Heat records of over 40C set as extreme weather spreads east, with more than 191m in Europe enduring 35C or aboveAfter decades of warnings, why is Europe so unprepared?Germany, Czechia, Poland and Hungary reached record temperatures of more than 40C on Sunday as a heatwave linked to hundreds of deaths in western Europe spread east.More than 191 million people in Europe faced temperatures of at least 35C, with extreme heat warnings across the region. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 19:27 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Labour deputy leader says she thinks energy secretary would suit Treasury but ‘tittle-tattle’ over posts ‘unedifying’Ed Miliband would make a “good” chancellor to Andy Burnham, Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has said, before the likely next prime minister’s first major speech on the economy since he returned to Westminster.Powell, who served as Miliband’s chief of staff in opposition and is close to the former party leader, appeared to endorse him to run the Treasury – although some in Burnham’s camp acknowledge such a move could be politically risky. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 14:33 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Five students and five instructors dead along with pilot after plane fell suddenly near aerodrome, says prefectA skydiving plane has crashed in north-eastern France, killing all 11 people onboard, according to the region’s prefect.The parachuting-school plane crashed near Nancy at 11am, said Yves Séguy, the prefect of the Meurthe-et-Moselle region. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 15:58 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Home-grown food may become a niche product for wealthy in our supermarkets as British farmers’ incomes plummetFor Liz Webster, who farms 647 hectares (1600 acres) in Wiltshire, south west England, the latest impact of Brexit has been particularly brutal. About £400 per animal has been wiped off the price she can get for her beef cattle, a hefty blow at a time when all the inputs – feed, energy, fertiliser – are going through the roof.The fall in price, on livestock that typically fetch £2,000 to £3,000 per animal, is the result of a flood of cheaper meat arriving from Australia, the result of one of the new trade deals the government has signed since the UK left the European Union. Prices for beef in the supermarkets have remained broadly the same, but farmers have seen their income plummet. Continue reading...

28 Jun 2026 11:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Scorching summer of 2003 triggered first efforts to deal with the problem but heatwaves still have devastating impactOn Wednesday, Pierre Masselot received a text from his daughter’s nursery – less than 50 miles from the weather station that was the first this week to break the UK June temperature record – asking parents to collect children early because the school buildings were about to get worryingly hot.Similar scenes were repeated across Europe this week as the continent swelters through its most severe and widespread heatwave on record – an oppressive force made hotter by carbon pollution and less bearable by repeated failures to prepare for it. France experienced its hottest day and night on record, while the UK and Switzerland both broke their heat records for a June day. Continue reading...

27 Jun 2026 11:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Animal who went missing from private ranch for nearly two weeks had been falsely reported as found earlier in the weekA giraffe who absconded from a private game ranch in rural Texas and effectively went missing for nearly two weeks was found safe on Friday just a few miles away from the homestead, according to authorities.An aerial search ultimately pinpointed the whereabouts of Gracie “the w[a]ndering giraffe”, said Nathan Johnson, the Real county sheriff, in a Facebook post announcing the success of efforts to find the creature. Continue reading...

27 Jun 2026 09:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Decision leaves in place Biden-era standard on pollution from coal-fired plants, factories and other industrial sourcesA federal appeals court on Friday rejected the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempt to abandon a Biden-era rule that sets tough standards for deadly soot pollution.The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel is a setback for the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda and its repeated efforts to boost coal, a reliable but polluting energy source. Continue reading...

27 Jun 2026 14:29 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN