China’s national observatory on Saturday continued to issue a red alert for high temperatures, the most severe warning in its four-tier weather warning system, as a scorching heatwave hits more regions of the country.
During the daytime on Sunday, parts of Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Guangdong are expected to experience high temperatures of 35 to 39 degrees Celsius, according to the National Meteorological Center.
Temperatures in parts of Shaanxi, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Hubei, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Chongqing, and Xinjiang may surpass 40 degrees Celsius, the center said.
It advised local authorities to take emergency measures against the heatwave, suspend outdoor work exposed to high temperatures, pay close attention to fire prevention measures, and take particular care of vulnerable groups.
China has a four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow, and blue.
Medical teams from across China are rushing to the southwest Tibet Autonomous Region to help it stamp out its Covid-19 resurgence.
As of Saturday noon, Tibet has reported 32 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 237 asymptomatic ones in its latest outbreak that started a week ago.
Local authorities are trying to contain the epidemic with nationwide assistance.
A medical team from east China’s Jiangsu Province, consisting of 207 practitioners with different expertise, arrived in Lhasa late on Thursday. They will assist the capital of Tibet to fight the virus in the following weeks.
“We’ll work together with our colleagues in Lhasa in PCR sample collection and laboratory testing, epidemiological investigation as well as medical treatment. I hope the epidemic will be brought under control as soon as possible with our joint efforts,” said Gao Peng, leader of the medical team.
Tibet has a shortage of medical resources. Medical teams from different provinces, including Shandong, Heilongjiang and Guangdong, have arrived in the region to offer their assistance. They are working in different cities, including Shigatse and Nyingchi, and have brought medical equipment with them.
Tibet itself is also stocking up on supplies.
“We’ve stored disinfection and protective products as well as medicines. We’ve also prepared related gear for medical staff, including protective suits, face shields and goggles. We’ve increased purchases to meet the growing need. Our supplies will arrive in batches,” said Chun Sheng, an employee from a local pharmaceutical company.
Cities with confirmed or asymptomatic cases are stepping up efforts to conduct mass testing. But there are challenges, like delayed results.
In Lhasa, to help stranded tourists leave the city, local authorities have set up two “green channels,” where tourists are given priority to get tested and receive their results.
“[Lhasa] impresses us as a welcoming city. I was worried that I might not be able to leave as scheduled. Then it offers this special channel that has met our most pressing needs. I’m very grateful. I’m sure I’ll come back again,” said a tourist.
Tibet is a popular tourist destination, known for its unique ethnic and religious culture. This outbreak will have an inevitable impact on its tourism, but all flights to and from Lhasa have so far been operating normally.
Ukraine is targeting Russian soldiers who shoot at an occupied nuclear plant in the south of the country or use it as a base to shoot from, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday.
Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over multiple recent incidents of shelling at the Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Russian troops captured the station early in the war.
“Every Russian soldier who either shoots at the plant, or shoots using the plant as cover, must understand that he becomes a special target for our intelligence agents, for our special services, for our army,” Zelenskiy said in an evening video address.
Zelenskiy, who did not give any details, repeated accusations that Russia was using the plant as nuclear blackmail.
“And absolutely all officials of the terrorist state, as well as those who help them in this blackmail operation with the nuclear power plant, must answer in an international court,” he said.
Zelenskiy also gave an update on Ukraine’s efforts on the frontline, describing the fighting in Donbas as “brutal”.
“Fighting in the south of the country brings good news about the destruction of Russian army forces and their means. No day is wasted – we are reducing the occupiers’ potential,” he added.
Two more ships carrying grain left from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Saturday, Turkey’s defence ministry said, bringing the total number of vessels to depart the country under a U.N.-brokered deal to 16.
Zelenskiy said that in less than two weeks, Ukraine had managed to export the same amount of grain from three ports as it had done by road for the whole of July.
“The first ship for loading under the UN World Food Programme has already arrived – it delivers grain, in particular for Ethiopia, where the situation with hunger is especially brutal,” he said, as the ship prepares to depart from Pivdennyi port.
“For Ukraine, this has a notable benefit,” Zelenskiy added.
On August 15 last year, Taliban militants seize Kabul. The Taliban’s return to power led to the deprivation of many Afghan women’s rights. But some of them are still fighting for their right to this day.
16-YEAR-OLD KERISHMA RASHEEDI:
Kerishma Rasheedi, 16, was a proud 9th-grade high school student before the Taliban swept to power in August last year. She hasn’t been able to go back to school since.
