Fears are growing that proxy groups working on behalf of Russia are preparing to carry out more “grey zone” attacks in Europe.
The warnings come as Britain is braced for retaliation from the Kremlin over UK assistance to Ukraine.
Over the past two weeks, police in Germany and Portugal have seized drones and weapons suspected of being linked to Vladimir Putin’s proxy warfare.
us news
Meta agrees to pay up to $17bn to settle social media case
Meta has reached a settlement with US states and territories to resolve a court case related to child safety.
The agreement will require the social media giant to pay up to $17bn (£12.5bn).
What has Meta agreed to?
Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usage limits and night-time blocks nationwide in the US.
This is the first time Meta has been forced to change how its platforms function.
As part of the settlement, the company denies wrongdoing.
What happened at the trial?
- It was alleged the company had violated numerous federal and state privacy laws for children.
- The states suing Meta claimed it used its platforms “to ensnare youth and teens”, and ignored the damage they did to the “wellbeing of America’s youth”.
- After the settlement was announced, District of Columbia attorney general Brian Schwalb called it a “monumental public health victory”.
What did Meta say?
Today, we are announcing an agreement with a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general across US states, territories, and the District of Columbia, building on our long-standing efforts to empower parents and support teens
Calls for TikTok to follow
- The company said TikTok and YouTube should also implement the same safety features for their younger users.
- “Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us,” Meta’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said.
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The subtle eye signals your dog may be sending you
Researchers have found that dogs blink more frequently when they see their owners doing so, which may mean that they are communicating more than just a need to momentarily close their eyes.
What did the study find?
Writing in the journal , Dr Chiara Canori from the University of Parma described how 35 different breeds were shown two videos with three people in them, one of them being their owner. In one video the humans blinked every three seconds and in the other they did not blink.
The researchers found that the dogs blinked more when the humans did, and this increased when shown their owner.
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What do the blinks mean?
Previous research has found that dogs turn on puppy eyes when humans look at them and can distinguish happy human faces from other expressions.
However, there may not be a huge amount of meaning behind dogs’ blinks. Canori said: “As of today… we cannot say that a dog deliberately blinks in order to convey a particular message. It may provide subtle feedback about attention or engagement.”
Blinking can be influenced by social context
Our study does not show that every time a dog blinks it is deliberately ‘saying’ something (…) What our work suggests is that this apparently simple and automatic behaviour can nevertheless be influenced by the social context
Dr Chiara Canori, University of parma
Downpours and thunderstorms will continue to bring the risk of flooding to parts of the UK on Wednesday and Thursday.
A yellow warning for thunderstorms is in place in large areas of the country from 3am until 10pm on Wednesday, then again from 6am until 10pm on Thursday.
Where does the warning cover?
The Met Office warning covers much of the Midlands, parts of northern, eastern and southern England as well as the far east of Wales.
A yellow warning means severe weather is possible and could cause travel disruption.
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Wednesday’s weather warning
Thursday’s weather warning
Rain to fall after prolonged drought
Many areas of the country have recently experienced drought, with the next few days likely to bring the wettest weather in many weeks.
- The punishing heat has made the ground hard, meaning the water cannot soak in and flash flooding is a real concern.
Scientists find ‘window of opportunity’ to start to cut dementia risk
A large new study of postmenopausal women in the UK has found that a common treatment for menopausal symptoms may significantly lower the risk of dementia.
What you need to know
The study, led by experts from the University of East Anglia and University of Exeter, found taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was associated with a 10 per cent reduced risk of all dementia and 16 per cent reduction in risk of Alzheimer’s disease specifically.
- The team discovered that starting treatment between the ages of 46-56 “conferred the greatest benefit”.
A closer look at the results of the study
The research analysed more than 183,000 postmenopausal women taking part in the UK Biobank study.
- An average 13-year follow-up found that almost 4,000 of them were diagnosed with dementia.
- After examining information on the dementia diagnoses, they found that those who started HRT between the ages of 46-50 had a 13 per cent reduced risk of dementia.
- Those who started taking HRT when they were aged 51-56 had a 23 per cent reduced risk.
- Women who took HRT after surgical menopause had a 26 per cent lower risk.
What else did the study find?
The study also found that women who naturally had lower exposure to oestrogen over their lifetime appeared to have a 16 per cent lower chance of dementia after taking HRT.
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Why nicotine vapes are still best chance to quit smoking
Smokers are more likely to quit their habit by using vapes compared to conventional methods such as nicotine gum and patches, according to a new study.
Quit rates are higher
The Cochrane Review examined 80 studies involving almost 30,000 people and found that quit rates were higher with vape use, with it leading to 61 per cent increased odds that a quit attempt would be successful after six months.
- That means that eight to 10 out of 100 people using vaping to quite smoking might succeed compared to six of 100 people using nicotine-replacement therapy.
Providing vapes can help
Researchers looked at behavioural support – offered through advice and counselling – and found that people who were also given nicotine vapes were more likely to quit.
The expert view
We have very strong evidence that regulated nicotine e-cigarettes are substantially less harmful than smoking. Based on the consistency of the findings here, it’s clear that they are a proven and viable option for people wishing to quit cigarettes
Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, senior author of the review from University of Massachusetts Amherst
How shingles jab ‘could slash heart risks’
The shingles vaccine currently used by the NHS may slash the risk of heart failure, heart disease and stroke, according to a new study.
What you need to know
Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash and the jab that protects against it – Shingrix – is available on the NHS for people aged 65-70, people aged 70-79 (as part of a catch-up program) and for those over 18 with a severely weakened immune system.
Experts say that if all over-60s had the jab, it could prevent tens of thousands of deaths.
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The study
The NHS switched to Shingrix from the former vaccine, Zostavax, three years ago. Researchers from the University of Oxford compared the risk of stroke, ischemic heart disease or heart failure between the two vaccines over seven years.
- They analysed data from more than 70,000 people and found that up to seven years after the jab, people who had Shingrix lived 9 per cent longer without developing a cardiovascular disease.
more on health from the i paper
Children’s eyesight is getting worse. This is what parents can do about it
The rise in short-sightedness is not directly caused by too much screen time, but a related change in children’s behaviour. Fortunately it can be reversed.
Dolly Parton – a life in pictures
Dolly Parton died on Tuesday at the age of 80. Tributes from around the world have honoured the country music superstar, who passed away following a “brief battle with cancer”.
The singer was best known for her genre-defining hits including “9 To 5”, “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene”.
Born into a musical family in 1946
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in 1946, the fourth of 12 children, into a poor farming family who lived in a one-bedroom cabin in Tennessee.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, was a tobacco farmer. Parton spoke about her mother, Avie Lee, singing folk songs all the time, and her aunt played the guitar.
Country star’s unique style
During her teens, Parton began modelling herself on a local character known as the “town tramp”.
The lady wore bright red nail polish, low-cut tops and high heels – young Dolly thought she was beautiful.
A musical powerhouse
Despite being unable to read sheet music, Parton was proficient on several instruments including the banjo, harp, piano and saxophone. She had her first No 1 hit with the song “Joshua” in 1971.
- It was the theme song that Parton wrote for the 1980 movie 9 to 5 that fully propelled her to stardom.
A nearly 60-year marriage
Parton maintained a deeply committed, nearly 60-year marriage to Carl Dean until his death in 2025. “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared,” Parton said when he died.
Dean remained out of the public eye, choosing to focus on his asphalt-paving business in Nashville. The couple had no children.
Parton’s life in pictures
The raids have fuelled fears that Britain could face an attack in retaliation for UK-made drones being used by Ukraine and the British government giving Kyiv the blueprints for long-range missiles.
A senior UK defence insider said: “The threat from Russia is growing and we are not prepared for it. We know Putin has used proxies to carry out attacks in the past, we know he will use every method to get at us.”
On the threat to Britain, Tobias Ellwood, a former defence minister, said: “An attack, deniable, grey zone, is clearly imminent. We are getting more involved but unprepared for this kind of sub-threshold conflict.”
Grey zone activity typically refers to cyber attacks, surveillance of undersea cables and targeted disinformation campaigns that fall below the threshold of military action
But Moscow is also accused of orchestrating more overt activity including sending drones into European airspace, and using criminal gangs and other proxy groups to carry out arson attacks, such as the ones on Sir Keir Starmer’s house last year.
Drones and explosives seized in Germany
This week, police in Leipzig discovered a drone and explosives near its military logistics hub used for aircraft bound for Ukraine, the third discovery of its kind in Germany over the past month.
And last week forces in Portugal carried out a raid on a house where they found a cache of guns and 400 rounds of ammunition before the men in the property escaped.
The news website Correio da Manhã, quoting local police sources, reported that the National Republican Guard seized the weapons and nearly 400 rounds of ammunition at the property in Aires, Palmela.
A western defence source told The i Paper there are fears the Portugal cell could belong to a proxy group working on behalf of the Kremlin.
The Kremlin has consistently denied orchestrating such attacks against European targets, dismissing such allegations as unfounded.
Asked whether Russia had some sort of hybrid attack in store for Britain after the use of UK manufactured drones in Ukrainian strikes and the sharing of long-range missile blueprints, a senior western diplomat said: “I am sure they have.”
Meanwhile European diplomats are in the dark about the purpose of CIA chief John Ratcliffe’s meeting in Moscow on Tuesday.
They suggested it could have been to discuss a range of issues relating to Russia including Ukraine, China, the Koreas, US hostages or even Russian satellites changing their orbits earlier this summer, a move which has sparked concern in the West.
One diplomat said that only the US knew what was behind Ratcliffe’s trip.
However, they said that they were concerned Putin could engage in some sort of provocation against Europe as a “pretext” for another round of mobilisation in Russia.
“My fear is that it would suit Putin having handy some heavier pretext for an anticipated new mobilisation round.”
Fears Putin could seeks showdown with Nato
On the threats which the Kremlin has been making against Britain, the diplomat said that Putin’s insistence that Nato’s expansion is the “root cause” of the Russian invasion could lead to some sort of showdown with the alliance.
“They are running out of options and time,” the diplomat said. “At some point they’ll need to tackle the ‘root cause’, the West.”
However, a third senior Western diplomat said they did not think Putin is preparing to overtly challenge Nato in the Baltic region or Poland.
The source said they had not seen “specific and serious warning signs” about an attack in the region, although they said there could be “hybrid acts like sabotage against military industry”.
The diplomat added: “In our assessment Russia respects Nato and expects it to act if challenged.”
It emerged this week that Andy Burnham is planning to lobby Donald Trump for more support for Ukraine’s defence in a trip to Washington in September.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister insisted that Britain’s support for Ukraine will not change despite threats from the Kremlin.
UK not changing course
Asked if Britons should be worried that the talks herald the possibility of attacks by the Russians on the UK, Burnham told broadcasters: “It’s a challenging situation when we look around the world right now.
“But from what we’re doing, people need to be sure of this: We’re doing what we’ve done since the start of this conflict, which is to provide that back-up support to Ukraine to be able to defend themselves, because they do need to do that.
“They are obviously in an impossible situation… but Britain needs to be there and be a constant as they go through this illegal invasion that they’re facing.
“So, we will continue to do that. Prime ministers before me gave that assurance and I visited Ukraine to send a really clear message to the Ukrainian people that Britain isn’t changing course…”
His comments follow his visit to Kyiv on Monday, during which he reiterated there would be “no change in the UK’s steadfast support” for Ukraine.