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A historic California Gold Rush-era town lay in ruins Wednesday after lightning storms sparked almost two dozen wildfires.

The stars of "Downton Abbey" walked the red carpet in London Wednesday for one last time as the hugely successful English country house saga finally comes to an end.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Wednesday for a suicide bombing that authorities said killed 15 people and wounded dozens more at a political rally in southwestern Pakistan.

Israel estimates that its imminent offensive on Gaza City would displace one million Palestinians, a senior military official said Wednesday, as Gaza's civil defence reported dozens killed across the territory.

Kaouther Ben Hania, whose movie about Gaza was the talk of the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, is a Franco-Tunisian director who blurs the boundaries of reality with her hard-hitting works.

The Metropolitan Opera in New York announced Wednesday an agreement to perform in Saudi Arabia and provide artistic training in the oil-rich kingdom as it works to shore up a creaky financial outlook.

A dealer dubbed the "Ketamine Queen" pleaded guilty to supplying the drugs that killed "Friends" actor Matthew Perry, when she appeared in a California court on Wednesday.

A top Florida health official on Wednesday vowed to end all vaccine mandates, including school immunization requirements, likening the measures to prevent childhood diseases to slavery.

The Los Angeles Clippers circumvented NBA salary cap rules by paying superstar Kawhi Leonard $28 million for a job that didn't exist, according to allegations in the Pablo Finds Out podcast on Wednesday.

A gut-wrenching new film about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year was given a 23-minute standing ovation after its premiere at the star-studded Venice Film Festival on Wednesday.

Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann on Monday backed new Liverpool recruit Florian Wirtz to return to his best form after a low-key start to his Premier League career.

Victims of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein said Wednesday they were compiling a confidential list of his associates who abused underage girls.

US director Julian Schnabel has hit out at calls to boycott Scottish actor Gerard Butler who has been targeted by activists for his alleged previous support for the Israeli military.

Bangladesh won their three-match T20 series against the Netherlands 2-0 after rain forced the final match to be abandoned on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump hosted new Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday at the White House with a military flyover and an offer to send more US troops to the eastern European ally.

California, Washington and Oregon announced Wednesday they will form a new public health body to issue vaccine guidelines, saying the move is needed to counter the Trump administration's growing "politicization" of science.

A dozen patents belonging to Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel and lost for almost 50 years were recently found in a Swedish couple's summer house, the Nobel Foundation told AFP.

European and US equities mostly rebounded Wednesday as a global bond selloff eased, with shares in Google parent Alphabet jumping after a favourable court ruling.

The Trump administration is attacking higher education institutions in the United States as authoritarian governments seek to quash independent thought, the former president of Harvard University said Wednesday.

The 11th stage of the Vuelta a Espana cycling race was shortened on Wednesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated at the finish line, organisers said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday vowed to carry on fighting in Ukraine if a peace deal cannot be reached, striking a defiant tone a day before Kyiv's allies gather in Paris to discuss security guarantees.

A harrowing film that premiered at the Venice Film Festival Wednesday about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year gives a "voice and face" to Palestinian victims of the war, its director said.

The defense team of Brazilian ex-president Jair Bolsonaro told the close of his trial for coup plotting on Wednesday that an acquittal was "imperative" to avoid what it presented as a potential miscarriage of justice.

At least 21,000 children in Gaza have been disabled since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, 2023, a United Nations committee said Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump hosted new Polish President Karol Nawrocki on Wednesday for talks focused on the war in Ukraine -- featuring a flyover as the right-wing leader arrived at the White House.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday he had not heard about "The Wizard of the Kremlin", a film starring Jude Law as the Russian leader that premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

French authorities are bracing for a day of nationwide protests led by far-left activists next week, with intelligence officials warning the movement's decentralised nature makes its scale and impact difficult to predict.

The amount of carbon dioxide that can be stored underground is vastly overestimated, new research said Wednesday, challenging assumptions about the "limitless" potential this approach holds to reducing global warming.

Irish budget airline Ryanair on Wednesday said it would slash more than one million winter seats in Spain over "excessive airport fees", sparking "extortion" accusations from the national airport operator.

European supporters groups on Wednesday said plans by the Spanish and Italian football federations to host league matches overseas were "absurd".

Google has escaped a breakup of its Chrome browser in a major US competition case, but the judge imposed remedies whose impact remains uncertain just as AI starts to compete with search engines.

Rescue teams struggled Wednesday to reach survivors as night approached days after a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, as access to remote areas remained obstructed.

The presence of the leaders of Russia and North Korea alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping at a massive parade in Beijing Wednesday was part of efforts to build an anti-Western "new world order", the EU's foreign policy chief said.

A gut-wrenching film premiering at the Venice Film Festival Wednesday about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year gives a "voice" to Palestinian victims of the war, its director said.

Britain's finance minister Rachel Reeves on Wednesday promised to keep a "tight grip" on public spending as interest rates soar on the UK's long-term debt, and set November 26 for her annual budget speech.

The director of a new film about a five-year-old girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza told the Venice Film Festival Wednesday she wanted to give "a voice and a face" to victims.

The EU put forward a huge trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur for approval by member countries Wednesday, reassuring chief critic France it came with "robust" safeguards to protect farmers.

Pizzeria owner Saeed is unable to take or serve orders at his restaurant in the Iranian capital, his business stalled by rolling power outages that have compounded the country's many economic woes.

Gregor Townsend said the chance to coach Scotland at another Rugby World Cup was "exciting" after extending his contract until the 2027 tournament in Australia.