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Heatwaves affect Europe, leading to more than 5,600 deaths.
- Since late May 2026, Europe has been struck by severe heatwaves. Temperature records have been broken in Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The first heatwave started on 24 May, with temperatures higher than normal, causing several deaths. Temperatures were the highest ever recorded for May, with climate change causing the earlier onset of Central European summer. Western Europe was the most affected area, with reports of record-breaking temperatures in France, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Other countries with unusually high temperatures were Portugal, at 40 °C (104 °F), and Spain, which was forecast to reach 38 °C (100 °F).
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Keiko Fujimori is elected President of Peru.
- General elections were held in Peru from 12 to 13 April 2026 to elect the president, vice presidents, and the Congress of the Republic of Peru. As no presidential candidate achieved a majority of votes in the first round, a runoff election was held on 7 June. In the second round, the leader of the Popular Force, Keiko Fujimori, defeated Together for Peru nominee Roberto Sánchez. The congressional elections determined the composition of the Congress of Peru, which returned to being a bicameral legislature with a Senate (the first since the 1990 election) and a Chamber of Deputies.
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The Catholic Church declares the Society of Saint Pius X to be in schism and excommunicates its members following a consecration dispute.
- On 1 July 2026, members of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) in Écône, Switzerland, consecrated four bishops against the orders of Pope Leo XIV, causing Pope Leo XIV to declare a schism between the SSPX and the Catholic Church. The SSPX denies being in schism. The consecrations were performed by SSPX Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, and assisted by Bishop Bernard Fellay. The four men consecrated were Michael Goldade, Marc Hanappier, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, and Pascal Schreiber.
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Ebola epidemic (ongoing)
- On 14 May 2026, an epidemic of Ebola was reported in the Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It is the 17th Ebola outbreak in the DRC and began only five months after the end of the previous outbreak. Early infections have been theorized to have occurred in January or February 2026 in the town of Mongbwalu, with imported cases from Ituri reported in North Kivu Province, and in Uganda's capital city of Kampala. An imported case from the DRC was also reported in France.
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FIFA World Cup (ongoing)
- The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the 23rd and current FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament began on June 11, 2026, and will conclude on July 19. It is jointly hosted by 16 cities – 11 in the United States, 3 in Mexico, and 2 in Canada. The tournament is the first FIFA World Cup to be hosted by three nations and the first to include 48 teams, an expansion from the previous 32-team format.
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Flamingo Revolution (ongoing)
- On 23 May 2026, anti-government protests began in the Albanian village of Zvërnec, near the Narta Lagoon. The protests, which popularly came to be dubbed as the Flamingo Revolution (Albanian: Revolucioni i Flamingove), were triggered by the government's handling of preparatory works and proposed luxury tourism developments linked to the Sazan Island and Zvërnec resort project, backed by American investor Jared Kushner. Protesters and local residents objected not only to the proposed development, but also to what they described as a corrupt and opaque process involving protected-area legislation, disputed land ownership, unpublished or contested permits, private security, and limited public consultation. After violence against protesters during a demonstration near the project site on 30 May, the movement expanded to Tirana the following day and later spread to other cities in Albania, Kosovo, and Albanian diaspora communities abroad.
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Iran war (ongoing)
- Since 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel have been at war with Iran and its regional allies. Hostilities broke out after US–Israeli airstrikes killed Iranian officials and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. These attacks were launched amidst negotiations to reach a nuclear peace agreement. Iran fired back missiles and drones on Israel, US-aligned Arab countries, and US bases; the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait retaliated. Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, which disrupted the global economy by causing a fuel crisis.
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Lebanon war (ongoing)
- Since 2 March 2026, there has been an ongoing war in Lebanon between Israel and the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, with Israel invading parts of Lebanon. It is a resumption of major fighting in the Hezbollah–Israel conflict that began in late 2023, and is part of the wider conflict in the Middle East. The war has precipitated a still-developing humanitarian crisis, resulted in deaths of more than 4,000 people (both militants and civilians) from Israeli strikes in Lebanon, seen the forced displacement of over 1 million (>20% of the country's population), and entailed the deployment of matériel and tactics that potentially constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.
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Russo-Ukrainian war (ongoing)
- On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the existing war between the two countries that began when Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties. As of July 2026, Russian troops occupy roughly 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and 6–7 million have fled the country, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.
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