List of All Articles with Tag 'eu'

The couple from Stoke-on-Trent said their holiday had been a "rollercoaster".

The epicenter of Europe’s heat wave is shifting back to fire-ravaged Greece, as temperatures are set to hit

L’Occitane International SA’s controlling shareholder is considering a move to take the skin-care company private, people with knowledge

China’s Qin Gang has been removed from his post as foreign minister and replaced by his predecessor Wang

UK greenhouse gas emissions dropped in the first quarter for the first time in two years, as the

South Africa’s electricity minister attacked the country’s groundbreaking $8.5 billion climate finance pact with some of the world’s

Wildfires closed Palermo airport in Italy on Tuesday as firefighters fought to control the raging blazes. The Sicilian airport tweeted to say it would remain shut until 0900 GMT to give firefighters an opportunity to extinguish the fires which were also disrupting local road and rail traffic. It came days after the island’s main airport of Catania, Italy’s fifth-biggest, was closed due to a fire in a terminal building. It has since reopened but only for a few flights. The news emerged as the Mediterranean country - like much of southern Europe - has been hit by scorching temperatures bringing increased risk of fires and deaths. Yesterday, temperatures rose to 47.6 Celsius in some parts of eastern Sicily - close to a record European high of 48.8 Celsius recorded on the island two years ago. This led the government to put 16 Italian cities on red alert. These included Palermo and Catania, where power and water supply cuts that local officials blamed in part on the heat have been frequent in recent days. On Tuesday, Italy put 16 cities on red alert because of the high temperatures. These include Palermo and Catania, where power and water supply cuts that local officials blamed in part on the heat have been frequent in recent days. Meanwhile, an overnight storm in Milan tore off roofs and uprooted trees, blocking roads and disrupting overground transportation in Italy’s financial capital. Two women were killed on Monday and Tuesday in the northern Monza and Brescia provinces after being crushed by falling trees. “I have been through 65 summers in my lifetime... and what I am seeing now is not normal, we can no longer deny it, climate change is changing our lives,” Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said on social media. Elsewhere, the Mediterranean country has been battered by severe storms. They claimed at least two lives in the north of the country when trees fell on women in separate incidents on Monday and Tuesday in the northern Monza and Brescia provinces. Meanwhile, an overnight storm in Milan tore off roofs and uprooted trees, blocking roads and disrupting overground transportation in Italy's financial capital. Yesterday, a Delta flight headed to New York which had taken off from Milan's Malpensa airport was seriously damaged by hailstorm and forced to land in Rome. Italy is one of the European countries most affected by climate change, and suffered deadly floods in May. Read More Greece fires – live: EasyJet pilot tells tourists flying to Rhodes is ‘terrible idea’ minutes before takeoff How long will the wildfires last in Greece? Simon Calder: Is it safe to travel to Greece right now? Tourist advice amid wildfires New immunotherapy drug shows promise as cancer treatment, research suggests South Korea's Casey Phair becomes the youngest ever World Cup player at 16 years and 26 days of age Greece fires: Thousands flee Rhodes and Corfu as Sicily airport now forced to close

Spotify Technology SA, the Swedish audio streaming platform, beat analyst expectations in its second-quarter results with its total

Heat searing enough to knock out mobile phones. Wildfire smoke that turns the skies an apocalyptic orange. Flash

Russia launched a fresh wave of drone strikes on Kyiv and other parts of the country early on Tuesday morning, Ukraine has said. The Kremlin used Iranian-made Shahed drones to attack Kyiv for the sixth time this month, but all were shot down, Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration, said. Air raid sirens wailed across the capital and attacks were also reported in the north and centre of Ukraine but none in the south. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to buildings. Air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said air defences had been engaged in three regions in the north of the country. “About 10 drones were recorded, the information is being clarified,” he told Ukrainian television, adding that up to five were destroyed. Earlier, thousands of Wagner group mercenaries have arrived in Belarus since the group’s short-lived rebellion, a military monitoring group said. Between 3,450 and 3,650 soldiers have travelled to a camp close to Asipovichy, a town 230 kilometres (140 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, according to Belaruski Hajun, an activist group that tracks troop movements within the country. Read More Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin? The Wagner Group mercenary chief who rebelled against Putin Monitoring group says thousands of Wagner mercenaries have arrived in Belarus since failed uprising Wagner mercenaries training Belarus special forces just miles from border with Nato-member Poland

About 40 minutes from the City of London financial district, a sign in the town of Laindon once

