heatwave

France has hottest-ever day as 'unbearable' heatwave keeps scorching Europe

heatwave

Europe wilts under record heat as AC sales soar

BY ABHIK CHANDA

  • Sales of fans and air conditioners meanwhile skyrocketed in a country where most buildings are not designed to deal with extreme heat.
  • Europe braced Wednesday for another day of an unprecedented heatwave that has smashed records in many countries and sent air conditioner sales zooming in a continent unused and ill-equipped to handle searing heat.
  • Sales of fans and air conditioners meanwhile skyrocketed in a country where most buildings are not designed to deal with extreme heat.
Europe braced Wednesday for another day of an unprecedented heatwave that has smashed records in many countries and sent air conditioner sales zooming in a continent unused and ill-equipped to handle searing heat.
The extreme weather is being driven by atmospheric and circulation patterns that keep hot air trapped in place for days, causing the mercury to slowly rise, with these factors exacerbated by global warming, experts say.
France's national temperature indicator -- an average of daytime and nighttime temperatures across 30 stations -- reached 29.8C on Tuesday, the hottest since measurements began in 1947.
Sales of fans and air conditioners meanwhile skyrocketed in a country where most buildings are not designed to deal with extreme heat.
On Monday, hypermarket operator Carrefour had sold 30,000 units by 6:30 pm – "a thousand times more than on a normal day", CEO Alexandre Bompard said. 
Sales on Amazon nearly doubled last week compared with the same period in 2025, whilst electronics outlet Fnac Darty reported double-digit growth. 
Thierry, an electrician in south-west France, said he was overwhelmed by requests for "emergency" air-conditioning installations. 
"In theory, you have to submit a request to the owners' association general meeting" in residential complexes "but people don't want to wait."
"It's difficult to live" alone and without air conditioning, said Martine Belloc, a 62-year-old retiree in Bordeaux, who on Tuesday went to La ManuCo, a coworking site that mobilised to welcome elderly people.  
With four more French departments being put under the highest heat alert category Wednesday, some 44 million people are affected, according to AFP calculations. 
Added to the 31 departments currently on orange alert, more than 90 percent of the French population is exposed to extreme heat, with temperatures of 39C to 41C expected on Wednesday from Brittany to the Paris region, and in much of the south-west.
John Beeler, a 45-year-old American engineer, said he and his wife were baking in Paris.
"Visiting Paris in this heat is awful," he told AFP, wearing a fisherman's hat and holding a small fan.

'We're suffocating'

"We're suffocating in the streets, we're suffocating in the subway and we're even suffocating in our rental," he said, adding they would be moving to an air-conditioned hotel room.
Italy's health ministry declared a red heatwave alert in 16 cities on Wednesday, including Milan and Rome.
In the coming days, the heatwave is expected to extend into eastern Europe. 
Poland's weather service issued high-level heat warnings for the western part of the country from Thursday to Saturday, forecasting temperatures could break the record of 40.2C set in 1921.
Croatia's popular Adriatic coast was also put under red alert for Friday and Saturday. 
Hungary, already under a second-level heat alert, said it was raising that to the maximum level from Saturday to Tuesday as temperatures continued to rise.
The current heatwave is "significantly exacerbated by human-induced climate change", without which the current temperatures would have been 2 to 4C cooler, according to a scientific study published this week.
But some relief could start to come from the west on Wednesday, when Spain's national weather service said temperatures would drop in most of the country.
By Wednesday afternoon, only parts of the Basque country in the north will still be marked red, and on Thursday no part of Spain will be rated either red or orange.

No quick relief

But no quick relief is in sight across the rest of Western Europe.
From Wednesday until at least Friday, central and southern Netherlands will be under a code orange for extreme heat.
Anyone living in Amsterdam with a city pass may swim for free in six city outdoor pools, while national rail company NS will run fewer trains on a number of routes starting Wednesday due to the expected heat.
In Britain, James Bowen, assistant general secretary at the National Association of Head Teachers, told AFP that "pretty much every school up and down the UK will be having to make some form of adaptation this week in light of the extreme heat. 
"I think it's fair to say that the school estate in the UK is not well prepared for this level of heat," he said.
After some of France's most visited sites, such as the Louvre museum and the Eiffel Tower, decided to limit visiting hours, the management of one of Belgium's best-known monuments, the space-age Atomium in Brussels, said it will close earlier to visitors from Wednesday to Friday.
ach/gv

US

Rubio rejects Iran tolls on Hormuz as deal strains multiply

BY AFP TEAMS IN TEHRAN, WASHINGTON, BEIRUT AND JERUSALEM

  • No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway," he said, adding that he believed "all the countries in this region would agree".
  • US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington would not accept Iranian tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz, as disputes over the vital waterway, nuclear inspections, and missiles exposed early strains in negotiations to end the Middle East war.
  • No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway," he said, adding that he believed "all the countries in this region would agree".
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington would not accept Iranian tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz, as disputes over the vital waterway, nuclear inspections, and missiles exposed early strains in negotiations to end the Middle East war.
Washington and Tehran have signed a preliminary agreement to halt the conflict and concluded a first round of talks in Switzerland, opening a 60-day negotiation period on sanctions relief, Iran's nuclear programme and the future of Hormuz.
An Iranian blockade early in the war choked maritime traffic through the strait, sending global oil prices surging, but crossings have begun rising since the deal was signed.
Iran has repeatedly insisted it will retain control over the waterway.
On Tuesday, Tehran and Oman said in a joint statement that they would study the administration of the trade route and the costs to be charged for services, while insisting on their sovereignty over the strait.
Rubio, opening a regional tour in the United Arab Emirates, said Washington would oppose any such move.
"It's an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway," he said, adding that he believed "all the countries in this region would agree".
Tehran's top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, had earlier said Hormuz "will never return" to the pre-war status quo, despite both sides agreeing to set up communication lines to keep it open.
The UN's maritime agency, meanwhile, said it would begin evacuating more than 11,000 sailors stranded by the blockade, working with Iran, Oman and the United States after securing "the necessary safety guarantees".
Traffic through the strait on Monday reached its highest level since the war began, according to two maritime tracking platforms, though it remained just over 40 percent of the normal peacetime level of about 120 vessels a day.

Red lines

Diplomacy was in full swing Tuesday, with Iran's president visiting mediator Pakistan, Rubio beginning a tour of Gulf allies and Lebanon and Israel kicking off more direct talks in Washington.
But Tehran signalled that its ballistic missile programme would not be part of any final settlement.
"If the missiles we have for our defence did not exist, Israel and the United States would have ploughed Iran just like Gaza," Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in Pakistan.
He added that the Islamic republic would "never negotiate with anyone, under any circumstances, ever, about our defensive capabilities."
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed that the preliminary US-Iran agreement made no mention of ballistic missiles, saying there could not be "double standards" on which countries may possess them.
Iran fired hundreds of missiles and thousands of drones at Israel and Gulf neighbours during the war, while Israel has long viewed the programme as an existential threat.
US President Donald Trump, who previously sought to include missiles and Tehran's support for armed proxies in negotiations, appeared last week to soften his position, saying it was "a little bit unfair" for Iran not to have some missiles if other countries did.
Iran also denied a claim by US Vice President JD Vance that Tehran had agreed to invite International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back to nuclear sites bombed by the United States and Israel last year.
Trump, however, insisted Iran had "fully and completely agreed to highest level Nuclear inspections long into the future".
When the US joined Israel's previous war with Iran in mid-2025, it bombed nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, including with powerful bunker-busting munitions. 
The extent of the damage remains unknown despite Trump claiming they were "obliterated".
Iran's UN ambassador Ali Bahreini also told reporters "there hasn't been such a decision" to accept IAEA inspectors.

