The air ambulance landed at HMP Deerbolt, near Barnard Castle, at about 4.55pm on Friday (May 22).

A man was taken to Darlington Memorial Hospital by road.

It is not known at this time whether the man is a prisoner or a staff member. His condition is also not known. The MOJ has been contacted for updates.

A North East NEAS spokesperson said, “We received a call at 4.52pm on Friday to reports of a medical incident at HMP Deerbolt. 

“We sent two ambulance crews and the air ambulance and took one male patient to Darlington Memorial Hospital for further treatment.”

The Great North Air Ambulance Service confirmed that, while they attended, they weren’t required and returned to base.

The family of three sisters who drowned in the sea off Brighton beach have said they ‘don’t have the answers’ about what they were doing there or how they entered the water.

The ‘inseparable’ siblings – Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32 and Rebecca Walters, 31, all from the Uxbridge area of London – died 70 miles from home early on the morning of May 13.

Their father Joseph paid tribute to his three daughters, saying: ‘No words can truly describe the pain of losing three daughters in the prime of their lives.’

It was revealed this week that their mother, Janice Adetoro, also drowned in a heartbreakingly similar tragedy in 2010.

Janice, who had split with their father and suffered with mental health issues, walked into a park lake close to her home at the time in the West Midlands.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, their aunt Ajike Johnson said the tragedy ‘traumatised the girls’, adding: ‘They never recovered.’

Both the family and the police will be examining whether the sisters could have walked into the water as their mother had done – but stepmum Genevieve Barnaby-Adetoro dismisses the possibility.

Ajike – or Aunt Jik as her nieces called her – hopes it was a terrible accident.

‘I pray that they’ve been being mischievous, and that one of them lost their footing and the others dived in to save them,’ she said.

Genevieve told the paper the family has been retraumatised by abusive comments left by conspiracy theorists drawing their own conclusions on social media.

She said: ‘People are heartless. Some are saying, “We MUST know. We must have answers”. Hold on a minute. We are their family, and we don’t have answers.’

Holding back tears, Ajike added: ‘Don’t think we aren’t asking the questions ourselves. “Girls, why were you in Brighton? Did you just decide to go?”

‘I’ve gone over and over it.’

She said the girls ‘loved David Attenborough’ and could have decided to ‘go for a paddle’ after attending an event in Brighton for the natural historian’s 100th birthday the night before.

‘Did one fall in and the others go to help? Because they would have done – where one of them went, you always found the other two,’ she said.

Genevieve said ‘there is no comfort’ in the thought the girls died together, just how they had lived.

‘No,’ she said, adding: ‘They didn’t come into this world together. Why would they leave it together?’

A GoFundMe appeal to give the sisters ‘the loving and dignified farewell they deserve’ has attaracted nearly £40,000 in donations in its first 24 hours.

Fundraiser organiser Adesoji Adetoro wrote that it was set up on behalf of his brother Joseph and the family, adding that they are struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

‘No parent should ever have to bury their child, let alone all three,’ he said.

‘While trying to process this unimaginable tragedy, my brother is now also faced with the heartbreaking task of arranging three funerals.

‘As a family, we simply want to give the girls the loving and dignified farewell they deserve.’

Sussex Police have said there is no evidence to suggest criminality or that anyone else was involved, but specialist detectives are working to gather the full facts and circumstances around their deaths.

Hundreds of hours of CCTV footage have been reviewed and inquiries made to businesses and properties around the beach area to try to track the women’s last movements, the force said.

Anyone with information is asked to come forward, particularly anyone who saw the sisters around the Madeira Drive area between 10pm on May 12 and 5.30am May 13.

Chief Superintendent Adam Hays has said the force ‘will leave no stone unturned’ in the investigation to understand what led to the ‘tragic events of that Wednesday morning’.

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Ethan Roberts, from Horwich, died unexpectedly on April 7 from what his family believe was an undiagnosed medical condition.

The 22-year-old had been preparing to begin a new chapter in his life, with plans to restart his studies at the University of Lancashire on a foundation course.

Ethan was close to his friends who came from secondary school. (Image: Olivia Kelly)

His family said Ethan, who volunteered with The Bolton Destitution Project, was known for his kindness, humour and affection towards others.

