The French city of Nantes is currently one of the – if not the – hottest places in Europe, reporting 41C. It’s 39.3C in Bordeaux and Bilbao across the border in Spain, 37C in Toulouse, and 37C in Paris. German city of Stuttgart is reporting above 33C, as is the British capital, London.
When the gap between his salary and his family’s basic expenses began widening dramatically, Diego – like many other Argentinians – started working as a rideshare driver on top of his day job. He usually does a few hours at the end of his 12-hour shift; and more on his days off. It would be just another story from recession-ridden Argentina, but for the fact that Diego is a federal police officer. The chainsaw austerity measures of president Javier Milei have had a devastating impact on the daily lives of large parts of Argentina’s population. While the rate of overall economic activity is slowly increasing, purchasing power has been rapidly declining as increasing numbers of people take loans to cover the basics, including food. “You can make around 44,000 pesos (about £24) in an extra eight-hour shift in the police or you can make 42,000 pesos worth of trips in four hours. It’s just maths. It is very common to get in a rideshare and find out the driver also works in the police,” said Diego, who asked not to use his real name. A growing number of Argentinian police officers, including those who spoke to the Guardian, say they are taking on second jobs – often carrying with them their government-issued guns for protection. Human rights organisations say this shift has coincided with an increase in deaths caused by off-duty officers using their service weapons while working other jobs. According to data from the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (Cels), 75% of deaths caused by police officers using their issued firearms in 2025 occurred while the officers were off duty. About 13% of the total involved officers working as rideshare drivers at the time of the incident. This represents a marked increase from the past, with 16 cases recorded in 2025, up from two in 2020. In February, a 30-year-old police officer working as a rideshare driver shot two men who attempted to rob him in broad daylight while he was dropping off two passengers in La Matanza, in the greater Buenos Aires area, local media reported. A few months earlier, in December 2025, a federal police officer also working as a rideshare driver shot and killed a 15-year-old. The officer said the teenager attacked him while a group of other men circled the car, one of them allegedly carrying a gun. The driver said he identified himself as a police officer before pulling out his government-issued gun and shooting at the group. The bullet hit one of the men trying to open the car, who later died in hospital. In another case last February, an officer with the Buenos Aires police force, also moonlighting as a rideshare driver, died from his injuries after he was shot by a passenger who attempted to rob him with a gun. The assailant also died from a gunshot. Both Uber and DiDi, the Chinese rideshare company popular in Argentina, ban drivers from carrying firearms. While some police officers spoken to said they took alternative security precautions, such as avoiding areas considered more dangerous, the common practice of security forces is to carry their guns at all times. Victoria Darraidou, who coordinates a team working on security policies and police violence at the Cels human rights group, said the fact that police officers are allowed to carry their government-issued guns at all times, even when off duty, is highly problematic. “Police officers kill and die more when they are off duty. This is because they use their guns without planning, with no support, and in disproportionate ways, and this puts other people and themselves at risk,” she said. Milei expresses fervent support for the country’s security forces, although police complaints over pay and working conditions have increased over recent years. Many officers say their take-home income (including extra shifts) normally falls below the poverty line for a family of four, which the government has established at around $1,000 a month. “I have many colleagues who do Uber, DiDi and deliveries after work. Our salaries are just too low, which also forces us to take loans, and we then live from loan to loan. You pay off one loan and have to take our another just to get by, to buy the basics,” said a female police officer from the Buenos Aires province. Complaints over salaries and working conditions have led to a growing number of members of the security forces resigning. Tensions over low salaries and working conditions contrast with the Milei administration’s public discourse in support of the security forces. The president and other officials have publicly praised officers who have used force while off duty. One of the most high-profile cases in recent years was that of Luis Oscar Chocobar, a police officer who in 2021 was convicted of homicide aggravated by excessive use of force for shooting a 17-year-old allegedly involved in a robbery in the Buenos Aires La Boca neighbourhood in 2017. Chocobar received a two-year suspended sentence and a five-year ban on holding public office, although the conviction was annulled in 2024. Argentina’s then minister of security, Patricia Bullrich, (now a senator with Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza) publicly defended Chocobar and went on to broaden the circumstances in which police officers are allowed to intervene and use force. This, according to Cels, is one of the factors that has contributed to a 40% increase in the number of deaths at the hands of police officers in the last two years. María del Carmen Verdú, lawyer and founder of Correpi, a human rights organisation that has documented cases of police violence in Argentina for more than three decades, says part of the solution lies in limiting the instances when police officers can carry their guns. “If police officers were not allowed to carry their government-issued guns while they are off duty, the number of ‘trigger happy’ deaths would be significantly reduced,” she said.
The US’s attitude to the defence of Europe has changed permanently and a European coalition of the willing, including Ukraine, should be established to defend the continent, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a former Nato secretary general, has said. A coalition of the willing compromising 45 states is already in theory poised to act as a reassurance and training force inside Ukraine in the event of a peace settlement with Russia. Rasmussen, a former close adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is proposing an adaptation of the concept so that an expanded version of the coalition provides security guarantees for continental Europe, not just Ukraine. Rasmussen sees the coalition as an insurance force in case Donald Trump suddenly removes US troops and European defence partners are not ready to fill the gap. At a seminar on Monday on European defence, he said: “I would propose a coalition of the willing in which a number of European countries come together that are capable and willing to do what is needed to defend the continent, including Ukraine. The force would be led by the two nuclear powers in Europe, France and the UK.” Rasmussen’s proposal came two days before a meeting of five leading European defence powers in Berlin on Wednesday, to draw up a common defence strategy in the run-up to a Nato summit in Ankara on 7 July. The summit will be focused on proving to Trump that his instruction for Europe to spend more on its own defence has been followed. The summit is preparing to agree a new target of €70bn (£60bn) extra spending for Ukraine over two years, with the sums contributing to the commitment made by individual countries to spend up to a minimum of 5% of GDP on defence by 2035. European defence officials partly back the target as a way of casting a spotlight on how support for Ukraine is so heavily concentrated on five or so states, predominantly Germany, the UK, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has announced a review of the US troop numbers in Europe, but so far at the military level there is confidence that the Trump administration drawdown will not be so sudden as to leave Europe’s security at risk. Rasmussen said Ukraine had to be an integrated part of a new European security architecture. “However this conflict ends, we still have an aggressive Russia and we need Ukraine as a bulwark against that aggressive Russia,” he said. “And Ukraine today is militarily the strongest nation in Europe. It’s battle tested, battle hardened. “Usually we look at Ukraine as a country that needs our help. That is still right, but more and more we should look at Ukraine as an asset, a country that can actually contribute to European security. And that’s why I think we should strengthen the European pillar within Nato based on a coalition of the willing, including Ukraine.” Rasmussen acknowledged that European leaders had detected a change in Trump’s attitude to the war in Ukraine at the G7 summit last week in Evian. However, he added: “I think we should stop just reacting to what we think Trump might say or do. Time has come now to make our own decisions without taking into account how Trump would react … It’s wishful thinking to believe that after Trump, the situation might return to business as usual. It won’t. The world has changed. The American attitude has changed.” The Iran-US conflict, in which Russia clearly showed support for Iran, may have stimulated new thinking about Russia in the White House, Rasmussen said. He said the task of the Nato summit in Ankara was to harness the potential for a new approach to drive home the message that neither Nato nor the US were going to abandon their support for Ukraine, leaving Vladimir Putin facing a deficit-laden economy with no option but to negotiate. He said he was encouraged by indications that Ukraine will be given licences to manufacture US-designed weapons inside Ukraine, including interceptor missiles and long-range missiles. Ukrainian defence leaders are also calling for the lifting of European bureaucratic constraints that prevent Ukraine’s fast and cheap defence industry integrating with Europe. Changing the defence ecosystem is seen as more important than helping individual defence firms. Rasmussen also cautioned against the EU moving prematurely to appoints its own negotiator with Russia, a topic that divided the last EU heads of state meeting. “Before even thinking about appointing someone to negotiate on behalf of Europe, we should ensure that he or she will negotiate from position of strength,” he said. Asked why Ukraine had made progress on the battlefield, Rasmussen said: “We spent too many months discussing the delivery of battle tanks, fighter jets, everything. But gradually we have stepped up. But first and foremost, the Ukrainians themselves have been very innovative in developing hi-tech military capabilities, mainly drones and other kinds of hi-tech military stuff.”
