Wildfires, driven by intense heatwaves, strong winds, and in some cases suspected arson, raged across southern Europe on Wednesday, torching homes, farmland, and factories while forcing thousands of residents and tourists to flee.
In Greece, flames swept through olive groves and forests near Patras, disrupting rail traffic and engulfing a cement factory in thick smoke.
Authorities ordered mass evacuations, including residents from two islands popular with tourists — Chios and Cephalonia.
In Spain, a volunteer firefighter died from severe burns while battling a blaze in the Castile and Leon region, bringing the country’s wildfire death toll this year to six. The extreme heatwave, now in its tenth day, has kept much of Spain at the highest fire risk level.
Other blazes were sparked by lightning strikes, such as in Los Romeros, Andalusia, and in Portugal’s Trancoso area, where a previously contained fire reignited.
Albania is also facing a 'critical week,' with 24 active wildfires threatening villages and forcing people to evacuate with their livestock. Across the region, experts warn that insufficient prevention measures are putting firefighters’ lives in danger and urge investments in forest management to avoid catastrophic losses.
Southern Europe’s extreme weather has also disrupted daily life — Pope Leo moved his weekly audience indoors to avoid dangerous heat, while Italy issued red alerts for 16 cities, with Florence expecting temperatures up to 39°C (102°F).
Uzbekistan summoned Iran’s ambassador following claims by several Iranian diplomatic missions that the historical and architectural heri...
Kazakhstan marks Republic Day on 25 October with an ambitious economic agenda and a growing partnership with Azerbaijan, as the two Caspian neighbo...
Thousands of Israelis rallied in T...
Around 11,000 people joined a demonstration in Orléans on Saturday against the National Rally congress, according to the local prefecture.
Typhoon Champi swept past Taiwan on Saturday, leaving one person dead and more than 500 injured as strong winds and torrential rain brought down trees, cut power and disrupted transport across the island.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday described a deadly shooting in the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, west of Paris, as a racist attack and ‘a turning point’ for the country.
Israeli forces have maintained a tight closure on Hebron in the occupied West Bank for a second day, with Palestinian media reporting home raids, mass detentions and dozens of residents forced outside following a shooting incident the day before.
Armenian authorities have detained 10 more people in a vote-buying investigation involving the opposition Strong Armenia party, just two days before local elections in the northern town of Stepanavan.
Azerbaijan is seeking international investment in a 3,000-kilometre green energy corridor to Europe, with banks, investors and energy companies gathering in Baku on Thursday to discuss financing for the ambitious project.
A female dusky shark trapped in a canal in Busan, South Korea, for more than a month has finally returned to the open sea after a successful rescue operation on Wednesday (21 October), following two failed attempts.
The world is on course for dangerous levels of global warming despite international climate pledges, with greenhouse gas emissions hitting record highs and the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target increasingly out of reach, according to a UN assessment.
As Armenia prepares to host COP17, the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, new projections reveal a widening gap between global conservation promises and what countries are on track to deliver by 2030.
Here’s your AnewZ Daily Brief for 15 October 2026, featuring the top five culture and entertainment stories from around the world.
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