Blaze on Thursday night at warehouse in Elin Pelin near Sofia set off series of dramatic fireballs

One person was killed and another seriously injured when a blaze at a firework factory in Bulgaria set off a series of dramatic explosions on Thursday, local officials and medical staff said.

The blasts began at about 6.30pm in the town of Elin Pelin near the capital, Sofia, sending mushroom clouds into the evening sky, some flecked with the reds and whites of exploding fireworks.

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As it rapidly adopts clean technologies while drilling furiously for oil and gas, the Nordic nation is a paradox

The average Norwegian, better known for loving nature than destroying the planet, is more likely than anyone else to drive to work in an electric car and warm their home with a heat pump. When they turn on the kettle in the morning or charge their phone at night, Norwegians plug into an electricity grid that runs almost entirely on renewables. Their politicians write cheques to save trees in tropical forests and politely pressure other countries to protect the environment, too.

But on one metric, Norway’s leafy green image darkens to an oily black. Citizens of the rich Nordic nation dig up more petroleum per person than Russians, Iranians, North Americans and Saudi Arabians.

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Coordinated arson attacks on TGV brings severe disruption to France’s busiest rail lines

• Paris 2024 Olympics – live updates

Vandals targeted France’s high-speed TGV network with a series of coordinated actions that brought major disruption to some of the country’s busiest rail lines ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

The state-owned railway operator said arsonists had targeted installations along the lines connecting Paris with the country’s west, north and east and that traffic would be severely disrupted during the weekend.

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Kunstmuseum Den Haag tour sparks senses of people with dementia and their carers

Eight people approached a fragrant carpet of lavender in the Kunstmuseum Den Haag gallery. Four of them had dementia and four were their relatives and carers. “Put your nose nearer the ground and smell it, it’s wonderful!” called Annie Versteeg, 88, to Bwieuwkje Bruinenberg-Haisma, 90, in her wheelchair nearby.

“This tour is about colour and here we have a colour and it goes with a smell,” said Yke Prins, the museum guide. “Do you know what it is? It is lavender. What does it make you think about?”

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Ukraine’s foreign minister calls on Hong Kong to prevent Russia from using region to circumvent sanctions; drone debris lands in Romania. What we know on day 884

The Pentagon has found $2bn worth of additional errors in its calculations for ammunition, missiles and other equipment sent to Ukraine , increasing the improperly valued material to a total of $8.2bn, a US government report revealed on Thursday. In 2023, the Pentagon said staff used “replacement value” instead of “depreciated value” to tabulate the billions in materials sent to Ukraine. The $6.2bn error created a path for billions more to be sent to Kyiv.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on Hong Kong to prevent Russia and Russian businesses from using the region to circumvent sanctions . Kuleba met with Hong Kong leader John Lee as part of a visit to China. He called on the administration to prevent Russia from using Hong Kong to circumvent restrictions resulting from Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to a statement from the Ukrainian foreign affairs ministry. “These restrictive measures are necessary to weaken Russia’s potential to wage war and kill people in Ukraine,” the statement said.

A court in Moscow on Thursday ordered the head of a defense ministry’s construction division to be detained for two months on suspicion of abuse of power, Russian news agencies reported, the latest in a series of arrests of high-ranking ministry officials this year. Andrei Belkov heads the Military Construction Company, which builds bases, hospitals, schools and other facilities for the military, according to its website.

Russian and Chinese bombers flew together for the first time in international airspace off the coast of Alaska , in a new show of expanding military cooperation that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday raises concerns. The flights Wednesday were not seen as a threat but it was the first time that Chinese bomber aircraft have flown within the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone. And it was the first time Chinese and Russian aircraft have taken off from the same base in northeast Russia.

The Turkish navy intercepted a marine drone in the Black Sea off Istanbul , authorities said, with media reporting that it contained explosives and might be Ukrainian. Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a number of mines suspected of having floated down from the conflict zone have been spotted off the Turkish coast. The public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.

Debris from what is believed to be a Russian drone landed in a rural area of Romania , the country’s Defense Ministry said Thursday, in the latest apparent incident of drone wreckage from the war in neighbouring Ukraine falling on to the Nato member’s soil.

The Netherlands and Denmark are to deliver 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine “before the end of summer”, the Dutch defence minister announced Wednesday, saying Kyiv “urgently” needed more military support. The two countries bought the German-made tanks last year for 165mn euros ($186m) before sending them for refurbishment.

With Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters

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Sounkamba Sylla reportedly reaches compromise after France’s strict laws on secularism threatened to bar her

A French sprinter is expected to swap her headscarf for a cap in order to participate in the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics, in a compromise reportedly struck after the country’s strict laws on secularism threatened to bar her from the event.

Earlier this week Sounkamba Sylla, a Muslim member of France’s 400m women’s and mixed relay teams, said she would not be able to take part in Friday’s ceremony because she wears a hijab.

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President seeks to reassure attendees including Elon Musk that France is still a good investment despite political crisis

Over vintage wine from the Élysée Palace cellars and a cordon bleu lunch, Emmanuel Macron has sought to reassure 40 of the world’s richest businessmen that his country remains a good investment despite its ongoing political crisis.

Guests at the French president’s event included Tesla’s Elon Musk, Coca-Cola’s James Quincey, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, Youtube’s Neal Mohan and Eli Lilly’s David Ricks.

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Artefacts sent by farmer, who made the ‘absolutely mad’ discovery while cutting silage

When the national museum of Ireland received two 4,000-year-old axe heads, “thoughtfully” wrapped in foam inside a porridge box, from an anonymous source last month, it put out an appeal. The objects were “significant” and “exciting”, it said, but experts needed to know more about where exactly they had been found.

Now they have their answer: a farmer from County Westmeath has come forward as the mysterious sender, saying he made the “absolutely mad” discovery while using a metal detector on his land.

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People living next to Santiago Bernabéu venue say gigs – including those by Taylor Swift – are ruining their lives and are taking action

When Delphine de Pontevès opens the window of her first-floor flat in Madrid a little before 10pm on a Tuesday night, more spills into the living room than the unforgivingly hot night air.

The voices and shouts of the crowds below give way to cheers, then to bass-heavy beats and music that will last until midnight and further stretch the patience of those who, like De Pontevès, live next door to the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.

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