Global Pulse

分类： environment

  • Serbia races to contain wildfires as Europe’s blistering heat wave grips the Balkans

    Serbia races to contain wildfires as Europe’s blistering heat wave grips the Balkans

    A relentless, record-breaking heat wave continued to wreak havoc across Europe this week, fueling out-of-control wildfires in the Balkans, drying up key river systems, and forcing emergency energy cuts across multiple Central and Eastern European nations.

    In northeast Serbia, thick plumes of acrid gray smoke rose over a protected pine woodland on Friday as emergency responders raced to contain a large wildfire burning near Deliblatska Pescara, a major nature reserve located 40 miles outside the capital city of Belgrade. Firefighters deployed aerial water drops from helicopters to slow the blaze’s advance, which had crept close to the small settlements of Cardak and Sumarak. As a precautionary measure, local officials ordered all residents of Sumarak to evacuate their homes, though as of Friday evening, no residential structures had been damaged and no injuries or fatalities had been reported.

    A second large wildfire was burning near the central Serbian town of Kraljevo, bringing the total number of active blazes across the country to nine. Unforgiving conditions — including days of temperatures soaring past 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), months of prolonged drought, and strong gusty winds that swept the country on Friday — have severely hampered containment efforts. Following an emergency government meeting Friday, Serbia’s Interior Minister Ivica Dacic announced that the national military would be deployed to support firefighting teams, and called on all state-owned entities to contribute available equipment and personnel to the response. Dacic emphasized that while the situation was tense, it remained under control and was not critical.

    Wildfire risks are not isolated to Serbia: neighboring Montenegro also reported active blazes near the historic town of Cetinje on Friday, as the entire Balkan region grapples with the combined effects of extreme heat and record dry conditions.

    This heat event is part of a broader pattern of extreme weather across the continent that has shattered temperature records in multiple countries. This week, Slovakia notched an all-time national high of 42.2 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southern village of Dolne Plachtince, while nearby Austria recorded its own national record of 41.2 degrees Celsius (106.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg. Hungary marked its warmest overnight low on record, as temperatures in Budapest never dropped below 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight. In Italy, national officials issued the highest level of heat alert for all major cities, warning that the extreme temperatures posed a health risk to the entire population, not just vulnerable groups such as the elderly and immunocompromised.

    Climate scientists and political leaders have repeatedly warned that heat waves of this intensity and frequency are a direct consequence of human-caused climate change, and are expected to become more common as global temperatures continue to rise.

    Beyond the immediate danger of wildfires, the prolonged drought accompanying the heat wave has pushed major European river systems to critically low levels, triggering energy emergencies across Central and Eastern Europe. The Danube, a key waterway that supports nuclear power plant cooling, hydropower generation, and commercial shipping, has dropped to levels so low that multiple operators have been forced to cut or shut down production.

    In Romania, authorities are currently working to sink four rock-filled barges into the Danube near the Bala Canal in an effort to redirect enough water to the Cernavoda nuclear plant, which depends on the river for reactor cooling. The intervention is intended to keep the facility’s second reactor online after the first was forced to shut down last week due to low water levels. In Hungary, the country’s only nuclear plant was recently forced to cut output to just 10 percent of normal capacity, prompting the government to call for mandatory energy conservation during peak usage hours.

    On Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced that a small reprieve was on the way: slightly cooler temperatures and modest rainfall had raised Danube water levels by 20 to 30 centimeters (8 to 12 inches), allowing the government to suspend energy saving measures. Magyar thanked Hungarian citizens for their cooperation, noting that the collective effort had preserved the country’s energy and water security. Still, he warned that the reprieve would likely be temporary, with more hot, dry weather forecasted to push water levels back down in the coming weeks.

    The drought has disrupted energy production far beyond the Danube basin: Slovakia’s largest hydroelectric plant in Gabčíkovo shut down seven of its eight turbines last week due to low water, while Germany faces growing disruptions to commercial transportation and industrial activity as Rhine River water levels continue to drop. In Moldova, which relies heavily on imported electricity from Romania, authorities have also called on residents to voluntarily cut energy use during peak hours to avoid widespread outages.

  • US strikes $1.2bn deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

    US strikes $1.2bn deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

    In a move that underscores the Trump administration’s aggressive rollback of offshore wind energy development, German energy giant RWE has announced it will abandon all its U.S. offshore wind projects after securing a $1.2 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DoI). The company confirmed it will redirect the entire payout to conventional natural gas infrastructure, earmarking $900 million alone for a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal under construction in Louisiana.