His father, Kevin Roberts, said: “He was quite a unique boy. He had characteristics of humour. He was a remarkable, unique boy, he was a caring sort, especially with children.

“He was also very well known throughout his life to hug people, and never lost that throughout growing up. We miss his hugs.”

He was about to go to university. (Image: Olivia Kelly)

Ethan had completed a diploma in social care and had also worked with the Bolton pantomime.

He volunteered weekly at The Bolton Destitution Project after first becoming involved through his grandmother, who also supported the charity.

The organisation supports asylum seekers and refugees by providing food, friendship and practical help, alongside weekly casework sessions.

Kevin said Ethan “genuinely liked helping people” and wanted to use his time to support others.

He thought a lot of his family (Image: Olivia Kelly)

He added: “He sometimes felt a bit delayed compared to some peers, felt a bit behind in doing degrees.

“He felt he wanted to do something with his time, and through his connection with family, he felt it was something important to him, but also he genuinely liked helping people.”

Ethan’s family described him as someone who stayed close to his loved ones and maintained a tight-knit group of friends from secondary school.

Kevin said: “He had a really good close group of friends that had been friends all the way through secondary school.

Ethan spent his time volunteering for his community. (Image: Olivia Kelly)

“They were typical gamer guys, communicating online. He was a remarkable lad, very close to his family in each other’s lives.”

The family said support from across the Bolton community has helped them through the weeks following Ethan’s death.

Kevin said staff and pupils connected to his former primary school, where members of the family worked, had been “absolutely supportive”.

Now, Ethan’s loved ones are hoping to continue his legacy through a fundraiser in his memory.

Adrian, the father of Ethan’s best friend Christian, is taking part in the Bolton Ironman Triathlon on June 7 to raise money for The Bolton Destitution Project.

The event will include a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run.

Ethan Roberts was good with children. (Image: Olivia Kelly)

Adrian said: “For me as a dad, [I want] to raise as much money as I can to show how much he contributed and how important his life running alongside the charity is.

“The fact he is no longer here — I know he would be happy.”

A GoFundMe page has been launched to support the fundraiser.

In a message on the page, Adrian described Ethan as “a remarkable young man, full of love, care and compassion”.

He added: “This has been a devastating time for all who knew and loved Ethan, especially for Ethan’s family, who we stand with to provide support and comfort.”

More information about the fundraiser can be found on the GoFundMe page.

Leading universities have urged Shabana Mahmood to exempt outstanding students in some conflict-stricken countries from a draconian visa ban.

Some 34 universities, represented by higher-education associations the Russell Group and ResearchPlus, have written to the home secretary to plead for an exception for Chevening scholars, taking part in a government-funded programme that enables outstanding emerging leaders from around the world to do a one-year master’s degree in the UK.

The Home Office ended study visas for students from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan in March, after Ms Mahmood claimed the visa routes were being abused. As a result, Chevening scholars from these countries are unable to come to the UK.

In a letter sent to Ms Mahmood, the two associations which represent the University of Cambridge, Durham, Manchester, and Imperial College London among others, said the application of the visa ban to Chevening scholars was not “fair or proportionate”, adding that applicants have “already undergone rigorous, government-led assessment”.

They hit back at the claims that the system was being abused, saying: “Our universities take their compliance responsibilities seriously and support appropriate measures to protect the integrity of student visas.

“The vast majority of international study applicants are genuine, and it is in all our interests that the system remains credible.”

They described the visa brake as a “blunt measure”, adding: “These [Chevening] candidates are selected through a global competitive process overseen by the UK government which assesses academic merit, leadership potential, and their intention to return to their home countries following their studies.”

Professor Libby Hackett, of the Russell Group and Professor Andrew Jones and Professor Sasha, of ResearchPlus, who represent the University of Oxford and the Open University respectively, described the Chevening programme as a “highly competitive and well-regarded scheme” that “played a central role in advancing the UK’s international partnerships and national interests”.

Some 22 of the scheme’s alumni have gone on to be heads of state, and 15 per cent hold prominent positions in government, the letter, shared with The Independent says.

Sasha Roseneil, co-chair of ResearchPlus and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex, said: “We risk turning away tomorrow’s leaders by placing restrictions on outstanding scholars who have already passed the government’s own rigorous selection process”.

Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper reportedly appealed to Ms Mahmood for an exemption for Chevening students, with Ms Cooper concerned about the impact of the decision on vulnerable women in Afghanistan and Sudan. Ms Mahmood reportedly rejected the intervention.

According to Home Office data published this week, 10,835 people on a study visa went on to claim asylum in the UK in the year up to March 2026. Hundreds of thousands of people are granted student visas each year, and there were some 498,626 grants in the peak year ending June 2023.

The number of students who go on to claim asylum is decreasing, prompted by the fall in study visas granted following restrictions on family members coming to the UK.

The most common nationalities claiming asylum in the year up to March 2026 were Pakistani, with the vast majority arriving in Britain on legal visas, and Eritreans, most of whom have arrived illegally. This was followed by Iran and Afghanistan, with majority of these nationals also arriving irregularly, such as via small boat crossings.

The Chevening scheme offers more than 1,000 scholarships each year for promising students from around the world.

Prof Hackett said: “Chevening Scholars have shown themselves to be exceptionally talented individuals who use their education in the UK to make invaluable contributions in their home countries. We should be making every effort to attract and support these students, not creating more barriers for them.”

The Home Office has been contacted for comment.

The owner of the whippet said that the dog ‘is extremely lucky to be alive’ – and the sandpit has since been removed

An Ely woman said her whippet suffered life-threatening injuries at a dog field. Georgia Hewer-Heppethwaite, known as Georgia Nevada, 28, hired out Ely Dog Field in Little Downham for her whippet, Beans, on April 29.

Beans was running through the hired dog field when he fell into a closed sandpit and injured his neck. Beans jumped out of the sandpit and “started screaming like a visceral sound I’ve never heard before,” Georgia said.

“It was horrific. I just saw my husband sprinting towards him,” she added. The pair, who said it felt “like a dream” used a jumper to stop the bleeding while the vet was called. Beans was immediately taken to a nearby vet who waited outside to rush him into surgery.

Beans was in surgery for several hours. Georgia said: “He is extremely lucky to have survived. He suffered a hole in his neck just under the size of a ping pong ball.”

“We were told by the surgeons and vets that if we didn’t stop the bleeding and get him to the vet as quickly as we did, it would have been fatal,” she added.

When the accident occurred, the pair “were all over the place” but now they have “moved passed the initial emotion of it”. They called for better signage of the sand pit, which they described as a “hazard”.

Georgia, who has felt “really uneasy, upset and concerned”, wanted to see changes made to the sandpit to prevent other dogs from getting hurt. She said: “They had other dogs in the next morning.”

In response to the incident, the owners of the field said: “Ely Dog Field remains deeply saddened that any dog should ever be injured in any capacity and send our very best wishes to the dog for a continued recovery.”

Georgia said that “it is a beautiful dog park” but if owners are hoping to take their dogs there, she had warned them to “avoid that area”. “I feel like they have a responsibility as dog owners to make it safe”, she continued.

In a statement on Friday, May 22, a spokesperson for Ely Field Park said: “The sandpit has now been removed as we move forward following the recent incident. Our priority remains providing a positive and enjoyable space for our customers and their dogs.”

Ely Dog Field added that they “immediately provided all assistance that [they] could to support the owners that evening”, after being made aware of a dog being “seriously injured” while at the field.

The statement added: “We were very pleased to receive an update the following day confirming that the beautiful dog had returned home from the vets.

“In line with correct procedure, we followed due process and notified our insurers, who then took over all communication regarding the matter. The insurance company reviewed photos, videos, and a significant amount of documentation and concluded that we are not liable.”

The Pentagon has released a fresh batch of previously classified UFO files and videos.

Among the 222 newly disclosed files is a clip in which a jet shoots down a suspected Unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAP) over Lake Huron in February 2023.

Other documents declassified by Donald Trump’s administration relate to a series of sightings in a secret facility in Sandia, New Mexico, between 1948 and 1950.

