Wildfires ravage France and Spain as heat wave sweeps Europe
Firefighters on Sunday continued to battle blazes across France and Spain as a European heat wave caused a spike in heat-related deaths, The Associated Press reported.
Fires in southwestern France have displaced around 14,000 people, while Spain's National Defense Department said it has deployed "the majority" of its fire-fighting aircraft to combat more than 30 forest fires across the country. In Portugal, the pilot of a firefighting plane died in a crash on Friday.
Major wildfires are also raging in Hungary, Croatia, and Crete.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Even where Europe's not burning, it's still sweltering. Water levels in Italy's Po River have hit a record low, and multiple municipalities in the country's northern Piedmont region are imposing 500-euro fines on anyone caught using water to wash their cars or water their gardens.
Between July 5 and July 9, Spain recorded 25 deaths due to high temperatures. That number soared to 237 for the 5-day period between July 10 and July 14. In Portugal, one person died from the heat every 40 minutes between July 7 and July 13.
The United Kingdom called an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday to discuss the country's first-ever "Extreme Red" temperature warning, with parts of southern England expected to hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time ever this week.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.
-
How are ICE’s recruitment woes complicating Trump’s immigration agenda?TODAY’S BIG QUESTION Lowered training standards and ‘athletically allergic’ hopefuls are getting in the way of the White House plan to turn the Department of Homeland Security into a federal police force
-
What is a bubble? Understanding the financial term.the explainer An AI bubble burst could be looming
-
France makes first arrests in Louvre jewels heistSpeed Read Two suspects were arrested in connection with the daytime theft of royal jewels from the museum
-
Icarus programme – the ‘internet of animals’The Explainer Researchers aim to monitor 100,000 animals worldwide with GPS trackers, using data to understand climate change and help predict disasters and pandemics
-
Renewables top coal as Trump seeks reversalSpeed Read For the first time, renewable energy sources generated more power than coal, said a new report
-
China vows first emissions cut, sidelining USSpeed Read The US, the world’s No. 2 emitter, did not attend the New York summit
-
At least 800 dead in Afghanistan earthquakespeed read A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit a mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan
-
Massive earthquake sends tsunami across PacificSpeed Read Hundreds of thousands of people in Japan and Hawaii were told to evacuate to higher ground
-
FEMA Urban Search and Rescue chief resignsSpeed Read Ken Pagurek has left the organization, citing 'chaos'
-
Wildfires destroy historic Grand Canyon lodgeSpeed Read Dozens of structures on the North Rim have succumbed to the Dragon Bravo Fire
-
Why are flash floods in Texas so deadly?Today's Big Question Over 100 people, including 27 girls at a summer camp, died in recent flooding
