BERLIN – Several passengers were wounded in a knife attack on a high-speed train traveling from Hamburg to Vienna, German authorities said on Thursday.
According to Bavarian police, the attack occurred around 1.55 pm local time as the train passed the city of Regensburg and was heading toward Plattling.
“Based on current information, four people were slightly injured. The perpetrator was arrested by our forces,” the police said, adding that the train was occupied with approximately 500 passengers at the time of the incident.
Emergency services arrived with a large contingent at the location where the train made an emergency stop after passengers pulled the emergency brake. The area was cordoned off as investigators assessed the situation and gathered evidence.
Liverpool’s Diogo Jota in Liverpool, Aug. 21, 2021. AP
MADRID – Liverpool player Diogo Jota and his brother were killed in a car accident in Spain when the Lamborghini they were in veered off a road and burst into flames, police said Thursday.
The Spanish Civil Guard confirmed to The Associated Press that the 28-year-old Jota and his 25-year-old brother, André Silva, were found dead near the northwestern city of Zamora.
Jota’s death comes weeks after he married Rute Cardoso while on vacation from a long season where he helped Liverpool win the Premier League title. On getting married, she wrote in a social media post, “Yes to forever.” He leaves behind three children, the youngest born last year.
Police were investigating the causes of the accident that occurred past midnight local time. They said there were no other vehicles involved and that the brothers were alone in the car. The bodies were undergoing forensic analysis.
It wasn’t clear who was driving. Police were looking into the hypothesis that the accident happened because of a blown tire while they tried to overtake another vehicle.
The crash occurred while Jota and Silva, who is also a Portuguese soccer player, were traveling eastward along an isolated stretch of highway near the Portuguese border.
Video images of the aftermath published by Spanish media showed braking tire marks veering off the road toward torn-apart guardrails. The burnt-up car was seen several meters ahead, with vegetation around it destroyed by the fire.
Video shot by a trucker passing by the scene and published by local media showed the Lamborghini in flames.
Portuguese media reported that Jota was headed to the northern city of Santander to take a ferry to England after being advised not to fly following a recent lung procedure. The reports could not be immediately confirmed.
The site of the car accident in which Liverpool player Diogo Jota and his brother died in the north-western city of Zamora, Spain, Thursday, July 3, 2025. AP
The funeral is expected to be Saturday in the Portuguese city of Porto.
Jota was on summer break from soccer after having helped Portugal win the Nations League. That June 8 final against Spain in Munich was his last match.
Liverpool’s players are due back for next season on Monday. But Jota’s participation in the Nations League could have earned him some extra time off.
Liverpool said the club was “devastated.”
“Liverpool FC will be making no further comment at this time and request the privacy of Diogo and Andre’s family, friends, teammates and club staff is respected as they try to come to terms with an unimaginable loss. We will continue to provide them with our full support.”
Liverpool fans placed flowers and team scarves outside Anfield stadium after news of Jota’s death spread.
People lay flowers as tributes in memory of Liverpool player Diogo Jota, at Anfield Stadium, home of Liverpool, Thursday July 3, 2025. AP
“What can anyone say at a time like this when the shock and the pain is so incredibly raw? I wish I had the words but I know I do not,” Liverpool manager Arne Slot said in a statement. “All I have are feelings that I know so many people will share about a person and a player we loved dearly and a family we care so much about.
“My first thoughts are not those of a football manager. They are of a father, a son, a brother and an uncle and they belong to the family of Diogo and Andre Silva who have experienced such an unimaginable loss,” he said.
Jota joined Liverpool from Wolves in 2020 and won three major trophies with the Merseyside club.
Jota scored 65 goals in 182 games for the Reds. His last goal for the club was the winner in the Merseyside derby against Everton in April, which moved the team closer to the league title.
His brother Silva played with Portuguese club Penafiel in the lower divisions.
Portugal mourns loss of brothers
Portugal’s Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said Jota was “an athlete who greatly honored Portugal’s name.”
“I extend my deepest condolences to their family,” he said. “It is a sad day for soccer and for national and international sports.”
Born in Porto in 1996, Jota made his professional debut with Portuguese club Paços de Ferreira.
Portuguese soccer federation president Pedro Proença said the community is “completely devastated.”
“More than a fantastic player, with almost 50 appearances for the national team, Diogo Jota was an extraordinary person, respected by all his colleagues and opponents. He had a contagious joy and was a reference in his community,” Proença said in the statement.
A period of silence was observed before Thursday’s match between Portugal and Spain at the Women’s European Championship played in Switzerland.
“We lost two champions,” Proença said. “Their deaths represent an irreparable loss for Portuguese soccer and we will all do our best to honor their legacy daily.”
Sports world reacts
Reaction poured in from across the world, including NBA star Lebron James — a minority owner at Liverpool — and tennis legend Rafael Nadal.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Jota’s Portugal teammate Cristiano Ronaldo said. “Just now we were together in the national team, just now you had gotten married. My condolences to your family, to your wife and to your children. I wish them all the strength in the world. I know that you will always be with them. Rest in peace, Diogo and André. We will all miss you.”
Former club Porto and former teammates lamented the deaths and sent condolences, as did other clubs, federations and leagues.
The Premier League said it was “shocked and devastated.”
“Our sincerest condolences go to Diogo’s family, friends, Liverpool FC, and all their supporters at this heartbreaking time,” it said. “Football has lost a champion who will be forever missed. We will continue to support our friends and colleagues at the club.”
UEFA said its thoughts were with relatives, friends and teammates affected “by this heartbreaking loss.” It said a moment of silence will be also be observed at Euro 2025 matches on Friday.
At the Wimbledon tennis tournament, where the athletes must wear white uniforms while on court, an All England Club spokesman said if a player wants to honor Jota by wearing a black ribbon on their clothing, it would be allowed upon request.
In this aerial image taken from video, smoke and flames rise from a fireworks warehouse explosion, July 1, 2025, Esparto, Calif. AP
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Rescue crews were searching on Thursday for seven people still missing days after an explosion at a fireworks warehouse in Northern California shook a tiny farming community and forced the cancellation of nearby July Fourth celebrations.
The barrage of fireworks that exploded Tuesday caused a massive blaze that led to other spot fires and collapsed the building in Yolo County about 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento.
Family members gathered near a sheriff’s checkpoint about a mile from the blast site in rural Esparto, hoping for news about their loved ones. Syanna Ruiz, who is pregnant, said her boyfriend, 18-year-old Jesus Ramos, was working his first day at the warehouse when the explosion occurred. Ramos’ brothers, 22-year-old Johnny Ramos and 28-year-old Junior Melendez, were also missing, she said.
“I’m just praying to God that some way, somehow, they’re OK,” Ruiz told the Sacramento Bee on Wednesday.
Two people were treated for injuries, officials said. The cause of the explosion was under investigation.
The warehouse was managed by Devastating Pyrotechnics, which has more than 30 years of experience designing and producing fireworks shows in the Bay Area, according to a screenshot of its website before it was taken down. The company, with headquarters in both San Francisco and Esparto, focuses mainly on display fireworks for big productions instead of those for retail.
“Our hearts and thoughts are with those we lost, their families, and everyone impacted in our community,” the company said in a statement. “Our focus will remain on those directly impacted by this tragedy, and we will cooperate fully with the proper authorities in their investigation.”
After Tuesday’s blast, officials in nearby Sutter and Yuba counties issued a statement calling the company “a trusted partner and a cherished part of our regional fireworks celebrations.”
Living near a fireworks warehouse always means a risk of fire and explosion, said fire investigator expert Richard Meier, but it is especially dangerous when it involves fireworks for large shows.
“You don’t want to live in the house right next door,” he said, adding that such large fireworks can “shoot a quarter of a mile or more.”
Meier said anything from a nearby brush fire to workers using equipment that were potential ignition sources could have triggered the explosion. Fireworks being stored too closely in large quantity also could have contributed to the scale of the blast.
The company’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to question about whether the business was manufacturing fireworks on-site or how many fireworks were stored at the facility.
Authorities were working with the property’s owner and monitoring the area using drones to find the missing people as small explosions continued late Wednesday, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
The fire was held at nearly 80 acres (33 hectares) after scorching surrounding agricultural fields, officials said.
