Global Pulse

标签： Europe

欧洲

  • France records its hottest summer since measurements began over a century ago

    France records its hottest summer since measurements began over a century ago

    PARIS – In a stark confirmation of advancing climate change, France has officially marked the summer of 2026 as the hottest ever recorded since national temperature tracking began in 1900, French Environment Minister Monique Barbut announced Thursday at a public unveiling of the national seasonal climate report. The unprecedented heat came paired with extreme drought, destructive wildfires that displaced tens of thousands of residents, and further underscored Europe’s status as the fastest-warming continent on the planet.

    Meteo France, the country’s national weather service, reported that the average daily and nighttime temperature across June, July and August hit 24 degrees Celsius (75.2 degrees Fahrenheit). This is a full 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial baseline average for the season, surpassing the previous record set during the deadly 2003 European heatwave, when temperatures were 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal.

    The season was defined by a cascade of extreme weather events. Total rainfall across the country was nearly 40% lower than the seasonal average, making 2026 the second driest summer since record-keeping began. An unprecedented 5 days of heatwave conditions were recorded across three distinct heatwave events, far outstripping the 33 heatwave days recorded in the 2022 summer, previously one of the most extreme in recent decades.

    Unusually hot conditions extended beyond the traditional summer months too: record-high ocean temperatures were measured along all of mainland France’s coastlines and the coast of Corsica, and unseasonal heatwaves were recorded as early as May and as late as early September — patterns that Meteo France called clear indicators of long-term human-caused climate change.

    The dry, hot conditions created tinderbox conditions across the country, forcing firefighters to work around the clock to contain widespread wildfires even in regions unaccustomed to such blazes. Northern France and Brittany, normally known for cool, wet climates, saw active fire activity this summer. A single historic wildfire near the southwestern city of Bordeaux burned through thousands of hectares of forest and forced 250,000 people to evacuate their homes to escape the flames.

    France’s record-breaking summer is part of a broader pattern of extreme heat across the European continent this year. Millions of people across France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and other European nations faced prolonged extreme temperatures this summer. Data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirms that Europe has warmed at twice the global average rate since the 1980s, making it the most rapidly warming continent on Earth.

  • A pregnant soldier mourns her 21-year-old husband at his funeral in Ukraine

    A pregnant soldier mourns her 21-year-old husband at his funeral in Ukraine

    KYIV, Ukraine — On a crisp Tuesday in Kyiv, a 21-year-old pregnant widow in a simple black dress stood at the head of her fallen husband’s casket, grieving a love story cut short by Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Yeva and Danyil Smyrnov, both 18 when they enlisted in Ukraine’s armed forces in 2023, tied the knot just two years later in July 2025. Eager to build a life together amid the chaos of war, the young couple rushed to start their family before Danyil’s deployment to the front lines.

  • It’s time to really start judging Maresca and new-look Man City after $600M refresh

    It’s time to really start judging Maresca and new-look Man City after $600M refresh

