ANKARA, Turkey — Firefighters in Turkey remained locked in a battle to contain flames tearing through forested hillsides in the west of the country on Friday, while similar wildfires in neighboring Greece were largely brought under control.
Wildfires that broke out in at least five locations across Turkey’s Aegean coastal province of İzmir — fueled by soaring temperatures, strong winds, and low humidity — have killed two people, forced the evacuation of tens of thousands and damaged some 200 homes.
Forestry Minister İbrahim Yumakli said Friday that firefighters, supported by water-dropping aircraft, remained on the ground battling a deadly wildfire near the town of Odemis for a third day. Elsewhere, emergency crews worked to halt the spread of a new blaze that broke out late Thursday near the district of Buca.
The fire near Odemis claimed two lives — a forestry worker who died Thursday trying to contain the flames, and an 81-year-old resident who succumbed to smoke inhalation, according to authorities.
“Our intense air and land fight to control the fires in Odemis and Buca,” continues, the minister said on X, without providing further details.
Another wildfire that broke out Wednesday near the popular vacation destination of Cesme was contained Friday, Yumakli said. The fire prompted the evacuation of three neighborhoods and caused temporary road closures.
In Greece, a coastal wildfire on Crete remained under control. But the fire service maintained a large deployment on the island as the authorities feared flare ups due to strong winds.
More than 5,000 tourists, hotel workers and local residents were moved out of the area on Wednesday as the blaze threatened seaside resorts. Several areas of the country remain on alert due to the adverse weather conditions.
Local authorities in Crete estimate that the wildfire has burned approximately 15 square kilometers (3,700 acres) of land.
Turkish officials have not provided an estimate of the total land area consumed by the fires.
Authorities said most of the fires Izmir were caused by faults on power lines. Yumakli blamed the blaze in Buca on sparks caused by construction workers using a grinder to cut through metal.
Summer wildfires are common in both Greece and Turkey, where experts warn that climate change is intensifying conditions.
Lewis Hamilton has topped the timesheets during Friday’s first practice session at the British Grand Prix, the seven-time World Champion leading the way from fellow Briton Lando Norris at his home event.
There were two new names joining the action for FP1 at Silverstone; 17-year-old Arvid Lindblad had stepped in to Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull for his F1 weekend debut, while Alpine Reserve Driver Paul Aron was at the wheel of Nico Hulkenberg’s Kick Sauber, the rival teams having come to an agreement to share the 21-year-old’s driving services.
Haas’ Esteban Ocon led the pack out in a busy start to the session, the majority of the field running the medium tyres while the Aston Martin and Williams cars had bolted on the hard compound.
Liam Lawson, meanwhile, made an early complaint about traffic, the Racing Bulls man – whose car is running a special livery this weekend – saying “guy needs to check his mirrors” after encountering Lindblad on track.
The opening segment of FP1 saw several home favourites top the timesheets, with Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris each going fastest before George Russell set the quickest time to head the timesheets.
Pierre Gasly, meanwhile, completed a 360-degree spin at Copse corner. The Alpine driver managed to continue running, albeit with some significant flat spots on his tyres.
Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar had set the pace from Charles Leclerc as the session reached its halfway point, just as others started to switch to the soft tyres for some flying laps. Elsewhere there was trouble for Carlos Sainz, with the Williams up on the stands in the garage as the team seemingly checked the floor.
The order quickly started to evolve as most of the pack started to embark on their soft-shod runs, with the times rapidly tumbling, while traffic increasingly became an issue. Meanwhile Gabriel Bortoleto became the next driver to spin around at Copse, the Kick Sauber briefly triggering the yellow flags before continuing on.
As the session entered into its final 20 minutes, Norris had returned to the top of the order – only for Hamilton to surge through to displace his fellow Briton by two-hundredths, the Ferrari driver setting the pace on a 1m 26.892s.
While more laps went on the board – and Sainz rejoined the pack slightly out of sequence on the hard tyres before later switching to the soft rubber – Hamilton’s benchmark ultimately remained unbeaten on a track where the 40-year-old has won a record nine times.
Norris remained in second, with the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri going third quickest while Leclerc placed in fourth. Russell followed in fifth for Mercedes ahead of Hadjar, Williams’ Alex Albon, Lawson and the other Silver Arrows car of Kimi Antonelli.
Max Verstappen rounded out the top 10 on a weekend in which the Red Bull driver has continued to face speculation over his future. The Aston Martin duo of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll claimed P11 and P12 from Lindblad (P13), Sainz (P14) and Ocon (P15).
Meanwhile Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, Aron, Haas’ Ollie Bearman, Gasly and Bortoleto completed the order from 16th to 20th respectively.
With the first hour of running now complete, the drivers and teams will examine their data and prepare for Friday’s second practice session, which is set to get underway at 1600 local time.
Tecno is expanding its Pova series with two new options – the Pova 7 and Pova 7 Pro. Both offer 144Hz displays, Dimensity 7300 chipsets and 6000mAh batteries with 45W charging. They share identical designs, which are headlined by the Delta Light Interface – a triangular strip around the camera island comprised of 104 LED lights.
Delta Light Interface
It acts as a customizable notification status similar to what we’ve seen with past Nothing phone devices and interacts with incoming calls, music, charging, or gaming.
The vanilla Pova 7 opts for a 6.78-inch IPS LCD (FHD+ 144Hz) with 900 nits peak brightness. Pova 7 Pro gets a nicer 6.78-inch AMOLED (1220p+ 144Hz) with up to 4,500 nits peak local brightness, an optical fingerprint scanner and 2340Hz PWM dimming. Both panels get an integrated 13MP selfie cam and are protected by Gorilla Glass 7i.
Tecno outfitted both of its Pova 7 members with MediaTek’s Dimensity 7300 Ultimate chipset, which is paired with 8GB RAM and 128/256GB storage.
Pova 7 Pro gets a 64MP main camera (IMX682) alongside an 8MP ultrawide lens while Pova 7 opts for a 50MP main cam alongside an unspecified auxiliary lens.
Both phones boot Tecno HiOS 15 based on Android 15 and feature DeepSeek integration as well as the Ella AI assistant. The pair also shares the same 6,000mAh battery with 45W wired charging, but the Pro model also adds 30W wireless charging.
Tecno Pova 7 comes in Geek Black, Magic Silver, and Oasis Green. It starts at INR 14,999 ($175) for the 8/128GB trim and goes up to INR 15,999 ($187).
Tecno Pova 7 (left) and Pova 7 Pro (right)
Tecno Pova 7 Pro comes in Geek Black, Dynamic Grey, and Neon Cyan colors. Pricing starts at INR 18,999 ($222) for the 8/128GB trim and tops out at INR 19,999 ($234) for the 8/256GB version.
Tecno Pova 7 and Pova 7 Pro will be available from July 10 via Flipkart.
While the tectonic plates on Earth are constantly moving, it is very difficult to observe a slow earthquake in real time. In fact, the earthquakes that are recorded are those resulting from a sudden break or slip between two distinct plates. However, scientists have managed to record this type of phenomenon for the first time ever.
It is important to note that this type of event is still poorly understood by science. What’s more, it is quite difficult to record. A slow earthquake can take days, weeks, or months to occur, without any apparent signals.
A team from the University of Texas at Austin achieved this feat by recording the propagation of the earthquake when tectonic pressure was released along the tsunami-generating fault in Nankai, Japan. To achieve this, the researchers used drilling sensors capable of detecting the slightest movements, placed in the critical area offshore. This is where the fault is closest to the seabed.
As a result, the first observation took place in 2015, when a slow-slip earthquake ran along the tail of the fault. Subsequently, in 2020, a second earthquake occurred, following the same trajectory. In the journal Science, researchers explain the following: “Slip initiates ~30 kilometers landward of the trench; migrates seaward at 1 to 2 kilometers per day to within a few kilometers of, and possibly breaching, the trench; and coincides with the onset and migration of tremor and/or very-low-frequency earthquakes. The SSE source region lies in a zone of high pore fluid pressure and low stress, which provides clear observational evidence linking these factors to shallow slow earthquakes.“
These two events correspond to decompression movements of the fault. But that’s not all, as researchers also point out that this discovery suggests that this deep part of the fault acts more like a shock absorber, relieving pressure without generating sudden tremors. Furthermore, they occurred in areas where geological fluid pressure was higher than normal, indicating that these fluids play a major role in slow earthquakes. Thus, this discovery could help researchers better understand the functioning of seismic faults and slow-slip earthquakes, which are still poorly understood.
Alexis Stegmann – Tech Writer – 57 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2025
I’ve been working in the field of web writing for several years, and I’m passionate about keeping readers up to date with the latest news on astronomy, technology, the world of video games and other exciting subjects. In particular, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a number of websites, which has enabled me to cover a wide range of subjects. In my personal life, I’m passionate about a wide range of subjects, including astronomy, video games, history and science. I’m also drawn to psychology, which is a subject that deserves greater documentation and recognition.
Save $2,000 on a Lenovo touchscreen laptop for a limited time at Amazon.
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This Lenovo laptop has a a screen that stretches across to 15.6 inches, displaying in a Full HD resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. The screen is anti-glare so you can get some work done in a brightly lit environment or even outside on occasion. The screen is a touchscreen so you can even choose to operate the laptop like you would a tablet if that’s what you prefer.
See at Amazon
Specs-wise this laptop from Lenovo is rocking a massive 40GB of RAM and an Intel Core 13th-generation i7 processor, reaching a speed of 4.9Hz. It will be able to handle bouncing back and forth between tons of open tabs in Google Chrome while also running some resource demanding applications simultaneously. As far as storage, it has a 1TB SDD which should be plenty for any student concerns.
