00:00Wildfires have erupted across Europe, forcing the evacuations of hundreds as major blazes
00:05grip the UK, southern France, Greece, Croatia and others.
00:11Romania shouts its only nuclear power plant as heat causes a huge drop in Danube river
00:17levels.
00:21Poland has detained a Russian citizen accused of planning to kill a Ukrainian American citizen
00:26in Warsaw on Moscow's orders.
00:31At least one person was killed and several others injured following an explosion at the
00:36Dutch part of Rotterdam on Thursday.
00:41Under a heat dome and in the midst of an energy crisis, Hungary's biggest mass event, Siket
00:46Festival, has got underway.
00:51Wildfires have been erupting across Europe as a new heat wave grips the continent, with
00:55major fires raging in the UK, France, Croatia and others.
01:00In the UK, authorities say flames ripped through homes in a town near the city of Birmingham.
01:06Aerial footage showed large plumes of smoke engulfing the town in what officials described
01:11as one of the most significant fires the area between England and Wales ever faced.
01:16At least four people sustained injuries as a result of the fires, including a child who
01:21were taken to hospitals for treatment.
01:24Similar blazes have also broken out in southern France in the department of Lende, neighboring
01:29Bordeaux, where authorities say hundreds were evacuated as fires burned an area of approximately
01:34600 hectares.
01:36France has been grappling with severe wildfires over the last few months, including near the
01:41capital Paris, due to record temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, coupled with drought and
01:47strong winds, which experts attribute to human-caused climate change.
01:52In Croatia, intense fires force hundreds of people to flee their homes on the small touristy
01:57town of Lakva Rokosnika as the flames swept through pine forests and vegetation before making
02:03its way into residential areas.
02:05A series of fires have also been recorded in nearby Montenegro, which authorities say have
02:11been rapidly spreading due to strong winds.
02:16Romania has shut down its only nuclear power station because of extremely low water levels
02:21in the Danube River caused by prolonged hot weather affecting much of Europe.
02:26The second of the two 706 MW reactors at Sena Voda was disconnected from the Romanian electricity
02:33grid just before midday on Thursday.
02:36The plant, where two reactors produce about 20% of Romania's electricity, is not expected
02:43to be restarted within the next 10 days.
02:46This is a very sensitive moment for the national energy system, because approximately a
02:52fraction of the production is coming out in the moment.
02:56And the central nuclear nuclear wind is becoming a key indicator on the canal of the aspirated
03:05channel, which is what you can see here, that the most if you can see that the water tanks
03:08is blowing up or even that the water prop Euros-dept in the near 10 days.
03:33The first reactor had already been shut down in July, until now Sena Verde had only been shut down once
03:40before, in 2019.
03:42The first reactor had already been shut down in July.
04:12The first reactor had been shut down for six months, seven months, a year, and it would be much worse.
04:17Earlier this week authorities tried to increase the water flow to the plant by sinking barges looted with rocks in
04:23the river.
04:24According to Energy Experts, the loss of production will push Romania to have larger and more expensive imports.
05:03Climate change is driving up temperatures around the world, but particularly in Europe, the fastest warming continent, heating up twice
05:11as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus Climate Service.
05:20Poland has detained a Russian citizen accused of planning to kill a Ukrainian American citizen in Warsaw on Moscow's orders.
05:28Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the suspect had been arrested last Friday by agents of the Polish Internal Security
05:35Agency as well as the police.
05:57Poland has accused Moscow of acts of sabotage on several occasions since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
06:05Moscow has, however, always denied any involvement in such attacks.
06:14At least one person was killed and several others injured following an explosion at the Dutch port of Rotterdam on
06:21Thursday.
06:21The explosion happened at a refinery and fuel terminal where local media said a maintenance team had been working on
06:28a section of pipes there.
06:30Emergency services reported a power failure at the port and said that a transformer had caught fire under unexplained circumstances.
06:38There was an explosion here around half to half an explosion in a petroleum company.
06:43Unfortunately, there were several injuries and one person died.
06:49Our support is obviously going on and all the others.
06:53At this point we are keeping track of all the scenarios and are doing research on how the explosion could
06:59happen.
07:00Several companies had paused their operations and evacuated workers.
