GREECE

Firefighters battle wildfires for 3rd day

Hundreds of firefighters battled for a third day to contain wildfires on the Greek island of Chios on Tuesday that have torn through swathes of forest and farmland and forced hundreds of villagers to evacuate, after it declared a state of emergency. More than 400 firefighters assisted by 14 helicopters and four aircraft have been deployed to several locations on the island, in the northeastern Aegean Sea. Chios is in the midst of the tourist season and authorities also want to prevent the fires from reaching areas famous for producing mastiha, a natural resin harvested from mastic trees.

EUROPE

Child vaccine coverage faltering, study warns

Efforts to vaccinate children against deadly diseases are faltering across the world due to economic inequality, COVID-era disruptions and misinformation, putting millions of lives at risk, research warned on Wednesday. These trends all increase the threat of future outbreaks of preventable diseases, the researchers said, while sweeping foreign aid cuts threaten previous progress in vaccinating the world's children. A new study published in The Lancet journal looked at childhood vaccination rates across 204 countries and territories.

UNITED STATES

Fed Chair Powell says rate cuts can wait

Higher tariffs could begin raising inflation this summer, a period that will be key to Federal Reserve's consideration of possible rate cuts, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told members of Congress on Tuesday. Pressed by Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee about why the Fed isn't cutting rates, as President Donald Trump has demanded, Powell said he and many at the Fed expect inflation to start rising soon, and that the central bank was in no rush to ease borrowing costs in the meantime. Powell particularly said he would not open the door to a rate cut at the Fed's July meeting or at any other session for that matter.

3 nations' astronauts set off on 1st mission

NASA retiree turned private astronaut Peggy Whitson was launched on the fifth flight to orbit of her career early on Wednesday, joined by crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary heading for their countries' first visit to the International Space Station. The astronaut team lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, beginning the latest mission organized by Texas-based startup Axiom Space in partnership with SpaceX. The four-member crew was carried aloft on a towering SpaceX launch vehicle consisting of a Crew Dragon capsule perched atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket.