Scorching heat wave sparks wildfires in Europe

A forest fire reaches olive trees in the village of Colmeias, near Leiria, central Portugal, July 13, 2022. (ARMANDO FRANCA / AP) LEIRIA, Portugal – Thousands of firefighters battled more than 20 blazes that raged on Wednesday across Portugal and western Spain, menacing villages and disrupting tourists' holidays amid a heat wave that pushed temperatures […]

Draghi meets president as Italian govt faces collapse

President of the Italian Senate Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati (center) reads the results of the vote in the Senate hall after a vote of confidence to the prime minister at Palazzo Madama in Rome on July 14, 2022.  (ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP) ROME – Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's coalition government appeared on the brink […]

Ex-finance minister Sunak tops first vote to be next UK PM

British Conservative Party Member of Parliament Rishi Sunak launches his campaign for the Conservative Party leadership, in London on July 12, 2022. (ALBERTO PEZZALI / AP PHOTO) LONDON – Former finance minister Rishi Sunak won the biggest backing from Conservative lawmakers on Wednesday in the first vote to choose who will succeed Boris Johnson as […]

Severe drought displaces over 100,000 Somalis in June

Nunay Mohamed, 25, who fled the drought-stricken Lower Shabelle area, holds her one-year old malnourished child at a makeshift camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, June 30, 2022. The crisis in Ukraine has abruptly drawn millions of dollars away from longer-running humanitarian crises and Somalia is perhaps the most vulnerable as […]