“This type of incident is very rare, as facilities like this are required to not only follow our stringent California pyrotechnic requirements, but also federal explosive storage requirements,” Cal Fire said.
Nisa Gutierrez told the Sacramento CBS affiliate KOVR-TV that the blast was so strong it blew open the doors of her home, damaging the door frames.
She and her daughter were in their yard and were nearly knocked over as their pony and goats scattered.
“We hear like a big boom, and feel the wave,” Gutierrez said. “I thought it was a bomb.”
July 3 – Russian shelling killed five people on Thursday in and near the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, the regional governor said, a key target under Russian attack for months.
Vadym Filashkin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said two people had been killed in Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub, where local authorities have been urging residents to evacuate.
Two died in Bylitske, northwest of Pokrovsk, and another in Illinivka, between Pokrovsk and Kramatorsk, another frequent target in Russia’s slow westward advance through Donetsk region.
A drone view shows a destroyed mosque and houses in the aftermath of a wildfire in the village of Koprucek in Bilecik province, Turkey, July 1, 2025. REUTERS
ISTANBUL, July 3 – A wildfire killed a second person in Turkey’s western Izmir province on Tuesday as blazes raged for a seventh day across several regions, while a little-known group claiming ties to Kurdish militants said it was behind dozens of arson attacks.
The latest casualty was a backhoe operator, Ibrahim Demir, who died while battling the flames in the Odemis district, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Earlier, an 81-year-old bedridden man who was home alone in the same area died when fire reached his house, marking the first death since the fires began.
A group calling itself “Children of Fire” claimed responsibility for “tens of fires across six Turkish cities”, according to a statement shared online. The group, which is little known, says it is affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. The PKK, which said in May that it was ending a 40-year insurgency and disbanding, has not commented on the claim.
Firefighters continued to battle flames with helicopters and planes dropping water over mountainous terrain in Izmir, while authorities closed some roads to the Aegean resort town of Cesme, Anadolu said.
Broadcasters showed footage of flames lining the main highway as water tankers arrived.
Turkey, Greece and other countries in the Mediterranean are in an area scientists dub “a wildfire hotspot” – with blazes common during hot and dry summers. These have become more destructive in recent years due to a fast-changing climate.
Wildfires across Turkey’s west have damaged around 200 homes and victims have been provided alternative accommodation, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. Some 50,000 people were temporarily evacuated earlier this week from areas of fires fuelled by high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds.
New fires also broke out on Thursday in the southern resort province of Antalya and in forested areas near Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, Anadolu said. Authorities have managed to contain several of the blazes.
BUCHAREST, July 3 – A motorcyclist was mauled to death by a bear on a road in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania on Thursday, emergency service officials said, the latest attack in the country with the European Union’s largest population of brown bears.
Romania has a brown bear population of 10,000 to 13,000, preliminary results of a multi-year DNA study showed this year, and authorities are struggling to keep residents and tourists in mountain towns safe.
Police and emergency services said in a joint statement that tourists had alerted them to Thursday’s attack on the Transfagarasan road in the central county of Arges. The bear had dragged the motorcyclist down a ravine, they said.
There were no details about the motorcyclist’s identity.
Almost 30 people have been killed by bears in Romania over the last two decades, the environment ministry has said. Sightings of bears are common and local media regularly report bear attacks on people and livestock.
Last year, Romania’s parliament doubled the annual bear kill quota to 481 bear kills per year to control the size of the bear population and to remove animals that have become accustomed to entering cities in search of food.
Wildlife experts have said bear attacks have increased because of human behaviour as the shrinking of the animals’ habitats due to construction, logging and climate change.
Many bears are also attracted by rubbish dumps on the outskirts of cities and by discarded food.
Officials have not done enough to step up prevention measures, including electric fences and better trash management, wildlife experts said.
ISTANBUL – A British F-35 fighter jet, which made an emergency landing in southern India in mid-June, is likely to be dismantled, considering it has remained grounded since then, according to a report from India Today on Thursday.
The British Royal Navy’s fighter jet will likely be partially dismantled and airlifted back to the UK on a military cargo aircraft, the report said, citing sources.