Dozens of Israelis from the country’s security, political and cultural elite have threatened legal action against their government over support for Jewish terrorism and an “ideology of ethnic cleansing” in the occupied West Bank, according to a leaked letter. Two former prime ministers, former heads of all the Israeli security services, former judges, a Nobel laureate and the country’s most revered living novelist were among the signatories to a “final warning” over violence against Palestinians. They demanded immediate action to “eradicate Jewish terrorism”, cataloguing years of attacks – including murder, sexual assault, theft, arson and desecration of the dead – by civilian and military perpetrators who acted with “almost complete impunity”. The campaign of extreme violence against Palestinians broke Israeli and international law, put Israel’s security at risk, isolated the country internationally and fuelled antisemitism around the world, they said. “This letter is a wake-up call and a final warning: We demand that you take all necessary measures to immediately eradicate Jewish terrorism that has been prevalent in Judea and Samaria in recent years,” the letter said, using an Israeli term for the occupied West Bank. If the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence and security ministers and security commanders do not condemn and stop the violence, the signatories say they will petition Israel’s high court to force their hand. The letter, which has not been made public, was sent to the prime minister’s office, the ministries of defence and national security, the military, police, and intelligence services. A copy was seen by the Guardian. Signatories now raising the alarm about violence against Palestinians include commanders who led Israeli forces in occupied Palestine, and politicians who presided over years of settlement expansion. Their acute sense of crisis is not reflected in the broader public debate in Israel as unofficial campaigning gets under way for elections due by the end of October. The letter accused Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners, who are expected to seek another term in power together, of enabling attacks on Palestinians to further an extremist agenda of ethnic cleansing and annexation. “This is not solely a military and police failure, but the implementation of an overt policy by the Israeli government and its prime minister in general, and by the relevant ministers in particular,” the letter said. “[They] order the military, the police, and Shin Bet [the internal security agency] to enable the terrorism of Jewish criminals, because this horrendous phenomenon serves well the current government’s ideology of carrying out ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the territories of Judea and Samaria to facilitate their future annexation.” The letter also drew parallels with historic attacks on Jewish communities in Europe. “The crimes of Jewish terrorism in the territories are reminiscent of similar crimes and pogroms committed against our people by other nations in eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.” Israel’s military was complicit in this campaign of terror, through a failure to intervene and active participation in violence, the letter said. Attackers have included members of regional defence units, men in part-uniform, and men who were not in active service but carried weapons they got from the Israeli military or national security ministry. “The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has clear policy of ignoring the crimes of Jewish terrorism, and in many incidents soldiers from the regional defense units and [settlement] security squads are themselves involved in the crimes of Jewish terrorism,” the letter said. Since 2020, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,100 Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, at least a quarter of whom were children, UN data shows. No one has been charged over any of these deaths. The attacks jeopardised Israeli security because they risked spurring Palestinian revenge attacks or even an uprising, or intifada, against Israeli occupation, the group warned. Many signatories have previously denounced violence in the West Bank in public statements. However this letter, drafted and sent by the lawyer Shmuel Berkowitz, brought together a broader group, linked the violence to soldiers as well as settlers, and for the first time threatened legal action. Signatories include two former prime ministers, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak, four former ministers whose portfolios included defence and justice, and more than 30 former security commanders including two chiefs of staff for Israel’s military and heads of the Mossad, Shin Bet and the police. Prominent figures from outside politics and the security sector include the novelist David Grossman, the Nobel chemistry laureate David Kornberg, an Oscar winner and 10 Israel Prize award winners. Signatories from the legal system include a former attorney general, judges and senior legal advisers to the government. From academia, signatories include the former CEO of Tel Aviv University and an expert on international terror. There are also rabbis and former ambassadors. The letter said recent condemnations of violence by political and military leaders were not credible without action. “How come you have not been successful in eradicating Jewish terror, given that the identity of their leaders and their places of residence are well known to you, and they are estimated to number a few hundred [people]?” said one section addressed directly to Gen Avi Bluth, the commanding officer in the occupied West Bank. The letter warned of government financial, political and legal support for violence and a culture of impunity, with the Israeli police and military each claiming the other has jurisdiction to prosecute attackers. The letter took direct aim at Netanyahu, noting that his claim last year that settler violence was the work of a few dozen teenagers had “no basis in reality”. There were questions for other officials including the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the defence minister, Israel Katz, the chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, Shin Bet’s head, David Zini, and the police commissioner, Daniel Levy. The prime minister’s office, the defence and national security ministries, the police and the Israeli military were approached for comment on the letter but did not respond.
Philippine authorities have temporarily blocked the online gaming app GoreBox days after a rare school shooting in the south-east Asian country killed three students and injured 20 others. Investigators said that one of the two teenagers accused of opening fire on students at San Jose National high school in Tacloban city had regularly played the game, which allows players to use various weapons and depicts graphic violence. GoreBox is described on Google Play as allowing gamers to “engage in brutal combat with an extensive arsenal of weapons and explosives, and witness the raw effects of realistic rag-doll physics and an intense gore system that brings dismemberment to life”. Launched in 2023 by F2 Games, GoreBox has more than 10m downloads on Google Play and carries an R18+ rating by the International Age Rating Coalition owing to its depictions of extreme violence. The company did not immediately respond to questions from the Guardian. Scientific studies have repeatedly found there is no credible link between video games and real-life violence. A 2020 meta-analysis of several studies found the long-term impacts of violent games on youth aggression were “near zero”. The Philippines’ Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said it had issued a temporary ban against GoreBox as a precautionary measure pending investigation. “We cannot ignore possible online influences that may have contributed to this tragic incident,” the CICC undersecretary, Aboy Paraiso, said. Temporarily blocking the game will allow authorities to assess whether the platform played any role in the actions of the suspects, he added. “Beyond this temporary ban, we are reinforcing our monitoring efforts to identify online spaces that may pose risks to young users and to ensure that appropriate interventions are made immediately,” Paraiso said. “Our priority is the safety and wellbeing of Filipino children exposed to the internet.” Crimes involving the use of firearms are prevalent in the Philippines, partly because of the proliferation of unlicensed guns, but school shootings are relatively rare. Philippine police told local media that initial interviews indicated the grade 9 suspects, aged 14 and 15, may have been bullied and the alleged attack carried out as retribution. The pair are in police custody. The justice department said it was looking into the possibility the shooting was part of a trend of nihilistic violent extremism, characterised by the perpetration of extreme violence without a coherent and traditional ideological framework. The Philippines’ human rights commission said it was also “alarmed by other recent reports of violence in schools, including two separate stabbing incidents at Cavite National high school and Bethel Academy of General Trias in Cavite within the past week”. “These incidents underscore the urgent need to strengthen measures that prevent violence and protect learners,” the commission said in a statement. Associated Press contributed to this report
