Good morning.
When the temperature in Sicily is approaching 50C, you know something is wrong.
When most of Italy’s major cities have issued warnings of dangerous conditions, wildfires burn for days on end across Greece, and staff at the Acropolis and other ancient sites are refusing to work because it’s too hot, it becomes harder to ignore that, while Europe has always had seasonal heatwaves, something more extreme is happening.
The science, of course, is very clear on the global heating emergency, but evidence of its escalating effects in Europe has been more widespread than ever over the past fortnight. Surely, as this situation worsens, governments will take meaningful action to combat the crisis? Surely now voters will demand it?
Ajit Niranjan is the Guardian’s European environment correspondent, based in Berlin and Brussels. I spoke to him about how the countries affected have responded to the current heat crisis – and what needs to happen before real political change takes place. First, today’s headlines.
Five big stories
New Zealand | Two people died and six people were injured after a shooting at a building site in Auckland city centre, hours before the Women’s World Cup is due to start. The gunman was also dead. New Zealand’s PM, Chris Hipkins, said the World Cup would proceed as planned.
Politics | Almost 200,000 families living under Labour-run councils are affected by the two-child benefit cap, a Guardian analysis has revealed. Keir Starmer’s decision not to scrap the policy if Labour wins power has led to attacks from anti-poverty campaigners and disquiet from senior figures in the party.
Health | MPs have urged the government to introduce restrictions on the packaging and marketing of disposable vapes to tackle the “alarming trend” of children using these addictive products. The health and social care committee said there should be restrictions on how e-cigarettes are sold, in line with those applied to tobacco products.
Slavery | Caribbean countries are considering approaching the UN’s international court of justice for a legal opinion on demanding compensation from 10 European countries over slavery, as the fight for reparative justice is stepped up. Ralph Gonsalves, the current leader of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, said he is also looking for an apology from the British government and expressed disappointment in Rishi Sunak’s lack of engagement in the matter.
Strikes | A strike by train staff in the RMT union will severely affect rail services across Britain in the next week. About 20,000 RMT members at 14 train operators will strike for 24 hours on Thursday and again on Saturday, coinciding with the end of a week-long overtime ban by train drivers in the Aslef union. The 10 days of transport disruption will coincide with the peak summer holiday getaway weekend.
In depth: ‘It’s shaping up to be one of the most damaging summers that we’ve seen’
It is not just Europe that has been experiencing extreme weather this month: South Korea has been battered by heavy rain, inmates in US prisons are dying from the extreme heat, while a region of China recorded a record-shattering 52.2C.
But while those in southern Europe have long endured high temperatures in summer, adapting their lifestyles over centuries to accommodate the heat, many of the conditions they now regularly face are unprecedented.
More than 60,000 people died in Europe as a result of the heat last summer, Ajit says. “And this year is already shaping up to be one of the most damaging summers that we’ve seen.
“We’ve already heated the planet 1.2C by burning fossil fuels and destroying nature. And climate scientists can say confidently that this heatwave has already been made hotter because of the fuels we have burned.”
That means record-breaking temperatures across a huge area, and an increased risk to life – especially for vulnerable people. Older women are particularly at risk, he says, for reasons that are not yet fully clear. “We’re seeing massive chunks of Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece are under heatwave warnings. [There is no question] that we are now in this very hot, horrible world.”
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Reasons for hope – and driving the message home
These are frightening facts to acknowledge – but there are some glimmers of optimism, he says. For one, the fact that the evidence is increasingly hard to ignore does mean people are more aware that climate change is real.
“It’s safe to say that more of the media coverage of heatwaves [goes beyond] pictures of people in bikinis on beaches, having ice cream. It’s likely climate change will be mentioned in the article somewhere. Within rich, western European countries, there has definitely been a noticeable shift.”
And yet, Ajit says, the picture varies widely across Europe; while he sees some improvement in climate coverage in Germany, France, the UK and Spain, for instance, Italy’s rightwing-dominated media has been more focused this week on the foreign coverage of the heatwave than its effects.
“Even though we are seeing big progress, we still very much at the beginning of that curve,” says Ajit. “It’s understandable that somebody sitting at home who reads the paper once a week, or listens to radio once in a while, doesn’t realise how threatening this is to their own health – and how much worse it’s been made through policy choices.
“Ultimately, there’s a huge gap in fundamental awareness of how serious the problem is. It’s not just about saying, ‘We’re worried about climate change,’ but perhaps understanding that your gran might be more likely to die in the next weeks, because burning fossil fuels made the heatwave hotter.”
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Changing planet, changing minds
Even where populations understand the reality, though, there can be a lack of willingness to make changes, whether through the influence of powerful lobby groups, or individual self-interest, says Ajit.
“If you take Germany as an example, you’ve got a very high level of public support for climate action. If you talk to people across the political spectrum and say, ‘Do you want to stop climate change?’ they say, yes. ‘Are you worried about climate change?’ They say, yes. But if you ask them, ‘Should we put speed limit on the motorway?’, half of them say no.”
Politicians know this – Rishi Sunak’s five key priorities for 2023 make no mention of the climate, despite a very high proportion of Britons saying they are worried about it. Experts this week condemned the UK government’s plan to deal with the climate crisis as “very weak”.
And yet there is a lot that we can do in wealthy Europe. “Flying is the biggest one on my mind right now,” says Ajit, “because people are flying on holiday to southern Europe from northern Europe to sit around in a heatwave that is so deadly, and maybe aren’t so conscious of all the emissions that they’re spewing out that are contributing to that.”
Regardless of whether we want to make changes, however, the planet is changing around us. “All of our lives, every day, for the rest of however long we live, are going to become harder in some ways because of climate change,” says Ajit.
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The global damage being done
Any conversation about Europe’s energy usage and European temperatures must acknowledge, of course, that this remains a relatively privileged corner of the globe, and the extremes experienced here are already much worse elsewhere.
“The heat that’s hurting us in Europe today is worse if you live in north Africa. And if you live in north Africa, you’re probably much more likely to lack the money to deal with it as a government, andto find technological solutions at a household level, like air conditioning.
“If you live on a small island state that’s going to be drowned by sea-level rise in the next decade, then you don’t have a choice – you have to move.
“So it’s much harder for the rest of the world to cope with the damage being done by climate change.”
What else we’ve been reading
Ghostwriters penning the memoirs of the rich and famous is nothing new. But what happens when a novel is ghostwritten? Sarah Shaffi spoke to publishing insiders and writers about how big of a deal it is that more and more celebrities are slapping their names on fiction that was not written by them. Nimo
I’m not allergic to a hard day’s work, but even thinking about a Belgian artist who photographed every single thing she owned (pictured above), taking 12,795 photos in the process – makes my head spin. Guardian picture editor Guy Lane meets Barbara Iweins, and finds out why she snapped everything from Sudocrem to her antidepressants.
Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newslettersIs Wikipedia going to die? The online encyclopaedia, run largely by volunteers, created “in achingly good faith” is facing a particularly uncertain future as AI chatbots become increasingly sophisticated tools for finding information. But all might not be lost. For the New York Times magazine (£), Jon Gertner examines whether Wikipedia could leverage AI to keep its platform alive. Nimo
I loved Sadiya Ansari’s piece on Ustad Noor Bakhsh, a 78-year-old Pakistani musician discovered on the side of a road who is now enjoying global acclaim.
HannahWhat do you do when you are too tired to even go on holiday? Arwa Mahdawi writes on a growing phenomenon for weary travellers who do not want an adventure: sleep tourism. Nimo
Sport
Cricket | After taking his 600th Test wicket on the opening day of the fourth Test, Stuart Broad described the ongoing Ashes tussle with Australia as “the series that just keeps on giving”. Shortly after tea Travis Head was caught in the deep to become the landmark wicket, and Broad’s 18th of the series – no other England player has more than 10, while the leading Australian is Pat Cummins with 15. Chris Woakes took four as Australia ended the day on 299 for eight.
Football | Tottenham are set to sign the England Under-19 international Ashley Phillips (pictured above) after triggering the £3m release clause in his contract at Blackburn. Phillips signed a three-year contract with Blackburn last summer and won the Championship apprentice of the year award last season, during which he made 14 appearances across all competitions.
Tour de France | Jonas Vingegaard looks assured of final victory after the 2023 Tour’s highest stretch of road proved to be Tadej Pogacar’s graveyard. “I’m gone, I’m dead,” the UAE Emirates rider radioed to his team car, 7.6km from the top of the 2,304m Col de la Loze. The defending champion sits more than seven minutes ahead of Pogacar. Felix Gall won stage 17 at Courchevel with Simon Yates second.
The front pages
We begin the paper roundup with our Guardian print edition’s front page: “Tory MPs fear byelections could leave government in ‘death throes’”. “£2m justice for Daniel” says the Metro, after the Met police settled with the family of murdered PI Daniel Morgan. “Inflation falls further than expected to shift rates bets” – that’s the Financial Times while on that topic the i has “Interest rate hike to 5.25% in two weeks forecast, after inflation falls”. The Daily Express demands that “Prices MUST drop now inflation has fallen”. “Natwest boss under pressure over Farage bank scandal” says the Daily Telegraph. “New law to curb banks that shut down your account” – the Daily Mail says they won’t be able to cancel you for being “anti-woke”, and the Times has “Banks told to respect free speech”. The Daily Mirror’s top story is “Save our kids from zombie knife horror”. “Aled in Rolex machete mugging” says the Sun.
Today in Focus
Extreme heat: a warning shot from nature
Over the last two weeks, many countries have experienced record-breaking temperatures. Guardian reporters based in the UK, US, Italy and Taiwan discuss the fallout
Cartoon of the day | Steve Bell
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Too Good to Go is a sustainable food app designed to allow consumers to buy a “surprise bag” of food towards the end of its shelf life at a discounted price. Restaurants and cafes also use the app to sell ready-made meals that they have left over, with time slots for customers to drop by and collect them. As food waste is a growing environmental problem, the app is a great way for people to save a bit of money and be more sustainable. And it seems to have worked well – in the eight years since it was launched, it has rescued more than 230m meals from going to waste and saved 592,000 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere. While the app is run as a for-profit business, its ethos is underpinned by a sense of ethical responsibility to the planet: “[Too Good to Go is] very much about democratising accessibility to food and accessibility to a sustainable lifestyle,” says co-founder Jamie Crummie.
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
