Central Europe sees record temperatures as heatwave continues

Italy's health ministry has placed 27 cities on red alert due to a severe heatwave gripping Europe. The cities, stretching from Trieste in the northeast to Palermo in Sicily, are under a health emergency warning due to prolonged high temperatures.

The heatwave has disrupted energy and transportation systems across several European countries. In Hungary, some well-known buildings had their lights turned off to save energy. Bulgaria has also been hit by wildfires, with the main Trakia highway closed in both directions due to a huge fire southeast of the capital Sofia.

The heatwave has had a significant economic impact, with the European Union's environment commissioner stating that the cost of this summer's wildfires has already exceeded €15 billion. Six European Union countries have had to shut down some of their power plants due to lower river levels and increased water temperatures caused by the heatwaves, and a solar eclipse on August 12 is expected to further reduce photovoltaic output, according to Le Monde English.

Brief written by urgent.news from France 24, Free Malaysia Today, Le Monde English — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.