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George Clooney, Amal Clooney send note to mayor while evacuating home in France amid wildfires

George Clooney and Amal Clooney attend the 51st Chaplin Award Gala honoring George Clooney at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center on April 27, 2026 in New York City. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

George Clooney and Amal Clooney evacuated their home in Brignoles, France, this week as wildfires tore through the region, sending a moving note to the town’s mayor as they left.

The actor and human rights attorney informed Didier Bremond, the mayor of Brignoles, of their departure in a note shared with ABC News by a representative for Clooney on Thursday.

“At this point we have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible moment and as we evacuate Brignoles we want to emphasise 2 things,” the note read. “First we hope you and the people of our city are safe and second that Amal and i are committed to making sure that whatever happens to our village, we are part of this community and we’ll be part of making it whole.”

“We love Brignoles and our friends who live there,” the note concluded.

Brignoles is located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southeastern France and has a population of around 18,000, according to a recent census.

A wildfire broke out near the town on Wednesday, burning approximately 321 acres of vegetation before it was contained around 3 a.m. local time, but not fully extinguished, according to local authorities. Four firefighters were injured while battling the blaze, authorities said in an update Thursday, adding that firefighters were still working to put out the flames.

Wildfires are currently burning through large swaths of southern Europe, including parts of Greece, France and Spain, and as far north as the U.K. Hundreds of thousands of residents have been evacuated amid the fires, with sweltering heat waves blanketing the region, worsening conditions.

George Clooney and Amal Clooney reportedly purchased their home in France in 2021, according to The Associated Press.

George Clooney discussed his life in France in a 2025 interview with Esquire, describing what it was like for his family to live on farm in the country.

“Yeah, we’re very lucky,” he said at the time. “You know, we live on a farm in France. A good portion of my life growing up was on a farm, and as a kid I hated the whole idea of it. But now, for [my kids], it’s like — they’re not on their iPads, you know? They have dinner with grown-ups and have to take their dishes in. They have a much better life.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Senate passes bill to fund government in bid to avert shutdown ahead of midterm elections

By CNN
(CNN) — The Senate passed a bill on Saturday that would extend government funding to December 11 in a bid to avert a shutdown ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.The chamber moved to tackle the funding deadline over a month in advance of the September 30 deadline. It’s not yet clear though if lawmakers will manage to stave off a funding fight next month.The bill passed by the Senate would next have to be taken up by the House, where it’s fate is uncertain as that chamber has already passed an alternative measure.The Senate measure differs from a funding extension passed by the House in several ways, including a lack of funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which have already been funded through the end of President Donald Trump’s term, and a temporary block on a proposed administration rule that critics warn would further politicize federal grants.Senate leaves for August recessThe Senate vote to pass the funding bill came in the early hours of Saturday morning, as senators attempted to wrap up a number of legislative items before departing Washington to return to their home states for the August recess.Ultimately, in addition to adopting the measure to extend government funding into December, the Senate also confirmed acting attorney general Todd Blanche as the permanent head of the Department of Justice, and, separately, rejected a voter ID measure.However, Senate Republicans chose to delay for now a vote on their budget resolution, which was meant to be a party-line package containing defense funding and parts of a controversial elections bill, after President Donald Trump called into a late meeting at the Capitol with several senators on Friday night to discuss their options, those senators said.Trump had demanded that the Senate pass the budget resolution before leaving town for their recess, and GOP Sen. Mike Lee had said he would object to any effort to speed up consideration and leave if the budget resolution did not pass. Both Trump and Lee have been pushing for the president’s elections package, known as the “SAVE America Act,” for months.However, Sen. Ron Johnson, who chairs the Senate budget committee, told reporters that during a meeting in Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office on Friday night, the president called in and there was unanimous agreement that the GOP senators will go back to the drawing board for a “better” budget resolution, including more defense funding, that they can pursue when they return in September, rather than face a failed vote to advance a budget resolution this week.Republican leadership had also hoped to at least take a preliminary procedural vote on a bill focused on regulating name, image, and likeness deals in college sports, but senators were unable to reach a deal on the package.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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