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Wildfires fanned by heatwave, strong winds rage across Europe
- About 7,700 people evacuated near Greek city of Patras.
- Volunteer firefighter died and several hospitalised in Spain.
- Pope Leo moves weekly St Peter’s Square indoors amid heat.
Wildfires caused by arsonists or thunderstorms and fanned by a heatwave and strong winds continued to rage across southern Europe on Wednesday, burning houses, farms and factories and forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists.
Flames and dark smoke billowed over a cement factory that was set alight by a wildfire that swept through olive groves and forests and disrupted rail traffic on the outskirts of the Greek city of Patras, in the northern Peloponnese west of Athens.
“What does it look like? It looks like doomsday. May God help us and help the people here,” said Giorgos Karvanis, a volunteer who had come from Athens to Patras to help.
Authorities ordered residents of a town of about 7,700 people near Patras to evacuate on Tuesday and issued new alerts on Wednesday, advising residents of two nearby villages to leave their homes.
On the Greek islands of Chios, in the east, and Cephalonia, in the west, both popular with tourists, authorities told people to move to safety as fires spread.
In Spain, a volunteer firefighter died from severe burns and several people were hospitalised as the state weather agency AEMET warned that almost all of the country was at extreme or very high risk of fire.
The 35-year-old man had been attempting to create firebreaks near the town of Nogarejas, in the central Castile and Leon region, when he was trapped in the blaze, regional officials said.
He was the sixth person to die this year in wildfires in Spain. Other victims include two firefighters in Tarragona and Avila, according to emergency services.
Working in unprepared landscapes puts firefighters’ lives at risk, said Alexander Held, a senior expert in fire management at the European Forest Institute.
Authorities needed to make more effort to anticipate and prevent wildfires by creating buffer zones and clearing combustible vegetation, he said.
“Take an industrial building and imagine there would be no fire detectors, no sprinkler systems, no fire protection doors and no escape routes – firefighters would just refuse to go in, but in our landscape we expect them to do this,” said Held.
The leader of the Galicia region in the northwest, Alfonso Rueda, called the situation there “complicated” and said the weather was not helping. Six active fires were affecting a combined 10,000 hectares (38 square miles) in Galicia’s Ourense province.
Suspected arson
Spanish Environment Minister Sara Aagesen told SER radio station that many fires across the country were suspected to be intentionally caused by arsonists due to their “virulence”.
A male firefighter was arrested on Tuesday for fires started in the Avila area north of Madrid two weeks ago, while police said late on Tuesday they were investigating a 63-year-old woman for allegedly starting a series of fires in Galicia’s Muxia area in August.
Police have also identified a suspect who is believed to have suffered burns to his hands after starting a small fire in a beachfront development in the southern coastal Cadiz area, Europa Press reported.
Thunderstorms have caused other fires.
On Tuesday, shortly after 5pm, Andalucia’s fire department was flooded with calls from residents alerting of a fire caused by a lightning strike on a chestnut and oak forest in Los Romeros, north of the city of Huelva. The fire prompted the evacuation of around 250 residents but was largely controlled by Wednesday morning.
A blaze in Trancoso in Portugal that has been burning since Saturday took a turn for the worse during the night as a lightning strike reignited an area that was thought safe, the civil protection service said.
In Albania, Defence Minister Pirro Vengu said it was a “critical week”, with several major wildfires burning across the country.
Some 10,000 firefighters, soldiers and police emergency units struggled with a total of 24 wildfires across the country on Wednesday, the defence ministry said.
Flames reached homes in two villages in the centre of the country, forcing villagers to flee, taking their livestock with them.
“We are going in the middle of two rivers because the fire has arrived,” said Hajri Dragoti, 68, from Narte, who fled with his wife, taking a cow, a donkey and a dog. “We can’t do anything; it is like gunpowder.”
Spain was in its 10th day of a heatwave that peaked on Tuesday with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), and which AEMET expected to last until Monday, making it one of the longest on record.
Pope Leo moved his weekly audience from St Peter’s Square to an indoor venue in the Vatican, “to stay a little bit out of the sun and the extreme heat” as Italy’s health ministry issued extreme heat warnings for 16 cities on Wednesday, with temperatures forecast to peak at 39°C (102°F) in Florence.
Business
Green energy exports: $10-bn green ammonia project positions India as global clean-fuel supplier; Kakinada plant nears key milestone – The Times of India
A $10-billion green hydrogen and green ammonia project at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh is set to cross a major construction milestone, reinforcing India’s ambition to emerge as a global supplier of clean energy to markets such as Germany, Japan and Singapore.The first major equipment erection ceremony of AM Green’s Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia Complex will be held on January 17 and will be attended by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Deputy Chief Minister Konidala Pawan Kalyan, state government officials said, PTI reported.Billed as one of the largest clean-energy investments in India to date, the project involves a total outlay of $10 billion and is expected to generate up to 8,000 jobs during the construction phase, besides substantial high-skill employment during operations and across allied sectors including renewable energy, logistics, storage and port services.AM Green is developing India’s first and the world’s largest green ammonia complex at Kakinada, with a planned capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum, through the brownfield conversion of an existing ammonia-urea facility. The project will be commissioned in phases, beginning with 0.5 million tonnes per annum by 2027, scaling up to 1 million tonnes by 2028 and reaching full capacity by 2030.Once operational, the facility will enable India’s first exports of green ammonia, which is increasingly being adopted globally as a clean shipping fuel, for power generation and as a carrier for green hydrogen.The integrated project spans 7.5 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity, 1,950 megawatts of electrolyser capacity and 2 gigawatts of round-the-clock renewable power, supported by pumped hydro storage, including India’s first such facility at Pinnapuram in Andhra Pradesh.AM Green has already signed long-term supply agreements with Germany-based utility Uniper and is in advanced discussions with potential buyers in Japan and Singapore, establishing India’s first green-energy export linkages with Europe and advanced Asian economies.The project is aligned with Andhra Pradesh’s Integrated Clean Energy Policy, 2024, which seeks to position the state as India’s primary hub for green hydrogen and green ammonia. Once fully commissioned, the facility is expected to mark a structural shift from energy import dependence towards clean-energy exports, placing Andhra Pradesh at the centre of the global green-energy value chain.AM Green, backed by the founders of the Greenko Group, is developing the project through AM Green Ammonia, a partnership involving Malaysia-based Gentari, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Construction at the Kakinada site is already under way, placing it among a limited set of large-scale green ammonia facilities globally that meet Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin (RFNBO) standards.Beyond production, the project showcases an end-to-end clean-energy ecosystem within a single state, encompassing large-scale renewable generation, round-the-clock green power backed by storage, hydrogen and ammonia production, and port-based export infrastructure.AM Green has also moved to strengthen global linkages. In May last year, it announced a partnership with the Port of Rotterdam Authority to create a dedicated green-fuel corridor linking India with north-western Europe, aimed at enabling annual trade of up to 1 million tonnes of green fuels valued at nearly $1 billion. Earlier, it tied up with global logistics firm DP World to develop green fuel storage and export facilities in India and overseas.“This is not merely an industrial project, but a strategic step in positioning Andhra Pradesh and India as leaders in clean-energy exports and climate action,” the state government said.
Business
Budget 2026 Should Support MSMEs, Critical Minerals For Boosting Trade Resilience: Deloitte
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Deloitte India urges FY27 Budget to boost MSME support and critical mineral security, job protection and advancing India’s global manufacturing and clean energy goals.
Budget 2026 Expectations.
Budget 2026: Deloitte India has pitched a sharper focus on MSME support and critical mineral security in the FY27 Union Budget, arguing that these measures are essential to strengthen India’s trade resilience and reduce external vulnerabilities amid rising global uncertainty.
In its Budget expectations note, Deloitte India said micro, small and medium enterprises play a pivotal role in the economy, accounting for nearly 46% of India’s exports and emerging as the second-largest employer after agriculture. According to the firm, easing financial and compliance-related pressures on MSMEs would help them cope with global volatility, sustain production and remain competitive in overseas markets.
The Union Budget 2026-27 will be tabled on Sunday, February 1.
“Strengthening MSMEs will safeguard jobs and drive inclusive economic growth, boost rural incomes and support India’s ambition to become a global manufacturing hub,” Deloitte said.
The firm recommended measures such as enhanced export credit availability, concessional financing and simplified digital compliance systems to reduce the regulatory burden on small businesses. It also called for comprehensive training programmes to improve last-mile competitiveness of MSMEs, particularly those linked to global value chains.
Deloitte further suggested targeted export incentives or enhanced duty drawback support for tariff-sensitive sectors such as ready-made garments, gems and jewellery, and leather, which are more vulnerable to global trade disruptions.
Highlighting the risks from an increasingly protectionist global environment, Deloitte Economist Rumki Majumdar said rising uncertainty from tariff hikes, changes in rules of origin and non-tariff barriers could disproportionately affect Indian exporters. While the direct impact of global trade frictions on GDP growth may be limited to 40-80 basis points, the spillover effects on MSMEs and employment could be far more severe.
“MSMEs contribute 30.1 per cent to GDP, account for 45.79 per cent of India’s exports and employ nearly 290 million people; disruptions in export markets or tightening trade rules pose serious risks to jobs and income stability,” Majumdar said.
Beyond MSMEs, Deloitte emphasised the need for a strategic push on critical minerals to secure supply chains and support India’s clean energy transition. It proposed setting up a dedicated critical minerals fund to finance overseas acquisitions and technology partnerships, ensuring long-term access to essential resources.
The firm also recommended deeper global collaboration with regions such as Africa, Australia and Latin America to secure upstream access to minerals, alongside joint research and development in mineral processing and recycling. In addition, it called for incentives to promote investments in renewable energy, green hydrogen and grid-scale energy storage.
Deloitte said expanded funding for exploration, extraction and processing of key critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt and rare earth magnets, would be crucial to reduce import dependence and strengthen India’s strategic and economic security in the years ahead.
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January 16, 2026, 15:02 IST
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Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday staged a strong comeback, breaking the long bearish momentum as snowballing forex reserves have lifted investor sentiment.
During intraday trading, the PSX’s benchmark KSE-100 index gained a whopping 3,146.23 points to climb to 184,602.56 points, marking a positive change of 1.70%.
Out of 562 active companies, share prices of 375 advanced and of 67 declined while rates of 120 companies remained unchanged.
Economic analysts said the uptick offered some breathing space for the economy, even as the country continued to keep a close watch on external inflows and outflows.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves inched up by $16 million over the past week, according to figures released by the State Bank of Pakistan.
The central bank said its official reserves rose from $16.0557 billion to $16.0718 billion, showing a modest gain during the week.
Overall, the country’s total reserves climbed to $21.2484 billion.
The State Bank also noted that commercial banks’ holdings went up by $5.6 million, reaching $5.1927 billion.
The central bank projects the FY26 current account deficit at 0–1% of GDP and sees reserves at $17.8 billion by June 2026 with planned official inflows.
A day earlier, the stock exchange dropped by over 1,100 points due to massive selling pressure.
The PSX had extended losses after recording an increase for a brief period as investors seemed cautious amid rising geopolitical tensions involving Iran.
During intraday trading, the KSE-100 index touched 183,717.53 due to strong buying in the early sessions before it turned bearish by losing 69.29 points to close at 182,500.52 points.
International officials have warned that US military intervention in Iran now appears likely and could take place within the next 24 hours amid sharply escalating tensions in the Middle East.
American, European and Israeli sources said preparations for possible action were under way as Washington began evacuating personnel from its major air base in Qatar.
Green energy exports: $10-bn green ammonia project positions India as global clean-fuel supplier; Kakinada plant nears key milestone – The Times of India
Budget 2026 Should Support MSMEs, Critical Minerals For Boosting Trade Resilience: Deloitte
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