Global Pulse

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  • Ukraine’s latest long-range strikes on Russia hit a major natural gas plant and satellite centers

    Ukraine’s latest long-range strikes on Russia hit a major natural gas plant and satellite centers

    KYIV, Ukraine — In a significant escalation of Kyiv’s cross-border aerial campaign targeting Russian strategic assets, Ukraine’s General Staff announced Wednesday that Ukrainian forces carried out a large-scale overnight attack that struck a major natural gas processing facility and two critical military satellite communications centers deep inside Russian territory.

    This latest operation comes as Ukraine ramps up its long-range strike efforts against Russian energy and defense-linked infrastructure, leveraging a growing arsenal of longer-range weaponry developed and acquired to counter Russia’s full-scale invasion, which is now entering its third year. The target farthest from Ukrainian front lines was the Orenburg Gas Processing Plant, located more than 1,200 kilometers, or approximately 750 miles, behind the active front that stretches across eastern and southern Ukraine. According to the General Staff’s statement published on the Telegram messaging platform, the strike sparked a large fire across the plant complex, which also hosts Russia’s only operational helium production facility.

    Ukrainian military officials emphasized that the Orenburg complex ranks among the world’s largest gas processing hubs. Beyond natural gas, the facility produces two materials critical to Russian military production: helium, a core component for liquid-fuel rocket engines and precision missile guidance systems, and ethane, a key input for manufacturing solid rocket fuel and military-grade gunpowder.

    As of Wednesday afternoon, the Ukrainian military’s claims could not be independently verified by third-party outlets, and Russian federal and regional officials had not issued an immediate public response to the attack. While the General Staff did not disclose what type of weaponry was used in the strike, long-range drone attacks have become the primary tool for Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory in recent months, with repeated assaults targeting sites in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

    In addition to the Orenburg plant, the overnight strikes hit two satellite communications facilities used exclusively by the Russian military, per Ukraine’s General Staff. One of the sites is the Dubna Space Communications Center located near Moscow, which Ukrainian officials describe as Russia’s largest ground-based satellite communications complex. The second targeted facility is located in the Vladimir region, roughly 190 kilometers east of Moscow.

    The overnight attacks on Russian territory coincided with an intensification of Ukrainian strikes on Russian-held Crimea, a strategically critical Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014 and uses as a key supply and logistics hub for its forces operating in southern Ukraine. Overnight drone strikes on Crimea cut power supplies to parts of Sevastopol, the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-appointed governor of the city, confirmed Wednesday.

    Western analysts note that Ukraine’s current campaign targeting Crimea is designed to achieve multiple military and political goals. Militarily, Kyiv aims to disrupt Russian supply lines and disable the peninsula’s critical energy infrastructure during the peak summer tourist season. Politically, the campaign seeks to create public discomfort that increases pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the full-scale invasion.

    The escalation of strikes on Crimea was further confirmed Wednesday by Ukraine’s Security Service, which announced it had carried out separate strikes on two Russian military airfields in the peninsula, destroying multiple Russian missile systems in the process.

    The widespread overnight exchanges of fire between the two sides underscored the expanding scale of long-range attacks across the conflict. Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that its air defense forces had intercepted and destroyed 323 Ukrainian drones launched across multiple regions overnight. In a matching statement, Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russia had launched 101 long-range attack drones against Ukrainian targets in the same 24-hour period.

    Elise Morton contributed reporting from London. Additional coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is available at AP’s dedicated conflict hub.

  • Decriminalise all personal use drug possession, Irish committee says

    Decriminalise all personal use drug possession, Irish committee says

    After months of stakeholder interviews, public hearings and careful deliberation, an all-party parliamentary committee in Ireland has tabled a landmark final report calling for the full decriminalization of all drugs held for personal use, marking a radical shift from the country’s decades-old criminal justice-focused approach to drug policy.

    The Oireachtas Committee on Drugs, established by the Irish parliament to review the findings of the 2024 Citizens Assembly on Drug Use, formally released its recommendations on Wednesday. The 14-member body, made up of nine TDs from the lower house of parliament and five senators from the upper chamber, voted to endorse the Citizens Assembly’s core proposal to decriminalize personal drug possession, backing a holistic, health-centered framework instead of punitive legal measures.

