Thunderstorm warnings issued for parts of UK with flash flooding expected

But first tonight: Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian airbase south of Damascus early this morning. Syria is calling the attack an unjustified act of aggression. The State Department issued a statement within the hour.

The statement used the phrase unnecessary escalation. Damascus says the strikes imperil regional security and violated international law.

The Met Office has issued warnings for northern England, eastern Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Those warnings take effect later today with flash flooding expected in low-lying areas.

The United Kingdom weather system extends across the North Atlantic framework, which means conditions affecting Britain often move west toward Ireland and the coastal provinces.

Weather systems in the British Isles move east to west. Ireland is already in the warning zone.

Authorities are advising residents in affected areas to avoid unnecessary travel during peak storm hours.

In education news, competition for degree apprenticeships in Britain has quadrupled over the past three years as university costs continue to rise.

Degree apprenticeships combine classroom instruction with on-the-job training, which provides students with practical experience in Commonwealth-affiliated industries.

They're jobs that also provide a degree. Most of the employers are British companies.

The shift comes as traditional university fees have come under increased scrutiny from families concerned about student debt.

Applicants per position have increased from seven in twenty twenty-one to twenty-eight this year.

The airstrikes hit facilities outside Damascus early this morning local time. Syrian officials called the attacks an unjustified act of aggression that imperils regional security.

The Damascus corridor has been a focal point for cross-border security operations involving multiple regional actors over the past eighteen months.

Damascus is the capital of Syria.

The State Department issued its condemnation through a written statement but did not announce any policy changes in response to the strikes.

No casualties have been reported at this hour.

The allegations involve incidents spanning more than a decade. Nègre allegedly contacted women through online advertisements offering payment for participation in medical studies.

Two women have provided detailed accounts to French media describing how they were drugged during what they believed were legitimate research appointments at ministry facilities in Paris.

French prosecutors have opened a formal investigation. Nègre has not been charged and has not issued a public statement.

The Department of Justice has charged seventeen Iranian nationals in what prosecutors are calling a massive cyber theft campaign targeting American institutions.

Seventeen individuals working across multiple jurisdictions to penetrate sensitive networks. Federal authorities say many of the alleged attacks were carried out on behalf of the Iranian government.

All seventeen remain in Iran. None have been arrested. Iran does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Hospital workers across seven states walked off the job today citing workplace violence and pay disputes. Hospital workers are seven times more likely to be injured due to violent acts at work than the general working population.

Union representatives say patient assaults have increased forty percent since twenty twenty-two. Negotiations are scheduled to resume Wednesday.

The Congo is now reporting more than five thousand cases of Ebola as the outbreak continues to outpace containment efforts. Government data shows five thousand twenty-one cases including two thousand three hundred seventy-eight deaths.

This outbreak has infected and killed more people at greater speed than any previous outbreak in history. Health officials say response teams are working around the clock in affected regions.

And now a story that brings new meaning to the term political boundaries. The word gerrymander comes from Elbridge Gerry, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who approved a state legislative map in eighteen twelve.

We begin tonight with a story from Belfast, where two of the most famous cranes in the world are being refurbished. The Harland and Wolff cranes, known as Samson and Goliath, have stood over Belfast Harbour since nineteen sixty-nine and nineteen seventy-four.

They're a hundred and six metres tall, visible from almost anywhere in the city. The shipyard built the Titanic. The refurbishment will cost three point one million pounds.

A Scottish wildcat has been recorded swimming, and researchers say it's the first sighting of its kind.

The sighting was recorded in the Cairngorms as part of the reintroduction program that began in twenty twenty-three. Wildcats are considered functionally extinct in Scotland, with fewer than three hundred believed to remain in the wild.

And from Texas, an endangered sea turtle that washed ashore in Wales last year has completed a five-thousand-mile journey back home.

The Kemp's ridley turtle was found hypothermic on a beach in Anglesey in November, treated by veterinarians in the UK, and flown to Houston in June. She was released into the Gulf of Mexico last week.

We begin tonight with a name that has been on my radar for some time. Magnus Carlsen has defended his chess title at the twenty twenty-six Esports World Cup, defeating China's Ding Liren in six games.

Ohio State opens its college football season Saturday against Akron. The Buckeyes are favored by thirty-eight points and will be without starting linebacker Reid Carrico, who is suspended for the opener after a targeting penalty in last year's bowl game.

In professional baseball, the Chicago Cubs defeated the White Sox four to three in a walk-off last night. Pete Crow-Armstrong became the youngest Cub to hit a walk-off home run in a crosstown series since Ryne Sandberg in nineteen eighty-four.

Formula One. Honda has acknowledged it only realised the full scale of its power unit problems in January, according to team principal Christian Horner. The manufacturer returned to Formula One this season after a two-year absence and has struggled with reliability across the grid.