Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has given insight into the possible scope of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The Republican governor - who survived a Trump-backed attempt to oust him from office last year - told USA Today on Sunday that Mr Smith’s office had contacted him. However it is unclear what stage Mr Smith’s investigation has reached or whether Mr Kemp’s office had provided, or agreed to provide, evidence or testimony. “Our office has been contacted by Jack Smith’s office,” the governor’s spokesman said. Mr Kemp’s office declined to comment further when contacted byThe Independent. News of Mr Smith’s communications with Mr Kemp comes a week after his office reportedly delivered a target letter to Mr Trump’s legal team, a sign that charges are being prepared. The Department of Justice (DoJ) has indicated that the twice-impeached, twice-indicted former president is central to its investigation into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and the broader effort by the Trump campaign to overturn the election. Mr Trump, who is running for re-election in 2024, announced the arrival of that letter on his Truth Social social media platform two days after he supposedly received it. “On Sunday night, while I was with my family...HORRIFYING NEWS for our country was given to me by my attorneys,” he wrote. “Deranged Jack Smith...sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.” The Independent reported, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the letter delivered to Mr Trump informed him that the DoJ is considering charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States; obstruction of an official proceeding and deprivation of civil rights under colour of law. It set a deadline of midnight on Thursday for Mr Trump to report to the grand jury and declare whether he would testify or offer his own evidence during the pre-trial stage of the investigation. Sources have also told The Independent that an indictment could come anytime, now that deadline has passed. Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were far from limited to Georgia. His campaign is known to have supported slates of false electors in other states where Mr Trump lost to Joe Biden including Arizona and Wisconsin. For weeks Mr Smith and the DoJ have been largely silent about the status of the Jan 6 investigation which has already led to the conviction of hundreds of rioters. If Mr Trump faces trial, it would almost certainly take place during the 2024 election cycle. A separate trial of the former president, involving the alleged illegal retention of classified materials and presidential records, is set to take place next spring. Read More Nervous Republicans turn to New Hampshire in hopes of stopping Trump The fight over Alabama's congressional redistricting now shifts back to federal court Capitol riot defendant gets probation after rare setback for prosecutors at Oath Keepers trial DeSantis defends Florida curriculum that suggests slaves benefited from forced labour Florida man pleads guilty over Jan 6 riot as state’s governor Ron DeSantis insists there was no insurrection Trump legal team tries again to block Georgia election interference grand jury probe

Spain could have its first far-right participation in government since the days of Franco after an election exit poll suggested a swing to the right. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez is trying to win a third consecutive national election but an exit poll predicted that a right-wing coalition may have enough votes to take power. The centre-right People’s Party was set to win 150 seats, while the anti-Muslim, anti-feminist Vox party had 31 seats, according to a GAD3 voter survey released after polls closed. Together this would give the parties enough for a majority in the 350-seat parliament. However a survey by Sigma Dos was less conclusive, predicting 145-150 seats for PP and 24-27 seats for Vox, which could mean the two parties would fall short at the lower range of its poll. The Socialists were set to win 112 seats, according to GAD3, and 113-118 seats according to Sigma Dos, while the far-left platform led by Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz had either 27 seats or 28-31 seats. GAD3 said its poll surveyed 10,000 people and closed on July 22. The Sigma Dos survey of 17,000 people closed on Sunday. If both the left-wing and right-wing bloc fail to meet the threshold for the number of seats required to govern, new elections may have to be called - as happened in 2019 and 2015. After casting his vote, Mr Sánchez said: “What happens today is going to be very important not just for us but also for Europe and I think that should also make us reflect.” The secretary general of the conservative People’s Party (PP), Cuca Gamarra, told Spanish TV after the vote that the PP was about to “recover the position of first political force in a general election”. The Interior Ministry said voter turnout at 6pm local time stood at 53 per cent, compared with 56 per cent at the same point in the the country’s last national election, in November 2019. The election was taking place at the height of summer, with millions of voters likely to be holidaying away from their regular polling places. However, postal voting requests soared before Sunday. With no party expected to garner an absolute majority, the choice is basically between another leftist coalition and a partnership of the right and the far right. Far-right party Vox proposes the expulsion of illegal migrants and a naval blockade to stop them arriving, and the closure of radical mosques, while supporting immigration meeting Spain‘s labour market needs and from nationalities sharing language or culture. It has also vowed to repeal progressive laws on transgender rights, abortion and animal rights, along with climate protections promoted by Sanchez. Mr Abascal has said Vox doesn’t have a position on Spain‘s former dictator Franco, who ruled until his death in 1975 after winning a bloody civil war in 1939. But Mr Abascal has also said that Mr Sanchez’s government was the worst in 80 years, a period that includes Franco’s regime. Agencies contributed to this report. Read More Greece fires - live: Jet2 and Tui scrap Rhodes flights as tourists fleeing island describe ‘hell on earth’ Spain votes in general election that could see it become latest EU country to veer to the right A beach tragedy highlights the EU’s migration crisis – and how Spain’s election could make things worse Spaniards vote in an election that could oust a leftist coalition and herald a return to the right Spanish general election tipped to put the far right back in office for the first time since Franco Spain conservatives entrust Feijóo, the boring guy who wins every election by a landslide

FUKUOKA, Japan (Reuters) -French youngster Leon Marchand produced a dazzling performance to shatter American great Michael Phelps' long-standing 400 metres

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis defended a hard-right school curriculum that went into effect in his state this week while on the campaign trail for the Republican presidential nomination. At an event in Utah, Governor DeSantis defended how slavery will now be taught in Florida middle schools. Children will now be taught that enslaved persons picked up skills that they later “parlayed” into profitable crafts after slavery was abolished. “They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life,” Mr DeSantis told reporters on Friday. However at the same press conference, the GOP candidate also appeared to back away from the specific assertions of the teachings, saying of the curriculum: “I didn’t do it. I wasn’t involved in it.” He went on to say that the curriculum was “rooted in whatever is factual”. “It was not anything that was done politically,” he added. The Florida governor’s hard-right record will likely be a key talking point on the 2024 campaign trail - potentially presenting both a boon for Mr DeSantis in the GOP primary but also a challenge as he seeks to woo moderates in a general election. Florida Department of Education’s social studies standards for the 2023-2024 school year provide lesson topics for teachers including a “benchmark clarification” which instructs educators to teach students that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit”. It isn’t clear what “their personal benefit” would be in this scenario. The line is included as part of a broader lesson entitled: “Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agriculturalwork, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).” The majority of polling puts Mr DeSantis second in the crowded GOP primary field, though he trails former president Donald Trump by a wide margin and faces a number of rivals closing in on his position including Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. Read More Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teen lynched in Mississippi Southern California school board OKs curriculum after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened a $1.5M fine Florida man pleads guilty over Jan 6 riot as state’s governor Ron DeSantis insists there was no insurrection Trump outstrips nearest Republican rival DeSantis by 30 points in latest poll - live Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teen lynched in Mississippi Southern California school board OKs curriculum after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened a $1.5M fine

A mother who says she experienced “hell on earth” was among the British tourists forced to flee Rhodes this weekend as fierce wildfires continue to rip through the Greek holiday island. Officials on the island, which sits southwest of Turkey in the Aegean Sea, launched Greece’s biggest-ever evacuation operation as the blaze tore through vast swathes of land, threatening resorts popular with holidaymakers. Tourists were forced to shelter in schools, sports stadiums, airports and alternative hotels as firefighters desperately fought to contain the flames, which officials fear may worsen on Monday as wind speeds more than double on the island. As Britons rushed to book seats on packed flights home after the evacuations, holiday firms including Jet2, the UK’s biggest tour operator, announced they would be cancelling services to Rhodes and would be sending empty planes to bring stranded tourists home. Around 19,000 people in total are reported to have been evacuated from Rhodes, the largest of Greece’s Dodecanese islands, which has a local population of about 115,000. Becky Mulligan, a 29-year-old training manager from Leicester, was staying at the Princess Sun Hotel in the Kiotari resort on Rhodes’s southeast coast when she, her five-year-old