Deaths

High commissioner for human rights calls for ‘those responsible for violations of the law’ to be held to accountUS politics live – latest updatesThe United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, on Friday raised the alarm internationally about deaths in US government immigration custody and called for “prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations”.Türk’s call came as the Trump administration faced investigations by watchdogs at its own Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into deaths and use of force against people detained in its expanding immigration detention system across the country. Continue reading...

• France has reported 40 drowning deaths since last Thursday as a severe heatwave grips the region. • While temperatures on the Iberian peninsula are expected to decline starting Wednesday, the heat is shifting northward. • Record June heat is projected to peak in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands this Friday.

• An early summer heat wave is sweeping across Europe, with France, Italy, Spain, and Britain experiencing significantly high temperatures. • France has been the most severely affected nation, reporting 40 drowning deaths as people sought relief from the heat in bodies of water. • The extreme weather is particularly concerning due to its early arrival in the season, putting immediate pressure on public health and safety infrastructure.

However, Imperial College team also find that pollution has worse health impact than previously understoodDeaths linked to air pollution fell by an estimated 40% in London over the five years from 2019, according to new analysis.The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, welcomed what he called “overwhelming evidence” that his ultra-low emission zone was saving lives. Continue reading...

Temperatures could hit 38-40C in parts of England and Wales, smashing June record set in 1976; red alerts in France after 19 heat deathsTwo children found dead in car in France as heatwave hits EuropeWith temperatures forecast to reach 38-40C in parts of England and Wales, Britain’s national weather forecaster issued a rare red weather warning covering an area stretching from London to Swansea and Somerset to Birmingham from 9am on Wednesday to 9pm on Thursday.These were reserved for the most severe events, the Met Office said, meaning this heatwave was expected to bring “severe and significant impacts” including widespread health risks for many – not just those who were normally more vulnerable to the heat – and even danger to life. Continue reading...

Outcry as experts from African and Asian countries – where mortality is highest – prevented from attending Portugal conference on preventionVisa rejections have threatened progress on mother and baby health after experts from struggling countries were barred from talks, global midwife leaders have said.Politicians, donors and UN agencies convened this week at the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) congress in Lisbon, Portugal, a key conference to discuss the millions of avoidable mother and baby deaths every year.Emily Maclean is a midwife Continue reading...

A five-year-old girl was swept away and a woman was pulled into the water, prompting authorities to urge precautionMassive waves, coastal flooding and dangerous rip currents are roiling the California coastline this week as authorities advise people to take precautions while visiting beaches following two deaths last week.Turbulent waters swept a five-year-old girl, who was walking with her mother and brother, out to sea from the shore of Treasure Island Beach in Orange county in southern California on Tuesday. Bystanders were able to rescue the mother and son, but the girl was not found and her body was recovered on Thursday. Continue reading...

• On June 2, 2026, the CDC issued a travel alert for seven Sub-Saharan African countries—Chad, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, and Somalia—following a severe diphtheria outbreak. • The alert follows alarming 2025 WHO data documenting 20,412 suspected cases and 1,252 deaths across Africa, highlighting a critical public health crisis. • The warning serves as a vital notice for travelers and unvaccinated Americans to ensure proper immunization before visiting the affected regions.

Senior medical staff call for solutions to tackle root causes of excess deaths amid tenfold increase in a decadeMore than 1,300 patients a month in England are dying needlessly due to long A&E waits, a tenfold rise in a decade, figures suggest.There were more than 300 deaths linked to long waits every week in 2025, up from 30 a week in 2015, according to analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. Continue reading...

Dr David Jackson gave ‘effectively an unlimited supply for a drug binge’ to one addict, inquest findsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA former medical practitioner who was the subject of multiple red flags played a direct role in the deaths of two patients through grossly irresponsible drug prescribing, a coroner has found.Nicholas Brown, Matthew Winwood, Toni Wiki and Belinda Kemp, who were all drug dependent, died in Tasmania between September 2016 and August 2017.In Australia, the Opioid Treatment Line is at 1800 642 428 or call the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015. In the UK, Action on Addiction is available on 0300 330 0659. In the US, call or text SAMHSA’s National Helpline on 988 Continue reading...

Acting director David Venturella rescinds Biden-era policy that required agency to report and investigate such deathsA memo issued by acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director David Venturella has ordered the federal agency to cease reporting the deaths of newly released detainees, in a change that could obscure the full human cost of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration mass detention policies.The move, first reported by the Washington Post, rescinds a 2021 policy implemented by the Biden administration that required ICE to report to Congress and investigate deaths of detainees that occur within 30 days of their release. Continue reading...

Girl pulled from River Wharfe in Burnsall, Yorkshire, on Sunday, with temperatures dropping down to average on MondayA 13-year-old girl has died after going into a river and a boy is missing as the water-related death toll reached at least 15 amid a heatwave.The girl was pulled from the River Wharfe in Burnsall, near Skipton, North Yorkshire, on Sunday evening. She was airlifted to hospital where she was pronounced dead, North Yorkshire police said. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Experts say homelessness is primary driver of crisis that led to 77 ‘avoidable’ deaths in 2025Falling through the cracks: ex-prisoners who died within two weeks of releaseThe number of people who die within two weeks of being released from prison in England and Wales has reached a record high, a Guardian investigation has found.Seventy-seven people died within 14 days of being released from prison in 2025, 28% higher than the 60 deaths recorded the previous year and the highest since records began in 2021. Continue reading...

Medical investigations ongoing ‘to finalise the cause of death’ but police say they do not suspect foul playThe cause of the deaths of three sisters found in the sea off Brighton beach is yet to be ascertained but police say they do not suspect foul play at this stage.The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, from Uxbridge, west London, were found earlier this month. Continue reading...

Bodies of two teenagers recovered by emergency workers following separate incidents in Kent and OxfordThe number of water-related deaths during the UK’s recent heatwave has risen to 11 after the bodies of two teenage boys were recovered in Kent and Oxford.Emergency workers recovered the body of a 14-year-old boy from the River Thames near Donnington Bridge, Oxford, at about 5.30pm on Wednesday. Thames Valley police said the boy’s family had been informed and that his death was being treated as “unexplained but not suspicious”. Continue reading...

• GCHQ Director Anne Keast-Butler delivered a speech at Bletchley Park, asserting that Russia's forces are regressing on the battlefield. • She announced that GCHQ has created a blueprint for a new national cyber defense capability that integrates "agentic AI" to enable machine-speed responses. • The initiative aims to harden Britain's critical infrastructure against evolving digital threats and state-sponsored cyberattacks.

• A group led by a Catholic bishop launched a fact-finding Truth Commission on Wednesday to document witness accounts of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war. • The body aims to gather evidence and details of the bloody crackdown to assist the government in prosecuting responsible law enforcers. • Commission member Raquel Fortun, a forensic pathologist from the University of the Philippines, warned that establishing facts years after the killings will be a difficult task.

• A review of mortality data reveals that heat-related deaths across Europe now exceed the total number of gun deaths in the United States. • The report links these trends to "Net Zero" policies and rising electricity costs, which have impacted regional energy stability. • Research on light pollution shows a global divide: nighttime light surged in China and northern India, while France, the UK, and the Netherlands saw dimming of 33%, 22%, and 21% respectively.

• Europe is experiencing unseasonal, record-shattering heat across multiple regions, including the United Kingdom. • The extreme weather has led to reported deaths during amateur sports events in France, prompting urgent government warnings. • This heatwave is significant due to its timing in May, which is unusually early for such dangerous temperature spikes.

• An exceptionally early spring heatwave has scorched parts of Western Europe, leading to record-breaking temperatures across Britain and France in May. • London experienced a rare “tropical night” on Monday, while firefighters in Edinburgh were deployed to battle grass fires triggered by the extreme heat. • The event is significant as it has already resulted in deaths and prompted government warnings regarding severe risks to public health and life.

Five of the deaths were by drowning while two people died competing in sporting eventsSeven people have died in France in an extreme early-summer heat event that is affecting a swathe of western Europe, as France and the UK set record highs for May and temperatures were forecast to rise further on Tuesday.“What I can say today is that there have been seven deaths linked directly or indirectly to the heat,” the government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, told French television TF1, adding that five of the deaths were by drowning. Continue reading...

Animal and Plant Health Agency forced to release reports showing scale and cause of deaths on some fish farmsMillions of fish deaths caused by accidental poisoning and suffocation on Scottish salmon farms have been revealed after the inspection agency was forced to share its reports.The UK government’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) had refused to release inspection reports, claiming it would cause “significant detriment” to companies, including to their reputations. Continue reading...

• Europe is experiencing unseasonal and record-shattering heat across several regions, including the United Kingdom. • The extreme weather has led to reported deaths during amateur sports events in France, prompting urgent government warnings. • This heatwave is significant due to its timing in May, which is unusually early for such extreme temperatures.

• Maldivian authorities are investigating multiple possible factors behind the deaths of five Italian divers in a deepwater cave last week, a government spokesperson told Reuters. • Officials are examining whether the group descended far deeper than expected as part of the ongoing inquiry into the tragedy. • The case matters because it raises questions about diving safety oversight in a popular tourism destination.

Initial testing found evidence of metals in water samples, months after province’s residents began reporting unusual numbers of dead fish washing ashorePapua New Guinea’s government has warned communities not to fish from parts of the New Ireland coastline as preliminary tests show evidence of metals in some water samples, after months of residents reporting dead marine life in the area.On 7 May the fisheries minister, Jelta Wong, said initial testing conducted by an independent company detected various metals in water samples taken from affected areas around Kafkaf village and Larairu lagoon in New Ireland, an island in eastern PNG. Continue reading...

At least 130 people thought to have been killed, says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus before emergency meeting‘It’s heartbreaking’: panic in eastern DRC over return of EbolaThe director general of the World Health Organization has said he is deeply concerned about the scale and the speed of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there had been at least 500 suspected cases of Ebola and 130 suspected deaths in DRC since the new outbreak began. Thirty cases had been confirmed in DRC’s north-eastern province of Ituri, and one death and one case had been confirmed in Kampala, Uganda, he added. In addition, he said, there was “one US citizen confirmed positive and transferred to Germany, as reported by the US”. Continue reading...

Civilians left increasingly exposed as a dangerous new front opens up in the country’s decades-old conflictAs night fell over southern Colombia, and a group of children began their weekly Tuesday football match, a drone appeared overhead.The children looked up, and the drone dropped a grenade, its blast killing a 10-year-old boy and injuring 12 more civilians. The child’s death, in southern Cauca in 2024, marked the first known time a person in the country had been killed in a weaponised drone attack. Continue reading...

Trump administration accused of cutting military’s civilian harm program in light of US strike on girls school in IranThe Pentagon has quietly dismantled a program it is legally required to operate to prevent and respond to civilian deaths in US military operations, according to its internal watchdog.A report released by the department’s inspector general concluded the US military no longer has the people, tools or infrastructure needed to comply with two federal statutes requiring it to maintain a functioning civilian casualty policy, and operate a Civilian Protection Center of Excellence (CP CoE). Continue reading...