Inferno Approaches Central Athens

An inferno is burning its way ever closer to downtown Athens. For the fourth day running, 500 firefighters are battling forest fires, which leapt back to life on Thursday night after winds initially started dying down, but the wind picked up again on Thursday night, as did temperatures. Greece is suffering its worst heatwave in over 30 years. The wall of dark smoke rising high above the Greek capital is creeping closer, forcing residents to abandon attempts to save their property and flee. With swathes of neighbouring Turkey also aflame, smoke-filled skies have seen dozens of people hospitalized. More than 150 wildfires have broken out across Greece since Tuesday. Amazingly, no-one has been killed.

Sydney Reports Record Delta Cases

Sydney has reported its worst day of the pandemic, with a record rise in community infections of the highly-contagious Delta variant. In southwest Sydney, police and army officers are patrolling shopping areas and checking that residents are complying with mask-mandates and other preventative measures. There have been more than 4,300 cases reported in New South Wales in the past seven weeks. The source of the Delta variant there was a limousine driver who transported airline crew. He was not wearing a mask.

China Hosts New Global Vaccine Forum

And, China says it will provide countries around the world 2 billion doses of vaccine this year, in addition to $100 million to the COVAX initiative. The pledge was made in writing by Chinese President Xi Jinping, and delivered to the first meeting of a new international forum on vaccine cooperation. The $100 million will support the distribution of vaccines to developing countries. Xi has stressed that vaccines are a global public good and production lines in China are running around the clock. The Chinese president says he hopes the new forum will promote the fair distribution of vaccines around the world, strengthen solidarity and cooperation in developing countries and score an early victory against the pandemic.