Wildfires in the US and Europe, Russian strikes in Kyiv, beekeepers in Gaza and the European Aquatics Championships – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

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© Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Julien de Rosa/AFP/Getty Images

The hot weather has exacerbated dry conditions, creating conditions for wildfires and receding rivers.

The river’s water levels have fallen as extreme heat has afflicted Europe, exposing sunken German vessels from World War II that are impeding navigation.

© Reuters

Ukraine and Russia accused each other of deadly attacks on Sunday

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While many leaders compare the wildfire crisis to the second world war, governments fail to adopt the real lessons of pre-emptive wartime action

As France and Spain battle historic wildfires, comparisons to the second world war abound. “One of the continent’s biggest evacuation efforts since World War II,” reports the Associated Press. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called the wildfires his country’s “most difficult situation since the second world war”.

The images crossing all our screens certainly feel war-like – emergency aircraft and black smoke fill the skies, frantic civilians seeking shelter, historic towns lying in ruins, charred forests and burned-out vehicles, exhausted and sweat-soaked emergency responders.

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© Photograph: Alexandros Beltes/EPA

© Photograph: Alexandros Beltes/EPA

© Photograph: Alexandros Beltes/EPA

Ukrainian President says Ukraine has hit two more oil facilities deep inside Russia

© Volodymyr Zelensky/X

The drone incident was framed as the latest in a series of hybrid attacks across Europe

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A brutal summer has exposed how much pressure European countries are under from forces largely out of their grip: war in Iran and Ukraine, record heat and more.

© Pierre Crom/Getty Images

Lithuania also fears Putin may be planning a ‘false flag’ strike on the Baltics

© Reuters

Kyiv says that Ukraine has been supplied with a third of the air defence missiles it was given in 2025

© AP

Kyiv said it does not target civilians but is ramping up long-range strikes

© Social media

Ceuta, Spain, and Fnideq, Morocco, are physically separated by only a mile, but they are intertwined by family and trade. A recent border crisis is the latest chapter in their story.

© Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

North Korean missiles are bigger than Russia’s

© Reuters

Warehouses in several parts of Ukraine under attack overnight as Russia pounds Kyiv and surrounding regions

© Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Kyiv has not yet acknowledged killing Russian civilians on a Black Sea beach, but as it strikes deeper at Moscow, these tragedies will multiply – and that’s not the only worry, explains world affairs editor Sam Kiley

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Ukraine’s foreign minister branded the drone’s pilot as a ‘sadist’ and accused them of knowingly targeting a civilian

© National Police of Ukraine

Soldier killed four people and injured three in apparent random rampage in Russian-occupied Crimea

© Reuters

Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys

Far beyond the fires raging across Europe and North America, the smoke, dangerous to breathe, hangs in the air, dimming the view, changing the very color of sunlight into something grimly unsettling.

An estimated 20,000 are said to have died in the extreme heat in Europe earlier this year, and heat is climate change’s quiet killer, compared with the dramatic violence of death by fire or flood. In eastern Washington, 600 homes have just burned down, and in both Europe and North America, firefighters have died in the effort to contain the climate-fueled firestorms.

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© Photograph: Alan Lima/The Guardian

© Photograph: Alan Lima/The Guardian

© Photograph: Alan Lima/The Guardian

Ukraine’s foreign minister said the attack formed part of a deliberate Russian campaign to intimidate civilians.

© Social media

After promising to learn from its role in a failed “Super League” that fueled fan anger, the Wall Street bank is involved in FIFA’s latest meltdown.

© Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

Officials said 40 people were injured in the attack on a holiday resort

© Social media

The EU’s panic and the lack of solidarity emboldens smugglers and the far right – and makes Spain even more vulnerable

For the European hard right and the White House, it seemed almost too good to be true: left-liberal Spain punished with a migration crisis of its own making.

The histrionics came right on cue. As thousands of mainly Moroccan citizens streamed into the tiny Spanish enclave of Ceuta at the tip of north Africa, Spain’s far-right party Vox decried a migrant “invasion”, blaming Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez’s regularisation and leftist politics. The Trump administration did the same. A senior Israeli diplomat goaded Madrid over its “colonial” territories while Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, called for Spain to be suspended from the Schengen area. Denmark and Finland backed Italy’s move and, by the weekend, 22 EU leaders had penned a letter pointing an implicit finger at Madrid over its presumed failure to “relentlessly combat illegal migration”.

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© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

After thousands poured into the Spanish territory in North Africa, the pro-immigration policies of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez were blamed. The reality is more complex.

© Jorge Guerrero/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

More than 300 drones hit Russian cities and warehouses in overnight attacks, says its defence ministry

© Planet Labs PBC

The war has upended normal life for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children, with many seeing their homes destroyed. The No Sirens camp, run by Hope for Ukraine, tells Alex Croft that they aim to help restore the joy of childhood that has been lost

© Hope for Ukraine

Ukraine launched at least 635 drones at targets including a Wildberries warehouse, according to Russian officials

© Reuters

Most of the people who surged into Spain on Thursday have since returned to Morocco. A small minority are holed up on a seafront, tired, hungry and vowing to stay.

Europe sheltered many refugees in 2015. Its hard-line reaction to a new crisis in Ceuta shows how, 11 years on, the far right has reshaped European attitudes.

© Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

The explosion occurred near an upscale Italian restaurant located in one of Moscow's seven Stalin-era skyscrapers at Kudrinkskaya Square

© Reuters

Rising temperatures and more frequent heat waves have changed the feel of the season for today’s children, compared with their parents and grandparents.

© Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

The crossing of 50,000 people to Spanish territory this week has created a crisis for the Spanish government, much as the 2015 migration crisis did for Europe’s leaders. The context is different.

© Antonio Sempere/Associated Press

Several migrants who crossed into Ceuta attributed their arrival to lax Moroccan border protocols. But Europe’s anti-immigrant politicians blamed Spain’s migrant-friendly policies.

© Simon Wohlfahrt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Under French rules, homeowners must clear vegetation within roughly 50 yards of their houses. In the forests affected by France’s worst fire in decades, that didn’t happen.

© Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was set to arrive in Ceuta, a Spanish territory in Africa, amid an escalating crisis for his pro-immigration government.

© Fabian Bimmer/Reuters

Trump's remarks come as Kyiv hits two more Wildberries warehouses and oil facilities in Russia

© Copyright 2026. The Associated Press. All rights reserved

[L'article Au moins neuf personnes sont mortes lors d’une arrivée massive de migrants en Espagne a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

Have you had to cancel, reschedule or replan a trip to France, Spain or elsewhere because of raging fires or stifling heat? If so, we want to hear from you.

© Costas Metaxakis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The attack marks the first suspected use of such a North Korean missile in the conflict for almost a year

© Reuters

It comes after Russia hit Ukraine with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones

© Reuters

Trump's remarks come as Kyiv hits two more Wildberries warehouses and oil facilities in Russia

© AFP/Getty

As Europe’s climate warms, even moorlands and forests in the Cairngorms, in the Scottish Highlands, have fallen victim to rapidly spreading flames.

© Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Record heat and wildfires are devastating the continent, and scientists warn the climate crisis is getting worse.

© Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder and CEO of the Telegram messaging app, has repeatedly run into trouble with both the Kremlin and Western officials as he cast himself as a champion of free speech

© AP

Kyiv’s attack on an Iranian vessel is a move to bolster US support at a crucial juncture, experts tell Maryam Zakir-Hussain

© Getty

At least 20 Wildberries warehouses have been attacked since July 18

© Reuters

Overnight attack started a fire at the Ryazan refinery, ramping up pressure on Moscow

© Reuters

The continent is experiencing some of its biggest fires and highest temperatures ever. Residents are fleeing, leaders are struggling to respond and “it will get worse,” one climate expert said.

© Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

Ukraine’s president said Russia had been planning the attack for several days

© Reuters

Northern Ireland’s Protestant loyalists have long felt their identity was under siege. Now anti-immigrant ideology has found a new toehold here.

© Paulo Nunes dos Santos for The New York Times

The drone attacks have deepened Russian fuel shortages

© Reuters