Month: July 2022

Thousands of firefighters battled more than 20 blazes that raged across Portugal and western Spain on Wednesday, menacing villages and disrupting tourists’ holidays amid a heat wave that pushed temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius in some parts of Europe. In France, hundreds of firefighters, supported by six water-bomber aircraft, battled two wildfires in the southwest, which prompted the evacuation of thousands of campers, Gironde prefect Fabienne Buccio said. In Santiago de Guarda in the central Portuguese district of Leiria, Albertina Francisco struggled to hold back tears as a cloud of black smoke billowed over the tiny village. “It was very …

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With thousands of sanctions already imposed on Russia to flatten its economy, the U.S. and its allies are working on new measures to starve the Russian war machine while also stopping the price of oil and gasoline from soaring to levels that could crush the global economy. The Kremlin’s main pillar of financial revenue — oil — has kept the Russian economy afloat despite export bans, sanctions and the freezing of central bank assets. America’s European allies plan to follow the Biden administration and take steps to stop their use of Russian oil by the end of this year, a …

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British Conservative Party lawmakers cast ballots Wednesday in the first round of the election to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Eight candidates have secured the necessary support of 20 of their colleagues to make the first ballot. If necessary, further rounds of voting will take place on Thursday and next week. Once only two candidates remain, they will participate in a runoff vote by about 180,000 Conservative Party members across the country. The winner is scheduled to be announced September 5 and will immediately become the new prime minister. Several high-profile candidates are in the first round, including former treasury …

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Like most of his predecessors as Conservative Party leader, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is wealthy, white and male. There’s a good chance his successor will be different. The eight candidates running in a party election to succeed Johnson are four men and four women, with roots in Iraq, India, Pakistan and Nigeria as well as the U.K. The race could give the country its first Black or brown prime minister, its third female leader, or both. With the first round of voting by Conservative lawmakers set for Wednesday, the bookies’ favorite is former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, son of Indian …

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Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are due to meet Wednesday in Istanbul in an effort to resume grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.  Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hindered Ukrainian exports, helping push up global prices on grain, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer.  Turkey and the United Nations have been working to broker a deal to alleviate the crisis.  Russia has expressed concerns about ships being used to bring weapons into Ukraine and called for ships to be searched.  Ukraine has said an agreement cannot threaten the security of its territory along the Black Sea.  …

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France’s new foreign minister said on Tuesday there were only a few weeks before the window of opportunity to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers would close.  Speaking to lawmakers, Catherine Colonna said the situation was no longer tenable and accused Iran of using delaying tactics and going back on previously agreed positions during talks in Doha earlier this month, while forging ahead with its uranium enrichment program.  “There is still a window of opportunity … for Iran to finally decide to accept an accord, which it worked to build. But time is passing,” Colonna said, warning that …

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More than 1.8 billion people worldwide are at risk of severe floods, new research shows. Most reside in low- and middle-income countries in Asia, and four out of 10 live in poverty. The figures are substantially larger than previous estimates. They show that the risk is concentrated among those least able to withstand and recover from flooding. “I thought it was a valuable paper, indeed. Because this link between poverty and flood risk is kind of overlooked,” said hydrologist Bruno Merz, of the German Research Center for Geosciences, who was not involved in the study. Flood risk assessments typically consider …

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