International

Moscow said yesterday it was leaving the International Space Station “after 2024” amid tensions with the West, in a move analysts warned could lead to a halt to Russian manned flights. The confirmation of the long-mooted move comes as ties unravel between the Kremlin and the West over Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine and several rounds of devastating sanctions against Russia, including its space sector. Space experts said Russia’s departure from the International Space Station would seriously affect the country’s space sector and deal a significant blow to its programme of manned flights, a major source of Russian pride. “Of course, we will fulfil all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made,” Yury Borisov, the new head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, told President Vladimir Putin, according to a Kremlin account of their meeting. “I think that by this time we will start putting together a Russian orbital station,” Borisov added, calling it the domestic space programme’s main “priority”. “Good,” Putin replied. The ISS is due to be retired after 2024, although US space agency Nasa says it can remain operational until 2030. The ISS was launched in 1998 at a time of hope for US-Russia co-operation following their Space Race competition during the Cold War. The United States said it was taken by surprise by the announcement. “It’s an unfortunate development given the critical scientific work performed at the ISS, the valuable professional collaboration our space agencies have had over the years,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. Asked whether the United States wanted to end the space relationship with Russia, Robyn Gatens, director of the ISS for Nasa, said: “No, absolutely not.” Until now, space exploration has been one of the few areas where co-operation between Russia and the United States and its allies had not been wrecked by tensions over Ukraine and elsewhere. Russia is heavily reliant on imports of everything from manufacturing equipment to consumer goods, and the effects of Western sanctions are expected to wreak havoc on the country’s economy in the long term.

The latest televised debate between the two Conservative contenders vying to be Britain’s next prime minister was abruptly halted last night after the moderator fainted on stage. Live footage of the debate, between former finance minister Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s new TalkTV channel, was suddenly interrupted about halfway into the hour-long event. Moments earlier, Truss had stopped speaking mid-sentence with a shocked look on her face as the sound of crashing in front of her engulfed the broadcast. “Oh my God!” a stunned Truss exclaimed, before leaving her podium to walk towards where the debate moderator, TalkTV’s political editor Kate McCann, had been standing off camera. The channel, which launched in April and was hosting the debate alongside The Sun newspaper, later confirmed McCann had fainted. “Although she is fine, the medical advice was that we shouldn’t continue with the debate,” it added in a short statement. The broadcast resumed with the two candidates talking to the 10 invited audience members, although there was no sound. Another TalkTV host, Ian Collins, who began hosting from the channel’s studio after a short delay, said the candidates were continuing with a question-and-answer session off camera with the small audience present at the debate. “Good news that you’re already recovering,” Sunak said on Twitter around 45 minutes after the incident, tagging McCann. “It was a great debate and I look forward to getting grilled by you again shortly!” The event had already been hit by misfortune after The Sun’s political editor Harry Cole was forced to withdraw as a co-moderator earlier in the day after having testing positive for the coronavirus (Covid-19). The debate is the second within 24 hours for Sunak and Truss, after the pair squared off on Monday night in a feisty BBC debate. The duo are contesting a run-off to be the Conservatives’ new leader, and thereby prime minister, with the party’s approximately 200,000 members set to vote next month. The winner to replace outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be announced on September 5.

Tony Blair and Bill Clinton have praised the political and personal courage underpinning David Trimble’s contribution to peace in Northern Ireland following the former first minister’s death. Trimble, who won a Nobel peace prize for his role in the landmark 1998 peace deal that helped end three decades of conflict, died on Monday aged 77. Northern Ireland is again enduring political tension. Its Stormont assembly was meant to reconvene yesterday to try to overcome weeks of paralysis following elections, but that was postponed after Trimble’s death. At the seat of Northern Ireland’s devolved government yesterday, UUP leader Doug Beattie laid a wreath of white and deep purple flowers beneath a portrait of Trimble which hangs in the Stormont assembly’s Great Hall. Beattie praised his predecessor as a “great unionist” and a “great politician”. “As frail as he’d become in the last number of months, there was a fire in his eyes for politics. There was a fire in his eyes for peace in Northern Ireland, and there was a fire in his eyes to try and heal the divisions which blighted to this part of the United Kingdom,” Beattie told reporters. Former UK prime minister Blair, whose government brokered the peace deal along with Ireland and the United States, said the peace could not have been achieved without Trimble’s “masterclass of leadership”. “David was highly intelligent, very courageous,” Blair told BBC radio yesterday. Asked to summarise his contribution, the former UK leader said: “Immense. The hardest thing in leadership is to say no to your own supporters. He did it and he carried it.” “He paid a political price, but he never complained,” Blair added. Former US president Clinton said Trimble was “a leader of courage, vision”. “His legacy will endure in all who are living better lives because of him today,” Clinton said in a statement late on Monday. Trimble’s death following a short illness was announced by his Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) on Monday. No further details were given about the death of a politician who, despite his staunch pro-UK convictions, worked with Irish nationalists to end the three decades of bloodshed known as the “Troubles”. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described Trimble as a “giant of British and international politics”. The Irish premier, Micheal Martin, hailed the Nobel laureate as “someone who played a crucial and courageous role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland”. Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill, in line to be Northern Ireland’s next first minister after her nationalist party swept to a historic victory in the May elections, lauded Trimble’s “very significant contribution to the peace process”. She said that Trimble was “pivotal” in securing the Good Friday Agreement, adding that the “precious gift of peace” Trimble had helped midwife with the 1998 accords was something her generation “all hold very dear”. “That should be a message to us all even today, 24 years later. It takes courage. It takes leadership. It takes parties working together actually to achieve things,” the Sinn Fein vice-president said. O’Neill’s accession is being held up by the now-dominant pro-UK force, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which is refusing to serve with Sinn Fein in the power-sharing executive until London rips up a post-Brexit trading pact with the European Union. The UK government is pushing through legislation to unilaterally rewrite the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, sparking legal action by the EU. However, the DUP has still refused to enter the power-sharing government. UUP leader Doug Beattie urged the DUP and Sinn Fein to “show that very same courage that happened in 1998” in order to restore the Belfast executive and protect peace. The UUP also opposes the protocol. At his final public appearance at the end of June, Trimble said the cornerstone of peace remained in place. “People are actually not throwing the (Good Friday) agreement to pieces, their complaints are still based on the existence of the agreement,” he said at the unveiling of a portrait of him. The 1998 Good Friday accord largely ended 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland that killed 3,500 people. Following the 1998 deal, Trimble served as first minister of Northern Ireland. However, the UUP’s popularity waned amid unionist loathing of elements of the 1998 accord, which were seen as too accommodating to republicans. Former UUP leader Mike Nesbitt told AFP that with the loss of Trimble, the generation of leaders – including pro-Ireland Social Democratic and Labour Party leader John Hume – that delivered peace in Northern Ireland had now passed. “These are the people who understood the concept of the greater good, who were prepared to say I will put the priorities of the people over party political interest,” he said. “That was the foundation on which the Belfast, Good Friday agreement was made. And that’s what’s missing today at Stormont.”

The European Union agreed a plan to reduce gas consumption on Tuesday, an act of solidarity with Germany and a response to Russia's manipulation of supplies as an economic weapon. The plan, approved by energy ministers in Brussels, will see exceptions and carve-outs as some EU countries blanched at making too deep a sacrifice for Berlin and a few landlocked member states. But Hungary was the only member state to oppose the plan, which passed on a majority vote, and the ministers' Council of the European Union hailed the deal as a victory for EU unity. "In an effort to increase EU security of energy supply, member states today reached a political agreement on a voluntary reduction of natural gas demand by 15 percent this winter," the council said. "The Council regulation also foresees the possibility to trigger a 'Union alert' on security of supply, in which case the gas demand reduction would become mandatory," the statement continued. "The purpose of the gas demand reduction is to make savings ahead of winter in order to prepare for possible disruptions of gas supplies from Russia that is continuously using energy supplies as a weapon."   - 'Dirty games' -   Germany, the EU's economic powerhouse, is hugely dependent on Russian gas and remains at the mercy of the supply from Gazprom for the years still needed to find alternative sources. "It is true that, Germany with its dependence on Russian gas, has made a strategic mistake but our government is working... to correct this," Germany's economy minister Robert Habeck said as he arrived. France said showing solidarity with Berlin would help in turn protect all of Europe, even though Germany takes a major share of the 40 percent of EU gas imports that came from Russia last year.  "Our industrial chains are completely interdependent: if the chemical industry in Germany coughs, the whole of European industry could come to a halt," said French minister for energy transition, Agnes Pannier-Runacher. The plan asks member states to voluntarily reduce gas use by 15 percent -- based on a five-year average for the months in question -- starting next month and over the subsequent winter through March. Czech industry minister Jozef Sikela, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said the plan would deliver a strong answer to state-run Gazprom's plan to cut gas deliveries to Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin "will continue to play his dirty games in misusing and blackmailing gas supplies," Sikela said. Gazprom has said it is cutting daily gas deliveries to about 20 percent of capacity from Wednesday.   - 'Wise strategy' -   The EU member countries had already rejected an earlier European Commission proposal to give Brussels -- rather than the member states -- the power to impose gas use cuts in an emergency. And the 15-percent target will also be adapted to the situation of each country through a series of exemptions, taking into account their level of stocks and whether or not they have pipelines to share gas.  "Nobody challenges the need for solidarity, but the means of solidarity can be very different and the initial proposal was not necessarily the most effective approach," Spain's minister for ecological transition, Teresa Ribera Rodriguez, said.  Exceptions are planned for island states such as Ireland, Cyprus or Malta and countries, such as Spain or Portugal, with limited links to the interconnected gas supply grid. Gazprom said Monday that it was halting the operation of one of the last two operating turbines due to the "technical condition of the engine", but Simson dismissed this claim. "We know that there is no technical reason to do so," she said.  "This is a politically motivated step and we have to be ready for that and exactly for that reason the pre-emptive reduction of our gas demand is a wise strategy."

California’s largest wildfire so far this year steadily expanded overnight after exploding in size over the weekend and forcing thousands of people to evacuate homes in remote areas just west of Yosemite National Park, officials said yesterday. Fuelled by extreme heat and tinder-dry forests and underbrush, the Oak Fire had consumed 16,791 acres (6,795 hectares) by morning yesterday, an increase of 1,200 acres overnight, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). The fire, now more than half the size of Paris at 6,795 hectares (16,791 acres), was 10% contained as it moved east near the town of Mariposa Pines. “What we’re seeing on this fire is very indicative of what we’ve seen in fires throughout California, in the West over the last two years,” Jon Heggie, a Cal Fire battalion chief, told CNN, adding: “These fires are burning with just such a velocity and intensity it makes it extremely challenging and extremely dangerous for both the public and the firefighters.” “It’s moving so quickly it’s not giving people a lot of time and they sometimes are just going to have to evacuate with just the shirts on their back,” he said. It was still more than 16km (10 miles) from Yosemite, famed for its giant, ancient sequoia trees, which had been threatened this month by a separate fire that is now 80% contained. The latest blaze – which has already forced thousands to evacuate – comes as much of the United States remain in the grip of a sweltering heatwave. “In certain areas of the fire perimeter there was minimal fire behaviour last night,” said Cal Fire spokesperson Jonathan Pierce. “In other parts of the fire it remained active, especially in the timber due to high tree mortality.” The cause of the fire remained under investigation. Since beginning on Friday, the fire had chased more than 3,700 people from their homes, including Wes Smith, a Mariposa County Sheriff Department officer and his wife Jane. The couple lost their home of 37 years in the blaze, their son Nick wrote on a GoFundMe page. “It is devastating to lose everything literally in the blink of an eye without notice,” he wrote. The fire has destroyed 10 structures and damaged five, fire officials said. High temperatures in the area yesterday were expected to reach 37° Celsius (98° Fahrenheit) with a slight breeze throughout the day. A chance of thunderstorms was in the forecast throughout the week, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. More than two decades of drought and rising temperatures have conspired to make California more vulnerable than ever to wildfires, with the two most devastating years on record coming in 2020 and 2021, when more than 6.8mn acres (2.75mn hectares) burned, an area greater than the size of Rwanda. On Saturday California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Mariposa County, citing “conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property”. In recent years, California and other parts of the western United States have been ravaged by huge and fast-moving wildfires, driven by years of drought and a warming climate. “What I can tell you is this is a direct result of what is climate change,” Cal Fire’s Heggie told CNN. “You can’t have a 10-year drought in California and expect things to be the same. We’re now paying the price for that 10-year drought. “That drought is what drives what we are calling megafires.” Evidence of global warming could be seen elsewhere in the country, as 60mn Americans were under a heat advisory yesterday. Temperatures of 37C or more are forecast across parts of eastern Kansas and Oklahoma into southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Not even the usually cool Pacific Northwest will escape the far-reaching heat, with temperatures forecast to reach record highs in some areas. Cities have opened cooling stations and increased outreach to at-risk communities such as the homeless and those without air conditioning. Various regions of the globe have been hit by extreme heat waves in recent months, such as Western Europe in July and India in March to April, incidents that scientists say are an unmistakable sign of a warming climate. The extreme weather prompted former vice-president Al Gore, a tireless climate advocate, to issue a stark warning on Sunday about “inaction” by US lawmakers. Asked whether he believes that US President Joe Biden should declare a climate emergency, which would grant him additional policy powers, Gore was blunt. “Mother Nature has already declared it a global emergency,” Gore told ABC.

Pope Francis apologised yesterday to Canada’s native people on their land for the Catholic Church’s role in schools where indigenous children were abused, branding forced cultural assimilation a “deplorable evil” and “disastrous error”. Speaking near the site of two former schools in Maskwacis, in Alberta, Francis went even further, apologising for Christian support of the overall “colonising mentality” of the times and calling for a “serious investigation” of the schools to assist survivors and descendants in healing. “With shame and unambiguously, I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the indigenous peoples,” the Pope said in the town, whose name means “hills of the bear” in the Cree language. The plea from the leader of the world’s 1.3bn Catholics was met with applause by a crowd of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people in Maskwacis, in western Alberta province – some of whom were taken from their families as children in what has been branded a “cultural genocide”. The 85-year-old Pope, who is still using a wheelchair and cane because of a fractured knee, is making the week-long apology tour of Canada to fulfil a promise that he made to indigenous delegations that visited him earlier this year at the Vatican, where he made the initial apology. Indigenous leaders wearing eagle-feather war headdresses greeted the Pope as a fellow chief and welcomed him with chanting, drum beating, dancing and war songs. “I am here because the first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry,” he said. He was addressing the indigenous groups in the Bear Park Pow-Wow Grounds, part of the ancestral territory of the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Saulteaux and Nakota Sioux people. “Sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonising mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples. I am sorry,” he said during the meeting with First Nations, Metis and Inuit people. “In the face of this deplorable evil, the church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children.” As he spoke, the emotion was palpable in Maskwacis, an Indigenous community south of provincial capital Edmonton which was the site of the Ermineskin residential school until it closed in 1975. Several hundred people, many in traditional clothing, were in attendance, along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary Simon, the country’s first Indigenous governor general. Many lowered their eyes, wiped away tears or leaned on and hugged neighbours, and Indigenous leaders afterwards placed a traditional feathered headdress on the Pope. “The place where we are gathered renews within me the deep sense of pain and remorse that I have felt in these past months,” Francis said, citing the “physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse” of children over the course of decades. Counsellors were waiting near teepees set up to provide support to those who may need it, and earlier volunteers had distributed small paper bags for the “collection of tears”. “The First Nation believes that if you cry, you cry love, you catch the tears on a piece of paper and put it back in this bag,” explained Andre Carrier of the Manitoba Metis Federation, before the Pope spoke. Volunteers will collect the bags and later they will be burned with a special prayer, “to return the tears of love to the creator”, he said. Between 1881 and 1996, more than 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and brought to residential schools. Many children were starved, beaten and sexually abused in a system that Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “cultural genocide”. “I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities co-operated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools,” the Pope said. The discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in British Columbia last year brought the issue to the fore again. Since then, the suspected remains of hundreds more children have been detected at other former residential schools around the country. A red banner with names of missing children was carried before the Pope. Wallace Yellowface, 78, a boarding school survivor from Pikanni Nation Reserve in Southern Alberta, said that the Pope’s message was too little, too late for him. “It’s late for an apology, and I don’t think it will do me much good,” he said, adding that he was still trying to find out what happened to his sister, who also attended a residential school. “It means a lot to me” that he came, said Deborah Greyeyes, 71, a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, the largest Indigenous group in Canada. “I think we have to forgive, too, at some point,” she told AFP. But “a lot of stuff was taken away from us”. Before making his address, Francis, sitting in a wheelchair, prayed in a field of crosses in the cemetery of the Our Lady of Seven Sorrows indigenous Catholic parish and passed by a stone memorial to the two residential schools once in the area. Survivors and leaders of indigenous communities say that they want more than an apology. They also want financial compensation, the return of artefacts sent to the Vatican by missionaries, support in bringing an alleged abuser now living in France to justice and the release of records held by the religious orders that ran the schools. Some also have called for the Catholic Church to renounce 15th-century papal bulls, or edicts, that justified colonial powers taking away indigenous land. Francis called for “a serious investigation into the facts of what took place in the past and to assist the survivors of the residential schools to experience healing from the traumas they suffered”. In January, the Canadian government agreed to pay C$40bn ($31.5bn) to compensate First Nations children who were taken from their families. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops promised to raise C$30mn for healing, culture and language revitalisation and other initiatives. The fund has raised C$4.6mn so far.

Former finance minister Rishi Sunak (pictured) said yesterday that China represented the largest threat to Britain and world security this century, setting out his plans to deal with Beijing in the latest front in the battle to become prime minister. Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss are fighting in an increasingly divisive Conservative Party leadership contest to replace Boris Johnson after a revolt against his scandal-ridden administration forced him to say he would stand down. Truss is ahead in polls among members of the Conservative Party who will choose their new leader and Britain’s next prime minister, but Sunak is hoping that weeks of hustings and debates will help his campaign ahead of a vote result due on September 5. “China is the biggest-long term threat to Britain and the world’s economic and national security,” Sunak said in a statement. “For too long, politicians in Britain and across the West have rolled out the red carpet and turned a blind eye to China’s nefarious activity and ambitions. I will change this on Day 1 as PM.” He said that he would ban Confucius Institutes, which are funded by the Chinese government, in Britain, and use spy agencies to help British businesses counter Chinese spying. He said he would also examine the case for banning Chinese acquisitions of key British assets, including strategically sensitive tech firms. Sunak also promised to “kick the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) out of our universities” by forcing higher education establishments to disclose foreign funding of more than £50,000 ($60,000) and reviewing research partnerships. Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 would be used to help combat Chinese espionage, and he would look to build “Nato-style” international co-operation to tackle Chinese threats in cyber-space. He would also study the case for banning Chinese acquisitions of key British assets, including strategically sensitive tech firms. Sunak claimed China was “stealing our technology and infiltrating our universities” and “propping up” Vladimir Putin abroad by buying Russian oil, as well as attempting to bully neighbours, including Taiwan. He hit out at China’s global “belt and road” scheme for “saddling developing countries with insurmountable debt”. A spokesperson for Truss’s campaign said the foreign minister had “strengthened Britain’s position on China” and “helped lead the international response to increases Chinese aggression”. “This will only continue when she becomes prime minister and seeks to expand her network of liberty around the world,” the spokesperson said. China’s state-run Global Times has previously said Sunak was the only candidate in the contest with “a clear and pragmatic view on developing UK-China ties”. The Daily Mail, which has come out for Foreign Secretary Truss in the race to succeed Boris Johnson, called that “the endorsement that nobody wanted”.

Britain said yesterday that it had reluctantly agreed to host next year’s Eurovision song contest, after organisers said there was no prospect of the pop extravaganza going ahead in war-torn Ukraine. The BBC will now produce the world’s biggest live music event, taking in performers from across Europe and Central Asia as well as Israel and Australia, in a UK city yet to be determined. Ukraine won this year’s contest, held in Italy, ahead of Britain’s entry in second place. For the past month, it had that insisted it could host next year’s despite the Russian invasion. However, after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) ruled that out on security grounds, the government in Kyiv acquiesced to a UK-hosted event with a strongly Ukrainian flavour. Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said that after “several rounds” of discussion, the EBU had given assurances of an “extremely high integration of Ukrainian context and presenters”. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that in phone talks last week with President Volodymyr Zelensky, they “agreed that wherever Eurovision 2023 is held, it must celebrate the country and people of Ukraine”. “As we are now hosts, the UK will honour that pledge directly – and put on a fantastic contest on behalf of our Ukrainian friends,” Johnson tweeted. Johnson’s spokesman added it had been the soon-to-depart prime minister’s “strong wish” for Ukraine to host the 2023 edition, and found it “deeply regrettable” that was no longer possible. In May, Ukrainian folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra won in Turin, on a wave of support for their country following Russia’s invasion. Its lead singer Oleh Psiuk, whose bubblegum-pink bucket hat helped make him one of the breakout stars of the night, thanked Britain for stepping in. “We hope Eurovision 2023 will have a Ukrainian flavour and celebrate our beautiful, unique culture,” he said in a statement to Britain’s PA news agency. “We, in turn, will make all efforts to help Ukraine win next year as well, so that Eurovision 2024 can take place in a peaceful country.” By convention, the winning country hosts the kitsch celebration of music the following year. Britain last hosted it in 1998. However, last month, the EBU said Ukraine could not guarantee the safety of more than 10,000 people involved in the production and a further 30,000 fans expected to attend. The broadcasting union stuck to its line despite protests from Zelensky’s government, and rejected one proposal to shift the contest to a border location within Ukraine, away from the frontlines. The EBU said Ukraine was still guaranteed a place in the 2023 grand final along with the organisation’s “top five” countries: Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The other finalists will be selected via national votes by viewers and judges, typically ranging from mainstream pop to the rather odd. “It is a matter of great regret that our colleagues and friends in Ukraine are not able to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest,” BBC director-general Tim Davie said in a statement. “The BBC is committed to making the event a true reflection of Ukrainian culture alongside showcasing the diversity of British music and creativity.” However, the cash-strapped BBC also has to contend with footing a multi-million-euro bill for staging the show, unless the UK government stumps up extra support. The broadcaster said it aimed to select a UK host venue by the autumn, in collaboration with the EBU. Whichever city wins will need to have an international airport, a sizeable conference venue and thousands of hotel rooms. London, Manchester and Sheffield all said they were ready to step in. Glasgow had previously expressed interest. This year’s contest vaulted Britain’s second-placed entrant Sam Ryder to stardom. Last month, before another global TV audience, Ryder performed his quirky song Space Man in front of Buckingham Palace as part of Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Congo Republic yesterday, the second leg of an African tour aimed at strengthening Moscow’s ties with a continent that has refused to join Western condemnation and sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. African countries, which have a tangled legacy of relations with the West and the former Soviet Union, have largely avoided taking sides over the war in Ukraine. Many import Russian grain and increasingly energy too, but they also buy Ukrainian grain and benefit from Western aid flows and trade ties. Africa is also being courted by the West this week, with French President Emmanuel Macron due to visit Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau and US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Mike Hammer on his way to Egypt and Ethiopia. Lavrov has already visited Egypt and will head from Congo to Uganda, then Ethiopia, where African Union diplomats said he had invited ambassadors from several member states to a private meeting tomorrow, dismaying Western donors. An invitation letter from the Russian ambassador to Ethiopia and the AU, sent to a number of African ambassadors and seen by Reuters, said the goal of the meeting was to deepen co-operation between Russia and African states. Two AU diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity said the planned meeting, which would coincide with Hammer’s visit, was causing friction among Western donors because it signalled a pivot towards Russia. Spokespersons for the AU, which is based in Addis Ababa, and for the Ethiopian foreign affairs ministry did not respond to requests for comment. In a column published in newspapers in the four countries included in his tour, Lavrov praised Africa for resisting what he called Western attempts to impose a unipolar world order.

Greek firefighters battled wildfires on three fronts yesterday as flames destroyed around 2,200 hectares of woodland in one of the country’s most important protected habitats. Around 320 firefighters, two water-bombing planes and four helicopters deployed to contain the fire, now raging for a fourth day, at the Dadia National Park, known for its black vulture colony. Some villages in the area have been evacuated. The flames have already destroyed some 2,200 hectares of woodland, according to a local mayor. “It’s an uphill battle, a fight to ensure the survival of this exceptional ecosystem,” said the minister for climate crisis and civil protection, Christos Stylianidis, after visiting the affected area. “It’s an ecological disaster, the damage is incalculable,” Soufli mayor Panagiotis Kalakikos told Star TV. Dadia, around 900km, northeast of Athens, calls itself one of the most important protected areas in Europe, offering ideal habitat for rare birds and says it is home to the only breeding population of black vultures in the Balkans. Greece is particularly vulnerable to fires during the summer season. Wildfires last year destroyed 103,000 hectares and claimed three lives, driven by drought and a warming climate. Scientists say human-induced climate change is amplifying extreme weather events — including heatwaves, droughts and fires seen in several parts of Europe and California in recent weeks — and say these events will become more frequent and more intense. More than 140 fires have broken out in Greece in the last 24 hours according to the country’s fire service. Last week saw temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius in parts of the country, although temperatures dipped slightly yesterday. The civil protection agency said, however, that the risk of forest fires remained high given the temperatures and strong winds. “Experts must look into redressing the problems sparked by the fire,” said Stylianidis, underscoring the need to buttress the “resistance of the ecosystem in the future”. Dadia hosts three out of the four vulture species of Europe — the black vulture, the griffon vulture and the Egyptian vulture — and 36 of Europe’s 38 species of raptors. Its varied habitats also support 104 butterfly species, 13 amphibian species, 29 reptile species and about 65 mammal species, 24 out of which are bats. Fires have raged in the north, east and south of Greece, including on the tourist island of Lesbos, where around 200 people were ordered to leave the village of Vrisa on Sunday to escape the flames. For fires in the southern Peloponnese peninsula, Citizens’ Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos said arson was at least one factor in causing the blazes. A major fire continued to burn yesterday in Krestena, in the west of the peninsula. “It’s evident that arson is involved,” Theodorikakos said, adding that 15 fires had broken out in 20 days alone in the Peloponnese prefecture of Elis, home to Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games.

The European Commission has approved a smallpox vaccine for use against monkeypox after the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency, the Danish drugmaker that developed the jab said on Monday. "The European Commission has extended the marketing authorisation for the company's smallpox vaccine, Imvanex, to include protection from monkeypox" in line with a recommendation by the EU's medicines watchdog, Bavarian Nordic said in a statement.  "The approval... is valid in all European Union Member States as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway." On Saturday, the WHO declared the monkeypox outbreak, which has affected nearly 16,000 people in 72 countries, to be a global health emergency -- the highest alarm it can sound. Imvanex has been approved in the EU since 2013 for the prevention of smallpox.  It was also considered a potential vaccine for monkeypox because of the similarity between the monkeypox virus and the smallpox virus.   Monkeypox is less dangerous and contagious than smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980.  The first symptoms of monkeypox are fever, headaches, muscle pain and back pain during the course of five days.  Rashes subsequently appear on the face, the palms of hands and soles of feet, followed by lesions, spots and finally scabs. A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.  The EMA carries out a scientific assessment of drugs and gives a recommendation on whether any medicine should be marketed or not. However, under EU law the EMA has no authority to actually permit marketing in the different EU countries. It is the European Commission which is the authorising body and takes a legally binding decision based on EMA's recommendation.

Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro officially launched his presidential re-election campaign yesterday, attacking the voting system, the judiciary and his main challenger in a bellicose speech in Rio de Janeiro. In a more than hour-long address at a sports arena, the far-right leader promised he would maintain a temporary social support grant if re-elected, and warned he would “not allow fraud” in the October vote — a criticism of the electoral system he has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, is flawed. Earlier this week, the US embassy in Brazil said the country’s electoral system was a “model for the world” after Bolsonaro warned in an address to ambassadors that the system’s “flaws” engendered “mistrust.” Such attacks in recent months have led analysts to fear that Bolsonaro may refuse to accept defeat. Bolsonaro’s repeated questioning of the electoral system has prompted the Supreme Court to open an investigation into him. Yesterday, the president urged his supporters to take to the streets on September — the one-year anniversary of independence day protests marked by attacks on democratic institutions that Bolsonaro had encouraged. “The deaf and black-cloaked few have to understand the voice of the people,” he said in reference to the Supreme Court. They “have to understand that it is the executive and legislative power that makes the rules.” His supporters replied: “The people are supreme!” They waved banners with slogans such as “God, Homeland and Family.” One featured an image of Donald Trump. Changing the topic to his main rival and poll frontrunner — leftist former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva — Bolsonaro said he prayed “that Brazil will never experience the pains of communism.” “We have to attract the young leftists to our side, show them the truth,” he said. “Where their candidate supported others in South America, look at the misery in those countries,” said Bolsonaro, referencing Venezuela among others. Bolsonaro appeared on stage with his wife Michelle and running mate Walter Souza Braga Netto, and wore a bullet-resistant vest under his shirt. Amid fears for the safety of presidential candidates, the event was held under strict security with metal detectors at the entrance. A month before the election he won in 2018, Bolsonaro was stabbed in the stomach at a campaign rally. The last Datafolha poll in June showed Lula in the lead with 47%, followed by 28% for Bolsonaro.