    In its findings, the committee pushed back against widespread concerns that removing criminal penalties for personal possession would drive up overall drug use. Committee members concluded that decriminalization is “not likely” to trigger a meaningful increase in national drug consumption. They did, however, acknowledge data from a small number of international jurisdictions that have implemented similar reforms, which recorded minor upticks in public drug use following decriminalization. To address this concern, the report recommends that local governments be empowered to introduce local byelaws modeled after existing regulations that restrict public alcohol consumption, to discourage and reduce open drug use in shared public spaces.

    The proposal also includes major new harm reduction provisions, calling for updated national legislation to authorize mobile drug consumption facilities and fixed supervised consumption sites. The committee frames these sites as a dual-purpose reform: they will reduce the public health risks faced by people who use drugs, while also lowering the prevalence of open street drug use across Irish communities. Additionally, the committee has urged the national government to launch large-scale public education campaigns focused on sensible, harm-aware drug use that prioritizes reducing overdose deaths and preventable health harms.

    One of the report’s most significant social policy recommendations calls for ending short prison sentences for non-violent drug possession offenses, particularly for primary caregivers who use drugs. The committee argues that a health-led approach to supporting these individuals, rather than incarceration, will enable sustainable recovery and allow parents and guardians to continue providing stable care for their dependent children.

    The committee emphasized that both unregulated drug use and failed punitive drug policies create distinct public health and social harms, both of which require urgent, coordinated action from the state. It calls for a whole-of-government response that integrates public health, education and justice strategies, and urges the government to dramatically increase funding for community-based addiction support services and residential treatment programs.

    The current national government, formed last year by a coalition of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and independent TDs, has not yet committed to full decriminalization. The existing government program only pledges to divert people caught with small amounts of drugs for personal use toward health services, rather than moving to full decriminalization. Now that the committee has formally submitted its recommendations, the national government will begin the process of reviewing and considering the proposals.

    Speaking after the report’s publication, committee chair Gary Gannon, a Social Democrats TD, described the recommendations as a fundamental policy correction, not a minor incremental change. “This is not a marginal adjustment. It is a recognition that criminalising people for their own drug use has not reduced harm, and that a different approach is both possible and overdue,” Gannon said.

    Deputy chair Mary Fitzpatrick, a Fianna Fáil senator, noted the widespread reach of controlled substances across Ireland, stating that “cocaine, cannabis, prescription drugs and new substances are now present in every county – in villages, towns and cities alike.” Fitzpatrick’s comments underscore the broad need for a coordinated national response to drug use that addresses the issue across all parts of the country, rather than only focusing on urban centers.

  • Japan says that China has detained 2 of its citizens suspected of smuggling banned items

    Japan says that China has detained 2 of its citizens suspected of smuggling banned items

    TOKYO – New developments in a cross-border legal case have added another layer of tension to already frayed relations between China and Japan, after Japanese government officials confirmed Wednesday that Chinese authorities have taken two Japanese citizens into custody on suspicion of smuggling prohibited import and export goods. Multiple sources indicate the case centers on rare earths — the strategically critical industrial materials whose global supply chain is overwhelmingly dominated by Beijing.

    Japan’s top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, told reporters in Tokyo that Chinese customs officials notified Japanese consular missions in the northeastern Chinese cities of Shenyang and Dalian of the detentions. The first individual was taken into custody on May 18, with the second apprehended one week later as part of the same investigation, Kihara confirmed. While Kihara stated that both detained Japanese nationals are reported to be in good health, he declined to disclose additional personal information about the pair or further details of the ongoing probe, citing protections for personal privacy and the active status of the investigation.

    In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun has formally confirmed the detentions, confirming that the two men are held on suspicion of violating Chinese national laws. Guo offered no specific information on the nature of the prohibited items involved, but urged the Japanese government to take steps to educate and remind all Japanese citizens and companies operating within Chinese borders of the requirement to comply fully with Chinese laws and regulations in all commercial and personal activities.

    Japan’s Kyodo News Agency, citing unnamed sources familiar with the case, has reported that the two detainees are employees of a major Japanese manufacturing firm, with one working at the company’s local Chinese subsidiary. The report added that the alleged smuggling attempt involves rare earth-related materials, whose unauthorized cross-border transport violates Chinese trade control regulations.

