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Barcelona Records the Hottest June in over 100 Years as a Heat Wave Grips Europe

The sun shines over the the Eiffel Tower during a heat wave, Monday, June 30, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
The sun shines over the the Eiffel Tower during a heat wave, Monday, June 30, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
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Barcelona Records the Hottest June in over 100 Years as a Heat Wave Grips Europe

The sun shines over the the Eiffel Tower during a heat wave, Monday, June 30, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
The sun shines over the the Eiffel Tower during a heat wave, Monday, June 30, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Barcelona recorded its hottest month of June since records started over a century ago, Spain’s national weather service said on Tuesday as Europe remained in the grip of the first major heat wave this summer.

The Fabra Observatory, located on a hill overlooking Barcelona, reported an average temperature of 26 degrees Celsius (78 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking records since 1914. The previous hottest average for June was 25.6 C in 2003.

The same weather station said that a single-day high of 37.9 C (100 F) for June was recorded Monday, June 30.

Barcelona is usually spared the worst heat in Spain, thanks to its location between hills and the Mediterranean in Spain’s northeastern corner. But most of the country has been gripped by the first heat wave of the year.

Health warnings were in effect Tuesday in several European Union countries even as conditions began to improve in some parts of the region, The AP news reported.

Punishing temperatures were forecast to reach 40 C (104 F) in Paris and to stay unusually high in Belgium and the Netherlands. In contrast, temperatures were falling in Portugal, where no red heat warnings were issued.

France suffocates In France, the national weather agency Météo-France placed several departments under the highest red alert, with the Paris region particularly hard hit.

The heat wave, defined as consecutive days of very high temperature, is expected to intensify Tuesday with more than 1,300 schools set to be partially or fully closed, the Education Ministry said.

Visitors to the Eiffel Tower without tickets were told to postpone their visits as the summit of the city’s landmark was closed until Thursday.

Météo-France also warned of the heightened risk of wildfires due to the drought-stricken soil, compounded by a lack of rain in June and the recent surge in temperature.

Climate experts warn that future summers are likely to be hotter than any recorded to date. By 2100, France could be up to 4 C (39 F) warmer, with temperatures exceeding 40 C expected every year and extreme heat spikes potentially reaching 50 C (122 F). According to Météo-France, the country may face a tenfold increase in the number of heat wave days by 2100.

Man dies in Italy Farther south, 17 of Italy’s 27 major cities were experiencing a heat wave, according to the Health Ministry.

There were torrential rains in Italy’s north on Monday and parts of Bardonecchia near Turin were covered in sludge after the Frejus river burst its banks. Near Bologna, one of the cities under a heat alert Tuesday, the 46-year-old owner of a construction company collapsed and died while repaving a school parking lot, state-run RAI reported.

An autopsy was being conducted to determine the cause, but heat was suspected. The CGIL labor union said the death of the man, whom it identified as Ait El Hajjam Brahim, owner of Veneto Pavimenti SAS, showed the need for improved measures to protect construction workers from heat exposure.

The Netherlands sweating An annual event in Amsterdam to commemorate the end of slavery in former Dutch colonies was moved forward to avoid the hottest part of the day and in the northern city of Groningen, organizers of an outdoor concert featuring veteran rocker Neil Young also took measures, including adding extra drinking water taps and providing free sunblock.

The national weather institute issued an alert for extreme temperatures and smog in parts of the country and warned the eastern Netherlands that severe thunderstorms could break out on Wednesday as the hot weather ends.

Portugal improving In Portugal, Lisbon was forecast to reach 33 C (91 F), typical for this time of the year, though some inland areas could still see peaks of 43 C (109 F), according to the national weather agency. June temperature records were broken in two locations in Portugal on June 29.

The Portuguese weather service issued a statement Monday night confirming the highest single temperature ever recorded in mainland Portugal for the month of June at 46.6 C on June 29 in the town of Mora, west of Lisbon. The prior record was 44.9 C in 2017.

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Varieties

J&J Prostate Cancer Drug Reduces Risk of Cancer Spread and Death in Late-stage Study

A Johnson & Johnson banner is displayed on the front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, in New York City, US, December 5, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
A Johnson & Johnson banner is displayed on the front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, in New York City, US, December 5, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
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J&J Prostate Cancer Drug Reduces Risk of Cancer Spread and Death in Late-stage Study

A Johnson & Johnson banner is displayed on the front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, in New York City, US, December 5, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
A Johnson & Johnson banner is displayed on the front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, in New York City, US, December 5, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Johnson & Johnson's prostate cancer drug Erleada used with hormone-blocking therapy six months before and after prostate surgery improved the chances of eliminating the cancer and reduced the risk of disease progression or death, according to data from a late-stage trial presented on Sunday.

