Firefighters will deploy new techniques learnt in the world’s worst wildfire hotspots as extreme weather raises the risk level in the UK this summer.

Last year’s heatwaves saw thousands of fires break out, with one destroying homes at Wennington, east London.

This year has already seen hundreds of grass fires and one of the UK’s largest ever has been burning near Cannich in Scotland for the past two weeks.

More fire crews are now training in skills from southern Europe and the US.

Fire chiefs are particularly looking to expand the number of specialist teams trained in “burn suppression” techniques – the deliberate burning of land to keep a fire contained.

At the moment, just five UK units across more than 50 fire and rescue services specialise in the “fighting fire with fire” technique, mostly in moorland areas.

With more than 90 buildings destroyed by wildfires close to urban areas last July, more units – including those in services that straddle urban and rural areas – would be trained in new ways of wildfire fighting.

A volunteer walks Frensham Common, near Farnham, Surrey, hunting for reptiles that survived the fire

They could then be deployed nationally, in the event of a significant fire.

It is hoped a UK-wide training programme will be set up as part of a national action plan drawn up in response to the lessons learnt from last year’s blazes.

One of the services leading the way is Surrey Fire and Rescue, which has already dealt with more than 80 wildfires this year.

The most recent wildfire was last month at Frensham Common, near Farnham, a popular beauty spot.

The cause of the 10-hectare fire is not yet known – but the damage is clear to see.

Investigators in Canada have boarded the support ship used to launch the Titan submersible in their bid to understand what caused the vessel’s catastrophic implosion.

Flags on board the Polar Prince were at half-mast as it docked in St John’s, Newfoundland, on Saturday.

Another boat was seen in the harbour towing the Titan’s launch platform.

The Titan was on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic when it broke apart, killing all five people on board.

Locals in St John’s gathered around the cannon on top of Battery Lookout at 08:00 (11:30 BST) to watch the Polar Prince return to port. As some passengers disembarked, investigators in hard hats and high-visibility jackets climbed aboard.

The Polar Prince was the Titan’s support vessel and had towed the submersible out to the area in the North Atlantic where it carried out its dive on Sunday, about 400 miles from St John’s.

On board were members of the support team and some family members of the victims. It was also involved in the search for the Titan once it lost contact about one hour and 45 minutes into its dive.

Parts of the submersible were found on the ocean floor on Thursday, approximately 1,600ft (487m) from the bow of the Titanic wreck.

Canada announced on Friday that it was launching a safety investigation. Other countries’ government agencies may join in, but it is unclear at this stage which will lead the investigation.

As well as the role of the Polar Prince, experts say officials will also look at the materials used to make the sub’s outer walls.

A county in the northwestern state of Oregon has filed a lawsuit against major fossil fuel companies seeking more than $51 billion over the 2021 “Heat Dome,” one of the United States’ deadliest weather-related disasters.

Multnomah County, which encompasses the state’s most populous city Portland, said combined historic carbon pollution from use of the companies’ products — and their decision to mislead the public about their impacts — was a big factor in exacerbating the heat wave.

The county is asking for $50 million in current damages from the Heat Dome, and $1.5 billion for future damages as extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and smoky skies become more common.

It also wants a much larger sum — $50 billion — for a longer term “abatement fund” to upgrade and “climatize” the county’s infrastructure.

The record-breaking heat wave baked the western United States and Canada from late June to mid-July 2021, causing a peak temperature of 121.3 degrees Fahrenheit (49.6 degrees Celsius) in Lytton, British Columbia and leading to an estimated 1,400 deaths.

A peer-reviewed analysis by the World Weather Attribution group said the phenomenon would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.

Global warming combined with a dense high-pressure system that hovered over the Pacific Northwest to create a convection-oven effect over the normally mild region.

Storms and heavy rain across a large swath of Germany flooded roads and forced the closure of some major railway routes on Friday, but there was no immediate word of any injuries.

Germany’s national weather service had warned earlier this week of severe storms with significant amounts of rainfall, which hit on Thursday.

In the western city of Duisburg, the fire service said it rescued several people from cars that got stuck on flooded streets. Shops were flooded and streets inundated in the northern city of Braunschweig, and there were similar reports from Kassel. In Hattersheim, near Frankfurt, trees fell on houses and cars, German news agency dpa reported.

Germany’s national railway operator, Deutsche Bahn, said that the main line between Hamburg and Berlin was closed because of storm damage, as was a major north-south route between Kassel and Goettingen.

Days of heavy rainfall have swollen Chile’s rivers causing floods that blocked off roads and prompted evacuation in the center of the country, amid what has been described as the worst weather front in a decade.

On Friday, residents of the capital Santiago were surprised by a large mass of brown water flowing down the bed of the Mapocho river, the city’s main waterway, which has risen substantially with the recent heavy rains.

The flooding around the Mapocho river has also cut off routes leading towards the Pacific Ocean, hitting families who live on its banks and leaving small towns isolated. This led authorities to declare a “red alert” and order preventive evacuations in various towns in the south of Santiago.

“This is the worst weather front we have had in 10 years,” Santiago metropolitan area governor Claudio Orego said. A weather front, or boundary between different types of air, signals a change in the weather often causing rain, thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Franco Rodriguez, a resident from the small town of Noviciado, said he was woken up at night by neighbors telling him and his family to leave their home.

“At around 3.00 or 3.30 a.m. the river burst and we had to run,” he said.

The flooding of the Mapocho river has also affected parts of the busy route that connects Santiago with the key port city of Valparaiso.

In mountainous tourist areas around the Maipo river, authorities have since Thursday been moving residents out of their towns due to the risk of landslides and further flooding.

Maipo and Mapocho are the mains rivers that bring water to the capital.

City authorities have called on citizens to collect drinking water as supplies could be jeopardized by the changes in the water as they mix with mud and other contaminants.

Rains are forecast to continue at least through to Saturday morning.

The Chilean rains come just a few months after a period of wildfires amid a severe drought that destroyed hundreds of homes and left dozens of people dead.

The ranking of the world’s most liveable cities for 2023 has just been released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and Vienna has come out on top yet again.

The EIU, a sister organization to The Economist, ranked 173 cities around the world on a number of significant factors, including health care, education, stability, infrastructure and environment.

Vienna held onto its first place spot on the EIU’s Global Liveability Index, winning praise for its reliable infrastructure, standout culture and entertainment and impeccable education and health services.

The city, which has occupied the top position several times over the years, was closely followed by Denmark’s Copenhagen, which retained its second place position.

Big Comebacks

While Australia’s Melbourne and Sydney had dropped down the list in recent years, with Sydney dropping out of the top 10 recently and Melbourne tying for 10th place with Japan’s Osaka in 2022, both have shot back up, taking third and fourth place respectively.

Canada was well represented this year, with three of its cities – Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto — landing a spot in the top 10.

Meanwhile, Switzerland received two top 10 entries, with Zurich taking sixth place and Geneva tying for seventh place with Calgary.

Osaka, which saw a small boost in its culture and environment ratings due to the withdrawal of Covid-related restrictions, rounds out the top 10.

“The removal of covid-related restrictions has overall boded well for global liveability in 2023,” Upasana Dutt, Head of Liveability Index at EIU, said in a statement.

“Education has emerged stronger with children returning to schools alongside a significantly reduced burden on hospitals and healthcare systems, with some notable improvements in cities across developing economies of Asia and the Middle East.

“As the world’s political and economic axis continues to shift eastwards, we expect the cities in these regions to move slowly up our liveability rankings.”

Movers And Shakers

Although Europe had a strong showing at the top of the list, European destinations also dominated the list of cities that suffered the biggest drops down the rankings this year.

The UK capital London and Sweden’s capital Stockholm both found themselves falling down the rankings, with the former dropping 12 places to 46th and the latter dropping 22 spots to 43rd position.

And after entering the liveability survey for the first time in 2022 at No. 35, Scotland’s capital Edinburgh fell to 58th place this year.

“None of these cities has seen a particularly sharp decline in their index scores, but they have failed to make the gains that many other cities – particularly those in Asia – have made in the past year,” reads the report.

The average index score across 172 cities (eliminating Kyiv in Ukraine) has now reached 76.2 out of 100, the highest score in 15 years.

According to the report, health care scores have improved the most, while those for education, culture and entertainment, and infrastructure are also higher.

2023’s Global Liveability Index: The Top 10

1. Vienna, Austria

2. Copenhagen, Denmark

3. Melbourne, Australia

4. Sydney, Australia

5. Vancouver, Canada

6. Zurich, Switzerland

7. Calgary, Canada

7. Geneva, Switzerland

9. Toronto, Canada

10. Osaka, Japan

In a gesture of goodwill and to facilitate travelers during the joyous occasion of Eidul Azha, Pakistan Railways on Saturday announced a significant reduction in fares across all classes.

With a reduction of 33 percent, passengers can now embark on their journeys with greater ease and affordability.

The fare reduction applies to all classes, including economy class, business class, and parlor car class, as well as AC standard and AC sleepers of all passenger trains.