Superior Connectivity
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The children of Dr Marwan al-Sultan, director of Gaza’s Indonesian hospital and one of the territory’s most senior doctors, said they believed their father was deliberately targeted in the Israeli airstrike that killed him on Wednesday.
Sultan died when an Israeli missile was fired into the apartment block in Gaza City where he and his extended family were staying after their displacement from northern Gaza. His wife, daughter, sister and son-in-law were also killed in the attack.
His surviving daughter Lobna said the airstrike specifically targeted the room her father was in. “All the rooms were fine except for his, the missile hit it precisely,” she said.
His son Ahmed said there was “no other explanation” other than that his father was deliberately targeted by the Israeli military. He also added that the floors where his father and their extended family were staying were the only parts of the block hit in the airstrike.
The apartment building in Gaza City where Dr Marwan al-Sultan and several family members were reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike
Photos and videos taken by local journalists and given to the Guardian, showed that the apartment block had been hit on the front side of the fourth and fifth floors, while the rest remained intact.
“Until the last minute of his life, he did not leave his job. He paid for this dedication with his life,” said Ahmed. “I was there only 10 minutes before the airstrike and the scene I faced when I went back to the apartment after the attack is indescribable. I didn’t know who had survived and who had died. Some people were only now shattered body parts. Most of those who died were women and children.”
He said his father’s death was not just a loss for the family but for the whole of Gaza. Sultan was an experienced cardiologist and a leading figure in Gaza’s medical community. He was also one of only two remaining heart specialists in the territory, according to Healthcare Worker Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical organisation.
“My father was loved by all people,” said Ahmed. “He had been besieged at the Indonesian hospital and also at the Kamal Adwan hospital but he did not leave. For the first few months [of the war] we did not see him except a few hours of the day because he was always at the hospital.”
His death means that all of the directors of the hospitals in northern Gaza have either been killed or detained by the Israeli military forces.
Video footage of a bombed out apartment in Gaza
The director of Kamal Adwan hospital, Dr Ahmed al-Kahlout, and his fellow acting director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, as well as Dr Ahmed Muhanna, the director of al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza, are all being held in an Israeli prison.
In a statement, the IDF said: “On Wednesday, the IDF struck a key terrorist from the Hamas terrorist organisation in the area of Gaza City. The claim that as a result of the strike uninvolved civilians were harmed is being reviewed.
“The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to mitigate harm to them as much as possible. The Hamas terrorist organisation systematically violates international law while using civilian infrastructure for terrorist activity and the civilian population as human shields. The incident is under review.”
According to data from HWW, Sultan was the 70th healthcare worker to have been killed by the Israeli military in the past 50 days. The UN says that overall more than 1,400 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war in October 2023.
Under the Geneva conventions, the set of international laws that police the conduct of warring parties, attacks on healthcare workers during conflict could be war crimes. The conventions state that doctors and other healthcare professionals should be protected, not targeted or attacked during conflict, and must be allowed to carry on providing medical care to those who need it.
United Distributors Pakistan Limited (PSX: UDPL) and International Brands (Private) Limited (IBL) have announced that they are reviewing the recent order by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) and exploring legal remedies after being fined Rs42 million for entering into a non-compete agreement deemed anti-competitive.
In a notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Friday, UDPL acknowledged that CCP proceedings had been initiated in connection with the agreement between the two companies, which included a Rs1.13 billion consideration paid by IBL to UDPL to abstain from distributing human pharmaceutical products for a period of three years.
The CCP concluded that the arrangement violated Sections 4(1) and 4(2)(b) of the Competition Act, 2010, calling it a market-sharing agreement that hindered competition in the pharmaceutical sector. A Rs20 million penalty was imposed on each company, with an additional Rs1 million fine on UDPL for disclosing the agreement to PSX without prior CCP clearance under Section 38 of the Act.
In its statement, UDPL emphasised that the company had made several disclosures about the agreement under applicable law, the most recent being on May 15, 2024. The company noted that the implementation of the restrictive arrangement was contingent on obtaining an exemption from the CCP, which was delayed due to internal factors.
“Regrettably, due to certain internal delays in obtaining the necessary information, the company and IBL were unable to file the exemption application in a timely manner,” UDPL stated. The exemption application was later submitted and remains under CCP review.
The company asserted that its disclosures were transparent and that the parties had acted in good faith. “UDPL has always been transparent in its disclosures, demonstrating its intention to comply with all applicable laws,” the notice read.
Following the CCP’s July 2 order, received a day later, UDPL stated that both companies are now “reviewing the order and seeking advice regarding appropriate remedies.” UDPL and IBL believe there are “cogent grounds” to support their case and challenge the penalties.
The matter has drawn significant attention in regulatory and business circles, particularly given the scale of the consideration involved and the implications for competition in the pharmaceutical sector.
