Deal falls short of starkest measures, including consent decree and overhaul of university’s governance structure

Columbia University announced a much-anticipated deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220m, an agreement meant to bring a resolution to the threat of massive funding cuts to the school, but certain to rankle critics given the extraordinary concessions made by the Ivy League university.

Under the agreement, the school will pay a $200m settlement over three years to the federal government, the university said. It will also pay $21m to settle investigations brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

If regional utility is found responsible for January blaze, fund would pay claims and lawsuit settlements

Insurance claims from the Eaton wildfire could “fully exhaust” a state fund that was set up to protect customers when a wildfire is caused by a utility company.

The devastating wildfire in Los Angeles killed 17 people and destroyed more than 9,000 structures in January. One leading theory is that ageing equipment belonging to Southern California Edison, the primary electricity provider in the region, ignited the fire.

Observers question whether South Korea grasps the threat it faces from Pyongyang’s partnership with Moscow

When North Korea fired multiple ballistic missiles from its eastern coast in May, South Korea’s response was swift. Within hours, Seoul joined Washington and Tokyo in condemning the launch as a “serious threat” to regional peace and security.

But just weeks earlier, when a North Korean KN-23 missile – designed to strike South Korean targets – hit a residential building in Kyiv, killing 12 civilians, Seoul said nothing.

Dudderhouse Hill in dales is thought to be one of first structures in UK to be communally constructed by humans

A rare and remarkable 5,000-year-old monument that is an example of one of the earliest visible structures in England is to receive extra protection because walkers, sometimes innocently, have been removing and moving stones.

The Dudderhouse Hill long cairn in the Yorkshire Dales has been granted “scheduled monument” status by the government, making it a site of national importance with greater legal protection.

Democratic lawmakers join dozens on march to Paramount headquarters: ‘This is so much bigger than one TV show’

Several dozen people on Wednesday took to the streets outside the Manhattan studio of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to call for CBS and its parent company, Paramount, to reverse the cancellation of the popular show.

During the rally, which began at the historic Ed Sullivan Theater and wound its way to the Paramount headquarters in Times Square, demonstrators delivered 10 boxes filled with “Save Colbert” petitions to the company.

During talks that lasted just 40 minutes, Ukraine proposed a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting in August

Russia and Ukraine discussed further prisoner swaps on Wednesday at a brief session of peace talks in Istanbul, but the sides remained far apart on ceasefire terms and a possible meeting of their leaders.

“We have progress on the humanitarian track, with no progress on a cessation of hostilities,” Ukraine’s chief delegate, Rustem Umerov, said after talks that lasted just 40 minutes.

Wall Street Journal report says president’s name appears ‘multiples times’ as Congress subpoenas Ghislaine Maxwell

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Donald Trump faced a fresh crisis on Wednesday as it was reported that his name appears in US justice department files about Jeffrey Epstein and the Congress subpoenaed testimony from the sex offender’s partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell.

The US president’s spokesman denied an account in the Wall Street Journal newspaper that Trump was told in May by the attorney general, Pam Bondi, that he is named in the now notorious Epstein files.

The rain drenched Spain’s players in this wide, sweeping bowl but nobody was in any rush to leave the pitch. They were still out there more than two and a half hours after they had begun their shot at history, waving at their exultant families and reliving what had just passed. A first European Championship final awaits on Sunday, which may have felt inevitable for three weeks but feels no smaller a milestone for that. England present a familiar last hurdle and what a tie it should be between two sides that, in different ways, had to squeeze over the line.

In the end it had to be Aitana Bonmatí. Extra time was drifting to a conclusion and, for the first time this summer, Spain were screaming for a spark from the world’s best player. They had plenty of chances to win inside 90 minutes but, against an outstanding Germany side, could so easily have been vanquished too. Had their keeper, Catalina Coll, not made a remarkable double save at the end of normal time they would finally have reckoned with mortality. Bonmatí, for one, did not fancy playing so loosely with the odds again.

Wrongful death suit alleges that California doctor mailed the pills to Texas, where virtually all abortions are outlawed

A Texas man has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against a doctor who, he says, supplied abortion pills to his girlfriend.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in Texas on Sunday, Jerry Rodriguez alleges that the doctor, Remy Coeytaux, mailed the pills to Texas, where virtually all abortions are outlawed. Rodriguez’s girlfriend then allegedly used the pills to end two pregnancies.

• Marc Brys was thought to have quit this week

• Letter claimed resignation was due to lack of payment

Marc Brys has denied he has quit as coach of Cameroon despite the country’s football federation confirming his exit on Wednesday, as the Belgian said his email was likely hacked and his alleged resignation letter did not come from him.

