People at an evacuation center in Villamanta, Spain, a town southwest of Madrid, July 26, 2026. (Joseph Fox/The New York Times) By JASON HOROWITZ As the worst wildfires in Spanish history tore through the country, Elena Sánchez paused from selling beers in a kiosk on the edge of an artificial lake in Madrid and pointed west toward the sunset. It was the wrong color. “It’s not supposed to be like that,” Sánchez, 54, said Sunday evening, looking at a hazy gray blush — the fire’

A child comforts a dog outside an evacuation center in Villamanta, Spain, a town southwest of Madrid, July 26, 2026. Firefighters in Spain and France were racing against the clock Tuesday to keep ferocious wildfires near Madrid and Bordeaux in check before a scorching heat wave hits both areas. (Joseph Fox/The New York Times) By CARLOS BARRÁGAN, ROSER TOLL PIFARRÉ and SÉGOLÈNE LE STRADIC Firefighters in Spain and France were racing against the clock Tuesday to keep ferocious

Seals frolic frozen in bronze statue in a public square in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, on June 20, 2025. (Ivor Prickett/The New York Times) By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN Anganni Mikaelsen was cruising past icebergs in his boat when he spotted a glistening head pop up in the water. Pow! His rifle shattered the tranquility. Mikaelsen was hunting seals, as Greenlanders have for centuries. People here eat seals, feed them to sled dogs and wear sealskins. They trade the pelts for money and

Consuelo Lorza, 88, and her 11-year-old granddaughter, Sara, at an evacuation center in Villamanta, Spain, a town southwest of Madrid, on Sunday, July 26, 2026. In central Spain, thousands of people are sleeping in shelters or in their cars, some of them evacuated multiple times ahead of advancing flames, awaiting word on what they left behind. (Joseph Fox/The New York Times) By CARLOS BARRAGÁN Arantxa Alcázar stepped into her garden on Thursday when she heard police officers

By AMELIA NIERENBERG and TATIANA FIRSOVA Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany on Monday called for tougher monitoring of individuals who are security threats, a day after prosecutors said the suspect in Saturday’s terrorist attack near a gay Pride event in Berlin was released from detention in May. “If we cannot detain such potential offenders, we must do everything we can to restrict their freedom of movement as much as possible,” Merz said at a news conference. On Sunday, G

In a satellite image from Copernicus Sentinel-2, smoke rises from an oil facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, on Monday, July 27, 2026. The Saudi defense ministry said drones launched by Iranian-backed Iraqi militias on Monday had targeted petroleum facilities in the Eastern Province and Riyadh regions. (Copernicus Sentinel-2 via The New York Times) By ISMAEEL NAAR Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted and destroyed several drones launched by Iranian-backed Iraqi militias Monday

People in Bundibugyo, Uganda, on July 5, 2026. The Bundibugyo Ebola virus takes its name from this small town, where it was first discovered in 2007. Now, the species has returned to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, halting life on a busy border. (Stuart Tibaweswa/The New York Times) By MATHEW MPOKE BIGG A rope stretched across a bridge. That was all Uganda needed to show that its border with Congo was closed. Until recently, the bridge over the Lamia river bustled with

By PRANAV BASKAR and VERENA HOLZL A car plowed through a park during Berlin’s biggest LGBTQ Pride event Saturday, killing at least one person in what police said was a suspected act of terrorism by a man involved in local Islamic groups. Police said the suspected attack happened shortly before 10 p.m. in the Tiergarten, a major park in the city center, and that a hunt for a suspect or suspects was underway after the vehicle was found empty and crashed into a tree. At least 16

By EPHRAT LIVNI and FATIMA ABDULKARIM The European Union is debating a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, but member states are divided, reflecting deep disagreements over whether and how to confront Israel as it cements claims on occupied Palestinian territory. Superficially, the fight is technical, based on procedural questions. But political observers say this is actually a proxy battle over how to handle Israel at a time of growing dismay with its policies among the

A Marine sentry is posted outside the doors of the West Wing of the White House on Friday afternoon, July 24, 2026. Fighting between the United States and Iran appeared to abate for the first time in two weeks on Saturday, but tensions remained high as President Donald Trump weighed whether to intensify the conflict. (Alex Kent/The New York Times) By AARON BOXERMAN and SANAM MAHOOZI The war between the United States and Iran remained on pause for a second straight day Sunday,