France and Spain race to control wildfires as more than 250,000 evacuated – as it happened

France is accelerating its military response to the wildfires burning through the Gironde region. The Guardian reports that Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has asked the armed forces to deploy an Airbus A400M military transport aircraft ahead of schedule, moving up a timeline that had not been expected until the end of the month because of the technical checks the plane required. The fires come amid a third heatwave in as many months, and The Guardian notes the strain is visible in France's waterways too: the Loire, the country's longest river, has fallen to a historic low, reduced to a trickle between sandbanks in places. Two weeks ago, sixteen percent of French rivers were reported to have dried up entirely, with little rain since.

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