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The UK could have its hottest day on record on Monday, with temperatures forecast to hit up to 41C, BBC reported.

The Met Office has issued a red warning for heat across large parts of England, stretching from York and Manchester to London and the south-east.

The current highest temperature in the UK is 38.7C, in Cambridge in 2019.

High temperatures are also forecast in the rest of the UK - with amber warnings in the rest of England, all of Wales, and parts of Scotland.

London is set to be one of the hottest places in the world on Monday, with temperatures soaring above the Western Sahara and the Caribbean.

The capital is forecast to be hotter than Dakhla in Western Sahara (24C), Nassau in the Bahamas (32C), Kingston in Jamaica (33C), Malaga in Spain (28C) and Athens in Greece (35C).

The hot weather will continue on Tuesday - with overnight temperatures warned to be in the mid twenties - before cooling on Wednesday.

It is the first time the Met Office has issued a red warning since the system was introduced last year.

It means "widespread impacts on people and infrastructure" are expected, with "substantial changes in working practices and daily routines" required.

Some schools plan to close early - or not open at all - although the government has issued guidance designed to keep them open.

Network Rail said people should travel only "if absolutely necessary" on Monday and Tuesday, with some cancellations already announced, and speed restrictions in place across the network, according to BBC.

LNER will not run services between London and Leeds and York for much of Tuesday.

Alongside the Met Office's red and amber warnings, the UK Health Security Agency has issued a level four warning for England, which the government is treating as a "national emergency".

After an emergency Cobra meeting for ministers on Saturday, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said ambulance capacity would increase, alongside more call handlers.

Sunday was the hottest day of the year so far with temperatures reaching 33C in Flintshire, 32C in Cheshire, 27.7C in Armagh in Northern Ireland, and 26.4C at Auchincruive in Ayrshire.

Beaches across the country were packed, and people have been warned to take care if they cool off in water.

On Saturday evening, a 16-year-old boy died after swimming in Salford Quays, while a man is missing after entering a reservoir in West Yorkshire, BBC reported.

France has evacuated more than 16,000 people threatened by wildfires in the south-west, as fires also spread in Spain, Croatia and Greece, BBC reported.

Authorities in France's Gironde, a popular tourist region, have evacuated guards from campsites - the tourists left earlier. Fires have spread in the Teste-de-Buch and Landiras areas.

In southern Spain, more than 3,200 people fled fires in the Mijas hills, though later some were able to return.

Portugal's fires are contained for now.

More than 1,000 deaths have been attributed to the heat in Portugal and Spain in recent days.

The Mijas fires in Spain are not far from Málaga, a popular tourist area. Elsewhere in Spain, wildfires have broken out in the provinces of Castilla y León, Galicia and Extremadura.

Ellen McCurdy, living in the Málaga area, told Reuters: "We just grabbed a few essentials and just ran really, and by that stage everybody along the street was on the move... there were a lot of ambulances and fire engines."

Across the Mediterranean - from Morocco in the west to Crete in the east - thousands of firefighters and many waterbombing aircraft have been deployed. Since Tuesday, the whole region has been sweltering in severe heat, leaving vegetation bone dry, according to BBC.

Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change. The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to carbon emissions.

The French weather service has forecast temperatures of up to 41C (106F) in the country's south on Sunday and new heat records are predicted for Monday. In Portugal, the temperature recently reached 47C. 

In the UK there is an amber warning for extreme heat, as the country braces for record temperatures on Monday and Tuesday, possibly reaching 41C in some parts.

Dr Eunice Lo, a climate scientist at Bristol University, told the BBC that "rising temperatures are a signature of climate change" and that in the UK, 2,000 extra deaths a year were attributable to heatwaves.

Public records show that since 1884, the top 10 hottest years in the UK have all been since 2002, she said. Globally, "heatwaves are becoming more common and lasting longer," Dr Lo added. "We need to stop burning fossil fuels, and act now and quickly."

Morocco has ordered more than 1,300 people to leave their homes and deployed more firefighters to tackle forest blazes in the north. The worst-hit area is Larache province.

In Crete, Greek firefighters are battling a big blaze in the hills around Rethymno, on the north coast. On Saturday they said it had been partially contained.

Some areas in south-west Turkey and on Croatia's Adriatic coast are also struggling with wildfires. A number broke out near Croatia's resort towns of Zadar and Sibenik, but they have not forced any major evacuations.

Late on Saturday, France placed 22 more regional departments - mostly along its Atlantic coast - on high orange alert, BBC reported.

One resident in south-west France described the forest fires as feeling "post-apocalyptic". Fires have burned 10,500 hectares (26,000 acres) of land there and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin praised firefighters' "remarkable courage".

"Everything went so fast - the fire too, was big, big, big," Manon Jacquart, 27, told the BBC. She was evacuated from the campsite she works at early on Wednesday morning, and slept at a shelter near Teste-de-Buch where hundreds of other people also sheltered from the danger.

"I'm just worried, I'm afraid… I'm trying to be as strong as I can but I'm not ok… I want to forget this week," she said.

Meanwhile, climbers in the Alps are being urged to postpone their trips to Mont Blanc due to the risk of rock falls caused by "exceptional climatic conditions".

Heatwaves put the public at greater risk of heatstroke, heat exhaustion and drowning, as people rush to cool off, Dr Lo said. Pets and farm animals are also vulnerable.

"Even fit and healthy people are at risk," she said, though the most vulnerable are young children, the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.

Extreme heat can also damage infrastructure, such as melting road tarmac and buckling railway lines.

In Portugal, fires have destroyed 30,000 hectares (75,000 acres) of land this year, mainly in the north. That is the worst fire damage since the summer of 2017, when devastating fires killed some 100 people, according to BBC.

The government has decided to grant a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to ease the supply of petroleum products.

During a press conference organized in Singha Durbar to make public the decisions of the Cabinet, government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said that the government has decided to provide Rs 7 billion to the NOC as it has outstanding dues to be paid to the Indian Oil Corporation.

Similarly, the government has also decided to provide Rs 598. 6 million, the amount which was adjusted as infrastructure tax on petroleum products, as a subsidy to the Nepal Oil Corporation.

Likewise, the meeting has decided to appoint Pradeep Sharma Paudel as the Executive Director of the National Information Technology Center.

The government has decided to grant a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to ease the supply of petroleum products.

During a press conference organized in Singha Durbar to make public the decisions of the Cabinet, government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said that the government has decided to provide Rs 7 billion to the NOC as it has outstanding dues to be paid to the Indian Oil Corporation.

Similarly, the government has also decided to provide Rs 598. 6 million, the amount which was adjusted as infrastructure tax on petroleum products, as a subsidy to the Nepal Oil Corporation.

Likewise, the meeting has decided to appoint Pradeep Sharma Paudel as the Executive Director of the National Information Technology Center.

Newly elected Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Pushpa Bhusal took the oath of office and secrecy on Sunday.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari administered the oath of office and secrecy to Bhusal amidst a function organized in Sheetal Niwas this afternoon.

Vice-President Nanda Bahadur Pun, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, National Assembly Chairman Ganesh Timilsena and ministers among others were present in the program.

Bhusal was elected to the post by defeating Bidhya Bhattarai of CPN-UML on Friday.

Police have arrested five persons for their alleged involvement in selling the kidneys of street people.

The detainees have been identified as Dhan Bahadur Roka (28) of Manthali Municipality-5, Ramechhap, currently residing in Thimi Municipality-5, Bhaktapur, Bijay Kunwar (31) of Tamghas Municipality-2, Gumli, presently living at Gaushala, KMC-7, Dhupendra Shahi (28) of Chamunda Bindrasayani Municipality-6, Dailekh, currently residing at Kalopul, Kathmandu, Bimal Bahadur Shahi (28) of Chamunda Bindrasayani Municipality-6, Dailekh, presently living at Chabahil, KMC-7 and Ashish Tamang (21) of Prithvinagar Municipality-1, Jhapa and currently residing at Thimi Municipality-5, Bhaktapur.

Police said that they apprehended them while they were preparing to take the street people to India, luring them to sell one of their kidneys for Rs 500, 000 in Kolkata.

They take the people into confidence saying that humans have two kidneys and selling one kidney will have no effect on the body, police said.

According to the police, they will they be taken action under the Human Trafficking and Trafficking Act 2064.

Nepal logged 135 new Covid-19 cases and one death on Sunday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 1, 473 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 114 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 568 people underwent antigen tests, of which 21 tested positive.

So far, 11, 953 people have lost their lives due to Covid-19 in Nepal.

The Ministry said that 59 infected people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours.

As of today, there are 1, 439 active cases in the country, the Ministry said.