Extreme weather 'could kill up to 152,000 a year' in Europe by 2100
Extreme weather could kill up to 152,000 people each year in Europe by 2100 if nothing is done to curb the effects of climate change, scientists say.
The number is 50 times more deaths than reported now, the study in The Lancet Planetary Health journal said.
Heat waves would cause 99% of all weather-related deaths, it added, with southern Europe being worst affected.
Experts said the findings were worrying.
If nothing is done to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to improve policies to reduce the impact against extreme weather events, the study by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre says:
- Deaths caused by extreme weather could rise from 3,000 a year between 1981 and 2010 to 152,000 between 2071 and 2100
- Two in three people in Europe will be affected by disasters by 2100, against a rate of one in 20 at the start of the century
- There will be a substantial rise in deaths from coastal flooding, from six victims a year at the start of the century to 233 a year by the end of it
Venezuela crisis: loyalist assembly inaugurated amid Vatican criticism
Nicolás Maduro installs body despite condemnation from dozens of countries, as opposition plans new protest: ‘We will take the streets to fight for freedom’
Sibylla Brodzinsky and agencies in Caracas
The threat of confrontation mounted in Venezuela as president Nicolás Maduro, installed a controversial new assembly despite overwhelming international condemnation and a planned opposition protest.
The Vatican became the latest of dozens of states to reject the new assembly, which it said “create[s] a climate of tension and conflict” in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.
Despite the Vatican’s strongly worded statement, a Catholic priest gave his blessing at the inauguration on Friday of the body, which will have the power to rewrite the constitution and dissolve state institutions.
Inside the Saudi town that's been under siege for three months by its own government
In rare interview with Western media local activists in Awamiyah tell The Independent of shocking conditions faced by civilians in a secretive battle between Riyadh and armed Shia protesters
When Donald Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia on his first trip abroad as US President in May, officials in Riyadh made a spectacular effort to promote the idea of unity in the Muslim world, inviting more than 100 leaders of Muslim nations to attend the Arab Islamic American Summit with the new President.
Critics pointed out that the Saudi-led coalition contributing to the misery in Yemen put paid to that idea. Even closer to home, however, the Saudi government had just begun a war on a town in the country’s restive east – a battle that is still raging despite receiving very little media coverage both within the conservative Kingdom and outside it.
Traditionally Shia, Awamiyah – a 400-year-old town in the eastern Qatif province home to around 30,000 people – has been surrounded by siege barricades put up by the security services since attempts to evict residents turned violent on 10 May.
156-year-old map may reignite Japan-South Korea island dispute
South Korea occupies the rocky and remote islands of Dokdo, but Japan calls them Takeshima and claims they are an integral part of its territory. As neither side is backing down, relations continue to deteriorate.
The discovery of a map drawn in 1861 may reignite a simmering territorial row between South Korea and Japan, and further damage bilateral relations that are already strained. The map was drawn by Korean cartographer and geologist Kim Jeong-ho and clearly marks the rocky islets that are known in South Korea today as Dokdo as being part of the kingdom of Korea.
The map covers the Korean Peninsula and has Dokdo close to the island of Ulleung, off the east coast. Japan, however, has long disputed South Korean control over the inhospitable islands and insists they are an integral part of the Japanese archipelago. Tokyo says the islands should be known as Takeshima.
Ironically, the map was in the collection of a Japanese national and had previously been in a library in Pyongyang. Serial numbers on the map show the date that it was obtained - August 30, 1932, when Japan was the colonial master of the peninsula - but little is known about its whereabouts in the intervening years.
ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS announced a dramatic escalation in the U.S. government’s crackdown on leaks on Friday, threatening to subpoena news organizations for information about their sources even more frequently than the Obama administration.
Sessions described the Trump administration’s plans at a press conference just a day after the Washington Post published embarrassing transcripts of phone calls between Donald Trump and two foreign leaders, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Sessions said that the Justice Department was reviewing Obama-era policies that set limits on its ability to subpoena journalists.
Police address security blind spots at condos ahead of 2020 Olympics
BY KEIJI OKADA
KYODO
With the 2020 Olympics on the horizon, Tokyo is trying to eliminate blind spots in security linked to high-rise condominiums on the waterfront, where many of the events will be held.
A number of condos that are 50 or more stories high overlook Tokyo Bay. Equipped with auto-lock systems and surveillance cameras, the buildings are fortified against trespassing. But the same systems could obstruct law enforcement officers in need of emergency access.
“There’s a risk that criminals could obtain access to the buildings,” said Tetsuya Katsuta, deputy head of Tsukishima Police Station. “By taking advantage of the security systems, they could set up a hideout inside.”
The police station covers a section of the bay area in Chuo Ward where the athletes’ village will be built.
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