A Washington-based ethics watchdog filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to try to block Donald Trump from appearing on

By Uditha Jayasinghe COLOMBO Sri Lanka lifted import restrictions on 286 items, the Finance Ministry said on Saturday,

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Wildfires have ripped through holiday hotspot Tenerife, ravaging thousands of hectares and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee. The devastating fire has prompted the evacuation of more than 12,000 people as photos show residents escape in horror as plumes of smoke and fire tower behind them. Orange flames lit up the night sky from Saturday into Sunday on hillsides just above the lights of inhabited areas, while thick black smoke billowed high into the air. Late on Saturday, emergency services said the fire was now affecting 10 towns, although 11 had been evacuated as a precaution. The blaze covers an area of over 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) with a perimeter of 70 km (40 miles), spreading from 5,000 hectares and a perimeter of 50 km early on Saturday. Fernando Clavijo, Canary Islands’ regional leader, said the largest firefighting deployment in the history of Tenerife had so far prevented the loss of any homes. Evacuations were ordered on Saturday due to worsening weather conditions. At a news conference, the head of Tenerife‘s local government Rosa Davila described the fire as “devastating” and said it had forced new evacuations. But on Sunday morning, Ms Davila confirmed firefighters had helped to tame the raging blaze, saying: “The night was very difficult but thanks to the work of the firefighters, the results have been very positive.” The Canary Islands emergency services said in a tweet on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that firefighters had been able to work in “better weather conditions than expected”. Below is a map of the areas impacted by the wildfire: The blaze broke out on Wednesday in a mountainous national park around the Mount Teide volcano - Spain’s highest peak. Popular tourist areas on Tenerife, part of the Canaries archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, have so far been unaffected and its two airports have been operating normally. “This is probably the most complicated blaze we have had on the Canary Islands, if not ever, in at least the last 40 years,” President Fernando Clavijo said earlier this week. The fire has been burning in a forested area with steep valleys in the northeast part of the island in the municipalities of Arafo, Candelaria, El Rosario, La Orotava, Santa Úrsula, La Victoria, El Sauzal and Tacoronte. Some 250 firefighters and members of the Spanish army have been tackling the fire, which is just 12 miles away from the island’s main town, Santa Cruz. Francisco Linares, mayor of La Orotava, told Las Mañanas de RNE earlier this week: “It is the worst fire that the island has suffered in the last 40 years, it affects 8 municipalities, the perimeter exceeds 42km and we have walls with a verticality that is almost impossible to enter”. “When you go outside you start suffocating. It’s as if you have something stuck in your throat,” said Alba Gil, 37, a resident of the village of La Esperanza where authorities ordered people to stay home due to the heavy smoke earlier this week. She and her family stayed up until 4am worried about the flames higher up the mountain. Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands, off the northwest coast of Africa. The island’s tourism office stressed in a statement Thursday afternoon that the main tourist areas and cities of the island were away from the fire. Last month, a wildfire burned out of control on another Spanish island of La Palma, forcing the evacuation of at least 4,000 people. The wildfire and evacuations came nearly two years after a three-month volcanic eruption caused devastation on La Palma. While nobody was killed, around 3,000 buildings were buried along with many banana plantations, roads and irrigation systems. In the past few weeks, a series of heatwaves have swept across southern Europe, causing temperatures to reach record highs in certain areas of Spain, Greece, Italy, and Albania. Read More Maui fires – live: Emergency chief quits over response to Hawaii fires as death toll hits 111 ‘Out of control’ wildfire on Spanish island of Tenerife leads to evacuation of villages Smoke billows from Tenerife wildfire as firefighters battle to contain blaze Tenerife wildfires mapped as blaze forces thousands to flee Canada wildfires: State of emergency declared as firefighters combat blazes Maui’s emergency management chief resigns – latest update