Sanctions and Congress

Mediators Pakistan and Qatar said both sides had agreed on a "roadmap" to reach a final agreement within the 60-day timeframe.
The US Treasury has temporarily lifted sanctions on Iran to allow it to produce, sell and deliver crude and related products until mid-August.
As part of the deal, Washington also agreed to release $12 billion in frozen funds to Iran, according to Iranian state media.
The diplomacy was also clouded by a symbolic rebuke in Washington, where the US Senate adopted a House-passed resolution calling for an end to the war with Iran.
The legislative vehicle carries disputed legal force, but the vote meant both chambers are now on-record against the conflict as negotiations continue.
On the Lebanon front, a fifth round of negotiations between Lebanese and Israeli officials began in Washington on Tuesday in a bid to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2, has repeatedly threatened to derail peace efforts. 
burs-ft/jgc

history

Cubans bid farewell to revolution hero Valdes

  • Raul Castro, 95, who was recently indicted by the United States over the 1996 downing of two civilian planes, led an honor guard at a memorial service for Valdes at the ministry of the armed forces in Havana.
  • Ex-president Raul Castro on Tuesday led tributes to one of the last leaders of Cuba's 1959 revolution, former spy chief Ramiro Valdes, who died at the weekend.
  • Raul Castro, 95, who was recently indicted by the United States over the 1996 downing of two civilian planes, led an honor guard at a memorial service for Valdes at the ministry of the armed forces in Havana.
Ex-president Raul Castro on Tuesday led tributes to one of the last leaders of Cuba's 1959 revolution, former spy chief Ramiro Valdes, who died at the weekend.
Valdes was one of the last remaining survivors, along with Castro, of the Granma expedition of 1956, when Fidel and Raul Castro and other exiled rebels sailed from Mexico to Cuba to overthrow US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Valdes died on Sunday at the age of 94.
Raul Castro, 95, who was recently indicted by the United States over the 1996 downing of two civilian planes, led an honor guard at a memorial service for Valdes at the ministry of the armed forces in Havana.
Thousands of Cubans joined him at the send-off near Revolution Square.
The Granma expedition marked the start of a guerrilla war that swept Batista from power and ushered in over six decades of socialism.
Valdes was second-in-command of a guerrilla column led by Argentina's Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
He went on to have a long career in both Fidel and Raul Castro's governments, serving twice as interior minister and once as vice president.
As interior minister in the 1960s, he also set up what would become Cuba's feared G2 state security intelligence service.
"There was no one who moved without security knowing it, and that allowed us to infiltrate counter-revolutionary organizations," he said in 2018 in a rare interview with Cuban state TV.
The memorial drew rare crowds in a city that has come to a near standstill since the United States imposed an oil blockade on Cuba in January, compounding a severe economic crisis.
Juan Antonio Rodriguez, a 71-year-old colonel in the interior ministry, mourned the loss of one of the last members of Cuba's old guard.
"At this time, we need Fidel, but well, we don't have him. And soon we won't have Raul, either. But we have to keep fighting," he told AFP.
lis-cb/dw

heatwave

'Paris in this heat is awful': Tourists change plans as sites close early

BY AMBRE DEPRES

  • Other tourist sites have also announced early closures or warnings as more than half of mainland France remains under the weather service's highest alert level.
  • The severe heatwave sweeping France on Tuesday forced the early closures of top Paris tourist hotspots the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, and left disappointed visitors sweltering with little respite.
  • Other tourist sites have also announced early closures or warnings as more than half of mainland France remains under the weather service's highest alert level.
The severe heatwave sweeping France on Tuesday forced the early closures of top Paris tourist hotspots the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, and left disappointed visitors sweltering with little respite.
Spanish nurse Maite Blazques said she had spent months saving up to bring her six-year-old son to Paris, but the record heat forced her to reorganise the whole holiday without going inside key landmarks.
"We had to change our whole trip," said the 35-year-old from Madrid, as France on Tuesday experienced its hottest day since measurements began in 1947.
"We won't be taking a guided tour of the historic Marais district, or a river boat cruise, and we won't be going up to the top of the Eiffel Tower," she said quietly, head bowed and holding her son's hand.
The operator of the Eiffel Tower said the latticed-steel  monument would "exceptionally close" early on Tuesday at 4 pm (1400 GMT), and it was "very likely" it would have shortened opening hours again on Wednesday.
The 324-metre (1,063-foot) tower, which attracts seven million tourists a year, usually stays open past midnight during the high season.
Below the landmark site, American tourist Tamara Dancer said her guided tour was cancelled on Tuesday afternoon.
"It hurt our vacation," she said.
Elsewhere in the capital, tourists armed themselves with umbrellas, hat and fans to brave pavements radiating heat.
John Beeler, a 45-year-old American engineer, said he and his wife were disappointed.
"Visiting Paris in this heat is awful," he told AFP, wearing a fisherman's hat and holding a small fan.
"We're suffocating in the streets, we're suffocating in the subway and we're even suffocating in our rental," he said, adding they would be moving to an air-conditioned hotel room.

'Put off your visit'

Drake Winners, a 66-year-old retiree from London, was also glum.
"You discover Paris by walking, but in this heat, it's impossible," he said.
Instead, he said, he was visiting museums and churches where he had a better chance of staying cool.
He was able to peruse collections at the Louvre, the world's most visited museum with around nine million visitors a year.
But management said the museum, home of iconic pieces including Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", would close at 4 pm, two hours early, from Wednesday to Saturday due to the heatwave.
It said the vast palace, built over centuries by various French monarchs and presidents, was "not sufficiently adapted to climate change".
The museum has faced a litany of problems over the past year, including a brazen $100-million jewellery heist, a water leak and other maintenance issues. 
Other tourist sites have also announced early closures or warnings as more than half of mainland France remains under the weather service's highest alert level.
The most visited tourist attraction outside of the capital region, the spectacular Mont Saint-Michel island in Normandy, on Tuesday warned visitors to "put off your visit during the red alert".
burs-ads/ah/rmb

protest

Bolivian government says cleared all protest roadblocks

  • The embattled leader has held on so far, however, and on Saturday declared a state of emergency that allows him to deploy the army and outlaw demonstrations.
  • No protest roadblocks remained standing in Bolivia on Tuesday, the government said, as it deployed the army to quell weeks-long demonstrations that had throttled roads nationwide.
  • The embattled leader has held on so far, however, and on Saturday declared a state of emergency that allows him to deploy the army and outlaw demonstrations.
No protest roadblocks remained standing in Bolivia on Tuesday, the government said, as it deployed the army to quell weeks-long demonstrations that had throttled roads nationwide.
Since early May, workers and Indigenous communities have been protesting Bolivia's worst economic crisis in decades and calling for center-right President Rodrigo Paz to resign.
The embattled leader has held on so far, however, and on Saturday declared a state of emergency that allows him to deploy the army and outlaw demonstrations.
The measure also authorizes security forces to clear roadblocks that had caused severe food, medical and fuel shortages in several cities.
There were none left by Tuesday -- down from a peak of some 100 -- according to Public Works Minister Mauricio Zamora.
"Our roads have been cleared," he posted on X.
Washington-backed Paz received another gesture of support from the United States and regional allies.  
"We are deeply concerned by the effect of violent road blockades on democracy and the rule of law in Bolivia," the US State Department said in a statement with 15 countries in Latin America. 
"We support the constitutionally elected Bolivian government and urge the mobilized groups to prioritize dialogue and negotiation within the established constitutional framework as a fundamental tool of democracy," it added.
Paz's government has accused former socialist president Evo Morales of fomenting the unrest, which has paralyzed the Andean nation.
The pro-business leader also claims, without evidence, that Morales has financial ties to drug trafficking.
Morales, the country's first Indigenous president, is in hiding in his coca-growing stronghold of Chapare to escape charges of trafficking a minor, which he denies.
On Monday, the ex-leader announced the temporary breakdown of the roadblocks in the Cochabamba region where Chapare is located.
"For now, this is a temporary pause, this is not a surrender," he said after a meeting with coca-growing leaders.
jac/sf/cc/md

heatwave

France has hottest-ever day as 'unbearable' heatwave keeps scorching Europe

BY AFP'S EUROPEAN BUREAUS

  • France the worst hit, on Tuesday had its hottest day since measurements began in 1947, the national weather agency said, after sweating through its hottest night ever recorded.
  • Workers sweated in choking heat and pupils stayed home on Tuesday as an early-summer heatwave smothered much of Europe, with France suffering its hottest day on record.
  • France the worst hit, on Tuesday had its hottest day since measurements began in 1947, the national weather agency said, after sweating through its hottest night ever recorded.
Workers sweated in choking heat and pupils stayed home on Tuesday as an early-summer heatwave smothered much of Europe, with France suffering its hottest day on record.
Schools and tourist sites closed early and railways cancelled journeys as several countries issued red alerts for much of their territory in the record-breaking heat.
"It's getting a bit more unbearable, it's hot," said Vadim Bobu, a 31-year-old building worker labouring on a construction site in Paris.
But "we don't have a choice, we have to pay the bills", he said.
France the worst hit, on Tuesday had its hottest day since measurements began in 1947, the national weather agency said, after sweating through its hottest night ever recorded.
The national temperature indicator -- an average of daytime and nighttime temperatures across 30 stations -- reached 29.8C, Meteo-France said, citing provisional data. 
Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming, and warn they are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense, driven by humans' burning of fossil fuels.
In Spain's capital Madrid, Carmen Loayza, a 50-year-old homemaker, said the heat brought on headaches and she tried not to shout at her children.
"But the heat gets to me, it overwhelms me," she said.

Heat health danger

Nearly all of Spain was under a heat alert, with parts of the south and north on the highest warning level for "extraordinary danger", national weather agency AEMET said.
As in various countries, authorities urged citizens to take extra care of vulnerable people, drink water and avoid exertion at the hottest hours.
But some workers said they had no choice but to sweat in the sun.
Removal man Valentin Fernandez told AFP he was having a "rotten time" trucking furniture and boxes in Madrid, where the temperature reached 38C.
"When the sun starts to hit you, you feel like dying. And inside the truck it's twice as bad... it's horrendous," he said, sweat soaking his shirt and running off his nose.
A lack of air conditioning at some of Spain's hospitals prompted the SATSE nurses union to issue a statement denoucing the conditions that put workers and patients at risk. 
Temperatures "reach and exceed 30C in areas" of hospital facilities, it said, while noting authorities have only recommended that they "close the windows and lower the blinds as much as possible".
Italy's health ministry declared a red heatwave alert in 15 cities including Milan and Rome.
Blackouts struck Milan and Turin because of the spike in the use of air conditioning.

UK schools close

A massive front of hot air from North Africa was smothering western Europe, Sebastien Leas, a forecaster at France's weather service Meteo-France, told AFP.
A cold front off Portugal was "acting like a heat pump, drawing up warm air", he said.
"At altitude, high pressure systems exert pressure on this warm air mass, and when we compress a warm air mass, we actually make it even hotter."
In England, dozens of schools closed early on Tuesday and were to remain shut for two more days.
"Most of our buildings cannot be cooled adequately and there is little shade outside," one school in the southeastern county of Buckinghamshire said.
The UK's Met Office weather agency issued a rare red heat warning -- for only the second time -- for parts of central and south England on Wednesday and Thursday.
Temperatures could soar to 40C, unprecedented for the time of the year -- a "sobering" prospect, according to Met Office chief scientist Stephen Belcher.
The railway line connecting northeast England to London issued a "do not travel" advisory.

'Suffocating'

Speaking at a crisis meeting, France's Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said 40 mostly young people had drowned since the heatwave started on June 18.
In Germany in Monday police said five people had died in fatal swimming accidents over the weekend.
In Paris, some tourists said their visit was an ordeal.
"We're suffocating in the streets, we're suffocating in the subway and we're even suffocating in our rental (accommodation)," said John Beeler, a 45-year-old American accompanied by his wife.
Workers at a site of automaker Stellantis near the French city of Mulhouse said they would be ending their shifts early from Tuesday to Sunday in protest at working conditions during the boiling hot weather.
"Temperatures in some workshops are close to 38–40C," union representative Salah Keltoumi said. "You're there assembling parts, but with people who turned up exhausted because they couldn't sleep properly the night before."
Austria, Poland, Hungary and Croatia each issued heat warnings for parts of their territory. Emergency services in Hungary and Slovenia reported elderly people seeking help.
bur-rmb/ach 

migration

EU hosts Taliban officials for talks on migrant returns

BY WITH AYSHA SAFI IN KABUL

  • This month, the European Union's migration chief Magnus Brunner defended the outreach, saying Brussels had no other option than to talk to the Taliban government about returning irregular migrants from Afghanistan.
  • A Taliban delegation held talks with the EU in Brussels on Tuesday on stepping up the return of failed asylum-seekers to Afghanistan, in an unprecedented visit fiercely criticised by rights advocates.
  • This month, the European Union's migration chief Magnus Brunner defended the outreach, saying Brussels had no other option than to talk to the Taliban government about returning irregular migrants from Afghanistan.
A Taliban delegation held talks with the EU in Brussels on Tuesday on stepping up the return of failed asylum-seekers to Afghanistan, in an unprecedented visit fiercely criticised by rights advocates.
The European Commission invited a five-person delegation for discussions under a push to crack down on irregular migration and boost deportations -- although the European Union does not formally recognise the Taliban administration.
"It is hoped that this visit will open new avenues for positive interaction, strengthen the process of addressing the problems of Afghans living abroad, and further expand the atmosphere of cooperation based on mutual respect and common interests," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi, who led the Taliban mission, said after the talks. 
A spokesman for the European Commission said 15 EU member states participated in the "technical level meeting" co-chaired by Sweden, underscoring broad interest for an initiative that critics said flew in the face of the 27-nation bloc's values.
"This is a shameful chapter for Europe," said Cecilia Strada, a European lawmaker with the centre-left S&D group. "The commission is legitimising a regime that tramples on the rights of women and girls." 
European governments have sought a tougher stance on migration as public opinion has hardened, fuelling far-right electoral gains across the continent.
With migrant arrivals down in 2025, the EU's focus has turned to improving the repatriation system. Currently, less than 30 percent of people who are ordered to leave actually return to their country of origin.
The commission said the talks focused on the possible return of Afghans "who have committed serious crimes and who pose a security threat" and dealt with practical issues such as identifying them and issuing travel documents.
They followed a January visit by EU officials to Afghanistan and aimed at providing member states, which are responsible for arranging repatriations, the opportunity to "establish contacts" with Taliban authorities. 
The meeting was the first by Taliban officials with EU representatives in Brussels.
"The ability to return individuals who do not have a legal right to remain in the country is a cornerstone of a credible and well-functioning asylum and migration system," Swedish Minister for Migration Johan Forssell said after the talks.

'Slap in the face'

EU nations and the commission deny that hosting Taliban officials was tantamount to recognising the government in Kabul. 
But campaigners said the outreach undermined the bloc's international standing on human rights and raised questions as to what Brussels was ready to offer Kabul in return for cooperation on migration. 
Balkhi said the discussions focused on resuming consular services for Afghans in Europe, on "confidence-building", "effective presence" and resolving "the problems of Afghans seeking asylum in Europe whose applications have not been accepted and are facing numerous difficulties".
The delegation held multilateral and bilateral meetings with EU member states, he added on X.
"It is truly a slap in the face to the values supposedly upheld by the European Union and Belgium," Ludovic Laus of Amnesty International told AFP at a small protest outside the commission offices in the Belgian capital.
European governments shut their embassies in Kabul when the Taliban authorities returned to power in 2021 and imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Women in Afghanistan must be almost entirely covered when they leave home and are banned from a host of public places, including parks and gyms, while girls' education stops at age 12.
"The Taliban have erased women and girls from public life," said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai -- who was shot by Pakistani Taliban militants aged 15 and said she was "shaken and deeply disturbed" by the EU's invitation.
As host country to the European institutions, Belgium confirmed Monday it had issued Taliban representatives five one-day visas "after a security assessment" -- valid just for Belgium and not the broader free-movement Schengen area.
This month, the European Union's migration chief Magnus Brunner defended the outreach, saying Brussels had no other option than to talk to the Taliban government about returning irregular migrants from Afghanistan.
EU countries received about a million asylum applications filed by Afghans between 2013 and 2024, according to the bloc's data agency. About half as many were approved over the period.
Around 20 of the EU's 27 member states have expressed interest in returning some migrants without a right to stay to Afghanistan.
Some countries have pushed ahead, with Germany deporting more than 100 Afghans with criminal convictions since 2024, via charter flights facilitated by Qatar, and Austria following suit.
Rights groups have questioned the legality and ethics of returning migrants to a country that is in the midst of a severe humanitarian crisis, with millions facing hunger and economic hardship, according to the United Nations.
ub-bur-ash/cw

drugs

Shootout traps tourists at Rio sunrise lookout

  • Above the favela, tourists who had gone to watch the sunrise from the Dona Marta lookout -- which offers a panoramic view of the city -- were terrified by the gun battle.
  • Dozens of tourists were trapped Tuesday at a popular sunrise viewpoint in Rio de Janeiro as a gun battle broke out between police and drug traffickers in the neighborhood below them, the second such incident affecting visitors this year.
  • Above the favela, tourists who had gone to watch the sunrise from the Dona Marta lookout -- which offers a panoramic view of the city -- were terrified by the gun battle.
Dozens of tourists were trapped Tuesday at a popular sunrise viewpoint in Rio de Janeiro as a gun battle broke out between police and drug traffickers in the neighborhood below them, the second such incident affecting visitors this year.
The clashes erupted before dawn in the Morro Dona Marta favela, where police launched an operation against the powerful Comando Vermelho (Red Command) gang, which controls many poor communities in Rio de Janeiro.
Above the favela, tourists who had gone to watch the sunrise from the Dona Marta lookout -- which offers a panoramic view of the city -- were terrified by the gun battle.
A viral video by Rio-based photographer Ari Kaye showed a group of tourists crouching down while continuous gunfire could be heard in the background.
"It was a war-like situation," Kaye, 43, who had climbed the hill before dawn, told AFP.
"There was a lot of shooting, a very panicked situation. There were about 60 people there and the gunfire lasted around 20 minutes," he said.
"I came to take a guided tour of the favela, but they told me there is a significant police presence today," said Jan Plagge, a 40-year-old German visiting Rio de Janeiro for the first time. "They caught some criminals, but it's over now and I hope the area will be safe again later." 
Claudia Viviane, a 60-year-old resident of the favela, told AFP she had been woken up by the sound of gunfire.
"The first thing you do is think about family, about our children who leave for work at 5 am," she said. 