daughter, and sister, 20, were forced to quickly pack their bags and flee as the sky turned “orange”. “Smoke started coming up against the window of the hotel so we decided to run,” she told The Independent. “There were helicopters hovering above making the whole building shake. “We ended up legging it down a dirt track as the smoke came up around our legs. I thought I was going to die. It was like hell on earth.” Ms Mulligan and her family were forced to seek refuge on the beach as they waited for coaches to come and pick them up, which she described as the “most scary point”. She said hundreds of people were waiting to be evacuated with grown adults “basically trampling on children to get to the buses”. The trio was then taken to Gennadi Grande resort and from there bussed to another location, where they were forced to spend the Saturday night on the floor of a hotel room. On Sunday morning they managed to escape safely, sharing a taxi with another family to the airport where their flight back to the UK was due to depart after 11pm. Dan Jones, a sports teacher from Torquay, Devon, said he had to climb onto a fishing trawler with his sons on Saturday night, describing it as “the scariest moment in my entire life”, adding: “What brave boys.” Ian Wakefield told Times Radio he spent the night in a school playground in Faliraki after being evacuated from his hotel in Pefki. He said: “It didn’t really feel real – being in imminent danger of being burned to death. Between midnight and around 5am this morning we were going through an evacuation which was pretty chaotic. “There were a lot of upset people and children who were understandably quite hysterical. It was all very confusing – the instructions from the hotel manager were unclear. “You had to make your own choice in the end. I’ve had to leave quite a lot of luggage in the hotel.” As fire crews struggled to contain the blazes and thick black smoke continued billowing into the sky, British holiday firms began cancelling flights to Rhodes, although some planes touched down on the island on Saturday night and early on Sunday morning despite the emergency. Jet2 Holidays cancelled all flights to the island until 30 July and said it would send empty planes to bring stranded Britons home, while Tui said it would cancel all flights and holidays until Tuesday. Thomas Cook later announced it had cancelled all holidays to Kiotari and Lardos – the areas of the island most at risk – until 31 July and would be in touch with customers to arrange “swift refunds”. It has also offered full refunds to customers due to depart for other parts of the island on Sunday and Monday who wish to cancel their trip. But some holidaymakers suggested that operators should have cancelled flights to the island sooner. Lowri Jones from Crymych, Pembrokeshire, Wales, described scenes of “chaos” at Rhodes Airport when she arrived there on Saturday night. The mother of three, 52, travelled to the Greek island with her thirteen year-old-daughter for a holiday. “It was absolute pandemonium at the airport, with long queues of people trying to find out what coach they were,” she told The Independent. “We booked with Tui and there has been very little communication from them. “We had been due to stay at the Atlantica Dreams hotel in Gennadi but were driven - without warning - to a completely different resort in the north of the island due to the wildfires.” She added: “Me and my daughter ended up spending the night on the floor with other people in a room with no air conditioning in sweltering heat - it was horrible. “To be honest, I don’t think we should have even been there in the first place. The flight was delayed because the pilot had to do a risk assessment to see if it was safe to land because of the fires. “Tui should have told us it wasn’t safe and given us a refund - at least that way I could have made a decision about booking somewhere else. Now I’m stranded in Rhodes and having to look at booking flights home.” A spokesperson for Tui said it is continuing to monitor the wildfires and appreciated the “distressing and difficult” situation for its customers. Anyone who remains in Rhodes is urged “follow the advice of the local authorities who are managing tourist movements in impacted areas,” they said. Britain’s ambassador to Greece said the Foreign Office had sent a "rapid deployment team" to help UK tourists who were among thousands forced to flee for their lives on Saturday as the wildfire spread. Read More Holidays and flights to Greek island ravaged by fire cancelled UK airlines still selling tickets to Rhodes despite wildfire inferno Greece: Smoke turns Rhodes sky grey and hazy as wildfires continue to rage CLIMATE GLIMPSE: Here's what you need to see and know today Jet2 and Tui scrap Rhodes flights as tourists fleeing island describe ‘hell on earth’ Decision not to refund Rhodes tourists would be ‘unconscionable’, charity says

