Russia fires pose nuclear threat

The Russian government warned on Thursday (6 August) that raging wildfires could pose a nuclear threat to neighbouring countries, with the natural disaster already spilling across Russian borders in terms of food markets.

Russian emergencies minister Sergei Shoigu said heat from fires in the Bryansk region near the frontier with Belarus and Ukraine, which was contaminated following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, could release harmful radioactive particles into the atmosphere.

"In...