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.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS