Wildfires have ripped through Europe this summer, with successive heatwaves fuelled by climate change intensifying drought and leaving vegetation tinder-dry

International News via Reuters:

Rain over eastern Belgium on Monday brought some relief to firefighters battling to contain the country’s biggest wildfire on record, which had threatened to reach the German border.

Wildfires have ripped through Europe this summer, with successive heatwaves fuelled by climate change intensifying drought and leaving vegetation tinder-dry.

From France and Spain to Greece, fires have killed more than 20 people, forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and burned 576,000 hectares (2,225 square miles) across Europe this year, data from ​the European Forest Fire Information System shows – an area twice the size of Luxembourg.

ARMY, FARMERS BATTLE BELGIUM’S BIGGEST FIRE

In Greece, an elderly couple died at the weekend as fires swept ​through the island of Salamina, where 500 people were evacuated by ferry after wind pushed the flames into residential areas.

Spanish firefighters stabilised a massive wildfire in Andalusia in the south that has burned nearly 40,000 hectares (98,842 acres)since August 6, while a fire in the tourist ​town of Omis, Croatia, forced 1,000 people to flee.

In Belgium, firefighters aided by rain and lower temperatures early on Monday had contained parts of the blaze in the High Fens, a nature reserve in the east of Belgium which has been burning since Friday – following a heatwave that saw thermometers in parts of Belgium hit 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

“This is the biggest ecological disaster in terms of forest fires, that’s clear, for Belgium,” said Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the administration of the Wallonia region.

“We can’t say that the fire is contained. It flares up all the time,” he told Reuters.

Some 500 firefighters ​from across Belgium, neighbouring Germany and Luxembourg, as well as farmers, soldiers and reinforcement aircraft from the European Union’s emergency reserve, have been battling the blaze.

Having burned 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres), the wildfire is Belgium’s biggest on record, far surpassing a blaze in 2011 which burned close to 1,400 hectares. Evacuated residents have not yet been allowed to return home.

The fire has penetrated the nature reserve’s metres-deep peat bogs – meaning it could take months to fully extinguish. Peat fires can smoulder underground, without flames, for long periods.

EUROPE’S FIRE SEASON FAR FROM OVER

Extreme fire risk has become a regular part of European summers in recent years, as hotter, drier weather caused by climate change has combined with other factors – including rural abandonment, which has left land untended and allowed flammable, dry vegetation to build up in forests – to fuel fast-spreading fires.

Fires were also raging on Monday in northeastern Spain, where a firefighter died on Sunday, and in northern Portugal’s Braganca district.

About 90% of wildfires are ignited by human activities, such as campfires or discarded cigarettes. Prosecutors in Belgium have opened an investigation into the cause of the blaze.

German firefighters were also working to contain a fire front 1.5 km (0.9 miles) away from buildings in the evacuated German village of Ruitzhof, close to the Belgian border. A local fire department spokesperson said the situation was “static”.

Europe had already suffered its worst fire season on record last year, with more than a million hectares of land burned. Some countries, including France, have smashed through their annual records this year, with the traditional June-September fire season far from over.

Dozens of people in the village Le Porge, in southwestern France, where hundreds of homes were destroyed by a megafire last month, booed French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu as he visited on Monday. Residents have criticised the government’s response and accused authorities of prioritising richer areas.

Reporting by Bart Biesemans, Yves Herman, Inti Landauro, Kate Abnett, Andreas Kranz, Petra Wischgoll, Ivana Sekularac, Andrey Khalip; Editing by Toby Chopra, Alex Richardson and Helen Popper

The Federal Cartel Office found that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework gave its own apps more favourable consent prompts than those of third-party developers, potentially breaching competition rules

International News via Reuters:

Apple will change rules governing how app developers can use personal data for targeted advertising on iPhones and iPads, Germany’s competition authority said on Monday, closing a years-long investigation.

The Federal Cartel Office found that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency framework gave its own apps more favourable consent prompts than those of third-party developers, potentially breaching competition rules.

• Apple has four months to implement the changes after the decision is served. Commitments run for seven years and will be monitored by a trustee.

• Under the commitments, consent pop-ups for third-party apps must be redesigned to remove discouraging language and symbols, and made visually and linguistically neutral.

• Third-party app publishers will also gain more flexibility to combine Apple’s required consent request with separate data-protection consent prompts.

• Apple said the changes would apply in almost all European Union countries and that it had adapted the text and design of the consent prompt at the authority’s request.

• Developers of third-party apps, including Facebook parent Meta Platforms, aim for accurate user data so that targeted adverts can be displayed on devices. These generate more revenue than broader campaigns.

• France and Italy have already fined Apple €150 million and €98.6 million, respectively, over the ATT framework.

