New Delhi, July 29 -- BORDEAUX - The family had packed what they could in twenty minutes, gathering identity papers, medication, and the photograph above the kitchen door, before smoke turned the afternoon sky orange and a police van arrived to move them north. Across the Gironde department, prefectural authorities had ordered mandatory evacuations overnight as another front of fire pushed toward villages that had already watched their neighbors leave twice this summer.

France and Spain are bracing for a fourth consecutive heatwave in 2026, with forecasters warning that temperatures could again exceed 42 degrees Celsius in parts of Iberia and southern France within days. The heat arrives as firefighters are still battling active blazes t...