Gulf mediators and Iran agree to keep talking as US strike threat loomsIsrael votes at record turnout in election too close to callCongo Ebola cases pass 10,000 as neighbours tighten quarantineHouthis claim missile strike on Ras Tanura as Egypt backs RiyadhOleshky truce holds as Nordic leaders speak with PutinDrone strikes kill 21 in Nyala and cut power across Sudan as states warn of famineChurch reports 60 Orthodox Christians killed in two Oromia attacksIndia evacuates eastern coast as very severe Cyclone Arnab nears landfallJordan strikes southern Syria after church attack, Damascus protestsAnthropic's IPO filing shows heavy losses and warns of existential risksRussian strikes damage Kyiv's South Bridge and cut power in seven regionsFlávio Bolsonaro leaves for US as Brazil cancels his passportsOil holds near $115 while gas, fuel costs and inflation stay highChina's AI stocks keep falling despite state supportFrench student groups reject concessions as finance minister rules out new spendingAI stocks rebound as Meta raises equity and Anthropic files for IPOHebron displacement nears 5,000 as officers expect pullout after voteTwo men charged over RAF Fairford incidentStudent List wins Serbian election as Croatia demands acknowledgement of 1990s warsIndonesia and Singapore plan haze task force amid tensionsBrazil's real suffers worst day in over 25 years after Lula comebackIran threatens legal action against Sinokor ships over HormuzUN commission says Israel continued genocide in Gaza after ceasefireGas exporters meet in Moscow as Iranian and Qatari leaders hold talksIndonesian bond yield hits four-year high as MSCI risk and oil weighFrench consumer confidence hits 13-year low amid protestsGulf mediators and Iran agree to keep talking as US strike threat loomsIsrael votes at record turnout in election too close to callCongo Ebola cases pass 10,000 as neighbours tighten quarantineHouthis claim missile strike on Ras Tanura as Egypt backs RiyadhOleshky truce holds as Nordic leaders speak with PutinDrone strikes kill 21 in Nyala and cut power across Sudan as states warn of famineChurch reports 60 Orthodox Christians killed in two Oromia attacksIndia evacuates eastern coast as very severe Cyclone Arnab nears landfallJordan strikes southern Syria after church attack, Damascus protestsAnthropic's IPO filing shows heavy losses and warns of existential risksRussian strikes damage Kyiv's South Bridge and cut power in seven regionsFlávio Bolsonaro leaves for US as Brazil cancels his passportsOil holds near $115 while gas, fuel costs and inflation stay highChina's AI stocks keep falling despite state supportFrench student groups reject concessions as finance minister rules out new spendingAI stocks rebound as Meta raises equity and Anthropic files for IPOHebron displacement nears 5,000 as officers expect pullout after voteTwo men charged over RAF Fairford incidentStudent List wins Serbian election as Croatia demands acknowledgement of 1990s warsIndonesia and Singapore plan haze task force amid tensionsBrazil's real suffers worst day in over 25 years after Lula comebackIran threatens legal action against Sinokor ships over HormuzUN commission says Israel continued genocide in Gaza after ceasefireGas exporters meet in Moscow as Iranian and Qatari leaders hold talksIndonesian bond yield hits four-year high as MSCI risk and oil weighFrench consumer confidence hits 13-year low amid protests
Bota
Symbolic image: Three Greek firefighters die as fires near Bordeaux and Madrid are containedSymbolic image

Three Greek firefighters die as fires near Bordeaux and Madrid are contained

5 sources

The Greek fire department says three firefighters died while battling blazes on Crete and in the south of the mainland. In France and Spain, crews contained the large fires near Bordeaux and west of Madrid, but high winds and a fourth heatwave threaten flare-ups, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the next 12 hours decisive. SNCF is keeping TGV services south of Bordeaux cancelled until Sunday.

What happened

The Greek fire department said three of its firefighters died while tackling wildfires on Crete and in the south of the mainland. In France, crews kept a fire in the pine forests near Bordeaux from reaching the city's suburbs; the Gironde prefecture put the burned area at 42,000 hectares and said 126 firefighters had been injured since the fire began. Spanish emergency services contained the blaze west of Madrid overnight, and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska described the largest wildfire in Spanish records as technically stabilised, while a separate fire near València stayed out of control. Temperatures reached 38C in Bordeaux and 37C in Madrid during the fourth heatwave of western Europe's summer, accompanied by strong winds. Sánchez said the next 12 hours would be decisive and noted that Spain had raised a fire to operational level 3 for the first time, putting the national government in charge of the response. According to the Guardian, more than 330,000 people in southern Europe have left homes and hotels; officials began lifting evacuation orders on Tuesday.

The view from outside

Outlets outside the affected countries read the summer as a structural test rather than a single emergency. The New York Times frames the season as a reckoning for Europe on climate and warns that worse may lie ahead even as the fires slow. The Guardian cites the European Forest Fire Information System, according to which fires have burned a record area of France, with France and Spain also recording record numbers of fires for this time of year.

What could happen next

SNCF extended the cancellation of TGV services south of Bordeaux to Sunday 2 August, saying the prefecture has not lifted rail restrictions and the network operator cannot yet inspect its installations; it is adding more than 9,000 seats via Toulouse, and the transport ministry has extended free rebooking until 4 August. New fires broke out in the Var near Brignoles, where 600 to 700 people left the area, at Couchey near Dijon and again in the Fontainebleau forest. In Spain, the Castilla y León government evacuated twelve villages around Fermoselle in the Arribes del Duero national park, with roughly 950 people brought to safety according to media reports. Sánchez put the number of active fires in Spain at ten and said he has asked the European Commission to set up a European firefighting centre at Son Sant Joan on Mallorca.

To the edition