2,578 events tracked
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Over half of the people evacuated from France's southwest due to massive wildfires were allowed to return to their homes. French firefighters have been battling a massive wildfire west of Bordeaux, which forced the evacuation of 220,000 people. It destroyed more than 200 homes, burned through 42,000 hectares and killed two firemen. FRANCE 24's Carys Garland is on the ground and tells us more
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China’s factory activity unexpectedly slipped into contraction for the first time in five months, and construction activity fell to its lowest since the pandemic, underscoring a divide in the nation’s economy that complicates efforts to revive growth. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to 49.2 in July, missing the 50.1 median estimate in a Bloomberg poll of economists. Construction and services, part of non-manufacturing PMI, tumbled to 49 from 50.2 a month...
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A powerful earthquake that struck southern Japan this week has exposed the vulnerability of the country’s manufacturing supply chains, a decade after a devastating quake in the same region triggered widespread industry disruption. Tuesday’s 7.1-magnitude quake claimed at least 34 lives, ruptured roads and cut off utilities to thousands of households. It also brought factories to a halt in an area critical to Japan’s auto industry and known as well as the country’s “Silicon Valley” due to its...
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A super typhoon named after Hong Kong’s Chinese white dolphins is set to bring very hot weather to the city in the latter part of next week, according to the Observatory. Super Typhoon Dolphin, currently over the western North Pacific, is expected to move towards the waters south of Japan in the next few days, although its subsequent trajectory remains uncertain, the forecaster’s senior scientific officer Kong Yu-chau told the South China Morning Post on Friday. “We expect it will have a higher...
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Singapore’s retrenchments last quarter climbed to the highest since the pandemic, as some overseas-facing industries restructured.
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Axa SA reported first half profit higher than the same period a year ago, as the Paris-based insurer assesses the impact of wildfires currently affecting France and Spain.
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Residents in southwestern Japan have had to resort to sleeping in their cars for shelter, after a recent 6.8 magnitude.
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Fire-ravaged southwestern France experienced its ‘first somewhat optimistic day’ since wildfires broke out.
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Also in today’s newsletter: Europe’s wildfire risks and the ‘Nostradamus of AI’
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Greece, Italy and parts of central Europe are the most vulnerable in coming weeks, officials warn
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Crucial trade river near its lowest level in eight years as temperatures head towards 40C
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The magnitude 7.1 quake has killed 34 people and left six more seriously injured.
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Wildfires kill firefighters as blazes spread across Europe
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The death toll from a landslide in Chongqing province, southwest China, earlier this month rose to 51, with 10 people still missing, local authorities said late on Thursday night. The landslide, which occurred two weeks ago in Pengshui county, swept away several residential buildings at the foot of a mountain along a riverbank. Quoting the command centre of the rescue effort, state-run news agency Xinhua said that 51 people had been found and confirmed dead, while 10 were still missing. Drone...
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Researchers warn that hotter, drier conditions are making severe wildfire seasons increasingly frequent across Europe.
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A massive wildfire that has devastated southwestern France was no longer advancing on Thursday, local authorities said, raising hopes the crisis was easing. In Spain, most of the tens of thousands of people evacuated from areas west of Madrid were cleared to return home after the state of emergency was lifted. Firefighters, however, remained locked in battles against major blazes in the UK, Greece, Portugal and Turkey.
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Jersey Mike's CEO Charlie Morrison discusses the company's first day of trading, the cyclospora outbreak and customer demand with Dani Burger on Bloomberg Television. (Source: Bloomberg)
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Delano D'Souza is pleased to welcome Dr. Melissa Sterry, Scientist, Designer, Strategist and Founding Director of Panarchic Codex®: Design for Living with Wildfire. Sterry reframes wildfire as a systemic phenomenon: climate change intensifies heat and drought, nineteenth century land engineering has produced highly combustible plantation forests, and expanding human activity increases ignition opportunities. Once these factors align, fires can evolve into autonomous systems that generate their own weather and even create new ignition sources. While she praises France's emergency response, Dr. Sterry contends that prevention and firefighting alone cannot solve the problem. The real challenge lies in redesigning landscapes before fires gain momentum, shifting policy from reacting to disasters towards preventing them through long-term ecological resistance and resilience.
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A turtle who survived for over a month under the rubble of a collapsed building following Venezuela’s earthquake rescued
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Climate change has helped southern Europe's likelihood of wildfires double since 1981, say researchers.
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France's wildfire risk remains "extremely high" despite a slight improvement in weather conditions, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Thursday (July 30), citing persistent drought and fast-spreading blazes across the country. Nunez said higher humidity and weaker winds had helped conditions, but authorities still dealt with 26 fires nationwide on Wednesday (July 29) alone, warning that vegetation remained highly combustible.
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Parts of northern Hong Kong face the highest risk of climate-related disasters, a study by the Hong Kong Red Cross has found, with the charity urging the government to take climate resilience planning into account in developing the area. A report released by the charity on Thursday also said that more than 50 per cent of the city faced high-risk threats from two or three types of hazards, such as typhoons, extreme heat or fires, simultaneously. “In planning Hong Kong’s future, this risk map...
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French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the "situation is still quite complicated" as wildfires continued to burn after a crisis meeting Thursday in Paris. Regarding the giant wildfires that have spread in Gironde region, Nunez said the blaze stabilised but not contained. Carys Garland reports.
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Delano D'Souza is pleased to welcome French Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Éléonore Caroit (France's Minister Delegate for Francophonie, International Partnerships and French Nationals Abroad). She discusses France's response to an unprecedented heatwave and wildfire season through three interconnected lenses: operational crisis management, international solidarity, and climate governance. Caroit distinguishes between the immediate demands of emergency response and the longer term structural challenges posed by climate change, including adaptation, infrastructure resilience, and urban planning. While arguing that governments must continually strengthen preparedness and invest in adaptation, she maintains that no level of national capacity alone can adequately confront a crisis driven by global greenhouse gas emissions. In her view, effective domestic action must be matched by sustained international climate cooperation, making collective global engagement an essential component of both disaster response and long term climate resilience.
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Over the past 10 years, Washington, Brussels and London have made decreasing economic reliance on China a strategic goal. Western economic plans now stress supply-chain resilience, industrial sovereignty, technological leadership and national security. The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted weaknesses in global supply networks. Increasing geostrategic tensions, export restrictions and technological rivalry have supported political backing for reshoring and “friendshoring” manufacturing. The objective...
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In Spain's Galicia region, native goats, sheep, and cows are helping local communities reduce the risk of wildfires by grazing on flammable undergrowth. The initiative has gained momentum in an area hit hard by Spain's worst wildfire year in 2025, where nearly 119,00 hectares of land burned, an area spanning roughly double the size of Madrid. The animals include the Cachena, a native goat-like cow known for its ability to forage widely and traverse the region's mountainous terrain.
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More than half of those affected have been permitted to go home in sign that worst fires in decades are under control
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According to the EU’s specialized center EFFIS, 1,407 wildfires have broken out in Europe this year
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Wildfires on the Greek island of Crete are forcing thousands of residents and tourists to evacuate. Three firefighters have died as Greece becomes the latest country, after France and Spain, to face summer blazes.
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French authorities gave the go-ahead Thursday for 84,000 evacuees forced out by a monster wildfire to go back to their homes in southwest France, the strongest sign yet that firefighters are turning a corner in their battle against the flames that have burned an area four times the size of Paris. FRANCE 24's Carys Garland reports.
