FRANCE
Heatwaves kill 1,500 people
Two heatwaves that hit the nation this summer claimed more than 1,500 more lives, Minister of Solidarity and Health Agnes Buzyn said on Sunday. However, that toll was significantly lower than the disastrous summer of 2003, when an estimated 15,000 people died during an August heatwave, she said in a radio interview. This year’s heatwaves hit in June and July, with a new high temperature of 46°C recorded in the south on June 28. While the 2003 heatwave lasted 20 days in all, this year’s lasted for 18, in two separate heatwaves, the second covering a large part of the nation, Buzyn added.
SOUTH SUDAN
Kiir, Machar to meet
Former rebel leader Riek Machar was yesterday due to make a rare visit to the capital, Juba, and meet President Salva Kiir, officials said, raising hopes for progress in a stalled peace process. The two men signed a pact a year ago to end a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and wrecked the economy, but the rollout of the accord, which called for a unity government, has been delayed because the government says it does not have enough money to fund disarmament and the integration of all the armed factions. “The meeting aims at discussing the outstanding issues related to the implementation of the R-ARCSS [peace deal] with President Kiir and other head of the parties to the agreement,” said Puok Both Baluang, Machar’s director for information.
BRAZIL
Bolsonaro under knife again
President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday underwent surgery to repair an abdominal hernia, his fourth operation since being stabbed in the stomach a year ago at a campaign rally, his doctors said. The operation at Sao Paulo’s Vila Nova Star hospital lasted more than five hours, the medical center reported in a statement signed by his surgeon, Antonio Luiz Macedo. “The procedure was a success,” it said, adding that the president was recovering and in stable condition. Macedo said a significant part of Bolsonaro’s intestine had to be removed after it had become strongly attached to the abdominal wall.
BRAZIL
LGBT publication ban illegal
The Supreme Court on Sunday made it illegal to ban any LGBT publication, after a lower court allowed a mayor to confiscate comic books at the Rio Book Fair containing content he considered “inappropriate” for minors. Mayor Marcelo Crivella, a Protestant and former bishop in the giant Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, on Saturday ordered the comic book removed from sale because of its “sexual content for minors.” The comic that sparked the mayor’s ire showed the Marvel superhero characters Wiccan and Hulkling exchanging a kiss, fully dressed. However, the top court agreed with prosecutor Dias Toffoli and ruled that Crivella’s actions were illegal, because they targeted only LGBT content, violating the constitutional guarantee of equality for all.
GERMANY
Festival blast injures 14
Authorities yesterday said that 14 people were injured, including five with life-threatening burns, during an explosion at a village festival in Freudenberg on Sunday. Police are still investigating the cause of the explosion, but said it was likely that oil inside a big frying pan caused the explosion at the Backesfest, which was attended by about 100 people. The Backesfest celebrates the annual start of operations of a traditional bakery in the village.
PHILIPPINES
Suicide bomber dies
A suicide bomber dressed in an abaya died after detonating a bomb outside a military camp on Jolo island, but no other casualties were reported, authorities said. The attacker on Sunday was “foreign looking and appeared to be a woman, the military said. No group has yet claimed the attack.
SOUTH KOREA
Justice minister takes office
Law professor Cho Kuk took office as minister of justice yesterday, despite a probe by state prosecutors into alleged misconduct by his wife, Chung Kyung-sim. Cho was appointed by President Moon Jae-in with a mandate to reform the prosecutor’s office, even though officials from the office have carried out multiple raids over the past two weeks linked to the scandals involving his family. Moon yesterday said he had “agonized” over the decision, but decided to stick with Cho because it would leave a “bad precedent” if he had dropped the nomination when it was not confirmed that Cho had broken laws himself.
MALAYSIA
Cloud seeding to start
The government is prepared to seed clouds after air quality in parts of Sarawak reached unhealthy levels due to smog from forest fires in Indonesia, Gary Theseira, special functions officer with the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change, said yesterday. The pollutant index in some places has reached “very unhealthy levels,” he said. “It is extremely severe in Kuching.” Boo Siang Voon, a 47 year-old engineer in Kuching, described the skies as “hazy, hot with smoky smell,” adding: “This year the smog is getting worse. Residents are using face masks. We should not pay the price of our health for the open burning. We want a solution.”
AUSTRALIA
Eight Web sites blocked
The government has ordered Internet service providers to block access to eight Web sites still showing footage of attacks on two mosques in New Zealand on March 15 that killed 51 people, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said on Sunday. “We cannot allow this heinous material to be used to promote, incite or instruct in further terrorist acts,” Grant said. It is an offence for companies not to remove any videos or photographs that show murder, torture or rape without delay.
SOUTH AFRICA
Opposition party cuts jobs
The main opposition Democratic Alliance is cutting jobs after it shed support in May elections and lost state and donor funding. “The reality of the situation with regard staff retrenchments and the absence of bonuses this year is that the organization is in a difficult financial position due to this year’s electoral results where we didn’t achieve the objectives and support we needed,” party spokesman Solly Malatsi said yesterday. “We have lost seats in several legislatures as well as the National Assembly, which had an impact on what the party gets in terms for the funding allocated to parties.”
SRI LANKA
Elephants injure 18 people
An elephant taking part in a Buddhist pageant went berserk on Saturday and at least 18 people were injured. Television footage of a pageant in Kotte showed one elephant in a procession running forward, forcing people to scatter, some of whom ran into an elephant walking at the front. That elephant began running, pushing onlookers out of the way, while the man riding on it narrowly escaped being trampled when he fell off.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was