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Connor Roberts hopes he can help ignite more favourable memories for Wales in their key Euro 2024 qualifier against Turkey. Monday’s clash in Samsun has gained added significance following Wales’ shock 4-2 home defeat against Armenia that left them third in Pool D, two points behind Turkey. While the group still has a long way to run, Wales’ automatic qualification hopes will be dealt another setback if they suffer a second successive loss. Wales delivered, though, against Turkey at Euro 2020, with Burnley right-back Roberts scoring in a 2-0 victory in Baku. “To jog the memory of what I did at the Euros will be brilliant,” Roberts said. “But that is in the past and I have to create more memories as an individual and as a team. “It is the goal when everything is said and done that I will probably look back on and think I can’t believe I achieved that or did that. “They (Turkey) might be out for revenge, but whether they are or not we have to go there and stick to what we are good at. “It has been a long time since then. I don’t really remember games I lost in the past.” Roberts is back on the international stage after an outstanding season with Burnley that saw them clinch the Championship title and secure a Premier League return. And Roberts has hailed the influence of Burnley boss Vincent Kompany, who recently signed a new five-year contract with the Clarets. “I can’t express how good Vincent and his staff are. To know they are going to be there going forwards is brilliant because you learn so much from them,” he said. “I thought I knew quite a lot about football, about how to play and what to do. But this season working with them, now I know a lot more. “When I watch games now, almost the messages he portrays come into your head. You know what to do in every situation, from build-up to attack to defending in different parts of the pitch. I think Vincent will go and have that Man City job one day Connor Roberts “I feel like 99 per cent of the time when the ball is on the pitch or at a set-piece I know what I am supposed to be doing. You know what you should be doing in every moment of the game. “I watch Manchester City, and we aren’t them, but I see massive similarities in the way we are asked to play. “We might not be able to do it as good as they can, but you do see similarities. I think Vincent will go and have that Man City job one day.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Jonny Evans says Denmark defeat ‘hard to take’ after late disappointment Kenny McLean savours special moment after scoring late Scotland winner in Norway Justin Thomas predicts shortest hole in modern US Open history could be ‘spicy’

The Republican-controlled North Carolina General Assembly made several last-minute changes to the 12-week abortion ban it passed earlier this year in an effort to stave off a legal challenge. The state’s abortion ban, which is set to take effect on 1 July, is being challenged in court. That lawsuit, attorneys said, was the main factor behind the Republican majority’s decision to introduce an amendment to an unrelated Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) bill that effectively amends the abortion ban. ”The General Assembly is working to pass and enact, with or without the Governor’s signature, a technical and conforming bill to make changes to clarify and address most, if not all, aspects of Plaintiffs’ claims about the Act,” W Ellis Boyle, an attorney for House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger, wrote in a legal filing on Tuesday. The amendment to the DHHS bill, House Bill 190, directly addresses a number of the concerns outlined in the lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of the South Atlantic and a number of other organisations. For instance, the lawsuit argues that a provision of the abortion ban stating that it is illegal “after the twelfth week of a woman’s pregnancy to advise, procure, or cause a miscarriage or abortion” violates the Constitution by preventing people from legally providing information about how a person could get legal abortion care in another state. In response, the amendment to HB 190 removes the word “advise” from the text of the abortion ban. The amendment also seeks to clean up a section on the regulation of medication abortion — which is banned after 10 weeks, not 12 — by deleting language that physicians prescribing medication abortions would have to verify that a pregnancy is no more than “70 days” old. Backers of the lawsuit, who are seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the abortion ban from taking effect on 1 July, do not believe that the changes to the ban proposed amendment to HB 190 go so far as to eliminate the need for the restraining order. “If those amendments are passed, they may remedy some of the constitutional violations that Plaintiffs allege,” North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein, nominally the defendant in the suit, wrote in a court filing reported by CNN. “But unless and until the current law is repealed or significantly amended, immediate injunctive relief is necessary to avoid a due-process violation.” Mr Stein, a Democrat, has said he does not intend to defend parts of the abortion ban his office believes are unconstitutional. Mr Stein wrote that even if the amendments pass, they would still “fail to make clear that doctors in North Carolina can help their patients obtain abortions out of state.” It is not yet clear whether Gov Roy Cooper, also a Democrat, intends to sign HB 190 or not. Mr Cooper vetoed the abortion ban, but saw his veto overriden by Republican supermajorities in the legislature. The fact that North Carolina is in the position of dealing with a 12-week abortion ban at all is a surprise: when the legislative session started, the Republicans did not have the votes needed to override a veto of an abotion bill. That changed, however, when Rep Tricia Cotham — a Democrat representing a heavily Democratic seat in the Charlotte area — suddenly switched her party affiliation and gave the Republicans the final vote needed to override Mr Cooper’s veto. Read More North Carolina Republicans censure Sen Thom Tillis for backing LGBT+ rights One year after Roe v Wade fell, anti-abortion laws threaten millions. The battle for access is far from over

Saudi Aramco is forecast to cut the price of its flagship oil grade to Asia for the first