Stray bullets

The violence spilled into the more affluent neighbourhood of Botafogo at the foot of the hillside favela, where AFP journalists witnessed a heavy police presence.
Videos posted on social media showed military police officers running down Sao Clemente Street, one of the area's main thoroughfares, carrying rifles.
A man traveling on a bus passing through this street was hit by a stray bullet, a spokesperson for Rio's association of bus companies told AFP, without providing further details. 
An evangelical church and other buildings, as well as parked vehicles, were also struck by gunfire, according to media reports.
It is the second time this year that tourists have been caught up in a police operation in the city.
In April, more than 200 visitors were stranded for two hours at Morro Dois Irmaos, another of the city's iconic lookout points.
Rio welcomed more than 2.1 million international visitors in 2025, a record.
Thursday's police operation was part of a wider offensive targeting Comando Vermelho. A raid in October in which officers clashed with heavily-armed gang members left more than 120 people dead.
Police arrested more than 360 people during that operation and seized nearly 480 weapons. Another 17 people have been killed since the October raid, according to official figures.
ll/app/fb/mjf

conflict

Zelensky to skip key Ukraine conference in Poland over WWII row

  • The row threatens to overshadow the Ukraine Recovery Conference, which is scheduled to begin in Gdansk on Thursday and aims to gather business leaders and officials to discuss the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will skip a key post-war recovery conference in Poland this week, Kyiv said Tuesday, amid a spiralling diplomatic spat between the allies over World War II memory.
  • The row threatens to overshadow the Ukraine Recovery Conference, which is scheduled to begin in Gdansk on Thursday and aims to gather business leaders and officials to discuss the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will skip a key post-war recovery conference in Poland this week, Kyiv said Tuesday, amid a spiralling diplomatic spat between the allies over World War II memory.
Zelensky infuriated Warsaw last month by naming a military unit after the nationalist Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a group that took part in massacres against Poles during World War II.
Poland's nationalist president Karol Nawrocki responded by stripping Zelensky of Warsaw's highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle, prompting several top Ukrainian officials to hand back their Polish awards.
The row threatens to overshadow the Ukraine Recovery Conference, which is scheduled to begin in Gdansk on Thursday and aims to gather business leaders and officials to discuss the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine.
Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko would lead the delegation, citing the need to avoid "excessive politicisation" and "scandals".
"Through diplomatic channels we are in constant contact," he said of relations with Poland.
Warsaw has been one of Ukraine's main allies since Russia invaded in 2022, taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees and offering itself as a logistics hub for Western support to Kyiv.
The conference -- previously held in Rome, Berlin and Lugano in Switzerland -- was meant to solidify Warsaw's position as Kyiv's neighbour and ally, amid concerns in Poland that it could be sidelined during eventual peace talks.
Earlier Tuesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk -- Nawrocki's political opponent -- sought to defuse tensions.
"I am also counting on the fact that on both the Polish and the Ukrainian side there will be more people who will be able to stand up to these moods and emotions, and who will lead both Poland and Ukraine toward the future," he said.

 'We are defending Poland'

Despite being an ally of Ukraine, Tusk has said the blame for the diplomatic crisis lies with Kyiv and called on Zelensky to reverse his decision to name the military unit after the UPA.
Poland's demand fuelled fury in Ukraine. 
Over the weekend, Zelensky accused Polish politicians of trying to score "political points" domestically and accused them of fuelling anti-Ukrainian sentiment.
"We are defending Poland, we are defending Europe right now, not the other way around. Our fighters are defending it, and Ukrainians are dying," he told Ukrainian media Sunday.
Zelensky symbolically returned the Polish award over the weekend and -- in a show of solidarity -- his predecessors Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko also sent theirs back.
The UPA fought both the Nazis and the Soviets in its quest for a Ukrainian state.
It killed thousands of Polish civilians between 1943 and 1945 in Volhynia -- a Ukrainian region that was part of Poland before World War II.
Zelensky said he named the military unit after the UPA following requests from Ukrainian soldiers, and that he had signed similar decrees "hundreds of times during the war".
"I've never told them (soldiers) what I like or don't like," he said.
Some in the Ukrainian army have invoked the legacy of the UPA as an anti-Soviet force, a trend criticised by both Warsaw and Moscow, who see the insurgents as war criminals and Nazi collaborators.
Zelensky has accused Polish politicians of trying to gain domestically from the spat ahead of parliamentary elections next year.
"You radicalise society and where will this social hatred lead? To ratings. This is a political struggle that can end badly," Zelensky said. 
Poland is home to over 1.5 million Ukrainians -- both refugees who came after 2022 and economic migrants. 
In recent weeks, there have been a string of anti-Ukrainian incidents in Poland.
burs/ach 

heatwave

What is driving Europe's heatwave?

BY NICK PERRY

  • - 'Omega block' - A circulation pattern over Europe is creating "the equivalent of a traffic jam in the atmosphere which locks in heat", Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, told AFP. A ridge of high pressure drawing hot air from North Africa is wedged between two areas of low pressure, one in central Europe and the other off the coast of Portugal.
  • Europe is baking under a scorching heatwave, with health warnings in place across western and central parts of the continent as temperatures climb to record-breaking highs.
  • - 'Omega block' - A circulation pattern over Europe is creating "the equivalent of a traffic jam in the atmosphere which locks in heat", Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, told AFP. A ridge of high pressure drawing hot air from North Africa is wedged between two areas of low pressure, one in central Europe and the other off the coast of Portugal.
Europe is baking under a scorching heatwave, with health warnings in place across western and central parts of the continent as temperatures climb to record-breaking highs.
Among the factors driving these extremes are atmospheric and circulation patterns that keep hot air trapped in place for days, causing the mercury to slowly rise.
Scientists say these weather patterns are nothing new, but heatwaves are made more intense in a world hotter because of burning fossil fuels.

'Omega block'

A circulation pattern over Europe is creating "the equivalent of a traffic jam in the atmosphere which locks in heat", Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, told AFP.
A ridge of high pressure drawing hot air from North Africa is wedged between two areas of low pressure, one in central Europe and the other off the coast of Portugal.
This is known as an "omega block". 
The pattern gets its name because the jet stream -- a current in the atmosphere that moves air and weather systems from west to east -- bends into a shape resembling the Greek letter.

Vacuum cleaner

The area of high pressure gets stuck "because of the pressure on either side", said Burgess, a climate scientist and strategic lead for climate at ECMWF.
"The jet stream gets stuck in a loop and it forces other weather systems to go around it," she said.
With little energy available to disrupt it, the omega pattern can persist for days -- or weeks -- allowing heat to stew and temperatures to intensify beneath it.
"So hence blocking -- it means that once this meteorological set-up gets going, it can just keep reinforcing itself for some time," said Will Lang, chief meteorologist at the UK's Met Office.
Sebastien Leas, a forecaster at France's weather service, likened it to a "vacuum cleaner, drawing in heat and masses of hot air rising from North Africa" and blasting it northward in a violent torrent.

Heat dome

If this pattern is very stable, the high pressure system can evolve into a "heat dome".
This acts like an atmospheric lid on a boiling pot, trapping heat beneath. Air sinking beneath the pressure warms as it is compressed, while heat near the surface cannot escape.
These conditions suppress cloud formation and favour still weather with little wind. Clearer skies allow more sunshine to cook Earth's surface, creating a heat feedback loop.
"Under the right conditions -- and you do need the right conditions -- it just gets hotter and hotter," said Lang.

Hotter world

Heat domes and omega patterns are nothing new and can form separately from each other, experts said. 
A heatwave in late May across Europe was tied to a heat dome, while a horseshoe-shaped omega pattern was identified as a key driver of a major hot spell over France in June 2025.
They are also not unique to Europe but occur in both hemispheres across the world's middle latitudes. "They can occur over the Pacific, over Europe, over North America," said Burgess.
Scientists say there has been an increase in high pressure systems in Europe in recent decades but whether this is a consequence of climate change remains a subject of debate.
Burgess said when heat domes do occur "the subsequent heatwave is more intense than it otherwise would have been without climate change". 
np/lt/rmb

US

Marco Rubio in Gulf to reassure allies hit hard by Mideast war

BY LéON BRUNEAU

  • The diplomat arrived in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday evening, where he said no country was allowed to impose tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz.
  • US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the first stop on a tour of Gulf states aimed at showing solidarity with key allies hit hard by the Middle East war.
  • The diplomat arrived in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday evening, where he said no country was allowed to impose tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the first stop on a tour of Gulf states aimed at showing solidarity with key allies hit hard by the Middle East war.
The delicate mission comes with Gulf countries having paid a heavy economic price for the US and Israel's decision to go to war with Iran against their wishes, prompting Tehran to lash out at its regional neighbours.
Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz cut off the majority of Gulf states' oil and gas exports, while its drone and missile attacks shattered their sense of safety and undermined the status of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in particular as stable, peaceful havens for business and tourism. 
It marks the first visit by a senior US official to the region since the signing last week of an initial deal between Washington and Tehran aimed at ending the war for good.
US Vice President JD Vance has taken the lead on those negotiations, which began at the weekend in Switzerland, with Rubio yet to comment.
The diplomat arrived in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday evening, where he said no country was allowed to impose tolls or fees on the Strait of Hormuz.
"It's an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That's existing international law," he said as he arrived in the United Arab Emirates.
"I don't think we have anybody to convince around here in that regard. I think all the countries in this region would agree with us."
Before the war, a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas travelled through the strait without charge.
Iran is now pushing to charge some kind of fee for ships passing through.
The US State Department earlier said Rubio would discuss the agreement with Iran, as well as efforts to ensure free transit of the Strait of Hormuz and peace and stability in the region.
His next stop is Kuwait on Wednesday followed by Bahrain on Thursday, where he will attend a meeting of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council.

'Empowered Iran' 

Analysts said that while relations remained strong, regional governments still had cause for concern.
Steven Cook, of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in Washington, said the Gulf Arab nations feared Iran emerging more powerful from the war.
"Few Gulf states believe the war should have happened in the first place, and they are all concerned that the United States empowered Iran as a result."
HA Hellyer of London's Royal United Services Institute, meanwhile, said: "I think that Rubio is probably going in order to try to reassure all of these Gulf partners... we're here and we stand by you."
"I don't know how much of it will change the equation, because again none of them are looking to push the US out or anything like that, so it's not as though anything he's going to do is going to impact that. 
"The key variable that he can't shift them about is the actual reliability of the United States."
The memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran provides for a 60-day negotiating period to secure a permanent deal, prolonging the period of uncertainty for the Gulf.
Meanwhile, the text says nothing of Iranian missiles or drones.

US not 'dependable'

Gulf leaders have enjoyed close relations with US President Donald Trump, both in his first term and now, pledging to invest billions in the US.
Nevertheless, analysts say they were left to themselves to fend off Iranian attacks and are now looking for new partners, even as they recommit to the US.
"They will deepen as much as possible their relationship with the United States, but at the same time I think what they will do is diversify their security relationships across the board, because they simply don't view the United States as being dependable and predictable," said Hellyer.
Another question is the nature of the $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran that last week's deal says Washington will undertake to develop "with regional partners".
"The United Arab Emirates is not aware of any alleged $300 billion fund and is in no way involved in it," an Emirati official told AFP on Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
lb/sar/dcp/smw/jsa/dc

weather

French farmers suffer arid crops, heat-stricken animals

BY SOFIA BOUDERBALA WITH AMELIA BLANCHOT IN LA ROCHELLE

  • He said he would hang on until next week to cut his wheat, for fear the combine harvester would spark a fire in the parched crop.
  • France's current heatwave is taking a toll on farmers, who are seeing livestock die and are racing against time to harvest cereals without sparking fires in the tinder-dry crops.
  • He said he would hang on until next week to cut his wheat, for fear the combine harvester would spark a fire in the parched crop.
France's current heatwave is taking a toll on farmers, who are seeing livestock die and are racing against time to harvest cereals without sparking fires in the tinder-dry crops.
Stephane Delapre, a farmer in Beauvoir-sur-Mer, near the western coast, said half his chickens had died of suffocation on Monday.
"In 42 years, I've never seen that," he told AFP as he waited for an official to collect the carcasses.
Depre raises around 17,500 free-range hens and 70,000 quails in sheds with outdoor runs.
"We put in a few fans but... it went up to 40–41C. There was nothing we could do," he said.
Sixty kilometres (40 miles) away, Regis Bonnin, 57, said he had set up misting systems to cool his 120 dairy cows, who were producing four to five litres less milk per day.
He had already lost a heifer with weak lungs and feared future reproductive problems.
He said he would hang on until next week to cut his wheat, for fear the combine harvester would spark a fire in the parched crop.
Neighbours had "already put out two blazes".
His main crop worry was his maize yield. 
"If it flowers when temperatures are above 30C the pollen will be sterile," meaning the ears of corn will have fewer grains, he said glumly.

Pressure cooker

The heat also generates logistical headaches.
Sebastien Mery, who farms wheat and rapeseed in the Gatinais region, south of Paris, harvests early in the morning and late at night to avoid the worst of the heat.
But those timings mean he cannot get the cereal straight to a local silo because they are not open then.
Where regional authorities have banned harvesting between 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm, some silos are now opening overnight.
Stephane Baron, from Charente-Maritime, western France, is bracing for disastrous harvests, due to downpours in February and successive heatwaves in May and June.
His soft wheat yield was half what was needed for the crop to be profitable, he said.
France's powerful intensive-farming union FNSEA said maize and sunflowers were likely to survive this year "with a bit of water" but wheat could be problematic.
"Sometimes the wheat's too dry, so the grain is too small and risks being thrown out with the straw" by the combine harvester, said Franck Laborde, FNSEA's head of climate risk.
The worst heatwave in most French farmers' memory was the disaster of 2003.
But that came in August, when crops were already three-quarters grown, Bonnin pointed out.
This time, the searing heat has come much earlier in the growing cycle.
"The difference now is we've got a succession of extreme events," said Inaki Garcia de Cortazar-Atauri of research institute INRAE.
"There's no magic formula against the pressure-cooker effect," he said, but stressed that environmental farming practices offer a "framework" for adaptation that can be developed "in every region and every sector".
ame-sb/gil/rlp

drugs

Shootout traps tourists at Rio sunrise lookout

  • Above the favela, tourists who had gone to watch the sun rise from the Dona Marta lookout -- a popular spot for its panoramic view of the city -- were left terrified by the gun battle.
  • Dozens of tourists were trapped Tuesday at a popular sunrise viewpoint in Rio de Janeiro as a gun battle broke out between police and drug traffickers, in the second such incident to affect visitors to the city this year.
  • Above the favela, tourists who had gone to watch the sun rise from the Dona Marta lookout -- a popular spot for its panoramic view of the city -- were left terrified by the gun battle.
Dozens of tourists were trapped Tuesday at a popular sunrise viewpoint in Rio de Janeiro as a gun battle broke out between police and drug traffickers, in the second such incident to affect visitors to the city this year.
The clashes erupted before dawn in the Morro Dona Marta favela, where police launched an operation against the powerful Comando Vermelho (Red Command) gang, which controls many poor communities in Rio de Janeiro.
Above the favela, tourists who had gone to watch the sun rise from the Dona Marta lookout -- a popular spot for its panoramic view of the city -- were left terrified by the gun battle.
Images shared on social media showed a group of people crouching down while continuous gunfire could be heard in the background.
"It was a war-like situation," Rio photographer Ari Kaye, 43, who had climbed the hill before dawn, told AFP.
"There was a lot of shooting, a very panicked situation. There were about 60 people there and the gunfire lasted around 20 minutes," he said.
Visits to the area were suspended.
"I came to take a guided tour of the favela, but they told me there is a significant police presence today," said Jan Plagge, a 40-year-old German visiting Rio de Janeiro for the first time. "They caught some criminals, but it's over now and I hope the area will be safe again later." 
The violence spread to the affluent neighborhood of Botafogo.
Videos posted on social media showed military police officers running down Sao Clemente Street, one of the area's main thoroughfares, carrying rifles.
AFP journalists observed a heavy police presence in the area.
It is the second time this year that tourists have been caught up in a police operation in the city.
In April, more than 200 visitors were stranded for two hours at Morro Dois Irmaos, another of the city's iconic lookout points.
Rio welcomed more than 2.1 million international visitors in 2025, a historic record.
ll/app/fb/md

