Six In The Morning Sunday 14 August 2022

 

Europe's drought could signal the death of river cruising

Julia Buckley • Published 14th August 2022

Just when you thought it was safe to get back in the pandemic-snarled water, Europe is having another cataclysmic summer. This time, it's not pandemic red tape, but what looks set to be the continent's worst drought in history. Around 63% of the land across the EU and UK had either drought warnings or alerts, according to the EU's European Drought Observatory last week -- and that figure was issued before the UK declared a drought in eight out of 14 areas. New alerts are pouring in every day.

While the landscape is tinder-dry, water levels are plummeting. Rivers and lakes are drying up -- and as well that having devastating effects on trade and industry, it's also hitting a sector that was already on its knees thanks to the pandemic: tourism. Worse, experts say that this is a worrying sign of things to come.

Viktor Orbán’s grip on Hungary’s courts threatens rule of law, warns judge

Csaba Vasvári’s claims of ‘overreach’ follow freeze on EU funds over concerns about judicial independence

Flora Garamvolgyi and Jennifer Rankin

Viktor Orbán’s government is “constantly overreaching” its authority to sway the courts, a senior judge has said, in an intervention that will deepen alarm about the rule of law in Hungary.

In rare comments that lift the lid on the Hungarian government’s assault on judicial checks and balances, Csaba Vasvári, a senior judge at the Budapest metropolitan court, told the Observer that he and his colleagues on the bench “have been witnessing external and internal influence attempts” for several years. Vasvári, who has worked as a judge for 18 years, is a spokesperson for the National Judicial Council, a self-governing body that has been battling to defend judges’ independence for more than a decade.

Belarusian Opposition LeaderThere Can Be No Peace in Ukraine without Freedom in Belarus

A Guest Editorial By Swetlana Tichanowskaja

On the second anniversary of the Belarusian revolution, the leader of the democracy movement sketches her vision for a new European Ostpolitik. The fates of Belarus and Ukraine, she argues, are intertwined.

Exactly two years ago today, millions of Belarusians voted in the presidential election. On the afternoon of August 9, Maria Kolesnikova and I went to our campaign's headquarters in the center of Minsk. From each side, our headquarters were surrounded by KGB vans. As we later found out, 300 security staff were "guarding" us.

We were locked up and glued to our phones. We were receiving tens of thousands of photos of ballots with a mark next to my name – every message made us slightly more hopeful. 

Poverty pushing Afghan families to sell young girls into marriage

 Text by:Catherine NORRIS TRENT

August 15 marks one year since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. Since then the economy has spiralled into decline and families are increasingly resorting to selling young girls into forced marriages.

In a slum on the outskirts of Kabul, Fatima says that extreme hunger drove her to sell her three-year-old daughter, Farosa, into marriage for 150,000 Afghanis (equivalent to just over €1,600). When Farosa is ten, she will marry and leave the family home.

At least 41 killed in Egyptian church fire: Officials

Church officials, citing the health ministry, say 14 others were injured in fire in Giza city in Greater Cairo.

At least 41 people were killed and 14 others injured in a fire at a church in the city of Giza, near Cairo, Egypt’s Coptic Church said – citing the health ministry.

Egypt’s health ministry earlier said “several” people were killed in the fire at the Abu Sifin Coptic church in the Imbaba neighbourhood on Sunday and that ambulances transferred at least 55 injured people to local hospitals.

'We are waiting for rain, for winter, for God' - Fighting a megafire in France

Text and photographs by Joel Gunter
in Gironde, France

Hervé Trentin, a 34-year veteran of the Gironde fire department, stood on the edge of a charred section of forest wiping tears from his cheeks. It was the second time he had cried that morning.

"I'm sorry," he said, composing himself. "This is our forest. It is heart-breaking to watch it burn."

Trentin and his small team were moving around an area south of the French city of Bordeaux, in the Gironde region, on Saturday morning, trying to stay ahead of a megafire.

Their job was to burn the forest, to create firebreaks - a tactic they had trained for years to master and which put them in a small band of firefighters in the region capable of doing the job. But Trentin also grew up just down the road, and it was making him emotional setting his home soil alight.