    This latest legal incident comes five months after Beijing implemented a formal ban on exports of certain dual-use goods — materials that can be repurposed for both civilian and military applications — to Japan. While Chinese authorities have stressed that the new export controls do not disrupt legitimate commercial trade, official trade data has already recorded a measurable drop in Chinese exports of rare earth magnets to Japan since the policy took effect.

    Bilateral relations between the two major Asia-Pacific economies have been under growing strain for months. The most significant rift opened late last year, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi broke with decades of Japanese strategic ambiguity on the Taiwan issue, suggesting that a Chinese military move against the self-governing island of Taiwan — which Beijing claims as an inalienable part of its territory — would justify a Japanese military response. This incident was not the only source of tension in recent years; last year, a Japanese national detained in China since March 2023 was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on charges of espionage, further eroding trust between the two governments.

    Associated Press correspondent Ken Moritsugu contributed reporting from Beijing for this article.

  • Ukraine strikes knock out power in key city in Russian-occupied Crimea

    Ukraine strikes knock out power in key city in Russian-occupied Crimea

    Escalating cross-border attacks between Russia and Ukraine have plunged the largest city in Russian-occupied Crimea into widespread power outages and fueled acute supply shortages, as Kyiv ramps up pressure on Russian-controlled infrastructure to advance its war aims.

    Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-appointed governor of Sevastopol, announced Tuesday that a Ukrainian aerial assault had disabled the city’s primary power distribution network. He cautioned that some residential and commercial districts would remain without electricity through Wednesday evening, as repair crews worked to assess and fix the damage. In a public Telegram address, Razvozhayev sought to calm residents, stating, “We will not be intimidated by the lack of light. We have gone through more than that, and we will survive now.” He condemned the strike as a “vile” attempt to erode daily life and stoke public panic, adding that energy facilities have been placed under a special emergency response regime with all first responder teams on highest alert.

    Local authorities have ordered residents to implement strict energy conservation measures: adjusting phone screen brightness to lower levels and closing unused background applications to preserve mobile battery life, amid expectations that daytime temperatures will climb to 30 degrees Celsius. Officials also urged residents to check in on elderly neighbors who may be vulnerable to the heat and power disruption.

    Ukrainian military commanders confirmed the strike, with Robert Brovdi, head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, stating Wednesday that the operation targeted 48 active and planned Russian military sites across Crimea, including Sevastopol’s main power substation. In addition to the Sevastopol attack, explosions were reported in multiple other Crimean locations: Bakhchisarai, Kerch, and the vicinity of Mount Ai-Petri, which hosts a Russian Aerospace Forces radio engineering battalion.

    The power outage comes on the heels of worsening fuel shortages across Sevastopol, triggered by Ukraine’s ongoing campaign to cut logistical links to the Crimean Peninsula. Internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, Crimea was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, and has been connected to Russian territory via the Kerch Strait road-rail bridge and a land corridor through occupied southern Ukraine. On Sunday, Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed leader of Crimea, announced a full suspension of civilian petrol sales, restricting all fuel supplies exclusively to government and military services — a move that has sparked public frustration, as many local residents report that retail gas stations still hold stock in their storage tanks. The supply disruptions have also sparked panic buying at grocery stores, with sugar already reported to be depleted across many outlets.

    The latest Crimean strikes are part of a broader pattern of intensified Ukrainian attacks on Russian-controlled energy infrastructure, a strategy designed to cut into Moscow’s oil revenues and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to enter peace negotiations. Sevastopol holds particular strategic importance for Russia, serving as a key naval and logistical hub for its military operations in southern Ukraine.

    The exchange of attacks on Tuesday underscores the escalating drone war between the two nations: Russia’s defense ministry claims it destroyed more than 300 Ukrainian drones launched overnight, while Ukraine’s air force says it intercepted and destroyed 95 of 101 Russian drones launched against Ukrainian territory overnight.

    The escalation follows a major Ukrainian strike earlier this week on an oil refinery in southeast Moscow. The Thursday attack left thick plumes of smoke billowing into the sky, and multiple residents reported black oil particles raining down on city streets, leaving stains on clothing and property. Moscow officials have publicly denied the occurrence of “oil rain,” but residents have confirmed the accounts to the BBC.

