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Wildfires are rampaging through vast areas of land in southwestern Europe, forcing France and Spain to evacuate more than 325,000 people from their homes.

Some of the worst fires in France since World War II come just weeks after record-breaking heatwaves scorched Europe. Authorities have deployed thousands of firefighters to battle the blazes.

On Sunday, France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez, said about “115,000 hectares (284,171 acres) have burned in wildfires in France since the start of the year”. In Spain, 119,458 hectares (295,187 acres) of land have been burnt as of July 22 , according to data from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

More than 150,000 hectares have burned across Spain since January, said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez – that’s six times the area destroyed during the same period last year.

Wildfires destroyed 2.2 million hectares (5.4 million acres) of land in Europe in 2025 – up from 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) in 2022, according to the United Nations.

What is the main cause of the wildfires and why are authorities struggling to contain them?

What has happened?

Since early July, wildfires have been burning across southern and western Europe, with France and Spain being the worst hit.

About 220,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in France, about 75,000 people in Spain, and around 30,000 others there ordered to shelter in place, according to authorities.

In Spain, a fast-moving wildfire in the Andalusia region killed at least 12 people on July 10 . By July 20 , the fires had spread hundreds of kilometres to the capital, Madrid. At least 10,000 people have been evacuated following wildfires in the central region of Madrid. On July 24 , Spanish authorities declared a national emergency, saying two major blazes were “out of control”.

Over the weekend, a separate blaze in Spain’s eastern Castellon province ravaged more than 4,300 hectares (10,625 acres), regional authorities said.

“The fire is out of control, it’s very difficult to extinguish from a technical standpoint, especially because of the adverse weather conditions that will continue throughout the day,” the regional leader of Valencia, Juanfran Perez, told reporters near the site.

The wildfire in Spain has now entered the Sierra de Espadan natural park, containing large forests of pine trees and cork oaks.

In France, the wildfires are among the country’s worst since World War II and have particularly ravaged the Cap Ferret peninsula, an exclusive holiday destination on France’s southern Atlantic coast about 70km (43 miles) from Bordeaux.

Reporting from Maubec, near Toulouse, Al Jazeera’s Nina Montagu-Smith said: “When I visited Arcachon, a seaside town just across the bay from Cap Ferret on Thursday last week, we could see the fires on the peninsula. Within hours, the sky had blackened and the smoke was thick over Arcachon town.”

“All trains from Arcachon were cancelled, apparently due to an ‘electrical fault’,” she added. “Fire engines were lining the A63 from Bordeaux towards Arcachon on Thursday evening as I drove eastwards to Libourne, which is 100km from the fires in the Gironde region,” she said.

Our correspondent noted that after the wind picked up on Thursday evening, smoke from the blaze reached Libourne, where ash was falling from the sky.

“We have since relocated further east in France towards Toulouse, where the sky is very grey and we could still smell the smoke on Sunday night,” she added.

The wildfires have now spread through areas surrounding Bordeaux, where firefighters were trying to prevent the flames from reaching the regional capital.

Bordeaux Mayor Thomas Cazenave said the fire was just 15km (nine miles) from entrances to the main city.

“We have a fire that is not under control and which is moving in the direction of the city area,” Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told France 2 TV on Sunday evening. “The overall situation is very unfavourable, we are in a situation that is unprecedented.”

So far, authorities have moved 197,000 people from areas around Bordeaux – including popular holiday spots which are generally crowded at this time of the year.

The Bordeaux region is famed for its vineyards and the ‌‌city is one of the main transport hubs for tourists visiting nearby holiday resorts on the Atlantic coast.

Cazenave said earlier on Sunday that there were no plans yet to evacuate Bordeaux, whose wider metropolitan area has a population of about 850,000. Nunez said authorities would continue to assess the situation calmly and realistically, and the government has warned against road or rail travel to the area.

The wildfires disrupted Sunday’s Tour de France finale in Paris, which organisers shortened from 133 to 89 kilometres (83 to 55 miles) after security forces originally assigned to the race were redeployed to fight the fires instead.

Why are these fires so bad?

Scientists are warning that pyrocumulonimbus clouds – unprecedented in southwest Europe – are forming.

According to the British Royal Meteorological Society, these are thunder clouds “created by intense heat from the Earth’s surface”. They can make conditions almost impossible for firefighters.

They are formed similarly to normal clouds, but “the intense heat that results in the vigorous updraft comes from fire, either large wildfires or volcanic eruptions”, the society said. It explained that there may be a burst of rain because of them but warned that this rain “can then carry embers from the fire, igniting spot fires away from the source. In some cases, dry lightning from these storms can strike without rain, further spreading the wildfire”.

A spokesman for France’s National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF) told the AFP news agency: “Lightning forms within the cloud, striking the embers on the ground and further fuelling the fire … It produces a low, rumbling sound. While this type of fire occurs regularly in Canada and Australia, it is unprecedented in France,” he said on Sunday.

“We have reached a point of ‘operational impossibility’ that requires us to accept the need for strategic retreat – to understand and acknowledge a natural force beyond our control,” he said.

“It calls for … knowing what can be done and, above all, what cannot. The situation on the ground is defensive rather than offensive; it is a war-like scenario where we are under constant bombardment and must get everyone to safety,” he added.

What are authorities doing now?

Spanish and French authorities say firefighters alone cannot fight the blaze and have appealed for international help.

On Sunday, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez visited fire-hit areas in Avila, one of three central provinces affected by major blazes alongside Madrid and Toledo, where more than 45,000 hectares (111,000 acres) have burned.

“We have a window of opportunity this weekend to fight the wildfire and, therefore, to protect lives, protect population centres and, ultimately, to bring this very serious wildfire under control as far as possible,” he said.

Sanchez said his government will declare a civil protection emergency for the central provinces plagued by the wildfires on Tuesday, unlocking additional recovery funding.

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on X ⁠⁠on Saturday: “The fires which ⁠⁠are hitting our country have reached a level that has never been seen before”.

Lecornu called another government crisis meeting on Saturday for ministers to discuss the response to the emergency, the second such meeting in as many days.

French President Emmanuel Macron was holding a cabinet crisis meeting on Monday.

The European Union’s civil protection mechanism is monitoring the situation and has been assisting. Under the mechanism so far, Greece and Italy have sent firefighting aircraft to Spain, while Portugal has deployed more than 100 military personnel, along with equipment.

Two more aircraft will arrive “as soon as possible” from Turkey, the Spanish interior ministry added on X.

Why are these fires becoming so much harder to contain?

Wildfires have been a common occurrence in Europe in recent years, but authorities have increasingly been struggling to contain them.

Sanchez said the growing scale of the fires and their intensity, fuelled by increasingly extreme weather such as the heatwaves this summer, require policies grounded in climate science.

Eduardo Rojas, chairman of the Board at the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification told Al Jazeera’s Inside Story programme on Sunday that there are multiple factors causing the wildfires which also need attention.

He said the fires in the wild lands of the country have occurred where the “urban interface is extraordinarily complex”. He noted that some areas were “built up in the 60s, 70s and 80s without a proper city plan and with lack of infrastructure, lack of water availability…and with a lack of knowledge of the neighbourhoods.” When a fire occurs, therefore, there is a “lack of knowledge” about how to deal with them.

“The fire in west Madrid is a kind of fire that doesn’t burn a huge area but creates a lot of hesitation,” he said.

“We also have farms where cereals are harvested and even [with] a small lightning [strike], the cereal can start to burn and at the end a big agricultural area ends up burning which is a big damage for farmers,” he noted.

“These kinds of fires need to be tackled in a totally different way because their cause and their environment and conditions are incomparable with one another,” he added.

Laurie Laybourn, executive director of Strategic Climate Risks Initiative, a non-partisan thinktank told Al Jazeera that governments across the continent are unable to cope with the pace at which climate change is occurring.

“All governments develop what are called reasonable worst-case scenarios to inform their planning and in many instances the events that we’re seeing are going beyond even those. So what that tells us is that the tools that we’ve got, the analysis that is informing government planning is a step behind how fast climate change and its supercharging of disasters is,” he said.

So is this all mainly because of climate change?

According to the European Forest Institute, a wildfire “is a chemical reaction of combustion, which requires a source of heat (lightning, an agricultural “burn” which escapes, or a spark originating in an electric line), oxygen and fuel (forests, shrubs or pastures) to get started.”

“Wildfire risks are increasing worldwide because of climate change and land use change,” the institute added in a July 9 report.

In a recent report, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe issued a warning about climate change, saying it is directly responsible for intensifying wildfires and their increasing frequency.

There are clear indications that climate change is “supercharging” incidents such as wildfires, Laybourn told Al Jazeera.

“Any disaster is very complex. The causes are multilayered, including how we build and how we use land…But climate change is supercharging the conditions that make us vulnerable to things like wildfires and that has been something that’s been predicted now for many decades and tragically becoming true in front of our eyes,” he said.

According to Copernicus, the European Union’s climate change service, Europe is now the fastest warming continent on Earth, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since 1980.

Laybourn explained that this summer’s heatwaves were also caused by climate change.

He warned and stressed that governments need to prioritise tackling the issue.

“This should be a moment of profound alarm and reflection, particularly for governments.”

Germany has approved almost 800 million euros ($913m) in arms export licences to Israel in the first five months of 2026, more than in the previous 20 months combined, the government in Berlin has confirmed.

According to a Federal Foreign Office reply to a parliamentary question by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, nearly all the approvals were cleared in April and May.

The approvals portend a dramatic surge in weapons exports to Israel from one of the country’s most steadfast allies in Europe despite the German government’s insistence that it is concerned about the devastation wrought by Israel’s military in Gaza.

The big spend

The government said more than 60 percent of the value of the arms licences is earmarked for a single, unnamed “major maritime project”.

The most likely candidate, analysts said, is a submarine built by the German manufacturer TKMS.

The INS Drakon, a nuclear-capable Dolphin II-class submarine, underwent its maiden voyage last year at a shipyard in Kiel on the Baltic Sea. Its estimated value is 480 million euros ($548m). It was officially handed over to the Israeli Navy last week, according to German media reports.

According to several reports, it could feature a vertical launching system (VLS), enabling it to launch nuclear-tipped cruise missiles or ballistic missiles. Israel would become only the second navy after South Korea known to field a VLS on a modern, air-independent propulsion (AIP), conventionally powered submarine.

During its sea trials, the submarine’s tower was covered with tarpaulins and fibreglass plates to prevent observers from determining its weapons configuration. Strategically, submarines of this class could provide a sea-based second-strike capability – the ability of a country to fire back nuclear weapons after it has itself faced a nuclear attack.

In May, TKMS signed a memorandum of understanding on future collaboration with Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest private defence contractor.

The German Foreign Office and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, under whose purview arms export licences fall, both declined to comment on the matter.

Max Mutschler, a senior researcher with the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies, told Al Jazeera: “Unfortunately, the fact that the federal government does not explicitly mention this is also typical of the lack of transparency surrounding arms exports.”

Last year, reports conflicted over whether the export licence for the submarine had been granted. The order dates back to 2012. While TKMS indicated approval, the German government denied it at the time.

Germany’s shifting positions

The hesitation might have stemmed from legal concerns surrounding proceedings against Germany at the International Court of Justice in The Hague as well as shifting public opinion in Germany, which has largely turned against arms exports to Israel. According to media reports, Germany is helping finance about 30 percent of the costs for the Drakon and roughly one-third of those for the future Dakar class.

This month, TKMS was also selected by Canada as the preferred bidder to build up to 12 submarines in what would be the largest order in TKMS’s history. The value of the vessels alone is estimated at 12 billion euros ($13.7bn) to 18 billion euros ($21bn).

For years, submarine deals with Germany have been under investigation by the Israeli judiciary over bribery allegations involving close associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ruth Rohde from the British research organisation Shadow World Investigations told Al Jazeera: “Israel has used German ships to fire at Gaza, to blockade and starve Gaza, and is using submarines to station nuclear weapons. At a time when Israel is waging brutal wars on its neighbours and is committing a genocide in Gaza, this submarine export would give Israel another tool in its arsenal of mass destruction.”

Berlin’s arms export policy towards Israel has been marked by reversals. In early August, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Germany would issue no further licences for military equipment that could be used by Israel in the Gaza Strip. By that time, an Al Jazeera investigation had shown that Germany had already exported almost $12m worth of weapons consignments to Israel since October 2023 when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

And the partial suspension proved short-lived: In November, the government lifted the restrictions and returned to reviewing export applications on a case-by-case basis. Even during the suspension, previously approved deliveries continued. In September, for instance, a $794,000 weapons consignment from Germany landed at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.

Mutschler told Al Jazeera that some people in government “found the export of certain weapons to Israel problematic in light of numerous and credible reports of Israeli war crimes during the military operation in Gaza”. However, it was not enough to “bring about a generally restrictive arms export policy toward Israel”.

The economic calculation

Germany is one of the world’s largest arms exporters. In the first six months of 2026, licences were granted for arms worth 13.87 billion euros ($15.8bn), according to the Arms Export Report of the Ministry of Economics, published in mid-July. That is more than four times as much as during the same period in 2025. Ukraine remains the primary recipient of German arms exports.

Mutschler explained: “Arms exports have been and continue to be viewed by most federal governments primarily from an economic perspective and welcomed as a means of strengthening the defence industry.” He added: “The fact that these arms shipments can also be used to commit war crimes seems to play a significantly smaller role in the decision-making process.”

As a crisis in Germany’s economy – whose strength has relied primarily on exports, particularly in the car industry – has intensified, its defence industry has boomed in recent years. This development was publicly attributed to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine although plans for increased defence spending had already been prepared beforehand, according to reports.

Pieter D Wezeman, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, sees this as a general trend. He told Al Jazeera: “The demand for arms in Europe has increased dramatically over the past few years whereas the demand for arms in many other parts of the world does not seem to be decreasing or is likely to increase.”

The German market remains very important to the country’s arms industry as Germany is set to double its military spending from well below 2 percent of it gross domestic product to a stated goal of 3.5 percent of its GDP within a few years, Wezeman explained. “Germany is now the largest military spender in Europe [not counting Russia], and its arms industry is a core component of the European military-industrial base.”

The Tour triumph marks the Slovenian’s third win in a row and draws him level with four others on the all-time list

Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar secured a record-equalling fifth Tour de France title on Sunday after safely navigating the final stage, won by Mathieu van ⁠der Poel, to seal a third consecutive crown in cycling’s greatest race.

The 27-year-old UAE Team Emirates XRGcyclist, affectionately known as “Pogi”, only needed to avoid a race-ending mishap on the run into Paris to join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and ⁠Miguel Indurain as a five-time Tour champion.

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel finished second overall, while Mexico’s Isaac del Toro rounded out the overall podium in third.

“Thank you to all the fans and to all of France for hosting this great race,” Pogacar said.

“Thank you to my competitors for putting on a great show. We fought hard over the last three weeks.”

Van der Poel takes final stage

Pogacar ‌and Van der Poel broke away on the final ascent of Montmartre with about 10km (6 miles) remaining and took a slender advantage into the run to the Champs-Elysees as the chasing group closed relentlessly.

The Slovenian’s challenge faded inside the final kilometre, but Van der Poel pressed on to secure victory in a photo finish ahead of Alpecin-Premier Tech teammate Jasper Philipsen, with Mads Pedersen of Lidl-Trek in third.

“When I was sick last year, and I had to watch the stage on television, I was already thinking about this moment,” Van der Poel, 31, said.

“The way it went, it’s a dream. It’s ⁠incredible. It was super hard, and to be up there with the best rider in ⁠the world, all my respect for Tadej.

“I thought we were going to get caught back, then I was just thinking about this moment. I put my head down in the last 500 metres. I just went as hard as I could.

“I’m super happy. I have a few races ⁠I still wanted to win in my career, and this was one of them.”

Supreme Pogacar

Pogacar underlined his supremacy throughout the Tour by claiming five stage victories.

His path to a third ⁠straight yellow jersey became less complicated when two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard, ⁠widely regarded as his principal challenger, withdrew after a crash on Stage 15.

The Tour’s traditional finale in Paris was shortened after security forces were redeployed to help tackle wildfires near Bordeaux. As a result, Stage 21, which customarily takes the peloton into Paris before several laps of the Champs-Elysees, was reduced ‌to 89km from the 133km originally scheduled.

This year’s race also produced a remarkable first: no rider from France, Italy or Spain won a stage, making it the first Tour de France without a stage victory from any of the ‌three ‌nations that created and host cycling’s Grand Tours.

Pogacar’s latest triumph caps three weeks of racing since the Grand Depart in Barcelona and further cements his status as the dominant rider of his generation.

Kyiv says Russian strikes killed six, including a child at a supermarket, as Moscow says Ukrainian strikes killed four.