Deadly H5 bird flu has been confirmed in two Australian states after a migratory seabird tested positive for the disease in South Australia. Western Australia also has another suspected positive case, in a southern giant petrel, found dead in the Quindalup region in the state’s south west. That would bring the number of cases to four. The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, said a giant petrel had been found unwell on Knights Beach in Port Elliot on 14 June. The federal government confirmed the bird was euthanised. The WA agriculture minister, Jackie Jarvis, also confirmed a third suspected case in that state in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. The state has been investigating reports from the public of dead and unwell birds after two migratory birds near Esperance tested positive last week for the deadly strain that has devastated wildlife populations globally. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Jarvis said test samples from the third case, a southern giant petrel also from the subantarctic region, had been sent to the CSIRO for confirmation. Speaking with the federal agriculture minister, Julie Collins, in Canberra, Malinauskas said authorities were alerted on 19 June to social media posts indicating the bird was in care with Wildlife Welfare Organisation SA. He said authorities “responded quickly” and the animal was tested for H5 bird flu, with a positive result confirmed by the CSIRO on Wednesday. Malinauskas said the government was in contact with volunteers who had come into contact with unwell birds and would prescribe the antiviral Tamiflu if necessary. “It’s very, very important now that we have received a positive result from South Australia, that people are very aware that they can report any signs of bird life that is unwell or dead,” he said. “They can do that through our hotline, which is again something I encourage people to call if in doubt.” ‘Beach washed and debilitated’ Justin Biddle, wildlife rescue centre manager for Wildlife Welfare Organisation, said the confirmed SA case had been brought into the organisation’s centre in Goolwa on 14 June, before the announcement of two bird flu cases in Western Australia. “We get a few giant petrels come in each year. This one was showing signs of being beach washed and debilitated,” he said. He said the bird was cared for at the centre until South Australia’s primary industries authority, Pirsa, were alerted by a social media post about petrels arriving at the centre. He said Pirsa had carried out an initial swab test which was negative, but had then called to say that test was inconclusive. “They called back and picked up the bird [on 23 June]. It was relatively fit and healthy and was putting on weight,” he said. Collins said there continued to be no evidence H5 bird flu had spread to poultry animals or to local wildlife. PNG suspension lifts The chief veterinary officer, Beth Cookson, said it was concerning to have a confirmed detection in another jurisdiction of the deadly bird flu strain that has devastated wildlife populations globally. She said genome testing on the brown skua, the first confirmed case, had isolated the likely source of its infection to the subantarctic territories “and in particular the Heard Island and McDonald Islands”. Scientists recently confirmed thousands of southern elephant seal pups on Heard Island and hundreds of adult king penguins in the subantarctic had died from the disease through 2025 and 2026. Collins said on Wednesday that a suspension imposed by Papua New Guinea on imports of Australian poultry products had been lifted. PNG had imposed the restriction on all poultry products on Monday. The Invasive Species Council said confirmation H5 bird flu had been detected in another state “highlights the growing threat facing Australian wildlife”. The organisation reiterated earlier calls from wildlife groups for an urgent $200m in funding for conservation measures to support the bird flu response by reducing other threats to species. “The concern now is not whether Australia is taking the threat seriously – it clearly is. The concern is how well our wildlife will cope when bird flu inevitably reaches more native bird and mammal populations,” policy director Carol Booth said.
The British hygiene brand Dettol has apologised after an advertisement released in China, which it said was intended to criticise “toxic men”, was widely condemned on social media as offensive to women. The five-minute advert for a multipurpose disinfectant, released across many online platforms at the end of May, features a man comparing his girlfriend with his former partner. Learning that his former girlfriend previously lived with someone else, the man likens their relationship to a “secondhand service”. He then tells his friends that he intends to find a “clean and untouched” woman for whom he can be the first sexual partner. “I may not be a virgin, but my future wife has to be,” he says, adding: “Luckily, I met her now, she’s clean and hasn’t been contaminated by other men.” The micro drama ends with his new girlfriend finding out about his statements, calling out his misogyny and breaking up with him. As she throws his socks into a washing machine, a voiceover says: “A toxic man is just like these germs – you need Dettol to eliminate them completely to feel at ease.” Dettol withdrew the advert on Sunday after widespread criticism from Chinese social media users, with many calling for a boycott of the brand, owned by the British multinational Reckitt. In a post apologising for the advert, Dettol said the promotion had intended to “challenge unequal gender attitudes and promote healthy, confident views on relationships and lifestyles”, but that edited clips circulating online had distorted the original message. Dettol said the promotion had been produced by a third-party agency, but that it took “responsibility for any negligence in creating and reviewing the content of the advert”. It said: “We are well aware that true protection also lies in safeguarding the dignity of every individual and their right to be treated equally.” The topic had more than 80m views on the Chinese social media platform Weibo as of Tuesday. “I will never use Dettol again,” one user on the site wrote.
Our green and pleasant land is sizzling. This week, millions of us across the UK are baking in unprecedented heat. The Met Office has issued a rare red weather warning from 9am today in parts of southern Wales, and central and southern England. The temperature record for June of 35.6C is almost certain to be broken; Bristol is forecast to hit an alarming 39C tomorrow. In the heat, the country’s infrastructure is straining: millions of homes are overheating, rail operators have warned against all but essential travel, and hospital admissions are set to surge. The Climate Change Committee concluded last month the UK is built for a climate that no longer exists – and warned today on the country’s policies towards achieving net zero. But it is not just humans who are struggling. The UK’s landscapes and wildlife have been shaped by – and have adapted to – thousands of years of predictable, moderate weather patterns. Now, Britain’s temperate rainforests, chalk streams, moorlands and broadleaf forests are facing extremes. For today’s First Edition, I spoke with Craig Bennett, CEO of the Wildlife Trusts, about the pressure rising temperatures are placing on nature in the UK, and what we can all be doing to support wildlife during the heatwave. But first, the headlines. Five big stories UK news | Searing heat has swept the UK with schools, hospitals, transport networks and water companies struggling to cope with the extreme temperatures caused by climate breakdown. UK politics | Keir Starmer has met Andy Burnham for the first time since the Makerfield byelection in what sources said was a “frosty” meeting to thrash out a transition of power. US news | Marco Rubio is to meet Gulf allies in an attempt to reassure them that the US remains committed to their security and the 60-day ceasefire deal struck with Iran last week will not embolden Tehran. Europe news | Forty people have drowned while swimming in unsupervised areas across France in recent days, as people across the country sought respite from a record-breaking heatwave. UK politics | Nigel Farage has said his £5m gift from a crypto billionaire is “not any of your business” as it was given unconditionally to be spent on anything from Ferraris to gambling on horses. In depth: ‘If we think this is bad now, we ain’t seen nothing yet’ Last week, The Major oak – one of the UK’s most famous trees – was pronounced dead. The enormous, sprawling oak has stood in Sherwood forest in Nottinghamshire for between 800 and 1200 years, and is fabled to have sheltered Robin Hood and his outlaws. Its cause of death is complex, say experts: well-intentioned conservation efforts to help the tree likely contributed to its demise. But the RSPB, which managed the ancient tree, said that extreme heat and drought are also to blame. It’s a symbol of the challenges native species are facing nationwide. “If we think this is bad now, we ain’t seen nothing yet,” says Bennett, who represents a federation of 47 independent wildlife conservation across the country. A single mature oak tree can support more than 2,300 insect, fungi, bird and mammal species. But not when it is dead, and worrying preliminary research on Britain’s forests found evidence that many ancient woodlands are failing to regenerate. While the causes are still being studied, climate change is believed to be a major driver. Says Bennett: “Climate change is causing stress for all kinds of species. Most have not evolved in the conditions we are now experiencing.” Climate change is by no means the only threat to native biodiversity, but there are already clear signs of disruption to the seasonal patterns upon which wildlife relies. Nature needs predictable cycles: birds hatch their eggs in time for plentiful insects, small mammals rely on autumn fruit to get them through winter. If this does not happen, they do not survive. Met Office scientists are now predicting we’ll be seeing 45C by 2056. We are already seeing the consequences. When temperatures surpassed 40C for the first time in the UK in July 2022, there were reports of swifts falling from the sky in London. Dehydrated fox cubs, baby birds and hedgehogs were brought to the RSPCA, while many nature reserves “went silent” as insects and other species took shelter, which is only the most temporary of salves. The lack of water that year meant that many trees dropped their leaves during the summer instead of the autumn. *** Changing landscapes Wildfires have become more regular in recent years. British landscapes have been shaped by rain and mild temperatures, forming a mosaic of peat bogs, heathland, forests and farmland. Our climate has traditionally fed a lush, green land, and wildlife that lives among it. As hotter and drier conditions become more common, this is set to change. Without rain, formerly verdant landscapes turn brown and yellow – primed to burst into flames. 2025 was a record year for blazes, with the largest around Dava in the Scottish Highlands – later described as the country’s first ever megafire. Wildfires are devastating for flora and fauna, burning through habitat, destroying seed banks in the soil, and killing species that cannot escape. “It’s really hard for wildlife to recover after a blaze, particularly in areas that are seeing repeated fires”, says Bennett. “If you got a heatwave like the one we are having this week and it lasted two months, what would happen? The countryside would be tinder dry.” It hasn’t always been this way. Britain has lost 90% of its wetland habitats in the last 500 years. To protect against wildfires, far more energy needs to be put into keeping water within British landscapes by restoring and creating new wetlands, argues Bennett. The reintroduction of beavers in parts of the UK have already helped to do this keeping flooded areas wetter for longer. In turn, the habitat protects native species and can help recharge aquifers in water-stressed regions. But this needs to be done at a much greater scale. “The Westminster government is always very excited about creating new forests,” says Bennett. “But I want us to become obsessed with creating thousands of wetlands across the country and start getting politicians competing over how many they can create, not just trees they can plant.” *** Species introduction In the long term, some conservation groups believe that governments should consider more radical measures to enhance nature’s resilience: if a plant or animal species begins to struggle because their habitat becomes too dry or too hot, move it outside its historic range. The policy known as “assisted migration” is already in use in parts of the US and Canada: sensitive tree species are being planted higher up mountains to help them survive. Alongside this, some environmentalists support the introduction of non-native species that are better adapted to the climate of the future. Forestry England have put together a list of species that they believe are likely to do well in the future climate, which includes some natives like the sycamore and rowan, and non-native species like the Corsican pine. But this could fundamentally change the country’s landscapes over time if it was done at scale and risks the introduction of invasive species that cause further harm. “First and foremost, we should be doing everything we can to help our native species,” argues Bennett. “There are big debates in the conservation movement about whether we should begin introductions from Mediterranean climates. We might also need to consider helping species from southern England to move north, for example, and make habitats better connected to allow them to do that.” *** In it together Everyone can help wildlife in periods of extreme weather. Providing a source of water is absolutely essential, says Bennett, whether in the form of a garden pond or even in a bucket that birds and invertebrates can access. Trees and scrubland are important for shelter, providing areas that animals can use to hide from the heat until