    After a months-long internal review, RWE concluded there was no viable path to secure necessary construction permits for its offshore wind leases in the foreseeable future under the current administration’s regulatory framework. As part of the settlement agreement, the firm will relinquish all its federal wind leases spanning three major regions: the California coast, the Louisiana coast, and the New York Bight, a busy offshore stretch between New York and New Jersey that was targeted for large-scale wind development under prior administrations.

    Despite exiting offshore wind, RWE reaffirmed its long-term commitment to the U.S. energy market, outlining plans to invest roughly $19.6 billion (€17 billion) in expanding its U.S. power generation capacity over the next six years, all of which will focus on conventional fossil fuel and baseload energy projects under the new regulatory landscape.

    Interior Secretary Doug Burgum welcomed the deal in a post to social platform X, framing the agreement as aligned with the administration’s vision for U.S. energy. “Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense, not one propped up by costly, wasteful subsidies,” Burgum wrote. “We welcome RWE’s agreement and voluntary investment in projects that strengthen our nation’s energy security.”

    This settlement marks the third high-profile exit of a major energy company from U.S. offshore wind since Trump returned to office, consistent with his long-standing opposition to renewable wind development and his commitment to boosting the domestic fossil fuel industry. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump ran on the iconic fossil fuel-friendly slogan “drill, baby, drill,” and moved quickly to curtail offshore wind after his inauguration.

    Within days of taking office, Trump explicitly stated his administration would not advance new wind projects, dismissing offshore wind turbines as “big, ugly windmills” that pose unacceptable risks to coastal wildlife and marine ecosystems. The administration has since systematically slowed permit approvals for new offshore wind developments and encouraged companies to voluntarily exit existing wind leases in exchange for financial settlements, with incentives to redirect capital to fossil fuel projects.

    The pattern of exits began earlier this year in March 2026, when French energy major TotalEnergies reached a similar settlement to abandon its U.S. offshore wind holdings. In exchange for ending its wind projects, TotalEnergies agreed to shift investment to a new LNG facility in Texas and expand conventional oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Just last month, the administration closed a $129 billion settlement with Duke Energy, a major U.S. utility based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Under that deal, Duke Energy relinquished its offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay area in exchange for the settlement, which the company plans to redirect to conventional energy projects.

    The string of settlements has effectively halted most planned large-scale offshore wind development along U.S. coastlines, rolling back years of progress made under prior administrations to expand renewable energy capacity and cut greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector.

  • Drone warnings and sheltering in airports as South Korea battles historic heatwave

    Drone warnings and sheltering in airports as South Korea battles historic heatwave

    South Korea is grappling with one of the most severe heatwaves in its recorded history, a crisis that has already claimed at least 23 lives, spurred emergency responses across public and private sectors, and pushed authorities to deploy cutting-edge tools to protect at-risk communities. This week, temperatures in the country’s southern region surged to an all-time high of 42.5°C (108.5°F), marking a new threshold for extreme heat in a nation that has long viewed such blistering conditions as a problem confined to other regions of the world.

    By early August, official data confirms that 23 people have died from heat-related illnesses since the start of the year, and nearly 2,500 people have sought emergency medical care for heat-induced conditions since mid-May. Speaking to the public on Thursday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung framed the crisis as a wake-up call, noting that “Heatwave conditions once seen only in foreign news reports have now become our reality.” He has ordered all public agencies to mobilize every available resource to combat the emergency, formally labeling the persistent extreme heat a “national disaster.”

    Across the country, local governments have rolled out a range of emergency cooling measures tailored to both urban and rural communities. In cities, chilled bottled water is being distributed for free at crowded parks, open-air markets, and major bus stops via dedicated distribution trucks. In Yangsan, the southern city that recorded the national record high of 42.5°C last Sunday, fleets of sprinkler trucks cruise sun-scorched city streets, spraying water to lower surface temperatures and bring temporary relief to pedestrians.

    In rural agricultural areas, where many working farmers are elderly and particularly vulnerable to heat exhaustion, authorities have turned to drone technology to monitor and warn at-risk workers. Local administrations in North Gyeongsang province have deployed specially modified drones fitted with loudspeakers and thermal imaging cameras that hover over farmland to track working farmers. When workers stay in the heat too long, the drones broadcast direct warnings such as “it’s hot, you need to go inside” to prompt them to take scheduled breaks in cool shelter.

    The extreme conditions have forced the cancellation of dozens of public events and professional sports matches, following a life-threatening incident earlier this week that saw a 23-year-old spectator collapse at a professional baseball game in Incheon, felled by heat-induced dehydration and low blood pressure. The national baseball organization has canceled all scheduled matches for the week, and the iconic daily changing-of-the-guard ceremony at Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace has been suspended on the advice of the national weather agency, which has urged all non-essential outdoor activities to be called off.

    For vulnerable South Koreans without access to reliable home air conditioning, including unhoused people and low-income elderly residents, the country’s large, air-conditioned public airports have emerged as informal cooling refuges. Photographs from local media show hundreds of people resting on terminal benches and concourse platforms, using towels as makeshift cushions and blankets. One regular visitor to Seoul’s Gimpo Airport told The Korea Times that the facility fills a critical gap for low-income people seeking relief: “it is a perfect place to rest without spending any money. I come here from time to time with my friends whenever the weather gets too hot.”

    Amid the official response, a grassroots tech innovation has also gained massive popularity among South Koreans navigating the heat. A mobile app called Geuneulro, which translates to “shaded road” in Korean, was developed by 23-year-old undergraduate Yu Min-jun to help commuters and pedestrians find the coolest walking routes through urban areas. The app pulls in real-time data on the sun’s position, and calculates shadow coverage from buildings and trees to recommend the most shaded paths between two points.

    Yu told BBC Korean he built the app after struggling to complete his own daily commute through the scorching summer heat, saying “This summer has become so hot that I feel like meat on a grill.” The app’s rapid surge in downloads shows how widespread heat distress is across the country: “The fact that it has resonated with so many people shows that many are struggling. That makes me worry because they say it will only get hotter in the future. I hope this prompts more to pay attention to climate change,” Yu added.

    Climate forecasters say mild relief may be on the horizon starting this weekend, when daytime high temperatures are expected to drop to around 36°C. However, long-term forecasts remain concerning: Seoul’s meteorological administration has projected a 50% probability that above-average temperatures will persist through September and October, extending the crisis for weeks to come.

  • Farmers in Kenya dispute that cyanide poisoning could have killed 15 elephants

    Farmers in Kenya dispute that cyanide poisoning could have killed 15 elephants

    In the sunbaked Kimana region bordering Kenya’s iconic Amboseli National Park, grim signs of a wildlife tragedy stretch across the landscape: the bloated carcass of one elephant abandoned on a dirt track, and little more than a sun-bleached skull left of another, picked clean by scavengers. These are two of 15 elephants that have died in the Amboseli ecosystem over the course of one month, with preliminary investigations pointing to cyanide poisoning contracted from eating tomatoes grown on adjacent smallholder farms.

    The sudden, mass mortality event has reignited long-simmering tensions between conservation authorities and local farming communities, while throwing a harsh spotlight on the accelerating human-wildlife conflict that has emerged as one of the biggest threats to Kenya’s recovering elephant population.

    Preliminary postmortem examinations carried out by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) found tomato residues in the elephants’ stomachs, and initial lab testing detected traces of cyanide in the animals’ systems. Dr. Isaac Lekolool, head of veterinary services at KWS, reported that the elephants displayed clear symptoms of cyanide toxicity before death: progressive paralysis and severe respiratory distress. While follow-up testing is still underway to confirm cyanide concentration and pinpoint the source of the toxin, Lekolool noted that the elephants also consumed watermelons from nearby farmland, and has called for stricter oversight of pesticide handling and use in agricultural areas bordering the park.

    Contrary to early speculation that the cyanide originated from unregulated illegal mining operations within the ecosystem, Lekolool has publicly dismissed that theory. Currently, samples taken from the elephants’ stomach contents are undergoing further toxicology analysis, with blood testing still ongoing to confirm initial findings.

    Local farmers, however, have pushed back hard against claims that cyanide from their crops killed the 15 animals, arguing the toxin is not used in local agriculture and is not available to regional growers. Elvis Muchai, a tomato farmer who has worked on the edge of Amboseli for 20 years, says he has never encountered cyanide among the regulated agricultural chemicals sold to farmers in the area, and notes that local communities have coexisted with migrating elephants for generations, even amid repeated crop raids.

    “Even when elephants destroy our crops, we have never turned to poisoning them,” Muchai explained. In the last growing season alone, elephants raided and destroyed half an acre of his tomato crop, costing him an estimated $3,800 in lost income — losses he says he has never received compensation for, despite years of living with the risk. Another local farmer, Rymondy Mrosso, added a key question to the debate: if contaminated crops were the source of the poisoning, why have only elephants died? Goats, cows, and wild species like gazelles also graze and feed on farm produce in the area, he noted, and none have reported similar mass deaths.

    The tragedy comes as Kenya has been widely lauded for its successful elephant conservation work over the past two decades. After decades of poaching pushed the national elephant population to historic lows, aggressive anti-poaching policies and habitat protection have grown the population to more than 36,000 elephants today. But even as poaching has declined, expanding agriculture along park borders has pushed human-wildlife conflict to become the second leading cause of elephant deaths in the country, according to Kenya’s National Elephant Plan. Between 2000 and 2020, at least 1,160 elephants were killed in retaliatory or self-defense incidents as communities sought to protect their crops, property, and lives from invading animals. Even so, KWS communications director Duncan Juma argues that retaliation is not a factor in this case, saying “the community loves these animals.”
    Kimana, the region at the center of the investigation, is one of Kenya’s most productive high-value agricultural zones, growing tomatoes, onions, and French beans for distribution to markets in Nairobi and beyond. As demand for agricultural land has grown, farms have steadily expanded closer to Amboseli’s park boundaries, shrinking the buffer between wildlife habitats and cultivated land and increasing the frequency of elephant incursions, particularly during dry seasons when wild forage is scarce.

    Conservation groups say the mass elephant death highlights the urgent need for systemic action to address the root causes of human-wildlife conflict in the region. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) says the tragedy underscores that as human and elephant ranges increasingly overlap, protecting wildlife and supporting local livelihoods cannot be separated. “As people and elephants increasingly share space, protecting wildlife and safeguarding communities’ livelihoods must go hand in hand,” IFAW said in a statement.

    Ben Wandago, IFAW’s East Africa Director, called for a full, transparent, and urgent investigation into the source of the cyanide, and pushed for the rapid implementation of coexistence strategies that protect both communities and wildlife near Amboseli. He also emphasized the urgent need for stricter regulatory control of highly toxic substances, to prevent the chemicals from leaking into vulnerable wild ecosystems.

    With investigations still ongoing, the tragedy has made clear that the fragile balance between wildlife conservation and smallholder agriculture in one of Africa’s most protected ecosystems is growing increasingly strained, demanding coordinated action to prevent further mass deaths.

  • Young activists in the Maldives confront climate threats to their island nation

    Young activists in the Maldives confront climate threats to their island nation

    Scattered across the low-lying Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives, a new wave of youth-led environmental activism is pushing back against unregulated development and accelerating ecological damage, as young citizens confront the reality that climate collapse is not a distant future, but an immediate threat to their island homes.

    In Addu City, a southern Maldivian community situated within a protected UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, nonprofit organization Project ThimaaVeshi – whose name translates to “self and surroundings” – has led high-profile direct action against a controversial land reclamation project that is clearing critical mangrove wetlands. In June 2026, a cohort of young activists paddled kayaks to the construction site and spray-painted the word “ECOCIDE” across a section of newly reclaimed land, drawing global attention to the destruction of a habitat that protects coastlines from erosion, supports endangered marine life, and stores carbon at rates far higher than most terrestrial forests.

    What began as a small group of high school friends collaborating with the Addu City council has grown into a registered nonprofit movement. Twenty-one-year-old co-founder Yameen Maumoon recalled that the group started with nothing more than shared passion and collective ambition. Project ThimaaVeshi has since partnered with Veshi Saafu, a group of older local women also active in environmental advocacy, to amplify their campaign during World Environmental Day, documenting how unplanned development is degrading Addu’s wetlands and coral reefs.

    Parallel movements have emerged in the crowded capital city of Male and its neighboring Hulhumale, where youth organizers are tackling the pervasive plastic waste that clogs public spaces, coastlines and nearshore waters. Ripple, a youth group currently pursuing formal registration, began when a circle of friends noticed trash piling up in their favorite gathering spots. Co-founder Mariyam Maasha Waheed recalled that the idea grew from a casual joke while playing Minecraft: the group decided to post cleanup content on TikTok, and their videos quickly went viral, turning a small informal initiative into a sustained movement. Today, Ripple hosts weekly community cleanups, partners with local surfing groups to remove discarded fishing gear and plastic from coral reefs, and runs recycling programs for the waste they collect.

    The newest of these youth-led groups, Barnacles – also working toward official registration – centers its work on climate education and building youth leadership. Co-founder Yania Hussain Ishan first became engaged with environmental issues while researching a school presentation on nature protection. Ishan notes that widespread discourse around the climate emergency has left many young people feeling disempowered, so Barnacles works to frame environmental action as accessible, communal, and meaningful for all participants.

    Across all three groups, a shared unifying belief drives their work: unlike previous generations, young Maldivians see firsthand that sea level rise, coastal erosion, plastic pollution, and development-driven ecosystem damage are not abstract threats – they are daily realities reshaping their country. Climate scientists project that 80% of the Maldives, a nation located south of India and Sri Lanka with an average elevation of just 1.5 meters above sea level, could become uninhabitable within 50 years due to rising ocean waters.

    While the Maldivian government has publicly positioned itself as a global advocate for climate action given the country’s extreme vulnerability to sea level rise, officials have argued that short-term sacrifices are sometimes necessary to support economic development. Activists counter that existing environmental protections are being implemented far too slowly to save the country’s fragile ecosystems.

    The youth activists have faced pushback from establishment figures, including government officials who have dismissed their work as naive and futile, arguing that their youth makes them too emotional to contribute meaningfully to environmental decision-making. Last year, Maldivian Climate Change Minister Ali Shareef publicly claimed at a forum that young people cannot be trusted with governance due to emotional bias.

    Unfazed by the criticism, the activists acknowledge that small-scale cleanups and local protests cannot single-handedly solve the Maldives’ massive climate and development challenges. But they reject the idea that they must wait for large-scale systemic solutions to act, instead focusing on building a culture of environmental stewardship that will carry forward to future generations.

    “We are deciding what kind of ancestors we will be,” Ishan said. “We are defending our home, our heritage and the right of every Maldivian child yet to be born to stand on these shores, look out at the sea and feel the same wonder and security that defines who we are.”

    This reporting from the Associated Press is supported by funding from private philanthropic foundations, with AP retaining full editorial independence over all content.

  • Romania rushes to sink 4 barges in the Danube to keep a nuclear power plant’s second reactor running

    Romania rushes to sink 4 barges in the Danube to keep a nuclear power plant’s second reactor running

    Amid a crippling regional drought that has pushed the Danube River to historic lows, Romania launched urgent emergency operations Thursday to sink four rock-laden barges in the waterway, in a last-ditch effort to redirect sufficient flow to the country’s critical Cernavoda nuclear power plant and prevent an immediate full shutdown of the facility.

    Unprecedented heatwaves and drastically below-average rainfall across Eastern Europe have drained the Danube to record-low levels over the past seven days, forcing the plant to take its first reactor offline last week. When fully operational, the state-owned Cernavoda facility contributes roughly 20% of Romania’s total national electricity output, and relies directly on Danube water to cool its operating reactors.

    The four barges were filled with rock extracted by the Romanian military from sections of the river near the Bala Canal earlier this week. Once fully submerged, the vessels will form a submerged barrier that shifts water flow back into the river’s main shipping and cooling channel, guiding it straight to the Cernavoda plant located downstream.

    Romeo Urjan, director of the Cernavoda nuclear facility, told Romanian local news outlet Digi24 Thursday that the river’s water level had dropped an additional 2 centimeters (0.78 inches) between Wednesday and Thursday. Without the emergency barge barrier, Urjan confirmed the plant’s second and only remaining operational reactor would be forced to shut down within just five to six days. With the intervention, he projected the reactor could stay online for an extra four to five days, extending operations to nine to 10 days total from Thursday. Urjan also noted that it will take approximately 24 hours for the flow adjustment from the submerged barges to reach the plant, which sits 60 kilometers (37 miles) downstream from the worksite.

    Since the first reactor was shut down, Romanian authorities have rolled out a series of emergency mitigation measures, including large-scale dredging of shallow sections of the river. This week, the Danube’s flow through Romanian territory dropped to 1,400 cubic meters per second — the lowest level recorded in decades, and less than one-third of the seasonal average for this time of year.

    On July 31, acting Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan declared a nationwide state of alert for the country’s energy sector. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Bolojan reiterated an appeal to citizens and local governments to voluntarily cut back on electricity use during peak evening demand hours, and confirmed that the barge sinking operation would continue through Friday.

    Following a special government meeting to address the crisis, Bolojan said all ongoing works are designed to maintain sufficient water flow even as forecasts predict Danube levels will remain at critically low levels. The core priority, he emphasized, is keeping enough water moving to the plant to allow the second reactor to continue operating “at maximum capacity.”

    Bolojan also warned that a full shutdown of Cernavoda would leave Romania facing significant energy shortfalls. While the country could turn to energy imports from neighboring countries to cover peak evening demand, most neighboring states are also grappling with their own energy disruptions tied to the ongoing drought.

    The drought-driven energy crisis is not isolated to Romania. In neighboring Hungary, record-low Danube levels have left the country’s only nuclear power plant at risk of a full shutdown — a scenario that has not occurred in decades. In Moldova, which relies heavily on imported electricity including from Romania, authorities have also issued public appeals for citizens to voluntarily cut electricity consumption during peak demand hours.

  • Fire burns 60 hectares in Indonesia’s Mount Bromo National Park

    Fire burns 60 hectares in Indonesia’s Mount Bromo National Park

    Indonesia is grappling with a rapidly spreading wildfire that has destroyed 60 hectares of protected land in the popular Mount Bromo tourism region, according to official updates released Thursday. The blaze, which first ignited Monday, burns across an area equivalent to more than 80 full-size soccer pitches within the boundaries of Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, one of East Java Province’s most visited natural attractions and a key draw for domestic and international tourism.

    The country’s National Disaster Management Agency confirmed Thursday that uneven, challenging terrain has created major obstacles for teams working to contain the fire, and investigators have not yet identified what sparked the blaze. In an official written statement, agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari outlined the core barriers slowing suppression efforts: multiple active hot spots are scattered across the steep slopes of Mount Bromo, locations that are nearly inaccessible to ground-based firefighting crews. Compounding this danger, sustained strong winds in the region are fueling the fire and accelerating its spread across dry vegetation.

    To overcome these access barriers, the agency deployed two water-bombing helicopters to the site Thursday to target the unreachable slope hot spots. Authorities are also preparing additional unconventional firefighting measures, including weather modification operations such as cloud seeding to trigger much-needed rain over the burning area. As a critical public safety precaution, local officials have closed a portion of the Mount Bromo tourist district until further notice, barring visitor access to the fire zone.

    The Mount Bromo fire is not an isolated incident: Indonesia has already recorded multiple separate forest fire outbreaks across the islands of Sumatra and Borneo since the start of this month. In West Kalimantan Province’s Ketapang Regency, one person has already died from oxygen starvation while attempting to flee through thick toxic wildfire smoke. Historically, large-scale forest fires across Sumatra and Borneo peak during annual dry seasons, and the resulting smoke haze often drifts to neighboring Singapore and Malaysia, causing widespread air quality crises across the region.

    Associated Press journalist Niniek Karmini contributed reporting from Jakarta, Indonesia.

  • Europe heat wave puts all major Italian cities on red alert as Austria sets heat record

    Europe heat wave puts all major Italian cities on red alert as Austria sets heat record

    A relentless, record-shattering heat wave has engulfed the entire European continent this week, triggering emergency alerts, breaking national temperature records, fueling out-of-control wildfires, and crippling critical energy and transportation infrastructure across multiple nations. As climate scientists have long warned, such extreme heat events are growing increasingly frequent and severe amid global climate warming, and this current outbreak has laid bare deep vulnerabilities in public health, energy production, logistics networks, and the continent’s vital tourism sector.

    In Italy, the crisis reached a new milestone Thursday, when the national Health Ministry issued the highest-level red heat alert for all 27 major cities included in its national heat surveillance program. This marked the first time in 2024 that the entire monitored network has been placed under the top warning level simultaneously, with alerts stretching from the northeastern port city of Trieste all the way to Palermo on the island of Sicily. Unlike lower-tier alerts that only flag risk for vulnerable groups such as elderly residents and people with chronic illnesses, the red alert signals that the extreme heat poses a health danger to the entire population. Authorities have urged both local residents and visiting tourists to avoid strenuous activity and exposure to direct sunlight during the peak warm hours of midday and early afternoon, stay in cooled indoor spaces wherever possible, and maintain steady hydration. For the country’s iconic tourism sector, the heat has forced major operational adjustments: the ministries of culture and tourism extended evening opening hours for major landmarks including Rome’s Colosseum and Pantheon, while cooling mist stations and additional emergency medical posts have been deployed at the Colosseum’s entrances to protect visitors.

    To the north, Austria confirmed a new all-time national temperature record Wednesday, when the national geological and climate service GeoSphere Austria recorded a high of 41.2°C (106.2°F) in the village of Bad Deutsch-Altenburg, located near the country’s border with Slovakia. Along with the historic high temperature, Austria is grappling with a devastating multi-month drought: nationwide rainfall between January 1 and June 30 ran 27% below the long-term average, with some eastern regions receiving only half of their typical precipitation. Senior climatologist Alexander Orlik noted that some parts of the country have not seen such arid conditions since 1885.

    The heat and drought have created cascading crises for energy systems across Central Europe. In Hungary, record-low water levels on the Danube River – the source of cooling water for the country’s only nuclear power plant – have forced operators to cut output to roughly 10% of normal generation capacity. In response, the Hungarian government implemented sweeping emergency energy conservation measures amid the country’s own record-breaking heat wave. Authorities have ordered both major industrial users and residential households to cut electricity consumption, particularly during peak evening demand hours between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Freight rail operations have been suspended during these peak windows, decorative public lighting on Budapest’s iconic landmarks has been turned off entirely, and major national and international firms operating in the country – including energy giant Mol, pharmaceutical manufacturer Gedeon Richter, and automakers Suzuki, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and BMW – have all voluntarily committed to reducing their energy use. The government even canceled scheduled parliamentary sessions this week to cut unnecessary power consumption. The extremity of the heat wave was underscored by another record in Budapest Wednesday night: the overnight low temperature only fell to 28°C (82°F), the warmest minimum temperature ever recorded in the city.

    Neighboring Germany is facing growing disruption to its freight and industrial sectors as water levels on the Rhine – one of Europe’s most critical inland waterway shipping routes – and other major rivers continue to drop to critically low levels. German Transport Minister Steffen Bilger met with affected industry and logistics stakeholders Thursday, warning that low water levels present severe, sustained challenges to inland shipping, industrial supply chains, and the broader national economy. Leading German environmental organization BUND has called on authorities to not only address immediate economic disruptions but also implement long-term changes to boost river resilience to climate change, including landscape modifications to retain more water and stricter limits on water withdrawals during prolonged drought events.

    Across southern Europe, wildfire risk remains at critical levels. In southeastern France, hundreds of firefighters maintained a massive presence in the Var region this week, after a large wildfire that first ignited on July 20 was contained but not fully extinguished. Authorities confirmed the blaze is no longer spreading but remains at risk of reignition amid sustained dry conditions. The fire has already burned more than 60 square kilometers (23 square miles) of land, making it the largest wildfire recorded in the region in decades. Officials warn that gusty winds and extremely parched vegetation leave much of southeastern France at very high risk of additional new blazes.

    The extreme heat reached its peak in the Balkan region Thursday, with temperatures pushing near 40°C (104°F) across much of the area and authorities battling overlapping drought and wildfire emergencies. In Serbia, firefighters worked around the clock to contain multiple blazes that have broken out after weeks of record dry conditions. A large fire burned through extensive pine forest west of the capital Belgrade, while another blaze spread near the central town of Kraljevo, where steep, inaccessible terrain slowed containment efforts. Along Croatia’s Adriatic coast, tourists visiting the popular historic city of Dubrovnik were forced to seek shelter in shaded areas and avoid crowded beaches during the hottest hours of the day as temperatures soared.

    Climate experts and government leaders across the continent have reiterated that this season’s extreme heat events are directly linked to human-caused climate change, noting that prolonged heat, drought, and destructive wildfires are quickly becoming the new normal for European summers, forcing widespread adaptation across public and private sectors.

  • Moment first rare tiger in 70 years released in Kazakhstan

    Moment first rare tiger in 70 years released in Kazakhstan

    In a landmark moment for global conservation efforts, Kazakhstan has welcomed back a rare big cat to its natural landscapes after seven decades of absence. Umit, a two-year-old female Amur tiger, was recently set free into the wild as the cornerstone of an ambitious long-term initiative to reverse the extinction of tiger populations in Central Asia.

    Tigers once roamed the vast steppes and forested regions of Central Asia freely, but widespread habitat loss, unregulated hunting, and human encroachment wiped out the region’s wild tiger population completely more than 100 years ago. For generations, no wild tigers have lived in the Central Asian wild, making this release a turning point for one of the world’s most iconic endangered species.

    The restoration program, a collaboration between Kazakh environmental authorities, international conservation organizations, and wildlife scientists, has been years in the making. Teams spent decades preparing protected habitats, restoring prey populations, and carefully selecting and training captive-bred tigers to adapt to life in the wild before release. Umit, who was raised in a semi-wild sanctuary that prepared her for independent hunting and territory navigation, was chosen as the first tiger to be released into the wild, marking the start of what conservationists hope will be a growing, self-sustaining tiger population in the region.

