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As Europe’s railways buckle under record heat, roads melt and power grids strain, countries are turning to an array of fixes for ageing infrastructure, from drones inspecting tracks and AI-powered sensors to a surprisingly simple tool: white paint.

At Norway’s Oslo airport on Wednesday, with temperatures set to hit 30 degrees Celsius, 10℃ above normal for the time of year, workers doused the tarmac with water to keep it cool.

It’s a marked shift in a country more used to coping with the cold that reflects how Europe is having to adapt to rising temperatures that are stoking wildfires, causing thousands of excess deaths and putting infrastructure under growing pressure.

“In Norway, the asphalt must withstand both extreme cold and fairly warm temperatures,” said Jrn Arvid Remark, operating engineer at Norwegian state-owned airport operator Avinor, adding the airport was testing a new heat-resistant asphalt.

The fire brigade sprays around 9,000 litres of water on key parts of the runway, which can get damaged at high temperatures as it softens under the weight of aircraft.

Europe’s roads and railways, many built decades ago, are increasingly struggling to cope.

Temperatures across Western Europe on Wednesday were 5.5℃ above the average for July 15, according to the Reuters Climate Monitor.

“Our infrastructure is in no way prepared for the extreme weather events that we’re going to see,” said Chris Dodwell, co-head of sustainability centre at Impax Asset Management, adding heatwaves, once rare, were becoming regular events.

A 2025 report by leading central banks estimated that severe weather events, including heatwaves, droughts and floods, could cut euro zone GDP by as much as 4.7 per cent by 2030.

Higher temperatures mean more storms and floods

Europe’s railways have felt the impact acutely.

An EU report in April found that more than 70pc of rail managers were seeing growing disruption from extreme weather.

Between 2015 and 2024, weather-related interruptions amounted to the equivalent of one to three years of railway service across the region.

Heat can cause tracks to expand, and points, signals and power to fail.

However, extreme weather triggered by high temperatures can be even more disruptive.

“The most critical issue for rail networks is not the heat itself, but the thunderstorms, strong winds and landslides that often follow heatwaves,” said Oliviero Baccelli, a professor at Milan’s Bocconi University.

“Italy has already experienced significant disruptions to its railway network, particularly on Alpine routes, as a result of climate-related events.”

Northern European countries such as Britain face particular challenges because much of their rail infrastructure was designed for a narrower temperature range than networks in southern Europe.

John Lawrence, chair of the IET Railway Technical Network, said many rail components and systems were “in essence frozen in time”.

He added it would be a huge cost to heat-proof entire networks, though operators were exploring more stable sleeper designs and technologies such as AI and drones to “speed up the amount of track that can be inspected and monitored”.

Britain’s Network Rail has pledged to invest 2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) between 2024 and 2029 to help its network withstand increasingly extreme weather.

Not all solutions are hugely expensive, however, with some operators using traditional methods to reflect heat.

Stockholm’s transport authority spent about 100,000 Swedish crowns ($10,300) painting sections of metro track white in May and June to reduce the risk of track buckling.

Heatwaves ‘more intense, more frequent and longer-lasting’

Martin Wilson, engineering director at French rail equipment manufacturer Alstom, said Europe could learn lessons from transport systems such as the Riyadh Metro and Dubai tram, designed to operate in temperatures above 50℃.

“Today’s heatwaves are often more intense, more frequent and longer-lasting,” he said.

“Rising temperatures are increasingly challenging rail systems across Europe.”

Roads face similar pressures.

Engineers say northern European highways were built primarily to withstand damage from freeze-thaw cycles, while southern countries such as Spain use asphalt blends better suited to prolonged summer heat.

Finding the right balance is becoming harder as countries contend with both colder winters and hotter summers.

“They may have to adjust their approach,” said Jos Pablo Sez Villar of the Spanish Civil Engineers Association, referring to planners and road builders in northern Europe.

Paris transport operator RATP has created a heatwave contingency unit and is preparing a climate adaptation plan by the end of the year.

In Norway, officials say warmer, wetter weather is changing how new infrastructure is designed.

“Roads are going to be made more robust,” said Grethe Vikane, head of social development and climate at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.

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US cases of an intestinal infection from the cyclospora parasite that causes diarrhoea, nausea and other gastrointestinal symptoms have surged in recent days, with 34 states reporting infections, according to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Michigan, which reported its outbreak in May, recorded 3,309 cases on Tuesday.

What is it?

Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal infection that can be contracted by consuming food, typically raw fruits and vegetables, or water contaminated with faeces, that transmit the cyclospora parasite, according to the CDC.

Symptoms can range from mild to severe, with children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems facing a higher risk of serious illness.

While cyclosporiasis is rarely life-threatening, untreated infections can persist for weeks and may lead to hospitalisation, particularly because of dehydration.

The US has had previous outbreaks of the disease. Michigan, for instance, said it typically records 40 to 50 cases annually.

What is the source?

Michigan health officials said current evidence points to lettuce or other salad greens as a potential source of the outbreak, although investigators have not completely ruled out other food items. They added that no specific type of produce, grower or supplier has been linked to the outbreak.

The CDC and other state health departments have not identified the source of the food contamination.

They and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are tracing back from where ill people reported eating or purchasing food to points along the supply chain that can go back to the farm where an ingredient was grown. They may use genetic sequencing.

Past outbreaks have occurred with fresh food, including bagged salad mixes and some herbs, Michigan officials said.

What can people do to protect themselves?

The parasite lives in contaminated food or water and is not commonly transmitted directly from person to person.

Health officials advised people to wash their hands with soap and water before and after preparing raw fruit and vegetables, to wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly and to scrub firm fruits and vegetables with a clean brush.

Michigan advised consumers to buy whole heads of lettuce rather than bagged salad mixes and kits and throw away the outer leaves. It advised consumers to cook leafy greens and other items when possible.

Past outbreaks were linked to bagged salad mixes and kits, fresh cilantro and basil, raspberries, snow peas and green onions.

For people who have cyclosporiasis, the CDC recommends treatment with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, an antibiotic commonly sold as Bactrim, taken twice daily for seven to 10 days. People living with HIV may require longer treatment, according to the agency.

Where is the outbreak?

Michigan, Ohio and New York have reported high numbers of cases. Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, and Texas have all reported 31 cases or more as of July 13, according to the CDC, which tallied confirmed cases at 1,645. It said 141 of those people had been hospitalised. The CDC figures lag because of delays in states reporting to the federal agency.

Case counts are expected to rise as the CDC receives more data, with delays between exposure and case confirmation potentially taking up to six weeks. Cases typically rise from May 1 through August 31, the CDC said.

Sick people ranged in age from 5 to 88 years, with a median age of 44, and 59 per cent were female.

What surveillance is being done?

The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, or FoodNet, is a collaboration among the CDC, the US Department of Agriculture, the FDA and 10 state health departments. Last July, it stopped tracking six of eight pathogens, including cyclospora, due to funding cuts.

FoodNet contacts physicians and clinical labs with the goal of monitoring trends and providing context for outbreaks, not of detecting outbreaks, said Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University.

Without monitoring cyclospora, health officials will have a harder time fully understanding what proportion of cases may be missed due to underdiagnosis or underreporting, Kowalcyk said, adding that officials also may have a harder time preventing the next outbreak.

“It’s not just FoodNet that needs funding. The whole system needs funding,” she said.

The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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US President Donald Trump stepped back from a proposal to charge a 20 per cent transit fee to guard the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway as part of the conflict with Iran, saying on Tuesday he would instead seek investment deals with Gulf states.

US forces had carried out waves of attacks for the third night in a row after Tehran said it had closed the strait, prompting Trump on Monday to reinstate a blockade of Iranian shipping and propose the fee.

But just a little under five hours before the fee had been due to come into effect at 2000 GMT, Trump said the strait was open to all shipping traffic except that of Iran.

“Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

Iran reports new strikes, sirens in Kuwait

The governor’s office of Iran’s Qeshm Island, on the Strait of Hormuz, said it was hit by a US projectile at around 7pm on Tuesday, Iranian state media reported.

Meanwhile, a US projectile exploded near a water and electricity facility on Iran’s Kish Island, the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said. State media also reported an explosion heard in Andimeshk in southern Khuzestan province.

Iran had earlier hit back by attacking a US Army base in Jordan with ballistic missiles while Bahrain, which hosts a US naval base, said it had fended off an Iranian aerial attack.

Jordan said it had shot down four ballistic missiles and explosions were heard in Manama, Bahrain’s capital.

In the early evening, Kuwait said its armed forces were engaging with “hostile” aerial targets, and the state news agency said sirens had sounded in the country.

The worsening attacks had increased doubts that a memorandum of understanding signed last month would lead to a permanent halt in the war, which has disrupted global energy supplies and raised fears of a rise in inflation globally.

Shippers had opposed Hormuz fee plan

The move to impose US fees had drawn sharp criticism. The UN shipping agency said it opposed any fees for straits used in international navigation and that there was no legal basis for introducing mandatory tolls on strait transits.

Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth-largest container shipping company, said it would be “fundamentally wrong”.

Trump said later on Tuesday that he did not like the concept of a fee for using the strait and said countries had called him to say they wanted to invest in the U.S. instead of being charged a fee.

It was not immediately clear what Gulf states had agreed to, if anything. Trump did not mention any commitments by them, saying only in his post: “Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future.”

Oil prices rose about 2pc to a one-month high on Tuesday after the US reimposed the naval blockade on Iran and as the renewed attacks between Washington and Tehran heightened concerns over energy flows.

Before the war, about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas traffic passed through the waterway daily. If the US were to have imposed a 20pc fee, it could have generated around $240 million a day.

Lebanon-Israel talks

Despite the attacks, regional analysts said the hostilities remained within controlled boundaries, for now, with both sides seeking leverage for an eventual peace deal, but that there was still a risk of fighting spinning out of control.

“I doubt the two sides will resume a full war, especially as Trump will suffer though there is also a distinct possibility that the Iranians will overplay their hand. That is true of Trump too, of course,” said Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center.

The conflict has proved unpopular in the US, where gasoline prices have risen since the start of the war and congressional elections are looming in November.

Half of those surveyed in a Reuters poll said they believed the war had not been worth its costs.

The US and Israel struck Iran on February 28, and Iran attacked Israel and Gulf states that host US bases in a war that also reignited conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, killed thousands and displaced millions.

Lebanon and Israel resumed talks on Tuesday in Rome, with Beirut seeking progress towards securing an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon under a US-brokered deal.

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GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) government on Monday presented a Rs20.478 billion interim budget for the first quarter of the 2026-27 fiscal year, while urging the federal government to allocate Rs258.95 billion for the full fiscal year to address the region’s growing development and infrastructure needs.

The three-month budget was presented in the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmaker Mohammad Ali Akhtar during a session chaired by Speaker Imran Nadeem Shigri.

Presenting the interim budget, Mr Akhtar said the federal government had earmarked Rs158.54 billion for Gilgit-Baltistan in the current fiscal year, an amount he described as insufficient to meet the region’s pressing requirements. He explained that the interim budget had been prepared to ensure the continuity of government operations until the presentation of the full annual budget for 2026-27.

According to the budget proposals, Rs88bn has been allocated for non-development expenditures, while the government has set a target of Rs6.98 billion in non-tax revenue.

Rs258.95bn federal govt allocation sought to address region’s development, infrastructure

The interim budget earmarks Rs15.22bn for salaries and allowances and Rs1.38bn for essential administrative and operational expenses.

The government has also proposed allocating Rs15bn for the wheat subsidy programme, with an estimated Rs3bn expected to be generated through wheat sales.

Special allocations have been proposed for disaster recovery and public services, including Rs275.8 million under the Prime Minister’s grant for rehabilitation of flood-affected areas, Rs880m for disaster management and emergency response, Rs770m for the procurement of heavy machinery, and Rs450m for the acquisition of heavy drones.

