A wave of machine-learning weather models have been unleashed by some of the very biggest businesses on the planet.

These challenge the orthodoxy of traditional physics-based computer forecasts that have been incrementally developed and improved over many decades.

But are the machine learning models any good?

The weather is a national obsession for us Brits, and it is no wonder given the huge changes that are seen and felt from one day to the next.

Israeli military kills 23 Palestinians near aid site in Gaza, witnesses and medics say

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed in similar incidents since late May.

A spokesperson for al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat confirmed that 23 bodies and more than 100 wounded people had been brought there. Images from the hospital showed bodies on the floor.

Tanks and drones fired at thousands of people near an aid distribution centre in central Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the witnesses and medics said.

Israeli forces have killed 23 Palestinians after opening fire on crowds who had gathered near an aid distribution site, witnesses and medics say.

That is when the GHF took over most aid distribution in Gaza in an attempt by Israel to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid.

The move followed a complete three-month Israeli blockade during which no food entered the territory, putting the entire population at critical risk of famine according to a UN-backed assessment.

In almost all incidents, witnesses have said that Israeli troops opened fire, although there have also been reports of local armed gunmen shooting at people.

On Thursday, at least 12 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces while waiting for aid, according to rescuers and medics. The GHF denied there were any incidents near its site. The Israeli military told Reuters that "suspects" had attempted to approach forces in the area of Netzarim, and that soldiers had fired warning shots. It said it was unaware of any injuries.

On Tuesday witnesses said Israeli forces opened fire and shelled an area near a junction to the east of Khan Younis, where thousands of Palestinians had been gathering in the hope of getting flour from a World Food Programme (WFP) site, which also includes a community kitchen nearby. More than 50 people were killed. The Israeli military said "a gathering" had been identified "in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area" and the incident was under review.

In a separate Israeli attack on Friday, a medic with the Palestinian Red Crescent told the BBC that 11 Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a home in the al-Ma'sar area west of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

Eyewitnesses said Israeli warplanes struck a two-storey house belonging to the Ayash family.

Hamas-run civil defence officials say Israel has carried out a wave of deadly air strikes on Gaza in recent days, following a brief lull in air operations that coincided with the escalation between Israel and Iran.

They reported on Thursday that at least 77 Palestinians had been killed in such strikes, which heavily targeted the Shati area in western Gaza City.

Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli drones fired three missiles at tents and a gathering of civilians near the camp's central market, killing 23 people, including children. Videos circulated on social media showed bodies lying on the ground, among them two children, as people attempted to extinguish fires.

Local sources speculated that the renewed strikes may be linked to the targeting of Hamas security elements who have recently re-emerged across parts of Gaza, attempting to reassert control amid a breakdown in law and order. These movements appear to have been timed with the temporary easing of Israeli aerial surveillance due to the simultaneous military focus on Iran.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 55,706 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including more than 15,000 children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Tesco apologises for Lionesses promo in Welsh shop

Tesco has said sorry after a promotional display from Lionesses sponsor Lucozade was put up in Cardiff

Tesco has apologised after a promotional stand advertising a chance to meet the England women's football team was put up at a store in Cardiff.

Customers were shocked to see a Lucozade display featuring the Lionesses front and centre of the store's entrance at Western Avenue, just weeks before Wales face England at Euro 2025 in Switzerland.

The chief executive of the Football Association of Wales (FAW), Noel Mooney, was among those who voiced their anger on social media, saying "we are Cymru".

Tesco said it had since removed the display from the store, and wished both the Welsh and English teams good luck in the tournament.

Yellow storm warning issued as UK heatwave intensifies

9 minutes ago Share Save Ruth Comerford BBC News Sarah Keith-Lucas Lead Weather Presenter Share Save

PA Media

A heatwave across the UK is to intensify on Saturday, bringing temperatures of up to 34C and a yellow warning for thunderstorms. The Met Office has issued the storm warning for parts of northern England, the Midlands and Wales from Saturday afternoon into Sunday, as the heat and humidity is expected to fuel torrential downpours. Ahead of the storms, some parts of the UK will see temperatures soar as high as 32C on Friday. An amber heat-health alert in England issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will remain in force until Monday.

The yellow weather warning for storms will remain in place from 15:00 BST on Saturday until 04:00 BST on Sunday, with the potential for localised flash flooding, large hail and lightning. With the amber heat-health alert in place, the UKHSA warns of likely significant pressures across health and social care services. This could include a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or people with health conditions. By Friday afternoon, many regions are expected to meet the criteria for a heatwave - which means a temperature threshold is sustained for three consecutive days - according to the Met Office.

