New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
New Zealand’s prime minister said Wednesday (August 13, 2025) that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu had “lost the plot”, accusing him of going too far in his efforts to wage war on Gaza.
“What’s happening in Gaza is utterly, utterly appalling,” said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
“Netanyahu has gone way too far. I think he has lost the plot,” added Luxon in unusually candid comments.
“He is not listening to the international community and that is unacceptable.”
Mr. Netanyahu recently rolled out plans to take control of Gaza City and wipe out Hamas, insisting it was “the best way to end the war” despite growing calls to halt the bloodshed.
UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has severely restricted the entry of humanitarian aid.
Israel has faced mounting criticism over the war, which was triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel.
New Zealand on Monday hinted it could join the likes of Australia, Canada, France and Britain in recognising a Palestinian state.
“New Zealand has been clear for some time that our recognition of a Palestinian state is a matter of when, not if,” Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said.
“Cabinet will take a formal decision in September over whether New Zealand should recognise a state of Palestine at this juncture — and if so, when and how.”
Migrants sit onboard a fishing boat at the port of Paleochora, following a rescue operation off the island of Crete, Greece.
At least 20 people have died after a migrant boat capsized off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, a United Nations agency and local media reported on Wednesday.
Rescuers have recovered 20 bodies so far, and operations were continuing, according to initial reports by Ansa news agency. Between 70 and 80 people were believed to have survived.
Filippo Ungaro, from the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR, expressed “deep anguish” over the disaster and said more migrants could still be missing at sea.
“Deep anguish for the umpteenth shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, where UNHCR is now assisting the survivors. It looks to be 20 bodies found and as many missing,” he wrote on social media.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi confirmed the disaster, saying the shipwreck had occurred 14 nautical miles from Lampedusa.
The boat had been carrying 97 people when it turned over, Radio Radicale reported.
Details remained limited, but Save the Children Italy said that a baby girl, aged one-and-a-half, appeared to be lost in the shipwreck.
RaiRadio1 reported between 12 and 17 migrants missing, and said that 60 survivors had been transported to safety on the island.
The boat, which had already overturned, was spotted from the air by a plane from Italy’s financial police, it said.
Migrants heading to Italy from North Africa often cross in leaky or overcrowded boats via the central Mediterranean route, one of the world’s deadliest, and arrive in Lampedusa.
The UNHCR said Wednesday there have been 675 migrant deaths on the central Mediterranean route so far this year.
As of Wednesday, 38,263 migrants have arrived on Italy’s shores this year, according to the interior ministry.
Piantedosi wrote on social media that the episode underscored “the urgency of preventing, from the countries of departure, the dangerous sea journeys and of relentlessly combating the ruthless trafficking business that fuels this phenomenon.
The hard-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has cut deals with North African countries from which migrants embark, providing funding and training in exchange for help in stemming departures.
A Greater London Assembly report on barriers to work for Bangladeshi and Pakistani women draws on research by Domiziana Turcatti.
Too often, cultural factors are overstated as an explanation for economic inactivity, rather than recognising structural issues such as employer bias, discrimination, and the lack of inclusive workplace policies.
GLA report
Bangladeshi and Pakistani women in London face intersecting barriers to finding good work, including racism, religious and gender discrimination and limited workplace flexibility – and cultural norms, while they may influence their employment experiences, are not the main reason, according to a new participatory report for the Greater London Authority.
The report, Bangladeshi and Pakistani women in good work: Barriers to entry and progression, draws extensively on data provided by two project leads at the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, one of whom is Gates Cambridge Scholar Domiziana Turcatti [2018]. The report took an innovative approach to the research, involving seven community researchers with lived experience of the issues.
It finds that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in London face multiple, overlapping barriers to good work due in part to a lack of access to professional social networks and role models and the inability to get and pay for further training, qualifications, unpaid internships and work experience.
Many women also struggle to find high-quality career advice and mentorship. Negative experiences with Jobcentre Plus and a lack of tailored employment support compound their difficulties in finding secure work.
The report also finds additional challenges for Pakistani and Bangladeshi women who migrated to London as adults faces, including language, skills, and unrecognised qualifications. These are shaped by women’s education, socioeconomic status, and migration experiences. Visa restrictions and uncertainty with employer-sponsored visas are key concerns, as they limit women’s ability to work or progress in their careers.
