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Europe suffers under record heatwave as temperatures forecast to reach 44C
Jon Henley
Europe correspondent
Western Europe is enduring a ferocious heatwave forecast to break temperature records, with half of France on red alert, rail services in Belgium disrupted and sports events in Spain and Germany cancelled or postponed.
French authorities on Monday placed 49 of the country’s 96 mainland departments on a level 1 danger-to-life warning, urging 35 million people to exercise “absolute vigilance”, drink water often, avoid all strenuous exertion and stay out of direct sun.
Another 40 departments were on a level 2 orange alert. “Very high temperatures are setting in for the long term across the country,” said the national meteorological service, Météo-France. “Day and night-time temperatures will be exceptional.”
It said temperatures throughout western and central France were likely to exceed 40C from Monday afternoon, hitting 43C in Bordeaux, 41C in Limoges, 40C in Toulouse and Tours and 39C in Paris, and would continue rising until the end of the week
More than 800 schools were closed nationwide on Monday, while another 1,800 rescheduled classes to allow pupils to leave early. One in 10 regional train services around Paris were cancelled amid fears for rolling stock and tracks.]
In Germany, organisers suspended the final of the Berlin Open tennis tournament and cleared everyone out of the event location because of severe thunderstorms as temperatures in the German capital topped 30C over the weekend.
Temperatures in Belgium – already past 30C on Sunday – would be “the hottest ever recorded”, said David Dehenauw, the head of forecasting at the IRM weather institute. Some rush-hour trains were cancelled to limit the risk of breakdowns.
‘Now for sure we need to postpone it,’ EU’s Costa says of EU-UK summit in July
European Council president António Costa said the planned reset summit between the EU and the UK will have to be postponed as a result of changes in the British government (13:24).
“Now for sure we need to postpone it, but we are reassessing the opportunity to hold this new summit,” Costa told reporters in a news conference held in Brussels, quoted by Reuters.
“My wish is that his successor will give continuity on this path to reset our relationship with the UK,” he added.
Czech PM Babiš rules out president Pavel’s participation in Nato summit in Ankara
In other news from the Czech Republic, the country’s prime minister Andrej Babiš also confirmed that its president and former senior Nato general Petr Pavel will not be part of the Czech delegation for the next month’s Nato summit in Ankara.
Babiš said the decision was “purely practical,” as he dismissed “an unnecessary” dispute with the president and insisted the government held primary responsibility for foreign policy and budget matters, which are expected to be discussed in Ankara.
The government’s decision will no doubt escalate a competence dispute between the government and the president over who should represent Czechia at the summit.
Pavel told the Guardian last month that he was ready to file a competence lawsuit to the Czech constitutional court to challenge the government’s decision.
Czechia is likely to find itself under some scrutiny at the summit, after Babiš confirmed his government will fail the 2% GDP target on defence spending this year, despite growing pressure to ramp it up (Europe Live, Thursday).
Thousands of staff at Czech public broadcasters strike over funding plans
Anna Koslerova
in Prague
Meanwhile, thousands of public service media employees in Czechia are holding a 24-hour strike after the government of the billionaire prime minister, Andrej Babiš, pushed ahead with controversial plans to change the way the country’s public broadcasters are funded.
Monday’s industrial action by staff at Czech Television and Czech Radio marks the biggest escalation yet in a months-long confrontation between the broadcasters and Babiš’s populist administration.
“The reforms have been prepared without consultation and without guarantees for the independence of public service media,” said Pavla Kubálková, a member of Czech Television’s strike committee.
“A large part of society remembers what the news looked like when politicians chose the content before 1989. We don’t want to go back there.”
The legislation, approved by the cabinet last week, would scrap the licence fee system and finance Czech Television and Czech Radio through an annual state-budget allocation.
According to the broadcasters, the changes would in effect return funding to 2008 levels, cutting about £14.3m from Czech Radio’s annual budget and £35.8m from Czech Television’s, despite the nearly two decades of inflation since then. Executives say the reductions would force hundreds of job losses and substantial cuts to programming.
But the dispute is not just about money. Kubálková said it had evolved into a broader fight over the future independence of public service media amid concerns that direct funding from the state would expose broadcasters to political pressure. “What matters most to us is preserving independence and the direct relationship between Czech Television and its viewers,” she said.
Hungary’s Magyar says he will initiate removal of Orbán-era loyalist president
Meanwhile, over in Hungary, the country’s new-ish prime minister Péter Magyar said on Monday that his government will initiate the removal of Hungary’s president from office with a constitutional amendment, and will launch a constitutional reform in the fall.