In March the Taliban backtracked on their announcement that high schools would open for girls, saying they would remain closed until a plan was drawn up in accordance with Islamic law for them to reopen. The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001, they banned education and most employment for women.
Rasheedi refused to give up. To keep up with her studies, she now attends classes at a private education centre for girls, hoping that one day, she can return to school and pursue her dream of becoming a journalist.
“I want to become a successful journalist in the future, I would love to serve my country, and education is my basic human right. I want to continue my education so I can convey the miseries of other women to the authorities,” she said.
The private education centre, opened nearly seven months ago, offers classes of math, English and Dari literature for women of different ages and levels.
The Taliban has allowed a few private education centres for women to open as long as they had obtained permission from the justice ministry.
Every day, Rasheedi and her 14-year-old sister, who also cannot go to school, spend two hours studying at the centre.
“My message to the Taliban is to reopen schools for girls as soon as possible…we want to study.”
WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVIST MONESA MUBAREZ:
Monesa Mubarez has been at the forefront of Afghan women’s fight for their rights since the Taliban took over the country in August last year.
The 31-year-old, with a master’s degree in international relations, used to work for the finance ministry, and lost her job when the militant regime seized power.
Since then, Mubarez has devoted herself to activism, having organised 17 street protests so far.
The Taliban seized power for a second time in Afghanistan last August as international forces backing a pro-Western government pulled out.
Critics say women’s rights have since been undermined with new curbs on their clothes, movement and education, despite vows made to the contrary by the Taliban earlier.
“We’ll raise our voices against every injustice until our last breath, we will stand against all the tyranny imposed by the Taliban on the people of Afghanistan, especially on women of Afghanistan,” Mubarez declared at a protest against a new Taliban decree in May, requiring Afghan women to cover their faces.
At least once a week, Mubarez and around 10 other like-minded women would meet up, ironing out plans for their next protest or working out strategies to promote their cause on social media.
“What we want is justice, freedom, and equality only, every respectful media outlet knows that our slogans are based on food, job, and freedom, and all these are the basic rights of every citizen,” said Mubarez, at one of their meetings at her house, where the women made plans for a rally marking one year since the Taliban takeover.
Their activism is not without risks, especially in the beginning of the Taliban’s rule, but Mubarez vowed to fight until “justice has been achieved”.
“It is natural that all of these (protesting women) have experienced threats in various ways, we still receive threatening calls (from the Taliban),” she said. “If one of us gets killed, there will be others who will raise their voices.”
FORMER POLICE OFFICER WHO IS NOW CLEANING HOUSES, GULESTAN SAFARI:
Gulestan Safari, 45, loved her job as a police officer.
Despite losing her husband to cancer two years ago, Safari was a happy mother and grandparent.
Now she cleans houses to provide for a household of five.
Safari lost her job when the hardline Islamist Taliban movement seized power in August last year.
There used to be more than 20,000 women police officers in Afghanistan, most of whom were sacked by the Taliban. Only a fraction was retained to manage women’s prisons.
“My job was so valuable for me, I loved my job, we were so happy, but when the Taliban came, they did not allow us to go to work,” said Safari.
With Afghanistan’s economy deep in crisis – billions of dollars in aid and reserves have been cut off and ordinary people have little money for their necessities – Safari and her family are struggling to make ends meet.
She used to have a monthly salary of 12,000 Afghani ($132), now she makes $3 or $4 on a good day.
“I usually work from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m., it’s a really boring job, but I have no other choices, no other income, we die if I don’t work,” said Safari.
Safari’s son, who was also a police officer, went to Iran to look for work five months ago, when he decided he couldn’t support his family with a salary that had been cut by half. But he hasn’t been heard from since.
That left Safari as the sole breadwinner of the house, supporting her 15-year-old daughter, her daughter-in-law, who is a housewife and two toddler grandsons.
After paying $55 for rent, they barely have much left.
“In the past I could buy rice, meat, oil, but now I cannot afford to buy anything anymore. I borrowed some money from my neighbours to buy these vegetables. Now everything is so expensive, we cannot afford to buy much,” she said.
With her uniform taken away by the Taliban, and photos of her at duty burnt by the family out of fear, the only momento Safari has left of her six-year-long career in the police force, were the work certificates she managed to hide away.
