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Leg-spinner Adam Zampa played through pain to return figures of 4-47 and help Australia down Sri Lanka by five wickets for their first win at the...

LAKE ZURICH, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 9, 2023--

There's just one thing keeping the US economy afloat: You.

Lewis Hamilton insists he is “not focusing on what happened 15 years ago” when questioned on Thursday about Felipe Massa’s legal action over the 2008 Formula 1 title. Massa is seeking substantial damages following the 2008 Crashgate scandal and a subsequent alleged “conspiracy” after comments earlier this year by former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. Hamilton, now a seven-time world champion, won his first F1 title in 2008 on the final lap of a dramatic final race in Brazil, with Massa missing out by a single point. A formal eight-page ‘Letter Before Claim’ was sent to F1 boss Stefano Domenicali and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem last Tuesday from London-based Enyo Law with the firm, acting on Massa’s behalf, alleging that the 42-year-old has been “the victim of a conspiracy committed by individuals at the highest level of F1 together with the FIA and Formula One management”. Yet Hamilton, when asked about the case ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, remained tight-lipped. “I’ve got a really bad memory,” Hamilton said. “I’m really just focused on the here and now and helping the team get back to the championship. I’m not focused on what happened 15 years ago.” Massa’s lawyers stated in their letter that the ex-Ferrari driver has lost out on tens of millions of euros in lost earnings and bonuses as a result of missing out on the 2008 title. What was the ‘Crashgate’ scandal? Crashgate rocked Formula 1 when the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix saw Renault’s Fernando Alonso win the race before it emerged that his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr had deliberately crashed to bring out a safety car that played into Alonso’s hands. That safety car prompted a Massa pit stop that Ferrari mishandled, with Massa eventually finishing the race 13th while Hamilton came home third – a difference of six points, a swing which ultimately impacted the title result. While Renault and team boss Flavio Briatore were punished in 2009 for Crashgate, the result of the race stood despite Massa’s protestations, with the FIA’s statutes making clear that overturning the classification from each season is impossible once the FIA Awards Ceremony for that year is complete, a rule set in the FIA International Sporting Code. Ecclestone revealed in March that both he and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew of the Crashgate scandal in 2008, but refused to publicise the chain of events to avoid the sport a “huge scandal”. The 38-year-old also gave a simple “no” response when asked about any contract updates, with his current Mercedes deal set to expire at the end of the season. Hamilton has not won a race since Saudi Arabia in 2021, but he came close this time last year at Zandvoort before Max Verstappen came through to win his home race for the second year running. Verstappen, who has won 10 of the 12 races so far this season and is looking to equal Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive victories this weekend, has a “high chance” according to Hamilton of winning every race until the end of the 2023 campaign. The Mercedes star himself, however, is targeting second place in the world championship. He is currently in fourth place, 41 points behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in second. “I think P2 [in the constructors’] is a huge achievement and something that has been overlooked if I’m completely honest,” he said, with the Silver Arrows the next-best behind Red Bull. “Ultimately we want to win, but I’m really proud of the team and the steps we’ve made with the car. “My goal is to make sure the team keep second in the championship and try to hunt down second in the drivers’ championship. That’s my goal – that’ll be fun.” Verstappen has a 125-point lead in the championship heading into his home race this weekend, with 10 races remaining this season. Read More Felipe Massa starts legal action over 2008 F1 title loss to Lewis Hamilton Lewis Hamilton would be taking gamble by leaving Mercedes, says former rival F1 Dutch Grand Prix: When is practice on Friday in Zandvoort? F1 takes steps to prevent use of flares at Dutch Grand Prix F1 Dutch Grand Prix: When is practice on Friday in Zandvoort? F1 2023 race schedule: When is the Dutch Grand Prix?

In Israel's southern Negev desert, Bedouin youth gather near a car hit by a rocket from the Gaza Strip, fearing the war...

An official says the Cyprus government and U.S. energy company Chevron have reached a deal on how to develop the Aphrodite gas field, the first to be discovered under the seafloor off Cyprus

By Nichola Groom Electric-vehicle batteries and other car parts are the latest products under scrutiny as part of

Russia suffered a surprise attack in the early hours of Tuesday morning when as many as 30 drones zeroed in on Moscow, bringing Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine war to his own doorstep after 15 months of bloody conflict. The country’s defence ministry has only admitted to sighting eight drones, all of which it says were shot down, causing only minimal damage and injuring just two people. Even if that is true, the incident follows an assault on the Kremlin earlier this month and creates a problem for Mr Putin, who has so far largely been able to shield Russian citizens from the realities of the war. Life has been allowed to proceed as normal in the capital but the sight of debris hitting some of the city’s most prestigious areas – including the grand Soviet-era Leninsky Prospekt Avenue and the Odintsovsky District, in which the wealthy elite, including Mr Putin, have residences – cannot have gone unnoticed. Residents in southwestern Moscow reported hearing loud bangs at between 2am and 3am BST on Tuesday morning, followed by the smell of petrol, while some filmed the unmanned devices being downed in smoke over the city skyline. “It is, of course, obvious that this is an attack by the Kyiv regime,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “And this must be absolutely clearly understood.” Kyiv has itself been under siege from drone strikes by the aggressor in recent days, but Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied his side was behind the attack, adding drolly: “Of course, we are pleased to watch and predict an increase in the number of attacks.” Mr Putin is said to have been briefed early on Tuesday about the strikes and continued working in the Kremlin, later saying only that the episode was intended to “intimidate” and “clearly a sign of terrorist activity”. He will surely respond militarily, even if his initial instinct is to downplay the extent of the damage. Writing on Telegram, Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said the president’s eerie calm was about projecting the impression that he “isn’t afraid” because his control is “built on the idea that has been voiced more than once … [that Russians are] a patient people who will understand everything and endure everything”. Mr Putin has so far left much of the sabre-rattling following the attack to others, such as lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein, who warned his countrymen: “The sabotage and terrorist attacks of Ukraine will only increase. It is necessary to radically strengthen defence and security measures, especially in terms of countering drones.” Another politician, Andrei Kartapolov, told local media the attack was a Ukrainian endeavour “designed to create a wave of panic”. Speaking to The Independent, Tim White, a Ukraine expert and journalist, commented: “Putin’s only response is violence, we’ve seen it time and time again. “The problem is how much of his arsenal is left? I strongly suspect there was another large shipment of drones from Iran recently, hence the big uptick in drone strikes. “But I believe this tactic is primarily to locate Ukraine’s air defence systems, especially its Patriot [missile] systems, and get Ukraine to exhaust its own air defence missile stocks. The Kremlin is not able to manufacture missiles as quickly as it is using them.” Among the residents of Moscow, the episode is likely only to entrench existing attitudes towards the war, Mr White said, noting the stranglehold exerted by state media. “I think opinion in Russia will be even more anti-Western rather than anti-Putin,” he said. “The absolute control of the media ensures most people believe the indoctrination, wrongfully describing Ukraine as a nation of Nazis.” That observation has already been borne out, with one woman, Natalia, 59, telling news agency Reuters: “The Kyiv regime is already crossing all the lines. This is very sad, especially since they are directing these drones at residential buildings, at the city, at civilians, where there are no military facilities.” More surprisingly, another resident told the same outlet: “All of this is because of our ruler. It’s no surprise it’s bounced back to here.” As for what might happen next, Mr White is in little doubt that there will be a retaliation, perhaps targeting a region the Kremlin had expected to welcome its “special military operation” with open arms. “My best guess is that there will be a strike on a city, masquerading as a military hit, with what we describe as ‘plausible deniability’,” he said. “But it won’t be Kyiv, which is too well protected judging by the last month’s bombardment. Lviv is a target, but more at risk is likely to be Odesa or Mykolaiv in the south. These are areas that previously spoke almost exclusively Russian and Putin believed would welcome his illegal invasion.” The Russian foreign ministry has already made threats to that effect, declaring: “Russia reserves the right to take the harshest possible measures in response to the terrorist attacks by the Kyiv regime.” Read More Russia-Ukraine war – live: Putin responds after Moscow hit with drone attack Wealthy Moscow suburb where Putin has a home targeted in drone attack Moscow targeted by ‘30 drones’ as Ukraine war reaches Russia’s capital Russian soldiers flee after tank struck by Ukrainian drone The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

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

The leader of the nation’s Catholic bishops weighed in on ongoing immigration issues during their spring meeting in Florida

The start of Arsenal’s opening Premier League game against Nottingham Forest was delayed by 30 minutes after a problem with the turnstiles at Emirates Stadium left thousands of fans unable to get in on time