Jet2 and Tui have cancelled all flights to Rhodes as wildfires continue to tear through the Greek holiday destination for a sixth consecutive day. The Jet2 planes were scheduled to depart from the East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle and Stansted airports full of tourists bound for the Greek island. But the planes left emply and will instead be used to evacuate holidaymakers fleeing the blaze. Fire crews are now in a race against time to stop the fires from spreading further with 21mph (34kph) winds forecast for tomorrow. Thousands of tourists were forced to flee their hotels and images captured their dramatic evacuation off of beaches by a fleet of private boats while the fires raged in the background. Becky Mulligan, a 29-year-old training manager from Leicester, was staying at the Princess Sun Hotel in the Kiotari resort on Rhodes’s southeast coast when she, her daughter, 5 and sister, 20 say they were forced to flee. “I thought I was going to die. It was like hell on earth,” she told The Independent. Read More Wildfires on Greek island of Rhodes force thousands of holidaymakers to evacuate From body bags of ice to pavement burn: US grapples with new extreme heat reality Hiker, 71, dies in Death Valley shortly after being asked by reporter why he was braving heat: ‘Why not?’ July 2023 is set to be world’s hottest month in ‘hundreds, if not thousands, of years’

Jet2 has cancelled flights to Rhodes as wildfires tear through the Greek holiday destination for a sixth consecutive day. The Jet2 planes were scheduled to depart from the East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle and Stansted airports with passengers on board to begin their holidays. But instead those travellers will be offered refunds, while the planes bring back holidaymakers who were due to return. Fire crews are in a race against time to stop the fires spreading further with 21mph (34kph) winds forecast for tomorrow. Thousands of tourists have been forced to flee their hotels and be evacuated off the beach by a fleet of private boats. The fires have been burning for a sixth consecutive day as Rhodes, like many parts of southern Europe, swelters under a prolonged heatwave. British tourists have described being caught up in the “terrifying” ordeal, with the Foreign Office directing UK nationals towards a crisis management unit set up by the Greek authorities. Read More Wildfires on Greek island of Rhodes force thousands of holidaymakers to evacuate From body bags of ice to pavement burn: US grapples with new extreme heat reality Hiker, 71, dies in Death Valley shortly after being asked by reporter why he was braving heat: ‘Why not?’ July 2023 is set to be world’s hottest month in ‘hundreds, if not thousands, of years’

Wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes have forced thousands of tourists to flee their hotels and be evacuated off the beach by a fleet of private boats. The fires had been burning for days as Rhodes, like many parts of southern Europe, sweltered under a prolonged heatwave. But while previously they threatened only the mostly uninhabited central parts of the island, on Saturday strong winds pushed the fires towards the coast, forcing at least three resorts and hotels to be evacuated. The beach rescue involved around 30 private vessels as well as the coastguard and saw more than 2,000 tourists evacuated, an official said. The operation was expected to continue on Sunday. British tourists have described being caught up in the “terrifying” ordeal, with the Foreign Office directing UK nationals towards a crisis management unit set up by the Greek authorities. It comes as the heatwave conditions, caused by a high pressure system over southern Europe, eased in France and Spain but were forecast to continue in Italy and the Balkans. Read More Wildfires on Greek island of Rhodes force thousands of holidaymakers to evacuate From body bags of ice to pavement burn: US grapples with new extreme heat reality Hiker, 71, dies in Death Valley shortly after being asked by reporter why he was braving heat: ‘Why not?’ July 2023 is set to be world’s hottest month in ‘hundreds, if not thousands, of years’

Wisconsin's Supreme Court will flip from majority conservative to liberal control in August and Democrats have high hopes the change will lead to the state's abortion ban being overturned and its maps redrawn to weaken GOP control of the Legislature and congressional districts. Democrats in the perennial battleground state focused on abortion to elect a liberal majority to the court for the first time in 15 years. The Democratic Party spent $8 million to tilt the court’s 4-3 conservative majority by one seat with the election of Janet Protasiewicz, who spoke in favor of abortion rights and against the Republican-drawn map in a campaign. Her April victory broke national spending records for a state Supreme Court race. Still, there are no guarantees. Republicans were angered when a conservative candidate they backed in 2019 turned out to sometimes side with liberal justices. While the court is widely expected to weigh in on abortion and redistricting, liberals also are talking about bringing new challenges to school choice, voter ID, the 12-year-old law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers and other laws backed by Republicans. “When you don’t know the extent of the battle you may have to fight, it’s concerning,” said attorney Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. "It’s very concerning.” Some issues could take years to reach the court, said liberal attorney Pester Pines, who like Esenberg has argued numerous times before the state Supreme Court. Unlike under the conservative majority, Pines said the new liberal court will be unlikely to rule on cases before lower courts have heard them. “They're not going to do it," Pines said. There is already a