Wildfires rage across Europe amid record temperatures

International: CBC

Fire brigades battled a huge wildfire in Tuscany on Wednesday that forced hundreds to evacuate as gas tanks in the fire exploded. Temperatures were hitting as high as 40 degrees Celsius this week in Europe. As temperatures keep rising, wildfires have occurred in several parts of Italy this week. Emergency services have been battling wildfires all across southern Europe this week after a huge heat wave, and scientists and climatologists have blamed this on global warming. Six hundred hectares of forest have been affected in Lucca, and 500 people were forced to be relocated because of the wildfire. Portugal got hit the worst as 10,000-12,000 hectares of forest burned.

National: National Post

A cocaine dealer working from a jail cell in the Dominican Republic has threatened a Canadian airline crew after they were jailed when they turned in a large amount of cocaine they found on their plane. The crew was released on bail and during a check-in at the courthouse, they were approached by that same dealer. He told one of the pilots, “I’ll be seeing you soon,” and the crew presumed that this was meant to be a death threat. The crew will be back in court Thursday, July 21.

Local: CBC

Researchers have projected that COVID-19 wastewater levels in Ottawa could rise in the next few weeks. The level of COVID-19 in the wastewater has been rising since early June. It was reported on Sunday that the level was higher than previous waves, but still below the levels reached in April 2022. Doug Manuel, a physician and senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital, said that flight cancellations could increase because of this as more crew members become infected and won’t be able to work as a result.