Some women lack confidence in using English in professional contexts and digital skills, making online job applications and career progression difficult. Translating qualifications and work experience from home countries to the UK job market is also a key challenge.
Other barriers include racism and workplace discrimination, from recruitment, especially if they have ethnic or Muslim-sounding names, to promotion.
They value diverse, family-friendly workplaces that respect religious practices and where socialising does not centre around alcohol.
Employers identified limited community awareness of opportunities, narrow recruitment practices, weak community links, non-inclusive workplace cultures, underrepresentation in senior roles and biased appraisal processes as key barriers as well as structural issues such as short-term hiring.
The report recommends that employers work with community partners and local authorities to invest in targeted community and school outreach programmes, diversify and tackle bias in their own recruitment processes, offer and value flexible working and work on promoting an inclusive culture and diversity monitoring.
There are also recommendations for the GLA and local authorities and for national government, including developing a national training programme for Jobcentre Plus staff in intercultural competency, building community partnerships to deliver tailored employment advice and increasing provision of culturally sensitive, affordable childcare.
The report concludes: “Too often, cultural factors are overstated as an explanation for economic inactivity, rather than recognising structural issues such as employer bias, discrimination, and the lack of inclusive workplace policies.
“This study challenges these narratives, highlighting how they obscure the skills and aspirations of these women and reinforce their exclusion from meaningful employment.”
Domiziana, who did her MPhil in Sociology at Cambridge and is currently a local authority researcher for Gloucestershire County Council, was convener of the interdisciplinary Oxford Migration and Mobility Network from 2020-2023 and is now an advisory board member. It draws together researchers of migration and mobility from across the University of Oxford. From 2019 to 2021, she served as editor and then co-editor-in-chief of the Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration Journal.
*Picture of London City Hall taken from www.london.gov.uk.
Vladimir Putin will face “very severe consequences” if he does not agree a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine at his summit with Donald Trump in Alaska, the US president said on Wednesday.
Speaking after a call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders, including Britain’s Keir Starmer, Trump also suggested he would push for a second summit if his meeting with Putin goes well – this time including his Ukrainian counterpart.
“If the first one goes OK, we’ll have a quick second one,” Trump told reporters in Washington. “I would like to do it almost immediately, and we’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself, if they’d like to have me there.”
Trump did not provide a timeframe for a second meeting. He is to meet Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.
Asked if Russia would face consequences if Putin did not agree to stop the war after the Alaska meeting, Trump said: “Yes, they will … very severe consequences.”
The president’s remarks followed what he described as a very good call with European leaders in which he consulted about the goal and strategy for his summit. He pleased Europe’s leadership by giving reassurances that a ceasefire was his priority and he would not make any territorial concessions without Kyiv’s full involvement.
Trump’s approach at the video conference, as described by France’s Emmanuel Macron, appeared to reassure some of the leaders, who were making a final collective plea to the unpredictable US president that he had a duty to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty – and European security – at the talks in Alaska.
The European leaders spoke to Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, in a hastily convened one-hour meeting in an effort to shape Trump’s negotiating strategy. Zelenskyy and European leaders have been excluded from the Alaska summit and fear that Trump, intent on fulfilling his election campaign guarantee that he could easily end the bloodshed in Ukraine, will make concessions that compromise Ukraine’s future sovereignty.
But Trump underlined his promise that the summit was not in itself a substantive negotiation and was what he described as a “feel-out” to test Putin’s terms to sign a temporary ceasefire that would then lead to talks with Kyiv. Trump said it had been a very good call, and that he rated it at a 10 out of 10.
Britain, France and Germany, co-chairs of the so-called “coalition of the willing”, later laid out their position on the talks, reiterating that international borders must not be changed by force, and insisting that Ukraine must have “robust and credible security guarantees to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
The three countries repeated that meaningful negotiations can happen only with a ceasefire in place, and called for Russia to face further economic sanctions if it does not agree to cease hostilities at the Alaska summit.
Speaking alongside Zelenskyy in Berlin, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said Europe wanted Trump to be successful in Alaska but that it had made clear to the US president that Ukrainian and European interests had to be protected at the summit.
Merz called for a 30-day ceasefire, and then substantive talks. Putin has resisted a ceasefire for months.
Setting out the key principles on which Europe is united he said: “Negotiations must be part of a common transatlantic strategy. Then they can ultimately be most likely to succeed. This strategy must continue to rely on strong support for Ukraine and necessary pressure against Russia. This also means, if there is no movement on the Russian side in Alaska, then the United States and we Europeans should … increase the pressure.”
He added there cannot be any Russian legal ownership of Ukrainian territory. “President Trump knows this position, he shares it very extensively and therefore I can say: We have had a really exceptionally constructive and good conversation with each other.”
Macron said no serious discussions had taken place about Russian-Ukrainian land swaps involving the ceding of Ukrainian territory, and Trump had anyway underlined that any such discussions could only be negotiated with Kyiv. He said Trump would fight for a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the US and Russia and that such a meeting would be held in Europe.
Graphic showing Russian advances in UkraineRussian advances in Ukraine
One European diplomat said: “Overall the meeting was reassuring in that our points came across, but the question remains whether Trump will stick to the agreed script when he gets into the room with Putin.”
Trump met heads of state and government leaders from Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Poland and Finland, as well as the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. The issue of security guarantees for Ukraine was raised in the call with Trump, but no breakthrough was made in the US offering to provide practical support to the coalition.
But the Europeans’ main objective had been to seek reassurances from the notoriously fickle Trump that he would not be lured into making irretrievable pledges requiring Ukraine to make concessions of land as the price for securing Putin’s agreement to a ceasefire. They also tried to extract assurances that Trump was still prepared to deploy as yet unused economic levers that could damage Russian revenues.
European leaders have been careful in public to welcome Trump’s summit but in private fear Trump is bent on improving US-Russia relations and sees a loss of Ukrainian sovereignty as a necessary and unavoidable price to secure that objective.
Trump has been vague about his strategy, including the terms he will offer to induce Putin to agree to a ceasefire.
Zelenskyy has vowed that the Ukrainian military will not voluntarily surrender territory in Donetsk and Luhansk, but Russia is insisting at least four Ukrainian regions will become Russian either at the negotiating table or through force.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump vented his fury at media reporting of his meeting with Putin, writing on Truth Social: “The media is being really, really unfair about my meeting with Putin. They keep quoting fired losers and really stupid people like John Bolton, who just said that even though the meeting is on US soil, ‘Putin has already won’. What the hell is this? We win EVERYTHING.”
The treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said further sanctions or secondary tariffs could yet be placed on Russia’s trading partners if the Alaska meeting did not go well.
A confident Moscow dismissed the importance of Europe’s consultation with Trump. The foreign ministry spokesperson Alexei Fadeyev said: “We consider the consultations requested by the Europeans to be politically and practically insignificant actions. Verbally, the Europeans support the diplomatic efforts of Washington and Moscow to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, but in reality the European Union is sabotaging them.”
Russia says the Alaska meeting is likely to address the full gamut of Russian-American bilateral relations, and not just Ukraine. “We hope that this meeting will allow the leaders to focus on the full range of issues, from the crisis in Ukraine to the obstacles that hinder normal and constructive dialogue, which is crucial to ensuring international peace and stability,” the spokesperson said.
The veteran Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will be present at the Alaska talks.
LONDON: Senior figures in the UK’s ruling Labour Party are sounding the alarm over the government’s banning of the group Palestine Action.
It comes after hundreds of people were arrested in London last weekend under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act.
The protesters had held signs demonstrating support for Palestine Action, which was proscribed as a terrorist organization in July.
Former Minister Peter Hain said the issue “will end in tears for the government,” The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
The former anti-apartheid activist added: “We are seeing retired magistrates, retired and serving doctors and all sorts of people being arrested and now effectively being equated with terrorists such as Al-Qaeda, which is absolutely wrong.”
If the ban is contested through a legal challenge and overturned, it “would be a mercy to all concerned, including the government,” he said.
Hain was one of three Labour peers in the House of Lords who voted against the ban last month.
“It’s going to get worse (for the government) because I don’t see people from that ‘middle Britain’ background who have joined these protests in such large numbers to suddenly decide that all is OK,” he said.
“In fact, I think more are going to come out and face arrest because the approach to Palestine Action is contrary to every form of peaceful protest in British history, whether that’s the chartists and suffragettes, or anti-apartheid and anti-fascist protesters.”
The government has faced mounting pressure over the ban after it emerged that of the 532 arrested under the Terrorism Act on the weekend, half were aged 60 or older.
Hain served as secretary of state for Northern Ireland, a role that gave him great insight into the realities of terrorism.
“There is a battery of other crimes that could be applied to Palestine Action but terrorism is not one of them, while you also devalue the charge of terrorism by equating it with the protests we have seen,” he said.
“I … worked with the intelligence services and others to stop dissident IRA (Irish Republican Army) groups from killing. I have signed warrants to stop other real terrorists, Islamist terrorists, bombing London. So, I am not soft on terrorism. But I am a strong believer that you have to know what it looks like.”
Many Labour MPs and peers are now doubting the decision to ban Palestine Action, Hain added.
The government has justified the proscription by describing the group as a “violent organization” that was planning to carry out extensive attacks.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said court restrictions have prevented the British public from discovering the “full nature of this organization.”
However, Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti warned that the ban could result in an “I am Spartacus” moment, The Independent reported on Wednesday.
She was referring to the 1960 film “Spartacus,” and a situation in which a group of people claim to be one person in an act of solidarity against an authority.
The civil liberties campaigner urged the government to “think again” over the ban, saying her worries are “greater now even than they were before” after last weekend’s mass arrests.
Chakrabarti told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program: “There are blurred lines now … some people are, as always, protesting about the horrific events they’re watching unfold in Gaza, but others think they’re standing up for civil liberties because this ban was disproportionate.”
She added that a distinction must be made between criminal damage and terrorism, and that “spraying paint on airplanes,” as Palestine Action members did, “is not the same as being the IRA or Al-Qaeda.”
Saturday’s mass arrest of protesters is believed to be the largest of its kind by London’s Metropolitan Police since the poll tax riot of 1990.
Rights groups including Amnesty International and Liberty warned that the arrests were “disproportionate to the point of absurdity,” and that the Terrorism Act is threatening freedom of expression.
Chakrabarti said: “And so we’ve got more people taking to the streets, a bigger headache for the police. Frankly, I’m very sympathetic to the police on this issue. I think it may be time to think again.”
The trial of Labour MP Tulip Siddiq over corruption allegations has formally begun in Bangladesh.
The former minister did not attend the hearing, where investigators from the country’s corruption watchdog set out the case against her and 20 other individuals, including her aunt, her mother, her brother and her sister.
She is accused of influencing her aunt Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted as Bangladesh’s prime minister last year, to secure a plot of land in a suburb of the capital Dhaka for her family members.
The MP for Hampstead and Highgate, who denies the allegations, said the “so-called trial” was “a farce” built on “fabricated accusations and driven by a clear political vendetta”.
Hasina fled Bangladesh for India last August after being ousted amid a crackdown by government forces on student-led protests which saw hundreds killed.
A copy of the case alleges that whilst she was a serving MP Ms Siddiq “forced and influenced her aunt and the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina using her special power to secure [a plot of land] for her mother Rehana Siddiq, sister Azmina Siddiq and brother Radwan Siddiq”.
As per Bangladeshi law, if an individual has any plot or flat in or around Dhaka, they are not permitted to receive any plot in the lucrative Purbachal project, prosecutors said.
If found guilty, the maximum sentence would be a lifetime imprisonment, according to prosecutors.
The prosecutor for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Tariqul Islam, said Ms Siddiq was being tried as a Bangladeshi citizen as the ACC found her Bangladeshi passport, national ID, and tax identity number.
Ms Siddiq’s lawyers previously told the Financial Times: “Tulip has never had a Bangladesh national identity card or voter ID and has not held a passport since she was a child.”
In a statement on X, Ms Siddiq said: “Over the past year, the allegations against me have repeatedly shifted, yet I have never been contacted by the Bangladeshi authorities once.
“I have never received a court summons, no official communication, and no evidence.
“If this were a genuine legal process, the authorities would have engaged with me or my legal team, responded to our formal correspondence, and presented the evidence they claim to hold.
“Instead, they have peddled false and vexatious allegations that have been briefed to the media but never formally put to me by investigators.”
She added: “I have been clear from the outset that I have done nothing wrong and will respond to any credible evidence that is presented to me. Continuing to smear my name to score political points is both baseless and damaging.”
The Bangladeshi authorities issued an arrest warrant for Ms Siddiq earlier this year.
The next hearing in the case has been scheduled for 28 August.
Reuters
Prosecutor Tariqul Islam spoke to the media outside the court in Dhaka
Ms Siddiq resigned as Treasury minister in Sir Keir Starmer’s government in January, saying continuing in her role would be a “distraction”, although she insisted she had done nothing wrong.
It followed an investigation into the allegations against her by the prime minister’s standards adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus.
In his report, Sir Laurie said he had “not identified evidence of improprieties”.
But he said it was “regrettable” that Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of her ties to her aunt.
The trial in Bangladesh relates to three charges, while Ms Siddiq also faces another charge of allegedly illegally acquiring a flat in the Gulshan area of Dhaka.
The ACC is also investigating a separate case against Siddiq and her family over allegations of embezzlement of £3.9bn connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant deal with Bangladesh in 2013.
Siddiq has denied any involvement in the deal.
The investigation is based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a political opponent of Hasina.
Bangladeshi authorities estimate that about $234bn (£174bn) was siphoned off from Bangladesh through corrupt means while Hasina was in power.
United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that if his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin goes well, he would like to have a quick second meeting between Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and himself.
“If the first one goes okay, we’ll have a quick second one,” Trump told reporters. “I would like to do it almost immediately, and we’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky and myself, if they’d like to have me there.”
Trump did not provide a timeframe for a second meeting. He is to meet Putin in Anchorage, Alaska on Friday.
Trump also said Russia would face consequences if Putin did not agree to stop the war.
“Yes, they will,” he said.
He did not spell out the consequences, but he has warned of stiff economic sanctions if no breakthrough can be achieved.
Trump spoke after holding talks via telephone with European leaders and Zelenskiy about his meeting with Putin.
“We had a very good call. He was on the call. President Zelensky was on the call. I would rate it a 10, very friendly,” he said.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Trump said that Ukraine must be involved in talks about territory in any ceasefire deal with Russia.
The comments were the first indication of what came out of talks between Trump, European leaders and Zelensky, intended to shape Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska on Friday.
French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Council Antonio Costa, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot and France’s Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu attend a video conference with US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European Union leaders about the upcoming Trump-Putin meeting on Ukraine, at Fort de Bregancon in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France, August 13. — AFP
Trump’s insistence on involving Ukraine, if confirmed, could bring a measure of relief to Kyiv and its allies, who have feared that Trump and Putin could reach a deal that sells out Europe’s and Ukraine’s security interests and proposes to carve up Ukraine’s territory.
Trump and Putin are due to meet in Alaska on Friday for talks on how to end the three-and-a-half-year-old conflict, the biggest in Europe since World War Two. Trump has said both sides will have to swap land to end the fighting that has cost tens of thousands of lives and displaced millions.
On a day of intense diplomacy, Zelensky flew into Berlin for German-hosted virtual meetings with European leaders and then with Trump. The Europeans worry that a land swap could leave Russia with almost a fifth of Ukraine and embolden Putin to expand further west into the future.
Putin is bluffing: Zelensky
Zelensky said that he warned Trump ahead of his talks with Putin that the Russian leader was “bluffing” about his desire to end the war.
“I told the US president and all our European colleagues that Putin is bluffing,” he said at a joint briefing in Berlin with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “He is trying to apply pressure before the meeting in Alaska along all parts of the Ukrainian front. Russia is trying to show that it can occupy all of Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz address a joint press conference after a video conference of European leaders with the US President ahead of a summit between US and Russian leaders, in Berlin, Germany on August 13. — AFP
Zelensky’s comments, made after a virtual call with Trump and European leaders, come as Russian forces step up pressure on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, aiming to force Kyiv to give up land.
Zelensky, who said he hoped the main topic of the talks in Alaska would be an immediate ceasefire, added that any discussions regarding territory should be covered during a three-leader meeting.
“Regarding our principles and territorial integrity, in the end, this is all decided at the level of leaders,” he said. “Without Ukraine, it is impossible to decide this. And, by the way, everyone also supports this.”
Zelensky said Trump told him he would debrief him about his talks with Putin.
Extreme heat is breaking temperature records across Europe, early measurements suggest, and driving bigger and stronger wildfires.
In south-west France, records were broken on Monday in Angoulême, Bergerac, Bordeaux, Saint-Émilion and Saint-Girons. Météo France said the “often remarkable, even unprecedented, maximum temperatures” in the region were 12C above the norm for the last few decades.
In Croatia, air temperature records were set in Šibenik, at 39.5C, and Dubrovnik, at 38.9C, while large forest fires raged along its coasts and ripped through neighbouring countries in the Balkans.
