Six In The Morning Sunday 17 July 2022

 

Heatwave: More evacuations as Mediterranean wildfires spread

By Laurence Peter
BBC News

Published

France has evacuated more than 14,000 people threatened by wildfires in the south-west, as fires also spread in Spain, Croatia and Greece.

Authorities in France's Gironde, a popular tourist region, have evacuated guards from campsites - the tourists left earlier. Fires have spread in the Teste-de-Buch and Landiras areas.

In southern Spain, more than 3,200 people fled fires in the Mijas hills, though later some were able to return.

Sri Lanka’s political crisis continues as Ranil Wickremesinghe bids to be president

Protesters angry prime minister who they say propped up Rajapaksa dynasty in running to lead country

Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Colombo

Sri Lanka’s political crisis looks likely to continue this week after the ruling party decided to nominate the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, as its candidate to be the next president.

After the dramatic toppling of Sri Lanka’s strongman president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the campaign has begun for who will take up executive power at a time when the country is facing some of the worst economic and political upheaval since independence.

The fall of Rajapaksa, which followed months of sustained protests and historic scenes, during which crowds took over his presidential palace and offices, was greeted with jubilation by many in Sri Lanka.

The Trials of RzeszówA Polish Town Learns to Live with War on Its Doorstep

Rzeszów in eastern Poland has become an outpost of the West, receiving refugees from Ukraine and operating as a hub for weapons transports from the EU and U.S. The city's mayor has his hands full.

By Jan Puhl in Rzeszów, Poland

It’s going to be a quiet day, says the mayor, but what does that really mean when you govern a city that is located just 100 kilometers away from a war? A city like Rzeszów in eastern Poland, population 200,000.

The town in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship is suddenly a front town, just as all of Poland sees itself as a nation on the frontlines ever since Russian forces rolled into Ukraine in late February. And Mayor Konrad Fijołek, like many in his country, seems both unsettled and galvanized.

Algeria: Last days for the El Watan newspaper?

A number of independent Algerian newspapers, prestigious francophone daily El Watan chief among them, are undergoing a period of crisis aggravated by political and economic pressures that may threaten their existence. This situation raises questions about the future of Algerian media, and more broadly about freedom of the press.

The Algerian independent press is facing an existential crisis. Many publications created when the media landscape was opened up to the private sector in the late 1980s have been forced to cease activity in recent decades. This was the case for French daily Le Matin in 2004 and for Liberté, a flagship of the Algerian independent press, which closed its doors in April. "Financial and economic hardships" were cited as the reasons for the closure of the daily belonging to Issad Rebrab, a wealthy businessman.

Summer hopes being dashed with surge in new virus cases

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

July 17, 2022 at 17:42 JST

Airports and tourist destinations were packed with visitors at the July 16 start of a three-day weekend, as daily new COVID-19 cases nationwide topped 110,000, a level that exceeds all other records since the health crisis struck in early 2020.

A steep surge in cases in recent weeks came as tourism operators and ordinary folk were finally beginning to enjoy a sense of normalcy not seen over the past two years.

At Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Ryo Togo, a company employee in Yokohama, said he was flying with his wife and 1-year-old daughter to see his grandmother in Yamaguchi.

UAE arrests Khashoggi’s US lawyer on money laundering charges

The civil rights lawyer, who had represented the slain Saudi journalist, was arrested while transiting through Dubai airport, an official and a rights group say.

 

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have arrested an American citizen and civil rights lawyer who previously served as a lawyer for slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an official and a United States-based rights group.

A UAE government official confirmed to the Reuters news agency on Saturday that Asim Ghafoor was arrested while transiting through Dubai airport on July 14 following an in absentia conviction for money laundering.