Global Edition

Starmer vows 'orderly' transition as Labour MPs mull bid to be PM

BY PETER HUTCHISON

  • "The prime minister said he would seek to make the transition as easy as possible, giving his full support to whoever followed in his footsteps," a government readout of the meeting said.
  • Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged Tuesday to make the transition of power "as easy as possible", as two Labour lawmakers considered whether to challenge frontrunner Andy Burnham amid concern about a coronation.
  • "The prime minister said he would seek to make the transition as easy as possible, giving his full support to whoever followed in his footsteps," a government readout of the meeting said.
Outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged Tuesday to make the transition of power "as easy as possible", as two Labour lawmakers considered whether to challenge frontrunner Andy Burnham amid concern about a coronation.
Starmer, who announced on Monday he was stepping down after losing the support of his own MPs, has authorised so-called access talks with prospective successors to begin "as soon as possible," Downing Street said.
The PM, in office for almost two years, told his senior ministerial team during their weekly meeting that he wanted an "orderly" handover and whoever replaces him "to succeed". 
"The prime minister said he would seek to make the transition as easy as possible, giving his full support to whoever followed in his footsteps," a government readout of the meeting said.
Labour veteran Burnham, 56, is the overwhelming favourite to replace Starmer, despite only becoming eligible for the top job after winning a parliamentary by-election last Thursday.
The ex-Manchester mayor was clapped and cheered as some 200 Labour MPs welcomed him back to parliament after a nine-year absence for his swearing in on Monday, hours after Starmer tendered his resignation.
Starmer's official spokesman told reporters that meetings between Burnham's team and senior civil servants could begin before nominations to become Labour leader open on July 9.
Nominations close on July 16 and Burnham could be in 10 Downing Street by the following day if he is unchallenged.

UK's 'best interests'

Former armed forces minister Al Carns told an event Tuesday that he wanted to hear Burnham's "vision" for the country before deciding whether or not to stand.
"We'll see where we go from there," he added.
UK media reported that government minister Darren Jones was being encouraged to run by some MPs.
A person close to Jones told AFP that he was keeping his options open until Burnham lays out more detailed plans for government, particularly on the economy, but that he considered a run "very unlikely".
Burnham is due to begin setting out his policy platform next week with a speech on his economic plans.
Government minister Nick Thomas-Symonds echoed the views of many Labour lawmakers on Tuesday when he told Sky News that a "swift transition" was in "the best interests of the country".
A contest would last for several weeks and could be bitterly divisive, but some MPs insist forcing Burnham to win a contest would add legitimacy to his premiership since he would have become prime minister without winning a general election.
The Labour party won a landslide victory at the July 2024 general election and is the biggest party in parliament, meaning its leader automatically has the right to be prime minister.

'Unity now'

Labour MP John Slinger told BBC radio that the public would think "we'd slightly lost our minds if we didn't go through a process where we subject people who aspire to the highest office in the land to completely normal scrutiny".
Fellow backbencher Nadia Whittome also called for a contest, telling the BBC that "candidates setting out their stall transparently" would make Labour and the government "stronger".
Burnham's path to Number 10 looks clear after his nearest rival for the top job, Wes Streeting, announced on Monday he would not compete for the top job.
Any challenger would likely find it difficult to secure the support of the 81 of Labour's 403 MPs needed to join a race.
"Andy has such a head of steam it would be quixotic," one Labour MP, who asked not to be named, told AFP, adding that a contest would be "hugely expensive and time-consuming".
"We need unity now," he said.
har-pdh/jkb/pdw

conflict

Israel's 'deliberate targeting' of children part of ongoing Gaza 'genocide': UN probe

  • This, it said, was a key factor in establishing "the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza".
  • Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children in what has become a key factor in an ongoing "genocide" in Gaza, United Nations investigators charged on Tuesday, in a report slammed by Israel.
  • This, it said, was a key factor in establishing "the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza".
Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children in what has become a key factor in an ongoing "genocide" in Gaza, United Nations investigators charged on Tuesday, in a report slammed by Israel.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry said it had found evidence that "Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces".
This, it said, was a key factor in establishing "the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza".
The three-member investigative team, which does not speak for the UN itself, first determined in a report last September that Israel had committed "genocide" in the war in Gaza -- a finding Israel flatly rejected.
In Tuesday's follow-up report, they said the intense scale and systematic nature of Israeli military operations had continued, resulting in the "unprecedented" death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children.
There were "reasonable grounds" to conclude that Israel's authorities and security forces "have continued to commit the crime of genocide" in Gaza, they said.
Israel, which has long been harshly critical of the commission, slammed the report as "defamatory" and a "libellous sham".
It accused the investigators of ignoring "the brutal tactics of Hamas, which ruthlessly attacks Israeli children and uses Palestinian children as human shields".

Childhood 'erased' in Gaza

The commission, which was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, examined for its latest report crimes affecting Palestinian children, and how living conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza were "resulting in preventable mortality of children".
"Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, and war crimes in the West Bank," the team said in a statement.
The commission said that severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation, and the collapse of education and healthcare had "erased childhood" in Gaza and would continue to affect the children throughout their lives.
"By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future," said Indian judge Srinivasan Muralidhar, who chairs the inquiry.
As for documenting crimes, Muralidhar added: "Israeli soldiers have themselves put in the public domain so much incriminating evidence about what they've been doing."

'Strategy to destroy'

The report comes days after the UN children's agency UNICEF said at least 265 children had been killed and hundreds more wounded in Gaza since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect.
The Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory response in Gaza has killed more than 72,800 people, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry,
The UN inquiry said that during the first two years of the war at least 20,179 children were killed and 44,143 injured "as a direct result of the hostilities in Gaza".
The killing and maiming of Palestinian children "was part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group", it said.

Disability a 'demographic reality'

Israel was responsible for causing a "severe orphan crisis", while wounded youngsters "face a lifetime of disability", the report said.
The siege of Gaza "directly undermined reproductive and newborn health", while the collapse of public health programmes "eroded the conditions necessary for a healthy next generation".
The report listed Israeli divisions, brigades and units that may be responsible for killing children, in specific incidents in Gaza and the West Bank.
"We know who they are," commissioner Chris Sidoti told a press conference.
"Every international legal norm has been violated by the actions of the Israeli authorities towards Palestinian children -- and they need to be held accountable."
Addressing Israeli citizens directly, he said: "What kind of people are your leaders when they give orders, they make statements, that encourage this kind of conduct: not merely permit it, but encourage it?"
Besides Gaza, the commission also documented a sharp increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
The commission urged all UN member states, including Israel, to ensure accountability for crimes committed.
rjm/nl/giv

heatwave

Europe: the world's fastest-warming continent

BY LAURENT THOMET

  • - Rapidly warming Arctic - Another major reason is geography as Europe is connected to the Arctic, which is 3.2C warmer than in preindustrial times.
  • The latest heatwave sweeping across Europe is a stark reminder that it is the world's fastest-warming continent, stretching into an Arctic that is heating at an even greater pace.
  • - Rapidly warming Arctic - Another major reason is geography as Europe is connected to the Arctic, which is 3.2C warmer than in preindustrial times.
The latest heatwave sweeping across Europe is a stark reminder that it is the world's fastest-warming continent, stretching into an Arctic that is heating at an even greater pace.
Britain, France, Italy and Spain have issued red alerts and health warnings for much of their territory this week as the region endures its second heat episode since May.
Here is a look at why Europe is warming faster than elsewhere:

A higher degree

The planet as a whole is around 1.4C warmer than in preindustrial times, defined as 1850-1900.
By comparison, Europe is around 2.4C hotter than the preindustrial era, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
The long-term rise in global average temperatures is mainly due to greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil, gas and coal, but it varies by regions due to a combination of factors.
Land warms faster than the ocean as water can absorb more heat and cool through evaporation.

Changing weather patterns

Shifts in atmospheric circulation have driven more frequent and more intense heatwaves in the European summer, according to Copernicus.
High-pressure systems, which bring settled weather and higher temperatures, have become more common in Europe, Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo said.
"If you look over the last 20, 30 years, there has been a prevalence, especially in summer, of those sort of anticyclonic conditions that are making heatwaves more likely," Buontempo told AFP.
Whether the increased frequency of that specific type of high-pressure system is due to climate change or is just a "statistical fluctuation" is still a scientific debate, he said.
The heatwave that hit Europe in May was due to a "heat dome", a large high-pressure system that stalls over a region and acts like a lid trapping hot air.
This week's heat episode is due to an "omega" pattern, whose name comes from its shape similar to the Greek letter.
The massive front of hot air from North Africa is similar to a heat dome but "more dynamic", Sebastien Leas, a forecaster at France's weather service Meteo-France, told AFP.
"We have a cold front located off the coast of Portugal that is acting like a heat pump, drawing up warm air... at altitude, high-pressure systems exert pressure on this warm air mass, and when we compress a warm air mass, we actually make it even hotter," he said.