Reporting by Matthias Inverardi and Hakan Ersen, writing by Thomas Seythal; editing by Matthias Williams

Investors have been piling into technology stocks on bets that AI will fundamentally alter the global economy, and valuations for top tech companies are now far above historic averages

International News via Reuters:

A market correction to tech stock exuberance in the U.S. is likely and could have far-reaching consequences due to limits in fiscal and monetary policy buffers to blunt the potential economic hit, a European Central Bank blog post said on Monday.

Investors have been piling into technology stocks on bets that AI will fundamentally alter the global economy, and valuations for top tech companies are now far above historic averages.

“Economic research on past technological revolutions points to a worrisome conclusion: a correction of current stock market valuations is likely,” said the blog post, which does not necessarily reflect the ECB’s opinion.

Even if the technology succeeds and profits rise, stocks may still fall because it is hard to fulfil markets’ excessively optimistic profit growth bets, the post added.

OVER-OPTIMISM SEEN STOKING BIGGER PRICE DROP

Psychological trends also point to a correction, the blog argued. Overly optimistic investors tend to bid up prices beyond fundamentals. Then when optimism fades, prices tend to fall even more sharply than in the rational scenario, the post said.

For Europe, a U.S. market correction would be a question of financial stability since households have a €440 billion exposure to so-called Magnificent Seven stocks – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla -while pension and insurance firms’ exposure is about the same.

“The more severe scenario is not the equity correction on its own but a correction that coincides with broader market instability that policymakers cannot easily calm: unlike in the dot-com episode, today’s starting point leaves markedly less room to cut interest rates or use fiscal policy to cushion the fallout,” the blog said.

While European stock valuations appear more rational, market moves closely correlate with the U.S., so local equities will also take a hit, the blog said, adding that the exact timing of the correction “is unknowable in advance”.

“These boom-bust patterns are only identifiable with hindsight,” it said.

Reporting by Balazs Koranyi;Editing by Helen Popper

The 7.4-magnitude quake struck Monday morning in San Jose del Palmar, causing severe damage from the Pacific port of Buenaventura to Colombia’s coffee-growing region and major western cities including Cali and Pereira

International News via Reuters:

Search teams worked through the rubble of collapsed buildings in western Colombia on Sunday, nearly a week after a powerful earthquake devastated cities and towns across the country’s west, killing hundreds and leaving many more missing, injured or homeless.

The 7.4-magnitude quake struck Monday morning in San Jose del Palmar, causing severe damage from the Pacific port of Buenaventura to Colombia’s coffee-growing region and major western cities including Cali and Pereira.

Official estimates issued on Sunday put the death toll at around 290, with more than 140 people still missing and 4,200 injured. More than two-thirds of the deaths were concentrated in Cali and Pereira, where apartment blocks, homes, churches, schools and hospitals were damaged or destroyed.

In Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, emergency workers continued searching unstable piles of concrete and twisted metal on Sunday as rescue efforts increasingly gave way to the recovery of bodies. 

“Unfortunately, there are no signs of life,” Cali fire department Captain Alberto Hernandez said. “Miracles can happen, but honestly – as a believer and based on what we have seen – there is no indication that anyone is still alive.”   

Aftershocks have added to the danger for crews working in damaged neighborhoods and for residents still unable to return home.

“Work has to be done very carefully and methodically… so we do not put rescuers or community members helping at the site at further risk,” Hernandez added.

As hopes of finding more survivors dimmed, the relief operation was expanding.

In Bogota, a stadium has been turned into the country’s biggest donation collection center, while in Pereira authorities were treating injured pets and distributing donated animal food. 

“Horrible, it’s overwhelming,” said Claudia Galeano, 53, who lost her home in Pereira. Her father, Arnulfo Galeano, was pulled alive from the rubble but later died in hospital. 

“The earthquake took my father from me, but there are people worse off than me, left on the street, without family, without anything.”

The quake is the first major crisis facing President Abelardo De La Espriella, who took office just days before the disaster and now faces the task of overseeing relief and reconstruction.

De La Espriella said on Sunday that Colombian billionaire banker Jaime Gilinski, who also controls food company Nutresa, would donate 150 billion pesos ($47.75 million) to rebuild hospitals and schools in Gilinski’s hometown Cali. The Santo Domingo family, which controls a vast media empire in the nation, had already pledged $32 million on Friday.

($1 = 3,141.5000 Colombian pesos)

Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota; Additional reporting by Santiago Limachi in Cali, Colombia, Felipe Leon in Pereira, Cololmbia and Javier Andres Rojas and Natalia Bejarano in Bogota; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama

No cause was stated, but the death of the nominee for a Grammy and two Golden Globe awards was being investigated, the publicist, Kasey Kitchen, told broadcaster NBC News

International News via Reuters:

American actress Hayden Panettiere, famed for roles in television shows such as “Nashville” and “Heroes,” has died aged 36, her family said in a statement issued by her publicist on Sunday.

No cause was stated, but the death of the nominee for a Grammy and two Golden Globe awards was being investigated, the publicist, Kasey Kitchen, told broadcaster NBC News.

“She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her – and to the millions who watched her onscreen,” said her father, Alan “Skip” Panettiere.

A former child actor, Panettiere gained recognition voicing Dot, the young princess ant in Pixar’s 1998 animated hit, “A Bug’s Life.” Her work on the film’s read-along album earned a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.

She shot to fame playing a high school cheerleader with superpowers, Claire Bennet, on NBC’s serialized hit “Heroes,” which debuted in 2006. She also appeared in the 2000 football drama “Remember the Titans,” starring Denzel Washington.

“We join in mourning the sudden passing of Hayden Panettiere,” the screen actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, which counted her as a member since 1994, said in a statement. “Our hearts are with her daughter, family, friends and fans.”

Panettiere earned two Golden Globe nominations, in 2013 and 2014, for Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for her role as Juliette Barnes in the musical drama “Nashville.”

She was also part of the satirical horror “Scream” franchise.

Panettiere’s most recent appearance was in the psychological thriller “Sleepwalker,” released in January 2026, playing a grieving mother plagued by sleepwalking episodes, website IMDb shows.

Her memoir “This Is Me: A Reckoning,” released in May, portrayed the trauma around the difficult 2014 birth of her daughter, and her subsequent battles with postpartum depression and alcohol addiction then.

Panettiere is survived by her daughter Kaya, whom she shared with former fiancé and Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko. Kaya lives with Klitschko in Ukraine, Panettiere said this year.

Her brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, 28, died in 2023 from complications related to an enlarged heart and an aortic-valve condition, the family told U.S. media that year.

Reporting by Ananya Palyekar and Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Christian Schmollinger and Clarence Fernandez

They added that more than 130 people had been injured, many with broken bones

International News via Reuters:

Around 5,000 people have been evacuated after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake rocked eastern Indonesia, killing at least 53, blocking roads and causing landslides, authorities said on Sunday.

They added that more than 130 people had been injured, many with broken bones.

Saturday’s quake was the Southeast Asian nation’s deadliest since a 2022 quake killed hundreds in West Java.

More than 3,300 people in Indonesia’s Sikka region – one of the hardest hit – self-evacuated or were in a sports arena, according to the country’s national disaster mitigation agency, known as BNPB.

Some residents were stranded outside collapsed homes under makeshift tents made out of tarpaulin, while others received treatment in a tent outside the local hospital.

A sprawling archipelago of 290 million people, Indonesia straddles the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, a seismically active zone where tectonic plates meet, triggering frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

FEAR OF AFTERSHOCKS

At a now-closed port in Maumere, littered with debris from a collapsed roof and walls, residents told Reuters they were scared of aftershocks.

The disaster agency said on Sunday nearly a thousand aftershocks had been recorded since the quake.

Nearby, hundreds of residents filled a sports stadium, which has been designated as an evacuation spot.

As the sun was setting, residents stood in line to get warm drinks. Some mothers hooked pieces of clothing to tent frames to form makeshift cradles for their babies. Other children played soccer outside.

One of these mothers was Lisda, 22, who chose to be in a tent with her twin babies due to the fear of sleeping inside her home.

Inside another tent, Yuvienta Saen, 67, recounted her misfortunes. As she felt the quake during her morning prayer, she had to choose between her paralysed husband and herself.

“He told me, you run, I’m handing my fate to God,” she said, adding there was a lack of clean water and blankets in the tent.

The area of the quake was hit in 1992 by a magnitude-7.5 earthquake that caused extensive destruction, Indonesia’s geophysics agency said.

Margaretha Movaldes Da Maga Bapa, head of the region’s disaster mitigation agency, said the quake had brought back memories.

“We’ve had quakes often. But this one really brings back the trauma of the one from 1992,” she said, referencing the trucks bringing aid and tents.

Suryaman, a rescue agency official, told Reuters the priority was clearing rubble in the most-affected areas of Manggarai, East Manggarai and Nagekeo to find people possibly still trapped under rubble.

Suryaman said the agency had not received missing person reports but added that landslides and aftershocks were impeding the search.

More than 3,500 military and police officers have been deployed to the region, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya said in a statement.

Power supply was nearly fully restored, but authorities were still working on fixing distribution lines, state utility firm Perusahaan Listrik Negara said Sunday.

The East Nusa Tenggara government has declared an emergency for the province, BNPB said, a move that allows authorities to mobilise resources and funding.

Additional reporting by Dewi Kurniawati and Bernadette Christina in Jakarta; Reporting and writing by Stanley Widianto; Editing by William Mallard and Christina Fincher