Six In The Morning Sunday 31 July 2022

 

This nation is scorching in a heat wave and wildfires, yet it's returning to planet-baking coal

By Anna Pantelia, for CNN
Photographs by Anna Pantelia for CNN

Updated 1249 GMT (2049 HKT) July 31, 2022

Dimitris Mitsaris opens his garage door and the smell of fermenting grapes emerges, as the first morning light bounces off dozens of steel tanks. Mitsaris and his family live here, in Agios Panteleimonas, a mountainous village of just 800 residents in northern Greece, and have made their home into a small winery. "I don't even have electricity here yet," Mitsaris says with a laugh.

It's funny to Mitsaris because just until December last year, the 40-year-old had spent 17 years of his life working the coal mines for the state-run Public Power Corporation (PPC) to keep the lights on in people's homes. He finally gave up coal for wine, understanding that the fossil fuel was on its way out. 

Heatwaves put classic Alpine hiking routes off-limits

Routes that are usually safe at this time of year now face hazards as a result of warmer temperatures

Agence France-Presse

Little snow cover and glaciers melting at an alarming rate in Europe’s heatwaves have put some classic Alpine hiking routes off-limits.

Usually at the height of summer tourists flock to the Alps and seek out well-trodden paths up to some of its peaks. But with warmer temperatures – which scientists say are driven by climate change – speeding up glacier melt and thawing permafrost, routes that are usually safe at this time of year now face hazards such as falling rocks released from the ice.

“Currently in the Alps, there are warnings for around a dozen peaks, including emblematic ones like Matterhorn and Mont Blanc,” said Pierre Mathey, the head of the Swiss mountain guide association.

The ugly truth about Nigeria's child trafficking

The trafficking of children in Nigeria for domestic service, sex work and forced surrogacy is rampant and lucrative. DW talks to two children about the horrors of their experiences.

Timipriye says her uncle's wife told her that they wanted to take her with them to Lagos, where she'd be taken care of and sent to university. 

"With so many promises, I was very, very excited," she says, shyly, telling her story for the first time. "I immediately said I wanted to go with them."

At the time, Timipriye was 16 and living Nigeria's south, in a rural village about 350 kilometers (210 miles) from the bustling commercial capital, Lagos. 

Several killed after UN peacekeepers open fire in eastern DR Congo

Two people have been killed and several others injured after UN peacekeepers opened fire during an incident in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on the Uganda border on Sunday, the UN said. 

Video of the incident, shared on social media showed men, at least one in police uniform and another in army uniform, advancing towards the immobilised UN convoy behind a closed barrier in Kasindi. The town is in eastern DR Congo's Beni territory on the border with Uganda. 

After a verbal exchange, the peacekeepers appeared to open fire before opening the gate, driving on and continuing to shoot while people scattered or hid.

Cover-Ups, Concealment and LiesClassified Report Reveals Full Extent of Frontex Scandal

The EU’s anti-fraud office has found that the European border agency covered up and helped to finance illegal pushbacks of asylum-seekers in Greece. The report, which DER SPIEGEL has obtained, puts pressure on the EU Commission – and could also spell trouble for Frontex's new leadership.

By Giorgos Christides und Steffen Lüdke

The contents of the investigative report from OLAF, the European Union’s anti-fraud agency, are classified. Members of the European Parliament are only granted access under strict security measures, and normal citizens are not allowed to see it. But Margaritis Schinas, the vice president of the European Commission, who is responsible, among other things, for migration, is allowed to. And perhaps he ought to do so as well. At the end of the day, it relates to a sensitive issue that also happens to fall within his area of responsibility.

Investigators have taken 129 pages to document the involvement of Frontex, the EU’s border agency, in the illegal activities of the Greek Coast Guard. Border guards systematically dump asylum-seekers adrift at sea  in the Aegean – either in rickety boats or on inflatable life rafts. The investigators reviewed private emails and WhatsApp messages from Fabrice Leggeri, the former head of Frontex, and his team. They interviewed witnesses and seized documents and videos.

Taliban are enforcing their rule with a vengeance, veteran correspondent warns

“I really never expected to find it as bad and as awful as I did,” Lynne O’Donnell said after revealing she was forced to retract hard-hitting reports on the fundamentalist Islamic group.

By Rhoda Kwan

Veteran Afghanistan correspondent Lynne O’Donnell says she has never seen the Taliban more brutal or the millions of people the austere fighters again govern more wretched.

“I really never expected to find it as bad and as awful as I did. It’s a very very sad, unhappy, traumatized, depressed place,” she said after revealing she was forced to retract hard-hitting reports on the fundamentalist Islamic group.

“They’re worse,” she said, commenting on the changes in the Taliban since their first time in power more than 20 years ago.