Hello,
Wildfires continue to spread in Europe, North Africa and Canada as firefighters struggle to contain the deadly blazes. Firefighters were racing to subdue wildfires in France and neighbouring Spain as another heatwave is expected to hit both countries later this week in what has been a blisteringly hot and dry summer across Western Europe.
The CEO of Europe's largest aerial emergency services firm Avincis told Reuters that the continent is not ready for longer and more extreme wildfire seasons, as its firefighting aircraft are now needed almost year-round. ESG Lens looks at what an impending "super" El Niño will mean for countries in Africa, where wildfires have also been spreading in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
Meanwhile, Canada is tackling nearly 900 blazes as of Tuesday, with evacuation orders still in place in First Nation community areas. Here are some more extreme weather-related stories that are also on my radar today: |
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Smoke and fog in a burnt forest hit by a wildfire near Saumos, Gironde, following a heatwave and water shortages across much of France. REUTERS/Yves Herma |
‘Fire seasons are getting longer’
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Forest fires advanced towards the outskirts of the historic French city of Bordeaux, at the heart of the country's winelands.
About 220,000 people, including tourists and local residents, have been evacuated in France, while in Spain nearly 100,000 were told to leave their homes, authorities said.
Temperatures in Bordeaux are forecast to reach 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day, around 7 degrees above the average high between 1961 and 1990, according to the Reuters Climate Monitor.
French President Emmanuel Macron has enlisted the military to support exhausted firefighters, amid a record-breaking heatwave that had already resulted in nearly 6,000 excess deaths.
Avincis CEO John Boag said longer European wildfire seasons and bureaucratic obstacles have exacerbated regional shortages of both aircraft and pilots. "Globally, fire seasons are getting longer, aircraft are not moving between areas and pilots are becoming harder and harder to get," Boag said in an interview. |
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‘No help from Mother Nature’ |
In North Africa, Algeria’s Civil Protection unit said it has succeeded in extinguishing 34 fires out of 56 recorded across several of the country's wilayas, while Tunisia’s Civil Protection and Forestry teams are battling a wildfire that broke out over the weekend in Jebel Dallaj, Henchir Chedly, in Takelsa.
Moroccan authorities also extinguished forest fires in the provinces of Tetouan in the north and Taroudant in the centre of the country after they burned around 12 hectares (30 acres) of forest cover, with no casualties reported, the National Agency for Water and Forests told local press.
Meanwhile, a new report by the University of Chicago’s Climate Impact Lab found that about 377,000 people will die each year in countries trapped by extreme heat and lack of access to cooling, with most of these deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia where there is less electricity than in wealthier regions. In North America, roughly 878 fires were burning across Canada on Tuesday, and more than 3.7 million hectares had burned so far in 2026, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System dashboard.
"There is no significant help from Mother Nature whatsoever in the foreseeable future," said Incident Commander Hugh Murdoch of a cluster of fires near Kimberley, B.C., 520 km (323 miles) from Vancouver. Fires have caused extensive damage in Namaygoosisagagun and Whitewater Lake First Nations in northwestern Ontario and forced evacuations in other communities. |
Dr. Moubarack Kano, medical director of the Centre Neuro-Psychopathologique and a medical worker in Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo. REUTERS/Gradel Muyisa Mumbere |
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Congo’s Ebola outbreak: Reuters joined frontline workers monitoring Ebola patients and the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this month, as they raced to track down infections and limit their spread across a patch with 1 million people in 23 health districts. Click here for the full video and article.
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India’s Cockroach Janta Party: India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stepped down this weekend after five weeks of India's youth Cockroach Janta Party protests which were triggered by a leaked medical-entrance exam, compounded with youth unemployment and fear among the young that AI could take their jobs in places such as IT back offices that India is known for, analysts said. Click here for a story.
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U.S. demand for China’s minerals: President Donald Trump has been trying to end U.S. reliance on Chinese critical minerals by January, but the reality is that U.S. minerals companies are nowhere close to meeting domestic needs, according to interviews with 16 industry executives, investors, analysts and policymakers. Click here for the full Reuters article.
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Rohingya children face hate speech: Rohingya children are facing harassment and threats that have prompted refugee schools across Malaysia to close, say rights groups and educators. At least nine schools have shut nationwide, Reuters checks show.
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Germany’s sick-note rule: Workers in Germany took an average of about 22 days of sick leave in 2024, among the highest levels internationally. However, researchers say that plans to tighten sick-note rules may be mistaking the symptoms of rising absenteeism for the underlying illness, pointing to mental health strains and deteriorating working conditions.
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Forecasters are warning that El Niño, which often drives severe droughts, flooding and storms in Africa, could become one of the strongest ever seen if Pacific Ocean warming trends continue.
"Just this event is going to reduce heavily affected countries' GDP by 1% to 2% on average, which is about $10 billion to $20 billion across the continent," Anthony Nyong, the AfDB's director for climate change and green growth, said in an interview. Click here for the full Reuters story. |
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Sustainable Switch was edited by Alexander Smith. |
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