French far-right leader’s ‘grand plan’ to expand AC comes under attack, while Germany braces for possible record heat

The European heatwave has moved east, threatening record temperatures in Germany, as a political row broke out in France over air conditioning.

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen seized a canvassing opportunity before the 2027 presidential election, announcing she would launch a “grand plan for air conditioning” for the nation if she won power.

Damning report by MPs comes after inquiry into allegations of decades of physical abuse, rape and sexual assault at Notre-Dame de Bétharram school

The French prime minister, François Bayrou, failed to act to prevent physical and sexual abuse at a private Catholic school in south-west France when he served as education minister between 1993 and 1997, a parliamentary report has said.

The damning report issued by French lawmakers on Wednesday comes after a long parliamentary inquiry into allegations of decades of physical abuse, rape and sexual assault at the Notre-Dame de Bétharram boarding school near Pau in south-west France.

Former staff likened offices of video game company in Paris to a ‘boys’ club above the law’

Three former executives at the video game company Ubisoft have been given suspended prison sentences for enabling a culture of sexual and psychological harassment in the workplace at the end of the first big trial to stem from the #MeToo movement in the gaming industry.

The court in Bobigny, north of Paris, had heard how the former executives used their position to bully or sexually harass staff, leaving women terrified and feeling like pieces of meat.

Portugal and Spain suffer historic temperature highs for June, as French schools close because of heat

Outdoor working has been banned during the hottest parts of the day in more than half of Italy’s regions as an extreme heatwave that has smashed June temperature records in Spain and Portugal continues to grip large swathes of Europe.

The savage temperatures are believed to have claimed at least three lives, including that of a small boy who is thought to have died from heatstroke while in a car in Catalonia’s Tarragona province on Tuesday afternoon.