temperatures drop. “Having vegetation on buildings is helpful. People have a love-hate relationship with ivy, but it actually helps cool buildings. And of course, it’s a habitat for bugs that live in it and then birds that feed on them. Also, not cutting your lawn too short is helpful. It will probably be more resilient in hot weather if it’s longer, and that’s good for lots of species,” Bennett says. In prolonged heatwaves, some conservation groups suggest leaving food out for struggling animals to feed on. For example, slugs and snails are harder for creatures like hedgehogs to find in high temperatures. Whether it is this heatwave or the next, Bennett says, it is time for the UK to get serious about the impact of rising temperatures on nature: “We’re heading to a much hotter future where heatwaves like this will become the new normal. We need to start planning now. Nature can be one of our greatest allies.” What else we’ve been reading Megha Mohan visited houses in Kerala designed entirely around the needs of women’s bodies for this fascinating piece. Libby Leah Harper spent a week wearing different kinds of wigs to explore whether their glamorous rebranding is justified. Patrick Former footballer and Euros 2024 tournament director Phillip Lahm has written about how the Tartan Army’s joyous takeover of the World Cup makes the case for an expanded tournament. Libby World Cup 2026 On the pitch England 0-0 Ghana | England failed to seize the initiative in Group L as they were held to a draw by a Ghana side whose progress is also all but assured. Panama 0-1 Croatia | Luka Modric 200th cap for Croatia was a victorious one after Ante Budimir’s goal secured a 1-0 win over Panama, the solitary goal scored all day in Group L. And the rest | Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Portugal rediscovered their goal scoring touch with a 5-0 trouncing of Uzbekistan, and in Mexico, Colombia secured their passage from Group K with a well-deserved 1-0 win against DR Congo. Off the pitch Racism | Pundit and former Yugoslavia international Rade Bogdanovic has caused outrage after saying that “Black players lack the concentration to last more than 60 to 80 minutes” during Belgium’s game against Iran on Sunday. ‘Overruled’ | The Guardian’s Matt Hughes reports that Fifa leadership vetoed US officials who opposed dynamic pricing for World Cup tickets. “Fifa is understood to have ruled that the tournament was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to maximise revenues,” he writes. Take your pick | Tonight sees the start of the final round of group games, so here’s your reminder to try our Bracketology game and map out how you think the rest of the tournament will go. Today’s Fixtures Bosnia and Herzegovina v Qatar, 8pm on ITV Switzerland v Canada, 8pm on ITV Morocco v Haiti, 11pm on BBC Scotland v Brazil, 11pm on BBC Czechia v Mexico, 2am on BBC South Africa v South Korea, 2am on BBC Sport Cricket | Ben Stokes returned to the England set-up on Tuesday after talks with Brendon McCullum before training. McCullum said they are still “very aligned” ahead of a third Test against New Zealand. The front pages “Schools, rail and hospitals suffer as heat engulfs UK”, is the Guardian’s splash today, while the i Paper says “Britain set to break 50-year heat record”, Metro has “Killer heat warnings” and the Mirror goes with “Meltdown”. The FT leads with “Starmer risks clash with Burnham over defence investment blueprint”, the Times says “Starmer and Burnham at odds over defence plan” and the Telegraph’s take is “Burnham: I’ll boost cash for defence”. The headline in the Express is “Don’t let them get away with Brexit sell-out”. And on the World Cup, the Sun splashes “Ghana be alright”. Today in Focus: The Latest Europe battles record-breaking heat: is this the new normal? Europe is dealing with a debilitating heatwave, with schools closed, trains cancelled and France holding an emergency meeting after heat-related deaths. António Guterres, the UN chief, is urging the world to act on fossil fuels as the continent braces for record-breaking heat. Lucy Hough speaks to Europe environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Among the modern dating landscape of myriad apps, turning to literature in your search for love may sound a distinctly dated concept. Inspired by newlyweds Dua Lipa and Callum Turner’s restaurant meet-cute (midway through the same novel, they started talking), other couples share how books brought them to the loves of their life, from book-club beginnings to intimate inscriptions. “An attractive male who likes books – what was there not to like?” says Lisa Oakley, of her classroom crush turned husband, Andy Poplar. Sam Fern and Clíodhna Conboye met at an under-attended Waterstones event. “He liked these books that were a huge thing to me,” says Clíodhna. For the next month they went to three book-based activities a week, and later set up a book club together. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply