GREECE HIT BY WILDFIRES AS EUROPE BATTLES WORST SEASON ON RECORD

Greece experienced significant wildfires on Thursday, with villages on the island of Paros evacuated as firefighting efforts continued into a second day. Three firefighters were killed while battling fires across Crete and mainland Greece. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned that "difficult days ahead" lay in store for the country. The fires formed part of a broader wildfire crisis affecting multiple European nations, with hundreds of thousands of people evacuated across the continent.

France reported that the area burned so far exceeded the previous annual record by 40 per cent, with President Emmanuel Macron describing the season as the worst disaster to face the country since the Second World War. In Spain, fires in eastern Castellon had burned more than 10,000 hectares, with at least six regions placed on orange alert—the second-highest level in the country's weather alert system. Spain downgraded the emergency level for a major fire on the Madrid-Castilla y Leon border, though officials warned the danger remained. Intense heat, dry vegetation and powerful winds continued to affect southern Europe.

The EU's emergency response chief warned that wildfires could affect all of Europe within days, with Greece, Italy and Central Europe expected to face the highest wildfire risk in coming weeks. French authorities prepared to distribute more than 1.5 million face masks as air quality deteriorated and smoke spread to areas not directly affected by fires. Firefighters in Bordeaux reported keeping a major blaze stable, though officials cautioned that the threat had not passed.