A coalition of environmental non-profit organizations have called on the the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to add extreme heat and wildfire smoke to its list of major disasters that could qualify for emergency funding.

The Center for Biological Diversity signed a joint petition on Monday urging Fema, the federal government’s lead agency in responding to natural disasters, to officially recognize the increasing number of heat-related crises.

“It’s past time for Fema to address the climate emergency head-on. That means unlocking crucial funding for local governments to build robust and resilient solutions like community solar and storage, cooling centers and air filtration,” said Jean Su, energy justice director and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

“That’s a critical way we can protect workers and vulnerable communities from the ravages of the climate emergency.”

More than 270 million Americans – roughly 80% of the country’s population – are experiencing a kind of heatwave, smashing records with temperatures at or above 90F (32.2C) for long periods of time under a weather phenomenon known as a heat dome. Experts said the type of heatwave the north-east is facing has not been seen in decades.

And it’s not even July.

Scientists warn that heatwaves are increasing in frequency as the climate crisis intensifies due to human activity, especially burning fossil fuels and deforestation. Last year was the hottest year on record and the US faced the most heatwaves since 1936.

The risks associated with the intense heat include more wildfires, poor air quality and a strain on infrastructure that delivers much needed power to keep cool. The National Weather Service says heat is the leading disaster-related killer in the US, killing more people than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined.

“One construction worker dies every three days in Texas and a huge factor in these deaths is heat; whether it’s heat stroke or hyperthermia or in some cases, prolonged illness that can affect eyesight and quality of life,” said Margarita Del Cid, Workers Defense Dallas member-leader.

Del Cid added: “Additionally, communities of color including Latines, generally reside in areas that are more susceptible to the effect of wildfire smoke that can lead to life-threatening illness such as asthma, bronchitis, and even affect the brain’s function. A federal standard to qualify heat and wildfire smoke as a major disaster will make way for life-saving and proactive resources and support in these vulnerable communities and areas”.

Fema has not issued a specific response to the petition, but the agency’s spokesperson for the western US states said there was nothing that would preclude an emergency declaration for extreme heat and noted that there would need to be an immediate threat to life and safety that local authorities could not respond to.

Fema did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than 270 million Americans – about 80% of the country’s population – are experiencing a kind of heatwave not seen in decades, smashing records with temperatures at or above 90F (32.2C) for long periods of time under a weather phenomenon known as a heat dome.

New York governor Kathy Hochul has announced that she activated the National Guard to assist in any heat emergencies that may develop over the next several days.

Cooling centers have opened in cities across the US in anticipation of the sweltering heat. Government officials have warned people to limit outdoor activities, drink plenty of water, and cautioned those without reliable air conditioning to find a way to cool down.

What is a heat dome?

Heatwaves happen when abnormally hot weather lasts more than two days. The National Weather Service said: “The duration of this heat wave is notable and potentially the longest experienced in decades for some locations.”

A heatwave can be caused by several factors including a heat dome, which occurs when strong, high pressure traps hot air over a region, preventing cool air from traveling in and causing temperatures to rise on the ground and stay high.

This heat dome now seen in the eastern half of the country originated from the south-west, where many cities were placed under excessive heat warnings.

What impact does the climate crisis have on heatwaves like this one?

Scientists warn that heatwaves like this one can increase in frequency as the climate crisis intensifies due to human activity, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation.

Last year, the US saw the most heatwaves since 1936.

The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity sent a petition Monday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) asking it to recognize extreme heat and wildfire smoke as major disasters.

The agency did not immediately issue a specific response to the petition, but a Fema spokesperson for the western US states said there was nothing that would preclude an emergency declaration for extreme heat and noted that there would need to be an immediate threat to life and safety that local authorities could not respond to.

What are other risks associated with the heat?

Wildfires are sweeping parts of the US as a result of the soaring temperatures.

In New Mexico, residents of Ruidoso, a town of roughly 7,000 people, were ordered to evacuate on Monday evening as the South Fork wildfire tore through neighboring areas.

Many wildfires are also active on the west coast, according to agencies like the California department of forestry and fire protection.

In southern California, 1,200 people were evacuated on Sunday from Gorman, a town nearly 62 miles (100km) north-west of Los Angeles. Referred to as the “Post fire”, it burned more than 16 sq miles and damaged at least two commercial buildings. So far, 24% of the blaze has been contained.

Poor air quality is also a concern right now since higher temperatures and humidity can contribute to air pollution. In addition to communities near these wildfires, states further away in the midwest such as Ohio and Illinois, and the east coast are also under air quality alerts.

“An Air Quality action day means that Ground Level Ozone within the region may approach or exceed unhealthy standards,” according to the National Weather Service.

Last June, wind blew smoke from wildfires in Canada to the US’s east coast region, placing cities like New York under air quality alerts and shrouding them in an orange haze.

