counts in his high-profile sex-trafficking trial, but acquitted him of the most serious charge of racketeering.

Judge Arun Subramanian denied Combs’s request to be released on bail ahead of his sentencing hearing, citing his “yearslong pattern of violence.” The hearing began hours after the jurors announced they reached a verdict Wednesday morning.

The music mogul was found guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution. That count carries a punishment of up to 10 years in prison. However, he was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.

It comes after the eight men and four women on the jury said Tuesday there were members “with unpersuadable opinions on both sides” concerning the racketeering count. Combs was arrested in September 2024 as federal authorities alleged he threatened, abused, and coerced victims “to fulfill his sexual desires” between 2004 and 2024.

“Mr. Combs has been given his life by this jury,” his lawyer told the court after the verdict.

Tesla sales slump once again as Musk pays price for Trump ties

Tesla saw its sales fall to a three-year low as the electric car maker continues to suffer from Elon Musk’s political views.

Customer deliveries fell by 14 per cent in the second quarter of the year, marking one of the company’s biggest ever year-over-year declines.

Analysts have attributed the drop in demand for Tesla vehicles to Mr Musk’s allegiance to US President Donald Trump, which has seen the company’s share price drop by more than a quarter since he took office.

There have been dozens of protests at Tesla dealerships in the US over Mr Musk’s association with the Trump administration, while the tech billionaire’s backing of far-right politicians in Europe has also prompted boycotts of the brand.

“Tesla continues to face persistent headwinds in key markets, particularly in China and Europe, where sales have softened due to intensifying competition and growing concerns over brand reputation,” Liz Lee, an associate director at Counterpoint Research, told The Independent.

“In parts of Europe, the political backlash associated with Elon Musk has further dampened demand, prompting localised boycotts.”

Tesla’s CyberTruck, often referred to as the ‘MagaMobile’ due to the type of customers it typically attracts, recorded roughly 5,000 sales between April and June, despite the automaker planning for a production capacity of over 250,000 units per year.

The Tesla boss has seen his relationship with Mr Trump turn sour in recent weeks, having stepped down from his role at the White House and criticised the US president’s “big beautiful bill”.

Mr Musk described the legislation last month as a “disgusting abomination” for adding to the growing US deficit, while also cutting incentives for electric cars.

The feud between the two continued this week, with Mr Trump claiming that Mr Musk has received more government subsidies “than any human being in history”. He also hinted that Tesla and Mr Musk’s other companies should be reviewed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Tesla’s closest rival, the Chinese car manufacturer BYD, saw its sales hit a new high in June.

A regulatory filing posted to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday revealed that BYD’s electric vehicle sales have already topped 1 million in 2025.

Tesla, which outsold BYD as recently as last year, has only managed 720,803 sales in the first six months of the year.