The day before, Hungary broke its daily maximum temperature record when a weather station in Körösladány hit 39.9C. The capital, Budapest, also broke its daily maximum record as it sweltered through 38.7C heat.
Beyond Europe, dozens of temperature records were broken across Canada, and record-breaking heat above 50C in Iraq was blamed for a nationwide blackout.
The heatwave in southern Europe comes as Nordic countries recover from unprecedented temperatures above 30C in the Arctic Circle this month.
Firefighters tackle wildfires across southern Europe – video
Bob Ward, a policy director at the Grantham Research Institute, said: “This summer, like every summer now, has been exceptional in terms of extreme heat around the world.”
In Italy, where 16 of 27 major cities were placed under red heat alerts and a four-year-old boy died of heatstroke, and in Spain, where a man died in a wildfire after suffering burns on 98% of his body, the high heat did not break a large number of records but still rang alarm bells.
“The main characteristic [of the heatwave] is the length and extent rather than the intensity,” said José Camacho, a climate scientist and spokesperson for Aemet, the Spanish weather agency. “But the temperatures are still very high.”
In the south-west of France, 40% of a sample of weather stations recorded temperatures above 40C on Monday. Lauriane Batté, a climate scientist at Météo France, said it was too soon to say if records were being “shattered” rather than simply broken, but said the geographic extent of the heat was significant.
“Unfortunately, it’s to be expected,” she said, adding that more than half of the 51 heatwaves in France since 1947 had occurred in the last 15 years. “Clearly, it’s a sign that the climate is warming.”
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The hot weather across Europe has dried out vegetation and allowed wildfires to spread further, in what scientists have described as a “molotov cocktail” of climatic conditions. EU fire scientists projected “extreme to very extreme conditions” across the entire continent this week, with “particularly severe” risks in much of southern Europe and high anomalies expected in parts of the Nordics.
Wildfires in Europe have burned more than 400,000 hectares so far this year, according to data published on Tuesday, which is 87% more than the average for this time of year over the last two decades.
High heat kills tens of thousands of people in Europe each year. Researchers estimate that dangerous temperatures in Europe will kill 8,000 to 80,000 more people a year by the end of the century as the lives lost to stronger heat outpace those saved from milder cold weather.
Antonio Gasparrini, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said implementing effective and diverse public health measures was critical as heatwaves became more frequent.
“This is another extreme heatwave hitting Europe this summer,” he said. “As in previous events in the past months, we can expect not just a substantial death toll but also strong geographical differentials in excess mortality.”
Last week, the World Meteorological Organization said wildfires and poor air quality were compounding the negative health effects of extreme heat. It noted that temperatures during the first week of August reached more than 42C in parts of west Asia, southern central Asia, most of north Africa, southern Pakistan, and the south-west US, with local areas exceeding 45C.
“This is what climate change looks like,” Ward said. “And it will only get worse.”
At least 20 migrants died after a boat overturned in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, with many more still missing, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) said.
“Deep anguish for the umpteenth shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa, where UNHCR is now assisting the survivors. It looks to be 20 bodies found and as many missing,” wrote the agency’s spokesman, Filippo Ungaro, on social media.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi confirmed the disaster, saying the shipwreck had occurred 14 nautical miles from Lampedusa.
The boat had been carrying 97 people when it turned over, Radio Radicale reported.
Details remained limited but Save the Children Italy said that a baby girl, aged one-and-a-half, appeared to be lost in the shipwreck.
RaiRadio1 reported between 12 and 17 migrants missing, and said that 60 survivors had been transported to safety on the island.
The boat, which had already overturned, was spotted from the air by a plane from Italy’s financial police, it said.
Migrants heading to Italy from North Africa often cross in leaky or overcrowded boats via the central Mediterranean route, one of the world’s deadliest, and arrive in Lampedusa.
The UNHCR said on Wednesday that there have been 675 migrant deaths on the central Mediterranean route so far this year.
As of Wednesday, 38,263 migrants have arrived on Italy’s shores this year, according to the interior ministry.
Piantedosi wrote on social media that the episode underscored “the urgency of preventing, from the countries of departure, the dangerous sea journeys and of relentlessly combating the ruthless trafficking business that fuels this phenomenon”.
The hard-right government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has cut deals with North African countries from which migrants embark, providing funding and training in exchange for help in stemming departures.