The files contain 209 sightings of UAPs, including ‘green orbs’, ‘discs’, and ‘fireballs’ reported near the military base.

They also detail findings of residual copper powder in areas where the suspected UFOs were sighted.

Some of the reports became part of Project Grudge, a short-lived investigation into UFOS between February and December 1949.

A newly-released CIA file details a sighting at the Saray Shagan weapons testing range in the USSR, now Kazakhstan.

Section 14 outlines an ‘airborne, luminous, bright green, unidentified object’ which was spotted in the summer of 1973.

It described ‘concentric circles forming around the phenomenon over a period of several minutes’ before dissipating.

Another video, likely recorded on a mobile phone, shows a luminous phenomenon near Karaganda International Airport in Kazakhstan in March 2022.

Other files include recordings of astronauts flagging potential UAPs.

In one clip, Scott Carpenter, the Aurora 7 pilot, described white particles in view that appear to move at ;random and ‘look exactly like snowflakes’ during the fourth manned spaceflight in 1962.

He said the particles were ‘reflective’ and flying faster than his spacecraft.

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said: ‘The Department of War is in lockstep with President Trump to bring unprecedented transparency regarding our government’s understanding of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.

‘These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves. This release of declassified documents demonstrates the Trump Administration’s earnest commitment to unprecedented transparency.’

Two weeks ago, the Pentagon released the first tranche of documents relating to alleged sightings of unidentified objects, including a chilling FBI report about ‘aliens’ and wild claims that Nazis built a UFO.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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Imagine walking along Ipanema beach on a summer afternoon. The sand is golden, there’s a cooling sea breeze, the shade of a parasol and a cold drink in hand. Now look up.

Clinging to the hillside just a few hundred metres away is Vidigal, one of Rio’s favelas in the Brazilian city. Here, thousands of people live in a heat trap with metal roofs, no parks and no formal public transport networks.

In nearby sprawling suburbs, families face the same suffocating nights and concrete pavements radiate heat long after sunset. If there are no cool public spaces to retreat to, no water fountains or drinking water sources to guarantee relief, extreme heat is inescapable.

Rio is far from alone. Last summer, Europe sweltered. Spain recorded highs of 46°C. Portugal hit 46.6°C. France experienced its second-hottest June since 1900. In the US, more than 150 million people faced extreme heat warnings. In south Asia, west Africa and Latin America, extreme heat is not just seasonal.

But the consequences of heat are not evenly distributed. They vary between countries, regions and neighbourhoods. Differences in demographics, infrastructure and capacity to adapt all shape how badly people are affected.

Our new study shows that this “systemic cooling poverty” is widespread yet unequal across 28 – predominantly developing – countries.

Across the 3 billion people represented by our sample, nearly 600 million are experiencing severe levels of systemic cooling poverty. People in south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa bear the heaviest burden.

Yet countries facing similar extreme heat can highlight different outcomes. Indonesia and Bangladesh both face exposure to hazardous humid heat affecting almost their entire populations, but Indonesia’s stronger physical infrastructure and healthcare translate into lower levels of systemic cooling poverty.

In cities, vulnerability is shaped by physical infrastructure (buildings, streets, pipes and green spaces) and social infrastructure (services, institutions and support networks), both of which are distributed unequally. Poorer residents typically have less access to air conditioning, tree-shaded streets and parks, and insulated housing.

Cooling capacity is not just a matter of technology. Framing air conditioning as the answer to extreme heat is problematic. Access to air conditioning is extremely unequal across and within countries – most of the world’s population simply does not have it.

Air conditioning is also energy-hungry. It raises annual household electricity bills by more than a third on average. This strains power grids when demand for energy peaks. Increased demand for electricity accelerates the climate change driving the heat crisis, pushing outdoor temperatures even higher. The production and disposal of units carries its own environmental toll, with hazardous materials risking release into soil, water and air.

The biggest factors determining whether heat becomes dangerous are the conditions people are born into and live in.

Where you live, how your neighbourhood is built, whether there are trees or public drinking water nearby, how well ventilated your home is, whether your workplace offers protection, and whether public services respond to rising temperatures all shape survival. So do age, health, income, gender identity and discrimination, which can determine whose suffering is recognised and whose remains hidden.

Responses to heat are shaped by the social and physical environments people inhabit. In many places, air conditioning has displaced ancestral knowledge and intergenerational practices for living with heat, including ways of building, moving, eating, and resting developed over centuries. Losing those practices can leave people more exposed and less resilient.

Since 2020, as part of our cooling poverty project we have interviewed 80 people living in Rio’s low-income suburbs and favelas. Nineteen of these residents kept online heat diaries: writing records, collecting photos, drawings, memes and voice notes, of their daily encounters with extreme heat.

Caregivers had to change their routines so domestic labour could be carried out in the cooler hours of dawn and dusk. Street vendors moved locations or abandoned certain routes.

For one resident with mobility impairments, cold showers, the most immediate cooling strategy, are not possible: “I would love to take four cold showers a day, but I have some logistic issues related to my condition.” Because they depend on air conditioning, their electricity bills triple in summer. For others, the beaches and waterfalls some people escape to remain out of reach: “I would love to go, but I can’t because of accessibility issues”.

For trans women residents, social discrimination closes off the very spaces (parks, squares, shops) where others find shade or a moment of cool. And because public bathrooms mean risking harassment, many limit how much they drink. Heat, for them, becomes a bodily danger with no safe exit.

Systemic cooling poverty is not about whether a person can afford air conditioning, but rather how surrounding infrastructure, institutions and design, expose someone to harmful heat and then fail to protect them from heat. It extends beyond the home to workplaces, schools and healthcare systems, where heat can have serious consequences for health, productivity and wellbeing. It reaches further into the systemic causes that determine who suffers most: inequality, discrimination, patriarchy, ableism and racism.

Heat vulnerability is not an accidental outcome. Urban planning decisions that remove green space, housing policies that allow poorly ventilated buildings, labour laws that leave outdoor workers unprotected, public health systems that fail among the most exposed all contribute.

Thermal justice

Reframing cooling poverty changes how researchers think about solutions. Thermal justice does not only mean reducing exposure to heat. It also means doing so fairly, and holding accountable the people and institutions whose policies and planning decisions have made some neighbourhoods hotter and some households less able to keep cool.

By asking “who designed these conditions?”, we can understand who has the power to change them.

Effective responses require coordinated action across urban planning, public health, housing and labour regulation: expanding access to safe water, retrofitting buildings and planting trees alongside reducing discrimination.

But the people most affected need to help design solutions. Their experiences reveal what heat actually feels like, day after day. By understanding and assessing systemic cooling poverty, we can identify how best to achieve thermal justice for those most at risk from extreme heat.

The retailer shut its Oxford Street site in January 2021 after its parent company Arcadia Group collapsed into administration in November 2020

Topshop is reportedly set to return to Oxford Street five years after closing its flagship store.

The iconic fashion retailer shut its Oxford Street site in January 2021 after its parent company Arcadia Group collapsed into administration in November 2020.

Topshop was later snapped up by ASOS, alongside Miss Selfridge, for a combined price of £330million – but the deal did not include stores.

But in a new update, it has been reported that Topshop is planning to open its first standalone store in Oxford Street within the next 12 months, according to Drapers.

Topshop officially returned to Oxford Street in London last year with a launch in department store Liberty, but this will be the first time it has opened a standalone store in the famous London shopping district.

The fashion brand is also now available in all John Lewis’ 32 department stores, with Topman available in seven stores, as well as on the John Lewis website.

Topshop managing director Michelle Wilson previous said of Topshop: “The conversations we’ve had with customers around the relaunch is that people are desperate to see Topshop back in stores.”

Topshop once had 300 stores in the UK.

ASOS sold a 75% stake in Topshop and Topman in September 2024 for around £135million to create a joint venture with Heartland, the holding company of Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen.

It was later confirmed that the Topshop.com and Topman.com websites were being relaunched.

Speaking to Drapers at the time about future plans for physical stores, Ms Wilson said: “That’s something that we’re working on all the time.”

Topshop isn’t the only brand preparing a high street return. Russell & Bromley has reopened its store in Richmond after being rescued from administration.

