Russia is burning, southern Europe is burning. More Ebola victims in DR Congo

Overnight Ukrainian drone attacks targeted Russia, causing fires in Rostov and Belgorod. In Rostov-on-Don, two people were killed and five injured, with several fires erupting after a drone hit a residential building. Taganrog, an industrial hub in the Rostov region, was also attacked. Belgorod, the capital of the Belgorod region, sustained damage to residential buildings, with 12 people injured in a massive drone assault. Russian authorities also reported power outages in Sevastopol due to network overload and halted traffic on the Crimean Bridge.

Meanwhile, the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to claim lives, with 3,200 confirmed infections and 1,405 deaths reported as of mid-May. The epidemic has spread to neighboring Uganda. The current outbreak involves the Bundibugyo strain, for which no vaccine or effective therapy currently exists. However, the University of Oxford has begun safety testing for a potential vaccine, ChAdOx1, and clinical trials for two treatment methods are underway.

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The actual scale of the current epidemic may be two to four times greater than official data suggest.

Experts note that the current Ebola epidemic, declared in May, is progressing faster and causing more deaths per infection than previous outbreaks. The devastating 2013-2016 epidemic resulted in over 11,000 deaths from at least 28,000 cases. The World Health Organization suggests the actual scale of the current epidemic could be two to four times higher than official figures indicate, partly due to difficulties accessing certain communities in the DRC because of rebel group activity.

In Europe, severe wildfires have forced mass evacuations. France has evacuated 220,000 people due to a fire in the Gironde department, located about 15 km from Bordeaux. In Spain, at least 175,000 people have been evacuated or ordered to stay home because of raging forest and agricultural land fires. French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez stated that 115,000 hectares have burned in France this year, an area twice the size of Warsaw. The fire in Gironde, ongoing since July 22, is described as "exceptionally dangerous."

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exceptionally dangerous