Europe faces record drought and wildfires as Athens firefight kills two

• The eight left-rated digests and two full reports led on the UK’s record drought and the scale of the wildfires in Greece and France. Bay Today and Ckpg Today, the only left-rated outlets to publish full reports, both quoted Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios saying the Athens wildfire was "a difficult fire that has troubled us." Both reports included the arrest of two contractors on charges of negligent arson after the blaze was blamed on a faulty power line from a wind farm.
• The full reports also carried the European Union’s Copernicus climate service statement that Europe is the fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s. Bay Today’s report said rising temperatures and prolonged drought leave vegetation "drier and more combustible, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely."

• The two centre-rated full reports, published by Ckpg Today and meadowlakeNOW, led on the UK’s driest July and the wildfires in Greece and France. Both reports included the Met Office’s statement that all of Wales and more than half of England were officially in drought. They also carried the detail that 224,000 people were evacuated in France, the largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.
• Ckpg Today’s report included the same quote from Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios as the left-rated reports, and both centre-rated reports named the two contractors arrested on charges of negligent arson. Neither of the centre-rated reports mentioned the Copernicus climate service statement on Europe’s warming rate.

We hold no leaning breakdown for this story, so there is nothing to report about the right.