Monday, July 18, 2022

Six In The Morning Monday 18 July 2022

 

Heatwave: Warnings of 'heat apocalypse' in France

By Alys Davies
BBC News

Western France is facing a "heat apocalypse", experts have warned, as extreme temperatures continue to hit much of Europe.

Temperatures could reach record levels in 15 regions of the southwest, with firefighters battling wildfires and thousands forced to evacuate.

Blazes in Spain, Portugal and Greece have forced thousands more to flee.

Record temperatures are also expected in parts of the UK, which has its first ever red extreme heat warning in place.



Send us a man to do your job so we can sack you, Taliban tell female officials


As economy collapses, women from Afghanistan’s finance ministry say they have been asked to suggest male relatives to replace them


Zuhal Ahad


The Taliban have asked women working at Afghanistan’s finance ministry to send a male relative to do their job a year after female public-sector workers were barred from government work and told to stay at home.

Women who worked in government positions were sent home from their jobs shortly after the Taliban took power in August 2021, and have been paid heavily reduced salaries to do nothing.

But several women told the Guardian they had received similar calls from Taliban officials requesting they recommend male relatives in their place, because the “workload in the office has increased and they need to hire a man instead of us”, according to one woman who did not wish her identity to be revealed.


Journalist who protested war live on Russian state TV detained

Marina Ovsyannikova says she was approached by police while walking her dog



A Russian editor who staged an on-air protest against the Ukraine war was detained by authorities over the weekend, posts on her social media accounts said.

Marina Ovsyannikova interrupted a state TV live news bulletin when she ran onto set holding a poster saying “stop the war” and “they are lying to you” earlier this year.

She was arrested and fined by a Russian court over the protest.


Climate change costing Germany billions of euros a year

A new study shows weather catastrophes triggered by climate change have cost Germany at least €145 billion over the last two decades. Leaders at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue are looking at ways to tackle the impact.

Climate change has cost Germany an average of €6.6 billion ($6.7 billion) per year since 2000, a study commissioned by the country's ministry for economic affairs and climate action has found.

Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said the "horrifying scientific data" illustrated the "enormous damage and costs" of the climate crisis.

"The numbers sound the alarm for more prevention when it comes to the climate," she added.


Climate change's fingerprints on ever hotter heatwaves

 Hotter, longer, more frequent. Heatwaves such as the one currently roasting much of Europe, or the record-shattering hot spell endured by India and Pakistan in March, are an unmistakable sign of climate change, experts said Monday.

Humans to blame

"Every heatwave that we are experiencing today has been made hotter and more frequent because of human induced climate change," said Friederike Otto, senior lecturer at Imperial College London's Grantham Institute for Climate Change.

"It's pure physics, we know how greenhouse gas molecules behave, we know there are more in the atmosphere, the atmosphere is getting warmer and that means we are expecting to see more frequent heatwaves and hotter heatwaves."

‘Supreme power of people’: Sri Lanka marks 100 days of protests

The mainly youth-led movement over the island’s worst-ever economic crisis completes 100 days, with people saying the struggle is not yet over.



 A mainly youth-led mass protest movement over Sri Lanka’s worst-ever economic crisis has completed 100 days.

During the period, the protesters forced a president and a prime minister – both brothers from the powerful but now-unpopular Rajapaksa clan – to resign, with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa even fleeing the country last week to escape the uprising.

It was the first time in Sri Lanka’s history that a serving head of state had resigned.




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