00:01Wildfires have been erupting across Europe as a new heatwave grips the continent, with
00:05major fires raging in the UK, France, Croatia, and others.
00:10In the UK, authorities say flames rip through homes in a town near the city of Birmingham.
00:16Aerial footage showed large plumes of smoke engulfing the town in what officials described
00:21as one of the most significant fires the area between England and Wales ever faced.
00:26At least four people sustained injuries as a result of the fires, including a child,
00:31who were taken to hospitals for treatment.
00:34Similar blazes have also broken out in southern France in the department of Lende, neighboring
00:39Bordeaux, where authorities say hundreds were evacuated as fires burned an area of approximately
00:44600 hectares.
00:47France has been grappling with severe wildfires over the last few months, including near the
00:51capital Paris, due to record temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, coupled with drought and
00:57strong winds, which experts attribute to human-caused climate change.
01:02In Croatia, intense fires force hundreds of people to flee their homes on the small touristy
01:07town of Lakva Rokosnika, as the flames swept through pine forests and vegetation before making
01:13its way into residential areas.
01:15A series of fires have also been recorded in nearby Montenegro, which authorities say have
01:21been rapidly spreading due to strong winds.
01:26Romania has shut down its only nuclear power station because of extremely low water levels
01:31in the Danube River caused by prolonged hot weather affecting much of Europe.
01:37The second of the two 706-megawatt reactors, Atena Voda, was disconnected from the Romanian electricity
01:43grid just before midday on Thursday.
01:46The plant, where two reactors produce about 20% of Romania's electricity, is not expected
01:53to be restarted within the next 10 days.
01:55This is thebulic energy that is recently our history of the first-time emissions.
02:02We have approximately 50% of the análises of electricity emissions.
02:07This was not expected that air pollution only will a little bit of fuel, but in terms of the
02:09emissions of fuel.
02:09We have so many levels of solar electricity.
02:10This is a warning that air pollution could lead to someone to cover the air pollution with that
02:10citizen energy energy.
02:11We have this indicator in the air pollution which you see, it means that gasping health
02:19is kicking off.
02:20We did that air pollution and even more weather and under the air pollution.
02:44The first reactor had already been shut down in July, until now Sena Verde had only been shut down once
02:50before, in 2003.
02:53We have no problem of emergency, we have no problem of security nuclear, we have no problem in which we
02:59affect the security of the nuclear power,
03:03but the electricity electricity cannot work on this level in Dunar.
03:09Our equipment, large pumps of pollution, can be deteriorated, destroyed, and at that time,
03:17we will do much worse because a repair of a pump lasts for 6 months, 7 months, a day, and
03:25then it will be much worse.
03:27Earlier this week, authorities tried to increase the water flow to the plant by sinking barges looted with rocks in
03:33the river.
03:34According to energy experts, the loss of production will push Romania to have larger and more expensive imports.
03:41Of course, of course, there are several regulations that need to be introduced,
03:45such as tarife dynamics for consumers, including for the cast.
03:49To the companies in the energy industry, and not only,
03:51they have to make plans of contingency in the face of climate climate.
03:55What do we do at 2 degrees?
03:57Temperature increase, 3 degrees, 10 days, 20, 30.
04:01We open the production, put batteries, because batteries on batteries,
04:06can be installed quite quickly and a industrial consumer can have this kind of approach.
04:13Climate change is driving up temperatures around the world, but particularly in Europe, the fastest warming continent,
04:20heating up twice as fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus Climate Service.
04:31France's Constitutional Council has approved a law on the right to assisted dying.
04:36The legislation establishing a right to assisted dying for some adults suffering from an incurable condition
04:42was passed by Parliament in July, after years of debate.
04:45French President Emmanuel Macron's office hailed the decision,
04:49as the law is seen as one of the major social reforms of his second term.
04:54However, in a major blow to another one of Macron's reforms,
04:58the top French court rejected a social media ban for children under 15.
05:03The court found that the ban was not proportionate in relation to the freedom of expression and communication.
05:09The French government had promoted the ban as a way to protect young people
05:13from the harmful effects associated with social media.
05:16Macron's office said the President had no plans to give up on his push to bar children from apps such
05:22as TikTok,
05:23and that the government would work on a new draft law.
05:29U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs of up to 100% on imported drones on their components,
05:37as Washington aims to rebuild American production.
05:41The U.S. claims it can no longer afford to depend on foreign factories.
05:47European manufacturers will face a 15% rate, while British-made drones face just 10.
05:53But to qualify, a drone's hardware and software must largely originate in the U.S. or their home country.
06:00A tough task, as many European drones currently rely on Chinese-made parts.
06:06The steepest tariffs target larger, more advanced drones, such as those over 25 kilograms or fitted with thermal imaging.
06:15The tariff proclamation is one of several defense measures moving at once.
06:19Also on Friday, Trump ordered a fifth naval shipyard to be built, the first in 80 years.
06:26These actions follow reports of a tense exchange between Trump and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
06:32over depleted munition stocks due to the war in Iran.
06:36But Washington denies the argument took place.
06:43One person was killed and 17 others were injured, including a child and overnight Russian attacks targeting the eastern Donbass
06:51region.
06:51Local officials say drones struck the settlements of Kramatorsk and Bilenke in the Donetsk region late on Thursday and into
06:58the early hours of Friday morning.
07:01Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said emergency response crews were on the ground assisting the wounded, extinguishing fires, and escorting civilians
07:09to safety.
07:10He slammed the overnight Russian barrage, which he said targeted primarily residential areas and civilian infrastructure, but which also targeted
07:18several other cities and regions.
07:21Zelensky noted that the attacks stretched to target many areas, including Sumy, Kherson, Odessa, Zaporizhia, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, and Chernihiv.
07:31He added that the Kremlin deployed hundreds of guided aerial bombs to target the frontline cities, noting that on average,
07:38Moscow fires around 220 of them per day.
07:42He urged allies to ramp up pressure on Russia to target their defense sector at the production stage, calling for
07:48sanctions targeting foreign components used in the assembly of these projectiles.
07:57Italian police recovered paintings by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse worth almost 9 million euros that had been stolen from an
08:04Italian museum in March.
08:06The paintings were taken by thieves from the villa of the Magnani Rocca Foundation near Parma in northern Italy.
08:13The heist had lasted under three minutes.
08:16Police said the investigation centered around a gang of nine Moldovan suspects. Five are accused of carrying out the theft.
08:24Video footage released by police showed two thieves wearing headlamps and with their faces covered entering the villa by breaking
08:30through a window.
08:31They headed straight into a room where the three paintings hung and took them off the wall,
08:36before heading back to the window and passing them through to an accomplice waiting outside.
08:44New Zealand has withdrawn its support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino calling for an independent review,
08:51including into his now scrapped plan to sell private stakes in a FIFA commercial subsidiary.
08:59That puts New Zealand at odds with Oceania's Football Confederation,
09:02which welcomed the scrapped investment plans cancellation but voiced continued support for Infantino.
09:10It's part of a widening split in world football.
09:14UEFA and other confederations want new leadership,
09:17while South America and Africa are standing by Infantino.
09:21He's also picked up support from six Arab federations, including Qatar and Morocco,
09:26who say they have quote, full confidence in his leadership.
09:31Infantino is due to seek re-election in 2027.
09:39The historic central square in Brussels is temporarily covered in a colorful bed of flowers,
09:45as this year's edition of the annual flower carpet celebrates Japanese culture.
09:51Iro Sugiyama, the artist behind the floral arrangement,
09:55brought the great wave of Kanagawa to life with hundreds of thousands of flowers.
09:59By doing so, he honored one of Japan's most famous artists, Katsushika Hokusai.
10:05He's also named where he acquired his version of the anthem.
10:10He wrote,
10:11I think it was the beginning of the Maker's first extort section of the flower fairs....
10:19He wrote,
10:22He wrote,
10:27He wrote,
10:27He wrote,
10:30He wrote,
10:38The collaboration marks the 160th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Belgium and Japan.
10:44The organizers of the event said the carpet is more than just an artwork, but it is also
10:49a symbol of bringing people and cultures together.
10:53The carpet features more than 700,000 flowers and measures roughly 70 meters long and 24
11:00meters wide.
11:00On Thursday, volunteers worked for hours to arrange the flowers into the artwork that
11:05the artist had intended.
11:07The design will be visible in the Belgian capital until Sunday.
Comments