    Early doubts over Manchester City’s ability to chase the Premier League crown in its first era without Pep Guardiola have rapidly faded, following two opening-match wins and a historic $400 million spending spree compressed into just two weeks of the summer transfer window. By the close of the window, City ended up as Europe’s biggest single summer spender, with total outlay across the entire transfer period surging past $600 million. The club wrapped up its buying blitz with deadline-day additions of Enzo Fernandez and Iliman Ndiaye, and added two more high-profile young talents just days earlier: Morocco international midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi and Brazilian winger Allan, who cost a combined $160 million, primarily brought in as depth for the first-team squad. This unprecedented spending has transformed first-year manager Enzo Maresca’s situation entirely; just a few weeks ago, he was forced to improvise by fielding center back Marc Guehi in central midfield, after City sold or released a core group of midfield stars including Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Tijjani Reijnders without immediate replacements. Now, Maresca faces the far more welcome problem of selection depth as City prepares to host newly promoted Coventry this Saturday. He will have to choose two from Elliot Anderson, Fernandez and Bouaddi to slot behind in-form attacking playmaker Rayan Cherki, while Ndiaye and Allan will push established first-team wingers Phil Foden, Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku for starting spots. The challenge could not be starker for Coventry: the promoted side already traveled to the Emirates to face Arsenal earlier this season, and escaped with only a 3-0 defeat, a result many considered a favorable outcome for the newly promoted side. City has enjoyed a strong start to the campaign regardless, opening with a 2-1 victory over Bournemouth before securing a 4-1 away win against Crystal Palace. While pundits once argued the first two weeks of the season represented the best window to take points off a rebuild City with an incomplete squad, a new manager still settling into the role and players undercooked after post-World Cup rest, the club has still posted maximum points — even after a tepid 3-0 Community Shield loss to Arsenal that left many fans and analysts questioning City’s title credentials. From this weekend onward, analysts and fans will get their first real look at how Maresca’s fully refurbished side can compete over the long haul of the season. This weekend’s fixture list brings a number of mouthwatering matchups beyond City’s game with Coventry. The standout tie of the round sees defending Premier League champions Arsenal host Chelsea on Sunday, with both sides entering the game on maximum six points from their first two matches. Arsenal has started the season with a typically solid defensive foundation, holding opponents scoreless through two games, while Chelsea has jumped out to an early lead as the league’s joint-top scoring side with seven goals, setting up a compelling clash of contrasting early-season form. Outside of Manchester City, newly promoted Hull City is the only other side in the division to win both of its opening two matches, and it will host a point-less Aston Villa side looking for its first win of the campaign. Liverpool, meanwhile, will look to snap a run of two opening draws when it travels to face newly promoted Ipswich Town on Friday evening. The weekend will also offer supporters the first chance to see some of the window’s most high-profile signings make their debuts for new clubs. Most notable among these is Bradley Barcola, the French winger who joined Liverpool from Paris Saint-Germain for $166 million. Barcola did not make a single appearance for PSG at the start of this season amid prolonged transfer speculation, and he could make his first Liverpool appearance off the bench this weekend. Jack Grealish, who has returned to Everton on loan after several seasons at City, could also be thrown straight into action for his new side when Everton hosts Manchester United, with Ndiaye having departed the Merseyside club in this window. Off the pitch, this weekend will also bring expected protests from Everton fans, who are furious with the American ownership’s transfer window strategy. The club allowed its top attacker Ndiaye to depart for Manchester City, and also sold backup striker Beto, and failed to sign any replacements to fill the gaps left by those departures. Deadline-day moves for Folarin Balogun and Joshua Zirkzee fell through, leaving Everton with just one senior striker on the books: Thierno Barry. Everton’s independent fan advisory board released a public statement highlighting the “serious concerns” held by supporters over the club’s transfer management, arguing the current squad is weaker than it was at the start of the previous season. “The gap between ambition and execution is now impossible to ignore, and it has damaged confidence in the planning, leadership and alignment of football operations,” the fan group said. “Supporters deserve clarity, accountability and evidence that lessons have been learned before further trust can be rebuilt.” The Texas-based Friedkin Group is currently heading into its second full season as the club’s majority owner.

  • Body of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic to be flown to Serbia, president says

    Body of convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic to be flown to Serbia, president says

    BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed Wednesday that the remains of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who died last week while serving a life sentence for war crimes and genocide at a U.N. detention facility in the Netherlands, will be transported to Serbia for burial this Thursday. The United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, based in The Hague, has not yet issued an official statement on the release of Mladic’s body following his death in a Dutch hospital.

    Vucic told reporters that Mladic’s family will release detailed funeral arrangements in the coming days, but warned local security officials are bracing for an unprecedented turnout of the convicted war criminal’s supporters. Even after his 2017 conviction for some of the worst atrocities committed on European soil since World War II, Mladic retains widespread heroic status among large segments of the Serbian public. Vucic noted that Serbian police and state intelligence agencies currently project that tens of thousands of admirers could gather for the funeral, creating significant security challenges for authorities.

    “It will be hard to secure and guarantee security to everybody,” Vucic said. “It will be a demanding job for our security services and we will use everything at our disposal to provide security.”

    Mladic was found guilty of overseeing three of the conflict’s most infamous atrocities: the 1995 Srebrenica massacre that killed more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys, the 44-month siege of Bosnia’s capital Sarajevo that killed more than 10,000 civilians, and the systematic establishment of concentration camps where thousands of non-Serb civilians and enemy combatants were abused and executed. The Srebrenica massacre remains the first legally recognized act of genocide on the European continent since 1945; the enclave was designated a U.N. safe haven for Muslim refugees before Mladic’s forces overran the area, executed the civilian population, and buried their remains in unmarked mass graves.

