World
Climate: 18,000 killed by heat in Italy last summer - study
Over 18,000 people died in Italy due to the intense heat the nation endured last summer, according to a new study.
The study, coordinated by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and published in the Nature Medicine journal, said that Italy had the highest heat-related death toll in Europe in the summer of 2022, with 18,100 mortalities out of a total of 61,672 for the whole continent.
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Spain was second with 11,324 deaths followed by Germany with 8.173.
Europe was hit by a series of intense heatwaves last year that led to drought and devastating wildfires.
The study said the average temperature in Europe was about 2° Celsius above the average for the period last summer.
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In France it was 2.43° above average while in Italy it was 2.28° higher.
Scientists say the climate crisis caused by human greenhouse gas emissions is causing extreme weather events such as heat waves, drought, supercharged storms and flooding to be more frequent and more intense.
UN warns its development goals for 2030 are in trouble and 575 million people will remain very poor
In a grim report, the U.N. warned Monday that at the current rate of global progress 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty and 84 million children won’t be going to school in 2030 – and it will take 286 years to reach equality between men and women.
The report on progress in achieving 17 wide-ranging U.N. goals adopted by world leaders in 2015 to improve life for the world's more than 7 billion people said that only 15% of some 140 specific targets that experts evaluated are on track to be reached by the end of the decade.
Close to half the targets are moderately or severely off track, it said, and of those 30% have either seen no movement at all or regressed including key targets on poverty, hunger and climate.
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The ambitious goals for 2030 include ensuring that hunger is eradicated and nobody lives on less than $2.15 a day which is the extreme poverty line, providing every child with a quality primary and secondary school education, achieving gender equality, ensuring all people have clean water, sanitation and access to affordable energy, reducing inequalities, and taking urgent action to combat climate change.
“Unless we act now, the 2030 agenda could become an epitaph for a world that might have been,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a foreword to the report. “Failure to make progress means inequalities will continue to deepen, increasing the risk of a fragmented, two-speed world.”
The report was released ahead of a summit that Guterres has called during the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly in September, which he said will be “a moment of truth and reckoning.”
Undersecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua said conflicts including the war in Ukraine, climate change, the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic especially its devastating financial impact on developing countries, and geopolitical tensions are all “threatening to derail hard-earned progress” toward achieving the goals.
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He said in a foreword that the pandemic saw the largest decline in childhood vaccinations in three decades, an increase in tuberculosis and malaria deaths, and learning losses in 80% of the 104 countries studied. It also interrupted three decades of progress in reducing poverty, and produced the largest rise in inequality between countries in three decades, he said.
“By May 2023, the devastating consequences of war, conflict and human rights violations had displaced a staggering 110 million people of which 35 million were refugees – the highest figure ever recorded,” the ECOSOC chief said.
Li told a news conference launching the report that at the September summit, the U.N. would like political leaders to come up with “a new roadmap” to accelerate action at the global, regional and national level to achieve the goals by 2030.
With seven years left, the report said achieving the goals is “in deep trouble” and “it is time to sound the alarm.”
At current rates, it said not only will 575 million people still be living in extreme poverty in 2030 but only about one-third of countries will meet the target to reduce national poverty levels by half.
“Shockingly, the world is back at hunger levels not seen since 2005, and food prices remain higher in more countries than in the period 2015-2019,” the report said.
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In 2021, the number of people suffering from hunger was close to 800 million, far above pre-pandemic levels, and in 2022 an estimated 45 million children under the age of 5 suffered from wasting and 148 million had stunted growth while 37 million were overweight, it said.
As for education, the report said years of underinvestment and learning losses mean that without a major effort not only will an estimated 84 million children be out of school in 2030 but approximately 300 million students will lack basic literacy and math skills for success in life — and only one in six countries will achieve the target of universal secondary school completion.
On tackling global warming, the report said, “If ever there was an illumination of the short-sightedness of our prevailing economic and political systems, it is the ratcheting up of the war on nature.”
