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world news Diaranson 20 Juli 2022

UK breaks record for highest temperature as Europe sizzles

(AP) — Britain shattered scientist Stephen Belcher said Tuesday, half of them grass
its record for highest tem- such temperatures in Britain fires. Images showed several
perature ever registered were “virtually impossible” houses engulfed in flames as
Tuesday amid a heat wave without human-driven cli- smoke billowed from burn-
that has seared swaths of mate change. ing fields in Wennington, a
Europe, as the U.K.’s na- village on the eastern out-
tional weather forecaster He warned that “we could see skirts of London.
said such highs are now temperatures like this every
a fact of life in a country three years” without serious Sales of fans at one retailer,
ill-prepared for such ex- action on carbon emissions. Asda, increased by 1,300%.
tremes. Electric fans cooled the tra-
The sweltering weather has ditional mounted troops of
The typically temperate na- disrupted travel, health care the Household Cavalry as
tion was just the latest to be and schools. Many homes, they stood guard in central
walloped by unusually hot, small businesses and even London in heavy ceremonial
dry weather that has trig- public buildings, including uniforms. The length of the
gered wildfires from Por- hospitals, in Britain don’t changing of the guard cer-
tugal to the Balkans and led have air conditioning, a re- emony at Buckingham Palace north, remained under the pre-industrial era.
to hundreds of heat-related flection of how unusual such was shortened. The capital’s country’s first “red” warn-
deaths. Images of flames rac- heat is in the country bet- Hyde Park, normally busy ing for extreme heat Tuesday, The head of the U.N. weath-
ing toward a French beach ter known for rain and mild with walkers, was eerily quiet meaning there is danger of er agency expressed hope
and Britons sweltering — temperatures. — except for the long lines to death even for healthy peo- that the heat gripping Eu-
even at the seaside — have take a dip in the Serpentine ple. rope would serve as a “wake-
driven home concerns about The intense heat since Mon- lake. up call” for governments to
climate change. day has damaged the run- Such dangers could be seen in do more on climate change.
way at London’s Luton air- “I’m going to my office be- Britain and across Europe. At Other scientists used the
The U.K. Met Office weath- port, forcing it to shut for cause it is nice and cool,” said least six people were reported milestone moment to under-
er agency registered a provi- several hours, and warped geologist Tom Elliott, 31, to have drowned while trying score that it was time to act.
sional reading of 40.3 degrees a main road in eastern Eng- after taking a swim. “I’m cy- to cool off in rivers, lakes and
Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahr- land, leaving it looking like a cling around instead of taking reservoirs across the U.K. In “While still rare, 40C is now
enheit) at Coningsby in east- “skatepark,” police said. Ma- the Tube.’’ Spain and neighboring Por- a reality of British summers,”
ern England — breaking the jor train stations were shut or tugal, hundreds of heat-relat- said Friederike Otto, Senior
record set just hours earlier. near-empty Tuesday, as trains Ever the stalwart, Queen ed deaths have been reported Lecturer in Climate Science
Before Tuesday, the high- were canceled or ran at low Elizabeth II carried on work- in the heat wave. at Imperial College Lon-
est temperature recorded in speeds out of concern rails ing. The 96-year-old mon- don’s Grantham Institute for
Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 could buckle. arch held a virtual audience Climate experts warn that Climate Change. “Whether
F), set in 2019. By later af- with new U.S. ambassador global warming has increased it will become a very com-
ternoon, 29 places in the UK London faced what Mayor Jane Hartley from the safety the frequency of extreme mon occurrence or remains
had broken the record. Sadiq Khan called a “huge of Windsor Castle. weather events, with studies relatively infrequent is in
surge” in fires because of the showing that the likelihood our hands and is determined
As the nation watched with heat. The London Fire Bri- A huge chunk of England, of temperatures in the U.K. by when and at what global
a combination of horror and gade listed 10 major blazes from London in the south to reaching 40 C (104 F) is now mean temperature we reach
fascination, Met Office chief it was fighting across the city Manchester and Leeds in the 10 times higher than in the net zero.”

Putin, in Tehran, gets strong support from Iran over Ukraine

(AP) — Russian Presi- sia hadn’t sent troops into weapons to help counter the even sold lethal drones that it’s good that there has been
dent Vladimir Putin won Ukraine, it would have faced Russian attack. Ukrainian forces have used some progress,” Putin added.
staunch support from Iran an attack from NATO later, a to attack Russian troops. But
on Tuesday for his coun- statement that echoed Putin’s “If the road would have Ankara hasn’t imposed sanc- U.N., Russian, Ukrainian
try’s military campaign own rhetoric and reflected been open to NATO, it will tions on the Kremlin, mak- and Turkish officials had
in Ukraine, with Supreme increasingly close ties be- not recognize any limit and ing it a sorely needed partner reached a tentative agree-
Leader Ali Khamenei say- tween Moscow and Tehran as boundary,” Khamenei told for Moscow. Grappling with ment on some aspects of a
ing the West opposes an they both face crippling West- Putin. Had Moscow not act- runaway inflation and a rap- deal to ensure the export of
“independent and strong” ern sanctions. NATO allies ed first, he added, the Western idly depreciating currency, 22 million tons of desper-
Russia. have bolstered their military alliance “would have waged a Turkey also relies on the Rus- ately needed grain and other
presence in Eastern Europe war” to return the Crimean sian market. agricultural products trapped
Khamenei said that if Rus- and provided Ukraine with Peninsula that Russia seized in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports
from Ukraine in 2014 back Erdogan made Putin wait by the fighting. Reaching
to Kyiv’s control. for nearly a minute before the agreement would mark
entering the room for talks a major step toward alleviat-
In only his second trip abroad and then praised what he de- ing a food crisis that has sent
since Russia launched the scribed as Russia’s “very, very prices of vital commodities
military action in February, positive approach” during like wheat and barley soaring.
Putin conferred with Irani- last week’s grain talks in Is-
an President Ebrahim Raisi tanbul. He voiced hope a deal The trip to Tehran has sym-
and Turkish President Recep will be made, and “the result bolic meaning for Putin’s
Tayyip Erdogan on the con- that will emerge will have a domestic audience as well,
flict in Syria, and he used the positive impact on the whole showing off Russia’s interna-
trip to discuss a U.N.-backed world.” tional clout even as it grows
proposal to resume exports increasingly isolated and
of Ukrainian grain to ease the Speaking to Erdogan as plunges deeper into confron-
global food crisis. their meeting began, Putin tation with the West. It comes
thanked him for his media- just days after U.S. President
Turkey, a NATO member, tion to help “move forward” Joe Biden’s visited Israel and
has found itself opposite a deal on Ukrainian grain Saudi Arabia — Tehran’s pri-
Russia in bloody conflicts exports. “Not all the issues mary rivals.
in Syria and Libya. It has have been resolved yet, but