Republican Ron DeSantis is to announce his hotly-anticipated challenge to Donald Trump for the party's 2024 White House nomination on Wednesday, touting his ultra-conservative record as governor of Florida...

Suzanne Somers died just a day before her 77th birthday

Two pilots fighting wildfires in Greece joined the death toll from the extreme weather blistering Europe on Tuesday, as temperatures are forecast to peak on Wednesday and the wildfire risk is set to remain high until at least the end of the week. Commander Christos Moulas, 34, and copilot Pericles Stefanidis, 27, died when their plane, which had been dropping water, crashed near the town of Karystos on the island of Evia near Athens, where one of a number of fires has been burning. A senior meteorologist at the Met Office, Amy Bokota, told The Independent that the latest heatwave gripping the Mediterranean is set to further intensify on Wednesday, when the extremely warm weather is expected to peak, with a high risk of wildfires continuing until at least Friday. Parts of Greece, Italy, Turkey and the Balkans will experience temperatures in the low to mid-40s Celsius on Wednesday, she said, with records likely to be broken in places. Wildfires rely on high temperatures and windy conditions, so although the temperatures are forecast to drop to a little above average on Thursday and Friday, the wind is due to increase and consequently the elevated risk of wildfires will continue, especially as “everything is so dry”, said Ms Bokota. A third successive heatwave in Greece pushed temperatures back above 40C in parts of the country on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes and resorts amid fires that have raged for days, exacerbated by strong winds. The holiday island of Rhodes has been hit particularly hard by the blazes, and the battle to contain the flames continued for a seventh day on Tuesday. The Greek government said authorities there were carrying out the largest evacuation ever undertaken in the country. Yet many British tourists are continuing to fly to Rhodes undeterred. Despite just 44 of the 85 scheduled passengers opting to travel on a morning flight from London Gatwick on Tuesday, the mood was mostly upbeat and the high number of empty seats went largely unnoticed, with one passenger remarking happily on the rarity of having enough space on a plane. “I’m sure you know it is hot,” the pilot announced as he began the descent, adding: “We all wish you luck in Rhodes, whatever the reasons are for you taking this flight out there today.” The crew returned to Gatwick with a packed flight of 186 passengers. “I want to get off the island as soon as possible,” one woman on holiday with her three young children told The Independent at the check-in queue at Rhodes international airport. Describing the terrifying moments prior to their party of seven’s escape from Lardos on Saturday afternoon, Jodie Sutton, a 31-year-old from Southport, said: “We were watching the fire coming over the mountain. It didn’t get too close, we were out of there. “[The evacuation was] chaotic, we were rammed on a coach with hundreds of people. It was hot and sweaty, and I’ve got three young kids with me.” “We got taken to a school in Archangelos, then that was in danger, so we had to move from there too, to Rhodos,” said the full-time mother, whose children are aged one, two and seven. “We had to sleep on the floor in a basketball court. The kids got blankets. The [volunteers] were amazing.” But she added: “Tui told us nothing. Jet2 told us nothing. We ended up phoning the fire brigade, the police and the British government and Greek government last night, and they said, ‘Stay where you are, you are safe.’” Another couple who visited nearby Lindos on Saturday, before the road to the village was shut because high winds were fanning the flames in unpredictable directions, recalled the smoke from the fires blocking out the sun like an eclipse. John Rennie, 49, a project manager from Southport, who was catching a flight to Manchester with his wife Marie-Claire, said they were ultimately only affected by power outages and water shortages. It was a minimal impact compared to that suffered by their host at Kremasti, whose family saw fire burn through two of their homes. “He was helping as a volunteer. There seems to be a big community circle on the island helping each other,” Mr Rennie told The Independent. Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has warned of difficult days ahead: “All of us are standing guard. In the face of what the entire planet is facing – especially the Mediterranean, which is a climate-change hot-spot – there is no magical defence mechanism. If there was, we would have implemented it.” Elsewhere, fire forced the temporary closure of Palermo airport in Sicily. Regional authorities said a woman died after an ambulance could not reach her home because of the blaze. Further north, the weather broke and an intense overnight storm tore off roofs and brought down trees in cities including Milan. Two women were killed in the northern provinces of Monza and Brescia. Algeria was fighting to contain devastating forest fires along its Mediterranean coast, where blazes have killed at least 34 people, including 10 soldiers encircled by flames during an evacuation, the country’s defence ministry said. Some 8,000 firefighters and 530 trucks, backed by military firefighting aircraft, fought the blazes in scorching heat. Wildfires spread to France on Tuesday afternoon, with several dozen firefighters using aircraft to battle a blaze in Cagnes-sur-Mer and Villeneuve-Loubet close to Nice international airport. While temperatures have been topping 40C in Europe, it has been even hotter in north Africa, with temperatures of 49C recorded in some cities in Tunisia. Extreme weather throughout July has caused havoc across the rest of the planet, mirroring the chaos wreaked throughout southern Europe, with record temperatures in China and the United States sparking forest fires, water shortages, and a rise in heat-related hospital admissions. Without human-induced climate change, the events this month would have been “extremely rare”, according to a study by World Weather Attribution, a global team of scientists that examines the role played by climate change in extreme weather. Read More Arsonists behind Corfu’s devastating wildfires as Greece ‘at war’ Tourists flying into Greece inferno reveal why they refuse to cancel holiday Greece wildfire: Video shows Rhodes hotel before and after blaze Playing with fire: We are not just breaking heat records, we are smashing them

Sloane Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion and 2018 French Open finalist, says racist abuse targeted toward her on social media has been a problem throughout her entire tennis career.