Evacuations are set to continue in Greece as Corfu and Evia have become the latest Islands to issue orders while the country grapples with the devastating wildfires. The Greek fire service has said around 2,500 people have evacuated from Corfu so far. Thousands of people have also been forced to leave their homes and hotels - with those in Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia Perithia and Sinies being told to evacuate to Kassiopi. A spokesperson from the Met Office told The Independent: “Temperatures on Rhodes are likely to peak on Wednesday, and could be close to 39C in some spots. Temperatures are then expected to move back towards average for the time of year later in the week, likely around 30C. “However, windy conditions could impact efforts this week. There are some northwesterly winds today, with these likely to ease on Tuesday and Wednesday. “However, a return of windy weather is possible later in the week, albeit accompanied by that drop in temperatures,” the Met Office added. What will the weather be like this week in Greece? According to the Met Office website, the temperature in Rhodes will be as follows: Monday 24 July - Highest temperature: 36C and Lowest: 31C Tuesday 25 July - Highest: 37C and Lowest: 28C Wednesday 26 July - Highest: 39C and Lowest: 27C Thursday 27 July - Highest: 36C and Lowest: 23C Friday 28 July - Highest: 34C and Lowest: 24C Saturday 29 July - Highest: 32C and Lowest: 22C Sunday 30 July- Highest: 33C and Lowest: 24C How long will the wildfires last? The climate crisis is increasing the risk of larger, more intense and erratic wildfires around the world due to hotter and drier conditions. Other factors also play a role including soil moisture levels, and the presence of vegetation which acts as fuel for fires. “It’s important to note that these wildfires are happening in environments that are naturally prone to fire during hot and dry summers, with vegetation that is highly adapted to live with fire”, Dr Matthew Jones, NERC Independent Research Fellow, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Environmental Sciences, UEA, said in a statement. Dr Jones added that under climate change and frequent changes to weather conditions across the globe, fires are more likely to break out and “also burn so intensely and synchronously across the Mediterranean.” “The Mediterranean has seen a dramatic increase in the frequency of the hot-dry conditions that were considered extreme at the end of the last century, and these increases are expected to accelerate for each added degree of warming in future,” he noted. According to the Joint Research Centre, last year was the second-worst wildfire season in Europe. In 2022, damages exceeded those of 2021, as per data from the EFFIS - an advanced report on Forest Fires in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The EFFIS looked at fires in 45 countries and found that these places suffered from 16,941 fires that burnt 1,624,381 hectares. Looking at just European countries, July 2022 was the month when the most significant proportion of damage occurred in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece. According to Safer Scotland’s Wildfire Operational Guidance, a wildfire can burn for a “period of time” and this is heavily dependent on the landscape, which contributes to how fast the fire might move. The “behaviour” of the wildfire depends on the following factors: the area, its combustibility and arrangement, the arrangement of the area, the weather and time. Dependent on stable or unstable weather conditions the Wildfire Operational Guidance said time “can have a positive or negative effect on fire development throughout the day and this will bring both advantage and disadvantage to firefighting operations.” Space is another important factor as the area in which the fire is burning brings changes to the shape of the fire, altering the fire’s alignment. For example, as fire changes its location and moves across the area “topographical and climactic conditions will work for and against the first altering its intensity and speed.” What impacts does fuel have on wildfires? When a wildfire occurs, the main source of fuel is vegetation. This type of fuel, its size and the way the vegetation is arranged across the landscape will affect the way the fire burns. The Wildfire Operational Guidance has said the size and shape of the fuel are important especially “in regard to their ease of ignition. Smaller fuels, referred to as ‘fine fuels’, are more receptive to fire, while larger or more coarse fuel types generally rely on their interaction with fires in finer fuels before they will ignite.” Fine fuels are considered to be those with a diameter of up to 6mm, this includes grass, small stems and the leaves of low-lying shrubs. These fine fuels can also be found in large quantities in plants - such as needles on conifer trees. “Fuels that are over 6mm in diameter are described as ‘coarse fuel’ and include twigs, branches, and tree trunks,” the guidance has said. Fine fuels can affect the intensity of the fire, the rate and motion of the fire, the flame length, the fire activity and increased ignitions caused by spot fires. When asked about how long the wildfires might last in Greece, Jim Dale, founder and senior Meteorlogical Consultant at the British Weather Services told The Independent: “For as long as there is ‘fuel’ as in combustible brush. The wind is the enemy as far as people and infrastructure are concerned; there is no sign of rain. “The two main fire zones of Rhodes and Corfu will almost certainly be added to as the Mediterranean basin continues to bake with record and near-record temperatures.” Read More Greek fires ‘big warning’ for tourists to Mediterranean, says climate expert Greece fires – live: Corfu evacuations begin as tourists fleeing Rhodes inferno spend second night in airport Greece wildfires: Rhodes tourists sleep on airport floor awaiting evacuation