    Now entering its fourth and a half year following Russia’s full-scale invasion, the conflict has seen little diplomatic movement in recent weeks. On June 4, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released an open letter to Putin calling for direct, face-to-face negotiations to agree a ceasefire and end the full-scale war. Putin rejected the proposal as “rude” and refused the meeting, stating that peace talks must precede any ceasefire agreement. Earlier this week, a separate power outage was also reported in Yevpatoria, another Crimean city, during what local authorities described as a prior temporary disruption.

  • Kenyans eye tariff-free boom with Chinese market

    Kenyans eye tariff-free boom with Chinese market

    When China rolled out a sweeping zero-tariff policy for all eligible goods from diplomatically recognized African nations starting May 1 this year, East African economic hub Kenya moved quickly to position itself as a leading beneficiary, aiming to turbocharge its agricultural exports and unlock new investment opportunities in the world’s second-largest consumer market.

    The zero-tariff policy, which eliminates import duties on a wide range of Kenyan goods, has opened unprecedented access to China’s 1.4 billion consumers. Kenya is now gearing up to leverage the 9th China International Import Expo (CIIE), scheduled to run from November 5 to 10 in Shanghai, as a launchpad to expand its market footprint, attract foreign direct investment, and deepen bilateral trade ties with China.

    In a press briefing held in Nairobi ahead of the expo, Lucy Muchoki, director of programs and partnerships at the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), emphasized Kenya’s unwavering commitment to maximizing the economic benefits of the new tariff framework. Speaking on behalf of KNCCI President Erick Rutto, Muchoki noted that the business community is actively mobilizing to help local producers and exporters seize this once-in-a-generation market opening.

    “China has already granted Kenya and the broader African continent tariff-free access, and we are working around the clock to ensure our domestic businesses don’t leave this opportunity on the table,” Muchoki said. As a long-standing leading exporter of horticultural products to European markets, Kenya is now shifting focus to tap into the growing demand for high-quality agricultural goods in China, she added.

    Early data already shows promising momentum: Kenya shipped 6.7 metric tons of avocados to China in the first month after the policy took effect, and industry stakeholders are targeting to triple this volume as consumer awareness and demand for Kenyan produce continues to rise. Beyond boosting raw commodity exports, Muchoki also highlighted the country’s eagerness to attract Chinese investment in local processing infrastructure, which would allow Kenya to export finished value-added products instead of raw goods, creating much-needed jobs for the country’s large youth population.

    Financial sector stakeholders are also stepping up to support Kenyan exporters looking to enter the Chinese market. Vera Ontumbi, a trade banking specialist at Stanbic Bank Kenya, noted that the annual CIIE has emerged as one of the most critical platforms for the bank’s clients to connect with Chinese buyers, forge long-term commercial partnerships, and access China’s fast-growing consumer economy.

    Ontumbi also promoted wider adoption of the renminbi for bilateral cross-border transactions, arguing that shifting away from third-party currencies would streamline payment processes, cut down on currency conversion and transaction costs, and boost operational efficiency for both Kenyan exporters and Chinese importers. “The future of China-Africa trade and investment is exceptionally bright, and we are working to ensure our clients are fully positioned to capture these emerging opportunities,” she added.

    Hua Wei, president of the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai who led a recent Chinese delegation to Nairobi, explained that the CIIE holds a unique position in the global trade landscape as the world’s only national-level import-focused exhibition. This framework gives Kenyan producers a one-of-a-kind chance to showcase their goods directly to Chinese consumers and industry buyers.

    Hua confirmed that Kenya will participate in the 2026 CIIE through two dedicated sections: a national pavilion and a trade-in-services exhibition zone. This dual presence will allow Kenya to highlight not only its agricultural and manufactured goods, but also its top-tier tourism attractions and untapped investment opportunities to global business leaders attending the event.

    Zhou Zhencheng, minister counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Kenya, noted that the CIIE has evolved into a cornerstone global platform for expanding market access, strengthening multilateral economic cooperation, and advancing China’s policy goals of increasing imports and fostering more balanced global trade.

    “China’s continued commitment to high-level opening-up will generate new shared opportunities for all countries around the world, and contribute to building a more inclusive, open global economy,” Zhou said.

