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The United States has surpassed 400 mass shootings in 2023, setting the stage for a record-breaking year in gun violence without any significant federal firearm legislation on the horizon.

A British family was forced to flee in the middle of the night as the wildfires ravaging parts of Greece broke out in Corfu on Sunday evening and came within metres of their holiday home. Rebecca Bell, 50, of Sheffield, was among those who received an evacuation order via a text message overnight as dozens of blazes erupted on the western island, with more than 2,000 people moved to safety. “It did feel like the end of the world yesterday,” she told The Independent from the village of Sinies, describing the intensity of the heat, “banks of flames” cascading down the hillside, and a “yellow glow of fire” in the sky. The blaze broke out in the northern part of Corfu, which is popular with British tourists, on Sunday evening, with those in Sinies, Santa, Megoula, Porta and Palia Perithia told to evacuate to Kasiopi. Have you been affected by this story? Email tara.cobham@independent.co.uk Firefighters have struggled through the night to contain 82 wildfires across Greece, 64 of which started on Sunday, the hottest day of the summer so far, amid strong winds and successive heatwaves driven by the climate crisis. The most serious fire was on the island of Rhodes, where 19,000 people had been evacuated from several locations as wildfires burned for a sixth day, Greek authorities said, in what was "the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country". Ms Bell, who works for a technology company, arrived at their rented villa in Sinies on Friday with her husband, Mat Pennell, their 18-year-old daughter, and the teenager’s friend for the family’s two-week summer holiday. They were all about to leave for dinner on Sunday evening when they received the evacuation order. But, unable to see flames, only smoke, and reassured by the villa owner, they decided to continue with their evening plans. It was when they got into the car after eating and attempted to return to the villa that was the most frightening moment, she said. “We saw banks of flames coming down the hillside and realised it was serious.” The roads to the village were shut and police cordons were in place, but the family were allowed to collect their passports from the villa. “We packed up in 10 minutes and threw everything into the car,” said Ms Bell. “I’ve never packed a bag that quickly in my life. “When we were up there by the villa it was hot, you could feel the heat. The fire was perhaps about 400 metres from our villa.” She spoke of giant fire and water trucks driving up the hill as they were coming back down. The family went to the evacuation point Kasiopi but said there was nothing happening there, so they sat in the car until about 2am when they realised they would not be making it back to the villa that night. “It felt weird driving around like, ‘What do we do now?’ It was bizarre, very disaster movie-esque,” said Ms Bell. They spoke with a local businessperson who let the family stay in his home for the night. “Because we had rented privately it was down to us to work out our next move, and we ended up with some kind strangers,” Ms Bell said. “My husband and I slept on the sofa in the man’s living room, which was super kind and amazing to be so welcoming to people in such a crazy situation.” She said they did not sleep a huge amount and heard helicopters presumably dropping water on the hillside at sunrise. The family managed to make it back to the villa on Monday morning, shortly before receiving a text message that advised people to return to their accommodation as “the situation is under control and the fire is receding”. Ms Bell said smoke can still be seen rising in the hills but the yellow glow of fire has been replaced by clear skies. “The fire looked pretty close to the villa, but nothing has burned,” she said, adding: “Safety first, but I am very glad the holiday plans didn’t go to rack and ruin.” Read More Greece fires – live: Corfu evacuations begin as tourists fleeing Rhodes inferno spend second night in airport ‘Like hell on earth’: Brits evacuated from Rhodes describe devastating Greek wildfires Greece wildfires: Everything you need to know How to tell if you have Covid or heatstroke Why do heatwaves in the UK feel hotter than abroad?

Bia Zaneratto finished off a spectacular sequence.

A couple from London were able to escape the island but say travel agents were "nowhere to be seen".

Israeli lawmakers on Monday passed a law stripping the Supreme Court of its power to block government decisions, the first part of a judicial overhaul that has sparked six months of street protests and criticism from the White House.

A bill which has caused uproar becomes law as protesters face water cannon outside parliament.

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed her successor Kevin McCarthy for plans to expunge former president Donald Trump’s two impeachments, in an interview with CNN on Sunday. Ms Pelosi presided over both impeachments of Mr Trump, first in 2019 for when Mr Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter in exchange for military aid to the country, and the second in 2021 for the January 6 riot. “The president was impeached because we had no choice,” she said on CNN’s State of the Union. “He had undermined our national security, jeopardised our wellbeing of our country.” Ms Pelosi said she was very cautious about bringing forward the two impeachments. “Kevin, you know, is playing politics. It is not even clear if he constitutionally can expunge those things,” she told host Dana Bash. “If he wants to put his members on the spot, his members in difficult races on the spot, that is a decision he has to make. But this is not responsible. This is not about the flag still being there.” The former House speaker, who stepped aside from congressional leadership earlier this year after Democrats lost the majority in the 2022 midterm election, said that Mr McCarthy proposed the idea because he does not want to face the wrath of Mr Trump. “This is about being afraid. As I’ve said before, Donald Trump is the puppeteer and what does he do all of the time but shine the light on the strings. These people look pathetic.” Politico reported last week that after Mr McCarthy had said on CNBC that he did not know whether Mr Trump would be the strongest nominee in the general election, he pledged privately to the former president would vote to expunge the two impeachments. But many moderate Republicans are opposed to voting for the expungement, particularly related to January 6, Politico reported. Read More Trump news – live: Trump lashes out at ‘deranged’ Jack Smith as potential indictment over Jan 6 looms Marjorie Taylor Greene addresses online conspiracy theory linking her to Jan 6 pipe bomber Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained

ESPN Soccer Analyst Shaka Hislop collapses on-air

As he prepared to write a eulogy for his 14-year-old son Alex’s funeral, Max Schachter found strength in a crumpled-up piece of paper the teen had discarded in the trash. “Life is like a roller coaster/ It has some ups and downs/ Sometimes you can take it slow or very fast/ It may be hard to breathe at times/ But you have to push yourself and keep going,” Alex wrote in his poem Life is Like a Rollercoaster. The powerful words became a precious keepsake of Alex’s wisdom beyond his years after he was fatally shot during class at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February 2018. For years, the poem was a recurrent source of solace for the Schachter family; it was read by Mr Schachter as he addressed members of government early on in the tragedy, it helped the Schachters navigate never-ending waves of grief as time passed and it was also read last year by Alex’s older brother Ryan during his victim impact statement as a jury prepared to sentence Alex’s killer. Five years after the shooting that claimed 17 lives, staff hired by the school district found the final draft that Alex had turned in to his English teacher. They also found the lunchbox his parents packed for him every day and the binder with his schoolwork, but his backpack was placed inside a box labelled “biohazard” that Mr Schachter hasn’t opened yet. “[They] said, ‘I want to just tell you something ... there was a bullet that went through the poem, and I was just trying to process that this is just really painful,” Mr Schachter recounted to The Independent. “They had his belongings ... and then they gave it to me in a box with tape all around it and I asked, ‘What’s with all of this?’ They said it was because either it had a bullet shot through or there was blood on it. I took it home with every intention of opening it, but it’s hard.” “Looking at this journey that I’m on along with the other sixteen families – it’s just brutal. It never ends.” In the aftermath of the school shooting, the hard decisions have continued to pour in. Families of the Parkland shooting victims have been given the option to tour the preserved crime scene where Nicholas Cruz, a former student at the school, ambushed classrooms and indiscriminately shot at more than 34 people. The building was preserved as evidence for Cruz’s penalty trial last year. After the prosecution rested its case in August 2022, jurors retraced the path of violence. The state hoped that seeing the crime scene in person would convince them that Cruz deserved the death penalty, but jurors couldn’t unanimously agree. Cruz was ultimately sentenced to life in prison in November. “I wanted to walk through that building, [for it] to help me crystallise what had happened,” Mr Schachter said. “I wanted to understand what happened to Alex and I wanted to sit in that chair. I wanted to take that chair home with me, that was the chair that Alex took his last breath in.” Inside Alex’s classroom, Mr Schachter found what he described as a “war zone” – the harrowing evidence of the horrors that his son and his classmates endured. And with everything surrounding the carnage, the details continue to be as horrific all these years later as they were on that tragic day. “As I got there, I realised how he killed everyone and was so brutal and what he did to Alex,” Mr Schachter told The Independent. “There was blood all over Alex’s seat and all over the floor and his paperwork had blood on it.” There were also subtle hints of the sudden way in which hundreds of lives were changed that Valentine’s Day. The scattered textbooks, boards with lesson plans that were never taught, Valentine’s cards that were never delivered to their recipients and deflated balloons have become a painful reminder of the passage of time. Mr Schachter wasn’t trying to find closure when he walked inside the building where his son was murdered. But he was hoping to feel closer to Alex. However, the decision to open a box that may contain more fuel for nightmares is one he is not ready to make just yet. “I’m understanding that there might be more harm than good. There might be more negatives than positives from opening that box,” he said. “I haven’t made a decision on the box, but I am cognisant of the fact that it’s going to be very painful and I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.” Mr Schachter has turned his pain into purpose through his nonprofit Safe Schools for Alex, which assists parents, students and school districts with resources to make schools safer. It provides training in threat assessments and school safety best practices. The charity is currently fundraising money in honour of what would have been Alex’s 20th birthday on 9 July. Mr Schachter was also part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, which investigated failures before and after the shooting and then presented recommendations. “I travel around the country and I speak with law enforcement organisations, with school districts about what happened in Parkland,” Mr Schachter said. “I talk about the failures. I talk about what Florida’s done post-Parkland.” Under the Trump administration, a bill named after Alex and his friend Luke Hoyer, who also died in the Parkland shooting, led to the creation of SchoolSafety.gov, a federal website that compiles tools and actionable recommendations to create safer environments in K-12 schools, including resources for bullying as well as active shooting drills. The website was incorporated into President Biden’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act last year. “The reason I do what I do is because there’s so much complacency. [No one] thinks it’s going to happen to them, so that’s why I go around the country and I tell Alex’s story and I show pictures and videos of him playing the trombone and the baritone because I never thought it would happen in Parkland,” Mr Schachter told The Independent. “I moved to Parkland because it was ranked the safest city in Florida right before the shooting, but it can happen everywhere.” The victims wounded in the Parkland shooting and their loved ones will also be able to visit the 1200 building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, now that it is no longer needed as evidence in the trials of the convicted killer and a deputy who was acquitted last month of failing to stop him. The school district plans to demolish the three-story building, likely replacing it with a memorial. Read More Seven murders by cyanide-laced Tylenol will never be solved. But the prime suspect’s death brings justice The Zodiac Killer claimed responsibility for 37 murders. But what if he never existed at all?

Meanwhile, it is said that the dating rumors connecting Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater have left the latter’s wife Lilly Jay feeling 'blindsided'

TSA agents need a closer look at your computer. Here's why.

SAO PAULO Brazilian police on Monday arrested another suspect in connection with the 2018 murder of popular Rio