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The small window of opportunity to keep temperatures from rising beyond the internationally agreed threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis is fast closing, the report said, and the critical 1.5 degree tipping point is likely to be reached or surpassed by 2035.
Ukrainian minister says he fears Russia has 'no red lines' to prevent attacks on nuclear plant
The catastrophic collapse of a dam in southern Ukraine has made Kyiv worried that Russia might stage an attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to foment panic and quell Ukrainian advances on the frontline, Ukraine’s energy minister said Monday.
Herman Halushchenko said the destruction of the dam while under Russian control in the Kherson region proved “there are no red lines” for Moscow. He said it warrants the level of alarm Ukraine’s leadership has been raising in recent weeks of an alleged Russian ploy to attack the nuclear plant in a possible false flag operation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alleged last week, citing intelligence reports, that Russian troops placed “objects resembling explosives” atop several power units to “simulate” an attack. Drone and satellite images obtained by the Associated Press showed unidentified white objects on the roof of the plant’s fourth power unit, but Ukrainian leaders have so far been unable to provide further evidence.
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While Russia accuses Ukraine of bombarding the Kakhovka dam, Kyiv blames Moscow for the attack on the dam in late May, which triggered a humanitarian crisis and caused widespread ecological devastation. An AP investigation found that Moscow had the means and motive to carry out the attack.
Halushchenko said he and Zelenskyy had raised alarms as early as October 2022 that the Russians could plant mines to blow up the Kakhovka dam.
“For many many people it sounded ridiculous … and when it happened everybody understood that there are no red lines for them,” he said in a sit-down interview with The Associated Press. “And of course it’s all connected to the counter-offensive operation, and after Kakhovka, the one tool which they still have is Zaporizhzhia.”
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The nuclear plant was seized by Russia in March 2022, in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine, raising fears of a nuclear accident. Over the past year, Russia and Ukraine repeatedly accused each other of shelling the plant.
Ukraine’s military intelligence has claimed for weeks, without providing evidence, that Russia is planning a “large-scale provocation” at the nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, in the southeast of the country.
Around the same time, Ukraine launched the early phase of its much anticipated counter-offensive last month and has reported steady advances along multiple directions of the 1,500 kilometer (930-mile) frontline. An incident at the plant could halt Ukraine's advance, Zelenskyy has said.
Ukrainian military intelligence reports have said that Russia placed mines on the roof of the nuclear plant, and put remote-controlled and regular anti-personnel mines in technical and machine rooms.
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Image experts the AP spoke to could not identify the objects that have been seen on the roof.
Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute and satellite image expert, said the objects appeared to be placed on the roof of the unit’s turbine hall, and, if it turns out to be a bomb, is unlikely to cause serious damage to the reactor.
The Russians have cited security concerns in granting only limited access to officials from the International Atomic Atomic Energy Agency. The agency’s Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said recently that the IAEA had recently gained access to more of the site, including the cooling pond and fuel storage areas.
The Ukrainians had said those areas were mined by the Russians, but the IAEA found they were not, Grossi said. The agency has not yet been given access to inspect the roof of the plant.
Haluschenko noted that the IAEA representatives were not able to access the entire site. “So the Russians allowed them to see only what they decided they could see, and that is the problem," he said.
EU must act to stop migration at source: Italian PM
The European Union must take action to stop migration at the source, rather than focusing on sharing out the migrants who get to Europe, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said Monday after meeting Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins in Riga.
"We agreed on the issue of migration," Meloni said after the meeting, on the eve of the NATO summit in Vilnius.
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"Latvia has EU external borders (like Italy).
"(It's necessary) to think about primary movements instead of discussing secondary ones. It's easier.
"In order to be addressed in a unanimous way, migration must be managed at the origin.
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"We are diverse nations. Working together to stop illegal immigration, giving equal rights to those who come to live in our countries when the (migrant) flows are managed, is the best way to address this issue".
She said that after the meeting she would visit a camp where 270 Italian troops are working within the framework of the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence mission.
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"This demonstrates not only the attention that Italy pays to our allies who are on the border, but also how much we believe that, in terms of defence and security, we must be particularly attentive, focused and lucid at this time," she said.
Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin's commanders met Putin after short-lived mutiny, pledged loyalty
July 11 (AP/UNB)--Just five days after staging a short-lived rebellion, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin 's commanders met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and pledged loyalty to the government, a senior government spokesman said Monday, the latest twist in a baffling episode that has raised questions about the power and influence both men wield.
The three-hour meeting took place June 29 and involved not only Prigozhin but commanders from his Wagner Group military contractor, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Putin gave an assessment of Wagner’s actions on the battlefield in Ukraine — where the mercenaries have fought alongside Russian troops — and of the revolt itself.
“The commanders themselves presented their version of what happened. They underscored that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the commander-in-chief, and also said that they are ready to continue to fight for their homeland,” Peskov said.
The confirmation that Putin met face-to-face with Prigozhin, who led troops on a march to Moscow last month to demand a military leadership change, was extraordinary. Though the Russian leader branded Prigozhin a traitor as the revolt unfolded and vowed harsh punishment, the criminal case against the mercenary chief on rebellion charges was later dropped.
Read: Belarus says Wagner chief who staged mutiny is in Russia, raising questions about Kremlin's strategy
Prigozhin has not commented on the Kremlin meeting, and his ultimate fate remains unclear, particularly since Monday's announcement shows much is negotiated behind closed doors. He could still face prosecution for financial wrongdoing or other charges.
Monday's announcement came as Russia’s Defense Ministry published a video featuring military chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov — who was one of the targets of Prigozhin's rebellion. It was the first time Gerasimov has been seen since the revolt.
In the video, Gerasimov is seated at a table with his team, watching a video report from the chief of staff of Russia’s aerospace forces about a missile attack on Russian territory on Sunday. Gerasimov responds by calling for preemptive strikes against missile bases and for improvements in missile defenses.
The twin updates appeared to be another attempt by the Kremlin to show it’s in control after a turbulent period, and to reflect Putin's delicate balance between condemning the biggest threat to his 23-year rule and the man behind it while not alienating a popular figure whose troops scored the biggest battlefield victory for Russia in the past year of the war.
Former Putin speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov told The Associated Press that Putin acknowledges Prigozhin’s patriotism and needs his forces on the front line, while Prigozhin needs Putin to ensure his freedom from prosecution. The two are negotiating as allies, with Prigozhin escaping punishment, Gallyamov said.
Prigozhin “emerged victorious from this rebellion,” Gallyamov said in a Zoom interview from Tel Aviv. “He has shown himself to be the master of the situation.”
Adding to the unusual nature of the meeting was that until very recently, Putin had denied any link between the state and Prigozhin’s forces. Mercenaries are illegal in Russia, but Wagner troops have fought for Russian interests around the globe and played a vital role in the capture of Bakhmut in the war’s longest and bloodiest battle. Putin has confirmed that Prigozhin's companies operated under government contracts.
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Throughout the war, Prigozhin has criticized decisions made by Russia’s top military brass, leading to tensions with the Kremlin that culminated in the June 24 mutiny.
The rebellion severely weakened Putin’s authority, even though Prigozhin claimed the uprising was not aimed at the president but at removing Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gerasimov. Prigozhin called off his mutiny after a deal was brokered for him to go to Belarus.
Mark Galeotti, an author who heads the consulting firm Mayak Intelligence, said the delicate dance with Prigozhin is “a further compromise on Putin’s part and reflects his unwillingness to take tough and ruthless personnel decisions.”
“He is willing to see Ukrainians bombed by the dozen, but not confront any of the figures in his own circle,” Galeotti wrote in The Spectator.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, predicted that some Russian observers would be stunned by the turn of events.
“When you look from the point of view of Russian elite, it’s ridiculous,” she told the AP. “It’s just so unbelievable and just so shocking.”
Days after the revolt, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Prigozhin was in Belarus. But last week the president said the mercenary chief was in Russia while his troops remained in their camps.
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Peskov said that during the June 29 meeting, Putin offered an “assessment” of Wagner’s actions on the battlefield in Ukraine and "of the events of June 24.” The president also “listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them options for further employment and further use in combat,” the Kremlin spokesman said.
A total of 35 people took part in the meeting, Peskov said. Putin has given options to Prigozhin’s fighters: fight as part of the regular Russian army, retire from service or join Prigozhin in Belarus.
A NATO summit later this week in Lithuania is looking at how to crank up the pressure on Moscow after 16 months of war.
In other developments, a Russian airstrike on a school in southern Ukraine killed seven people as residents gathered to receive humanitarian aid, authorities said, with the governor of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region branding the attack "a war crime.”
Gov. Yuriy Malashko said a guided aerial bomb caused an explosion Sunday at a school in Orikhiv, without providing evidence.
Overall, Russia fired on 10 settlements in the province over the course of a day, he said.
Moscow denies it targets civilian locations. Russia has been accused numerous times of doing so and committing other war crimes since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
Investigations are also underway in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. The International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, located in The Hague, is helping with those probes.
Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive to regain occupied land, and on Monday, the deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, reported progress.
She said the country’s fighters had reclaimed 10.2 square kilometers (3.9 square miles) of territory in the south and four square kilometers (1.5 square miles) in the east in the past week. The gains, she said on Telegram, included the commanding heights of Bakhmut, where Prigozhin’s forces declared control of the city in May. None of the claims could be independently verified.
New Delhi schools close after monsoon floods kill at least 15, Pakistan on alert for more flooding
Schools in New Delhi were closed on Monday after heavy monsoon rains battered the Indian capital and caused landslides and flash floods in the country's north, killing at least 15 people over the last three days.
The torrential rain over the weekend left parts of New Delhi overflowing with water that submerged roads and stranded residents. The northern hill states were the worst affected, with 10 people killed in flash floods and landslides in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
One person died in New Delhi and four were killed in the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir.
Landslides triggered by the rains disrupted traffic on key highways in Uttarakhand, a tourist hill state in the Himalayas, prompting warnings for residents not to venture out of their homes unless necessary. Authorities used helicopters to rescue people while bridges and houses were swept away in neighboring Himachal Pradesh.
India’s weather agency has forecast more heavy rains in the north in the coming days. It said monsoon rains across the country have already brought about 2% more rainfall than normal.
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India regularly witnesses severe floods during the monsoon season, which runs between June and September and brings most of South Asia’s annual rainfall. The rains are crucial for rain-fed crops planted during the season but often cause extensive damage.
Scientists say monsoons are becoming more erratic due to climate change and global warming, leading to frequent landslides and flash floods in India’s Himalayan north.
In neighboring Pakistan, which has also been pelted by monsoon rains, authorities were on alert for the season's first flooding after India diverted waters from dams into the Ravi River, which flows from India into Pakistan.
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Evacuations were underway from the lowlands in eastern Punjab province, according to Pakistan's disaster management agency. More than 150 people were moved overnight from the villages in Narowal and Sialkot, officials said.
At least 76 people have died in Pakistan in weather-related incidents since June 25 as heavy rains impacted tens of thousands of people in this Islamic nation.
Pakistan said New Delhi had informed Islamabad about the release of water into the Ravi, as it is required to do under the 1960 Indus Water Treaty brokered by the World Bank.
Cash-strapped Pakistan is still struggling to recover from last summer's flooding that killed 1,739 people and caused $30 billion in damage.
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Dutch prime minister says he will leave politics after next election
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the Netherlands’ longest serving premier, said Monday he will leave politics after a general election sparked by his government’s resignation.
His decision means the end of more than 13 years in power for the conservative leader sometimes called Teflon Mark because scandals that plagued his four different administrations did not stick to him.
Rutte, the 56-year-old leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or VVD, announced his decision at a hastily arranged parliamentary debate to discuss the fall of his latest governing coalition.
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“Yesterday morning I made a decision that I will not be available again as a leader of the VVD. When a new Cabinet takes office after the elections, I will leave politics,” he said.
Rutte called is a “personal decision, regardless of the developments in recent weeks.”
Rutte’s four-party ruling coalition resigned Friday after failing to agree on a package of measures to rein in migration. He said it was a unanimous decision by the four partner parties prompted by “irreconcilable differences.”
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There was no immediate indication who might replace Rutte as leader of the VVD. The party's parliamentary faction is led by Sophie Hermans, Rutte's former political assistant.
No date has yet been set for the election, but it is not expected before October or November.
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At least 34 dead from heavy rain in India's Uttar Pradesh in 24 hours
Torrential rains in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has killed at least 34 people in the past 24 hours, the state-run broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) said on Monday.
Five people drowned in Raebareli district and four others drowned in Bareilly district, while deaths due to lightning and heavy rain also occurred in Muzaffarnagar, Kaushambi Etah, Kannauj, Budaun, Ghazipur, Jalaun and Kanpur Dehat, AIR said.
Heavy rains cause flooding and mudslides in southwest Japan, leaving 2 dead and at least 6 missing
The incessant rains threw life out of gear in many districts, particularly in western parts of the Uttar Pradesh state. The weather department already issued an orange alert for some districts, and schools and colleges in some districts have thus been closed.
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The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Uttar Pradesh may experience isolated extremely heavy rainfall and heavy to very heavy rainfall from Monday to Wednesday.
For the third time this week, Earth sets an unofficial heat record
Italy agrees to lift ban on flights from conflict-stricken Libya after 10 years
Commercial flights between Italy and conflict-torn Libya will resume in September after the Italian government agreed to lift a 10-year-long ban on civil aviation in the North African nation, one of Libya's rival governments said Sunday.
Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, prime minister of the Tripoli-based government, said on Twitter that the Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni informed his government of the decision.
Bangladesh wants to boost cooperation with Libya to curb illegal migration
He called the removal of the ban a "breakthrough."
The decision came after Libyan and Italian aviation officials met Sunday in the Libyan capital of Tripoli to discuss "the upcoming restoration of direct flights and the strengthening of cooperation" between the two countries, according to a statement from the Italian Embassy in Libya.
Oil-rich Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. In the disarray that followed, the country split into rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by rogue militias and foreign governments.
Italy and other European countries banned Libyan flights from their airspace as the country descended into chaos.
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Over the past decade, Libya has had direct flights to limited destinations, including cities in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia, and other Middle Eastern countries, such as Jordan.
A Libyan government statement said the two countries have agreed that one airliner from each country would operate flights starting in September. They did not name the destination cities.
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Heavy rains cause flooding and mudslides in southwest Japan, leaving 2 dead and at least 6 missing
Torrential rain has been pounding southwestern Japan, triggering floods and mudslides and leaving two people dead and at least six others missing Monday.
Rains falling on the regions of Kyushu and Chugoku since the weekend caused flooding along a number of rivers as well as mudslides, closing roads, disrupting trains and cutting the water supply in some areas.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued an emergency heavy rain warning for Fukuoka and Oita prefectures on the southern main island of Kyushu, urging residents in riverside and hillside areas to take maximum caution. More than 1.7 million residents in vulnerable areas were urged to take shelter.
'Life threatening' flooding overwhelms New York roadways, killing 1 person
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters the government has set up a task force and is doing its utmost for the search and rescue operation "as we put the people's lives first."
Two people have died and at least six others were missing, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency and prefectural officials. A man was found dead in a vehicle that had fallen into a swollen river in Yamaguchi prefecture.
In the town of Soeda in Fukuoka prefecture, two people were buried underneath a mudslide. One was rescued alive, but the other was found without vital signs and later pronounced dead, according to prefectural officials.
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In the city of Karatsu in Saga prefecture, rescue workers were searching for three people whose houses were hit by a mudslide, the agency said. Footage on NHK television showed one of the destroyed houses reduced to just a roof sitting on the muddy ground amid floodwater flowing down.
At least three others were missing elsewhere in the region.
15 killed by floods in southwestern China as seasonal torrents hit mountain areas
Footage on NHK television showed muddy water from the swollen Yamakuni River gushing over a bridge in the town of Yabakei in Oita prefecture