It is the latest twist in a long-running battle between Brys and the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) since his appointment by the country’s sports ministry in April 2024.

High temperatures and strong winds fan fires between Istanbul and Ankara forcing evacuation of several villages

A wildfire killed at least 10 forest workers and rescuers on Wednesday who were battling to douse the flames near Eskişehir in western Turkey, authorities said.

The agriculture minister, İbrahim Yumakli, said the fire killed five forest workers and five rescuers. Local lawmaker Nebi Hatipoğlu and news website BirGün had earlier said 11 had died.

Organisers say creative culture, not profits, will secure the desert festival’s future despite $20m budget shortfall

Burning Man has faced its share of challenges in recent years. There were the Covid years when organizers cancelled the Nevada festival entirely, the sweltering record temperatures of 2022, and mud created by heavy rains in 2023 that trapped tens of thousands of attenders on the playa.

Then last year, Burning Man tickets failed to sell out as they had every year since 2011. It was an indicator of a deep trouble for the week-long desert celebration in the form of a $20m revenue shortfall that meant “everything is now at risk”, Marian Goodell, the Burning Man Project CEO, wrote last fall.

• Wicketkeeper retires hurt on 37 after Woakes ball hit foot

• Liam Dawson finishes with one for 45 on Test return

India are sweating over the fitness of Rishabh Pant after the wicketkeeper retired hurt with a painful foot injury on the opening day of the fourth Test against England.

Pant was on 37 when he attempted an audacious – even by his lofty standards – reverse-sweep to a full Chris Woakes delivery, the ball slamming his right boot via an inside edge. While England unsuccessfully reviewed in the hope of an lbw, Pant was still forced to leave the field on the back of a golf cart.

• More than 1,000 players from both codes taking action

• Solicitor under ‘misapprehension’ about responsibilities

The judge presiding over the two brain injury lawsuits in rugby league and union has issued an extraordinary criticism of the solicitor acting on behalf of the injured players, saying that he had been under a “misapprehension” about his responsibilities and that “he seems to have a problem with the English language”.

Senior master Jeremy Cook said that Richard Boardman, whose firm Rylands Garth is representing more than 1,000 players across both codes, had failed to disclose material to the defendants, World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union, the Welsh Rugby Union, and Rugby Football League.

US president says Japanese imports will face 15% levy instead of threatened 25%, prompting reports of a similar deal with the EU

Financial markets around the world have rallied after Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Japan and speculation that a similar deal would soon be reached with the European Union.

Share prices rose sharply in Tokyo, where the Nikkei index of leading Japanese companies increased by 3.5%. European markets followed, with the FTSE 100 gaining 0.4% to close at a fresh record high of 9,061. US markets posted further gains with the Dow Jones rising by over 1% and the S&P closing up 0.78% at a record high.

Education department to look into scholarships for students from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program

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The Trump administration’s Department of Education announced on Wednesday that it has opened national-origin discrimination investigations into five US universities over what it described as “alleged exclusionary scholarships referencing foreign-born students”.

According to the announcement, the department’s office for civil rights has opened investigations into the University of Louisville, the University of Nebraska Omaha, the University of Miami, the University of Michigan and Western Michigan University.

‘Zia S’ translated for US troops in Afghanistan before fleeing Taliban takeover in 2021 and arriving stateside legally

An Afghan wartime translator granted a US immigration visa after risking his life to help US troops has been detained by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents, in the latest sign that the Trump administration is willing to flout legal agreements and promises to allies in pursuit of its unprecedented immigration crackdown.

Identified only as Zia S, the 35-year-old husband and father of five who entered the US in October 2024 with a visa issued by American authorities was arrested and taken away in a van last week after a routine biometrics appointment for his green card in East Hartford, Connecticut, according to his attorney, members of Congress and human-rights advocates.

London mayor adds voice to chorus of calls as international outcry grows over starvation and killings in Gaza

Sadiq Khan has urged the UK government to recognise a Palestinian state immediately, putting more pressure on Keir Starmer to take action as international outcry grows over starvation and killings in Gaza.

Senior government figures have already urged the prime minister in private to recognise Palestine as a way to put pressure on Israel over its repeated killing of desperately hungry civilians in Gaza.

The state house member seemed like an unlikely aspirant for the US Senate battle, but an appearance on Rogan sparked the question: can he turn Texas blue?

In late May, four of Texas’s top Democrats convened on Zoom to strategize about the 2026 election. The upcoming Republican primary battle for Senate pits incumbent senator John Cornyn against the state’s more right-leaning attorney general, Ken Paxton, and is expected to be bruising – greasing the skids for a potential Democratic pickup. With governor, attorney general and lieutenant governor also in play, the question the liberal quartet aimed to answer was whether they might divvy up these contests, thereby avoiding a contentious primary of their own.

