Weather tracker: records fall but worst of Europe’s heatwave may yet to come

Extreme heat has lingered over southern Europe throughout the past week, with all-time records broken in a number of locations. Just a few places that recorded their highest ever temperature on 19 July include: Decimomannu in Sardinia at 46.2C, Malaga airport in Spain at 44.2C, and Durrës in Albania at 40.4C. The World Meteorological Organization confirmed that the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe was 48.8C in Sicily in 2021, possibly spurred on by the risk of this week’s heatwave breaking records. Throughout the coming week much of Spain and…

The week in audio: Book of the Week; Start the Week; Promenade and more

Book of the Week: 1,000 Years of Joys and Sorrows (BBC Radio 4) | BBC Sounds Start the Week (BBC Radio 4) | BBC SoundsPromenade The Shift Podcast NetworkPreviously on… Succession AcastFirecrotch & Normcore Acast In 2013, Benedict Wong played the Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei at the Hampstead theatre, London. The play was about the 81 days that he spent in isolated detention in 2011, having been arrested by government officials at Beijing airport. He was kept in a small, brightly lit room (the lights never went off)…

Freed From Guantánamo, but Still in Limbo 15 Years Later

TIRANA, Albania — Accused by the United States military of being a terrorist in league with the Taliban, a devout Muslim man from western China spent four years imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay before being cleared and then dumped in Albania 15 years ago. Still stranded in a country he did not know existed until he was sent there, the man, Abu Bakker Qassim, 51, has a word of warning for the hundreds of Afghans who have fled their country over the past month and followed his path to one of…