Russian forces have killed at least six people in Ukraine, according to officials, after launching ballistic missile attacks on the capital, Kyiv, and strikes on other regions, including a supermarket in the northern city of Chernihiv.

The attacks on Sunday came as Russian officials said that Moscow-occupied areas of Ukraine had also come under fire, with four people killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the occupied city of Horlivka.

Ukraine’s air ⁠force said Russia had launched seven ballistic missiles and 136 drones at Ukraine overnight. Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv cities were all hit.

In northern Chernihiv, officials said a Russian drone hit a supermarket, killing two people, including a nine-year-old girl, and wounding 25 others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as a “deeply cynical drone strike on an ordinary supermarket”.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, one person was killed and 16 others required medical attention after a daytime drone attack, the local mayor said.

“This is deliberate Russian terror with absolutely no military justification,” Zelenskyy said.

Separately, Regional Governor Ivan Fedorov said a glide bomb attack killed one person and wounded six in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, which has been under heavy bombardment in recent months.

In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one blaze had broken out on the seventh and eighth floors of a multistorey apartment block in a central district after the overnight missile attack. Three people were wounded in the capital, and images released by the state emergency services showed vehicles in flames.

In Sloviansk, one of several targets of Russia’s slow advance through eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the national oil and gas company Naftogaz said two of its employees died in a Russian attack while trying to help residents affected by an earlier strike.

In Horlivka, a city in the Russian-occupied part of the Donetsk region, Russian-installed Mayor Ivan Prikhodko said four civilians had been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike. Prikhodko later said a Ukrainian drone hit an emergency vehicle, injuring three medics and another resident.

At least 12 people, including two children, were also hurt in a Ukrainian drone attack on Belgorod, a Russian city close to the Ukrainian border, Russian authorities reported.

The attacks came a day after Moscow said a Ukrainian strike on a Russian-occupied town on the Azov Sea killed 12 people.

Both Moscow and Kyiv ‌deny targeting civilians in the war that started with Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. But civilian casualty rates have climbed sharply in 2026 in both Russia and Ukraine, according to the United Nations.

Analysts say this is because of the growing use of short-range drones, glide bombs, and intensified strikes on infrastructure in both Russia and Ukraine.

UN officials say 1,396 civilians have been killed and 7,978 wounded in Ukraine in the first six months of 2026. In Russia, 250 civilians have been killed and 1,596 injured.

United States-led talks on ending fighting have stalled. The Kremlin occupies swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine and has repeatedly said it intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine by force.

Wildfires in southwestern France are continuing to burn near the city of Bordeaux. Tens of thousands have been evacuated from surrounding regions, and across the southwest of France a total of around 220,000 have been evacuated.

Wildfires are ravaging many parts of western and southern Europe, with France and Spain among the hardest hit.

The World Health Organization has warned that climate change is contributing to the frequency and intensity of the fires. This is clear in the record temperatures and successive heatwaves seen across the continent since May. France and Spain have deployed thousands of firefighters, and neighbouring countries have sent assistance. Authorities say the situation is unprecedented.

So, what will it take to extinguish the flames?

Presenter: Per Nyberg

Guests:

Eduardo Rojas – chairman of the board at the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification

Soraya Fettih – global campaigns coordinator at 350.org, an international environmental organisation focused on addressing the climate crisis

Laurie Laybourn – executive director of Strategic Climate Risks Initiative, a non-partisan think tank

Tehran, Iran – Iran and the United States have returned to mediated talks, and their military action is temporarily suspended, but the war continues to impact international maritime corridors beyond the Strait of Hormuz as well as domestic markets.

The near-total closure of the strategic waterway, disruptions in the Red Sea by the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen and Ukraine attacking an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea have all kept tensions high.

Iran’s government is also facing more tough choices, including a potential fuel price hike amid high social and economic discontent, as the US military enforces a naval blockade of the country’s southern ports for a second time.

The Ministry of Petroleum said on Saturday that Iran has sold $11.5bn of crude oil during the war without specifying the exact dates and $6.5bn during the period of the now-suspended memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the US last month. It said the combined figure represented 60 percent of the full-year oil revenue target in the budget.

The signing of the June 17 MoU led to the partial reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and lifting of the US naval blockade on Iran, which eased some of the pressure on global oil markets and allowed Iran to export oil stored on supertankers waiting to sail from its territorial waters. Iran’s Petroleum Ministry said increased oil prices generated about $3bn in additional value in the first half of the year and $11bn from the yields has so far been transferred to government coffers despite US embargoes.

During the previous blockade that was imposed on April 13 and lasted a little over two months, Iranian authorities attested to near-zero crude exports. A prolonged second blockade risks further reducing Iran’s export revenues and piling pressure on Kharg Island, through which about 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil exports pass, and other Iranian storage and export sites, which could in turn affect production at petrochemical plants and make an eventual restart costlier and slower.

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said that as of Saturday, soldiers had redirected 12 commercial vessels trying to run the blockade that has been in place since mid-July, disabled two that did not comply and boarded two “to ensure total compliance”.

The US military also showed footage of heavily armed soldiers rappelling down from a helicopter onto the deck of the Charminar, an Iran-linked oil tanker subject to US sanctions since last year for allegedly being part of the Shamkhani network. The US says Iranian oil magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani plays a central role in Iranian and Russian shadow fleet operations.

Iran has also said it has been redirecting multiple ships each day to keep the strait closed as its armed forces emphasised that they will not bow to pressure. On Sunday, Iranian media reports said a vessel blew up after hitting a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz.

Still, CENTCOM has stopped extensive bombing strikes against Iran for two nights with US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz saying President Donald Trump is giving talks with Tehran “some space”.

Iran has also stopped retaliatory attacks across the region while Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said discussions with Oman on reopening the Strait of Hormuz have been productive.

The domestic picture

The oil export constraints, however, are still adding to Iran’s existing economic woes, which are linked to domestic structural issues and mismanagement as well as years of harsh sanctions.

Iran’s infrastructure has also suffered significant damage during the war launched by the US and Israel in late February and may fare worse if the conflict escalates.

The government said last month that about 230 million cubic metres (300 million cubic yards) per day of Iran’s pre-war natural gas output of roughly 650 million cubic metres (850 million cubic yards) was lost due to US and Israeli bombing, worsening electricity and petrochemical shortages.

Sekhavat Asadi, managing director of the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone, said on Sunday that Iran expects to restore more than 100 million cubic metres (130 million cubic yards) per day of that lost production capacity within the coming months.

Authorities are also managing a fuel imbalance as the country faces a deficit of more than 20 million litres (5.3 million gallons) per day of petrol. The shortage is managed through limited but costly imports, blending fuel components, tapping inventories stocked before the war and repeatedly asking citizens to consume less.

The Petroleum Ministry said tighter monthly fuel consumption caps may be imposed if the imbalance persists.

The government said this week that it is seriously considering doubling the price of a third tier of monthly petrol quotas allocated to individuals.

Another petrol price hike was made in December, weeks before the country was swept by a wave of nationwide protests, in which thousands of people were killed in a government crackdown in January. An overnight fuel price increase in November 2019 also triggered deadly nationwide protests.

The capital, Tehran, and cities across the country are facing rolling electricity cuts, which also create water and communications disruptions. President Masoud Pezeshkian said he has ordered industries not to be cut off until late September to avoid further inflaming a bruised jobs market.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has also hit Iran’s commerce with China, its largest trading partner and buyer of oil, which has considerably curtailed its overall crude oil imports to adapt to conditions created by the war.

But nonoil trade with China has also deteriorated since the start of the war, falling by 75 percent in March and June when compared with a year before, according to Chinese customs data.

Two near-total internet shutdowns imposed by the authorities, first during the January protests and then during the war, only worsened conditions for Iran’s economy this year as it battles chronic inflation and a rapid dwindling of public purchasing power.

A report last year by the Saba Pension Strategies Institute, a think tank affiliated with Iran’s state-run pension fund, found that while a little more than 30 percent of Iranians lived below the poverty line five years ago, that rate was projected to have reached 45 percent this year – and was still rising.

Spread to Bab al-Mandeb, Caspian Sea

After repeated Iranian threats that escalating the war could spread the scope of maritime disruptions to the Red Sea, the Houthis in Yemen last week declared a blockade against Saudi Arabia, turning back or hitting vessels transiting near the strait of Bab al-Mandeb while also bombing Saudi oil facilities.

Dozens of commodity vessels have still continued their transit through the strait, including Chinese supertankers, but war-risk premiums have increased, raising import and insurance costs for all.