Rapidly warming Arctic

Another major reason is geography as Europe is connected to the Arctic, which is 3.2C warmer than in preindustrial times.
The region's rising temperatures are partly due to a process known as the albedo feedback.
Bright snow and ice reflect much of the sun's heat back into space, but as they melt they reveal darker, heat-absorbing surfaces such as land and the ocean.
In other parts of Europe, areas where snow was very frequent in winter have seen this coverage shrink, exposing dark land.

Falling air pollution

Stricter air quality regulations have reduced aerosol emissions since the 1980s.
But tackling the pollutant had the side effect of contributing to global warming, as these tiny airborne particles have a cooling effect by reflecting sunlight and making clouds more reflective.

Varying degrees

The rate of temperature change varies across Europe.
Eastern and southeastern Europe, and parts of central Europe including the Alps, have warmed by 0.5C-1C per decade over the last 30 years, according to Copernicus.
Western and southwestern Europe, and sub-Arctic Finland, Norway and Sweden, warmed by 0.2C-0.5C per decade.
Svalbard, a Norwegian Arctic archipelago that is home to polar bears, has reached warming of 1.5C-2C per decade. 
One of the fastest-warming places on Earth, Svalbard had record high summer temperatures from 2022 to 2024. Last year it saw its fourth warmest summer on record.
lt/np/js

UN

UN chief urges AI firms to 'come clean' over environmental footprint

BY LAURENT THOMET

  • Guterres launched an AI Environmental Transparency Initiative, urging every major artificial intelligence company to measure and publicly disclose their environmental impact as well as commit to powering every data centre with renewable energy by 2030.
  • UN chief Antonio Guterres challenged AI firms on Tuesday to disclose their growing environmental footprint as part of a push for faster global action to curb climate change.
  • Guterres launched an AI Environmental Transparency Initiative, urging every major artificial intelligence company to measure and publicly disclose their environmental impact as well as commit to powering every data centre with renewable energy by 2030.
UN chief Antonio Guterres challenged AI firms on Tuesday to disclose their growing environmental footprint as part of a push for faster global action to curb climate change.
As Europe bakes under a second heatwave in as many months, Guterres delivered a speech in London that painted a stark picture of a planet that has just endured its 11 hottest years on record.
"Climate chaos is accelerating before our eyes," Guterres said, while the energy crisis, fuelled by war in the Middle East, is "exposing the folly of a world hooked on hydrocarbons".
"It is clear that our world is facing a Tale of Two Crises," Guterres said, referencing the 19th century British writer Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities". 
"On the surface, these crises may seem separate. But they share the same destructive origin: Fossil fuels," he said at London Climate Action Week, an annual gathering of policymakers, company executives and NGOs.
Guterres pushed for a rapid transition to renewable energy while announcing new initiatives to combat methane emissions and address concerns over the environmental impact of energy-hungry data centres.
The growing energy, water and land use of data centres -- vast server warehouses powering AI and other digital services -- is putting pressure on local communities and the environment.
"It is time to come clean," Guterres said. "If AI is to help build a better future, it must be honest about what it costs us now."
Guterres launched an AI Environmental Transparency Initiative, urging every major artificial intelligence company to measure and publicly disclose their environmental impact as well as commit to powering every data centre with renewable energy by 2030.
A UN study earlier this month found that the facilities consumed more electricity than all but 10 countries in 2025. By 2030, they could use more power than all but five countries, the study found.
About 30 percent of the electricity consumed by data centres comes from coal, followed by renewables at 27 percent, natural gas at 26 percent and nuclear at 15 percent, according to the International Energy Agency.
A coalition of dozens of cities announced Tuesday a "Global Urban Data Centres Pact" aiming to ensure that the facilities are built in a way that minimises their environmental impact.
"AI and digital infrastructure will play a major role in the future prosperity of cities around the world, but residents are right to expect growth to be managed responsibly," said London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

'Far greater urgency'

The UN chief's warning came as Europe's latest heatwave brought record temperatures in France and seared other European countries this week.
Guterres warned that the world was "dangerously" off track in efforts to reach the global goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
Countries agreed to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5C above preindustrial levels under the 2015 Paris Agreement, but scientists now say that threshold could be breached by about 2030.
"We must act with far greater urgency to strictly limit the magnitude and duration of any overshoot beyond 1.5C," Guterres said.
The United Nations Scientific Advisory Board released a report outlining the dangers of crossing irreversible climate tipping points, from ice melt that would further raise sea levels to the collapse of coral reefs and Amazon decline.

'Long overdue'

Guterres called for a rapid cut in CO2 emissions from oil, gas and coal -- the main driver of long-term warming, which remains in the atmosphere for centuries.
The UN chief also called for renewed efforts to reduce methane emissions, which account for one-third of warming and are about 80 times more potent than CO2 but break down in the atmosphere in a decade or two.
Guterres said the agriculture and waste sectors must take steps to curb their methane output but he put a "special focus" on the fossil fuel industry to "do what is long overdue".
Around 70 percent of oil and gas methane emissions can be eliminated with existing technology, but some 167 billion cubic metres of gas were flared in 2025 alone, as much as Africa consumes in a year, he said.
He called on governments to set a "new global standard" for the oil and gas sector that would lead to "near-zero" methane emissions.
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economy

UK and markets await Burnham's economic plans

BY OLIVIER DEVOS AND CLEMENT ZAMPA

  • "A change in leadership... may alter the size of the state.
  • Andy Burnham, expected to become Britain's next prime minister after Keir Starmer resigned, has set out to reassure investors concerned that state spending and debt could rise under his leadership.
  • "A change in leadership... may alter the size of the state.
Andy Burnham, expected to become Britain's next prime minister after Keir Starmer resigned, has set out to reassure investors concerned that state spending and debt could rise under his leadership.
Burnham would like to see a partial renationalisation of the UK's water and energy industries, which would cost billions of pounds and follow Starmer's move to bring Britain's train operators under state control. 
AFP looks at how the Labour government's economic policies could change under Burnham, who is viewed as more left-leaning than Starmer.

What course for the economy?

Burnham, who stepped down as mayor of Greater Manchester ahead of his parliamentary by-election victory last week, has been fairly vague regarding his economic intentions should he become premier.   
But after being re-elected as an MP on Friday, he launched an attack on "trickle-down economics" -- the idea that wealth created by the most affluent eventually benefits everyone.
"We do need to bring down water bills, energy bills, rail fares, just as we've brought down bus fares in Greater Manchester to make life more affordable for people," Burnham said.
In the same speech, the advocate of "business-friendly socialism" called for "a new drive of reindustrialisation" across the country, suggesting greater state spending and possible tax increases.
According to Britain's Press Association, Burnham will use a speech next week to confirm that he backs finance minister Rachel Reeves's strict fiscal rule that day-to-day government spending be balanced against tax revenues.
Burnham, who supports a need to bring down government debt, will also use the speech to lay out key aspects of his proposed economic policy.

What do investors think?

If under Burnham "the government sets out a credible economic and fiscal strategy then the markets will be fine", Jonathan Portes, a professor of economics and public policy at King's College, London told AFP.
"This doesn't preclude some relatively minor modification of the fiscal rules to allow somewhat more borrowing for investment, but not for current spending," he said.
Financial markets have so far taken Burnham's election win and Starmer's resignation in stride, with the pound avoiding any sharp falls and the UK's benchmark 10-year government bond yield dipping. 
"Burnham has been on a charm offensive to win over those all-important bond markets as speculation has been mounting about his likely ascension to the top job," said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at the trading group AJ Bell.
But Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at global financial services firm Ebury, cautioned that the "transition itself will introduce a period of uncertainty that markets will find uncomfortable". 
At the same time, Burnham would inherit a British economy that showed signs of picking up before the US-Iran war hindered growth and pushed up inflation.

New finance minister?