Members of the public are reported as wearing unofficial, hi-vis vests onboard trains in Dublin.

Teenage friends Kiea McCann and Dlava Mohamed died on way to their school dance in County Monaghan.

Stephen Colbert said, 'They'll have so much to talk about, trade tensions global flash points who got hot over the summer'

TikTok says it is launching a “command centre” and more as part of its attempt to address posts emerging from the Israel-Hamas war. As with other social platforms, TikTok is facing increased scrutiny over its treatment of abusive and misleading posts by users. Twitter/X in particular has faced criticism over approach to illegal and misleading content. It said that it had “immediately mobilised significant resources and personnel to help maintain the safety of our community and integrity of our platform” in response to the crisis. That has included the launch of what it called a “command centre that brings together key members of our 40,000-strong global team of safety professionals”, though it gave little information on what that command centre actually does. It will also update its automated detection systems to identify “graphic and violent content” so that it not only goes out to users but also so that human moderators are not subject to disturbing posts. TikTok is also adding more moderators who speak Arabic and Hebrew, it said. It also specifically addressed concerns about the spread of misleading content in the wake of the crisis. In recent days, misinformation has spread on social networks, with a number of popular but false videos spreading across the web. TikTok said it would be removing what it calls “synthetic media that has been edited, spliced, or combined in a way that could mislead our community about real-world events”. It also pointed to its work with fact checkers, who review posts to ensure they are accurate. When a post is being checked, it is removed from the For You feed that uses algorithmic recommendations, and if the truth cannot be determined then TikTok will remove it from that For You feed and apply a banner, though it will leave it live on the site. TikTok also pointed users to a range of options that are available to users to hide certain posts. That includes clicking “not interested” on any posts they want to see less of, and reporting content that may be misleading, for instance – both of which are done from the options on any given post. Read More Schoolboy almost dies from swallowing magnets for TikTok challenge Woman shares honest review of New York City apartment TikTok mom slammed after making 5-year-old son run in 104 degree heat

Arizona State visits California looking to snap a seven-game losing streak against FBS opponents

Leicester boss Dean Smith knows he will have fulfilled a “big ask” if he can guide his side to Premier League survival on Sunday. The Foxes must beat West Ham at the King Power Stadium and hope Everton do not win against Bournemouth if they are to avoid relegation to the Championship. Smith was parachuted into an eight-game SOS mission following Brendan Rodgers’ sacking at the beginning of April but has recorded just one victory from his first seven games and accepts that his side have not done as well as he thought they would. The 52-year-old has experience of producing the great escape as he led Aston Villa to seven points from their final four games of the 2019/20 season to beat the drop and says something similar would be required. Smith said: “When you first come in you look at games and I looked at Man City, Liverpool and Newcastle and knew they were going to be tough to get points out of. I expected us probably to win our home games and nick points away from home, with probably the exception of Liverpool. “We are a few points short of where I expected to be and that’s why it has come down to the last one. “This would be a very proud day if we do it, but we have to win our game and rely on other results. Each escape will have its own merits, the one at Villa with four games to go was seven points. That in itself was a big ask, this has been a big ask and hopefully we can do it.” It is only two years ago since Leicester were winning the FA Cup and fighting for Champions League qualification, but they have dropped quickly after having to balance the books in the league. And Smith says that shows just how tough the league can be for those outside the traditional ‘big six’. “This league is precarious. You’ve got to have really good models now to stay in the league,” he said. “You look at Brighton and Brentford, two really good models of clubs, one I know very well because I worked there. “It is hard. You need the finance behind it but it’s not just about finance as you can see in Brentford’s case. “There are many different ways to stay in the league but it’s a real tough league. Very quickly you can go and lose two or three games on the spin. All of a sudden that just drains the confidence of players.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Rob Edwards relieved to hear skipper Tom Lockyer is doing okay after Luton win Roberto De Zerbi wants to help Jason Steele follow Lewis Dunk into England squad Pep Guardiola has no concerns about ‘scoring machine’ Erling Haaland

Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate surprised fans and detractors alike with an act of charity

Donald Trump is conjuring his most foreboding vision yet of a possible second term, telling supporters in language resonant of the run-up to the January 6 mob attack on the US Capitol that they need to "fight like hell" or they will lose their country.