MADRID (AP) — A large wildfire in the south of France prompted Tour de France organizers to ban fans on Monday from attending the finale of the third stage of the cycling showpiece race.
After a couple of days in Spain, the race entered France with a stage to the Pyrenees town of Les Angles, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from a fire that has burned almost 1,821 hectares (4,500 acres) of land.
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Firefighters work on a wildfire in Ille-sur-Têt, southern France, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A water bomber flies over a wildfire in Ille-sur-Têt, southern France, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Locals try to extinguish a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Firefighters work on a wildfire in Ille-sur-Têt, southern France, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Tour de France organizers said the large wildfire currently in the Pyrénées-Orientales required a large mobilization of wildfire-fighting resources, internal security forces, and other government agencies.
“The top priority remains the protection of people, property, and natural areas, as well as bringing the fire under control," authorities said.
As a result, organizers decided that once the peloton reaches France for the last 40 kilometers (25 miles), the publicity caravan — a 10-kilometer (6-mile) procession of sponsor vehicles that precedes the race — would not be able to operate.
Only riders and vehicles essential to the race would be allowed on the route, and spectators were asked not to gather on the roadside or at the finish area.
Stage 3 started from the Spanish town of Granollers, where temperatures reached around 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit), race organizers said, quoting the Spanish Meteorological Agency.
Nearly 700 firefighters were battling the blaze, which led authorities on Sunday night to order the evacuation of more than two dozen villages.
Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Globally, 2025 was the third-hottest year on record, bringing severe heatwaves across Europe.
In Greece, 96 wildfires had broken out over the past 48 hours, the country’s government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said Monday. The vast majority were quickly brought under control before they could spread, he said.
Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, especially in southeastern Europe, making the region more vulnerable to health impacts and wildfires.
The most significant fire broke out Sunday afternoon in the Mandra area west of the capital, Athens. Authorities deployed 29 aircraft and more than 200 firefighters in a race to tame the blaze before nightfall, when firefighting planes can no longer operate. By Monday, the fire had abated, although it had not been fully extinguished.
Several parts of the country were listed as being at a high or very high risk of wildfires on Monday due to strong winds. One wildfire that broke out in the southern island of Crete triggered evacuation orders for a village near the town of Ierapetra. The blaze, which was burning through mainly agricultural land, was being fanned by strong winds, the fire department said.
In the Iberian Peninsula, another surge in heat spread across Spain and Portugal, where hundreds of firefighters were also working to contain wildfires.
Spain's weather agency AEMET warned that a heatwave that began Sunday would endure at least until Thursday, bringing elevated daytime and nighttime temperatures. Across much of Spain, including the capital Madrid, daytime highs were expected to range between 37 C and 42 C (99 F and 108 F) on Monday and Tuesday.
Overnight conditions were also forecast to be uncomfortably hot, with temperatures easily exceeding 20 C (68 F) — which scientists refer to as 'tropical nights'. This means people might not be recovering properly from daytime heat in the overnight hours.
In Portugal, inland locations saw temperatures soar Monday, while coastal Lisbon also baked under temperatures reaching 33 C (91 F). Temperatures were expected to drop later in the week.
Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed to this report
Firefighters work on a wildfire in Ille-sur-Têt, southern France, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A water bomber flies over a wildfire in Ille-sur-Têt, southern France, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Locals try to extinguish a wildfire on the outskirts of the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece, Saturday, July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Firefighters work on a wildfire in Ille-sur-Têt, southern France, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday that he's building a granite helipad on the White House lawn, insisting that the landing area is needed to accommodate new, more powerful presidential choppers.
Confirmation of the project came as construction crews had already begun working on the helipad on the South Lawn, where the president had UFC build a temporary arena for a cage fight celebrating his 80th birthday. He said the project would be privately funded and estimated its cost at up to $6 million.
“It’s got the seal of the White House on it in granite, in carved granite,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "It’s really a beautiful thing.”
The Republican president did not offer details on how long the work would take. It is the latest major construction project he has overseen in an effort to increasingly mold the White House in his own image.
Some of Trump's major White House construction projects have relied on public money, even when the president initially suggested otherwise. Still, Trump said that Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin, would be paying for the helipad.
Asked about the cost of the project and a timeline for its completion, Lockheed Martin responded with a statement reading in part: “This specific contribution was made to the Trust for the National Mall, the National Park Service’s nonprofit organization” and “conducted in full accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
In 2024, Sikorsky completed a new fleet of helicopters for use as Marine One, and President Joe Biden took the first flight aboard a modern VH-92A Patriot helicopter on his way to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago — the same day the military announced Sikorsky delivered the last of the 23 new aircraft.
But Trump said the newer aircraft were more powerful than Vietnam War-era choppers that long had been used as Marine One, and that the modern ones were too potent to land on the White House lawn without damaging the grass.
"It’s not that the grass gets discolored — it gets ripped out,” the president said.
Indeed, the new aircraft has indeed seen limited service because their exhaust vents aim heat downward, scorching the White House South Lawn.
The Marines and Sikorsky have spent years trying to find a solution to the problem, which has meant that the new helicopters haven't been used at the White House. Trump recalled telling a group of gathered military generals that a White House helipad would solve those problems.
The president said Sikorsky was building the helipad and paying the "full cost” because they “felt a little bit guilty” that the new fleet of helicopters was too powerful to land at the White House.
Trump also said he told builders to “do a beauty” and suggested granite rather than simply laying concrete and painting it white.
“You’re landing on granite, which is the strongest stone,” the president said, noting that the completed landing pad could also be used for other events, like outdoor White House news conferences. He added that the helipad will allow officials to “finally retire 45-year-old helicopters” that had been used as Marine One.
Trump's other projects to remake the White House include tearing up part of the Rose Garden for a patio space reminiscent of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and affixing partisan plaques to the wall of the colonnade for a Presidential Walk of Fame.
Trump also had crews redo the bathroom attached to the Lincoln Bedroom and renovate the Palm Room, place new flagpoles on the north and south lawns and demolish the entire East Wing for a sprawling ballroom.
While the term “Marine One” is applied to a variety of helicopter models that transport presidents, the most iconic and longest serving helicopter to take on the mission is the specially modified VH-3D Sea King helicopter that first entered service in 1978.
In the early 2000s, President George W. Bush, a Republican, began an effort to modernize the helicopter fleet, but the program ran into cost overruns, leading it to be scrapped by President Barack Obama's administration.
Obama, a Democrat, restarted the program, but new, technical issues emerged, and it wasn’t until May 2014 that the military finally awarded Sikorsky a contract to build the next presidential helicopter -- the VH-92A Patriot, which were the aircraft delivered in 2024.
A Marine Corps spokesman, Capt. Jacob M. Sugg, declined to comment on matters pertaining to the White House property. But he said the Marine One squadron currently consists of nine Sikorsky VH-3D Sea Kings that were first deployed in the 1970s, as well as six Sikorsky VH-60Ns deployed in the late 1980s and 10 of the newer VH-92A Patriots.
Later Monday, Trump addressed a lunch in the Rose Garden patio space and detailed yet another White House construction project, this one to revamp the columns on the building's north side.
Crews have erected scaffolding and Trump said, “We’ve taken about 150 years of paint off of the columns," noting that, “If you don’t strip the paint off, it gets worse and worse and worse.”
“A lot of love is being put into the White House,” Trump said.
He didn't say who would be covering the cost of the column work.
Construction workers continue designing a helipad for Marine One at the White House South Lawn, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
Workers construct a helipad for Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner)
President Donald Trump speaks alongside the New York Stock Exchange bell at a lunch in the White House Rose Garden, Monday, July 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
