Britain is under a heat warning – reportedly stretching from London in the south to Leeds and Manchester in the north – as the mercury climbs to record levels amid an intense heat wave plaguing Europe.
Some reports say the temperature climbed to 40.2 Celsius (104 F) in Britain on Tuesday, with other media reporting a high of 40.3 C (104.5). The high temperatures break a record of 38.7 C (101.7 F) set in 2019.
Due to the heat, fires are blazing in major cities, including in the London area. Elsewhere, in the West Midlands area, a fire forced the evacuation of more than a dozen people.
Households are turning off their washing machines in an attempt to conserve water for future use.
London has seen fewer people outside and on roads, instead trying to stay cool in the scorching heat. To avoid the sun, many tourist attractions, like the British Museum with a full glass ceiling, and outdoor activities have been canceled or closed early.
Airports have seen damaged runways due to the extreme weather, while Britain’s Network Rail has warned passengers not to travel north of London. The rail system says on its website that buckled rails are reported and overhead wire systems are failing.
Hospitals, the Supreme Court, and other public buildings are feeling the high temperatures. Buildings are either having air conditioning outages or don’t have air conditioning at all.
“Infrastructure, much of it built in Victorian times, just wasn’t built to withstand this type of temperature,” said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
While members of the public have been seeking ways to cool off, authorities are warning people not to swim in open waters, citing fatalities.
Many other countries across Europe are experiencing the same extremes in weather. Cities in Spain and Portugal are feeling the effects of record-breaking temperatures as fires erupt throughout their cities. Over 750 heat-related deaths have been recorded in Spain and Portugal, said the Associated Press.
Climate experts believe the high temperatures are warnings of climate change progressing more quickly, something they say will risk the lives of European citizens for the next 30 years.
A professor of hydrology at the University of Reading, Hannah Cloke, said the record high temperature was a “grim milestone” and a “slide into unknown territory for humanity as we heat our planet,” reported The Guardian newspaper.
Climate experts also believe the extreme temperatures will continue across Europe for years to come.
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Хвиля спеки вже спричинила понад тисячу смертей в Іспанії та сусідній Португалії
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Прокурори хочуть продовжити строки давності для деяких фінансових злочинів до 10 років, щоб дати прокурорам «час на відстеження грошей»
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«За часів розвитку Моно, Sense, «А-Банк», «Спортбанк» — в цьому просто нема потреби», заявив міністр цифрової трансформації
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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived Tuesday in the Iranian capital, Tehran, where he was due to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and discuss an agreement to resume grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Monday there has been incremental progress with the negotiations between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations, “but nothing to announce at this stage.” He said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is ready to travel to Istanbul if need be.
Guterres spoke on the phone Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss the ongoing negotiations, according to the United Nations.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called Tuesday for a price cap on Russian oil exports while urging countries to unite in opposition to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Yellen said “economic integration has been weaponized by Russia,” adding that Russia has threatened to spark a global food crisis by blocking Ukrainian ports.
“All responsible countries must unite in opposition to this war and work together to end it swiftly,” Yellen said. “And that’s why the United States and other responsible allies and partners are seeking to reduce Russia’s revenue to wage its war without causing a necessary volatility in global energy markets.”
Ukraine’s military said Tuesday Russian attacks continued in multiple parts of the country, including shelling in Sumy, as well as blasts in Mykolaiv and a missile strike in Odesa.
Britain’s defense ministry said Russia “may still make further territorial gains” as it pursues its state goal of taking control of all of Donetsk province in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. But the ministry said in its daily assessment Tuesday that Russia’s “rate of advance is likely to be very slow without a significant operational pause for reorganization and refit” of its forces.
Ukraine’s parliament voted Tuesday to dismiss the country’s top security chief, Ivan Bakanov, and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, two days after Zelenskyy suspended the officials, citing what he said were hundreds of cases of alleged treason and collaboration with Russia, involving workers within the security service and prosecutor general’s office.
In Washington, Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska is due to meet with U.S. first lady Jill Biden at The White House, a day after meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
A statement released by the State Department Monday night said “Secretary Blinken commended First Lady Zelenska’s work to help Ukrainians impacted by the war.”
Blinken “reiterated that the United States will continue to provide assistance to help Ukraine respond to the significant economic and humanitarian challenges it faces, including supporting the First Lady’s mental health initiative for citizens affected by the war,” the statement said.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said Blinken assured Zelenska of U.S. support of Ukraine and commended the first lady for her work helping civilians traumatized by the war.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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«Можна сказати, за згодою сторін вона добровільно пішла з посади», сказав Арахамія про відставку генеральної прокурорки
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A Dutch court sentenced two men to five years in prison Monday after convicting them of attempted murder and arson for throwing a Molotov cocktail into a journalist’s home in a late-night attack last year.
The court said the two men, identified by Dutch media as Tjeerd P. and Jaimy W. in line with privacy guidelines, launched the attack because one objected to what he considered the negative tone of the reporter’s coverage of demonstrations against the Dutch government’s coronavirus lockdown measures.
The court in the northern city of Groningen said the attackers threw a beer bottle filled with kerosene through a window in the front door of the reporter’s home in the early hours of Aug. 19, last year, causing a small fire.
Nobody was injured in the attack, but the reporter, Willem Groeneveld, said in a victim impact statement during the trial that since the attack “he has always been on his guard and feels partly deprived of his journalistic freedom,” the court said.
It added that: “Journalistic freedom is an important pillar of the democratic constitutional state. Journalists have an important role in shaping social discussions and must be able to express themselves freely, without having to fear for their safety.”
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Оскільки Росія порушила діалог з ЄС, потрібно також переоцінки деякі вже чинні договори, вважає Ян Ліпавський.
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Федір Веніславський каже, що до окремих підрозділів СБУ, в тому числі регіональних управлінь, «було багато претензій»
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Про це повідомив народний депутат Ярослав Железняк.
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Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska is set to meet with U.S. first lady Jill Biden at the White House on Tuesday.
The two last met during Biden’s unannounced visit to western Ukraine in May when they visited a school and joined children who were making Mother’s Day gifts.
Zelenska on Monday met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Zelenska and Blinken talked about “the immense and growing human costs of Russia’s full-scale invasion,” and that Blinken emphasized the U.S. commitment to supporting Ukraine.
“Secretary Blinken commended first lady Zelenska’s work to help Ukrainians impacted by the war,” Price said. “He reiterated that the United States will continue to provide assistance to help Ukraine respond to the significant economic and humanitarian challenges it faces, including supporting the first lady’s mental health initiative for citizens affected by the war.”
Zelenska’s schedule also includes going to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to address lawmakers.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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«У межах розслідування кримінального провадження встановлено факти співпраці чинного співробітника Служби з представниками спецслужб Російської Федерації»
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Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Tehran on Tuesday for a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the first trip by the Kremlin chief outside Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
Putin casts the West’s attempt to cripple Russia’s economy with the most severe sanctions in recent history as a declaration of economic war and says Russia is turning away from the West to China, India and Iran.
Just three days after U.S. President Joe Biden finished a visit to Saudi Arabia, Russia’s leader arrives in Tehran to hold his fifth meeting with Khamenei, Iran’s second supreme leader who came to power in 1989.
“The contact with Khamenei is very important,” Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, told reporters in Moscow. “A trusting dialog has developed between them on the most important issues on the bilateral and international agenda.”
Putin’s visit to Iran will coincide with one by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the two leaders will meet in Tehran to discuss a deal aimed at resuming Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports, and Erdogan’s threat to launch another operation in northern Syria which Moscow opposes.
In Syria, Russia and Iran prevailed in their support for President Bashar al-Assad against the West, which called repeatedly for him to be toppled since the Syrian civil war began in 2011.
The 69-year-old Kremlin chief has made few foreign trips in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then the crisis triggered by his February 24 invasion of Ukraine. His last trip beyond Russia was to China in February.
By heading to the Islamic Republic for his first major foreign trip since the Ukraine war, Putin is sending a clear message to the West that Russia will seek to build ties with Iran, a foe of the United States since the 1979 Revolution.
Before the trip, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia and Iran had long been subject to Western sanctions: the price, he said, of sovereignty.
For Tehran, building ties with Putin’s Russia is a way to balance the clout of the United States and its alliances across the Gulf with Arab rulers and Israel. Putin will meet with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who was elected last year.
Emboldened by high oil prices, Tehran is betting that with Russia’s support it could pressure Washington to offer concessions for the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.
Still, Russia’s tilt toward Beijing has significantly reduced Iran’s crude exports to China — a key source of income for Tehran since then-President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions in 2018.
Talks with Erdogan will focus on a plan to get Ukrainian grain exports moving again and Turkey’s threat to launch new military operations in Syria to extend 30-kilometer-deep “safe zones” along the border.
Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are expected to sign a deal later this week aimed at resuming the shipping of grain from Ukraine across the Black Sea.
Any Turkish operation in Syria would attack the Kurdish YPG militia, a key part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls large parts of north Syria and is regarded by Washington as an important ally against the Islamic State.
your ad hereEU officials warned against shrinking European Union support for Ukraine, as the bloc’s foreign ministers agreed Monday to earmark half-a-billion more dollars in military aid to Kyiv and consider banning imports of Russian gold.
European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned against what he called “democratic fatigue” which Russia would try to exploit.
“European societies cannot afford fatigue,” he said. “European societies and European Union member states, governments have to continue standing behind the decisions they have taken. They took decisions on restrictive measures on the Russian economy and they have to stick to it.”
Borrell insisted energy and other sanctions the bloc has taken against Moscow are working — although experts note Russia continues to rake in billions selling its oil and gas elsewhere.
“The Russian economy is severely affected. Certainly, it’s not going to stop the war overnight, but the consequences of the sanctions will create a lot of economic trouble to Russia,” Borrell said.
Analysts warn of fading EU support for more tough sanctions amid worries about rising consumer prices and a cold winter ahead, with less Russian oil and gas.
Germany is also feeling the more immediate fallout of a recent Russian gas pipeline cut, ostensibly for maintenance reasons.
your ad hereЗа даними агентств, лист «Газпрому» надійшов чотири дні тому, але стосувався поставок, починаючи ще з 14 червня
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Millions of people in Britain stayed home or sought shade Monday during the country’s first-ever extreme heat warning, as hot, dry weather that has scorched mainland Europe for the past week moved north, disrupting travel, health care and schools.
The red heat alert covers a big chunk of England and is due to last through Tuesday, when temperatures may reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time, posing a risk of serious illness and even death among healthy people, according to the Met Office, Britain’s weather service.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Britain is 38.7 C (101.7 F), a record set in 2019. The country is not at all prepared to handle such heat — most homes, schools and small businesses in Britain do not have air-conditioning.
London’s Kew Gardens hit 37.5 C (99.5 F) by 3 p.m. and Wales provisionally recorded its highest-ever temperature, the Met Office said, a recording of 35.3 C (95.5 F) at Gogerddan on the west coast.
At least four people were reported to have drowned across the U.K. in rivers, lakes and reservoirs while trying to cool off.
While Monday may bring record highs to southeastern England, temperatures are expected to rise further as the warm air moves north on Tuesday, Met Office CEO Penelope Endersby said. The extreme heat warning stretches from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north.
“So it’s tomorrow that we’re really seeing the higher chance of 40 degrees and temperatures above that,” Endersby told the BBC. “Forty-one isn’t off the cards. We’ve even got some 43s in the model, but we’re hoping it won’t be as high as that.”
Hot weather has gripped southern Europe since last week, triggering wildfires in Spain, Portugal and France. Almost 600 heat-related deaths have been reported in Spain and Portugal, where temperatures reached 47 C (117 F) last week.
Climate experts warn that global warming has increased the frequency of extreme weather events, with studies showing that the likelihood of temperatures in the U.K. reaching 40C is now 10 times higher than in the pre-industrial era. Drought and heat waves tied to climate change have also made wildfires harder to fight.
Officials in southern France’s Gironde region announced plans to evacuate an additional 3,500 people from towns threatened by the raging flames. More than 1,500 firefighters and water-bombing planes are trying to douse the flames in the region’s tinder-dry pine forests.
In Britain, train operators asked customers not to travel unless absolutely necessary, saying the heat was likely to warp rails and disrupt power supplies, leading to severe delays. Some routes were running at reduced speed or shutting down entirely from mid-afternoon, when temperatures were expected to peak.
Some medical appointments were canceled to relieve strains on the health service. Some schools closed, and others set up wading pools and water sprays to help children cool off. Most British schools have not yet closed for the summer.
The extreme heat even led Parliament to loosen its strict dress code. The Speaker of the House of Commons said male lawmakers could dispense with jackets and ties for the week.
The high temperatures are even more of a shock since Britain usually has very moderate summer temperatures. Across the U.K., average July temperatures range from a daily high of 21 C (70 F) to a low of 12 C (53 F).
But nightfall on Monday will bring little relief from the heat, with the Met Office forecasting temperatures of 29 C (84 F) at midnight in London. Monday night will be “very oppressive” and it will be difficult to sleep, Chief Meteorologist Paul Davies said.
“Tomorrow is the day where we are really concerned about a good chance now of hitting 40 or 41C, and with that all the health conditions that come with those higher temperatures,” he said.
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«Хочу задля вашого добра допомогти вам цю систему змінити, – вказує Валенса. – Ця система дозволила Сталінові, сьогодні Путінові, завтра – подібним особам ці варварські дії»
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