Steps to replicate the issue (include links if applicable):
Calling this URL to request information about Freya Ridings from the api endpoint in xml format:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?format=xml&action=query&prop=extracts&exlimit=1&titles=Freya_Ridings
Returns the xml below. Line 31 which starts "<a href="https://www.wikimedia.org"><img id="logo" ..." - the "<img" tag is not properly closed so xml parsing fails.
This applies to all other urls tried on the wikipedia site this morning.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Wikimedia Error</title>
<style>
* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
body { background: #fff; font: 15px/1.6 sans-serif; color: #333; }
.content { margin: 7% auto 0; padding: 2em 1em 1em; max-width: 640px; }
.footer { clear: both; margin-top: 14%; border-top: 1px solid #e5e5e5; background: #f9f9f9; padding: 2em 0; font-size: 0.8em; text-align: center; }
img { float: left; margin: 0 2em 2em 0; }
a img { border: 0; }
h1 { margin-top: 1em; font-size: 1.2em; }
.content-text { overflow: hidden; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-hyphens: auto; -moz-hyphens: auto; -ms-hyphens: auto; hyphens: auto; }
p { margin: 0.7em 0 1em 0; }
a { color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none; }
a:hover { text-decoration: underline; }
code { font-family: sans-serif; }
summary { font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; }
details[open] { background: #970302; color: #dfdedd; }
.text-muted { color: #777; }
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
a { color: #9e9eff; }
body { background: transparent; color: #ddd; }
.footer { border-top: 1px solid #444; background: #060606; }
#logo { filter: invert(1) hue-rotate(180deg); }
.text-muted { color: #888; }
}
</style>
<meta name="color-scheme" content="light dark">
<div class="content" role="main">
<a href="https://www.wikimedia.org"><img id="logo" src="https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo.png" srcset="https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo-2x.png 2x" alt="Wikimedia" width="135" height="101">
</a>
<h1>Error</h1>
<div class="content-text">
<p>Our servers are currently under maintenance or experiencing a technical issue</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="footer"><p>If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below.</p><p class="text-muted"><code>Request served via cp3069 cp3069, Varnish XID 155453481<br>Upstream caches: cp3069 int<br>Error: 403, Please set a user-agent and respect our robot policy https://w.wiki/4wJS. See also T400119 at Tue, 19 Aug 2025 10:15:33 GMT<br><details><summary>Sensitive client information</summary>IP address: 87.102.46.73</details></code></p>
</div>
</html>What happens?:
Line 31 which starts "<a href="https://www.wikimedia.org"><img id="logo" ..." - the "<img" tag is not properly closed so xml parsing fails.
What should have happened instead?:
The xml should be returned with the <img> tag being closed prior to the </a> tag closure.
Other information (browser name/version, screenshots, etc.):
Tested using Windows API 'HTTPClient.GetAsync' and verified using Chromium and viewing the returned response directly.