Europe

A brutal heatwave will persist across Europe this weekend, with record temperatures recorded in the UK, France, and Germany. As Paris bans alcohol in public and postpones the Pride March, emergency services respond to increased callouts amid extreme conditions, with temperatures peaking at 39°C in the French capital.

A new Dutch political party started by Pieter Omtzigt is among those leading in opinion polls for the snap elections in the Netherlands on Wednesday, November 22. Omtzigt, a former Christian Democrat MP, is known for helping bring down the government of Mark Rutte in 2021 after revealing a child benefits scandal, in which thousands of families were wrongly accused of fraud on the basis of their ethnicity. The centrist anti-establishment candidate is shaking up the Dutch political landscape and is already drawing comparisons to French President Emmanuel Macron, who swept to power in 2017 with his new centrist party. So who is Omtzigt, the man who could become the next Dutch prime minister? Our correspondents report.

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