Other proposed allocations include Rs300m to strengthen the Health Endowment Fund, Rs100m for the purchase of ambulances, Rs430m for urban development projects, Rs292m for local councils and municipal committees, and Rs138m for the Waste Management Company.

Mr Akhtar said the government expected an increase of Rs12.24bn in available resources during the new financial year. However, he stressed that Gilgit-Baltistan’s unique geographical conditions — including its vast mountainous terrain, scattered settlements, harsh climate and limited communication infrastructure — make development projects significantly more challenging and expensive than in other parts of the country.

He said the region’s existing financial resources were inadequate to address critical challenges in the power, health, road, bridge, water resources and climate change sectors.

The GB government, he said, had sought Rs258.95bn from the federal government for 2026-27, but had not received the required allocation.

Expressing hope for greater federal support, Mr Akhtar said the requested financial assistance was essential to resolve the long-standing issues faced by the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Following the budget presentation, Speaker Imran Nadeem Shigri adjourned the assembly session until Tuesday, when members are scheduled to debate the budget proposals.

Earlier in the session, newly elected assembly members Mohammad Naseem, and Mohammad Dilpazeer also took oath.

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2026

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KHYBER: Pakistani customs authorities on Monday issued gate passes to as many as 26 World Food Programme (WFP) containers carrying food and essential supplies at the Torkham border to cross into Afghanistan.

Since October 2025, the Torkham border — a key trade route between Pakistan and Afghanistan — has been closed due to the “escalating security situation” along the border.

Customs clearing agents, who had earlier in the day submitted Goods Declaration (GD) documents to the customs authorities, told Dawn that the containers were issued gate passes for crossing into Afghanistan late in the evening, despite the fact that the gates had officially been closed for any cross-border movement.

The agents said that the containers were made to wait throughout the day as officials awaited a final “nod” from the higher authorities after the containers arrived at the Torkham import terminal early on Monday morning.

They said that the authorities had informed them that all cleared vehicles would be allowed to proceed to Afghanistan on Tuesday, as the necessary customs clearance procedures, including electronic scanning, had been completed.

The containers were loaded with food and essential supplies for Afghanistan as part of humanitarian assistance from the WFP, they added.

It is pertinent to mention here that a similar convoy of about 20 containers from the WFP was sent back to Karachi earlier this year after the Afghan Taliban authorities in Kabul refused to accept any assistance from the UN body.

The fate of the 26 containers that have currently arrived would be known early on Tuesday if the Taliban authorities permit them to enter their country.

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Pakistan counts 7.14 million business establishments in its Economic Census, and only 9.8 per cent of them sit in manufacturing. Wholesale and retail trade accounts for 45.1pc, nearly five times as many. Twenty-seven years of measuring small and medium enterprises (SME) policy success by headcount and GDP share, never by whether small firms are actually financed for production, has led the government to finance consumption.

Trade and consumption-facing services recycle domestic demand; they do not build export earnings, productivity growth, or foreign exchange. An SME policy that channels financing toward that segment by default, because it is sector-blind, not because it is deliberate, is financing consumption growth and calling it SME development.

This is in a scenario where consumption as a percentage of GDP has consistently exceeded 97 per cent, while investment as a percentage of GDP has lagged at an average of 12pc over the last five decades. There does not exist a single example of a middle-income economy that graduated to middle-income status solely on the basis of consumption, without producing or exporting much.

The value chain that actually sustains growth runs the other way, from export-oriented large-scale manufacturers, down through the SME suppliers, component makers, and processors that feed them. That value chain is where Pakistan’s SME financing is not going, and the numbers say so on their own.

Nothing in the current design distinguishes a rupee of credit reaching an exporter’s supplier from a rupee reaching a neighbourhood retailer

A decade of lending data demonstrates that only 5.5pc of all bank credit extended to the manufacturing sector reached SME borrowers. In trade, the same figure rose from 33.4pc to 40.6pc. A bank lending into trade today is more than eight times as likely, proportionally, to be lending to a small firm as a bank lending into manufacturing, and that gap has only widened in the last decade.

Manufacturing’s position within the SME loan book has deteriorated further, more recently. Manufacturing’s outstanding SME credit stock increased to a peak of 46pc in 2021, and it has fallen every year since then, closing May 2026 at 30.4pc. A 15.6-point collapse in five years, even as the national SME loan book grew at a compound 12.5pc a year. The money is flowing somewhere, and that somewhere is trade and services.

Pakistan’s manufacturing base is large in firm count and thin in scale. Roughly, 95pc of manufacturing establishments employ fewer than ten people, as per the Economic Census 2023; a formally registered factory is outnumbered 28-to-1 by an informal production shop.

The magical number of ten can be linked to policy or legal arbitrage, where, as the number of employees increases beyond ten, multiple regulatory and legal requirements begin to shape up, increasing the cost of doing business. Instead of scaling up, firms increasingly prefer to split into multiple entities after hitting the sweet spot of ten employees.

The lending data explains why formalisation does not happen. A firm that cannot borrow against its own production has no route to invest in the certification, equipment, or working capital an anchor exporter’s order size would require. It stays small, stays informal, and drifts toward trading, where credit is actually available.

Manufacturing SME credit does not even track large-manufacturer credit in any stable way, as the year-on-year correlation between SME and non-SME manufacturing lending is a weak 0.19, and its 24-month rolling version has run negative over the past two years.

In trade, the same correlation is 0.59, three times as coherent. The credit market does not connect Pakistan’s SME sector to large-scale manufacturing. A robust SME sector remains a function of strong linkages with large-scale manufacturing.

Germany’s SMEs, called Mittelstand, generate 68pc of national exports from a base that is over 99pc small and medium firms. These firms are embedded as specialised suppliers within large industrial value chains, financed through a network of regional guarantee banks explicitly built to substitute for the collateral that a growing SME does not yet have. Independent studies of those guarantee banks find that roughly 60pc of supported loans would not have been made at all without the guarantee.

Taiwan built the same instrument alongside its subcontracting system from the 1970s onward, guaranteeing SME loans with up to 95pc coverage and no collateral required, so a small supplier could take on a subcontracting relationship with a large exporter before it had the balance sheet a bank would normally demand. That subcontracting layer is where Foxconn and TSMC came from.

Bangladesh increased the value addition in its ready-made garment sector from 19pc to roughly 75pc in knitwear by making backwards-linkage textile mills as bankable as direct exporters through bonded warehouse and deemed export status.

Textiles is the sub-sector in Pakistan most directly comparable to Bangladesh’s story, and it remains Pakistan’s largest export earner. Its SME credit book has grown at a compound rate of 8pc a year since 2015, slower than the national SME average of 12.5pc and trade’s 14pc. The sub-sector most obviously suited to backwards-linkage financing is not receiving it at pace.

SME policy in Pakistan is sector-blind by design, but that needs to change if we actually want any kind of sustainable growth, rather than doubling down on consumption-oriented growth, which hasn’t really worked well. Can’t expect different outcomes while making the same mistakes time and again.

A trading firm and an export-grade component manufacturer qualify for the same refinance schemes, the same subsidised credit lines, the same policy attention, as long as their headcount or revenue fits the arbitrary count that defines a SME.

Nothing in the current design distinguishes a rupee of credit reaching an exporter’s supplier from a rupee reaching a neighbourhood retailer. Both count identically toward the aggregate SME credit growth figure, but the economic impact of credit extended to an exporter remains considerably more than a retailer.

We need to rethink SME policy here. Any policy or intervention for SMEs needs to align with an industrial policy, which may or may not exist. National priorities need to focus on increasing the investment-to-GDP ratio to 30pc, which requires reallocating all policy and financial capital to export- and production-oriented interventions, rather than more trade.

None of this requires new legislation or new institutions, but it does require SME policy to stop treating a rupee of credit as fungible across sectors that share nothing but headcount. A thriving SME ecosystem requires a robust large-scale manufacturing space, strong linkages between the two, and policies that incentivise graduation and institutional scaling, rather than incentivising lemming-like firms.

