At least 12 people have been killed in one of southern Spain’s worst-ever wildfires, local officials said Friday, as tragic stories emerge of victims’ attempts to flee the inferno. More than 460 emergency workers have been deployed to battle the fire near the town of Los Gallardos on Costa de Almería, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Friday. At least 1,405 residents had been evacuated from their homes, said Antonio Sanz, the minister for health and emergencies in the region, which is popular among tourists. “The most devastating fire to date in our region,” he said.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/10/europe/wildfires-southern-spain-deaths-intl
China has successfully recovered the first stage of a carrier rocket during an orbital launch test, state media reported Friday – a breakthrough for the country as it vies to catch up with American rivals in reusable rocket technology. The Long March 10B rocket was launched from Hainan island in southern China on Friday. About six minutes after separation of its first and upper stage, the first-stage booster returned to a floating platform, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The booster can be seen smoking at the top as it lowers vertically onto the platform, video posted by a CCTV-affiliated social media account shows.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/10/china/china-reusable-rockets-test-breakthrough-intl-hnk
The shocking rape and murder of a girl in eastern India has sparked widespread unrest that led to the mob-killing of an innocent man and police killing their main suspect in custody. The grim chain of events lays bare the nation’s problems not only with sexual violence, but also with attempts to bring perpetrators to justice. On Sunday, the child’s body was pulled from a pond in the city of Baruipur in West Bengal state, according to local media reports. She was believed to be either 11 or 12, according to news reports.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/10/india/india-west-bengal-girl-rape-murder-intl-hnk
As the US-Iran war risked reigniting in recent weeks, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth boarded a Navy ship for what was supposed to be a routine visit with sailors. The trip was marred by facial hair: Hegseth noticed multiple sailors sporting beards, apparently violating a stricter policy restricting beards in most instances that he issued last year, according to a defense official and emails seen by CNN referencing the defense secretary’s requests for action to be taken. Hegseth left the ship wondering if the Pentagon rank-and-file paid attention to his beard policy and other policy changes he has made to the workforce.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/10/politics/hegseth-beard-policy-sailors-action
For more than two decades, a pair of imposing granite lions flanked the entrance to a rust-red building deep inside the Arctic Circle. Not anymore. Last month they disappeared, and their absence tells a story about the increasingly tense geopolitics at the top of the world. The vanished lions once guarded a research station operated by China in the Ny-Ålesund settlement on Svalbard, an archipelago nestled between mainland Norway and the North Pole. In May, they were removed by the Norwegian state-owned company that operates the settlement; in June it took down a sign on the building that had read “Yellow River Station.” Norway’s move is being seen by some experts as part of attempts to reinforce its sovereignty over this slice of the Arctic in the face of seismic geopolitical and climate change shifts.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/10/climate/svalbard-greenland-geopolitics-russia-china-melting-ice