WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
A tough night for Gething, Hezbollah's attacks, and Knox back in court

 
today's POLITICS story

Welsh first minister loses confidence vote 

What happened 
Vaughan Gething has insisted he won't resign as Welsh first minister  after losing a vote of no confidence called by the Conservatives last night.

He lost by 29 votes to 27 in the 60-member Senedd following "one of the most extraordinary debates in the 25 years of Welsh devolution", said the BBC. While Labour holds half of the seats with 30 members, two of Gething's backbenchers were off sick.

Who said what
Gething dismissed the non-binding motion as a "gimmick" and said he would "carry on" doing his duty. During the "largely bruising" debate Gething was seen "weeping" and "dabbing both eyes", with colleagues "reaching out to comfort him", said Wales Online.

After Liz Truss and Humza Yousaf, will Gething be the next UK leader to "find himself out of office in a record space of time", asked James Heale in The Spectator.

The outcome could be uncomfortable for Labour leader Keir Starmer, said the BBC, as a Labour first minister losing a vote of "this magnitude – non-binding or not" might be "one hurdle too far on Sir Keir's careful path to power".

What next? 
Gething can choose to "do nothing" and be "constantly reminded" that the Senedd does not have confidence in him, or "resign and trigger yet more political upheaval", said Sky News.

The Conservatives could still bring a vote of no confidence in the entire Welsh government.

 
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, plus much more
Try 6 weeks free, then save up to an extra 30%
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
 
today's INTERNATIONAL story

Israel-Hezbollah conflict intensifies

What happened
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to take an "extremely powerful" response to attacks by Hezbollah. Wildfires are burning in the north of Israel following strikes by the Lebanese terror group as ongoing cross-border tensions have escalated in recent days.

Who said what
Visiting Israel's border with Lebanon, Netanyahu said he was "prepared for a very strong action in the north" and that security in the area would be restored "one way or another". National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir added that there would be "no peace in Lebanon while our land is being targeted".

Hezbollah's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem told Al Jazeera: "If Israel wants to fight an all-out war, we are ready for it."

What next?
Many residents who were evacuated from the border region in October, when Israel and Hezbollah began trading near daily cross-border fire, believe a ceasefire in Gaza is the key to calming the situation, said the BBC.

With this "grinding, forgotten conflict squarely on the front pages", Netanyahu is facing renewed pressure to act.

 
 
Today's CRIME story

Court convicts Knox of slander for a second time

What happened
Years after Amanda Knox was acquitted of murdering 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher, an Italian court has found her guilty of slander for a second time.

Who said what
Knox was originally found guilty of the 2007 murder in Perugia. In a "long legal saga" she and her former Italian boyfriend were "acquitted, found guilty again, and finally cleared" in 2015, said The Local Italy. Her 2011 conviction of slander, for blaming local bar owner Patrick Lumumba for Kercher's death, was quashed last year and a retrial ordered.

The "American cried in court in Florence" yesterday as she was found guilty. The 36-year-old mother of two said she was coerced into implicating Lumumba. "The police threatened me with 30 years in prison, an officer slapped me three times saying 'remember, remember'. I'm very sorry that I wasn't strong enough to withstand the pressure from the police."

Lawyers for Lumumba said that despite the bar owner being cleared of police suspicion, he had lost his job and had his reputation ruined by the case. He "became known everywhere as the monster of Perugia".

What next?
Knox's lawyers said they expect to appeal the verdict. She will not have to go to prison having already served four years behind bars.

 
 

It's not all bad

Three young boys were left "completely speechless" after finding the bone of a tyrannosaurus rex while out on a hike in North Dakota. Brothers Liam and Jessin Fisher, and their cousin Kaiden Madsen made the discovery in 2022 and shared the news publicly this week as a team at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science began preparing the fossil for an exhibition this month. The opening will coincide with the release of a film called "T. REX" that documents the find.

 
 
under the radar

How turbulence will change air travel

Radical changes to air travel are expected after a British passenger died of a heart attack when a Singapore Airlines flight from Heathrow to Singapore hit severe turbulence last month.

Scientists say climate change will increase turbulence in the decades ahead. "Terrified" airline bosses are already taking steps that could make air travel a more restrictive and expensive experience, said The Times.

In a research paper published last year turbulence expert Isabel Smith explained that because of climate change "the upper atmosphere is warming faster in the tropics than in the polar regions". This temperature difference between low and high latitudes "increases wind shear in the jet streams", which "enhances the formation of turbulent patches of air".

Fatalities caused by turbulence are unusual and while it has occasionally caused aeroplanes to crash, most of those tragedies were before modern analysis techniques made flying safer.

Singapore Airlines has announced that it will take a "more cautious approach to managing turbulence". The carrier will suspend the hot drink service when the seatbelt sign is on and meal services will be paused during bumpy conditions.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA is lobbying for a ban on children under the age of two travelling on a parent's lap.

Passengers "may also notice the seatbelt light being illuminated for longer periods than before", said The Telegraph. And pilots might begin to reroute to avoid rocky jet streams, meaning "longer flights and more fuel", coming at a "greater cost for the passenger".

 
 
on this day

6 June 1944

Today marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day. British, US, Canadian and French troops landed in Normandy to attack Germany, with more than 5,000 ships transporting 156,000 soldiers in the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The UK's national commemorative event will take place at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer today.

 
 
Today's newspapers

The 80th anniversary of D-Day dominates the papers, with the Daily Mail and Daily Express leading on the King's remark that the nation is "eternally" in the "debt" of the World War II heroes. The Financial Times reports that Rishi Sunak has put forward JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon and former Google chair Eric Schmidt – both of whom are American – for honours.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Survival linked to chain

A man in Colorado survived a brush with death when his 10mm-wide chain necklace stopped a bullet from penetrating his neck. The victim had been embroiled in an argument when the shooting took place, but walked away with just a puncture wound from the attack. "We'd say he really dodged a bullet," said officers in Commerce City in a Facebook post, "but in reality he lodged a bullet."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Hollie Clemence, Julia O'Driscoll, Chas Newkey-Burden and Adrienne Wyper, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Chris Fairweather / Huw Evans / Shutterstock; Jack Guez / AFP / Getty Images; Tiziana Fabi / AFP /Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images.