The Arctic is warming 3.5 times faster than the global average, scientists have warned, raising new security threats for the UK.
Melting Arctic ice is opening up more routes for shipping and military vessels, and the potential to drill for new reserves of gas, oil and natural minerals in an otherwise virtually unspoilt ecosystem.
The continent has long been warming faster than the rest of the world.
As the sea ice disappears, its white surface that reflects sunlight gives way to darker ocean underneath that absorbs the heat instead.
Today the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) warned the Arctic is on course to warm 3.5 times faster than the rest of the world over the next five years, making it at least 2.4C warmer than the recent average.
It comes as the UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy tours the region to assess threats from Russia and climate change, calling it an “increasingly important frontier for geopolitical competition and trade”.
On Tuesday he announced new UK funding to work with Iceland on monitoring Arctic waters, for AI to detect hostile state activity and for research on the impact on the UK.
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Image: David Lammy on board a Norwegian coastguard ship in Tromso during his Arctic tour. Pic: PA
Arctic melt is expected to push up sea levels around Britain’s coastline and fuel worse coastal flooding.
It will shift the jet stream, disrupting the UK’s weather system in ways not yet fully understood.
Klaus Dodds, geopolitics professor at Royal Holloway, said less sea ice in the Arctic will likely attract “heightened commercial and military activity by third parties that are not allies of the UK, primarily Russia and China”.
He said the UK should prepare to operate in the region without the US as a reliable ally, while Russia will “continue to target critical infrastructure in the North Atlantic and European Arctic – all of which maybe ever more accessible”.
Ed Arnold from security thinktank RUSI said further melt will mean “that the Russians would have more control over [the Northern Sea Route]” via which ships can access waters around Britain.
The security threat is changing “pretty fundamentally” as vessels can more easily travel through the Arctic to waters containing gas pipelines or data cables supplying Europe, he added.
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‘Tropical nights’ soar in European hotspots
‘Shocking, but not shocking’
The WMO report also warned a dangerous new warming threshold was on the horizon for the first time.
Ten years ago, under the landmark Paris Agreement, world leaders promised to try to limit warming to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, and ideally stick to 1.5C.
At the time, both those thresholds felt a long way off.
But just 10 years later, today’s report forecasts for the first time ever a chance of breaching 2C of warming at some point in the next five years.
The chances are “exceptionally unlikely”, probably no more than 1%, said Prof Adam Scaife from the Met Office Hadley Centre, who worked on the report.
But such a forecast would have been “effectively impossible” just a few years ago, in a sign of how quickly the climate is changing.
Prof Scaife added: “It is shocking in that sense that two degrees is possible. However, it’s not shocking [because]… we thought it might be plausible at this stage, and indeed it is.”
And unless something changes dramatically, 2C will become increasingly likely, increasingly soon, the authors warned, driving more extreme weather and migration as homelands become unliveable.
The WMO also warned temperatures are likely to again hit 1.5C above pre-industrial levels over the next five years – after doing so temporarily in 2024.
The team’s open-top bus will travel along The Mall from 12.10pm.
It will end with a staged ceremony at the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, which is expected to start at roughly 12.30pm and end at 1pm, the Football Association (FA) announced.
The Royal Marines Portsmouth band and the Central Band of the Royal Air Force will perform on the stage and highlights from the tournament will be shown on big screens.
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Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey was one of those who asked the prime minister if it was “time for that bank holiday”.
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He was referring to comments made by Sir Keir in 2023. When, as leader of the opposition, he wrote on X that there “should be a celebratory bank holiday if the Lionesses bring it home”.
But with estimates suggesting an extra bank holiday would cost the economy £2.4bn, it’s understood such a move isn’t being planned by Downing Street.
‘There is no stopping them now’
The impact of the Lionesses second consecutive Euros title is already being felt across the UK.
At Bearsted Football Club in Maidstone, Kent, a mural of Alessia Russo, who levelled Sunday’s final with a goal in the 56th minute, has been unveiled.
Image: Alessia Russo scoring the levelling goal. Pic: Reuters
The club is where Russo first started playing, and chairman Jamie Houston told Sky News the Lionesses have helped transform the women’s game.
