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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Mars, and at 15 Hours GMT on Tuesday 23rd June, these are our main stories.
Chapter 2: What is causing the record-breaking heatwave in Western Europe?
As a record-breaking heatwave continues in Western Europe, the head of the United Nations has warned that fossil fuels are driving a climate crisis. Afghan Taliban officials have held talks about migration with the European Union in Belgium, the first time the bloc has hosted such a delegation since the group seized power in Afghanistan five years ago.
Also in this podcast, how Romanian health officials went back in time to deal with a devastating hospital cyber attack and... Diet, exercise, smoking, sleep, stress, being overweight, chronic inflammation. And these can then affect the way our dreams express themselves later on in life.
Chapter 3: How is the United Nations addressing the climate crisis?
We look at the factors that are making current generations age faster and faster. Temperature records are continuing to break across Europe. France has just sweated through its hottest night in more than 80 years. It's expected to peak on Wednesday afternoon at more than 41 degrees. It's a similar story across Spain, Italy, Germany and even up as far north as the UK.
A funnel of air has been drawn in from the Sahara because of a persistent area of high pressure that's loitering stubbornly over Western Europe. More on the human impact of that in a moment, but first here's the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, on the link between what's happening and climate change.
Climate chaos is accelerating before our eyes. We have just lived through the 11 hottest years ever recorded.
Chapter 4: What measures are being taken to cope with extreme heat in France?
And today, this city and far beyond are experiencing the hottest day of the year with higher temperatures to come.
London isn't just going, it's cooking. We must act with far greater urgency to strictly limit the magnitude and duration of any overshoot beyond 1.5 degrees.
Italy has declared a heat red alert in 15 cities, while rising temperatures are increasing the risk of forest fires in Germany. Half of France's regions are currently under the harshest weather warning.
Chapter 5: How is the Taliban's delegation affecting EU migration discussions?
Hundreds of schools have been closed and drinking alcohol has been restricted outdoors. Just a couple of the measures officials are introducing to deal with what is already a record-breaking heatwave. Anastasia spoke to us from southern France.
Nîmes is one of the hottest cities in France.
We just go outside at night because during the afternoon it's really hot and really hard to be outside. I think we have to adapt now. We have to use the AC or to change because I think it's going to be harder and harder. We know now because it's the second heat wave we have. We had one in May, now we have one in June, and I don't know what it's going to be in July and August.
Spain has already been dealing with the heat for weeks.
Chapter 6: What impact did the ransomware attack have on Romanian hospitals?
Now it's getting even more intense. Large parts of the country are under weather warnings. This woman describes the conditions in the south.
It's horrible. It feels catastrophic. I don't know what temperature we're at, but it feels horrendous. It feels awful. The heat right now is really, really, really bad.
Our correspondent in Paris, Hugh Schofield, told us more about the impact the heat's having. Gradually, over the last few years, we have been becoming accustomed to periods like this. And the forecasters have been telling us, everyone believes it now, that they are going to become more regular and therefore part of our lives.
We were reporting in very similar circumstances about a month ago with a very similar period of unprecedented increase.
Chapter 7: What factors are contributing to the dengue outbreak in Sri Lanka?
heat. And back then, all the people we were speaking to were saying what they're saying now, which is this is something we're just going to have to learn to cope with. It's not pleasant. It's a kind of Middle Eastern style of heat, which the country is not really, certainly the northern part of the country, is not equipped for. Here in Paris,
Private homeschools don't tend to have air conditioning, and that's something which people are beginning to think more and more of. I know that there's been a rush on buying air conditioning units from suppliers. So, yeah, I mean, more and more, every time this happens, people realise that it's for real, it isn't a one-off, it's going to be part of our lives, and they're having to adapt.
Now to Spain. Our correspondent in Madrid is Guy Hedgcoe.
We heard there from someone down the south of the country, and it's normally the south which sees the worst of the heat. Today, for example, we're expecting temperatures up to 44 Celsius down in the Guadalquivir Valley.
Chapter 8: How are people biologically ageing faster than previous generations?
I think, as Hugh mentioned there, I think the big shock for people is seeing these kinds of temperatures increasing. earlier in the year or before the end of June, that comes as quite a shock because many people, you know, they're trying to work as normal or, you know, children are at school.
And when you have a heat wave in the middle of July or August, it's slightly different because much of the country tends to shut down, even many businesses shut down. Certainly, there's no school or no university classes in the middle of summer, but this is not the middle of summer. So, that presents a series of challenges. Now, the government is
A few years ago, it did introduce some legislation aimed at this, for example, making sure that manual workers are not allowed to work during the hottest time of day during a heat wave. We've seen a number of measures like that being gradually introduced, and we've seen a spike in the sale of air conditioning this year, the same as France as well.
But I think the fact that it comes so early in the year, this kind of heat, is presenting a lot of challenges for businesses and for ordinary people here in Spain.
Guy Hedgcoe. Well, across much of Western Europe, forecasters have warned that the heatwave will be widespread, long-lasting and intense, with temperatures not expected to drop until the end of the week. Something called a heat dome is being blamed for the scorching temperatures. For more details on that weather phenomenon, here's Simon King from BBC Weather.
The heat dome is essentially a large area of high pressure. So in meteorology, when you've got a high pressure, that essentially means that air is descending down the atmosphere. So when you've got the air coming down through the atmosphere, it's drying out as it does so, and it's heating up. as it does so as well.
So that drying out, that heating up means that you've got more sunshine and therefore more sunshine is reaching the ground, heating the ground and heating it up from below. But it's also, as the air is descending, it's compressing. So think of a bicycle pump. As you pump up a bicycle tyre and you put in the pump, you feel your hand getting warm and that's the air compressing and heating up.
So this heat dome is essentially this process of a large area of high pressure which becomes static, it doesn't move and all that heat builds builds and it just doesn't get released anywhere. It's trapped underneath it. And that's why we see those temperatures rise sometimes really quite rapidly.
Now, this is clearly a weather event. To what extent is it made more likely by climate change?
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