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is viewed as a strong favourite to succeed Reeves as finance minister, with her position said to be at risk after Starmer's resignation Monday.
"A change in leadership... may alter the size of the state. But it won't change the fiscal realities," said Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics research group.
"Those on the 'soft left' of the Labour Party (like Miliband) may be more inclined to raise spending and borrowing than those on the 'soft right', who would probably offset any spending rises with spending cuts elsewhere or tax hikes," she added.
Other names mentioned as a possible replacement for Reeves include interior minister Shabana Mahmood, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and former health minister Wes Streeting, who is backing Burnham to become prime minister. 
ode-zap/bcp/jkb/js

heatwave

More records set to fall as deadly Europe heatwave drags on

BY AFP'S EUROPEAN BUREAUS

  • It comes just a month after a previous stretch of unseasonably high temperatures scorched western Europe, with scientists warning that the increasingly frequent, lengthy and intense periods of extreme heat are a clear marker of human-driven global warming.
  • Europe on Tuesday braced for more extreme weather as a deadly heatwave threatened fresh temperature records in Britain, with trains disrupted and hospitals across the continent preparing for an influx of heat-afflicted patients.
  • It comes just a month after a previous stretch of unseasonably high temperatures scorched western Europe, with scientists warning that the increasingly frequent, lengthy and intense periods of extreme heat are a clear marker of human-driven global warming.
Europe on Tuesday braced for more extreme weather as a deadly heatwave threatened fresh temperature records in Britain, with trains disrupted and hospitals across the continent preparing for an influx of heat-afflicted patients.
The latest heatwave has raised fears of the effects of climate change-supercharged extreme weather on vulnerable people, while forcing the cancellation of outdoor events, causing transport chaos and shuttering schools.
It comes just a month after a previous stretch of unseasonably high temperatures scorched western Europe, with scientists warning that the increasingly frequent, lengthy and intense periods of extreme heat are a clear marker of human-driven global warming.

France crisis meeting

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu was scheduled to hold a crisis meeting on Tuesday, an aide said, after forecaster Meteo France reported that the country's average temperature had broken a record for the month of June.
Average daytime and nighttime temperatures reached 29.2C on Monday, beating the previous high reached on June 30, 2025, according to provisional data, while the central village of Chateaumeillant recorded a sweltering 43.3C.
French authorities blamed the extreme weather for the deaths of two children, aged two and four, found on Monday in their family car in a residential parking lot in the southern town of Carpentras.
The day before, three elderly people died in their residence in Gironde in the southwest as a result of the high temperatures.
At the Pean nursing home for the retired in Paris, the staff have jumped into action to protect vulnerable residents, carrying around pitchers of water.
"It's not enough to put down a glass of water and tell them to drink. You have to be sure they actually do," said head nurse Badra Hamadi.

UK record under threat

Weeks after the UK broke its May temperature record, the British weather forecaster issued a top-level weather warning for only the second time in its history, covering parts of England for Wednesday and Thursday.
"It is now likely the current highest temperature on record for June will be broken, this being 35.6C recorded in Southampton in June 1976 and Camden Square in June 1957," the Met Office said.
That milestone is set to be topped as early as Tuesday in southern England, where the weather forecaster expects highs of 37C, before the temperatures potentially rise to as high as 40C in some places on Wednesday and Thursday.
The warning runs from 9:00 am (0800 GMT) on Wednesday to 9:00 pm on Thursday and covers a large area of central and southern England, including London and Birmingham, the UK's two largest cities.
Schools in southwest England said they were planning to finish the day early and a train company said it was cancelling or changing some of its services out of London because of the "severe weather".

Italy on high alert

Italy's health ministry declared a red heatwave alert in 15 cities including Milan and Rome for Tuesday and said the number would go up to 16 on Wednesday.
During a red alert -- the highest level -- the ministry advises people to eat light, stay indoors in the hottest parts of the day and sprinkle themselves with cool water.
In the capital, the transport authority admitted that the batteries on the city's new electric buses are running out before the end of the drivers' shifts because of more intensive use of air conditioning.
"We are organising the service to face up to this unusual heatwave," the Atac transport authority was quoted by the Corriere della Sera daily as saying.

Iberian 'climate refuge'

In Spain's capital, Madrid, where temperatures peaked at 40C on Monday, city hall set up a "climate refuge" for homeless and vulnerable people, open between midday and 8:00 pm, which provides water, food and hygiene facilities.
In the southern city of Cordoba, doctor Clarisa Arismendi, 32, was trying to take a break from the heat.
"Eating an ice cream because it's horrible, it feels catastrophic. I don't know what temperature we're at, but it feels horrendous... and I'm from Mexico," she told AFP.
Portugal's weather agency is expecting Tuesday to be the peak of the heatwave in the Iberian nation.

Drownings rise

French Sports and Youth Minister Marina Ferrari told the France Inter broadcaster Tuesday that around 20 people had drowned since the beginning of the weekend.
She urged swimmers flocking to the country's waters in a bid to beat the heat to respect safety rules.
That warning carried over to Germany, where police said five people had died in fatal swimming accidents over the weekend.
burs-sbk/jhb

US

Iran says to oversee Hormuz as Swiss talks conclude

BY ROBIN MILLARD WITH AFP TEAMS IN TEHRAN, WASHINGTON, BEIRUT AND JERUSALEM

  • The Strait of Hormuz had reopened last week, after Washington and Tehran reached an agreement, but Tehran announced on Saturday it had closed it again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
  • Tehran voiced Tuesday its intent to maintain control over the vital Strait of Hormuz, a crucial question in the Middle East war talks with Washington that just wrapped up in Switzerland.
  • The Strait of Hormuz had reopened last week, after Washington and Tehran reached an agreement, but Tehran announced on Saturday it had closed it again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
Tehran voiced Tuesday its intent to maintain control over the vital Strait of Hormuz, a crucial question in the Middle East war talks with Washington that just wrapped up in Switzerland.
Vice President JD Vance called the negotiations a "very good foundation" for a final deal to end the conflict, noting on Monday that Washington suspended sanctions on Iranian oil.
But critical questions like Iran's nuclear programme and Hormuz, a major conduit for the world's oil supply, have not been resolved despite an initial deal between Washington and Teheran. 
Technical talks that followed higher level negotiations in Switzerland have concluded, with working groups to be set up on nuclear issues and sanctions, Iran's state media reported Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump has demanded an unconditional reopening of Hormuz to marine traffic, however Iran again pushed back fiercely. 
"The Strait of Hormuz will never return to its pre-war conditions and will be administered by the Islamic Republic of Iran, in accordance with international law," Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, state media reported Tuesday.
The Strait of Hormuz had reopened last week, after Washington and Tehran reached an agreement, but Tehran announced on Saturday it had closed it again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

Frozen funds

Tehran and Washington have agreed to establish a line of communication "to avoid incidents and miscommunication with the aim of safe passage for commercial vessels" through the waterway, according to Qatari and Pakistani mediators.
As part of their deal, Washington agreed to release $12 billion in frozen funds to Iran, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday, and temporarily suspend sanctions on oil from the Islamic republic.
The US Treasury said the decision involved temporarily lifting sanctions on Iran to allow it to produce, sell and deliver crude and related products through August 21.
Vance said Iranian assets had not yet been unfrozen as part of the deal and that, if they were, they would be used to buy US goods such as soybeans and would not fund terrorism.
Iran has been subject to asset freezes and sweeping sanctions by the United States and other Western countries since its 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The round of negotiations launched this weekend in Switzerland raised hopes for a lasting settlement of the conflict and pushed down oil prices.
The negotiations, in which Pakistan and Qatar are playing a mediating role, are aimed at producing a final document within a renewable 60-day deadline.
Diplomacy toward a deal continued Tuesday, with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to travel to Pakistan, state media reported, following the talks in Switzerland.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was due to start a trip to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain to discuss the deal and "efforts to secure full and free safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz," his spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

Progress on talks

The developments come after mediators Pakistan and Qatar said the US and Iranian negotiators reached agreement on a "roadmap towards reaching a final deal within 60 days".
"Encouraging progress has been made," they said, including a contact channel set up to "avoid incidents and miscommunication" in the Strait of Hormuz.
Vance said Iran would allow UN nuclear inspectors to return to the country, but Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said for his part that "a very brief discussion took place regarding the nuclear issue, but there was no discussion of details."
Set up by the 2015 agreement torn up by Trump in 2018, these inspections were suspended by Iran after the Israeli-American bombings of its facilities in June 2025. 
Since then, International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have not been able to visit the sites hit, leaving doubts hanging over the state of the Islamic Republic's stocks of highly enriched uranium, a major point of contention with Washington.
Tehran has always denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, while remaining adamant about its right to develop a full civilian nuclear fuel cycle. 
On the Lebanese front, which Tehran insisted on including in the discussions, a conflict management cell is to be set up to halt the fighting between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement, which dragged Lebanon into the war in early March.
On Monday, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said he had received a call from Vance regarding "the issue of consolidating the ceasefire in Lebanon, stopping the Israeli military escalation and steps that should be taken in this regard, including the possibility of forming a cell for this purpose". 
The offensive in Lebanon, which Israel says is intended to prevent Hezbollah attacks, has left more than 4,100 dead and over a million displaced, according to the authorities. 
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