  • Premier says China’s tech advancements an ‘opportunity’ for the world, not a threat

    Premier says China’s tech advancements an ‘opportunity’ for the world, not a threat

    DALIAN, China — Addressing global business and policy leaders at the opening of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, widely known as the “Summer Davos,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang pushed back against rising Western criticism of China’s rapid high-tech expansion on Wednesday, reframing the nation’s technological progress as a shared global benefit rather than a disruptive threat.

    In recent months, policymakers across the United States and Europe have grown increasingly vocal about what they frame as unfair competitive advantages held by Chinese high-tech sectors, from artificial intelligence and semiconductors to electric vehicles and renewable energy equipment. Many Western officials have pinned this advantage on large-scale Chinese state subsidies, arguing that the government financial support distorts global markets and undercuts foreign competitors. Even the 38-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development echoed this concern in a June report, noting that expansive state subsidies, including those provided by China, risk skewing global industry dynamics.

    Li directly refuted these claims during his plenary address. “There are some people who say that Chinese products are competitive mainly because the Chinese government’s subsidies. That’s not true. The Chinese government is not that wealthy,” he stated. Instead, the premier attributed China’s tech success to two core domestic strengths: the nation’s vast 1.4 billion-person consumer market, which allows companies to rapidly roll out and scale new technologies at mass volume, and the heavy, sustained private investment poured into research and development by Chinese enterprises.

    To illustrate his point, Li highlighted two major Chinese tech firms that have faced increasing Western restrictions: telecom giant Huawei and robotics manufacturer Unitree Robotics. Both companies have seen rapid growth in global market share despite facing punitive barriers from Western governments, including their placement on the U.S. Pentagon’s list of alleged military-linked Chinese companies that are barred from securing American defense contracts. Beijing has already issued formal opposition to the latest expansion of this blacklist, which added Unitree and other tech firms earlier this month.

    Beyond the subsidy debate, Li addressed growing global anxiety over what some analysts have dubbed “China Shock 2.0” — a narrative that frames China’s booming high-tech exports as a major threat to established advanced economies in North America and Europe. In a direct rebranding, Li argued the current era should instead be recognized as “China Opportunity 2.0.”

    “From the global development perspective, ‘China Opportunity 2.0’ means there’ll be broader access to advanced technologies and more widely shared benefits,” Li told the audience. He emphasized that China’s emerging technologies and competitively priced products, from EVs and solar panels to AI systems and industrial robots, do not deliver disruptive shocks to the global economy, but rather expand access and drive growth for partners worldwide. “China’s emerging technologies and products are bringing to the world not shocks, but opportunities,” he added. “Not threats, but empowerment.”

    The debate over China’s high-tech expansion comes as multiple Western governments have moved to implement protectionist trade measures targeting Chinese tech and clean energy exports, citing concerns over oversupply and unfair competition. The Summer Davos gathering in Dalian, which draws global business leaders and policymakers each year, provided a high-profile platform for China’s top economic official to lay out the country’s position amid rising geopolitical and trade tensions.

    Associated Press video producer Wayne Zhang in Beijing contributed reporting to this article.

  • European heat wave triggers health warnings from London to Milan as temperatures rise even higher

    European heat wave triggers health warnings from London to Milan as temperatures rise even higher

    An extraordinary early-season heat dome stretching across Western Europe is pushing temperatures to record-breaking levels this week, prompting life-threatening risk warnings for millions of people across the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain.

    For only the second time in the U.K.’s history, national authorities have activated the highest-tier “red heat health” alert, covering most of central and southern England and all of Wales. The first and only previous red heat warning was issued just two years ago, in July 2022, when the country hit a historic milestone with temperatures crossing the 40°C (104°F) threshold. This week’s event marks the most intense June heatwave ever recorded in Britain, with the U.K. Met Office projecting a peak temperature of 38°C in southern regions. By Tuesday, temperatures already climbed to 34.6°C at a weather station in Wisely, a site located southwest of London, and overnight temperatures are forecast to stay far above seasonal averages through the end of the alert period on Thursday.

    Mark Sidaway, the Met Office’s deputy chief forecaster, emphasized the severity of the unfolding conditions in a public statement. “Red warnings are reserved for the most severe events and we’re expecting severe and significant impacts from this heat wave, with health impacts likely for many, even beyond those who are normally more vulnerable to the heat,” Sidaway said. The extreme heat has already rippled through daily life across the U.K.: dozens of schools have shut their doors to protect students, widespread train service cancellations have upended travel plans, and officials have urged the public to avoid all non-essential travel in red alert zones.