Pope Francis landed in Canada yesterday to kick off a week-long trip that will centre around his apology on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for the abuse that indigenous children endured at mostly church-run residential schools. “This is a trip of penance. Let’s say that is its spirit,” the Pope told reporters after his flight took off from Rome. The papal plane touched down in Edmonton in the western province of Alberta, where he will visit a former residential school and meet with indigenous peoples today. He is also visiting Quebec City and Iqaluit, the capital of the territory of Nunavut. He will depart on Friday. Between 1881 and 1996 more than 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and brought to residential schools. Many children were starved, beaten and sexually abused in a system that Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “cultural genocide.” The papal plane taxied with Canadian and Vatican flags flapping outside the cockpit windows. After disembarking with the help of a lift, the Pope boarded a white Fiat 500X, which dropped him at the hangar. He then proceeded by wheelchair. Governor General Mary Simon, who represents Canada’s head of state, Queen Elizabeth, was the first to greet the Pope. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau followed. The Pope sat between the two Canadian officials for a short performance of four drummers and native singing before several indigenous leaders, many wearing elaborate headdresses, greeted and exchanged gifts with him. “I asked today the Pope to walk with us,” Grand Chief George Arcand of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. “It was a very humbling experience to talk to your holiness.” RoseAnne Archibald, national chief for the Assembly of First Nations, who also greeted the Pope, criticised the “unilateral” organisation of the trip and the “archaic” nature of the church, which has no women in leadership positions. “We don’t feel that it has been about survivors” of residential schools, she told reporters at the airport. “It has been more about the church promoting the church’s idea, fundraising for the church.” The Pope left after the short ceremony in a wheelchair to speak for a few minutes in private with Trudeau and other officials before heading to St Joseph Seminary, where he is expected to rest before today’s events. The 85-year-old Pope cancelled a trip to Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan in early July because of a knee problem that has recently forced him to use a wheelchair and a cane. Earlier aboard the papal plane, the Pope said he yearned to visit Ukraine in his efforts to try and bring an end to the five-month-old war that he has repeatedly decried. “I have a great desire to go to Kyiv,” the Pope said when asked about a possible future trip to Ukraine. In an exclusive interview earlier this month, the pontiff told Reuters that he hoped to be able to go to Moscow and Kyiv soon after his trip to Canada. While Canada’s leaders have known about high numbers of children dying at the residential schools since 1907, the issue was thrust to the fore with the discovery of suspected unmarked graves at or near former residential school sites last year. In response to pressure stemming from those discoveries, the Pope apologised for the Catholic church’s role in the schools earlier this year during a visit by indigenous delegates to the Vatican. Now he is preparing to apologise on Canadian soil. But survivors and indigenous leaders have told Reuters they want more. Many have called for financial compensation, the return of indigenous artefacts, the release of school records, support for extraditing an accused abuser, and the rescinding of a 15th-century doctrine justifying colonial dispossession of indigenous people in the form of a papal bull, or edict.

Greece on Sunday battled three wildfires across the country which forced hundreds to evacuate, as soaring temperatures raised fears of more blazes.  The country is in the grip of a heatwave that began on Saturday and is expected to last 10 days. Temperatures were set to rise to 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) in some regions. Experts blame climate change for the soaring temperatures and warned that the worst is yet to come. Fires raged in the north, east and south of Greece, including on the island of Lesbos. Officials ordered the evacuation of around 200 people on Sunday afternoon from Vryssa village on Lesbos as flames crept closer, some 500 metres (1,600 feet) from houses, the deputy mayor of western Lesbos told Skai radio. Elderly women carried plastic bags with only a few personal belongings as they boarded the first buses to leave the village. Thick clouds of smoke were already engulfing the first houses of Vryssa. The blaze broke out a day earlier, causing the evacuation of hundreds of tourists and residents from the beachside village of Vatera. At least four houses were destroyed in Vatera, state TV ERT reported, and fires damaged an unknown number of shops, hotels and beach bars in the village. Dozens of firefighters early on Sunday clamoured to control the blaze, with four water-dropping planes and two helicopters in operation. In the northeastern region of Evros, a wildfire was ablaze for a fourth day in Dadia National Park, known for its black vulture colony. The fire has already destroyed nearly 500 hectares (1,220 acres) of woodland. More than 300 firefighters battled to control the fire in Evros and by late Saturday the thick smoke forced the evacuation of the village of Dadias. It was unclear how many people were evacuated. "The most important thing for us is the safety of the villagers and all forces (which) will be deployed there," Evros governor Dimitris Petrovits told Athens News Agency.  The fire had already passed the raptor birds observatory and was closing in on the buildings of the protected area management unit. Petrovits said collecting and treating injured animals was a high priority for the authorities.  In the Peloponnese, a southern peninsula, a fire that broke out early Saturday forced the evacuation of Chrysokelaria village.  By midday on Sunday, firefighters had managed to contain the fire.   A wildfire in mountains near Athens on Wednesday also damaged homes and forced hundreds of people to evacuate after gale-force winds earlier in the week. Greece's worst wildfire disaster killed 102 people in 2018 in the coastal suburb of Mati, east of Athens. The latest fires come after a heatwave and wildfires last year destroyed 103,000 hectares and claimed three lives in Greece. Fires in parts of France, Spain and Portugal have already burned more land so far this year than was destroyed by flames in all of 2021. The area, some 517,881 hectares, is equivalent to the size of Trinidad and Tobago. 