The writer is an assistant professor of practice at IBA and CEO of National Credit Guarantee Company Limited

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 13th, 2026

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Italian top seed Jannik Sinner resisted an all-out onslaught by an inspired Alexander Zverev to retain his Wimbledon crown in a thunderous final and claim a fifth Grand Slam title on Sunday.

Zverev, in his first Wimbledon final hot on the heels of winning the French Open, threatened an upset after taking an intense opening set, but eventually ran out of firepower as Sinner found another gear to win 6-7(7) 7-6(2) 6-3 ‌6-4.

The destiny of the title was still on a knife edge nearly three hours into an absorbing contest but second seed Zverev’s resistance finally cracked after a nasty tumble in the third set and Sinner surged on to the title.

Sinner, 24, became the first Italian to win a Wimbledon singles title last year by beating Carlos Alcaraz, and now joins an elite list of 10 men to successfully defend it in the professional era.

It was a 10th successive victory for Sinner over Zverev but this time he was pushed to the limit by the 29-year-old who had been bidding to become the first German man to win the Wimbledon title since Michael Stich in 1991.

Zverev’s first serve percentage hovered around 80 per cent for much of the match while his forehand, often his Achilles heel at big ⁠moments during his career, proved a fearsome weapon as he went toe-to-toe with his opponent.

Sinner’s second-round meltdown at the French Open and then a close shave in the first round here against Miomir Kecmanovic a fortnight ago raised doubts about his form and condition.

But he ended the tournament showing why he is the best in the world, not dropping a single service game in a semi-final defeat of Novak Djokovic and in a ferocious final.

No better place

“There’s no better place, honestly, to play tennis,” Sinner said as he cradled the pineapple-topped Challenge Cup.

“I’m standing here. You can feel the nerves in a Sunday morning when you wake up, that this is a very special day, and you never know how many times you can come back. So I never take things for granted.

“It always takes two players. We try to give everything we have, I’m very happy about the win but mostly very happy also about the level we played.”

On a hot and breezy Centre Court, an intense 65-minute first set full of heavy-metal tennis boiled down to tiny margins.

Only one break point was on offer in the opening 12 games with Sinner missing his chance at 4-3 on the Zverev serve when he uncharacteristically framed a forehand wide.

The pace and accuracy of Zverev’s forehand shook Sinner ‌early on ⁠while the 6-foot-6 German dropped only eight points on serve in the opening set.

Zverev ended run of losing 14 successive sets against Sinner

Zverev reached set point first in a high-quality tiebreak but was passed at the net after chasing a drop shot.

He then saved set point with an ace and when his chance came again, the free-flowing German cracked away a forehand to end Sinner’s run of winning 14 successive sets against him.

Frustration began to show on Sinner’s face early in the second set as he could make no impact on Zverev’s service games with the German striding around the court in confident fashion.

But in the day’s second tiebreak, Zverev wavered for the first time and Sinner turned up the ⁠heat to level the match.

The booming serves and ferocious ball-striking continued into the third set but just when Zverev threatened to strike, the match suddenly veered towards Sinner.

Zverev shaken by fall

At 3-3, Zverev earned his first break point of the match after two hours and 42 minutes but when Sinner conjured a deft drop shot, Zverev slipped behind the dusty baseline and fell awkwardly.

Sinner walked around to check on his opponent and while Zverev said he was okay, he was ⁠clearly shaken.

Sinner held and then broke serve for the first time as Zverev was moving a little gingerly, the German flinging away his racket across the turf in frustration.

Zverev recovered his poise in the fourth set but Sinner was locked in and broke serve for 4-3.

The best was saved for last with Sinner winning an incredible 23-stroke rally with an angled dink to bring up match point before sealing victory — his 100th in ⁠Grand Slams — with a forehand winner after three hours and 46 minutes.

Despite a fourth Grand Slam final defeat, Zverev can reflect on the best stretch of his career after winning his first major title in Paris and finally cracking the code on Wimbledon’s lawns after never previously going past the fourth round.

“That’s the tennis I want to play. That’s the game style I want to play,” said Zverev, who will move above Alcaraz to second in the rankings on Monday.

“The more I do it, the better I’ll become hopefully.”

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