Saudi authorities, who lead a coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government against the Houthis, have responded by launching major air attacks across Yemen.

And farther north, Ukraine has confirmed that it struck a vessel in the Caspian Sea with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alleging it was carrying Iran-linked military cargo.

Iran’s authorities said it was a commercial vessel importing iron from Astrakhan, a port on the Volga River in Russia, and bound for Bandar Anzali in northern Iran. They said one sailor was killed and three were wounded.

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Kyiv’s charge d’affaires in Tehran to deliver a strong protest and a warning that “the act will not go unanswered”.

The incident has raised concerns that the Caspian Sea, a waterway previously used safely for trade, could also become the scene of more military confrontations.

Iran’s Caspian trade is primarily with Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. It imports essential goods, such as wheat and other grains, corn, barley and animal feed as well as timber and fertiliser.

The country’s exports through the northern maritime route include construction materials, steel products, agricultural goods and some refined petrochemical products.

The war’s expanding disruptions have only prompted hardline state-linked analysts to advocate closer strategic partnerships with China and Russia.

“We can now say that the two war fronts in the Middle East and Ukraine are increasingly intertwined,” Mahdi Kharratiyan, a political analyst linked with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, wrote on X on Sunday.

Defending champion Norris wins his first race of the year as Verstappen finishes second and leader Antonelli is third.

Lando Norris has ended an eight-month wait for a Formula One victory with strong pace and a dose of good fortune to win the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

McLaren’s defending champion finished ahead of Max Verstappen in Red Bull and teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli at the Hungaroring circuit in Budapest on Sunday.

Norris was on pole but lost the lead to his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri when he ran wide at the second corner, before reclaiming the lead after Piastri was delayed by a collision with Carlos Sainz Jr during a lap.

This allowed Norris to come out of the pits ahead of his teammate and cruise to a win.

“The car was unbelievable today, well done guys, incredible. We were flying,” Norris said. “Nice to finally be able to do it all for you. Feels like it’s been a while.”

Piastri then stopped with a broken gearbox, paving the way for Verstappen to take second, with Antonelli third.

Antonelli increased his standings lead, with title rival Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth after a penalty for speeding in the pits and George Russell seventh after a near-stall at the start.

Norris hadn’t won a full Grand Prix race since Sao Paulo in November, though he did win a sprint in Miami in May.

Hungary was the last race before the mid-season break. The next race is the Dutch Grand Prix on August 23.

Tehran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have fired missiles and drones at two of Saudi Arabia’s most strategically important oil facilities on the Red Sea, in a major escalation of the latest simmering regional conflict to be reignited by the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.

But the skies over the country at the epicentre of the widening war were quiet for a second successive night, with no new US attacks on Iran reported by Sunday morning.

Iran had been pounded by 13 consecutive waves of overnight US air strikes since July 11, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked tankers trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz. As hostilities escalated, both sides declared that an interim peace agreement signed in June was dead, and a second phase of talks to finalise a comprehensive peace deal appeared doomed.

But there have been no US air strikes since Friday, and tentative signs are emerging that Washington and Tehran are still talking via mediators and might return to more meaningful discussions.

Even if another fragile truce is agreed, however, the cascade of consequences unleashed by the war is still stoking conflict and confrontation elsewhere.

Iran’s attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have put a stranglehold on exports of oil and raw materials for fertiliser, sending energy prices soaring and raising the risk of a food security crisis in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries.

In March, in response to attacks on Iran, the Tehran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon resumed missile attacks on Israel, which then launched a devastating invasion of southern Lebanon that has displaced 1.2 million people.

Now, another smouldering regional conflict has erupted again, between US-allied Saudi Arabia and the Houthi movement which controls most of northern and western Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. Saudi Arabia and its regional allies joined a brutal civil war against the Houthis in 2015, until a truce was agreed in 2022.

Risk of global crisis

The truce collapsed this month after an attack on Sanaa airport to stop an Iranian plane landing provoked the Houthis to fire ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia. Last Monday, the Houthis declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, and late on Friday the Saudis launched air strikes on the Houthi-held city of Hodeidah.

In retaliation, Houthi forces launched Sunday’s attacks on facilities belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in the coastal cities of Jizan and Yanbu, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said.

There has been no comment from Saudi Arabia on the extent of any damage to Aramco’s refinery in Jizan, but a large column of smoke was seen rising after the attack.

In Yanbu, Saudi Arabia’s principal west coast export gateway, two ballistic missiles aimed at oil installations were intercepted by a Patriot battery operated in Saudi Arabia by the Greek military under an agreement ‌with Riyadh.

The escalating conflict has raised fears that the Houthis could block the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. If both the Bab al-Mandeb and Hormuz straits were blocked, the resulting supply chain crisis would cause major economic damage across the world.

Entangled wars

Besides spreading to the Red Sea, the US-Iran war has become entangled with the deadliest active conflict in the world – Russia’s attempted conquest of Ukraine.

A long-range strike on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea on Saturday caused an explosion that killed one sailor and wounded another, according to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which blamed the attack on Ukraine and summoned Kyiv’s charge d’affaires in Tehran to convey its condemnation of the “hostile and criminal” act.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that Kyiv had achieved “very strong results” with long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea, hitting “vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran, as well as a warship”.

Zelenskyy claimed in further comments on X on Saturday that since the start of July, Kyiv had detected “active Russian satellite ⁠surveillance of the Gulf states and US military facilities located there”. He said the satellite images were passed to Tehran to help the IRGC identify targets for ballistic missile and drone attacks.

US President Donald Trump has not given a reason for the sudden cessation in air strikes on Iran, but a senior administration official told the Reuters news agency that Trump “has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way”.

Trump said on Friday that there was still some communication with Iran.

“They are talking to us right now; they’d love to make a deal,” he said. “I don’t think they’re ready to … but I’m willing to listen.”

Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Tehran, said Iranian officials had confirmed the two sides were exchanging messages.

“There have been proposals conveyed by the mediators, and Tehran is still reviewing them,” Serdar said, adding there was “not much progress yet” due to “fundamental differences” in their positions and deep mistrust.

Tehran summons Ukrainian envoy over the attack, which it says killed one sailor and wounded another.

Tehran has accused Ukraine of attacking an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, causing an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran to protest what it described as a “hostile and criminal” attack on Saturday, state news agency IRNA reported.

The ministry claimed the attack had been acknowledged by the Ukrainian leadership and said it reflected Kyiv’s continued “irrational and hostile approach” towards Iran. It warned Iran would defend its national interests.

It also described the incident as a violation of Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter and said it could further inflame and expand the Russia-Ukraine war.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also discussed the matter in a phone call with the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, his office said in a statement.

Araghchi strongly condemned Ukraine’s military attack on the vessel in the Caspian Sea, and reportedly “called for a firm response from the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and the international community, and for the perpetrators and supporters of this criminal act to be held accountable”, according to the statement shared on Telegram.

‘Pressure’

“The Iranians are not really happy with [the attack], while they’re also dealing with a US blockade on the southern coast,” said Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran.

He explained that the attacks on Iran’s northern coast are “putting extra pressure” on Iran’s maritime trade.

In its condemnation, Iran’s Foreign Ministry reiterated that Tehran has never intervened in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The incident came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in a post on X that Kyiv had achieved “very strong results” with long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea, hitting “vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran, as well as a warship.” He did not identify the commercial vessel named by Tehran as a target.

Zelenskyy separately alleged that Russia had been passing satellite imagery of Gulf states and US military sites to Iran. He said surveillance on July 19 and 20 covered airbases in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait.

Iran and Ukraine have been at odds since 2022, when Iran sold Russia the Shahed drones that Moscow has since adapted and launched in their thousands at Ukrainian cities.

Kyiv says it has shot down more than 44,000 of the Iranian-designed drones since Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine has also offered its drone interceptors and expertise to governments in the Gulf that have come under Iranian attack during the US-Iran war, deploying anti-drone specialists to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Some 270,000 people have been forced to evacuate parts of Western France and central Spain – while a major incident has been declared in the Cairngorms National Park

British holidaymakers have described running for their lives just yards from a raging wildfire.

The terrifying scenes come as 270,000 people have been forced to flee as blazes continue to rip through parts of Southern Europe. Fire crews on Saturday were braced to drop fire-busting chemicals from a cargo plane in the Gironde region in Western France, where an inferno has been roaring since Wednesday.

And with the wind direction shifting, officials fear the flames are moving dangerously close to the nearby city of Bordeaux. Authorities have ordered people between the fire and the city to evacuate, including from parts of western suburbs and other towns and villages.

The French military have been drafted in to help and the Spanish government has declared a national emergency. Among those caught up was Brit David Morton and his family, who came within 500 yards of the main fire in Cap Ferret peninsula.

He said: “The flames were higher than full-size forest pine trees, so five or six storeys high, and it was clear this was a fire that was out of control at that point. Our phones were all flashing and bleeping; there was a message saying we had to evacuate immediately and drive on the one road out of the [Cap Ferret] peninsula. We literally threw everything into our suitcases and within 15 minutes were in the hire car.”

Zac Morrison, 21, described similarly dramatic scenes. We had the gendarmerie [French military] going door to door – it was something like out of a movie – we had to take everything,” said Zac, from London. “Other people have been sleeping in schools and warehouses and the beaches have had people just waiting for the go ahead – there’s people on the beach here with their suitcases. I’ve heard about houses burning in just an hour, it’s scary but sadly people here are getting used to it.”

Other Brits have moved to different areas in France to continue their hols. Mark Dorey, from Leeds, decided to drive to the Dordogne with his wife and three children after being evacuated from a campsite near Parentis-en-Born. He said: “You wouldn’t believe it, but me and my two boys were watching a Queen tribute act at the campsite bar – straight after a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody someone stopped them to say we were being evacuated at about 10pm.

While the wildfires show no sign of slowing, the Foreign Office last night chose not to impose warings against travel to France or Spain. France’s minister for international partnerships Éléonore Caroit told tourists: “You have entire areas that are fine, you’re seeing similar phenomena in Spain and other countries.

“I’m in Paris and nothing is happening, and most other regions are OK, so do please come to France and do not cancel your travel plans. But wherever you are, please do be advised as to what might be happening.”

In Madrid the fires are in the wider region far outside the city centre – and authorities are battling to stop different fires merging. But the flames have already shut down a facility for US space agency Nasa 37 miles west of the Spanish capital. The city’s regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso said it was the “worst fire in the history of the region.”

Successive heat waves with record-shattering temperatures have turned forests and scrublands into tinderboxes. Fires have burned 130,000 hectares of forest already this year in Spain, an area the size of Rome.

Other European nations are stepping into help, with Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia already providing water-dumping planes and helicopters to the Spanish and French fire fronts.

Things are burning closer to home too, as emergency services continue to battle a blaze in the Cairngorms National Park. The fire has now been declared a major incident, and smoke could be seen 59 miles away in Aberdeen.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said it is “essential people avoid the affected areas,” adding: “The wind has changed direction overnight, which means the track of the fire has altered once again and the threat to Nethy Bridge has reduced, for the moment at least. Ground and helicopter resources are being focused on the current path of the fire and new fire breaks constructed.”

Lee Kang-In makes the switch to Atletico after helping Paris Saint-Germain to consecutive Champions League titles.

South Korea midfielder Lee Kang-In has agreed to join Atletico Madrid from Paris Saint-Germain, the Spanish club.

Atletico said on Saturday the player would sign a contract through June 2031. The transfer fee was undisclosed, but it is reportedly between 35 and 40 million euros ($39.8m and $45.5m).

The 25-year-old Lee played all three group-stage games at the World Cup, where South Korea failed to advance after losing twice.

Born in Incheon, Lee moved to Spain when he was 10 to join Valencia’s training academy and ended up playing 62 games for the club. After a stint with Mallorca, he joined PSG in 2023, scoring 16 goals in 124 appearances.

He will now play for an Atletico side that finished La Liga in fourth place and reached the Copa del Rey final last season. Lee will help fill the creative void left by Antoine Griezmann, who has left for the MLS as Atletico’s all-time top scorer.

WIMBLEDON and the World Cup may be over, but the Tour de France is still going – until tomorrow.

So if watching those Lycra-clad professionals pedal around Spain and France has inspired you to get your bum in that saddle, take a look at these two-wheeled getaways.

These five lesser-used trails showcase some of the most gorgeous scenery, away from the intimidating cycling crowds.

Better still, each trip has been designed with cyclists in mind and includes perks such as accommodation with cycling facilities, bike-friendly transfers and bike carriage.

MENORCA: This Balearic island is far from the well-ridden, high-speed routes on the Tour de France.

Instead you’ll be greeted by rugged coastal trails and ancient paths, including the 185km Camí de Cavalls.

SUN SAVERS

Our pick of the best ‘kids eat free’ deals this summer to help you save cash

ON THE ROAD

We gave up exotic holidays to travel the UK by van – and found £14 campsites

Translated as The Path of Horses, it was originally used by knights to patrol the coast on horseback in the 14th century.

GO: Seven nights’ self-catering at the three-star Tramontana Park Aparthotel is from £829pp including flights from Manchester on August 31, plus 22kg baggage allowance, bike carriage and return sports transfers.

Approximately £24 in tourist tax is payable at the property.

See jet2holidays.com.

LAKE DISTRICT AND PENNINES: The north of the UK is home to some of the hilliest landscapes, which means this trip isn’t for the faint-hearted.

Those climbs will be rewarded, however, with some of the most breathtaking scenery.

You’ll also tackle Allenheads, which claims to be the highest village in England.

GO: The five-night self-guided coast to coast trip costs from £895pp including breakfasts and lunches, as well as accommodation.

E-bike hire available.

See skedaddle.com.

DALMATIAN COAST, CROATIA: If dramatic coastal scenery is what you’re after, look no further than the Dalmatian Coast, where craggy mountainscapes offer sweeping views of a sparkling ocean.

Staying in the Šibenik-Knin region puts you within reach of some versatile routes for all abilities.

The Krka National Park is known for its cascading waterfalls.

GO: Seven nights’ all-inclusive at the three-star Amadria Park Apartments is from £629pp, based on a family of four sharing, including flights from London Stansted on August 18, plus 22kg baggage allowance, bike carriage and return sports transfers.

See jet2holidays.com.

LOIRE VALLEY, FRANCE: Worried about those aching limbs?

This Loire Valley itinerary includes spa time, so you can rest and recuperate in between cycle stints.

These very easy and flat routes will take you through charming French villages and sweet vineyards whose vines are dripping in plump grapes right about now.

GO: The four-night Loire Spa Escape costs from £895pp including serviced touring bikes with a pannier bag and luggage transfers.

Flights cost extra. See cyclingforsofties.com.

COSTA DORADA, SPAIN: There’s a reason so many pros choose to train on Spain’s Costa Dorada.

Roads are smooth and wide, with very few potholes, plus there’s a variety of terrain that means you can pick your difficulty level.

Weave your way through the wine regions of Priorat and Montsant or challenge yourself with the La Mussara climb that takes you almost 1,000 metres above sea level.

GO: Seven nights’ half-board at three+ star Medplaya Hotel Calypso is from £769pp including flights from East Midlands airport on August 17, plus 22kg baggage allowance, bike carriage and return sports transfers.

Approximately £22 in tourist tax is payable at the property. See jet2holidays.com.

Lando Norris speaks up ahead of Hungarian Grand Prix with drivers feeling new regulations have cramped their speed.

Formula One has been driven too much by business decisions and needs to remember it is a sport, according to McLaren’s world champion Lando Norris.

With drivers chafing ⁠at new regulations that have cramped their speed, particularly at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, the Briton told reporters ahead of Sunday’s Hungarian round that Formula One could do better.

“It’s a business,” said the Briton. “Everyone wants to make money, so in order for Audi ⁠and other teams to come in we had to change these things. It’s a shame. It should never have been like that. But that’s how businesses work.”

Audi have entered the sport this season after taking over Swiss-based Sauber, with the German carmaker encouraged by new rules that have increased the electrical element of the power unit to near-parity with the internal combustion engine. The rules have been ‌tweaked for 2027 to reduce the electrical contribution.

“Formula One will always be great,” said Norris, whose car has a Mercedes engine. “It can just be better.

“Us as drivers just know it better than everyone else. The thing that’s a shame is that Formula One is too heavily led by the fact it’s a business nowadays and not how can you make the sport the best possible. It’s ‘how can you just make the most money as a business?’

“And that’s just not what it should simply be. That’s not how a sport should be run. The fact we have hybrids, 50-50 and all that, that’s just because ⁠more teams wanted to come in it and because you make more money.”

Norris said the ⁠Liberty Media-owned sport was also divided between fans who followed Formula One before the arrival of the popular Netflix docu-series “Drive to Survive” and those who have been drawn to it since.

“I think the fans you have nowadays, because they’re a lot more personality-based … and not simply of Formula One as a whole ⁠sport, I think there’s less interest in basically how the actual race goes, and more just ‘has the driver done well or not?’” he added.

“I think that’s just how the fans have changed over ⁠time, and that’s completely fine. But the biggest voice should always be ours ⁠as drivers … We have the best idea of how racing should be, how it can be, what’s possible, what’s not.

“We would just want the best for everything, the best for the fans, the best viewing, the best racing for us, the most fun to drive. And at the minute, we don’t … we have very, very ‌little say, and a lot more of it’s done because if you can have Audi and other teams in it, it’s a bigger win than the drivers being happy.”

A Formula One spokesman responded to Norris’s comments by saying drivers were listened to more ‌than ‌ever.

“The sport on track is, and always will be, the priority,” he said. “Everyone has benefitted from the commercial success of Formula One, the drivers included. Decisions are made for the best strategic outcome for everyone: the fans, teams and partners.”

Norris was ⁠fastest in final ⁠practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday.

Last year’s race winner lapped the Hungaroring circuit with ⁠a best time of 1:17.939, 0.117 seconds quicker than Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

Formula One championship leader Kimi ⁠Antonelli was third fastest, 0.129 seconds off the pace and ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Mercedes teammate George Russell.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was seventh on the timesheets, ‌with teammate Isack Hadjar eighth but 1.004 off the pace.

EXPLAINER

The UN General Assembly voted 144-10 to grant Turk a new four-year term, despite objections from the US, Israel and Russia.

Volker Turk has been elected as United Nations human rights chief for another four-year term, despite strong objections from the United States, Russia and Israel.

The United Nations General Assembly vote on Friday means Turk, who has served in the role since 2022, will become the first person to serve two full terms as the UN rights chief since the position was created in 1993.

Who is Turk and why has his reappointment caused controversy?

Who is Volker Turk?

Turk, an Austrian lawyer, joined the United Nations in 1999 and went on to work in the organisation’s refugee agency. This included posts in Malaysia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

He later worked in senior roles at UN headquarters in New York, including as assistant secretary-general for strategic coordination under UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The two are believed to have a close relationship.

In his role as UN rights chief, Turk has been highly critical of both Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has also been vocal on conflicts and rights abuses in Afghanistan, Sudan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nicaragua.

How was he reappointed?

The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a proposal by Guterres to give Turk another four-year term with 144 votes in favour, 10 against and 13 abstentions.

Earlier, the assembly shot down a US proposal to delay the vote until the end of next week as well as a Russian bid to extend Turk’s term until the end of the year only.

How has Turk angered the US, Russia and Israel?

The role of UN human rights chief is inherently controversial because it requires public criticism of governments of UN members for alleged rights violations.

Turk’s outspoken criticism of policies in Israel, Russia and the US has put him at odds with all three countries.

Turk has repeatedly criticised Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, its deadly assault on Lebanon, and a “shameful” lack of accountability for its rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Turk has also described Russia’s war in Ukraine as “senseless” and a “blatant affront to the UN Charter and the whole body of international law”.

On the US, he has raised concerns about the war on Iran and the “dehumanisation” of immigrants under President Donald Trump, citing routine “abuse and denigration of migrants and refugees”.

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticised Turk’s record, saying that under his leadership the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has “erased the atrocities of October 7, misused funds, and betrayed UN neutrality in favor of corrupt political radicalism”.

Russia’s ⁠Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Chumakov accused Turk of bias and making unfounded allegations against Russia.

What objections were raised to Turk’s reappointment?

Guterres, whose own term is due to end at the end of this year, has faced criticism for how he managed the reappointment. Critics say the vote was rushed and the selection of a rights chief should have been left to his successor.

The UN secretary-general, whose term expires in December, sent letters to regional groups at the UN earlier this month informing them of his intention to reappoint Turk, and held the vote just weeks later.

The US Department of State criticised the vote for being rushed and said it was “another example of the UN’s inherent corruption and incompetence”.

The US also accused Turk of turning “a blind eye to real atrocities and instead pursued a radical ideological agenda”. US Deputy Ambassador Jeff Bartos claimed before Friday’s vote that reappointing Turk would prove that the General Assembly “is dysfunctional”.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry called Guterres’s push for a second term for Turk a “moral failure,” saying that the choice should be left to his successor.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Guterres had followed UN rules and engaged “in a very transparent manner” in appointing Turk, including by holding prior consultations with member states and regional groups.

What other criticism has Turk faced?

Turk’s critics say he could have done more to publicly follow up on a report issued by his predecessor, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, that said China’s detention of Uighurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity.

Turk also has stopped short of joining independent UN rights experts who have accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Turk’s office said he had used both private engagement with Beijing and his public advocacy to support human rights in China.

A fertiliser explosion at a farm in Essex triggered a major incident. Dozens of firefighters worked to contain the large industrial fire and protect nearby homes.

EU accuses US tech giant of favouring its own services in search results, as Trump lashes out against bloc.

United States President Donald Trump has threatened the European Union with steep tariffs and a new trade investigation, saying that the bloc “will pay a very big price” after Brussels fined Google $1bn over antitrust violations.

Trump called penalties against Google and other US tech firms “highly unethical”, saying on Friday that the US “is not a ‘PIGGYBANK’ for Europe”.

“This illegal and highly discriminatory practice started at these high levels during the first year of the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration, but it’s not going to continue during the Trump Administration,” he wrote in a social media post.

The European Commission had imposed the fine on Thursday, ruling that Google had breached the bloc’s Digital Markets Act by favouring its own services in search results and restricting app developers from directing users elsewhere.

The penalty adds renewed strain to US-EU relations at a moment when trade tensions between Washington and Brussels had appeared to ease.

Regulators said Google gave preferential placement to its own shopping, travel and other services over rival offerings, and blocked app developers from steering customers towards deals outside its Play Store.

The EU Commission split the penalty roughly in half between the two breaches, giving Google 60 days to change its practices or face periodic fines of up to 5 percent of its average daily turnover.

Teresa Ribera, the commission’s executive vice president overseeing competition policy, on Thursday called the action “decisive yet balanced”, arguing that products should succeed on merit rather than ownership.

Kent Walker, a Google executive, described the ruling as “product degradation” driven by a small number of complainants, insisting that regulation should improve products rather than weaken them.

The EU has fined Google repeatedly since 2017, including a $4.5bn penalty over its Android operating system, upheld on appeal this month, and a $3.4bn fine last year targeting its advertising business.

The latest penalty also reignites friction with Washington.

Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, warned this week that Brussels’s approach towards American tech firms risks unravelling a trade deal struck in Turnberry, Scotland, last year that capped US tariffs on European goods.

EU officials have pushed back, insisting they answer to their own laws rather than outside pressure.

Trump threatened to launch a probe under Section 301, a US tool for probing unfair trade practices, but the move could take months to produce results, though tariffs could follow far sooner.

The incident adds to concern that Moscow’s war on Ukraine risks spilling over to entangle neighbouring NATO states.

A Romanian fighter jet has shot down a drone, suspected to be Russian, that breached the country’s airspace.

The incident on Friday marked the first time the Eastern European country has intercepted an intruding aircraft since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, President Nicusor Dan noted.

However, concern that Moscow’s war on Ukraine risks entangling neighbouring NATO states is on the rise. Romania is one of several alliance members to confront repeated stray drones recently, as Russia and Ukraine launch hundreds of drones daily.

Dan reported that a Romanian F-16 jet shot down the drone after it entered the country’s airspace, adding that the fighter had shot over an uninhabited area.

A Romanian military source told the Reuters news agency that Russia was the suspected point of origin, given the pattern of previous incursions in the region.

Romania’s Ministry of National Defence said a radar first detected the drone about 20km (12 miles) east of the Black Sea port of Sulina, before it crossed into national airspace on a path through Braila, Fetesti and Buzau county.

Two Italian Eurofighter Typhoon jets, deployed to Romania under NATO’s air policing mission, were joined by two Romanian F-16s. One F-16 engaged the target with an air-to-air missile, downing it over unpopulated ground near the village of Padina. No casualties or injuries were reported.

Romania, an EU and NATO member sharing a border with Ukraine, has recorded dozens of drone incursions since the war began. This incident marked the first successful interception.

In late May, a drone struck an apartment building in the city of Galati, injuring two people – the first time such a strike hit a populated area in a NATO country.

NATO and European Union officials condemned the incident. The European Commission said it showed Russia’s war had “crossed yet another line”.