The study, which followed patients for over five years, found that those who received the regimen were nine times more likely to have little to no detectable cancer in the prostate at the time of surgery compared with those given testosterone-blocking therapy alone.

The addition of Erleada also reduced the risk of the cancer spreading or death by 20%, the company said.

The data, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, is likely to change how doctors approach treatment of men with high-risk localized or locally advanced prostate cancer. Currently, surgery to remove the prostate and radiation therapy are the standard of care for such patients, Reuters reported.

About 40% of the 330,000 people diagnosed with prostate cancer in the US are considered high-risk, J&J said.

The study also looked at a full year of treatment with Erleada and hormone therapy before and after surgery.

Among those patients, men who received the combination therapy on average went more than six years before requiring subsequent treatment, nearly double the time for the hormone therapy alone group. The longer therapy with Erleada also reduced the risk of recurrence and death by 29%.

Nearly half of patients who receive the current standard prostate-removal surgery and radiation see their cancer return and require additional treatment, J&J said.

'PARADIGM CHANGING'

Erleada, known chemically as apalutamide, belongs to a class of drugs called androgen receptor pathway inhibitors that block signals that drive prostate-cancer growth.

"No ARPIs are approved for localized high-risk prostate cancer with either surgery or radiation. So the (data) would be paradigm changing," said Dr. Mary-Ellen Taplin, the study's lead researcher from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

The trial enrolled more than 2,000 patients with high-risk localized or locally advanced prostate cancer who were candidates for prostate gland removal surgery.

At the time of surgery, 8.9% of patients who received the combination treatment had little to no detectable cancer, compared with 1% of those receiving hormone therapy alone.

"The patient benefit here is unequivocal," Mark Wildgust, J&J's medical affairs lead for oncology, said in an interview. "I think that the evidence is really showing that Erleada is adding something that we had not seen before."

Widely used ARPIs include Pfizer's Xtandi and Bayer's Nubeqa.

The safety profile of the Erleada combination treatment was consistent with previous studies, J&J said. Common side effects among patients who received the treatment include hot flushes, urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

Erleada won US approval in 2018 and is currently used in combination with hormone therapy that suppresses production of testosterone, which drives prostate-cancer growth.

The company said it plans to work with regulators to get the combination therapy approved globally for earlier stages of prostate cancer.

Varieties

Venice’s Growing Flamingo Population Finds Refuge in Recovering Wetlands

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Grand Canal, in Venice, Italy, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Grand Canal, in Venice, Italy, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
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Venice’s Growing Flamingo Population Finds Refuge in Recovering Wetlands

FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Grand Canal, in Venice, Italy, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Grand Canal, in Venice, Italy, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo

Perhaps nothing better illustrates the flamingo’s status as a newcomer to the Venetian Lagoon than the fact that the local dialect has no word for them.

But the pale pink birds — called “fenicotteri” in Italian — are now flocking to Venice in record numbers, as ecological efforts to restore damaged wetlands could help expand their habitat and possibly induce them to nest in the lagoon, The Associated Press reported.

Flamingos — which most famously nest in Spain and France — started showing up in the vast Venetian Lagoon in the early 2000s, mostly in fishing valleys and mudflats in the lagoon’s furthest reaches, with only rare sightings in the canaled historic center of Venice that is most frequented by global tourists.

Venice Lagoon becomes an unlikely flamingo haven Environmentalists say their arrival in Venice as the European flamingo’s range expands is a sign of the lagoon’s health and suitability as a feeding ground.

Last year, the number of wintering flamingos in Venice peaked at a record of nearly 24,000. That is 8,000 more than the previous year, numbers “that position the Venetian Lagoon as one of the most important wintering spots in its entire habitat range,” said ornithologist Alessandro Sartori.

Sartori surveys the lagoon weekly by boat for signs of nesting, which would indicate a self-sustaining Venetian colony. So far there are no fresh signs after two nesting attempts, in 2008 and 2013, in northern lagoon fishing valleys suffered serious setbacks, including violent hail that killed dozens of birds.

More than 90% of the birds counted in last year’s census were in the northern lagoon, which contains a large area of natural salt marsh. The flamingos are also attracted by the traditional fishing valleys, semi-natural embanked wetlands that provide abundant food but can also bring them into conflict with human activity.

Venice seeks to recover its lost marsh A project to reconstruct salt marshes in the more isolated southern lagoon — past the historic center and the industrial port — raises prospects that flamingo numbers will increase there as well by offering a new habitat in an area of the lagoon where wetland erosion has been especially severe. It could also draw the birds away from competing human uses in the north.

The Venetian Lagoon, covering an expanse of 550 square kilometers (more than 200 square miles), was originally nearly half salt marsh. Today the area of salt marsh — or “barene” in the Venetian dialect — is just about 7%, about half of it reconstructed, said Jane da Mosto, the executive director of We Are Here Venice, the local partner in the EU’s 23.6 million euro ($27.5 million), 5-year WaterLANDS project to restore wetlands across Europe.

The damage is especially stark in the central and southern lagoon, due to the combination of natural erosion and the dredging of shipping channels to access the Marghera industrial port in the 1960s.

“And since then, there’s been much more widespread erosion and loss of sediments from the lagoon to the point that Venice is now on a trajectory to becoming a marine bay,” said da Mosto. The wetlands reconstruction project “is specifically to show that it’s possible to address this trend and change the course of history.”

Rebuilding the salt marshes increases the lagoon’s ability to capture carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas and driver of climate change, and mitigates the effects of rising sea levels. But da Mosto said much larger areas would need to be restored to produce meaningful climate benefits. The goal of the EU project is to make salt marsh reconstruction scalable.

Flamingos can also benefit as biodiversity increases.

Da Mosto’s team is researching ways to increase biodiversity on the reconstructed marshes, including planting species that can help reduce erosion and make the wetlands more resilient.

The mudflat where they are working contains signs of flamingo activity, chiefly stray pink feathers. On a recent day, a flock of some 30 were perched in the distance — scattering when a pair of squawking oystercatchers alerted them to visitors.

Already, Sartori believes that the reconstruction has begun to draw more flamingos to the area. Over the last three years, he has seen their numbers in the southern lagoon grow from just a handful to as many as 300 to 400 in certain periods.

“The hope is that they can find — as they have found in other parts of the Mediterranean — right here on these barene, places where they can nest,” Sartori said.

Venice’s pink newcomers could draw a different kind of visitor The flamingos' presence in the lagoon underlines the importance of the Venetian ecosystem and offers a new way for visitors to interpret the canaled city and outer islands through their ecological — and not just historical and artistic — significance.

Still, visitors to Venice who hope to casually spy flamingos will probably be disappointed, and AP reporters recently had to travel by boat for an hour to spot any. The flamingos inhabit shallow, difficult-to-access reaches of the lagoon where navigating safely requires close attention to tides and channels.

Even at a distance, the birds are easily disturbed and quick to take flight.

Sartori predicts flamingo spotting — already a possibility from the shores of the small lagoon islands of Murano and Burano but rare in the historic center — could become more common as their numbers continue to grow.

“Obviously this should always be done with respect for the animals, keeping a safe distance and not interfering with their daily lives,” he said.

Varieties

Meteor Explodes over US with Blast Equivalent to 300 Tons of TNT

This image taken from video shows a suspected meteor falling through the sky in the greater Pittsburgh, Pa., area on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Jared Rackley via AP)
This image taken from video shows a suspected meteor falling through the sky in the greater Pittsburgh, Pa., area on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Jared Rackley via AP)
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Meteor Explodes over US with Blast Equivalent to 300 Tons of TNT

This image taken from video shows a suspected meteor falling through the sky in the greater Pittsburgh, Pa., area on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Jared Rackley via AP)
This image taken from video shows a suspected meteor falling through the sky in the greater Pittsburgh, Pa., area on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Jared Rackley via AP)

A meteor crashing toward Earth exploded over the northeastern United States on Saturday, NASA said, setting off booms that echoed over the region with a blast equivalent to 300 tons of TNT.

The fireball broke up over northeastern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire at 2:06 pm (1806 GMT), the US space agency's deputy news chief Jennifer Dooren told AFP in a statement.

"This fireball was not associated with any currently active meteor shower, but it was a natural object and not a re-entry of space debris or a satellite," she said.

"The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms."

The meteor was traveling at 75,000 mph (more than 120,000 kph) at an altitude of 40 miles when it broke apart, Dooren said.

Area residents were alarmed by the unexpected loud booms, with social media users reporting they were so powerful that houses were shaking.

In 2013 a fireball streaked above Chelyabinsk, Russia. The house-sized space rock blew apart 14 miles above the ground, releasing a blast equivalent to 440,000 tons of TNT, NASA said.

The explosion blew out windows over 200 square miles (518 square kilometers), injuring more than 1,600 people, mostly due to broken glass.