07:04However, power was gradually being restored to companies and parts of the port a few hours later.
07:16Standing eight hours per day in an archaeological site with no shade or leading a city tour by 30 degrees
07:22in the midst of the touristic season
07:24and while Europe is facing record-breaking temperatures,
07:28several tourist guides wander on the front line during heatwaves and they face the consequences.
07:33Last summer, a 56-year-old guide died after collapsing while leading a visit of the Colosseum in Rome in
07:39scorching heat.
07:40This afternoon, I don't even know about it.
07:43We went to Perouche, which is a small medieval city in the north-est of Lyon.
07:48It's only 40 degrees in the sun. It's quite complicated.
07:53The French guide says, while self-employed tourist guides may ask their customers to cancel or postpone the visit because
07:59of the heat,
08:00it is often not an option for guides working for intermediaries, since the visits are sometimes booked well in advance.
08:06The most time we work for an agency, a tour operator, a cruise ship, it can be very varied, as
08:12I said before.
08:13And now it's them who choose, very clearly, and the most time it's not annulled. But it happens.
08:19Instead of canceling a visit, some of his colleagues have, for instance,
08:22asked their employers to turn a bike tour into a bus tour or to replace a walking tour of the
08:27city by a visit of an air-conditioned museum.
08:30Gabriel says this change is also in the interest of the visitors, as most of his customers are above 60
08:36years old and some do not support the heat.
08:39Meanwhile, while the UK is set to face its hottest summer on record,
08:42The head of training for the European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations says sites should extend their opening hours to
08:50allow early and late visits during the coolest part of the day.
08:53In Greece, a lot of museums and open-air sites open very early in the morning, and they remain open
09:01until 8, 9 o'clock in the evening,
09:04so people can visit at times which are more comfortable rather than in the midday sun.
09:14The MIS also encourages museums and sites to build covers for groups to wait in the shade while queuing to
09:21enter or when stopping for explanations.
09:23Other solutions include distributing water bottles, increasing the number of public water fountains,
09:28and installing misters to cool visitors down.
09:31While heat waves are set to become more intense and more frequent due to climate change,
09:35visitors could also favour a trip in May or September rather than at the height of summer.
09:42Under heat dome and in the midst of an energy crisis, Hungary's biggest mass event, SIGET Festival, has got underway.
09:50Although many called for the festival to be cancelled as part of efforts to reduce energy consumption,
09:56in the end, PAX nuclear power plant did not shut down, and neither did SIGET.
10:01The festival founder and organizer reassured everyone that they have enough generators of their own
10:06to ensure that both electricity and water supplies are completely secure.
10:11The only people happy about the Danube's low water level are those looking to cool off.
10:16This beach has been transformed by the drought from a tiny sand bank into a veritable sandy beach,
10:21where festival goers can cool off in the intense heat.
10:24The normal level of water is almost up to here, and now it's like almost 20 meters away.
10:30That shows the impact of the drought, and it's not even like the end of summer.
10:37So these heats, and it is very warm, but we were like, yeah, we're lucky that there's a wind blowing,
10:45so we don't suffocate in the heat.
10:48And what I also think is an effect of the heat, but you'll always get that on festivals,
10:53is all the dust everywhere blowing.
10:55That's also, besides all the alcohol and everything, that's also very unhealthy for you.
11:01It does not come as a surprise that many festival goers are trying to cover their faces with masks or
11:07scarves.
11:07The organizers have also prepared for temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius.
11:12Drinking water stations and misters have been installed in many areas.
11:16The mayor of Budapest told Joranius that the past few weeks have shown that SIGET needs to be prepared
11:21for the challenges posed by global warming.
11:24We're ready for the next year, so we've determined that we'll be able to cover the hajógyári-sziget
11:28and to cover the hajógyári-sziget.
11:29The festival is not going to help, but I hope that the next year is that we'll be able to
11:33do it.
11:33And we'll be able to do the routes, and we'll be able to do the movement, so we'll be able
11:36to do it a lot better.
11:38Festival goers can likely breathe a sigh of relief soon, as temperatures are expected to drop below 20 degrees Celsius
11:44at times during the rest of the week.
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