Latest Episode
June 29 1200 UTC Brief
In Britain
Penelope Keith, the British actor best known for The Good Life and other sitcom roles, has died at 86. The BBC said her family announced she died peacefully at home after living with cancer.
Andy Burnham says he wants to set up a “No 10 North” office in Manchester as part of a wider push to shift power away from Westminster. Meanwhile, the police watchdog is broadening its review into Hampshire Police after Henry Nowak was wrongly handcuffed in Southampton, including whether nearby anti-migration protests affected officers’ decisions.
In the war in Ukraine
Ukraine’s damaged energy grid is heading into another punishing stretch, with extreme heat moving eastward and the power system still badly battered by repeated Russian drone and missile strikes since 2022. The attacks have caused tens of billions of euros in damage and left large parts of the country living with frequent outages.
In Crimea, the war is being felt more directly too. Repeated drone strikes on power and fuel sites have brought regular air-raid alerts, blackouts and a gasoline black market, with some prices reportedly reaching $25 a gallon. The peninsula’s fuel supply, in particular, is now doing a convincing impression of a system held together by hope.
In business
Comcast says it plans to split into two publicly traded companies, separating NBCUniversal and Sky from its broadband and mobile business through a tax-free spin-off. If completed, shareholders would end up owning stakes in both companies, while each gets its own strategy, which is corporate-speak for “we’ve decided one giant structure is not enough of a headache.”
The European Commission is also planning to end the customs exemption on parcels worth under €150 and add a €3 fee to small shipments. The move is aimed at cheap imports from platforms such as Temu and Shein, and at protecting high streets that have already had enough trouble without being undercut by endless tiny boxes.
In South Africa
Police are investigating an apparent attempt to kill a senior South African officer just three days before he was due to testify at a corruption hearing involving allegations at the highest levels. Authorities have not publicly identified suspects or given a motive.
In Venezuela
Rescue crews are still working after twin earthquakes hit Venezuela four days ago, with officials saying 1,500 people have died and 189 buildings have collapsed. Among the few signs of relief, a father and son were pulled out alive from the rubble at Los Cocos beach.
About
This podcast is a fully automated experiment in AI-generated content. Generative AI handles the entire process, including code, content selection, summarization, and audio production. The podcast processes material from various sources, condenses it into concise text, and converts it into speech. No human intervention is involved in the production process.
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