pending case challenging Wisconsin's pre-Civil War era abortion ban, and a circuit court judge ruled earlier this month that it can proceed, while also calling into question whether the law actually bans abortions. The case is expected to reach the Supreme Court within months. Protasiewicz all but promised to overturn the ban by repeatedly speaking out for abortion rights, winning support from Planned Parenthood and others. “When you’re a politician and you’re perceived by the voters as making a promise, and you don’t keep it, they get angry,” Esenberg said. There is no current redistricting lawsuit, but Democrats or their allies are expected to file a new challenge this summer seeking new districts before the 2024 election. The state Supreme Court upheld Republican-drawn maps in 2022. Those maps, widely regarded as among the most gerrymandered in the country, have helped Republicans increase their hold on the Legislature to near supermajority levels, even as Democrats have won statewide elections, including Tony Evers as governor in 2018 and 2022 and Joe Biden in 2020. Protasizewicz declared those maps to be “rigged” and said during the campaign they should be given another look. Democrats also hope for new congressional maps improving their chances in the state’s two most competitive House districts, held by Republicans. “What we want to see is maps that are fair and that represent the will of the people and the actual make up of their state," Democratic strategist Melissa Baldauff said. Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point. The outgoing conservative court came within one vote of overturning Biden's win in 2020. The new court will be in control to hear any challenges leading up to the election and in the months after. That includes voting rules. Courts have repeatedly upheld Wisconsin's voter ID requirement, in place since 2011, but some Democrats see a chance to challenge it again, particularly over what IDs can legally be shown. There is also a looming fight over the state's top elections administrator. “It seems to me that the most consequential topics that could come before the new court would have to do with elections," said Alan Ball, a Marquette University Law School history professor who runs a statistical analysis blog of the court and tendencies of justices. Considering comments Protasiewicz made during the campaign, “it’s really hard for me to imagine she would not side with the liberals on those issues,” Ball said. A national Democratic law firm filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to undo a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling last year banning absentee ballot drop boxes. The case could make its way to the state high court before the 2024 presidential election. Other sticky issues that have garnered bipartisan criticism, including powers of the governor, also could come before the new court. Evers surprised many with a veto this year putting in place a school spending increase for 400 years. Republicans said a challenge was likely. In 2021, the court struck down three of Evers' previous partial vetoes but failed to give clear guidance on what is allowed. A Wisconsin governor's veto power is expansive and used by Republicans and Democrats, but the new court could weigh in on whether it should be scaled back. Esenberg, who brought the previous case challenging Evers' veto powers, said he expected another legal challenge in light of the 400-year veto. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Wisconsin woman's killing, dismemberment trial to begin Monday after jury chosen, judge's ruling Biden is building his reelection bid around an organization Obama shunned What are the 10 largest US lottery jackpots ever won?

President Joe Biden will fulfill a years-long effort by conservationists to establish a national monument to preserve landmarks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be fitted with a pacemaker, Sky News reported, citing a video statement

Thousands of holidaymakers have been forced to evacuate their hotels on the Greek island of Rhodes, as wildfires raged for a fifth day. Coastguard vessels and more than 30 private boats evacuated at least 2,000 people from beaches close to the areas of Kiotari and Lardos in the southeastern part of the island, coastguard spokesman Nikos Alexiou said. Long queues of tourists were videoed walking with their luggage along a road as part of an evacuation operation, while smoke could be seen in the background. Those evacuated are being housed at an indoor stadium and at hotels on the island, said Konstantinos Taraslias, a deputy mayor of Rhodes. Three passenger ferries were also committed to host tourists during the night, the coastguard said. The wildfire had been confined to the island’s mountainous centre, but aided by winds, high temperatures and dry conditions, it began to spread more widely on Saturday. Local media reported the fires had reached three hotels, which had already been evacuated. Tourists told how they had been forced to walk for hours in the searing heat to try and escape the smoke. Fire Service spokesperson Yannis Artopios said on Saturday afternoon that residents of four localities were sent SMS messages to evacuate – in two places they were told to move to the northeast and in two others to the southwest. Tourists posted videos of their evacuations on social media, as they described the scenes and the experiences of their families. “Currently stranded in Rhodes escaping the wildfires on foot – left everything at the hotel and fled with towels across our faces”, said Paul Kalburgi on Twitter. “My youngest just told me he doesn’t want to die. Terrifying situation here.” Another Twitter user, John Hughes, said he “had to walk four miles in the heat across dirt tracks in smoke and ash with a five year old. No possessions”. Nikita Bassi tweeted: “Arrived in Rhodes this morning to be told that wild fires have spread throughout and our hotel has been evacuated. No hotels anywhere for us to go and now looking for a flight home as news says the fires are getting worse around Greece. “600/700 people from the evacuated hotels are coming to this one hotel and are having to sleep in the lobby and outside on the sun beds. This is honestly crazy. I can’t believe this is happening”. Becky Mulligan, a British tourist on Rhodes, told the BBC that she was evacuated from her hotel with her sister and daughter, but was now stuck on a beach alongside hundreds of others. “There’s just a small shack here and there’s so many of us,” seh said. “There’s children, it’s the middle of the day, we are just stuck here with no help, it’s disgusting.” Another tourist, Simon Wheatley told the broadcaster that his hotel had initially said the situations was “normal and there was no need to worry”. His hotel was subsequently evacuated. “We saw that a beach bar that we were at just the day before had burnt down. The smoke was so bad. We had to leave two bags of luggage”, he said. Another holidaymaker, James Hall, told Sky News: “It was quite a bit of madness this morning. We noticed smoke and ash coming down and we got the government text, pretty much telling us to evacuate. “And we walked south, as far as we could… We dragged our suitcases for two hours in the 40-degree heat.” He said that he was worried he would miss his plane home, adding: “Honestly it was bizarre, if you are in a wheelchair or on crutches, the chances of you getting out in a timely manner was almost nil. “We got instruction to go to the beach but we decided to keep walking. The sheer volume of smoke I don’t imagine it’s particularly safe right now.” Jet2, a budget airline that flies multiple daily flights from the UK to Rhodes during the summer, told The Independent that it was working to support tourists on the ground. “We are aware of the fast-moving situation in Rhodes, and our in-resort teams are working to comply with the guidance of local authorities”, a spokesperson said. “The health, safety and well-being of our customers will always be our number one priority and we ask any customers in affected areas to follow the advice of the local authorities, or their hoteliers who will be acting under the advice of the authorities.” A spokesperson for travel company Tui, which organises package holidays to Rhodes, told The Independent that they are “aware of wildfires in the south of Rhodes and are monitoring the situation closely. “A number of hotels have been impacted and our resort teams are working with the local authorities and following their advice to relocate impacted customers”, added the spokesperson “Our main priority is always the safety of our customers and we will proactively be in touch with anyone due to travel who’s holiday is affected”. Fire Service spokesperson Yannis Artopios added that more than 200 firefighters and 40 fire engines were operating on the ground, assisted by three planes and five helicopters. The force includes 31 firefighters from Slovakia, with five fire engines. “The situation in Rhodes is serious and extremely difficult. Due to the strong wind and quickly changing direction of the fire, firefighters had to withdraw and move,” Slovak Fire and Rescue Services said on Facebook. The main front of the fire is a triangle, with two of its points near the sea and one in the mountains. On maps, each side of the triangle appears more than six miles long. Three coast guard vessels, plus one from the army, were evacuating people from two beaches. Twenty private boats were also assisting, and the Greek navy was sending a vessel. The blaze in Rhodes is the most fearsome of several blazes ongoing around Greece. The fire northwest of Athens and one near Sparta were subsiding, said Mr Artopios, although weather conditions, including temperatures set to reach 45C on Sunday and low humidity, mean there is a risk more wildfires might break out. The Fire Service has designated almost the whole eastern part of the mainland, plus the islands of Evia and Rhodes, as well as large swathes of the southwest, as category five, the highest for the risk of fire outbreaks on Sunday. There will be a brief respite in the heatwave on Monday, but it will resume on Tuesday and could last until at least Friday, meteorologists have said. Firefighting forces from eight EU countries are either operating or due to arrive soon, Mr Artopios said. Israel, Jordan and Turkey have also sent reinforcements, mostly aerial equipment. Read More Best UK hotels 2022 Best luxury hotels in Scotland for 2022 Family-friendly hotels in the UK for style, location and value Helicopters battle wildfires fuelled by strong winds in Turkey Watch as wildfires continue to rage in Greece during Europe’s heatwave European heatwave - latest updates as record temperatures continue