Wiki News Live
Today:
‘We bring the craic’: how spice bags became an Irish-Chinese takeaway hit
NEWS | 14 August 2026
Restaurant critic and award-winning author Jimi Famurewa travels through London, Belfast and Birmingham getting messy with the fusion treat of spicy chicken, chips and curry sauce. Should you dip or pour? What’s it like with a Filipino flavour? And with a Michelin-style glow-up?

Top Stories:
Almost 500 arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires in France this summer
NEWS | 14 August 2026
Almost 500 people have been arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires in France since the start of the summer, authorities have said, as firefighters in half a dozen European countries tackle ferocious blazes amid a record-breaking heatwave. About 70% of those arrested were suspected of deliberately starting fires and the rest of doing so accidentally, it said. View image in fullscreen A firefighter with the French air force looks on as a wildfire burns through the Landes forest in Luglon, south-west France. View image in fullscreen A police helicopter carries water to be dumped on ⁠wildfire in the Hürtgen forest in western Germany. View image in fullscreen Local residents and tourists are evacuated from Siviri as a forest fire threatens the resort on Halkidiki peninsula, Greece.

World:
Nineteen people taken to hospital after England fire, as thousands evacuated in Croatia – Europe live
NEWS | 14 August 2026
The burnt out remains of houses in the Quarry Park Road area of Stourbridge, West Midlands following a huge blaze. Share1h ago 07.54 EDT West Midlands fire was like 'an inferno', witnesses say We are getting some witness accounts of the fire in West Midlands, via PA news agency. View image in fullscreen An aerial view as a person walks across dried ponds in Richmond Park, London, England. View image in fullscreen Thick smoke drifts over the Gey district from a forest fire in Hürtgenwald, Germany. An update from West Midlands Fire Service on Friday morning said crews were “making progress” and “tactically working across several different areas of the site”.

Current Events:
Romania shuts its last nuclear reactor as drought-hit Danube river drops to record low
NEWS | 14 August 2026
Romania has been forced to shut down the last working ⁠reactor at its only nuclear plant after drought caused the Danube river to fall to record lows – a rare move that will immediately affect power supplies in neighbouring Moldova. Drought and record-low water levels have deepened fears of an energy crisis across Europe, which is facing a new summer heatwave. The drought-hit Danube, whose waters cool the Romanian plant in Cernavoda, already forced Nucelarelectrica to shut down ⁠one reactor ​in late July. The drought has hit nuclear power providers across Europe. Hungary, neighbouring Romania, has avoided a complete shutdown of its only nuclear plant, Paks, whose four reactors are also cooled by the Danube.

News Flash:
Benjamin Netanyahu describes UK as ‘first Islamic republic to get a nuclear weapon’
NEWS | 14 August 2026
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the UK “the Islamic republic of Britain” in a podcast interview, where he also described the country as the “first Islamic republic to get a nuclear weapon”. His comments, made during an interview for Israel’s army radio, played into a common far-right Islamophobic trope about Britain’s small Muslim population. “Yes, but you know someone said the first Islamic republic with nuclear weapons will be the Islamic republic of Britain.”Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, has had a nuclear arsenal since the 1990s. View image in fullscreen The US vice-president JD Vance suggested the UK could become an ‘Islamist country’ in 2024. Leading the most far-right government in Israel’s history, Netanyahu has alienated traditional allies while aligning with far-right figures, including some with a history of antisemitism.

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SPONSORED | 14 August 2026
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Latest:
‘Unprecedented’ rain kills four in Japan as thousands stranded at airport
NEWS | 14 August 2026
At least four people died in eastern Japan after “unprecedented” heavy rain that left nearly 7,000 stranded at Tokyo’s Narita airport, and forced thousands to take refuge in government buildings. The torrential rains hit Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo, on Thursday night, triggering landslide warnings and power outages. It was the first time the Japan Meteorological Agency has issued the highest level 5 warning for heavy rains and landslides for the prefecture. View image in fullscreen A makeshift evacuation centre set up at the Chiba prefectural government building after transport was disrupted following torrential rain. View image in fullscreen An aerial view of flooded areas after heavy rain in Chiba.

Breaking:
Nigel Farage wins Clacton byelection in contest boycotted by other main parties
NEWS | 14 August 2026
Nigel Farage has seen off Count Binface to win the Clacton byelection in a contest boycotted by every other major political party. After a campaign in which a record-breaking 34 candidates vied for the coastal seat, Farage held on to Clacton, with 22,239 votes (63.34%). His nearest competitor, Count Binface, a parody candidate dressed as an intergalactic rubbish bin, won 9,455 votes (26.93%). He also referenced the prospect of a re-run of the Clacton byelection should the parliamentary standards commission find against Farage. View image in fullscreen Reform UK leader Nigel Farage arrives to cast his vote in the Clacton byelection on Thursday.

Trending:
Nigel Farage investigation reopened by parliamentary watchdog after Clacton byelection win – UK politics live
NEWS | 14 August 2026
From 4h ago 04.34 EDT Parliamentary standards watchdog resumes investigation into Nigel Farage The website of Parliament’s standards commissioner has updated to confirm that the investigation into Nigel Farage over accusations that he failed to declare gifts and donations has resumed. Standards watchdog resumes investigation into Nigel Farage over financial gifts Read more Share1h ago 08.02 EDT Richard Tice has doubled-down on the “credible threat” that kept Nigel Farage from attending the byelection results. “One in four people turned out to choose a bin over Nigel Farage,” Dart posted on X. So Nigel Farage has beaten a man in a bin. Futile Clacton byelection has done Farage no favours Read more Share4h ago 05.25 EDT Nigel Farage has defeated Count Binface to win the Clacton byelection, in a contest boycotted by every other major political party.

This Just In:
Standards watchdog resumes investigation into Nigel Farage over financial gifts
NEWS | 14 August 2026
The suspended parliamentary standards investigation into Nigel Farage over accusations he failed to declare gifts and donations has resumed after the Reform UK leader’s re-election as the MP for Clacton. Now the investigation had restarted, according to the commissioner’s website, which said previously that the process had been suspended from 8 July, when the MP resigned. Farage said he wanted voters in Clacton to decide if he was fit to be an MP. According to one report, Farage called his own byelection after his team advised that leaving parliament would end the investigation. “And now he’s going to come back to parliament and have to answer some very serious questions, questions he’s been seeking to dodge, distracting and deflecting from the £5m … gift, his connections to a convicted fraudster.

Today:
‘Disgraceful’: what one election photo tells us about British politics in 2026
NEWS | 14 August 2026
View image in fullscreen Count Binface and the other Clacton candidates await the byelection results. Photograph: Victoria Jones/ShutterstockView image in fullscreen Election workers sort through spoiled ballots at Clacton Leisure Centre after the voting closed. The candidate who went by the name of Count Binface made a declaration on social media: “I came first in the Clacton byelection! “That means I’ve got – against Nigel Farage – 10,000% more votes than I got against Andy Burnham,” Binface later said of his electoral tally. “There’s been a witch-hunt against Nigel Farage and he said: ‘You know what?

Top Stories:
Donald Trump empowers US private companies to conduct cyber-attacks
NEWS | 14 August 2026
Donald Trump signed a memo on Wednesday that aims to give private companies the power to carry out offensive cyber-attacks against foreign criminal entities. The policy shift gives the private sector a role that has traditionally been reserved for government agencies, essentially deputizing companies in the fight against crime online. Trump’s memo does not give private firms unlimited ability to conduct hacking operations, but instead would authorize “limited cyber operations at the direction of the US government”. International concern over cyber-attacks has grown after the release of increasingly powerful artificial intelligence models, which have shown that they can hack into outdated security systems. A national cybersecurity policy released in March stated that the government would create incentives to “unleash the private sector” against foreign adversaries.

World:
Russian plot to kill Ukrainian American thwarted in Warsaw, says Polish PM
NEWS | 14 August 2026
A Russian plan to kill a Ukrainian American citizen in Warsaw was thwarted by Poland before it could be carried out, the Polish prime minister has said. The American Ukrainian citizen “was uncomfortable for the Putin regime”, Tusk said in a news conference, without elaborating. Lithuanian officials also disrupted a plot last year to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist. Polish authorities arrested a man in 2024 in what they said was a plot to assassinate the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That year, a Russian helicopter pilot who defected was killed in Spain – Russian operatives were the prime suspects.

Current Events:
Ukraine war briefing: Crimea bomb kills ‘Ukrainian sub commander who defected’
NEWS | 14 August 2026
A Russian military officer labelled as a Ukrainian defector ⁠was killed in a ⁠bomb ​attack on Thursday in Russian-annexed Crimea. Myrotvorets – a Ukrainian website keeping a database of people described as war criminals or ‌traitors – said Shageyev had been “liquidated”. ​The regional governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said a woman was arrested on suspicion of ⁠assassinating Shageyev on behalf of Ukrainian special services. A Russian drone attack on a passenger train killed two people, Ukrainian officials said. There were 340 people on the train,” said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Thursday.

News Flash:
Ryanair window that passenger was partly sucked out of was broken by engine debris, report finds
NEWS | 14 August 2026
Broken engine parts were responsible for shattering a window on a Ryanair plane, causing a passenger to be partly sucked out mid-flight in July, US investigators have said. The Serbian entrepreneur Ljubisa Karović, sitting by the window in seat 11F, had his head and right arm sucked out of the broken window in the incident. Karović was saved from being completely sucked out of the window by other passengers, who grabbed hold of him. In one accident, a passenger was killed on a Southwest Airlines plane in 2018, after debris knocked out a window. The FAA gave airlines until July 2028 to complete the modifications, and the NTSB report found the required changes had not yet been made to the Ryanair plane.