Wildfires swept southwestern France and central Spain, forcing large-scale evacuations and lockdowns. Estimates of those displaced varied widely, from more than 200,000 across both countries to about 40,000 on France's Cap Ferret peninsula and roughly 10,000 near Madrid. Spain declared a national emergency, calling it the region's worst fire, while French firefighters battled a blaze nearing Bordeaux.
SpaceX conducted the 13th flight test of its Starship rocket, its first launch since the company's IPO last month, carrying 20 next-generation V3 Starlink satellites as payload. TechCrunch reported the vehicle ticked off milestones on the second Starship V3 flight but appeared to suffer another issue while relighting the booster's rocket engines.
Moody's warned that unprecedented AI spending was threatening the credit quality of Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and other large technology companies. The ratings agency said the investment was forcing even the world's most cash-rich corporations to lean heavily on debt, stock sales and off-balance-sheet moves to fund their expansion.
CBS NFL analyst and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was arrested on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence, according to an arrest report. He was booked in Wisconsin, where a first-offence OWI is treated as a non-criminal matter rather than a criminal charge. Neither outlet reported further details of the incident.
Member states of the International Criminal Court voted on Friday to dismiss chief prosecutor Karim Khan following allegations of sexual misconduct. Khan was accused of engaging in an improper sexual relationship with a junior ICC staff member and of seeking to stop her from pursuing her complaint. Khan denied the allegations.
Anthropic introduced Claude Opus 5, an upgrade to Opus 4.8 positioned for daily use with stronger coding, more efficient reasoning, and prompt-cache-friendly tool changes. The company said it delivers near-Fable 5 performance at half the price, with Fable 5 described as its most capable publicly available model. The Register noted Opus 5 does not require data retention.
Paramount agreed to an extensive delay in its deal with Warner Bros after a lawsuit brought by several states. The media groups froze their proposed merger until as late as June 2027 while a court weighs objections to the tie-up. The delay extended uncertainty over the future of the proposed combination.
Tadej Pogacar launched a solo attack at the foot of Alpe d'Huez to win stage 19 of the Tour de France in a record climb. The defending champion extended his overall lead to more than seven minutes, becoming only the second man to win on the mountain in the yellow jersey, and closed on a record-equalling fifth title.
UNESCO placed Sebastia in the occupied West Bank and five Lebanese castles on its list of endangered world heritage sites, granting them emergency protection. The listings proceeded despite Israeli objections. The decision came amid renewed unrest in the occupied West Bank, where reports described deadly clashes involving Israeli forces near settlements.
President Trump said on Truth Social that his administration would investigate European Union fines levied against US tech companies including Apple, Google, Meta and Amazon for antitrust and Digital Markets Act violations. He called for the penalties to be entirely reversed and threatened new tariffs, after the European Commission found Google's search ranking and anti-steering practices breached the DMA.