Europe

Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian extreme athlete who became the first person to break the sound barrier in a freefall jump in 2012, died in a paragliding crash on Italy's eastern coast; he was 56 and reportedly died because of a heart attack while flying

Gintautas Markevičius, a Lithuanian man paralysed down one side, set yet another record by covering over 3.000 km around the Baltic States on his electric trike; after more than a month on the road, he was welcomed back in Klaipėda

The majority of those visiting Kosovo are day-trip tourists or spend an average of two nights, and only diaspora visitors stay longer: latest official data show that the country could better exploit its tourist potential as most wish they spent more time

Octopus fishing vessels must remain in port during fishing seasons, starting from the northern border on July 17 down to 14 October; vessels licensed for shelter traps, cage traps, spearfishing that intend to suspend activities must notify the DGRM

The Black Sea 200 Regatta 2025, Romania’s first non-stop offshore regatta with a 200 nautical mile route, will start tomorrow with expected end before 27 July; at its first edition, the event brings together more than 10 boats from Romania and Bulgaria

Over 70 wildfires have been extinguished in a single week, as heatwaves intensify across the Balkans; the 2025 wildfire season is testing both the region’s emergency responses and long-term planning, coordination and political will

The 30th anniversary of the 1995 genocide of Bosniaks by Bosnian Serb forces was celebrated with the mass funeral of seven more victims in a ceremony at the Srebrenica Memorial Centre

Shops in Belgium will soon be allowed to remain open until 21:00, and seven days a week; the measure is expected to be validated to relax businesses' opening hours and meet modern needs

A passenger boat service in the Neris River will be launched by the end of July in Vilnius and the first electric vessel of the fleet has been unveiled; for Mayor Valdas Benkunskas the new type of transport could fulfill the city's recreational potential

The concert "Te–aust" closed this year's School Youth Song and Dance Festival: it presents works of contemporary composers who have chosen lines written by prominent poets and sequences of Latvian folk songs for their compositions

40% of board seats in large publicly listed companies in Finland are held by women, data from the Chamber of Commerce show, a record figure that reflects ongoing shifts in governance ahead of new diversity recommendations set to take effect in 2026

Vardarac, a village with 504 people in 211 households, will have a new €7,5 million stadium, partially financed by Hungary, investing in sports and cultural infrastructure in neighbouring countries where Hungarian minorities live