The Illinois environmental protection agency warned those under the air quality action day alert to “Limit driving, Conserve energy to reduce energy demands”, and “avoid using gasoline-powered equipment like lawnmowers and leaf blowers”.

Hezbollah has published a video lasting nine minutes and 31 seconds of what it says is drone footage gathered from its surveillance aircraft of locations in Israel, including the sea and air ports of the key northern city of Haifa.

Distribution of the footage was flagged up by the Lebanese armed movement, including on its Telegram channel, advising viewers on several channels to “watch and analyse” what it said were “important scenes”, including the cryptic message that it would show what the “hoopoe had brought back”. The hoopoe is both the name of a drone and a bird seen as a messenger in Arabic mythology.

Hezbollah has sent surveillance and attack drones into Israel in the past eight months as it exchanges fire with the Israeli military in parallel to the Gaza war.

The decision to broadcast the footage, which had images of residential and military sites in and around Haifa, including port facilities, appeared aimed as much at an Israeli audience as at a wider international one.

The veracity of the footage could not be independently confirmed and it was unclear when the footage was filmed. However the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said in November that it had been sending surveillance drones over Haifa.

If verified as genuine, the footage is likely to alarm Israel’s security establishment, suggesting an even greater vulnerability to drone incursion than previously recognised, not least with the implicit threat of being able to overfly Haifa. It is a major population centre, home to 300,000.

The footage appeared to show parts of a factory belonging to Rafael defence – including Iron Dome batteries, rocket engine depots, David’s Slingshot facilities and radar.

The IDF did not immediately comment on the broadcast footage.

The US and France are working on a negotiated settlement to the hostilities along Lebanon’s southern border.

The footage, if confirmed as real, would underline the mounting difficulties Israel has encountered in dealing with the drone threat from Hezbollah, including several incidents where incoming drones were not detected by Israeli air defence systems, including a recent attack on a group of Israeli troops that killed one person.

Experts have assessed that Hezbollah is using a combination of tactics to avoid its drones being detected, including flying low and using multiple channels to avoid jamming technology.

Although about 150 drones have been intercepted, others have got through to their targets, with Israeli officials disclosing that they have begun spending millions of shekels to counter the drone threat.

Among reported planned improvements to Israel’s air defence systems are upgrades to the Iron Dome system to make it better equipped to deal with slower-flying unmanned aircraft and the reintroduction of retired conventional anti-aircraft weapons, include the Vulcan system.

The disclosure of the footage appeared to be timed to coincide with the visit of the US envoy Amos Hochstein to Lebanon after meeting senior Israeli officials, including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the day before.

In Beirut, Hochstein called for the “urgent” de-escalation of cross-border exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces raging since the start of the Gaza war.

“The conflict … between Israel and Hezbollah has gone on for long enough,” the presidential envoy said. “It’s in everyone’s interest to resolve it quickly and diplomatically – that is both achievable and it is urgent.”

Despite Hochstein’s visit to the region, there appeared to be little evidence of a breakthrough in efforts to reduce tension on the Israel-Lebanon border, with reports in Israel suggesting Hochstein did not see any prospect for significant movement while the war in Gaza was continuing.

After several days of relative quiet between Israel and Hezbollah over the weekend, following last week’s barrages which included the heaviest of the war, Tuesday saw a rise in hostilities again.

State media in Lebanon reported an Israeli drone strike on a car on the highway north of the coastal city of Tyre. It was not immediately clear who was in the car or how many people were killed or injured.

Last week Hezbollah launched hundreds of drones and rockets, including more than 200 on a single day, and the Israeli military struck Hezbollah targets in return.

Justin Timberlake is facing a charge of driving while intoxicated in the Hamptons in New York and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday, a local court official confirmed to the Guardian.

The pop star’s arraignment was set to occur at the courthouse in Sag Harbor after he was arrested in that community on Monday night, New York’s Newsday reported.

Appearing on Oprah’s Master Class last year, Timberlake spoke about engaging in what he described as excessive drinking at one point in his career. He discussed turning his life around by seeking help for his addiction and embracing self-care, as the website Singersroom reported.

Timberlake is on tour and has concerts scheduled at Chicago’s United Center on 21 and 22 June. He also has shows scheduled at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on 25 and 26 June.

More details soon …

Police are searching for three children who are missing after a day out at theme park in Surrey.

A 14-year-old girl named only as Khandi was with two younger children – Amelia, nine, and Malik, seven – at Thorpe Park on Monday, before they were reported missing at 7pm, Surrey police said.

The two younger children are related, the police said, but no further information was given on why they were with the teenager.

The force has been in contact with the owner of a flower shop in Chertsey, who said children came into her shop at 3.50pm asking for directions.

The owner, Sam Williams, posted to Facebook a CCTV image appearing to show two girls – a teenager and a younger girl – but it has not been confirmed that these were two of the missing children.

Khandi is black, slim, 160cm (5ft 3in) tall, and was wearing black or grey jogging bottoms, a white top, white trainers, black-framed glasses, and multiple bracelets on each wrist.

Amelia has been described by police as European. She is 110cm (3ft 7in) tall, slim, and was wearing grey jogging bottoms, a grey long-sleeved top with “Believe” written on it and white trainers.

Malik is European and also 110cm tall, slim and was wearing black jogging bottoms, black trainers, and a green long-sleeved top with stripes.

They last confirmed sighting of the three was at 3.17pm on Monday, when they were seen walking away from Thorpe Park towards Staines town centre. It is believed they may have travelled to London.

North Korea’s military has suffered “multiple casualties” after landmines exploded in the heavily armed border that separates the country from South Korea, local media reported on Tuesday.

The explosions in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) were reported just hours before the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was due to visit the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, for the first time since 2000.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency referred to “casualties” caused by landmine explosions, while the NK News website quoted the military as saying several soldiers had been “maimed or killed”.

In what appears to be an unrelated incident, dozens of North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border on Tuesday for the second time in less than two weeks, but retreated after warning shots were fired, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

The DMZ has separated the two Koreas since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, but not a peace treaty.

The 4km (2.5-mile) wide strip of land bisecting the peninsula is strewn with landmines designed to deter enemy troops from making incursions that could upset the delicate decades-old standoff along the border.

The North Korean troops injured in the landmine explosions were working on creating “barren land” and laying additional mines along the border, an official from the JCS said, without revealing the date of the incident.

The soldiers had “suffering multiple casualties from repeated landmine explosion incidents during their work,” it said.

On Tuesday, an estimated 20 to 30 North Korean soldiers carrying tools crossed the Military Demarcation Line dividing the two countries on Tuesday morning, Yonhap said, citing the JCS.

The soldiers left after forces in the South fired warning shots and broadcast warnings via loudspeakers set up along the border, the JCS said, adding that the brief incursion appeared to have been accidental.

The incidents come at a time of rising tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul.

In recent weeks, the North has sent more than 1,000 balloons laden with rubbish to the South, where activists reciprocated with those containing anti-North Korean leaflets and flash drives loaded with K-pop and TV dramas.

The South also suspended a 2018 agreement designed to reduce cross-border tensions and resumed pop music and propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers set up along the 155-mile long border.

Yonhap quoted a JCS official as saying that the border work had been carried out in locations where North Koreans had fled to the South.

“North Korea’s activities seem to be a measure to strengthen internal control, such as blocking North Korean troops and North Koreans from defecting to the South,” the JCS official said.

North Korea has deployed hundreds of troops to lay mines, build walls and reinforce roads in recent weeks, Yonhap said. Earlier this month, the South fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers briefly crossed an overgrown section of the border, apparently by accident.

Our field club recently visited this area of wild ground on the edge of town called Danes Moss. The trip was inspired by local naturalists who have logged more than 1,600 plant and animal species there in short order.

That urgency to record its wildlife has been driven, in turn, by Cheshire East council, which has earmarked Danes Moss for 900 new houses. Not only does this decision ride roughshod over all the implications entailed in that biodiversity, it follows decades of encroachment that has already consumed half the site for human use.

The new proposals are also judged to entail the release of 220,000 tonnes of CO₂. That’s because it’s a raised peat bog, the largest in Cheshire and the one rare habitat sequestering more carbon than all others, including rainforest. As well as a buffer for our climate change, Danes Moss is a remarkable living, breathing space – a mosaic of quagmire interspersed with flower-smothered paddocks and lush marsh vegetation bounded by jungles of birch and willow.

The place is currently host to a million insects. As we zoned in on these marvels, one after the other, it was easy to forget that all the abundance could be destroyed. We soon found a new one to add to the site total – an earth-hugging grasshopper relative called the common groundhopper. Despite apparent modesty, groundhoppers are joyous creatures, and every one I’ve ever seen has had unique colour patterns. This little fid of life is also far more complex, more full of mystery than any dead star the astronomers would have us fuss over in outer space.

Find of the day, however, was smaller still and would fit on your pinky as on a throne. It’s a moth called little longhorn, a smudge of glittering copper barred with white and only found at one place in Cheshire. You can guess where. What that presence implies is something about all great living places: they exist in four dimensions. Danes Moss is as old as any landscape in our region and a 5,000-year continuous commonwealth of life. To violate it will symbolise yet again how this nation takes its place among the most nature-depleted on Earth.

A suspected bird strike has caused a Virgin Australia plane to make an emergency landing in New Zealand after one of its engines caught fire shortly after takeoff.

The Melbourne-bound flight left Queenstown on Monday evening with footage emerging later that appeared to show fire coming from the Boeing 737-800.

Flight tracking websites show that immediately after taking off the plane headed south from Queenstown – rather than west to Melbourne as was scheduled.

It performed a holding pattern while flying over the South Island before landing at the airport in Invercargill, about 150km south of Queenstown.

The Boeing 737-800 jet was carrying 67 passengers and six crew. It landed safely about 50 minutes after leaving Queenstown and was met by fire trucks on the tarmac.

“At this time, we are not aware of any physical injuries to guests or crew,” Virgin Australia’s chief operations officer, Stuart Aggs, said.

Passengers said they saw flames coming from one of the engines and heard loud bangs, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Michael Hayward said it was completely dark outside when the plane took off at 6pm local time.

“Within 10 seconds of going airborne, you hear just the loudest ‘bang’, golden lights filling within the cabin and a burst of flames off the right-hand engine,” he told ABC radio.

Hayward said he was quite anxious as were the other passengers – with a few cries in the cabin as people realised something had gone wrong.

“I could see flames shooting out of [the engine] at regular intervals,” he said, adding the captain later informed passengers the plane had hit a flock of birds.

“There was an initial worry but it wasn’t long until people realised OK, it’s under control, so just sit back, relax and whatever happens happens.”

Queenstown airport’s chief executive, Glen Sowry, said on Tuesday that a bird caught in the engine was the most likely cause of the incident.

“At this stage, we believe that it’s highly probable that it was a bird strike, but until such time as the engine has been inspected by engineers in Invercargill we won’t be able to confirm that for sure,” Sowry told RNZ.

Bird strikes were a known risk but incidents were infrequent, the CEO said. The airport took regular risk-management measures, including keeping the grass short and not allowing standing water nearby.

“If you get a bigger bird that is ingested into an engine, which looks probably what may have occurred on this occasion, then – depending on where in the engine it goes – it can damage critical parts.”

The runway had been inspected two minutes before the plane took off and no bird activity had been recorded, Sowry said.

Aircraft are designed to be able to operate and land using one engine.

The Virgin Australia flight most likely took a pre-determined safe route, designed for instances of engine failure, to avoid nearby mountains, Sowry said on Tuesday.

Queenstown airport released a statement confirming the flight “experienced an issue just after takeoff” and was diverted to Invercargill.

Passengers were given accommodation in Invercargill overnight and were then transported back to Queenstown airport where they were expected to be booked on alternative flights to Australia on Tuesday.

The rate of birds striking planes at New Zealand’s airports is about four in every 10,000 aircraft movements, the country’s aviation regulator says on its website.

– Additional reporting Australian Associated Press

The pop star and soon-to-be Glastonbury headliner Dua Lipa has said she is willing to risk a backlash over political statements after she recently described military operations in Gaza as “Israeli genocide”.

In an interview with the Radio Times, the 28-year-old said she repeatedly checked herself before making a statement, but did so if she felt it was for the “greater good” and worth the risk.

The Grammy award-winner last month reposted to her 88 million Instagram followers a graphic from the group Artists4Ceasefire, along with the hashtag #AllEyesOnRafah, which trended in the days after Israel’s bombing of the city in Gaza.

She wrote: “Burning children alive can never be justified. The whole world is mobilising to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza.”

Recently, she was referenced in an Israeli drill rap song that called for violence against public figures who have expressed pro-Palestinian views.

Lipa told the Radio Times: “When I speak about things that are political, I double-, triple-check myself to be: ‘OK, this is about something that is way bigger than me, and it’s necessary – and that’s the only reason I’m posting it.’ That is my only solace in doing that.

“It’s always going to be met with a backlash and other people’s opinions, so it’s a big decision. I balance it out, because ultimately I feel it’s for the greater good, so I’m willing to [take that hit].”

Lipa, who was born in London to Kosovan-Albanian parents, suggested her heritage influenced her overt politics.

“[Speaking up is] a natural inclination for me, given my background and heritage, and that my very existence is somewhat political – it’s not something that is out of the ordinary for me to be feeling close to,” she said.

In the same interview, Lipa revealed she continued to support Labour and suggested she would vote for the party in the forthcoming UK elections, but stopped short of backing Keir Starmer personally.

She said: “For me, over the past three or four years, I’ve kind of decided that standing behind a certain political party leader is probably not the route I want to take. I’ve always supported Labour so that’s where I’ll always stand, but I don’t think I’ll be publicly going for or against anyone … because politicians overall just have a way of letting you down.”

Lipa is due to headline Glastonbury at the end of this month on the Pyramid stage in Pilton, Somerset. Her most recent album, Radical Optimism, was released last month to favourable reviews.