Desperate search: Gazans scour ruins for water

To get his family the water they need for drinking, bathing and laundry, Ahmed al-Shanbari steels himself for a lengthy search through the north of the Gaza Strip.Shanbari said most of the wells near his makeshift shelter in the Jabalia refugee camp have been destroyed.And the water distribution network barely works after more than nine months of war that has devastated Gaza’s infrastructure.Water was already scarce before the conflict erupted in October, and most of it was undrinkable. The 2.4mn population relies on an increasingly polluted and depleted aquifer, humanitarian agencies say. To collect what little of the fetid supply remains can take Shanbari four hours in sweltering heat.He sets off with his three children, buckets in hand, weaving through mounds of rubble and trash in search of a working spigot or an aid agency hose connected to a water truck.“We are suffering greatly to obtain water,” he said.Shanbari said the situation has worsened since heavy fighting broke out in Jabalia in May between the Israeli army and Hamas.“After the last incursion, not a single well remains,” he said.The UN humanitarian office OCHA said most of Gaza’s groundwater was contaminated with sewage even before the war. More than 97% was unsafe to drink.Today, many aid groups describe the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic”.For weeks, Palestinians in Gaza have said journalists about the intense thirst that drives them to delirium, their dreams of a cup of tea and the humiliation of being unable to wash.For the Shanbari family, water is so precious they try not to spill a single drop after finding it.From the jerrycans they haul home, they carefully transfer the water into basins for cleaning dishes and pitchers for bathing.The parents say they are “exhausted” by the constant struggle to get the barest of necessities, and their children are sick.“All my children have fallen ill, they’re suffering from kidney failure, jaundice, itching, cough,” said Shanbari. “I don’t know what to say, and there aren’t even medicines available in the north.” Not far from the Shanbari home, huge puddles of sewage, sometimes as big as ponds, cover the roads.INOPERABLEEven if he could locate a well with water, Shanbari said there is no fuel in the north to run the pumps needed to extract it.Wastewater treatment plants are also reportedly shutting down because of the lack of fuel .An expert on water infrastructure in the Gaza Strip described the territory’s water distribution system as effectively inoperable.Only a ceasefire could get it back up and running again, he said, given the need for spare parts and experts to access the stations and wells. The Israeli military on Sunday maintained that water collection points were accessible in the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone, to which it has ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move.But people are afraid to go there after Israeli strikes on Al Mawasi killed at least 92 people and wounded 300 on July 13, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Israel, UN agencies and the Palestinian Authority have all raised the prospect of resupplying electricity from Israel to a desalination plant and a water treatment plant in Gaza.But the local electricity distribution company said the line was still too damaged to distribute power.The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October first week storming of southern Israel.Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,006 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the Gaza health ministry.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687185/international/desperate-search-gazans-scour-ruins-for-water

Harris wins crucial backing in her race against Trump

US Vice-President Kamala Harris won the crucial backing of Democratic heavyweight Nancy Pelosi to lead the party against Donald Trump in November after Joe Biden’s stunning exit from the 2024 race.Biden’s departure was the latest shock to a White House race that included the near-assassination of former president Trump by a gunman during a campaign stop and the nomination of Trump’s fellow hardliner, US Senator J D Vance, as his running mate.As the endorsements stacked up, the 59-year-old Harris made her first public appearance since Biden’s announcement in a ceremony at the White House where she warmly praised the outgoing president’s “unmatched” achievements.However, while she steered away from any triumphalism, Harris will now feel she has one hand on the prize after securing the support of Pelosi, the former US House speaker and a prime mover in moves to oust the 81-year-old Biden.“With immense pride and limitless optimism for our country’s future, I endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States,” Pelosi, 84, said in a message on X. “I have full confidence that she will lead us to victory in November.”A flood of Democratic leaders has backed Harris as the party’s new candidate for November’s election, building momentum for a lightning-fast coronation despite some calls to show transparency with an open primary.Biden endorsed Harris – who is the first female, black and South Asian vice-president in US history – as he dropped out of the race on Sunday following a disastrous debate performance.He was followed by former president Bill Clinton and a host of other lawmakers, but ex-president Barack Obama has notably held off so far.In a strikingly symbolic moment, Harris hosted a ceremony for college athletes at the White House yesterday while Biden remained stuck in isolation with the coronavirus (Covid-19) at his Delaware beach house.“Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history,” Harris said in her brief remarks on the White House South Lawn, as a light rain fell.Some of her sporting metaphors did seem to nod towards the political race ahead of her, though, as she talked of bringing home the gold and “what it means to commit and to persevere”.Harris was to make a first trip to campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, later in the day – not far from Rehoboth Beach, where Biden has spent most of the last week nursing his Covid-19 infection.Harris’s campaign said it had raised a stunning $49.6mn in grassroots donations since Sunday.A series of other top Democrats have backed Harris, including a number considered as her possible running mates.“Let’s win this,” posted Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.The governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, also declared his support, as did Illinois Governor J B Pritzker.Harris must still win over some key hold-outs if she is to wrap up the nomination, but it could happen as early as a remote ballot on August 1, or failing that by the Democratic National Convention starting August 19.The stunning withdrawal by Biden has completely upended the 2024 race, transforming a long slog between two unpopular elderly men into one of the most compelling in modern US presidential history.The move has brought a jolt of energy to a demoralised party that Harris could now unify, and could give America its first female president.It has also hit Republicans hard, with former president Trump, 78 – now the oldest presidential nominee in US history – having to completely retool a strategy that had been built around attacking Biden over his age and physical frailty.Harris’s entry not only flips the age issue but puts Trump – a convicted felon who has faced a series of legal cases over sexual assault – up against a woman and former prosecutor.Trump has seemed to find it hard to move on from his old opponent.He launched a series of invective-filled social media posts after Biden quit, mocking the president’s age and saying that he and Harris posed a “threat to democracy”.The challenges facing Harris remain daunting, however, with less than four months until election day.The vice-president has long suffered from poor approval ratings after a lacklustre first two years in the White House.She is polling largely neck-and-neck with Trump in the polls that have looked at a direct match up.In a head-to-head match-up, Harris and Trump were tied with 44% support each in a July 15-16 Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted immediately after the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump.Trump led Biden 43% to 41% in that same poll, though the two percentage point difference was not meaningful considering the poll’s three-point margin of error.Biden, the oldest person ever to occupy the Oval Office, said he would remain in the presidency until his term ends on January 20, 2025.Some Democrats were concerned about a Harris candidacy, in part because of the weight of a long history of racial and gender discrimination in the US, which has not elected a woman president in its nearly 250-year history.“We should all prepare for the onslaught of attack that would face any historic candidate,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. “Misogyny in our politics is far from over. Racism in our politics – especially confronting Donald Trump as an opponent – is far, far from over.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687182/international/harris-wins-crucial-backing-in-her-race-against-trump

Meloni put domestic concerns first in rejecting von der Leyen

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s decision not to back Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission chief was driven by fear of losing right-wing grassroots supporters, analysts say, but may curb her influence over EU choices.The European Parliament elected von der Leyen for a second five-year term on Thursday to lead the bloc’s executive with support from centre-right, centre-left, liberal and green groups. She got 401 votes, with 284 against in a secret ballot in the 720-member chamber.Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, part of the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), revealed its decision after the vote when it said von der Leyen had shifted too far left, particularly on green pledges.Even though von der Leyen did not need Meloni’s 24 lawmakers to win, the vote marked a shift from the prime minister’s past efforts to keep good relations with the Commission as Rome grapples with mammoth public debt.“Meloni cares a lot about being consistent. She had said she would never vote with the left. When it became clear that her votes were not needed, she stuck to that pledge,” said Giovanni Orsina, politics professor at Rome’s Luiss university.However, the move dismayed many Italian commentators who said the Commission may now be less indulgent towards Italy’s public finances and its faltering attempts to spend billions of euros of EU post-Covid recovery funds.That remains to be seen, but Meloni’s first concern appeared to be fending off internal competition at home from her hard-right coalition ally, Matteo Salvini’s League. “She is afraid of exposing herself on the right, and this fear overwhelmed everything else,” said Francesco Galietti, from Rome-based political risk consultancy Policy Sonar.Brothers of Italy is now polling at nearly 30% — its highest ever — while the League is around 8.5%, but Galietti pointed to volatility in Italian politics and said Meloni could not afford to alienate traditional voters.Before moderating her positions after coming to power in 2022, Meloni was considered further to the right than Salvini, and used to advocate for Italy to leave the eurozone. The Commission declined to comment for this story.Von der Leyen, asked by reporters on Thursday whether she regretted seeking Meloni’s support, said only that the vote showed she had taken the right approach in assembling backers who are “pro-European, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law.”Carlo Calenda, leader of centrist party Action, said in a radio interview on Friday that Meloni had preferred to be “a faction leader rather than a prime minister,” and it was “dangerous” for Italy to be in opposition in Europe.Meloni triumphed in Italy’s European Parliament elections last month, in contrast to setbacks for French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, but since then things have not gone her way.After being left out of a deal on the bloc’s top jobs she protested that von der Leyen and other leaders were flouting voters’ wishes by ignoring a surge in right-wing support.She refused to back von der Leyen along with groups including the Patriots for Europe, a far-right alliance which includes Marine Le Pen’s French National Rally (RN) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz.Some analysts are suggesting Meloni did not want to side with the EU’s mainstream forces ahead of a possible Donald Trump victory at US elections in November that could boost the bloc’s nationalists.Yet Wolfango Piccoli of London-based political risk consultancy Teneo, said such a strategy could backfire as Trump would likely embrace an isolationist foreign policy which would oblige Italy to strengthen European bonds.“A plan like that would not be useful to the Italian national interest,” Piccoli said.In an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera published on Saturday, Meloni said she would still be able to work with von der Leyen and that it would be “surreal” to imagine Brussels would punish Italy when it came to deciding on Commission roles. Rome’s candidate is European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto.But her relationship with Brussels looks trickier now and Piccoli said it might be harder to have a say on issues including defence and migration, though budget procedures based on pre-established steps are less likely to be affected.“The real question is to count in Europe,” he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687119/international/meloni-put-domestic-concerns-first-in-rejecting-von-der-leyen

Advisory issued as Kerala teen dies from Nipah virus

Authorities in southern India’s Kerala state are taking preventive steps after the death of a 14-year-old boy from the Nipah virus and the identification of 60 persons in the high-risk category, the state’s health minister said yesterday.Parts of Kerala are among those most at risk globally for outbreaks of the virus, a Reuters investigation showed last year. Nipah, which comes from fruit bats and animals, can cause a lethal, brain-swelling fever in humans.Nipah is classified as a priority pathogen by the World Health Organisation (WHO) because of its potential to trigger an epidemic. There is no vaccine to prevent infection and no treatment to cure it.“The infected boy died on Sunday after a cardiac arrest,” Veena George, the state health minister told local TV reporters, speaking in the Malayalam language.Earlier, in a statement on Saturday, she said as part of Nipah control, the government has issued orders to set up 25 committees to identify and isolate affected people.Dr Anoop Kumar, director of critical care medicine at Aster MIMS Hospital in Calicut, said one positive case of Nipah had been diagnosed in a school-going boy and persons who had been in contact with him were being watched.“There is a minimum chance of an outbreak of Nipah virus at this stage,” he said, adding that the situation would be monitored for the next 7-10 days.There are 214 people on the primary contact list of the boy, the statement said. Among them, 60 are in the high-risk category, it said, and isolation wards have been set up at health institutions to treat patients.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687116/international/advisory-issued-as-kerala-teen-dies-from-nipah-virus

PNG Air Force takes to skies among Top Guns

One of the world’s youngest air forces is taking part in war games alongside cutting-edge stealth fighter jets as the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) boosts defence ties with Australia and the United States.Papua New Guinea’s trainee pilots have queued for take-off with US F-22 Raptor and Australian Joint Strike Fighter jets in northern Australia this week in the 20-nation “Pitch Black” war games.“It is a learning experience for us as a small air force and it helps to build our air force,” said Major Randall Hepota, one of six PNG Air Force pilots flying three small P-750 turboprop aircraft.At home, the New Zealand-made plane can take off and land in very short spaces and transports supplies and troops to border areas in treacherous mountain terrain.Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas Vavar, the commanding officer of PNG Air Wing, said Pitch Black offered exposure to the world’s best pilots and was helping PNG learn how to integrate with a large coalition force.“We are becoming an air force. Flying in Papua New Guinea is a must,” he said in an interview yesterday at RAAF Base Darwin. “Eighty per cent of the population live in rural areas – so the only way you can get access to them is to fly.”The PNG Air Force could land closer to the site of the Enga landslide disaster in May to deliver aid than larger Royal Australian Air Force planes, he said.“We have been training with the Royal Australian Air Force for several years and the Enga landslide was the first time we had to deploy,” he said.The small PNG planes have been landing in remote Jabiru to deliver supplies during Pitch Black, as well as RAAF Tindal Base, home to Australia’s F-35 fighter jets.Australia’s Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, inspected one of the PNG aircraft at the RAAF Darwin base open day.Australia and the United States last year struck defence deals with PNG, which is also being courted by Beijing, amid strategic competition by major powers in the Pacific Islands.“Papua New Guinea is one of our key allies in the region,” said Fiona Pearce, senior Australian Defence Force officer for RAAF Tindal.“Their survival and our survival are interdependent,” she added.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687064/international/png-air-force-takes-to-skies-among-top-guns

