France suffers 1,000 additional deaths in just the past week amid record heat wave—and 85% involved people aged 65 and above

France saw around 1,000 additional deaths last week at the height of its record-smashing heat wave, the country’s public health agency said Sunday, as the head of the World Health Organization warned that Europe is the fastest-warming continent on earth and countries there need to do better to protect their citizens. Temperature records were toppled in several countries on the weekend as wildfires were sparked in Germany and Berlin police used water cannons to cool down the crowds. Meanwhile, the heat wave slowly moved toward eastern parts of the continent. In Germany, a new nighttime temperature record was reported Sunday in Kubschütz, in eastern Saxony, with 29.4 degrees Celsius (84.9 Fahrenheit). It came only hours after a daytime record of 41.5 C (106.7 F) in Möckern-Drewitz in Saxony-Anhalt, according to preliminary data by the German Weather Service DWD. The previous record was set a day earlier. The Czech Republic experienced its hottest day on record for the second straight day on Sunday. In the northern town of Doksany the temperature soared to 41.1 degrees Celsius (106.4 F), the Czech Meteorological Institute said. The previous record was 40.9 C (105.6 F) in the same place on Saturday. A new study from the World Weather Attribution, a Europe-based collaboration of scientists, reported Friday that the record-breaking heat and humidity in Europe this past week would not have been possible without climate change. The rapid study found that the heat would have been virtually impossible just five decades ago, and is 200 times more likely today than it would have been 20 years ago. France records surge in deaths during heat wave France reported a surge in deaths last week at the height of a record-smashing heat wave, including a sharp increase at private homes, especially in the Paris region, the national public health agency said Sunday. There were more than 1,200 deaths on Wednesday, when France was sweltering under its hottest temperatures, increasing t