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Summer of 2026 was UK’s hottest on record, Met Office says

1 September 2026 at 16:09

Meteorologists say average mean temperature of 16.5C was made 130 times more likely by climate crisis

This year’s summer was the UK’s hottest on record, according to provisional data, and the Met Office said the season’s mean temperature was made 130 times more likely by the climate crisis.

Record-breaking and back-to-back heatwaves have scorched much of Europe. In England, temperatures peaked at 38.1C (100.1F) at Kew Gardens in London on 13 August, and June had already been confirmed as the country’s hottest since records began in 1884. Scientists have said these heatwaves are only possible because of the climate crisis driven by burning fossil fuels.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Summer of 2026 was UK’s hottest on record, Met Office says

1 September 2026 at 16:09

Meteorologists say average mean temperature of 16.5C was made 130 times more likely by climate crisis

This year’s summer was the UK’s hottest on record, according to provisional Met Office data, with the season’s mean temperature made 130 times more likely as a result of the climate crisis.

The summer saw record-breaking and back-to-back heatwaves scorch much of Europe. In England, temperatures peaked at 38.1C (100.1F) at Kew Gardens in London on 13 August, with June already confirmed as the country’s hottest since records began in 1884. Scientists have said these heatwaves are only possible because of the climate crisis driven by burning fossil fuels.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Footage of police officer boasting about punching Sydney anti-Herzog protester raises questions about conduct

1 September 2026 at 11:36

Male police officer caught on camera during 9 February protest against visit of Israeli president Isaac Herzog

Video footage has emerged capturing a New South Wales police officer boasting about “punching” a protester in the head “when he was down”, before the protester was charged with assaulting police.

Police body-worn camera footage, which was leaked to a social media account and widely shared over the weekend, reveals a male police officer telling his colleagues during the 9 February protest at Sydney town hall against a visit by the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog: “I fucking pumped that cunt.”

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© Photograph: Supplied

© Photograph: Supplied

© Photograph: Supplied

Sydney records warmest winter on record as Melbourne equals previous hottest temperatures

New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania just experienced their warmest-ever winters – and BoM says above-average temperatures expected to continue

Australia’s two biggest cities had their hottest and equal hottest winters on record, with three eastern states also breaking temperature records.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s (BoM) spring outlook shows above average daytime and night-time temperatures are expected to continue for much of the country, with an increased chance of unusually high maximums.

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© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images

Charles Perrottet told fugitive developer plan at Nobu dinner to have NSW MP ‘on his knees’, Icac hears

1 September 2026 at 10:49

Liberal party figure tells inquiry he never asked Jean Nassif ‘for payments for political outcomes’ as lawyer tells him she is ‘gobsmacked’ by his ‘obfuscation’

The younger brother of Dominic Perrottet has insisted he never asked a fugitive property developer for money for political outcomes – including at a meeting at fine-dining restaurant Nobu in Crown Casino, an inquiry has heard.

On Tuesday, the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) heard that developer Jean Nassif had withdrawn from a scheduled videolink appearance from Lebanon later this week, after Charles Perrottet faced questions about the dinner meeting between the two men in Melbourne in May 2021.

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© Photograph: Nadir Kinani/AAP

© Photograph: Nadir Kinani/AAP

© Photograph: Nadir Kinani/AAP

Rival Ray Hadley tells Alan Jones trial that alleged victim ‘broke down and sobbed’ when detailing assaults

1 September 2026 at 08:20

Former 2GB and 2UE broadcaster Jones, 85, has denied 22 indecent assault and sexual touching charges involving six men

Broadcaster Ray Hadley has told a Sydney court that an alleged victim of Alan Jones confided in 2019 he’d been “sexually assaulted” by the fellow 2GB broadcaster on a number of occasions.

He said [Jones] put his hand on my cock and kissed me,” Hadley told the Downing Centre local court on Tuesday.

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© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

© Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

NSW top prosecutor Sally Dowling and state attorney general discussed which barristers could review her office, estimates hears

1 September 2026 at 10:47

Dowling tells budget estimates that Michael Daley called to tell her he was appointing a senior counsel and ‘raised quite a number of names’

The top prosecutor in New South Wales says she discussed a list of barristers to lead an independent review into controversial findings against her office with the state’s attorney general, before he appointed someone she had known “professionally and socially” for nearly 30 years.

Last month, a state parliamentary committee voted 4-3 to find that the NSW director of public prosecutions (DPP), Sally Dowling SC, had given false evidence about the pitching of a story about an Indigenous child performing an acknowledgment of country at a sentencing hearing to radio station 2GB.

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© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Sydney home invasion during which man shot and killed a ‘targeted attack’, police believe

1 September 2026 at 03:09

Alleged offenders at large after man in his early 20s fatally shot in early hours of Tuesday

A man in his early 20s has been fatally shot in an alleged home invasion in Sydney’s south-west that police believe was a “targeted attack”. A homicide investigation is under way, with the alleged offenders still at large.

Acting Supt Gretchin Atkins said the man, who was yet to be formally identified, was at his Glen Alpine home with his family in the early hours of Tuesday morning when multiple individuals allegedly broke in.

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© Photograph: Steven Saphore/AAP

© Photograph: Steven Saphore/AAP

© Photograph: Steven Saphore/AAP

Investigation into Powerhouse Parramatta museum under way as stop-gap leader steps in

‘Opera House of the west’ still slated to open to the public as scheduled on 7 November, NSW arts minister says

An investigation is under way into allegations of misconduct involving senior executives at the soon-to-be-opened Powerhouse Parramatta.

The $915m museum in western Sydney, billed as one of the world’s most significant new museum projects, is set to open in November.

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© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

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