    Britain’s national rail operator Network Rail has enacted strict speed limits across most of England and Wales to prevent dangerous heat-related infrastructure failures, including buckled steel rails and sagging overhead electric lines that power passenger trains. Cross-border rail service Europlane has also scrapped four trains scheduled between London and Paris for Wednesday and Thursday, citing expected dangerous weather conditions. Even the centuries-old traditions of the British Parliament have bent to the heat: male journalists assigned to cover the House of Commons have been granted special permission to go without suit jackets in the press gallery for the day.

    The heatwave’s impact extends far beyond British borders, with authorities across Western Europe scrambling to respond to dangerous conditions. France notched an all-time national high temperature record on Tuesday, breaking a new mark with a national average thermal indicator of 29.8°C (85.6°F) calculated from readings at 30 monitoring stations across the country. This new record marks just the latest in a string of unprecedented temperature highs that have hit Western Europe’s largest nation in recent years. In response to the heat, Paris’s most iconic tourist sites — including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum — cut visiting hours, while schools and public transit schedules were disrupted across the country.

    In Italy, the national Health Ministry issued red emergency heat alerts for 16 major cities on Wednesday, including top urban centers Rome, Milan, Florence and Turin. Unlike lower-tier warnings, the “bollino rosso” red alert signals that extreme heat poses a risk to all people, not just groups typically vulnerable to high temperatures like the elderly and people with chronic illness. Forecasts call for temperatures to hit 41°C (105°F) in Florence and 38°C (104°F) in Milan, with Rome and Naples expected to reach highs just below 36°C (96.8°F).

    Spanish and French authorities have also issued separate heat warnings for tens of millions of residents total, as the sprawling heat dome traps hot air across the region. Speaking Wednesday morning, Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill warned that the worst of the heat was still to come for the U.K., saying, “If you think it’s hot already, well, we ain’t seen nothing yet.”

  • France braces for another day of sweltering heat as Europe heatwave spreads

    France braces for another day of sweltering heat as Europe heatwave spreads

    A record-shattering heatwave continues to grip Western Europe, bringing catastrophic temperatures, widespread infrastructure disruption, and dozens of heat-related fatalities, with warnings that extreme conditions will spread further east in the coming days.

    France, one of the hardest-hit nations, entered a second consecutive day of extreme heat on Wednesday, just 24 hours after registering the hottest average June temperature in recorded national history: 29.8°C (85.54°F). Météo France, the country’s national weather service, expanded the nation’s highest-level red heat alert to 58 regions by midday Wednesday, placing more than half of the country under the most severe warning, with 31 additional regions under secondary orange alert.

    Temperature forecasts paint a grim picture for the day: the southwestern region of France could see highs climb to 43°C, while much of western France stretching from Paris to Brittany will see maximums between 39°C and 40°C through the weekend. On Tuesday, temperatures peaked at 44.3°C in parts of Landes in the country’s southwest, and by 5 a.m. local time Wednesday, La Rochelle had already hit 29°C, signaling the early onset of another day of sweltering heat. While gradual cooling is expected starting Friday, it will come paired with severe thunderstorms that carry risks of flash flooding and large hail.

    The extreme heat has already triggered widespread disruption across France. In the northwestern Finistère region of Brittany, an overloaded transformer failure cut power to roughly 68,000 homes Tuesday evening, with full restoration not expected before the end of Wednesday at the earliest. In the Maine-et-Loire region, more than 150 firefighters battled a large wildfire in the Breignon forest near Saint-Macaire-du-Bois through Tuesday, with crews finally bringing the blaze under control overnight.

    Even iconic cultural institutions have been forced to adjust operations. The Louvre Museum, the world’s most visited art museum, announced it would move its closing time from 6 p.m. to 4 p.m. local time from Wednesday through Saturday, noting that its historic, aged structure was not built to withstand the extreme heat amplified by high visitor volumes at the end of the day.

    The human cost of the heatwave has been steep. French Prime Minister confirmed that 40 people have died in heat-related drowning incidents across France since last Thursday, among them a 13-year-old non-swimmer who drowned while swimming in the River Seine over the weekend. Fatal drowning incidents have also been reported in neighboring Germany.

    The extreme weather is far from contained to France. After days of record heat in Spain, temperatures are beginning to drop across the Iberian Peninsula on Wednesday, though red alerts remain active for parts of northern Spain, where the Basque Country could see highs reach 42°C. In Italy, 16 provincial capitals are now under red heat warnings, with Latina added to the high-risk list Wednesday and Bari set to join Thursday.

    The heatwave is projected to spread north and east over the coming days. The Netherlands’ national weather service KNMI has issued an orange alert for dangerous heat across central and southern regions from Wednesday through at least Friday, with maximum temperatures forecast to hit 37°C this week and climb to 39°C by Friday. In Belgium, most of the country is under an orange heat alert with highs of 37°C expected, and the nation’s Risk Management Group has activated its national ozone and heat plan alert phase — only the second time the measure has been used, following the 2020 August heatwave. Belgium has not announced new mandatory measures, but has urged the public to take extra precautions for high-risk groups including the elderly and children. Temperatures are projected to peak in the Netherlands and Belgium on Friday, while Germany will see highs reach 40°C over the weekend. Further east, severe heat warnings have already been issued for Poland, Croatia, and Hungary for later this week.

    Climate scientists have long warned that such frequent, intense heatwaves are the direct consequence of human-caused climate change. Data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service confirms Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at twice the rate of the global average. This rapid warming has led to more frequent extreme summer heatwaves, increased strain on regional water supplies, and more intense, destructive wildfires. In 2023, Europe saw a record 1 million hectares of land burned by wildfires, with Spain recording the largest amount of burned area.

  • French woman allegedly held captive by husband for 12 years rescued in Pakistan

    French woman allegedly held captive by husband for 12 years rescued in Pakistan

    A dramatic rescue operation by Pakistani law enforcement has freed a 54-year-old French national and her five children from more than a decade of ongoing abuse and captivity at the hands of the woman’s husband, authorities confirmed this week.

    Local police officials shared details of the case with BBC Urdu, outlining how the ordeal began back in 2014, when Sylvie Yasmina and her family relocated from Australia to the remote mountain town of Bara, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. According to Yasmina’s formal statements to investigators, her Pakistani husband had held the entire family confined against their will since the cross-country move, subjecting them to daily physical and psychological violence. For 11 years, Yasmina said she was completely cut off from any outside contact, with no ability to reach out to friends, family or French consular officials for help.

    The breakthrough in the case came when one of the couple’s older children managed to sneak out of the family’s residence undetected and file a formal complaint with local police. Acting on the tip, law enforcement officers launched a surprise raid on the property, where they made a harrowing discovery: Yasmina and all five of her children were being held in a cramped, severely run-down room, with visible bruising across their bodies from repeated assault.

    Investigators have confirmed that two of the children, who were born before the family moved to Pakistan, have missed more than a decade of formal education. The three younger children, all born in Pakistan after the 2014 move, were never enrolled in school at all, leaving them completely deprived of access to education.

    Following the rescue, Yasmina and her children were transferred to a secure women’s support shelter in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where they are receiving medical care and social support. Police have confirmed that the family plans to return to France to rebuild their lives after their years of captivity. Yasmina’s husband was taken into police custody immediately following the raid, though authorities have not yet released his public identity. Investigators also noted that he had been living illegally in Australia when he and Yasmina first met, and the pair married in 2003, residing in Australia for 11 years before relocating to Pakistan.

    In her statement to police, portions of which have been released by local media, Yasmina described the constant suffering her family endured. “We were deprived of our freedom. My husband didn’t take care of us the way he should as a husband and the father of my children. He beats us and put pressure on our lives on a daily basis,” she wrote. “I felt that my future was already ruined, the future of the children would also be ruined.”

  • Andy Burnham inches closer to power in Britain as Keir Starmer seeks a legacy

    Andy Burnham inches closer to power in Britain as Keir Starmer seeks a legacy

    LONDON – The trajectory of Britain’s governing Labour Party shifted dramatically Wednesday, as senior cabinet minister Darren Jones announced he would not enter the upcoming leadership contest, clearing a major path for Andy Burnham to ascend to the office of prime minister without any challenger. The development comes as outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who revealed his plan to step down earlier this week, wraps up his abbreviated two-year tenure marked by domestic stumbles and steady foreign policy performance.