A month later, a Ukrainian sea drone exploded at the port of Constanta. Kyiv said that it had launched the vessel, which had been knocked off course by Russian jamming.

The Baltic states have also reported repeated airspace violations in recent months, incursions that contributed to the collapse of Latvia’s government in May.

NATO chief Mark Rutte has said Moscow’s “reckless behaviour is a danger to us all”. United States ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, has pledged the alliance will “defend every inch” of its territory.

London, United Kingdom — On his fourth day as prime minister, Andy Burnham did not stay at Downing Street in London. Nor did he go to Manchester, the home of Number 10 North. He went to Glasgow.

Hours before King Charles and Queen Camilla opened the 2026 Commonwealth Games, Burnham held his first in-person meetings with Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney and Wales’ First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth. The talks were meant to demonstrate, in Burnham’s own words, that growth is needed “in every postcode across the whole of the UK”. A meeting with Northern Ireland’s First and Deputy First Ministers, Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly, is pencilled in for a wider UK tour in August.

Notably absent from the agenda, at Burnham’s insistence, was any discussion of a second Scottish independence referendum.

Just days after being appointed prime minister, Burnham is testing a proposition that will define his premiership. He’s selling a vision that the office itself can be partly relocated out of London to Manchester, the city he governed as mayor from 2017 until his return to UK Parliament in the Makerfield by-election last month.

What Number 10 North actually is

Stripped of rhetoric, Number 10 North is a written ministerial statement. On July 21, Baroness Smith of Basildon, Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal, confirmed on the government’s behalf that devolution and local growth policy functions are moving out of the housing ministry and the Treasury and into a new Manchester-based operation. There, civil servants will work inside a restructured Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, led by Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo.

The interim headquarters is Heron House, in the New Islington area of Manchester, chosen partly for its proximity to a planned Manchester Digital Campus.

Caroline Simpson, the outgoing chief executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, has been named Burnham’s deputy chief of staff, and will be in charge of day-to-day office operations. Downing Street says Burnham himself expects to work from Manchester “at least one day a week”, though officials caution his diary may change, and insists the arrangement carries no additional cost to taxpayers.

Burnham calls it “the nerve centre of a rewired Britain” and rejects suggestions it is symbolic. “Not a gimmick,” he told his first Cabinet meeting about Number 10 North.

Plumbing, but no water

Number 10 North “establishes the plumbing, but the water isn’t flowing yet”, said Mirte Boot of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) North. The institutional architecture is firming up, but fiscal devolution – ie, the transfer of money and tax-raising power – that would make such a policy meaningful doesn’t yet exist, she added.

Still, she calls it “a step in the right direction” after what she describes as “too much power condensed into one postcode”. Leaving Westminster isn’t enough; Number 10 North will need “strong political leadership aside from the prime minister”, she added.

The verdict that Number 10 North contains vision and ambition but currently lacks a detailed plan and delivery mechanism is a recurring response from independent voices.

Jonathan Carr-West of the Local Government Information Unit calls Burnham’s devolution agenda “the most ambitious statement … from a senior politician in a generation”, while warning that English councils are so financially hollowed out that the vision “requires a vehicle” it does not yet have.

Malcolm Morgan, a transport researcher at the University of Leeds, puts it more bluntly: genuine devolution means spending, taxation and regulatory power, not just relocated functions, and “devolution does not create more funding”.

That funding question sits unresolved alongside the national one. The 2026 English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act expanded mayors’ control over transport, planning and housing, but left fiscal devolution to a separate Treasury “roadmap” due alongside the autumn budget. According to Centre for Cities, a UK urban policy think tank, the UK remains the most fiscally centralised country in the G7: some 95 percent of tax revenue flows straight to Whitehall.

Devolution, or recentralisation?

For Scotland’s SNP government, the Number 10 North framing is beside the point. First Minister Swinney responded that “rhetoric alone will not cut it” and argued that four consecutive Holyrood elections have handed his party a mandate for Scottish self-determination, something Westminster keeps ignoring, he said. In Glasgow, Burnham declined to engage with that argument directly.

Meanwhile, Wales’ Ap Iorwerth struck a more cooperative note but still said he expected “that Number 10 North would not become Whitehall with a different postcode”.

He also used the meeting with Burnham to press for a new Wales Bill granting policing and justice powers, and a replacement for the Barnett Formula funding mechanism, which Westminster uses to calculate annual changes to the block grants allocated to the UK’s devolved governments, so Wales would have funding parity with Scotland.

Reform UK’s Nigel Farage, from the opposite political direction, warned that a Number 10 in the south and one in the north would simply “fight against each other”.

What it means in Manchester

In Bury, Greater Manchester, Scottish-born Debe Conway sells children’s books at markets and has lived in the area for 56 years, but remains unconvinced about the new prime minister.

Her biggest concern is immigration, which she called Burnham weak on. And as for Number 10 North, she wants to know how it’s being paid for, and asks how long it will last, considering that the UK has had seven prime ministers in the last 10 years.

Rich Carver, who has run pizza restaurants in Manchester for 15 years and is currently “soaking up the energy in the city”, says he cares more about what will happen in the next 10 years.

He’s also tired of the succession of governments and wants this one to last. He likes Burnham and is optimistic enough about the city’s trajectory that he is opening a new restaurant in the coming weeks, something he would not have done five years ago.

“We are all one country,” he says, hoping the rest of the UK (and the media) give the new prime minister time and the chance to implement his vision. Whether that time produces growth, or just relocated offices, is the question Number 10 North still has to answer.

Ukraine replaced its top military and political defence personnel in the past week even as its armed forces arguably achieved their best performance in three years.

Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s ouster on July 15 was followed six days later by the replacement of Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii. Both men were followed out the door by some of their most capable lieutenants.

Ukraine seemed to have found a winning formula, making 2026 Russia’s worst year of the war for manpower losses, territory and economic performance at home.

Some 193,500 Russian troops have been killed or seriously wounded so far this year, said Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence – averaging losses of 32,000 a month for the first time, according to Syrskii – and Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service estimates Moscow is unable to reach recruitment targets.

This pain has produced a net gain of just 81.1sq km for Russia, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank that assesses territorial movements using geolocated open sources, and the trend of gains to losses is improving in Ukraine’s favour.

If June was a disastrous month for the Russian operation, netting it just 30sq km, July has so far been worse, with Russian forces making net losses of 1.6sq km a day, according to the ISW.

Meanwhile, Russia’s war economy, which boomed in 2022-24, has seen growth this year flatten at just 0.2 percent, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted.

Ukraine has replaced defence ministers and commanders-in-chief before, but this was the first simultaneous shake-up of the war and seems to have come amid an internal debate about strategy.

On the day after Fedorov’s ouster, which produced street protests against the move, Syrskii spoke of “an effective strategy that is currently demonstrating concrete results”.

A day after his own sacking, Syrskii wrote a column on the Militarnyi news website saying, “The Minister should not … be a war strategist. This is not his task and not his responsibility.”

“War strategy, planning of operations, the situation on the front — by law, I am responsible to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief,” he said.

The nub of disagreement seems to have been unmanned warfare.

Syrskii created the world’s first Unmanned Systems Forces, the SBS, and fought the world’s first war in which First Person View (FPV) drones caused an estimated 95 percent of enemy casualties.

Ukraine’s middle and long-distance drones have devastated Russian logistics and oil supply, slackening the force it can deliver to the front.

Fedorov pressed hard in this direction during his six months on the job, buying more drones in four months than the Defence Ministry had bought in all of 2025, and even spending soldiers’ payroll money to swell orders.

Syrskii disagreed. “Against us is an enemy that is superior in everything, who fights, in particular, with artillery, aviation, and infantry. I cannot transfer a million-strong army ‘to drones’ in two months and say: now we are fighting like this,” he wrote on Militarnyi.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who recently told The Financial Times that “the sky will be decisive in this war,” said on July 20 he was “continuing to determine what adjustments should be made to Ukraine’s defence strategy and what priorities in production and supply to the military must be implemented as quickly as possible”.

What is Ukraine doing that is working?

Ukraine developed the use of short-range drones on the battlefield to reduce its own exposure and lower casualties. That strategy has yielded results, effectively halting Russia’s advance this year.

Syrskii said Ukraine gained more territory than it lost in May, the month in which it began to strike Russian logistics using the overland route from Russia into its southern regions of Zaporizhia and Kherson.

By the end of May, Ukraine was also disrupting logistics in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, forcing Russia to float fuel and materiel across the Sea of Azov to Crimea. Ukraine then targeted those ships.