Unions, port officials and the French authorities blamed Brexit yesterday as thousands of holidaymakers faced long delays trying to reach Europe via the English Channel port of Dover. The Kent Resilience Forum, which brings together local councils and emergency services, declared a “major incident”, while Port of Dover chief executive Doug Bannister said travellers could face delays of up to six hours. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss laid the blame squarely on Paris, insisting: “The French authorities have not put enough people on the border.” However, officials on the other side of the Channel rejected claims that the gridlock was caused by under-staffing. Dover and the French port of Calais have “juxtaposed” border controls in which French authorities check passports on British soil before departure, and vice versa in France. Border checks and extra paperwork for freight traffic were reintroduced when Britain left the European Union last year, ending free movement for people and goods in the bloc. Bottlenecks of lorries at Dover have been seen since then but this summer is the first with unrestricted travel for the public since the lifting of all coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions. French lawmaker Pierre-Henri Dumont, whose constituency includes the French Channel port of Calais, called the travel chaos “an aftermath of Brexit”. “We have to run more checks than before,” he told BBC television, predicting it would happen again. Port of Dover chief executive Bannister initially blamed a lack of French border agency staff for the logjam which saw some holidaymakers wait six hours or longer to catch their ferries. However, he conceded that there are now “increased transaction times” post-Brexit. The port was confident of handling the demand at peak periods, he added. Brexit figurehead Boris Johnson made “taking back control” of UK borders a rallying call for his “leave” campaign in the 2016 vote on EU membership. Since becoming prime minister, he has found that more difficult, with record numbers of migrants crossing from northern France in small boats. The leader of Kent County Council, Roger Gough, estimated that 3,000 lorries were waiting to get to the port yesterday morning. Kent Police said motorists should still expect “significant delays”. Lucy Moreton, from the ISU union that represents borders, immigration and customs staff, said the tailbacks were a “reasonably predictable” result of Brexit. “This is the time that it’s chosen to bite,” she told the BBC. Passengers have to go through both UK and French border checks at Dover before boarding ferries to northern France. By 12.45pm (1145 GMT), the Port of Dover said more than 17,000 passengers had already gone through. Bannister said some 8,500 vehicles had left the port on Friday, with about 10,000 expected yesterday. Queues for the port snaked through Dover and surrounding roads, stretching kilometres, with lorries backed up the M20 motorway leading to the town. A traffic management system was rolled out on the M20 to manage the high volume of lorries backed up towards Dover. That included closing parts of the motorway to non-freight traffic and diverting cars towards the port and the Eurotunnel by other routes. Eurotunnel said its train shuttle services for vehicles between nearby Folkestone and Coquelles in northern France were two hours behind schedule. The prefect of the Hauts-de-France region Georges-Francois Leclerc said that France had “done its job” by increasing its border staff in Dover from 120 to 200. He blamed the traffic jams on an accident on the M20 on Friday for the late arrival of French border agency staff at their posts in Dover. However, Leclerc suggested the port itself had not done enough to handle the increased traffic, which typically jumps from 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles daily during the busy summer. All French staff were in position at 9.45am (0845 GMT) instead of 8.30am, the prefect told reporters in Lille. “Who would have thought that because the French reinforcements were an hour late that it would derail the whole system?” he added. “Last year there was Covid. We’re finding out about Brexit” and its impact on peak periods. “The world has changed. The UK is now a third country to the EU”, which means much more time-consuming checks.

Liz Truss, the leading candidate to succeed Boris Johnson as British prime minister, promised to scrap all remaining European Union laws that still apply in Britain by 2023 if she wins the Conservative Party leadership contest. Foreign Secretary Truss is up against former finance minister Rishi Sunak in a race to court the 200,000 members of the Conservative Party who over the course of the summer will vote to choose the country’s new prime minister. Britain’s relationship with Europe remains of great concern to the Conservative Party membership, generally characterised as more eurosceptic than the wider population. Hoping to tap into that, Truss, who campaigned for “remain” in the 2016 referendum but is now seen as the heir to Johnson’s pro-Brexit position, promised to purge all remaining EU laws from the statute books. To avoid uncertainty and confusion as Britain untangled itself from the EU after 40 years of membership, the government automatically carried over thousands of EU laws and regulations into British law so that they would still apply after Brexit. “EU regulations hinder our businesses and this has to change,” Truss said in a statement. The statement said she was setting out her credentials as the “Brexit delivery” prime minister. “In Downing Street, I will seize the chance to diverge from outdated EU law and frameworks and capitalise on the opportunities we have ahead of us.” The government has already set out its intention to replace or repeal existing EU laws but had not set a timeframe. Truss leads Sunak by 62% to 38% among Conservative Party members, according to a YouGov poll on Thursday.

Former British finance minister Rishi Sunak has described himself as the underdog in the contest to become Britain’s next prime minister. Sunak’s resignation helped trigger a revolt that saw Prime Minister Boris Johnson agree to step down after a series of scandals. Members of the ruling Conservative Party will vote for a successor over the summer, with an announcement due on September 5. Sunak led all rounds of the voting among party lawmakers to reduce the field to two candidates. However, it is Foreign Secretary Liz Truss who seems to have gained the advantage so far among the 200,000 members of the governing party who will ultimately choose the winner. Truss held a 24-point lead over Sunak in a YouGov poll of Conservative Party members published on Thursday. “Be in no doubt, I am the underdog,” Sunak said in a speech in the central England town of Grantham, the birthplace of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher. “The forces that be want this to be a coronation for the other candidate, but I think members want a choice and they are prepared to listen.” Truss would be only Britain’s third female prime minister after Thatcher and Theresa May, while Sunak would become the country’s first leader of Indian origin. So far the campaigning focus has been on pledges, or non-pledges, to cut taxes at a time when many people are struggling, as well as defence spending and energy policy. In his speech, Sunak laid out what he called “common sense Thatcherism”, promising careful management of the economy before tax cuts. He questioned the morality of immediate tax cuts, proposed by Truss, at a time of soaring inflation and criticised as arbitrary her pledge to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. Truss says tax cuts are needed to stimulate growth. “It is wrong to take money from people that we don’t need to take when people across the country are struggling with the cost of living crisis,” she told reporters in Kent, south east England, after meeting party members. In an interview for yesterday’s Times newspaper, Sunak said he would put the government on a crisis footing on taking office.

Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s southern port of Odesa yesterday, the Ukrainian military said, threatening a deal signed just a day earlier to unblock grain exports from Black Sea ports and ease global food shortages caused by the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike showed Moscow could not be trusted to implement the deal. However, public broadcaster Suspilne quoted the Ukrainian military as saying the missiles had not caused significant damage and a government minister said preparations continued to restart grain exports from the country’s Black Sea ports. The deal signed on Friday by Moscow and Kyiv and mediated by the United Nations and Turkey was hailed as a breakthrough after nearly five months of punishing fighting since Russia invaded its neighbour. It is seen as crucial to curbing soaring global food prices by allowing grain exports to be shipped from Black Sea ports including Odesa. UN officials had said on Friday they hoped the agreement would be operational in a few weeks, and the strikes on Odesa drew strong condemnation from Kyiv, the United Nations and the United States. Turkey’s defence minister said Russian officials had told Ankara that Moscow had “nothing to do” with the strikes on the port. A Russian defence ministry statement yesterday outlining progress in the war did not mention any strike in Odesa. The ministry did not reply to a Reuters request for comment. Two Russian Kalibr missiles hit the area of a pumping station at the Odesa port, while another two missiles were shot down by air defence forces, according to Ukraine’s Operational Command South. Yuriy Ignat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force, said the cruise missiles were fired from warships in the Black Sea near Crimea. Suspilne later quoted the spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, Natalia Humeniuk, was quoted as saying the port’s grain storage area was not hit. No casualties have been reported. Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Facebook that “we continue technical preparations for the launch of exports of agricultural products from our ports”. The strike appeared to violate the terms of Friday’s deal, which would allow safe passage in and out of Odesa and two other Ukrainian ports. “This proves only one thing: no matter what Russia says and promises, it will find ways not to implement it,” Zelensky said in a video posted on Telegram. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “unequivocally condemned” the reported strikes, a spokesperson said, adding that all parties had committed to the grain export deal and full implementation was imperative. “These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe,” spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a statement. Turkish Defence Minister Hulusai Akar said in a statement that “In our contact with Russia, the Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack, and that they were examining the issue very closely and in detail”. “The fact that such an incident took place right after the agreement we made yesterday really worried us,” he added.

Hundreds of tourists and residents were evacuated yesterday from a popular resort on the Greek island of Lesbos as a wildfire destroyed homes in the beachside village of Vatera. The fires sent up thick clouds of smoke blotting out the sun as they drifted over the sea as blazes raged metres away from homes, forcing people to flee while others tried to protect their houses from the embers. Greece was facing the first day of a heatwave yesterday that is expected to last 10 days. Temperatures were set to rise to 42 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) in some regions, sparking concerns over more wildfires. The fire on Lesbos island broke out at 10 local time (0700 GMT) yesterday and is blazing on two fronts, heading towards the Vrisa village and another inside Vatera. Police said 450 people were evacuated from two hotels and 92 houses in Vatera. The Greek coast guard said earlier it evacuated nine people including five foreigners from a beach in Vatera. Firefighters deployed nine firefighting planes and one helicopter to fight the surging blaze. West Lesbos mayor Taxiarchis Verros ordered the evacuation of the busy beach resort as a precautionary measure, acting on the advice of the fire brigade, Athens News Agency reported. At least two houses were ravaged by the fire, state TV ERT said. Yesterday, firefighters were also battling for a third day a wildfire raging in the Dadia National Park, the country’s largest Natura 2000 site known for its black vulture colony, in the northeastern region of Evros. Fire brigade spokesman Yiannis Artopoios said on Saturday afternoon that the fire in Vatera was “exceptionally difficult” but there was a “much improved” situation in the northeast. Some 320 firefighters and 68 fire engines have been battling the fires in Evros, alongside a large number of volunteers.

      The World Health Organisation (WHO) Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak, which has affected nearly 17,000 people in 74 countries, to be a global health emergency -- the highest alarm it can sound. "I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference. He said a committee of experts who met on Thursday was unable to reach a consensus, so it fell to him to decide whether to trigger the highest alert possible. "WHO's assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region where we assess the risk as high," he added. Monkeypox has affected over 16,800 people in 74 countries, according to a tally by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published on July 22. A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic. On June 23, the WHO convened an emergency committee (EC) of experts to decide if monkeypox constitutes a so-called Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) -- the UN health agency's highest alert level. But a majority advised Tedros that the situation, at that point, had not met the threshold. The second meeting was called on Thursday with case numbers rising further, where Tedros said he was worried. "I need your advice in assessing the immediate and mid-term public health implications," Tedros told the meeting, which lasted more than six hours. A viral infection resembling smallpox and first detected in humans in 1970, monkeypox is less dangerous and contagious than smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980. The European Union's drug watchdog on Friday recommended for approval the use of Imvanex, a smallpox vaccine, to treat monkeypox. Imvanex, developed by Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic, has been approved in the EU since 2013 for the prevention of smallpox. It was also considered a potential vaccine for monkeypox because of the similarity between the monkeypox virus and the smallpox virus. The first symptoms of monkeypox are fever, headaches, muscle pain and back pain during the course of five days. Rashes subsequently appear on the face, the palms of hands and soles of the feet, followed by lesions, spots and finally scabs.