“We are tired of this situation, how long do we have to suffer like this? How long should women sit in their houses?”
A power outage in Toronto’s downtown core on Thursday left the offices of Canada’s top businesses in the dark, forced the evacuation of one of the city’s biggest shopping malls, caused some bank branches to be locked and trapped people in elevators.
Hydro One H.TO, Ontario’s biggest electricity distribution company, said in a tweet it was investigating reports that a barge carrying a crane came into contact with high-voltage transmission lines and it was trying to reroute power to Toronto Hydro, which distributes electricity in downtown Toronto.
Toronto Hydro said nearly 10,000 customers were affected.
Toronto is Canada’s biggest city and its financial capital, and the central business district is home to the biggest banks, insurers and stock exchange operators.
The power failure saw workers from downtown towers spill onto the streets, taking to sidewalks and parks, while shutting down many cafes and restaurants during the peak business hours.
Toronto Fire Services said it had responded to “numerous calls” for people trapped in elevators during the power outage.
Branches of the biggest banks, including Royal Bank of Canada RY.TO, Toronto-Dominion Bank TD.TO and Bank of Montreal BMO.TO, in the area were locked, and staff were seen sitting in the dark in some locations, according to a Reuters witness.
Neither of the three banks made any immediate comment.
Underground subway operator TTC said its services were normal though the outage tripped air conditioning. TTC warned that streetcar customers might experience major delays.
The Toronto Stock Exchange said its offices temporarily lost power but its systems did not. University of Toronto said some buildings were impacted.
The outage caused traffic lights to stop working in one area, according to a Reuters witness. Toronto Police told people to treat those intersections as four-way stops.
The outage started around noon EDT (1600 GMT).
The power failure comes just over a month after a system glitch at Rogers Communications Inc RCIb.TO crippled telecom services for the large number of users and services across Canada for nearly 19 hours.
Across the US, old coal plants are living out second lives. The sites, long a source of pollution, are now becoming resources for solar, renewable energy.
“As an organization, we recognize that climate change is impacting our communities and our country and this world,” said Claudia Morrow, senior vice president of corporate development and strategy for Texas-based energy company Vistra Corp. “One way that we can be a leader in the transition is with opportunities or initiatives, like coal-to-solar and the energy storage initiative.”
Morrow says Vistra Corp. already has coal-to-solar projects well underway at plants in Texas and California.
Soon the company will begin work on a $500 million renewable energy initiative at several Illinois coal plants, creating 2,200 full-time equivalent jobs in the process, she added.
“This is welcomed and certainly something that finally brings to fruition what we’ve been asking these companies to do for years,” said Christine Nannicelli, senior campaign representative for the grassroots environmental organization Sierra Club Illinois.
Despite her approval, Nannicelli admits she’s still urging energy companies undergoing renewable energy efforts to also focus resources on the proper cleanup of coal ash pollution and groundwater contaminants.
Vistra Corp. is still working through regulatory hurdles in Illinois.
UN chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for military activity around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex to end as Moscow and Kyiv blamed each other for a renewed shelling and the UN Security Council met to discuss the situation.
Russia seized Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in March after invading Ukraine on Feb. 24. The plant is still run by its Ukrainian technicians. Ukraine’s Energoatom said the area was struck five times on Thursday, including near the site where radioactive materials are stored.
Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that the Ukrainian shelling had partly damaged a thermal power plant and splash pools that form part of the reactors’ cooling systems.
Guterres urged the withdrawal of military personnel and equipment and for no more forces or equipment to be deployed. He called for Russia and Ukraine not to target the facilities or surrounding area.
“The facility must not be used as part of any military operation. Instead, urgent agreement is needed at a technical level on a safe perimeter of demilitarization to ensure the safety of the area,” Guterres said in a statement.
The United States backed the call for a demilitarized zone around the plant, U.S. under-secretary for arms control and international security, Bonnie Jenkins, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday. She said a visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “cannot wait any longer.”
‘NUCLEAR CATASTROPHE’
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi briefed the 15-member Security Council on Thursday at the request of Russia. Grossi said that he was ready to lead an IAEA mission to Zaporizhzhia and called on Russia and Ukraine to cooperate so the inspectors could travel as soon as possible.
“The IAEA has been ready to perform such a mission since June when we were ready to go. But unfortunately, due to political factors and other considerations, it was not possible,” Grossi told the council, adding that all military action around the plant needed to stop.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the trip agreed between Russia and the IAEA in June was cancelled by U.N. security officials.
“We believe it justified for IAEA representatives to go to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as quickly as possible and possibly even before the end of August,” Nebenzia told the Security Council.
He said the world was being pushed “to the brink of nuclear catastrophe, comparable in scale with Chernobyl.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric has said the United Nations was committed to doing everything possible to get the IAEA technicians to Zaporizhzhia.
“There’s a war going on, and we’re talking about a nuclear power plant in the middle of a battlefield,” Dujarric told reporters on Thursday. “I think we can think of at least two or three pages’ worth of hurdles.”
Russia’s Ambassador to International Organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, on Tuesday said that the IAEA was ready to visit Zaporizhzhia in June with Russia’s support.
“Unfortunately, at the very last moment the Department of Security of the UN Secretariat blocked the mission. We hope that the UN Secretary General will not allow this to happen again,” Ulyanov posted on Twitter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke on the situation around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, in an evening address on Thursday, saying there had been ‘new strikes’ in the area and, referring to Russia, called it ‘one of the greatest crimes of the terrorist state.’
The plant was captured by Russian forces in the opening stages of the war following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, and new strikes in close proximity of the plant were recorded today.
In the address, Zelenskiy also told government officials to stop talking to reporters about Kyiv’s military tactics against Russia, saying such remarks were “frankly irresponsible.”
In the wake of major blasts that wrecked a Russian air base in Crimea on Tuesday, the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers cited unidentified officials as saying Ukrainian forces were responsible. The government in Kyiv, on the other hand, declined to say whether it had been behind the explosions.
“War is definitely not the time for vanity and loud statements. The fewer details you divulge about our defence plans, the better it will be for the implementation of those defence plans,” Zelenskiy said in the evening address.
On Thursday defence ministers of Ukraine, UK and Denmark host ministers from allied countries in Copenhagen to discuss long-term support for Ukraine, including military training, mine clearance and weapon supplies.
Zelenskiy spoke on the ‘long-term support’ of the 26 partner states of Ukraine, which includes European countries, the United States, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
Ukraine’s interior minister said on Thursday that Ukraine had to be ready for any scenario at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that has been hit by shelling, including evacuating people from the area.
“The plant is as of today not only in the hands of the enemy, but in the hands of uneducated specialists who could potentially allow for a tragedy to happen,” Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky told Reuters in an interview.
“Of course, it’s difficult to even imagine the scale of the tragedy which could come into effect if Russians continue their actions there,” he said.
Ukraine has in recent days warned of the risk of a Chornobyl-style nuclear disaster.
“This means for us that … we have to prepare for any scenario. The state emergency services together with the Interior ministry and the Regions Ministry is discussing different scenarios that are needed, including the question of evacuations,” said Monastyrsky.
The source of the River Thames has dried up further downstream than ever before, as England looks set to enter a drought that some experts say the country is unprepared for.
Britain’s Met Office said this July was the driest for England since 1935 with average rainfall, at 23.1 millimetres (0.9 inches), just 35% of the average for the month. Some parts of the country saw the driest July ever.
The River Thames stretches 215 miles (356 kilometres) across southern England, from Gloucestershire in the west through the heart of London, before entering the sea at Essex to the east.
The natural spring that supplies the river, known as the source, dries up most summers. But this year the dry riverbed reaches significantly further downstream than in previous years, according to observations by conservation experts.
“The Thames would normally be at its source – and there’s a nice pub next to it – would be about 15 kilometres back upstream,” Alisdair Naull, an engagement officer at the Rivers Trust, told Reuters while standing in a small section of the Thames in Cricklade, about 80 km west of London.
“It’s very, very shallow here … but you don’t have to go much further up this little bit of the Thames to find yourself stood on dry ground. And really, that is ground that should still be wet and should always be wet.”
Naull said the shallow, warmer water contained less oxygen, which fish and other wildlife needed to thrive.
The Thames Head Inn lies upstream, a few steps from a stone that marks the source of the river in Gloucestershire. Its manager, 31-year-old David McMeeking, said he was concerned about the effects of climate change on the pub’s namesake.
“It is still the official source of the Thames so the stone will always be there, but whether or not the water comes through is another issue,” said McMeeking, while pouring a pint behind the bar.
Unprecedented heat and a lack of rainfall has pushed two water companies in the country’s south to announce temporary bans on the use of hosepipes and sprinkler systems. Thames Water, which supplies 15 million customers across London and south east England, said it was planning to introduce the similar curbs.
A four-day “extreme heat” warning came into force in parts of England and Wales on Thursday. The Met Office issued its first such warning ever last month, when temperatures breached 40C (104F) for the first time.
Climate expert and hydrologist at the University of Reading Hannah Cloke said low rainfall has left river levels and aquifers low, while water has been taken out of the waterways to irrigate crops, top up drinking water and for use in industry.
“If we don’t get rain in August, in fact, if we have a dry winter, then we could be in severe trouble come spring and next summer when we really don’t have any water stores left whatsoever,” Cloke said.
She said hosepipe restrictions on individuals were useful to help change attitudes to water usage, but investment in infrastructure and policy on preventing further climate change were even more important.
Sabine Coll Boghici, 48, was arrested on Wednesday on allegations she was part of a bizarre scheme to defraud her 82-year-old mother, Genevieve Boghici, the wife of the late art collector Jean Boghici, out of money, artwork, and jewellery totalling some 724 million reais ($142.42 million).
Her arrest has exposed a disturbing web of fraud that police say lasted years and involved alleged psychics to swindle artwork by some of Brazil’s most emblematic painters. Four other people were also arrested, and two others, Diana Rosa Aparecida Stanesco Vuletic and Slavko Vuletic, are on the run.
The scam began in 2020 when Genevieve was approached by a supposed psychic with prophecies of her daughter’s imminent death.
The victim was then taken to several more psychics who police say used personal information provided by her daughter to scam her distraught mother into transferring money to pay for “spiritual treatment.”
In the months that followed, police allege the suspects physically threatened Genevieve and that she was kept at home for months by her daughter.
Sabine and an accomplice posing as a psychic “began to take the artwork from the (mother’s) house, claiming that the painting was cursed with something negative, with negative energy that needed to be prayed over,” said Rio de Janeiro police officer Gilberto Ribeiro.
After almost a year of being mistreated by Sabine and her accomplices, the victim decided to go to the police.
Police say 16 paintings were stolen, including works by renowned Brazilian artists like Cicero Dias, Rubens Gerchman and Alberto Guignard.
Three pieces from iconic modernist painter Tarsila do Amaral – O Sono, Sol Poente and Pont Neuf – were also stolen, which together police appraised at a value of 700 million reais ($137.69 million).
Amaral’s Sol Poente was among 11 paintings recovered Wednesday in a Rio de Janeiro police raid on one of the psychic’s homes.
Authorities have also recovered three paintings in Sao Paulo. Two were sold to a museum in Buenos Aires but have not yet been recovered.
Police say seven people are suspected of involvement in the years-long crime, facing charges of embezzlement, robbery, extortion, false imprisonment and criminal association.
The night economy across China is seeing a resurgence as epidemic prevention control measures ease and people venture out to enjoy warm summer evenings. Data from iiMedia Research shows that the nighttime economy will bring in revenues of more than 40 trillion yuan by the end of the year.
According to the China Tourism Academy, more than 200 cities across the country have launched special nighttime tourism programs. Cities in east China’s Zhejiang Province are offering activities to tourists at nighttime covering food fairs, light shows, performances and exhibitions.
Shenjiamen seafood night stall is a landmark of Zhoushan City’s tourism industry. At night, endless streams of customers flood the stalls to enjoy fresh seafood delicacies.
“With these two stalls, our customers have already taken more than 10 tables, which is better than we expected. I guess the customers for tomorrow will be just as many as today,” said a vendor at Shenjiamen seafood night stall.
In addition to traditional night fairs and stalls, new night businesses are also emerging.
In Fuyang District of Hangzhou City, with hanging signs and decorated with lamps and paintings, a car boot sale has started, where young people can start their own business selling handicrafts or other items from the boots of their cars.
In Shaoxing City’s Shengzhou County, elaborate light shows are attracting more tourists, In the show Fireflies Under the Moon, the lighting effects, together with the real fireflies in the performance, create a unique and fascinating night scene.
In Mantangli Natural Village of Huzhou City’s Anji County, lighting, camping, barbecue, hot-air balloons, and other activities make the village come to life under the stars.
“It is no problem if the weather permits. The total revenue is about more than one million yuan,” said Zhu Shaojie, project manager of Anji’s Light of Land Art Commune.
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