    The Bosnian War, which broke out in 1992 after Bosnian Serb militias backed by Belgrade seized control of large swathes of Bosnian territory to form a separate breakaway state, ended in 1995 with a U.S.-brokered peace deal. The 3-year conflict left more than 100,000 people dead and displaced more than 1 million from their homes, leaving the region deeply ethnically divided decades later. Within hours of Mladic’s death being announced last week, thousands of Serbs gathered for public vigils and marches to honor his memory, a demonstration that drew sharp condemnation across the Balkans from survivors and political leaders.

    For surviving family members of Mladic’s victims, the 2017 conviction represented a long-delayed measure of justice for their murdered loved ones. But attitudes in Serbia, which is currently pursuing European Union membership, remain deeply defiant over the country’s role in the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict. Last week, Vucic launched a sharp attack on the international tribunal, accusing the court and Western powers of systemic bias that only holds Serbs accountable for war crimes while ignoring atrocities against Serb civilians. He previously condemned the tribunal for what he called “uncivilized behavior” after it denied requests to release Mladic on compassionate grounds to allow him to die at home in Serbia.

  • Andy Burnham praises UK-EU ties in meeting with Emmanuel Macron

    Andy Burnham praises UK-EU ties in meeting with Emmanuel Macron

    In a landmark diplomatic meeting marking new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first bilateral talks with an overseas leader at 10 Downing Street, French President Emmanuel Macron and Burnham gathered Thursday to hash out a sweeping range of shared priorities, from irregular migration across the English Channel to global security conflicts and deeper UK-EU cooperation.

    The meeting opened with a warm public ceremonial moment: the two leaders shook hands and posed for official photos alongside their wives, Marie-France van Heel and Brigitte Macron, outside the prime minister’s official residence before heading into closed-door discussions.

    Macron’s visit to the UK carried a dual purpose: the trip was primarily scheduled to mark the historic loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to London’s British Museum, where the French leader met with King Charles III on Wednesday a week ahead of the medieval artifact’s public opening. But the bilateral talks that followed quickly centered on what has emerged as the most pressing bilateral policy challenge of the moment: the growing use of large “mega dinghies” by people-smuggling gangs to carry irregular migrants across the Channel to the UK.

    The rise of these large vessels, first documented in early August when a 15-meter craft carried a record 230 migrants toward British shores, has sparked fresh scrutiny of border security efforts. This development comes even as overall irregular small boat arrivals to the UK dropped to a seven-year low over the 2026 summer travel season.

    To address the new threat of oversized smuggling vessels, Downing Street announced Thursday that 45 additional British police officers will be deployed to northern French beaches as part of a targeted “surge team” focused on intercepting large dinghies before they can depart. Home Office Minister Anna Turley clarified Tuesday that this reinforcement adds to an existing deployment of more than 1,000 officers already conducting active water-based interventions along the French coast. Turley told BBC Radio 4’s *Today programme* that recent footage shows officers directly targeting smuggling operations: disabling vessels by slashing their hulls, pushing craft back to shore, and operating under dangerous conditions, often facing projectile attacks from smugglers.

    Burnham framed cross-Channel smuggling as a collective European problem requiring coordinated action rather than unilateral fixes. In a social media post on X outlining the latest data on small boat arrivals, return of undocumented migrants and asylum facility usage, Burnham emphasized he is pursuing a new approach to governing rooted in international partnership. Ahead of Thursday’s talks, he welcomed Macron as a key ally, noting it was entirely fitting that the French president was his first overseas guest at Downing Street, describing France as the UK’s closest neighbor and longstanding close partner. He added that the bilateral meeting demonstrates what collaborative action can deliver, pointing to already aligned work on Ukraine, border security and efforts to strengthen overall UK-EU ties.

    Beyond the migration crisis, the two leaders also held in-depth discussions on other pressing global and bilateral issues, including the ongoing armed conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, bilateral defence cooperation and the future framework for UK-EU engagement.

    The main opposition Conservative Party has criticized the current government’s approach, however. Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch told the BBC that while she supports cross-border collaboration with France, the fundamental problem of irregular boat crossings has not been resolved. She argued that the UK has already poured hundreds of millions, potentially billions, of pounds into funding French border security operations, yet crossings continue. The meeting comes as UK politics remains deeply divided over migration policy, with the issue set to remain a central point of political debate in the coming months.

