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UKHSA estimates 2,877 fatalities during heatwaves in May and June, almost twice same period for 2025
The UK is on track to suffer its highest ever number of heat-related deaths this summer after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced that an estimated 2,877 people had died in the May and June heatwaves.
The record was set in 2022 with 2,985 deaths and August, traditionally the hottest month is yet to arrive. The health secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “My thoughts are with all those who have lost loved ones as a result of the long and intense heatwaves.”
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Several people evacuated after ‘large-scale, wind-driven’ fire breaks out at Dunwich Heath near Leiston
A major incident has been declared as firefighters battle a large heathland fire on the Suffolk coast.
Suffolk fire and rescue service was called to reports of a wildfire at Dunwich Heath, near Leiston, shortly after 5.30pm on Wednesday, and crews remained at the scene on Thursday morning. About 90 firefighters were tackling the blaze, while several people had been evacuated. Leiston is about 5km away from Sizewell B, but firefighters have said there is not thought to be any danger to the nuclear power station at this time.
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Forty hectares of Oaken Wood could be razed after it was identified as potential site of expansion by Reform-run council
It was at the confluence of seven forest paths that Allison Sweetman came to a stop. Trees rose on all sides, save for a recently coppiced section to the north-east. The noon heat had silenced most birds, but the quiet was peaceful.
“This is what they call Seven Wents,” she said. For centuries, the people of Kent had travelled this way, from East Malling to Barming, from Ditton to Teston, for church, commerce and friends. “It’s on maps going back 400 years.”
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From Leicestershire to Carmarthenshire, neighbourhoods are struggling with wave after wave of houseflies. Why are they suffering while others are spared? And is there no alternative to nets and zappers?
Francesca Davies’s living room is absolutely teeming with flies. You can’t enter the contact centre worker’s home without a cluster of insects rising from the sofa or the floor to buzz around your face. Davies and her family live in West Heath, a suburb of the Cheshire town Congleton. Davies’s husband, Alex Andrew, a 29-year-old maintenance engineer, grew up in the market town and he used to think of West Heath as a desirable area, with its well-maintained houses and access to green space. When he and Davies were able to buy a new-build here in 2019 via a shared ownership scheme, they felt incredibly lucky. That is, until they moved in, and realised that every summer swarms of flies descend on their neighbourhood, an issue that is “getting worse”, Davies says.
At the moment, the 27-year-old swats flies out of her young daughters’ bedroom every night before she puts them to bed, and keeps doors and windows closed or covered with fly nets as much as possible. She and Andrew have even bought an industrial fly killer (like the ones often found in fish and chip shops) for their kitchen, as it is impossible to start cooking without attracting even more insects. The pair have become used to the sound of flies “getting zapped throughout the night”, Davies says.
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Boom in migrating moth sightings put down to hot weather, strong winds and food scarcity in Europe
He had just sat down to dinner in the garden when a speedy visitor whizzed by – a “grey lump with orange wings”, recalled Luke Burstow, from Sussex. It was a hummingbird hawk-moth, a flying insect that migrates to the UK from continental Europe and north Africa.
“I was like: ‘Wow!’,” said the software project manager. “I didn’t even know they existed.”
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Environment Agency names seven regions affected by unusually hot and dry weather and shortage of water
Half of England is officially in drought, with July set to be the driest on record after winter floods, the Environment Agency has said.
The “flash drought” developed quickly because of unusually low rainfall and high temperatures.
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Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafisreports from Bordeaux, as wildfires in the region and beyond cause the biggest peacetime evacuation in French history
This week, across France, more than 220,000 people were evacuated from their homes, fleeing wildfires that are burning all across the country.
The Guardian’s Paris correspondent Angelique Chrisafisreports from Bordeaux, the historic centre of winemaking country, as the flames approach the outskirts of the city. We hear from evacuees camped in hangars in the city centre, waiting to know when they can go home.
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Wild Inside looks back on the incredible year when an escaped zoo owl managed to bring New Yorkers together
Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl gained a cult following after leaving his life in captivity at the Central Park zoo in 2023 and surviving, against all odds, for more than a year as a free bird in Manhattan.
Birdwatchers tracked his every move, capturing his vast wingspan and luminous orange eyes with their cameras. His fans got tattoos in his honor. And now, Wild Inside, a new documentary chronicling Flaco’s year about town, is set to premiere this week.
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Climate crisis affects not only the amount of rain that falls but where, with implications for land use and water security
Have you ever wondered how far a raindrop has travelled before it lands on you? It may have journeyed thousands of kilometres from the ocean, sea or lake it evaporated from – and now research shows raindrops are travelling even farther than they used to.
Warmer air can hold more water vapour, and that is changing not only how much rain we receive but also where it falls. Travis Aerenson, of the University of Wyoming, and his colleagues modelled atmospheric moisture movements in the US over more than three decades. Their research showed that in the southwestern and southern plains, moisture in the atmosphere travels 30 to 50 miles (50 to 80km) farther than it did 35 years ago, staying aloft for an extra two to four hours before falling as rain.
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Raja is normally a celebration of the start of the monsoon, but in the eastern state of Odisha, the rains came so late the seeds were sown under clear skies
Kasturi Gamango and Pramila Sabar cannot contain their giggles as they explain one of the big attractions of the Raja festival, which they attended a few days earlier along with 20 other farmer families in Laxmipur, in Odisha’s Ganjam district.
“We do no work for three days during the festival,” they say. “Our husbands cook and clean while we enjoy our free time.”
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