A fire tore through several homes, residents were evacuated and “extensive” damage reported as firefighters battled multiple blazes in central England, which experiencing its hottest day of the year.

Areas of Europe home to more than 135 million people -- particularly in France, Italy, Spain and the UK -- were set for temperatures over 35C yesterday as the continent’s latest heatwave intensifies, according to AFP calculations.

Western Europe experienced its hottest June-July on record as climate change fuels an historic summer of heat, drought and wildfires across the region, the EU’s global warming monitor said yesterday.

Ukrainian drone attack killed three people in Russia’s Belgorod region, while Russian strikes overnight Saturday and yesterday killed two and wounded dozens across Ukraine.

Russian anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin -- who was recently detained outside Moscow and blocked from running for parliament -- said yesterday he had left the country, in a video posted from Paris.

At the gates into Ceuta, Moroccan authorities deployed water cannon trucks and pushed people back

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham yesterday relaunched his years-long bid to create a national service to tackle a UK crisis in the care of elderly and vulnerable adults.

New UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he may “take a different opinion” from US President Donald Trump and will “put Britain’s interest first” when dealing with the American leader.

Two men flying in a small private plane died Saturday when they crashed into the roof of a house in northwestern Germany, police said.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez yesterday said firefighters were working to “save lives” in the wildfires raging west of Madrid, warning of a “complex” struggle ahead with high winds expected.

Rome will offer free screenings in 11 air-conditioned cinemas as part of a heat-relief plan Mayor Roberto Gualtieri presented on Wednesday, while most of Europe was sweltering through a hot summer.

The building Adolf Hitler was born in near the Austrian border with Germany officially began a new life as a police station yesterday, a conversion Austria’s government hopes will prevent it serving as a place of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis.

France recorded 5,764 more deaths than usual during a record-breaking heatwave last month, health authorities said yesterday, describing the excess mortality among people aged 15 and older as “unprecedented”.

Will join Ireland, Belgium and Spain among EU countries that have imposed restrictions on trade with territories occupied by Israeli settlers

Andy Burnham became Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade yesterday, pledging to break with the politics of the past to deliver a new economic model to benefit a nation “fed up” with a revolving door of leaders.

Andy Burnham, nickna-med the ‘King of the North’, was elected leader of Britain’s governing Labour Party yesterday, the final step before becoming its seventh prime minister in a decade on a pledge to thwart the rise of the populist Reform UK.

The fire erupted Sunday in the sprawling Fontainebleau forest, a former royal hunting estate that today is dotted with quiet villages, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of the capital

The Euclid space telescope has spotted the oldest quasars -- the brightest objects in the universe -- ever discovered, deepening a cosmic mystery that has been puzzling scientists.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday formally apologised for the forced adoption of an estimated 185,000 babies born to unmarried mothers in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976, calling it “a stain on our history”.

The world’s oceans just experienced their hottest June on record and could set fresh highs in the months ahead as El Nino and climate change drive temperatures even higher, scientists said yesterday.