    This milestone comes amid growing global concern about declining big cat populations worldwide, with Amur tigers listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Conservation leaders call the project a model for cross-border collaborative species restoration, demonstrating that with intentional planning and long-term investment, it is possible to bring back species that have been lost from their historic ranges.

  • Environmental disaster looms as tanker leaks off Oman

    Environmental disaster looms as tanker leaks off Oman

    A growing oil spill from a stranded tanker linked to Russia’s shadow fleet has put a protected marine reserve off Oman’s southern Arabian Sea coast at risk of irreversible, long-term ecological damage, environmental advocacy groups and independent investigators have warned.

    The vessel in question, identified as the *Caroline Bezengi*, is thought to be part of the loosely regulated network of aging, opaquely owned ships Russia has built up since its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine to evade Western sanctions on its crude oil exports — a key source of revenue for Moscow’s economy. Maritime security firm Vanguard Tech told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that three explosions rocked the tanker on June 6, flooding critical compartments including the steering gear room and pump station. The blasts left the vessel’s main engine and steering systems completely inoperable, though all crew members were safely accounted for.

    The cause of the explosions remains unconfirmed, with no definitive evidence to confirm whether the vessel was targeted in an attack. The tanker made its last known radio transmission off the coast of Yemen on June 11, and satellite data from the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation programme confirms it ran aground off al-Qibliyyah island, part of the protected al-Hallaniyat island archipelago, between June 18 and 23. The stranded vessel’s dimensions, outline and deck markings match satellite records of the *Caroline Bezengi* before the ship deactivated its mandatory automatic identification system (AIS) tracking transponder, a common practice among shadow fleet vessels to avoid detection.

    Kpler shipping data confirms the tanker loaded 1 million barrels of Russian crude at the Black Sea terminal of Sheskharis on May 11, and still held the full cargo when its last tracking signal was recorded a month later. The UK already sanctioned the *Caroline Bezengi* in February for its suspected role in violating Western price caps and sanctions on Russian oil exports.

    Satellite imagery analyzed independently by Greenpeace and Dutch peace organization PAX shows the visible oil sheen leaking from the vessel has expanded dramatically in less than two weeks: from just 20 square kilometers on July 24 to an estimated 600 square kilometers by August 4. Unlike most high-profile tanker incidents in the Middle East that center on the Strait of Hormuz, this spill is unfolding far from the strategically critical chokepoint, in a remote protected area that Oman designated as a marine reserve just last year.

    Environmental advocates warn the disaster is already unfolding, and the risk of a far larger catastrophe remains acute. “With oil apparently continuing to leak and the vessel stranded in a difficult location, the risk of an even larger environmental disaster remains serious,” Nina Noelle, Greenpeace’s spokesperson on the issue, told AFP. She emphasized that any full structural break-up of the tanker could release the entire 1 million barrel cargo into the protected ecosystem, causing consequences that would be “severe and long-lasting.”

    The archipelago hosts one of the most biodiverse marine habitats in the Arabian Sea, supporting endangered species including nesting sea turtles, breeding migratory seabirds, the rare and endangered Arabian Sea humpback whale, fragile coral reef systems and seagrass meadows that form the base of the regional food web. Already, large stretches of al-Qibliyyah’s shoreline have been contaminated, with additional slicks spreading far out into open waters.

    “Oil contamination in the Hallaniyat Islands threatens coral reefs, seagrass meadows and coastal habitats that support endangered sea turtles, migratory seabirds and marine mammals,” Noelle explained. “Even relatively small oil spills can persist in marine sediments for years, compromising the ecological resilience of this protected marine ecosystem.” Wim Zwijnenburg, an open-source environmental investigator with PAX, added that a full spill would also devastate local livelihoods: “A complete break of the ship can cause a regional environmental catastrophe, affecting both the lives of Omani fishing communities and the wider marine and island biodiversity.”

    Both advocates agree that urgent action is critical to contain the damage. “Timely intervention and salvaging the oil tanker is of essence to prevent worse,” Zwijnenburg said. The International Maritime Organization has confirmed it is currently providing assistance to Omani authorities, but declined to share further details on the response effort. As of Tuesday, Oman had not responded to AFP’s requests for comment on the incident or the ongoing response.

    Experts have long warned that Russia’s shadow fleet relies on aging, poorly maintained vessels that carry drastically higher environmental risk than standard commercial tankers. Noelle emphasized this incident is a predictable consequence of sanction evasion practices. “Sanctions are being circumvented using ageing and poorly maintained tankers, putting coastlines and marine ecosystems at risk,” she said.