  • Sultan of Oman to make state visit to UK, balancing pressures from US and Iran

    Sultan of Oman to make state visit to UK, balancing pressures from US and Iran

    LONDON – Buckingham Palace announced Thursday that Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oman will undertake a three-day state visit to the United Kingdom next month, a high-profile diplomatic engagement unfolding as the strategically positioned Gulf nation navigates intensifying competing pressure from Washington and Tehran.

    King Charles III and Queen Camilla will welcome the Omani leader at Windsor Castle from October 20 to 22, though full details of the visit’s schedule and agenda have not been made public.

    For the United Kingdom, state visits are a carefully calibrated diplomatic tool: the monarchy leverages its full ceremonial grandeur to strengthen ties with long-standing partners and nurture relationships with allies navigating tricky geopolitical positions. Traditionally, these events include a ceremonial horse-drawn carriage procession through castle grounds, a formal inspection of honor guards, a lavish state dinner hosted by the British monarch, and closed-door bilateral talks with the UK’s elected senior government officials. While the monarch formally extends the invitation for these visits, planning and approval are always directed by the UK’s sitting government, with preparations typically taking months to finalize.

    The announcement of Sultan Haitham’s trip comes one month after former U.S. President Donald Trump issued an extraordinary threat to bomb Oman, after the Gulf state appeared close to reaching a bilateral agreement with Iran to coordinate commercial ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. This narrow waterway, which borders Oman along its southern coast, carried roughly 20 percent of the world’s total oil and natural gas shipments before the latest escalation of conflict across the Middle East, making its security a critical priority for global energy markets.

    This is not the first meeting between King Charles and Sultan Haitham: the British monarch hosted the Oxford-educated Omani leader for a private tea at Windsor Castle during an unofficial visit to the UK last year. The last full state visit by an Omani sultan to the United Kingdom dates back to March 1982, when the late Queen Elizabeth II welcomed Sultan Haitham’s predecessor, Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

  • Liechtenstein MPs vote to legalise abortion despite threat of veto

    Liechtenstein MPs vote to legalise abortion despite threat of veto

    In a cliffhanger vote that has underscored deep divisions over reproductive rights in the tiny Alpine European nation of Liechtenstein, the country’s 25-seat parliament has passed a grassroots citizens’ initiative by just a single vote to liberalize the country’s strict abortion laws. The proposal, spearheaded by a coalition of women’s advocates and led by 28-year-old Tatjana As’Ad from the small left-wing Free List party, would legalize abortion on request during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, end the national ban on abortion-related information, and mandate that health insurance cover costs for the procedure.

    After weeks of tense debate, the final vote count came in at 13 in favor to 12 against, a razor-thin margin that reflected the polarizing nature of the issue in the predominantly Catholic country. Despite the narrow parliamentary approval, the legislation is all but certain to be blocked: Hereditary Prince Alois, Liechtenstein’s de facto ruler who holds sweeping executive and legislative powers rare for a modern Western European monarch, has publicly threatened to veto the initiative since it was first introduced.

    To bring the proposal before parliament, supporters gathered more than 4,900 valid signatures from the country’s 41,000 residents – nearly five times the minimum requirement needed to force a parliamentary vote. Advocates have argued that public opinion has shifted sharply in favor of liberalization since Liechtenstein’s last national referendum on abortion in 2011, when 52% of voters rejected a similar proposal. At that time, Prince Alois also signaled he would oppose any change to the status quo.

    Currently, abortion is only permitted in Liechtenstein in extremely limited circumstances: when the pregnant person’s life is at direct risk, or when the pregnancy is the result of sexual violence. Any person who performs an unauthorized abortion can face up to three years of prison time, while a woman who undergoes the procedure can be jailed for up to one year. These restrictions have forced hundreds of Liechtenstein women annually to travel to neighboring Austria or Switzerland to access abortion care. Since 2015, women have not faced criminal penalties for seeking abortion abroad, but the costs of the procedure are not covered by domestic health insurance, creating a financial barrier for low-income residents.

    Lawmakers rejected a separate amendment that would have put the issue directly to a public referendum, leaving the final decision in the hands of the hereditary prince. Roman Catholicism, which officially remains the state religion of Liechtenstein, counts nearly 80% of the population among its adherents, and the church has maintained strong opposition to abortion legalization. The Princely House has echoed this position, stating that its core objection to the initiative is that it does not include sufficient protections for unborn life. That said, Prince Alois has left the door open for more modest adjustments to current law, including lifting the existing ban on abortion-related public information and clarifying ambiguous language in the current regulations.

    Prince Alois exercises all day-to-day public governing duties on behalf of his father, Prince Hans-Adam II, and holds an extraordinary range of powers for a constitutional monarch in 21st century Europe: in addition to being able to veto any legislation passed by parliament, he can dismiss the sitting government or individual ministers, appoint all federal judges, and propose legislative changes directly. Reproductive rights advocates have framed the initiative as part of a broader push to bring Liechtenstein’s abortion laws in line with most other European countries, where abortion is legal on request in early pregnancy across the vast majority of EU member states.

  • More than 80 migrants feared dead after boat rescued off Canary Islands

    More than 80 migrants feared dead after boat rescued off Canary Islands

    A devastating tragedy has unfolded on one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes, where dozens of people — including an infant — are now presumed dead after a packed migrant vessel spent 27 days adrift in the Atlantic Ocean off Spain’s Canary Islands.

    Spanish Maritime Rescue teams located the stricken boat on Wednesday around 65 nautical miles southwest of Arguineguín, a coastal town on the island of Gran Canaria. When rescuers reached the vessel, they found 44 alive survivors and five corpses already on board. Based on accounts of the boat’s departure, human rights defenders estimate that a total of 83 people have died in the incident.

    According to early reports, the overcrowded vessel departed The Gambia, West Africa, in early August carrying an estimated 127 people. Helena Maleno Garzón, a prominent human rights activist and founder of the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, confirmed the projected death toll that includes an infant. While the exact number of original passengers has not been independently verified by Spanish rescue authorities, the gap between the known 49 people found (44 survivors + 5 deceased) and the reported 127 initial occupants leaves 83 people unaccounted for, leading to the widespread presumption of their deaths.

    Tough sea conditions forced rescue teams to make a devastating decision: they were unable to retrieve the five recovered bodies from the boat before departing the area. In an official statement, Maritime Rescue explained that severe adverse weather, marked by 20-knot winds and 2.5-meter-high swells, made body recovery operation unsafe to carry out after the survivors were evacuated.

    All 44 survivors identified as men from across sub-Saharan Africa. Three of the survivors were airlifted to a local hospital in serious, critical condition, while the remaining 41 were transferred by rescue vessel to Gran Canaria. The group disembarked on the island in the early hours of Thursday morning to receive medical care and processing.

    Fernando Clavijo, the president of the Canary Islands regional government, publicly condemned the ongoing loss of life in a post to the social platform X. “It is intolerable that lives continue to be lost,” he wrote. “The Canaries cannot get used to or accept as normal the fact that the Atlantic continues to be a death trap.”

    The migration route stretching from West Africa across the Atlantic to the Canary Islands has long been recorded as one of the deadliest migrant crossings on the planet. Every year, thousands of people fleeing conflict, poverty, and instability in their home countries undertake this extremely perilous journey in the hopes of reaching Spanish territory, even though the route is known for its unforgiving conditions, including rough open seas, powerful unpredictable currents, and extremely long voyages that often stretch for weeks with limited food or water supplies. This latest incident once again highlights the deadly human cost of unmanaged irregular migration across the Atlantic.

  • Inter fullback Federico Dimarco wins top honors at Italian players’ association gala

    Inter fullback Federico Dimarco wins top honors at Italian players’ association gala

    MILAN, Italy – At the glitzy Italian Football Players’ Association Awards held Wednesday night at Milan’s iconic La Scala theater, Inter Milan’s star left-back Federico Dimarco claimed the league’s highest individual honor – but the ceremony was undercut by the defender’s public disappointment over stalled contract talks with his boyhood club.

    Dimarco earned the top award after a standout 2023-24 campaign, where his explosive attacking contributions from the left flank powered Inter to a dominant Serie A title, finishing 11 points clear of second-place Napoli. This accolade marks the second major individual honor for the 26-year-old, who already won Serie A’s official MVP award in May this year.

    Despite his on-pitch success, Dimarco’s contract with Inter is set to expire at the end of the current 2024-25 season, and the fullback admitted he had expected a new deal to be finalized after his title-winning run. “We haven’t discussed it yet. I was hoping that would happen after last season,” Dimarco told reporters on the red carpet ahead of the awards.

    The award night also came hours after Inter announced a major shakeup to its front office: long-serving sporting director Piero Ausilio, who played a key role in building Inter’s recent title-winning squad, was replaced by Dario Baccin. Dimarco said he was caught off guard by the sudden management change, learning of the move through media reports after finishing a team training session. “I wasn’t expecting that. (Ausilio) is someone who I have a close relationship with. We won a lot together,” he added.

    Amid widespread transfer speculation linking him to Spanish giants Barcelona, Dimarco pushed back against rumors he was seeking an exit from San Siro. A product of Inter’s youth academy, he has cemented his place in the first team after multiple loan spells early in his career, and is currently in his sixth season as a regular starter for the club. “It’s always nice to be mentioned alongside these great clubs. But you know my history with Inter. I grew up here,” Dimarco said, reaffirming his loyalty to the Nerazzurri.

    The awards ceremony, which celebrates the best performances across Italy’s top two professional leagues, handed out a raft of other honors, with Inter dominating the first-division selections. Three Inter players – Dimarco, Alessandro Bastoni, and Manuel Akanji – earned spots among the league’s top four defenders, alongside former Cagliari rising star Marco Palestra, who recently signed for Chelsea. Inter striker Lautaro Martinez was named one of Serie A’s best forwards, alongside Como’s Nico Paz and Roma’s Donyell Malen, while Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu took home midfield honors alongside Napoli’s Scott McTominay and AC Milan’s Luka Modric. Roma’s Mile Svilar rounded out the top awards as the league’s best goalkeeper.

    In coaching awards, former Arsenal and Barcelona star Cesc Fabregas took top honors after an extraordinary debut season leading Como to a shock Champions League qualification. The 21-year-old Paz was named Serie A’s best young player, while 19-year-old Mattia Liberali, who moved from Catanzaro to Como ahead of this season, took home the best young player award for Serie B. The 2023-24 Goal of the Season went to Juventus winger Francisco Conceicao for his blistering long-range strike against Roma back in March, the only award decided by fan vote rather than player polling. All other honors were determined by a vote of active professional players across the Italian league system.

  • Italian Grand Prix declared heat-hazard race

    Italian Grand Prix declared heat-hazard race

    As Italy continues to grapple with lingering extreme heat following a brutal summer heatwave, Formula 1’s iconic Italian Grand Prix at Monza has received an official heat-hazard designation from race organizers. This special classification is triggered when forecasts confirm ambient temperatures will exceed 31 degrees Celsius at any point during Sunday’s race weekend, a threshold that is all but guaranteed to be crossed at the historic northern Italian circuit.

    Located northeast of Milan, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza is projected to see mid-30s Celsius temperatures across all three days of on-track action. The region already hit a staggering 36 degrees Celsius near Milan’s Linate Airport just last Wednesday, underscoring the severity of the ongoing heat conditions.

    The heat-hazard ruling brings with it adjusted rules to protect driver safety: competitors will be permitted to use a specialized personal cooling system that pumps cooled glycol liquid through a network of small pipes integrated into a fireproof undershirt worn beneath their racing overalls. Importantly, the cooling kit is not mandatory, but drivers who opt out of using the system must add an extra 5 kilograms of ballast to their cars to maintain equal competitive weight across the grid, preventing any unfair performance advantage for those who skip the gear.

    This weekend’s Italian Grand Prix marks the second Formula 1 race of the 2024 season to receive the heat-hazard designation. The first came earlier in the summer at the Austrian Grand Prix, when a widespread European heatwave pushed temperatures into dangerous territory for drivers.

    While the cooling system is designed to reduce heat stress, many drivers have opted to avoid it in past events for two key reasons. First, the fitted undershirt can cause physical discomfort over the course of a 300-kilometer grand prix. Second, there have been previous incidents where the limited volume of coolant ran out before the checkered flag, leaving the liquid sitting in the pipes to warm up to the temperature of the car — which can climb far higher than already dangerous ambient air levels.

    The risk of severe overheating is not an overstated concern for F1 drivers. Even in milder conditions, cockpit temperatures inside the tightly packed modern Formula 1 car regularly climb above 40 degrees Celsius. On top of that, drivers must wear multiple layers of fireproof protective gear, plus a nylon balaclava and heavy carbon fiber helmet, creating a perfect environment for heat exhaustion and dangerous dehydration during long races in high heat.