U.S. and Iran Trade Fresh Strikes as Hormuz Traffic Slows

BEDAR, Spain - A wildfire near Almeria killed 12 people in southern Spain, with some victims found inside vehicles as firefighters battled the blaze on Friday. The deaths were reported in the hamlet of Bedar, where about 150 firefighters were working to contain the fire. Authorities have not confirmed the cause, though witnesses said a fallen power line may have sparked it.

LONDON - Andy Burnham, Britain’s likely next prime minister, has apologized for Labour’s initial response to Israel’s war in Gaza and said the party needs to do better.

He said the UK was too slow to call for a ceasefire and signaled more pressure on the Israeli government, including possible new sanctions. The move is aimed at voters on Labour’s left who never bought Keir Starmer’s line in the first place. Burnham is trying to win them back.

MOYGASHEL, NORTHERN IRELAND - Police in Northern Ireland said a replica mosque placed atop a loyalist bonfire is a hate-motivated criminal offense. The pyre in Moygashel also carried signs reading "Islamic fascism" and "End the threat of radical Islam." A 56-year-old man was arrested and remained in custody Thursday as leaders condemned the display ahead of Friday night’s burn.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said this week that Texas can keep enforcing a law requiring app stores to verify users' ages while the case moves through lower courts. The fight is over whether the state can force platforms to police access before a constitutional challenge is resolved. For now, the law stays in place, and the tech companies have to live with that.

WASHINGTON - Mexico said Thursday it will ask U.S. state and federal prosecutors to investigate deaths of its citizens during immigration enforcement, a sharp response after an ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico cannot ignore the deaths. The officer was not wearing a body camera because Houston agents had not yet been issued them. Salgado Araujo’s family wants an independent probe.

WASHINGTON - New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez says the Justice Department has sat on records his office needs for its Epstein investigation, leaving the state stuck for more than 130 days. In a June 30 letter released Thursday, Torrez said federal officials promised cooperation but never turned over the files or gave a substantive response. The state reopened the case in February after the federal release of Epstein records.

WASHINGTON - Peak hurricane season is approaching, and the National Weather Service is heading into it with a less experienced staff and gaps in some of the data forecasters rely on. The agency cut about 15% of its workforce last year as part of the Trump administration's job cuts. That is not the setup you want when the Atlantic starts acting up.

NEW YORK - South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix raised $26.5 billion in a New York share sale, the largest U.S. listing ever by a foreign company. The deal sold 177.9 million American depositary shares at $149 each and starts trading on Nasdaq Friday. Demand was more than seven times the shares on offer, a neat reminder that AI chip fever is still doing the work.

NEW YORK - JPMorgan Chase is testing AI agents that decide how to allocate money, and the bank says the models beat a classic 60/40 portfolio in backtests. That is not the same as proving they work in the wild, which is where markets tend to get rude. Still, it is a sign Wall Street is moving past chatbots and into actual decision-making. The hype is easy. The accountability is the hard part.

BOSTON - Kylian Mbappé missed a first-half penalty, then scored in the 60th minute and set up Ousmane Dembélé six minutes later as France beat Morocco 2-0 in the World Cup quarterfinals. Morocco, missing injured forward Ismael Saibari, barely threatened until late. France are into the semifinals again, and they still have not lost a game here.

LAS VEGAS - The NBA's summer showcase opened Thursday with the matchup everyone circled: No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa and the Wizards against No. 2 Darryn Peterson and the Jazz. Peterson already flashed in Salt Lake City, while Dybantsa gets his first real pro look. The games won't settle careers, but they will tell us who looks ready to matter now.

LONDON - Karolina Muchova beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (10) on Thursday to reach her first Wimbledon final. Gauff had a match point in the deciding tiebreak, then missed a drop shot into the net. Muchova, who was cramping late, answered with a lob and a last clean swing to the corner. She will play Linda Noskova in an all-Czech final Saturday.

PORTUGAL - Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer whose raspy voice turned Total Eclipse of the Heart into a pop standard, has died at 75.

Her family said she died unexpectedly in a hospital in Portugal after being treated for an illness. In May, Tyler had emergency intestinal surgery in Faro and was later placed in an induced coma. She woke up in June but remained in intensive care. Born Gaynor Hopkins in Skewen, she broke through with It's a Heartache and then spent decades proving the voice that made her famous was no accident.

PARIS - Balenciaga's latest couture show in Paris opened with a recorded performance by ANOHNI, who covered Selena's "I Could Fall In Love" and Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" before moving into three of her own songs. The runway marked Pierpaolo Piccioli's first collection as creative director, and the clothes were not the only debut on view. It was a clean, strange pairing, which is usually how fashion knows it has your attention.

LONDON - Three years after leaving CBS' "The Late Late Show," James Corden is back on Fox with a World Cup after-show that lets him indulge his lifelong love of football. "After Hours With James Corden" debuted June 11 and runs nightly through July 19, with his old team in tow, including executive producer Ben Winston and former head writer Ian Karmel.

The set sits beside Fox Sports' anchor team and is dressed like a clubhouse, with scarves, flags, cleats and a life-size Pelé figure on loan from Madame Tussauds in London. Corden said the Fox call was the one hosting offer he could not turn down. For once, that sounds about right.