In recent weeks, Magyar repeatedly vowed the president, Viktor Orbán’s loyalist Tamás Sulyok, to resign to allow for a fresh break with the previous regime.
Magyar also said in a speech in parliament that his government will launch broad economic, political and legal measures to rid Hungary of corruption, including the creation of a National Asset Protection and Recovery Office, Reuters reported.
‘You are always a welcome guest in Ukraine,’ Zelenskyy tells Starmer
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy also responded to Starmer setting out his plans to resign as Britain’s PM, telling him he would always be “a welcome guest” in Ukraine for his support to the wartorn country.
In a statement on his social media, he said:
“Keir, thank you for all our cooperation, your support, and the joint decisions that have helped make our Europe and our protection of life stronger.
The United Kingdom has been, is, and will remain among the world’s leaders. Here in Ukraine, we deeply value Britain, and every meeting and every conversation we have had has always been filled with real substance.
Thank you for always being in touch, always engaged, and always striving to do what is needed and what will truly help.
I wish the United Kingdom and all British people every success as well as realisation of your national goals. We have confidence in Britain.
Keir, you are always a welcome guest in Ukraine.”
EU and UK ‘reassessing’ the planned summit on bilateral partnership set for July
Jennifer Rankin
Brussels correspondent
Meanwhile, the EU and the UK are “reassessing” a summit planned for 22 July, a European Commission spokesperson has said.
The annual EU-UK summit was confirmed only last week, after weeks of postponements and uncertainty.
The European Commission’s chief spokesperson, Paula Pinho, said “against the announcement this morning” EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa and the UK were “reassessing … the opportunity of holding the summit”.
Von der Leyen also separately paid tribute this morning to Keir Starmer in a social media post soon after his resignation.
She said:
“It can take many leaders years to grow into the statesman you became in just two years.
European and Ukrainian security is stronger because of you.
Thank you, dear Keir.”
Ukraine intensifies attacks on Crimea to raise cost of Russian occupation
Pjotr Sauer
Ukraine has stepped up its strikes on Crimea as part of a strategy to isolate the occupied peninsula from mainland Russia and raise the cost of the occupation.
On Sunday, Russian-installed authorities suspended civilian fuel sales until at least Wednesday, a move that underscored Ukraine’s growing ability to disrupt supply lines linking Crimea to Russia.
“Fuel will be sold only to government agencies that ensure the functioning and security of the Republic of Crimea,” the Russian-appointed governor, Sergei Aksyonov, said. “I ask everyone to remain calm and only trust official sources of information.”
Local authorities also announced that parts of the peninsula would be left without street lighting and that all public events had been cancelled.
A wave of Ukrainian medium-range strikes has targeted occupied Crimea and the transport routes connecting it to Russia in recent weeks. Kyiv hopes to turn the peninsula “into an island” by disrupting Russian supply chains and isolating Crimea from mainland Russia.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Sunday that a Crimean oil depot and an oil transport facility in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region were among the targets. He described the attacks as part of Ukraine’s campaign of “long-range sanctions” against Russia.
Ukrainian Telegram channels also reported that Kyiv had struck at least three Russian ferries transporting vehicles operating on the Kerch crossing between Crimea and mainland Russia.
Ukraine has focused its strikes on the main transport routes supplying Crimea, particularly the Novorossiya highway, a key logistics corridor linking the peninsula to Russia’s Rostov region through the occupied cities of Melitopol and Mariupol.
Zelenskyy criticises Russia for overnight strikes and ‘unjustifiable killings’ in Ukraine
Back to Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has condemned the overnight Russian strikes on Ukraine, drawing on the importance of the Russian Day of Memory and Sorrow, the anniversary of the 1941 Nazi Germany invasion of the Soviet Union.
“Yet today, Russia began this day not by honoring those who fell in World War II, and not with signals that could help bring the current war – Russia’s war against Ukraine – closer to an end. Instead, it began with more completely unjustifiable killings,” he said.
“This Russian war has no justifiable cause. Putin was driven by exactly the same motives as the aggressors who came before him. He shows the same contempt for human life. He is just as delusional about this absurd ‘empire’ of his that nobody needs. This war must be brought to an end.”
Trump doubles down on his criticism of Italy’s Meloni
Following Trump’s extraordinary criticism of Meloni in a brief interview with Italy’s La7 on Fridayand her absolute denial that she was “begging” him for a photo, as we reported before the weekend, the US president doubled down again on Sunday.
In a post on Truth Social, he said:
“After spending Trillions of Dollars on Nato, Italy, and its Prime Minister, wouldn’t even think of becoming involved with the Islamic Republic of Iran and their very serious Nuclear Threat. For decades, we defend them but, when tested, they are not there to defend us, and the rest of the World. Not good!”
E5 leaders to meet in Berlin for talks on Ukraine this week, Italy says
Starmer has pledged to continue in the job until his successor is chosen, and it looks like this will take him to Germany this week.
The leaders of Europe’s top military powers will meet on Wednesday in Berlin, Italy said.
The Italian government said prime minister Giorgia Meloni – fresh from another clash with the US president, Donald Trump – would attend the meeting along with her British, French, German and Polish counterparts.
Jakub Krupa
Starmer’s proposed timetable – with the nomination process starting on 9 July – could be intended to coincide with the Nato summit in Ankara, ending the day before.
UK prime minister Starmer announces plans to resign from post
Oof.
Over in the UK, Keir Starmer has announced his intention to resign from the post of the leader of the Labour Party and the British prime minister.
He wants the party to set out a timetable with nominations for his successor opening on 9 July, and to be completed by the summer recess. If there is a contest on who should succeed him, he hopes it will be completed before the parliament returns in September.
Starmer will stay on in post until the process is complete.
He is the sixth British PM out of the job in the 10 years since the Brexit referendum in 2016, the anniversary of which is tomorrow.
And a group of protesters outside 10 Downing Street are playing the EU’s anthem, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, on a loudspeaker as he speaks.
More details on our UK live blog:
Ukraine and Poland’s bitter dispute over past casts shadow on contemporary relations
Separately, Ukraine and Poland are embroiled in a bitter dispute over Kyiv’s decision to rename a contemporary Ukrainian army unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
Poland holds it responsible for ethnic killings of up to 100,000 Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia during the second world war – and in 2016 adopted a parliamentary resolution calling it a genocide – but it is celebrated in Ukraine for their fight for Ukrainian independence and resistance against the Soviet forces.
On Friday, Polish president Karol Nawrocki stripped Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the country’s top honour in retaliation for the move, prompting three former Ukrainian presidents and other senior officials to also return their state awards to Poland.
Announcing his decision on Friday night, Nawrocki said:
“Poland has repeatedly signalled the particular importance of this issue to the Ukrainian side. We conveyed our position and expectation that the consequences of this decision for relations between our states be reconsidered. Ultimately, the position of the Ukrainian side did not change. History should not be an obstacle to the future, but a good future can only be built on truth.”
In an interview posted on X last night, Zelenskyy said Ukraine and Poland cannot be “anything but partners and friends,” but warned that a political struggle could end in a “very dangerous escalation.”
But he blamed the Polish president for the conflict, claiming he is on political manoeuvres ahead of Poland’s 2027 parliamentary elections.
“Our service members choose a heroic name for their unit themselves, and as president and supreme commander-in-chief, I must support them,” he said. “Without Ukraine, no one will be able to defend Poland. It is simply impossible.”
Poland’s pro-European prime minister Donald Tusk – who previously distanced himself from Nawrocki’s decision – said that rekindling the old disagreements was “a strategic mistake that will harm both sides: business-wise, geopolitically, and reputationally.”
Zelenskyy was widely expected to attend the Ukraine Recovery Conference in the Polish city of Gdańsk later this week, but this is no longer certain, putting the hosts in a potentially embarrasing position of having to talk about Ukraine without its leader.
One to watch this week.
Morning opening: Ukrainian drones briefly disrupt Moscow’s airports as Zelenskyy pledges to ‘bring war back to Russia’
Jakub Krupa
Nearly 60 Ukrainian drones were intercepted heading for Moscow last night, forcing the capital’s airports to briefly suspend its operations during the attack.
In total, Russia reportedly downed just over 300 drones across the country.
Meanwhile, a Russian drone attack killed three members of one family, including a 13-year-old boy, in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, regional prosecutors said, as quoted by Reuters.
Last night, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview that “our defence industry, our defence forces … have begun the process of bringing the war back to Russia.”
“The Russians are attacking us every day – and we will strike back every day. Our response will grow stronger with each passing day.”
It is the latest sign of the momentum shifting in the Russian aggression of Ukraine, as discussed by the G7 and EU leaders last week.
Elsewhere, I will be obviously keeping an eye on the UK where prime minister Keir Starmer could announce plans for his exit from the post today, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum in 2016.
Our main UK coverage, led by Andrew Sparrow, is here:
But I will be also looking at yet another day of extreme temperatures across Europe, two high-profile diplomatic spats between Trump and Italy’s Meloni and Zelenskyy and Poland’s Nawrocki, and other news lines from across the continent.
It’s Monday, 22 June 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