The jet has remained on the ground since its emergency landing, despite numerous attempts to repair it, due to an unresolved engineering malfunction, according to the report.
Efforts to restore F-35 flight readiness have so far failed.
The UK engineering team, which was expected to arrive at the airport to repair the jet, has also yet to make it there.
The jet made the emergency landing at Thiruvananthapuram International Airport in Kerala state on June 14 due to low fuel and bad weather.
ATHENS – A major wildfire that broke out Wednesday in eastern Crete prompted the evacuation of more than 5,000 residents and tourists as of Thursday, according to public broadcaster ERT.
The fire caused significant damage to businesses, farmlands and houses in the province Ierapetra, authorities and witnesses said.
The media, authorities and business owners are anxious about the cancellation of bookings.
Though hundreds of firefighters and volunteers, assisted with aerial vehicles, are working selflessly to bring the fire under control. Strong wind continues to fan the flames and contribute to the expansion of the fire.
Another blaze that erupted later in the area of Rafina, east of Athens, continues to rage after expanding to houses, farmlands and vineyards.
Thick smoke from the blaze briefly disturbed air traffic at the Athens International Airport, and caused the closure of Marathonos Avenue, a major road connecting the area to Athens, in both directions, added ERT.
Members of the police stand near a cordoned area outside the Ratina shopping centre, where several people have been stabbed near the shopping centre, in Tampere, Finland July 3, 2025. REUTERS
HELSINKI, July 3 – Several people were stabbed near a shopping center in the southern Finnish city of Tampere on Thursday afternoon, Finnish national broadcaster Yle reported, citing police sources.
The incident occurred at the Ratina shopping center, and a suspect has been taken into custody, according to Yle.
Victims are receiving first aid, Yle said, adding that police have confirmed there is no longer any threat to the public.
Palestinians gather to receive aid supplies in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, June 22, 2025. REUTERS
GAZA, July 3 – At least 80 Palestinians, including 37 near U.S.-backed aid distribution centers, were killed in Israeli shelling and gunfire in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian sources said.
Local sources and eyewitnesses told Xinhua that Israeli warplanes targeted the Mustafa Hafez school, which houses displaced people in al-Rimal neighborhood west of Gaza City, with one missile.
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, told Xinhua that the Israeli attack on the school killed 13 people, including children and women, and wounded several others.
Israeli aircraft targeted two gatherings of Palestinians in the towns of Jabalia and Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, killing four people, including a woman, and wounding 10 others, according to Basal.
Basal added that four people, including a woman, were killed in several airstrikes targeting homes and Palestinian gatherings in the Tuffah and Zeitoun neighborhoods of Gaza City.
Hamas-linked prisoners’ information office said in a press statement that three freed prisoners deported from the West Bank to the coastal enclave were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza announced in a press statement the arrival of 25 dead and dozens wounded as a result of an Israeli airstrike near a U.S.-backed aid distribution center at the Netzarim junction in the central Gaza Strip.
Nasser Medical Complex announced in a press statement the deaths of at least 24 people in Israeli airstrikes on the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, including five who were waiting for aid.
Seven others were killed and 30 wounded by Israeli army fire near a U.S.-backed aid center in the Shakoush area north of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, according to a brief statement issued by Red Cross Hospital.
In a statement on Thursday, the Hamas-run Gaza interior authorities warned against “dealing, cooperating, or interacting, directly or indirectly” with the U.S.-backed aid group Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, accusing the organization of being a “mass death trap” and “systematic violation of human dignity and rights.”
Over the past few weeks, Palestinians have been repeatedly targeted while waiting for food in various areas of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million people, sparking widespread international condemnation.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that over the past day, the air force struck approximately 150 “terror targets” throughout the Gaza Strip, including militants, underground routes, military structures, weapons, sniper posts, and additional infrastructure sites.
“The IDF will continue to operate to remove any threat posed to Israeli civilians,” it said.
On March 18, Israel resumed its military operations in the enclave. At least 6,572 Palestinians had been killed and 23,132 others injured since Israel renewed its intensive strikes, bringing the total death toll since October 2023 to 57,130, and injuries to 135,173, Gaza-based health authorities said on Thursday.