On the call were three fixtures of Lone Star Democratic politics: Beto O’Rourke, Colin Allred and Representative Joaquin Castro. Less well-known was the fourth man, a 36-year-old member of the state’s house of representatives from Austin’s district 50 named James Talarico. A former middle-school language arts teacher and aspiring Presbyterian minister with the earnest demeanor and yearbook-ready countenance of a young Ron Howard, Talarico had begun his political career in 2018, flipping a swing district to become the youngest member of the house. A good bit greener than his colleagues, Talarico seemed an unlikely aspirant for the Senate run.

Just days before the final, we still do not know what is getting England through the big moments at Euro 2025

“This is a movie,” Sarina Wiegman said, and as England celebrated their heist in Geneva that sense of unreality seemed to have infused her players too. “Goodness me,” sighed Esme Morgan as she returned to the dressing room after the 2-1 extra-time win over Italy, blowing out her cheeks in relief. Meanwhile, the captain, Leah Williamson, was trying to explain just how England manage to keep going behind but pulling out victories at the very end.

“Whilst there are seconds on the clock, there are seconds that we’re just waiting,” she said. “It’s less ‘if’ and more ‘how’. I don’t know how to explain it, I don’t know how we do it.”

Royal Albert Hall, London
Mark Simpson’s vibrant new work for Sean Shibe was the centrepiece of a polychromatic Prom that began with Strauss and ended with a vividly told Symphonie Fantastique

In 1974 – six years after publishing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – the sci-fi writer Philip K Dick had a hallucinatory experience, sparked by the reflection of light from a delivery woman’s necklace, that began a lasting obsession with an imaginary and elusive godlike being. He called this figure Zebra, on account of its propensity for camouflage – hence the title of Mark Simpson’s new electric guitar concerto for Sean Shibe, Zebra (or, 2-3-74: The Divine Invasion of Philip K Dick), the centrepiece of this polychromatic Prom from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Anja Bihlmaier.

It’s a conventional concerto in some ways: in three movements, fast, slow, fast. But, although the guitar carries the melodic line most of the time, it doesn’t hog the limelight: no Brian May on the palace roof posturing here. Instead, chameleon-like, it slips in and out of camouflage, blending with the orchestra then standing apart, and creating new sonorities. Guitar and muted trumpets wah-wah together; high pinprick notes merge into high violin glitter; in moments of stillness, the orchestra, augmented by synth and organ, traces an aura around the guitar that sounds like the result of a reverb pedal until this halo asserts an eerie presence of its own.

Administration mired in scandal over president’s previous links to sex offender in case that has rocked Maga base

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A US federal judge on Wednesday denied a justice department request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to a criminal investigation of the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein in south Florida from the mid-2000s.

The move is the first ruling in a series of attempts to release more information on the case by Donald Trump’s administration, which has been mired in a scandal in recent weeks, after the justice department announced it would not be releasing any additional files related to the Epstein case – despite earlier promises from the president and the the US attorney general, Pam Bondi.

Director of Hereditary and Midsommar tasked himself with the impossible in grimly satirical new film – but he finds truth where others have stumbled

Eddington, writer-director Ari Aster’s polarizing new black dramedy, opens with a troubling sight: an unhoused and clearly distressed man walking through the New Mexico desert, bleating an incoherent ramble of modern buzzwords.

Troubling not for the man, but for the content of his ramble and the time: late May, 2020. TikTok. My immediate reaction was a derogatory “oh no”. Aster has specialized in gut-twisting, unworldly horror, the kind of brain-searing, highly symbolic shocks that linger for weeks; I watched large stretches of his first two features, the demonic family parable Hereditary and Swedish solstice nightmare Midsommar – through my fingers. But in Eddington, he took on not one but two insidious bogeymen haunting our psyches: phones in movies and Covid.

Wall Street is expecting the search giant to report $2.18 in earnings per share following the bell on Wednesday

Google is expected to report earnings following the bell on Wednesday after closing out a quarter of AI-related momentum that has given investors reasons to be optimistic. Wall Street is expecting the search giant to report $2.18 in earnings per share (EPS) on $94bn in revenue.

All eyes will be on how the company’s various AI efforts and investments are faring as Google closes a quarter of considerable growth in the crowded space. Most recently, OpenAI announced it would add Google Cloud to its suite of cloud storage providers for ChatGPT. Analysts are also expecting a favorable outlook on general growing demand for Google’s cloud services.