00:01Tehran has hit back at claims by U.S. President Donald Trump that he would declare the Strait
00:06of Hormuz as U.S. territory, asserting that the waterway would remain Iranian.
00:11Trump made the comment while speaking at a rally in New York.
00:15It was unclear how serious his statement was, and U.S. administration officials later briefed
00:21U.S. media that he was joking.
00:23And after we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I'll
00:31be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.
00:37Essentially, that's what it is.
00:39We have the blockade.
00:41No ships get through unless we want them to.
00:44In response, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Ghalibabadi said that the Strait of Hormuz
00:51has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian.
00:55Referring to whether the U.S. or Iran are in charge of the Strait, he claimed the waterway
01:00would only be closed and opened under Iran's command.
01:04Along with Iran's nuclear program, the Strait has been one of the key sticking points in
01:09intermittent talks between Washington and Tehran.
01:15Wildfires have been erupting across Europe as a new heatwave grips the continent, with
01:20major fires raging in the U.K., France, Croatia, and others.
01:25In the U.K., authorities say flames ripped through homes in a town near the city of Birmingham.
01:31Aerial footage showed large plumes of smoke engulfing the town in what officials described
01:36as one of the most significant fires the area between England and Wales ever faced.
01:41At least four people sustained injuries as a result of the fires, including a child, who
01:46were taken to hospitals for treatment.
01:49Similar blazes have also broken out in southern France in the Department of Lende, neighboring
01:54Bordeaux, where authorities say hundreds were evacuated as fires burned an area of approximately
01:59600 hectares.
02:01France has been grappling with severe wildfires over the last few months, including near the
02:06capital Paris, due to record temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, coupled with drought
02:12and strong winds, which experts attribute to human-caused climate change.
02:17In Croatia, intense fires force hundreds of people to flee their homes on the small touristy
02:22town of Lakhva Rokosnika, as the flames swept through pine forests and vegetation, before making
02:28its way into residential areas.
02:30A series of fires have also been recorded in nearby Montenegro, which authorities say have
02:35been rapidly spreading due to strong winds.
02:43France's Constitutional Council has approved a law on the right to assisted dying.
02:48The legislation establishing a right to assisted dying for some adults suffering from an incurable
02:53condition was passed by Parliament in July, after years of debate.
02:57French President Emmanuel Macron's office hailed the decision, as the law is seen as one of
03:02the major social reforms of his second term.
03:06However, in a major blow to another one of Macron's reforms, the top French court rejected
03:12a social media ban for children under 15.
03:15The court found that the ban was not proportionate in relation to the freedom of expression and
03:19communication.
03:21The French government had promoted the ban as a way to protect young people from the harmful
03:26effects associated with social media.
03:28Macron's office said the president had no plans to give up on his push to bar children
03:33from apps such as TikTok, and that the government would work on a new draft law.
03:41New Zealand has withdrawn its support for FIFA President Gianni Infantino, calling for an
03:47independent review, including into his now scrapped plan to sell private stakes in a FIFA commercial
03:54subsidiary.
03:56That puts New Zealand at odds with Oceania's Football Confederation, which welcomed the scrapped
04:02investment plan's cancellation, but voiced continued support for Infantino.
04:08It's part of a widening split in world football.
04:11UEFA and other confederations want new leadership, while South America and Africa are standing by
04:17Infantino.
04:18He's also picked up support from six Arab federations, including Qatar and Morocco, who say they have
04:24quote, full confidence in his leadership.
04:28Infantino is due to seek re-election in 2027.
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