“Five years ago we never had a girl’s football team,” he told Sky correspondent Mollie Malone. “Now we have five separate teams for girls, and boys are accepting of more girls in the game.
“There is no stopping them now.”
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Lynda Hale, who played in the England squad in the first ever international women’s match against Scotland in 1972, reiterated that women’s football has changed drastically since she played.
“When I first started playing there was hardly anyone that would watch,” she told Sky News Breakfast.
“To put on the England shirt and think what we started has grown to this magnitude, and it is still going to grow, is absolutely fantastic. I think the sky’s the limit in women’s football.”
Asked what advice she would have for the current England squad after their win, Ms Hale said: “The girls need to make as many memories as they can and take everything in their stride.”
The suspect in the fatal shooting of a mother and her two children in Northern Ireland has died.
Ian Rutledge, a 43-year-old agricultural worker, had himself suffered a gunshot wound during the attack in the village of Maguiresbridge in County Fermanagh on Wednesday morning.
He was taken to hospital where he remained in a serious condition until the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) announced he had died on Monday evening.
It is understood he was the only suspect in the murder investigation.
Vanessa Whyte, 45, a vet originally from County Clare, her son James, 14, and daughter Sara, 13, were all shot dead at a property on Drummeer Road during the attack.
The PSNI said last week that all four people who were shot were members of the same household.
Police have been investigating whether the attack was a triple murder and attempted suicide.
A prayer service took place for Ms Whyte and the two children in Barefield, County Clare on Sunday, following a community vigil in Maguiresbridge last Friday.
A funeral service is expected to take place in County Clare later this week.
Following Mr Rutledge’s death, the PSNI said detectives have “reiterated their appeal for anyone with information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to come forward”.
It comes after the PSNI issued an appeal on Saturday for information involving the movements of a vehicle.
They have asked anyone who saw a silver Mercedes saloon car being driven in the Clones Road area of Newtownbutler, or between Maguiresbridge and Newtownbutler, on the evening of Tuesday 22 July to call detectives on 101.
Image: A police cordon was in place close to the scene last week. Pic: PA
Tributes paid to ‘lovely-natured’ children
A local Gaelic football club said last week that Ms White and her children were all “active and beloved” members of their club.
Sara and James Rutledge also used to be part of a local cricket club, which said in a statement that it was “extremely saddened by the tragic events”.
“Both of them turned out to be talented young cricketers and two absolutely lovely-natured children,” the statement read.
Flowers, teddy bears and an Arsenal football top with written notes were laid close to scene of the incident in Drummeer Road in the days after the shooting.
Donald Trump has reignited his row with London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan after calling him a “nasty person” who has done “a terrible job”.
During an hour-long news conference with Sir Keir Starmer in Scotland, the US president hit out at the Labour mayor, who has responded with his own snipey remarks.
Asked if he would visit London during his state visit in September, Mr Trump said: “I will, I’m not a fan of your mayor, I think he’s done a terrible job.
“A nasty person, I think.”
The prime minister then interrupted and said: “He’s a friend of mine.”
But the president added: “I think he’s done a terrible job but I will certainly visit London, I hope so.”
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Sir Sadiq’s spokesperson then released a statement saying: “Sadiq is delighted that President Trump wants to come to the greatest city in the world.
“He’d see how our diversity makes us stronger not weaker; richer, not poorer.
“Perhaps these are the reasons why a record number of Americans have applied for British citizenship under his presidency.”
Image: Sir Sadiq Khan was knighted in June. Pic: PA
They noted that Sir Sadiq has won three mayoral elections, including when Mr Trump lost the US election in 2020.
This is not the first time Mr Trump and Sir Sadiq have locked horns.
Sir Sadiq then described Mr Trump as a “poster boy for racists”.
And in November 2024, after Mr Trump won his second term, Sir Sadiq said many Londoners would be “fearful” about what it would “mean for democracy”.
However, as Sir Keir tried to show diplomacy with Mr Trump after becoming PM, Sir Sadiq said he “wanted to work closely with the American president” ahead of his inauguration in January.
The London mayor said as somebody “who believes in democracy, and voting and elections, we should recognise the fact that Donald Trump is the elected president of the United States”.
But he added: “Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this president is different from the last time he was president.”