The luxury shoe chain was bought out of administration by Next, who paid £2.5million for its brand and intellectual property, and a further £1.3million for a portion of its current stock.

The deal only included three Russell & Bromley stores – in Chelsea, Mayfair and Bluewater in Kent – resulting in its remaining 33 branches being closed down.

Russell & Bromley was founded in 1880 by George Bromley and Elizabeth Russell in Eastbourne. It currently employs more than 450 people and is now run by Andrew Bromley.

Next has also bought brands such as Cath Kidston, Joules and Seraphine and Made.com in recent years.

Gold Derby edited an interview clip of Caitríona Balfe which appeared to make the actress label the whole Lanarkshire town her “worst location shoot”, angering residents.

Outlander star Caitríona Balfe has received an apology from a US-based entertainment website who admitted her comments apparently branding a Scots town an ‘armpit’ was due to a video editing error. The leading actress appeared to label the whole Lanarkshire town as her “worst location shoot” in an interview alongside co-star Sam Heughan.

The viral clip angered Shotts residents and former MSP Alex Neil. However on Saturday it emerged Gold Derby had edited the video to remove a clarification from the actress, who played Claire Fraser in the drama, saying she was not referencing the whole town.

A statement from the site said: “A recent social video from Gold Derby featuring Outlander stars Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan has been removed from our social accounts due to an editing mistake, which unintentionally altered the meaning of one of Balfe’s responses. During a segment titled ‘And the Award Goes to…,’ Balfe replied to the prompt of ‘Worst Location Shoot’ by naming the town of Shotts, Scotland, but later clarified that she meant the specific shooting location in Shotts and not the entire town.

“During the course of editing the video, Balfe’s clarification was removed by mistake. Gold Derby deeply regrets the error and sincerely apologizes to Catrione Balfe, the people of Shotts, and everyone involved.”

In a filmed exchange with Dumfries and Galloway-born Heughan – who played her heartthrob husband Jamie Fraser for a decade – Balfe said: “We filmed at a place in Season 8, I think it’s called Shotts. An armpit… and I’m very sorry.”

Heughan then comments: “Oh…sorry Scotland.”

However In the actual video clip, she said: “Sorry, Shotts. It’s a particular place in Shotts. I just want to be specific.

“It’s not the town — the little village. It was just… They found an old dump that was also kind of a swamp, and we were there for over a week, and our sets kept getting attacked, and it was just not my favorite place.”

Sources told the Record the Outlander crew had set up a base at a Shotts factory unit in 2024. They were there to film in the area for several months as Balfe made her directing debut on the second episode of the final season back that year, titled “Prophecies”.

But local sources claim the team departed after a matter of weeks after they “ran into difficulties” at the filming location at Hartwood Hill near Shotts. The source said: “The set quad bike was stolen and set fire to and they struggled further to secure the set.

“They also had a lot of difficulties with the ground being impenetrable.” Before knowing the comment was edited, Mr Neil invited Balfe back to the town to show her what it really has to offer.

The ex-MSP said: “There’s no denying the social problems facing Shotts because, like many other ex mining communities, no government has invested in these communities, so they’ve been allowed to run down physically. But the point is, in these communities the people have a heart of gold, they’re very good, decent hard working people who are trying to make the best of their lives and make ends meet in very difficult circumstances.

“Far from being the ‘armpit’ – which suggests the place stinks – the people are actually lovely people in Shotts. She is probably totally ignorant of its history.

“I would say to her, come back to Shotts. I’d be happy to show her around and introduce her to the people of Shotts so she gets an impression of the real Shotts instead of a fleeting visit and reaching a conclusion from what was probably a very limited experience of Shotts.”

After hearing that Balfe wasn’t talking about the whole town, Mr Neil said: “I’m delighted to hear she didn’t mean Shotts in general and I’m sorry the website edited her comments the way it did. I’m glad she’s received an apology for it.

“However my offer still stands. I’d be happy to welcome her to Shotts and show her around and meet the locals.”

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The most destructive wildfire season on record in Europe was in 2025, with more than one million hectares burned and tens of thousands of people displaced by fires across the continent.

For people in Ireland and Britain, the type of destructive wildfires that ravage southern Europe each summer can seem like a distant problem. But these fires are not confined to the dry Mediterranean landscapes of Spain, Portugal and Greece. In recent years, they have started to extend into regions more commonly associated with rain-soaked hills and bogs.

In 2026, this trend has continued with major wildfires breaking out across Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.

As fires spread across the Highlands and Moray in Scotland this April, public warnings focused heavily on dry weather, campfires and accidental ignitions. In Northern Ireland, cautions were issued as firefighters battled several large gorse fires across the Mourne Mountains and other upland ares.

Similar warnings were issued nationally in Ireland over the Easter bank holiday weekend, when the public was urged to avoid lighting fires or bringing barbecues into the countryside. The threat of wildfires is only expected to ramp up this summer as temperatures rise further.

These are important messages. But focusing only on how fires start risks missing a slower and less visible transformation already unfolding across many upland landscapes. The real wildfire story in places like Ireland and Scotland is not just about climate or how fires start. It is also about how rural upland landscapes themselves are changing.

Changing farming styles

Recent research explores how decades of agricultural policy reform under the EU’s common agricultural policy, alongside falling farming populations and declining active land management, are reshaping vegetation patterns across Ireland’s uplands.

Historically, many upland landscapes were actively managed through livestock grazing, cutting and controlled patch burning. These practices helped maintain open landscapes and reduced the build-up of highly flammable vegetation.

But that balance has shifted. Reduced grazing pressure and changing land management practices are contributing to the expansion of highly flammable vegetation such as gorse, heather and purple moor grass.

While lower grazing pressure can bring biodiversity benefits and support natural regeneration, it can also increase the amount and proliferation of flammable vegetation across the landscape, known as fuel loads and fuel continuity. In practice, this means larger and more connected stretches of vegetation that allow fires to spread more rapidly and across greater distances.

This is especially concerning in upland areas where the average age of people working on farms is rising, and active land management is declining. Rural depopulation and labour shortages mean fewer people are available to manage what is known as commonages in Ireland and common grazing in Scotland. That means less maintenance of grazing systems and a reduction in the small, controlled vegetation burns that historically decreased wildfire risk by clearing vegetation and creating firebreaks. As one upland farmer in County Kerry recently described it to me: “It’s a bomb waiting to go off.”

Increasing flammability

Climate change is intensifying these risks. Hotter, drier conditions increase the likelihood that vegetation will dry out, increasing flammability. But climate alone does not explain why some landscapes burn more severely than others.

Wildfire risk is also shaped by what is growing on the land, how landscapes are managed, and whether fuel loads are reduced or allowed to accumulate over time. Experts responding to the recent Scottish fires also highlighted the role of vegetation build-up, prolonged dry conditions and changing land management in shaping fire behaviour, warning that historically wetter regions may face increasing wildfire risks in the future.

Similar patterns have already emerged across parts of southern Europe, where rural depopulation and land abandonment have contributed to increasingly severe wildfire regimes.

Recent research from Italy has shown abandoned land, declining grazing and reduced active land management have contributed to fuel accumulation, and to the build-up of dense, continuous vegetation – conditions associated with increasingly large and severe wildfires. While the climates and landscapes of Ireland and Scotland differ from the Mediterranean, similar long-term changes are beginning to emerge here.

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The Pennine hills are full of holes – here’s how they’re helping fight climate change

This creates a difficult tension for policymakers and conservationists. Reduced grazing pressure and natural regeneration can support biodiversity recovery in upland systems. Yet these same changes may also increase wildfire risk where vegetation becomes dense, continuous and unmanaged. The challenge is therefore not choosing between farming or conservation, but finding ways to support landscapes that can sustain biodiversity, rural livelihoods and wildfire resilience together.

Wildfire risk in Ireland and Scotland can no longer be understood simply as a problem of careless ignitions or extreme weather. It runs much deeper than that. It is increasingly tied to long-term changes in how upland landscapes are farmed, governed and managed.

If future policy is serious about reducing wildfire risk, it must look beyond seasonal warnings and begin addressing the deeper forces reshaping our uplands.