The threshold varies across different regions, from 25C in northern and western parts of the UK to 28C in south-eastern England. A heatwave may be declared in London on Friday, where it has passed the 28C threshold for two days in a row. On Thursday, Suffolk became the first area in the UK to officially enter a heatwave, after temperatures surpassed 27C for a third consecutive day. Scotland is forecast to reach 28C on Friday, while Northern Ireland may see highs in excess of 25C. For England and Wales, maximum temperatures will range from 28C to 31C. While heatwave conditions are likely to continue, some relief is anticipated on Sunday, when the south and east of England will dip to the high 20s. Elsewhere, cooler air will gradually sweep in from the west. Temperatures will drop further into Monday - but could rise towards the heatwave threshold again in the latter half of next week.

Despite the current heat being record-breaking for 2025, temperatures are still below the June peak of 35.6C in 1976. A developing area of high pressure is helping draw hot weather in from other parts of Western Europe. France and Spain could see temperatures close to 40C over the coming days.

Firefighters have also responded to more than 500 wildfires across England and Wales this year - a 717% surge on the same period in 2024, the National Fire Chiefs Council said. NFCC Chairman Phil Garrigan said the organisation was "deeply concerned about the escalating threat of wildfires this summer", which he warned have "the potential to become more frequent, intense and dangerous". The organisation is urging the public to be careful when lighting barbecues and handling objects, such as glass bottles, that can cause a fire outside. While linking climate change with specific individual extreme weather events can be difficult, scientists say that climate change is generally making heatwaves hotter and longer. The World Weather Attribution group says that the chance of reaching 32C in June has increased by 100 times since the pre-industrial era.

Temperatures are expected to peak on Saturday

Meanwhile, the chance of a three-day June heatwave had increased tenfold due to human-induced climate change, going from a one-in-50-year event to a one-in-five-year event. Ben Clarke, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London, said that with "every fraction of a degree of warming, the UK will experience hotter, more dangerous heatwaves". He added: "This means more heat deaths, more pressure on the NHS, more transport disruptions, tougher work conditions and poorer air quality." Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at UKHSA described heat as the "silent killer". "It will impact all of us, even people who consider themselves healthy," he told BBC Breakfast. He advised people to look out for vulnerable individuals on public transport and to keep an eye on elderly people.

BBC threatens AI firm with legal action over unauthorised content use

19 minutes ago Share Save Liv McMahon Technology reporter Share Save

Getty Images

The BBC is threatening to take legal action against an artificial intelligence (AI) firm whose chatbot the corporation says is reproducing BBC content "verbatim" without its permission. The BBC has written to Perplexity, which is based in the US, demanding it immediately stops using BBC content, deletes any it holds, and proposes financial compensation for the material it has already used. It is the first time that the BBC - one of the world's largest news organisations - has taken such action against an AI company. Perplexity has been approached for comment.

The BBC's legal threat has been made in a letter to Perplexity's boss Aravind Srinivas. "This constitutes copyright infringement in the UK and breach of the BBC's terms of use," the letter says. The BBC also cited its research published earlier this year that found four popular AI chatbots - including Perplexity AI - were inaccurately summarising news stories, including some BBC content. Pointing to findings of significant issues with representation of BBC content in some Perplexity AI responses analysed, it said such output fell short of BBC Editorial Guidelines around the provision of impartial and accurate news. "It is therefore highly damaging to the BBC, injuring the BBC's reputation with audiences - including UK licence fee payers who fund the BBC - and undermining their trust in the BBC," it added.

Web scraping scrutiny

Chatbots and image generators that can generate content response to simple text or voice prompts in seconds have swelled in popularity since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022. But their rapid growth and improving capabilities has prompted questions about their use of existing material without permission. Much of the material used to develop generative AI models has been pulled from a massive range of web sources using bots and crawlers, which automatically extract site data. The rise in this activity, known as web scraping, recently prompted British media publishers to join calls by creatives for the UK government to uphold protections around copyrighted content. What is AI, and how do chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek work? Many organisations, including the BBC, use a file called "robots.txt" in their website code to try to block bots and automated tools from extracting data en masse for AI. It instructs bots and web crawlers to not access certain pages and material, where present. But compliance with the directive remains voluntary and, according to some reports, bots do not always respect it. The BBC said in its letter that while it disallowed two of Perplexity's crawlers, the company "is clearly not respecting robots.txt". Mr Srinivas denied accusations that its crawlers ignored robots.txt instructions in an interview with Fast Company last June. Perplexity also says that because it does not build foundation models, it does not use website content for AI model pre-training.

'Answer engine'

Tesco apologises for Lionesses promo in Welsh shop

Tesco has said sorry after a promotional display from Lionesses sponsor Lucozade was put up in Cardiff

Tesco has apologised after a promotional stand advertising a chance to meet the England women's football team was put up at a store in Cardiff.

Customers were shocked to see a Lucozade display featuring the Lionesses front and centre of the store's entrance at Western Avenue, just weeks before Wales face England at Euro 2025 in Switzerland.

The chief executive of the Football Association of Wales (FAW), Noel Mooney, was among those who voiced their anger on social media, saying "we are Cymru".

Tesco said it had since removed the display from the store, and wished both the Welsh and English teams good luck in the tournament.

28 days after a killer virus is accidentally unleashed from a British research facility, a small group of London survivors are caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from the infected. More

Like all young players thrust into the limelight, White admitted Hampton was a "little immature" when they first played together at Birmingham.

"Her emotions would take hold of her a lot, which they would do for any 16-year-old, and it was about dealing with the ups and downs.

"You won't save a goal every time. Managing her emotions needed time, experience and understanding.

"I tried to take her under my wing a little bit and give her that guidance. I felt at that time she would be a very good goalkeeper but she needed some help."

Hampton rose through England's ranks, making her senior debut against future world champions Spain in 2022.

She made the squad for Euro 2022 but months after celebrating victory - often seen dancing with White during laps of honour - her career hit a stumbling block.

Reports suggested she was dropped from the England squad because of her behaviour and she had to wait until March 2023 for a recall, when manager Sarina Wiegman said Hampton had "sorted out personal issues".

Speaking about that time, Hampton said the stories were "hurtful" and she revealed on the Fozcast podcast, external recently that she had considered quitting football.

"I was a very young girl when all the stories came out and you're not really prepared for that. You don't expect it," she told reporters on Tuesday.

"There have been moments when everyone [in the squad] has probably thought they were in a tough position, but you get each other out of it.

"You can't let all the media scrutiny win. If you do that it just adds fuel to the fire and I wasn't willing to accept that.

"I wanted to show who I am as a person and show that wasn't always true. I thought 'just dig in'. I think I can say that I've proven people wrong."

Ward managed Hampton at Aston Villa at the time, having brought her with her from Birmingham.

She fielded questions about Hampton's situation in news conferences and left the goalkeeper out of the squad against Chelsea for the "best interests" of the team.

"We had an aligned agreement between Sarina, myself and Hannah on how we would help her with it," said Ward, reflecting on the time.

"It was a difficult time for Hannah but it was probably a moment that really helped her. It was the moment she realised she had good support around her.

"She was a young kid that just really needed support."

White, who captained England for Hampton's debut, retired from international football just before she was dropped from the squad.

But White believed Hampton "just needed time" to mature and felt she did that under former Chelsea manager Emma Hayes when she joined them in 2023.

Having "an arm around her shoulders" helped, said White, as well as the drive to become Chelsea's number one and get another shot on the international stage.

"It's obviously not ideal not being selected for England. A lot of things transpired. Fair play to her because she did just get her head down and work hard," said White.

"She just had to rebuild some of those relationships and gain them back in the England squad. I feel like she let her football do the talking.

"Everyone goes through ups and downs, rollercoaster emotions and going in and out of the squads. I am really proud of her. I'm excited to see her at the Euros."

Every starting player has had an individual walk-on before each match at the Club World Cup.

Our football news reporter Shamoon Hafez, who is at the tournament, says this has been the most notable innovation so far - because of the time it takes.

Chelsea midfielder Romeo Lavia is a fan.

He said: "I think it's something special and new for us. I enjoyed it. Why not bring it to the Premier League?

"It's a bit of a showbiz thing, isn't it? I quite like it. The only difference is [if we did it in the Premier League], we might get a bit cold because once you're out there, you have to wait for maybe the other players."

The innovation has drawn criticism from supporters as it has added extra time to the pre-match formalities, and a number of matches at the Club World Cup have kicked off a few minutes later than scheduled.