With deadly blazes sweeping across Brazil, and Greece braced for high-risk weather, wildfire season is in full swing. Wildfires not only pose a serious threat to human and animal life, but also wreak devastating damage on homes, landscapes and livelihoods. And the economic cost – for affected countries and individuals – has proven enormous.

How much do wildfires cost?
Bloomberg reported that wildfires cost Europe €4.1 billion (£3.46 billion) in damages last year, but when you include the long-term impacts, those costs spiral. The wildfires that raged across Sicily in 2023 caused more than €60 million (£50.7 million) of direct damage, said The Guardian, but "damage to agriculture caused by fires and the intense heatwave amounted to about €200 million".

The US Senate Joint Economic Committee released a report last year suggesting that "climate change-fuelled wildfires" cost the US economy up to $893 billion (£675.5 billion) each year, said CNN.

What about the cost to homeowners?
Beyond the direct costs of rebuilding damaged homes and businesses, wildfires also impact residents in less obvious ways. In California, home insurance premiums have rocketed, said the San Francisco Chronicle, "making an already expensive state even less affordable".

Plus, "homeowners who have had to take on a higher insurance premium may have a tougher time selling their home", said CNN.

What are the health costs?
"As fires become more frequent, that smoke is leading to a public health crisis," said Fast Company. A study published in the Science Advances journal found that wildfire smoke "likely contributed to more than 52,000 premature deaths" in California from 2008 to 2018. Those deaths had an "economic impact" of more than $430 billion (£326 billion).
 
Wildfire damage has also impacted drinking water. In 2022, a wildfire in northern New Mexico left behind "sludgy ash and charred soil" that contaminated the region's Gallinas River, "threatening the drinking water supply for the city of Las Vegas", said CNN. "You realise how expensive clean water really is and how infrastructure dependent it is," Senator Martin Heinrich, chair of the US Senate Joint Economic Committee, told the broadcaster.

More than a fifth of UK diners are refusing to pay optional service charges in restaurants, with the "sneaky" 12.5% now "routinely tacked onto the bill" finally seeming to have overcome our "national penchant for avoiding a fuss", wrote Hannah Twiggs in The Independent.

Dining out in the UK has become an "exercise in ethical gymnastics" and a growing number of diners – 34% in the Southwest – are "boldly opting out" of paying optional service charges.

Tipping 'a bit like Marmite'
Although the rising cost of living "might be driving this newfound frugality", tipping culture in the UK has "always been a bit like Marmite", said Twiggs.

"I'd prefer not to have a service charge added automatically in restaurants where the service has been ropey," said Sathnam Sanghera in The Times. Tipping culture in the UK has "become as deranged as in America", where baristas ask for tips "even when you'd ordered a takeaway coffee".

But even customers across the pond are getting "a little bit stingier", said NBC News, as it reported the number of American adults who say they always tip has fallen eight percentage points since 2021, to 67%.

Guilt-ridden obligation
There is often confusion over whether tips go to staff or get dipped into by management, but new laws will come into force in October making it legally binding that all service charges go directly to staff.

However, if the customer trend of withholding service charges continues, hospitality staff who are "set to take home more cash once the new tipping act comes into play" may find their uplift is "smaller than expected, as some consumers withhold tips and service charge for exceptional service", said Saxon Moseley, from business advisory firm RSM.

Dining out "should be a pleasure, not a guilt-ridden obligation", wrote Twiggs. "Maybe one day, we’ll all look back on service charge as a quaint relic of a bygone era" – like "smoking in restaurants or jellied eels".

Estonia's second biggest city is finally having its moment in the spotlight. Crowned one of three European Capitals of Culture for 2024, Tartu is brimming with galleries, museums and restaurants.

What to do
The "charming" cobbled streets in the old town, coupled with its close proximity to the "wild landscapes" of southern Estonia, make Tartu one of the most "underrated" destinations in the region, said Berkok Yüksel in National Geographic.

Start off by visiting the city's central Town Hall Square, where you'll find the Tartu Art Museum, built in 1793 and home to a year-round exhibition of Estonian art. Be sure to explore Supilinn (Soup Town) – formerly one of Europe's oldest slums, now filled with "beautifully preserved" wooden houses, said The Times.

It's also well worth visiting Aparaaditehas, said Siobhan Reid in Vogue. The "Soviet-era factory turned beehive of creativity" is home to a collection of contemporary art galleries, alongside the popular Müürilille flea market. The Estonian National Museum, set within an "angular glass and concrete building" on a former Soviet airbase just outside the city, is another "essential stop".

Where to eat
If you spend an afternoon in Supilinn, be sure to stop at Kakk, said The Times. This "cosy cafe with a mish-mash of vintage furniture" serves delicious pastries and "wholesome" vegan soup; at night it transforms into an "atmospheric" bar with live music.

Or, for an "impressive" selection of cocktails and light bites, head to Cafe Truffe in Tartu's old town. Dishes span everything from Ukrainian dumplings to crispy artichokes with Parmesan and truffle mayonnaise.

Putin will soon turn his war machine on Britain
Ben Wallace in The Telegraph
Vladimir Putin is "not driven by logic, nor a passion to turn his country into a modern, outward-looking power", writes former defence secretary Ben Wallace, but by "history, and Russia's place in it". A "warped worldview" dominated by notions of "revenge, legacy and romance", and of Russians as "victims of a Western plot", has put Britain "in Putin's crosshairs". "Make no mistake," he is "coming for us" and "we must be prepared".

In defence of Kirstie Allsopp
Sam Leith in The Spectator
Kirstie Allsopp being "reported to social services for allowing her 15-year-old son to travel round Europe with a friend" shows that we are "a nation of busybodies, bluenoses and snitches" intent on "minding each other's business", writes Sam Leith. Allsopp "has evidently raised a son in whom she was right to have such confidence", and this should be "a matter for celebration" rather than "priggish and cowardly denunciations".

Will an Oasis reunion be a success? Definitely. Will it be worth it? Maybe
Alexis Petridis in The Guardian
"I couldn't be more equivocal about Oasis reforming," writes Alexis Petridis. The band's first two albums and the accompanying singles and B-sides were "fantastic", but after their third album, they "usually sounded bloated and weary" and "they were wildly variable live". So "the reunion could go either way", but it's that sense that "you can't be 100% sure what's going to happen" that "makes it worth seeing".