Thousands protest military operation in Pakistan

Thousands of people rallied on Friday against a planned operation by the Pakistan military to root out militants along the Afghan border, with at least one protester killed when gunfire broke out, officials and witnesses said.

More than 10,000 people waving white flags and calling for peace gathered for the rally in Bannu – 40km (25 miles) from Afghanistan – where a suicide bomber on Monday rammed an explosive-packed vehicle into an army enclave, killing eight Pakistani troops.

“Military operations have been ongoing for 20 years, yet peace has not been established,” protester Jamaluddin Wazir told AFP. “Military operations can never be a substitute for peace.”

Pakistan’s government announced earlier this year, without giving details, that the military would launch a new campaign to counter violence in areas along the border with Afghanistan, which has surged following the Taliban government’s return to power.

Friday’s protest turned violent when crowds reached the walls of an army facility and gunfire broke out, witnesses and officials reported.

“They chanted slogans against the army, and some started throwing stones at the facility’s wall. This led to firing in the air by the military, causing a stampede,” an intelligence official in the nearby city of Peshawar told AFP on condition of anonymity.

At least one protester died, according to Pakhtun Yar, the provincial minister for public health, who was a speaker at the protest.

He accused the military of opening fire on the protesters.

“During the rally, shots were fired directly at me and the people standing near me. This wasn’t just firing in the air – it was intended to kill us,” Yar told AFP. “The shooting was carried out by those who want to destroy our peace. They want to spill the blood of our people, but the community is no longer willing to tolerate this.”

For years the Pakistan Taliban – a separate group from the Afghan Taliban but with a similar ideology – waged a bloody campaign in the area, killing thousands of civilians and taking control of parts of the border region, before being pushed back by a military campaign that began in 2014.

The clearance operation displaced hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed countless homes and businesses, sparking a local backlash calling for the rights of ethnic Pashtuns to be protected.

However, protests against the powerful military, which analysts say holds large sway over the government and foreign policy, are rare and often brought down quickly.

Violence has surged along the border since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of failing to root out groups taking shelter on Afghan soil while preparing assaults on Pakistan.

The Taliban government insists it will not allow foreign militant outfits to operate from Afghanistan, but Islamabad-Kabul relations have soured over the issue.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687015/international/thousands-protest-military-operation-in-pakistan

Oil tankers on fire after colliding close to Singapore

Two large oil tankers were on fire yesterday after colliding near Singapore, the world’s biggest refuelling port, with two crew members airlifted to hospital and others rescued from life rafts, authorities and one of the tanker owners said.Singapore is Asia’s biggest oil trading hub and the world’s largest bunkering port. Its surrounding waters are vital trade waterways between Asia and Europe and the Middle East and among the busiest global sea lanes.The Singapore-flagged tanker Hafnia Nile and the Sao Tome and Principe-flagged tanker Ceres I were about 55km northeast of the Singaporean island of Pedra Branca on the eastern approach to the Singapore Straits, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said.The 22 crew of the Hafnia Nile and the 40 on the Ceres I were all accounted for, the MPA said, which was alerted to the fire at 6.15am (2215 GMT)The owner of Hafnia Nile confirmed the vessel was involved in a collision with Chinese owned Ceres I. Photographs released by the Singapore Navy showed thick black smoke billowing from one tanker and crew being rescued from life rafts and flown to hospital. The environmental authorities in neighbouring Malaysia said they had been told to prepare for potential oil spills.Norway’s Gard, one of Hafnia Nile’s insurers, told Reuters it was too early to assess the environmental impact.“We are supporting our member as they are dealing with the incident,” Gard said.Navigational traffic had not been affected, although the status of the vessels or any pollution was unknown at present, a spokesperson at the UN’s International Maritime Organisation (IMO) said. “No aerial surveillance has been conducted so far,” the spokesperson said.“Salvage and fire-fighting assets have been arranged by both vessel owners to support the fire-fighting efforts and subsequent towage of the vessels to safety.”The IMO spokesperson said a salvage team had been appointed and was en route to the area.The 74,000 deadweight-tonnes capacity panamax tanker Hafnia Nile was carrying about 300,000 barrels of naphtha, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler and LSEG.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686995/international/oil-tankers-on-fire-after-colliding-close-to-singapore

Boy lives in permanent shade to survive dangerous sunlight

Pol Dominguez, 11, is enjoying his summer holidays in Spain. But unlike most children his age, he does not spend his days at the beach or pool, instead staying indoors to avoid ultraviolet radiation that could be deadly for him. Dominguez has Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), a rare disease that affects his skin and eyes. Patients are unable to repair their DNA from solar damage, which puts them at high risk of developing cancer.His case is extreme: even brief exposure to sunlight causes serious burns. With only 2.3 cases per million live births in Western Europe — and around 100 people living with XP in Spain — the hereditary disease is usually detected early when burns appear.Dominguez and his family, who live in Barcelona, have radically modified their habits to avoid exposure to UV radiation. To avoid severe sunburns and blistering, Dominguez wears a hood, jacket, sunglasses and gloves outside, even in winter.In summer, he stays indoors as much as possible, but when he does need to leave the house, the protective clothing is hot and uncomfortable.Dominguez’ school has adapted windows and lights so he can have as normal a life as possible, although he needs to bundle up for outside activities and carries a UV meter to check that an environment is safe.“It’s very hot and I use a fan to make it cooler,” he told Reuters on one of his last days of school, using a portable fan underneath the shield he wears over his face.Dominguez’ home is UV-light-proof, with protective film on windows, blinds lowered and fans to keep the environment well-ventilated, said his mother, Xenia Aranda.“What we do is go out at night,” Aranda said. “At around 10pm we say: ‘What would we like to do, Pol? Go to the beach, grab an ice cream, go for a run?’”Pol is spending part of the summer with his grandparent Ferran Aranda in Portbou, near the French border. When the sun sets, he can finally go to the beach without protective gear. Just eating an ice cream outside or turning his towel into a superhero’s cape brings a smile of delight to his face.As heatwaves become more frequent and intense and spread across seasons due to climate change, the risks to Pol and others like him increase.“The more hours of sunshine, the more solar damage. Therefore more illness,” said Asuncion Vicente, a paediatric dermatologist at Barcelona’s Sant Joan de Deu hospital.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686953/international/boy-lives-in-permanent-shade-to-survive-dangerous-sunlight

‘It’s unbearable’: heatwaves scorch eastern, southern Europe

Unrelenting heat is blanketing swathes of southern and eastern Europe, with dozens of cities on red alert as scorching temperatures fuel wildfires, strain power grids, and make daily life unbearable.There was no let-up yesterday as the mercury again hovered near or above 40 degrees Celsius in many countries, with worse expected in the coming days.Europe is no stranger to baking summer spells but climate change is making heatwaves longer, stronger and more frequent, sustaining dangerously high temperatures even at night.Greece, which recorded its earliest-ever heatwave this summer, withered through its 11th-straight day above 40C yesterday.Nights in the capital Athens have hit 30C as heat rolls unbroken from one day to the next.Yesterday, authorities closed the Acropolis, the country’s most visited attraction, during the hottest hours for a second day in a row.Some outdoor work, like construction and meal delivery, have also been suspended.Cooler weather isn’t expected until July 26.In the heart of Athens, tourists sought precious shade as Sam Rizek, a waiter, drank chilled water to keep the heat at bay.“It’s not easy, it makes my work harder,” the 19-year-old told AFP. “Here in Greece, we have to get used to it.”In Italy, zoo keepers gave animals ice blocks to ward off heat stroke as temperatures soared, while 14 cities including Florence, Palermo and Bologna were placed on red alert.To make matters worse, swarms of locusts thriving in the hot conditions have invaded fields and orchards in the eastern region of Emilia Romagna.“The high temperatures and the lack of rain have favoured the massive proliferation of one of the insects most feared by farmers,” said Italy’s main agricultural lobby Coldiretti.In Hungary, which has been under a maximum heat warning since July 7, searing temperatures have warped an airport runway while the state-run train operator urged passengers to take air-conditioned buses instead of its outdated rail cars.Croatia and Serbia this week consumed a record amount of electricity as residents switched on air conditioners to beat the heat.It followed an early start to the Balkans summer in June when a sudden heatwave saw power grids overwhelmed in Albania, Bosnia, southern Croatia and Montenegro.In Romania, gripped by a heatwave since Saturday, evening temperature records have tumbled as blistering daytime highs have carried into long, suffocating nights.“Without air conditioning it’s unbearable,” 20-year-old Alexandru Tudor told AFP in Bucharest, which is on its highest state of alert.“It’s very hot in the evening too, and we can’t sleep.”Ilan Kelman from University College London said prolonged heatwaves could turn deadly if the human body was not given ample chance to cool off at night.“This is what we need to be worried about. Temperatures are not falling at night,” said the professor of disasters and health.The past 13 months have been the hottest ever recorded, and heatwaves have already this year hit North America, Mexico, India and Thailand, to name a few.The EU’s climate monitor Copernicus said the average temperature for June across Europe was 1.57C above the 1991-2020 average, making the month the joint-second warmest on record.But this was largely felt in southeast regions and Turkiye, with western Europe experiencing a slow start to summer, with near or below average temperatures for June.Paco Pozo from Cordoba, a southern region of Spain, said the heat so far had been “completely bearable” compared to past years.“At this time of year, normally, we would be asphyxiated. But so far, we are doing really well,” he said.But this doesn’t look set to last.Spain declared its first heatwave of the year yesterday with temperatures forecast to hit 44C in some southern areas in coming days, accompanied by hot and uncomfortable nights.A wall of heat from Africa driving up temperatures was also expected to bring sand and dust from the Sahara across Spain, the State Meteorological Agency said. In all these regions, deadly wildfires have accompanied the tinder-dry conditions.Two firefighters died on Wednesday battling a blaze near the southern Italian city of Matera, while a separate fire near Rome shrouded the capital in a choking yellow haze.In Greece — where 40 new blazes were recorded in the past 24 hours — firefighters were stretched to the limit.“We’re worried,” veteran firefighter Konstantinos Goularas told AFP in Athens as a small group of comrades rallied outside parliament for more resources.“We don’t have enough firefighters for the summer.”Hans-Martin Fussel, from the European Environment Agency, said western Europe was often better prepared for heatwaves than southern or eastern regions where the threat was much greater.“Cities in Europe are clearly waking up but most of them are not yet ready for the threat,” the climate change adaptation expert told AFP.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686950/international/its-unbearable-heatwaves-scorch-eastern-southern-europe

US right takes aim at women Secret Service agents who protected Trump

As questions swirl over how a would-be assassin managed to get anywhere near Donald Trump, some conservatives are blaming the Secret Service for hiring the women agents who threw themselves into the line of fire to protect the former president.Women are too short, too weak — and in some cases, too overweight — to protect someone like Trump, according to people on the US political right who accused the Secret Service of “woke” hiring practices they say nearly got the former president killed.Several women can be seen among the black-suited, sunglass-clad agents racing to shield Trump with their bodies as the gunman opened fire at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, before hustling him from the stage and into a waiting car and safety.But they, along with their boss Kimberly Cheatle — only the second-ever woman director of the federal agency tasked with protecting presidents current, former and would-be — are now caught in the intense scrutiny over the nearly catastrophic attack.“There should not be any women in the Secret Service. These are supposed to be the very best, and none of the very best at this job are women,” right-wing activist Matt Walsh wrote on X, in one typical post.“I can’t imagine that a DEI hire from @pepsi would be a bad choice as the head of the Secret Service. #sarcasm,” tweeted Republican congressman Tim Burchett.Burchett was referring to Cheatle’s previous job as director of global security for Pepsi — a post she held for several years before returning to the Secret Service, where she had previously spent nearly three decades.With the phrase DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — he was invoking one of the most popular conservative fronts in the culture wars: the so-called “wokeification” of the workplace as employers strive to diversify their hiring practices beyond white men.The first women were sworn in as Secret Service agents in 1971. CBS News reported last year that the agency aims to have 30 percent women recruits by 2030.“I’m very conscious...of making sure that we need to attract diverse candidates and ensure that we are developing and giving opportunities to everybody in our workforce, and particularly women,” Cheatle told CBS at the time.The wildly popular conservative Libs of TikTok account cited that interview in a post also blaming hiring practices for the Trump shooting that has received more than 10 million views on X.“The results of DEI. DEI got someone killed,” it read.Diverse hiring practices accelerated in 2020 after the George Floyd killing forced America into a new reckoning over racism and inclusivity.But they have seen a growing backlash from conservatives in recent months who complain they unfairly disadvantage white workers in general, and white men in particular.None other than Ohio Senator JD Vance — Trump’s newly-announced running mate — has spearheaded a recent bill to do away with such efforts.“DEI is racism, plain and simple. It’s time to outlaw it nationwide, starting with the federal government,” he tweeted last month as the bill was introduced.Such practices at the Secret Service faced scrutiny as recently as May, when Congress launched an investigation after a female agent in Vice President Kamala Harris’s detail reportedly got into an altercation with colleagues.The incident raised concerns about this agent’s hiring, Kentucky Republican James Comer said in a letter to Cheatle — specifically, whether staff shortages “had led the agency to lower once stricter standards as a part of a diversity, equity and inclusion effort.” The Secret Service did not immediately respond to questions from AFP. But in response to the Comer letter, spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told US media that Secret Service employees “are held to the highest professional standards...at no time has the agency lowered these standards.”Cheatle has shrugged off calls for her resignation since the shooting, and the agency has agreed to cooperate with an independent review ordered by President Joe Biden.Comer has also announced that Cheatle will appear before a congressional panel on July 22 for a hearing on the assassination attempt.Biden — in whose detail Cheatle served when he was vice-president — told NBC News on Monday that he feels “safe with the Secret Service”, though he agreed it was an “open question” whether they should have anticipated the shooting.When Trump made his first public appearance after the shooting, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday, he appeared to be surrounded by an all-male Secret Service detail.“Now THIS is how you protect a President,” posted conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley on X.“Trump gets the Secret Service A-team now.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686893/international/us-right-takes-aim-at-women-secret-service-agents-who-protected-trump

Russia, North America in fierce start to wildfire season

Extreme wildfires are spreading across Russia and North America and shrouding swathes of the region in smoke, the EU’s climate monitor said yesterday as it warned of worse to come.Copernicus said unusually hot and dry conditions were causing blazes in Siberia, Canada and Alaska and a “remarkable intensification” of planet-heating gases as swathes of forest burn.A column of smoke containing ash and harmful particles from wildfires in eastern Russia had drifted 3,000km across parts of eastern Mongolia, northeastern China and northern Japan.The “anomalously high” levels of some airborne pollutants over that region were many times globally accepted safe limits, said the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS).Parts of Canada were on evacuation alert as flames ripped through western provinces, while nearly 250,0000 hectares in Alaska had been torched this year in an early start to the wildfire season.“The current wildfires are already at record levels in some regions and with the second half of the summer still to come, more extreme fire emissions are anticipated, and we will be closely monitoring how they develop and how they impact air quality,” said CAMS senior scientist Mark Parrington.Wildfire smoke contains fine airborne particles that can lodge deep in the lungs when inhaled and are harmful to human health.Mostly caused by lightning strikes, wildfires are part of the natural cycle of boreal forests, which circle the far northern hemisphere and are dense, remote and difficult to access.So-called “zombie fires” can smoulder beneath the surface during winter months, surviving on carbon-rich fuels before reigniting at the onset of spring or summer.But this region is also warming quickly and forests there “have experienced a significant increase in the number and intensity of wildfires over the last two decades”, Copernicus said.Scientists have described increasing wildfires in famously frosty Siberia as a clear signal that Earth’s natural systems are being fundamentally altered by global warming.These fires have a direct impact on global warming, razing forests that store carbon and pumping enormous volumes of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.The smoke can also settle on ice, reducing its ability to reflect solar radiation, and causing more heat to be absorbed.As of July 15, carbon emissions from wildfires in Russia had already exceeded the June-July total estimated for the previous two years, Copernicus said.This was particularly acute in the eastern Amur oblast, where emissions since June 1 from fires there had already doubled the previous record for the same period.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686802/international/russia-north-america-in-fierce-start-to-wildfire-season