Moscow registered nearly 11,000 deaths from an unprecedented heat wave this summer, a city official said on Friday, as the mortality rate more than doubled in the Russian capital.
Last month alone, 15,016 deaths were registered in the city of more than 10 million people, compared with 8,905 for the same period last year — an increase of 6,111 deaths, city official Evegenya Smirnova said.
The month earlier, Moscow saw 4,824 deaths more compared with the same period in July last year, she said by telephone.
Overall, the city experienced 10,935 deaths linked to the extreme temperatures and stifling smog over the two months from July to last month, which represents a 60 percent rise in the mortality rate.
Russian authorities have faced searing criticism for downplaying the health risks amid the country’s worst ever heat wave when a toxic mix of smog and smoke from nearby wildfires engulfed the city.
The health ministry only acknowledged on Aug. 30 that the country had seen a surge in deaths in the affected regions — up by 50 percent in Moscow in July — despite media reports this summer describing morgues overflowing.
Federal authorities had earlier refused to give details of the Moscow death toll and there was no public announcement of the figures on Friday.
The authorities have partially attributed the rise in deaths to a spike in the number of drownings as Russians rushed to escape the sweltering temperatures topping 40ºC over several weeks.
Officials say it may take months for the government to tally the damage from the disaster that destroyed over a quarter of Russia’s grain harvest, but several economists have put the cost to the economy this year at roughly US$7 billion to US$15 billion.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of