Since June 6, Ukraine’s commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces Robert Brovdi said, Ukraine had disabled 196 fuel tankers and destroyed three-quarters of Russia’s ferry capacity across the Kerch Strait, the closest crossing from Russia’s Krasnodar Krai to Crimea.

As an added benefit, Brovdi said, Russia had been forced to redeploy 200 units of its own unmanned forces command, called Rubicon, to protect an equal number of ships, weakening its frontline.

“That’s how many vessels will be destroyed by SBS “Birds” in the Black and Azov Seas during the remainder of July and the first half of August – it’s a matter of honor,” he wrote on his Telegram messaging channel.

The SBS has also struck 117 electrical substations and power stations this month, Brovdi said, most of them in Crimea, plunging much of the peninsula into darkness.

Apart from hampering the armed forces and the economy, that has been a drain on Moscow, which was earmarking five billion rubles ($64mn) in compensation for darkened homes and furloughed employees, in addition to measures announced the week before.

Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk said Russian shipping had been paralysed in the Sea of Azov, and that the Kerch Bridge was being allowed to stand “so that the Russians can leave the Ukrainian Crimea,” because “it will reduce our losses during possible future actions directly in Crimea.”

Ukraine’s long-range strikes this week destroyed a Tupolev-95 strategic bomber at the Engels airfield 800km from Ukraine, and a MiG-29 fighter plane at the Khalino airfield in Kursk, in addition to numerous air defence radars and launchers.

Ukraine also struck the Slavneft-Yanos refinery in Yaroslavl, which it described as the largest “in the central part of the country”.

In a shift from its usual military and energy targets, Ukraine struck four warehouses of the Wildberries online retail group, which it suspects Russian recruits use to order much of their protective gear and weapons.

Russia has retaliated this month by targeting Ukraine’s port infrastructure on the Black Sea, to prevent it from exporting the grain harvest.

Container shipper Maersk said on July 22 it was diverting container traffic originally intended to be offloaded at Odesa or Chornomorsk to Romania’s Constanta. This also meant that Ukrainian outbound container traffic waiting in Chornomorsk could not be loaded unless moved to Constanta.

Ukraine has retaliated in turn, claiming to have bottled up Russia’s grain exports coming down the Don river to the Sea of Azov, via which Russia exports 30 percent of its grain.

Russia is also retaliating by increasing the number of ballistic missiles in its nightly strikes on Ukraine’s cities.

Since June 26, Russia has included missiles in almost every strike, contrary to past practice, when it held back its missiles for one massive combined missile and drone strike a week.

Ukraine says it has learned how to intercept 95 percent of drones and 87 percent of cruise missiles, but fewer than half of Russia’s ballistics.

“You hope that ballistics will do for you what everything else has failed to do,” Zelenskyy wrote to Putin in June.

An analysis by Militarnyi suggested Russia was dipping into its missile reserves to achieve this, using more than its monthly production capacity in the first two weeks of July.

Sun and citrus in the south of France

The town of Menton on the French Riviera is beautiful at any time of the year but becomes even more of a treat during the annual Lemon festival (Fête du Citron, 10-28 February 2027). Its microclimate, courtesy of the Alps to the north blocking colder winds, gives Menton lemons a distinct fragrance, flavour and quality that set them apart. For me, the event transformed a damp cold UK winter into a fortnight of colour, taste and light. There were food tastings, salads made with lemons, tarts, cakes and pies all full of zesty colour and flavour at stalls and markets in the town. There are sculptures made from citrus fruit, parades and exhibitions in the Golden Garden of Light (Jardins Biovès). More than a food festival, it’s a celebration of what nature can give to the world.
April

Veneto’s Tiramisù World Cup

Last autumn, I discovered there is an annual Tiramisù World Cup. I was staying in Treviso (the lovely town near Venice where the dessert originated) during the three-day event featuring tastings, demonstrations from local chefs and a judging contest involving the public. There’s also folk music in the streets, and restaurants offer promotional prices on set meals from about €20 for two courses. In fact, sitting in a mini gondola, prosecco in one hand, bowl of tiramisu in the other, gliding along a canal past ornate houses while the distant snow-capped mountains of the Dolomites sparkled in the sunshine, certainly aided my appetite for food and life.
Peter

A cheeky celebration in Tuscany

The Gota Cotta festival in Tuscany (4 October) is a celebration of local meat – pork cheeks. It was a niche product, falling out of favour, but a group of local butchers created the festival to celebrate the local delicacy. It takes over the medieval hilltop town of Colle di Val d’Elsa in Siena province with stalls selling everything from pasta to gelato – all made with pork cheek. There’s also excellent wine and craft beers … all in the most beautiful setting.
Rebecca Nicholl

Switzerland knows its onions

I stumbled across Zibelemärit, Bern’s annual onion fair, on a chilly November morning. The old town was packed with farmers selling beautifully braided onions, garlic and seasonal produce. The streets were filled with tempting aromas from stalls frying onion tarts and serving steaming bowls of onion soup and cafes selling sweet onion-shaped pastries. A mug of warming glühwein was the perfect accompaniment. It was a wonderfully local event and chatting to growers about their harvest made me feel part of a genuine celebration of Swiss farming traditions. Zibelemärit takes place on the fourth Monday in November.
Susanna

The Italian town devoted to leeks

You have to admire the town of Cervere in Piedmont, south of Turin, which is so devoted to its leeks that it has erected a permanent pavilion called the Palaporro (porro is Italian for leek) for its annual festival, called Fiera del Porro Cervere (7-22 November). Book ahead for the sit-down tasting menu, or buy leeky treats such as gratin and risotto to take away, as we did. During the sagra, the town centre is packed with stalls, many heaving with the distinctive bunches of extra-long local leeks. Our favourite part was taking a shuttle bus down to the sandy leek fields in the valley, where enthusiasts explained the traditional cultivation techniques.
Martha

Farmers and brass bands in North Yorkshire

Malton is a little village in North Yorkshire that punches way above its size when it comes to food festivals. The annual festival is worth a visit in late spring (29-30 May 2027), but so are the monthly farmers’ markets that bring together incredible local suppliers and makers. Plus, there’s a good chance of hearing a top-class brass band while you mooch and taste. Bloomin’ marvellous!
Beth

Newcastle’s battle of the food vendors

Wylam Brewery’s street vendor food battles in Newcastle upon Tyne showcase local independent eateries serving their bestselling dishes to win a chance at being crowned the culinary King of Newcastle at the final Battle Royale (28 & 29 August). The competitions are wittily titled, for example Lord of the Wings for the chicken wings competition (23 & 24 October) and Argie Bhaji (27 & 28 November) for Indian street food. The concept is simple: each event offers different cuisines from pizza to pan-Asian to plant-based. The winner of each event is the vendor with the most pre-paid tokens. Set in the idyllic Exhibition Park, with DJs playing into the night, locals know not to miss these summer festivals.
Carly Bamborough

‘A proper northern’ affair in Bolton

Bolton food & drink festival (28-31 August) is brilliant because it feels properly northern: busy streets, good smells, live music and families everywhere. It is not trying to be too polished, which is why it works. You can wander from stall to stall, try something different, grab something sweet for the kids and still feel like you are part of the town. The best bit is the atmosphere. Chefs, local businesses, music and people all come together in one place. It is simple, affordable and full of energy. For a family day out, it is hard to beat.
Nicholas Pearce

The pride of Plymouth

Plymouth Flavour Fest, at the end of May each year, ranks among the finest food gatherings I’ve experienced anywhere. Boutique delicatessens form neat rows, with smartly dressed stallholders presenting produce with infectious pride. Pies, salamis, chillies, confectionery, preserves, hot food – all the good stuff laid out irresistibly. Take a cool bag and budget for things you never knew you needed. Plymouth’s Armada Way is perfect for the event, never claustrophobic when busy. A short stroll takes you to the Hoe, perfect for munching on a treat overlooking one of the finest harbours in the world. Good food brings out the best in people and, for a few hours at least, the world is put to rights.
Grant Wyness

‘Ireland’s culinary playground’

Every October, the charming fishing town of Dingle transforms into Ireland’s ultimate culinary playground. The Dingle food festival (2-4 October) brings more than 60 venues to life for the famous Taste Trail, where pubs, galleries and shopfronts serve up local seafood, artisan cheeses and much more. Add bustling market stalls, cookery masterclasses and workshops, live street music and a strong zero-waste ethos, and you’ve got a weekend that celebrates the best of Irish food, drink and hospitality, all with Irish small-town warmth.
John O’Kelly