Europe heatwave: France braces for record-breaking temperatures as Spain battles forest fires

Temperature could exceed 42C in parts of France as scientists warn heatwaves will hit earlier than usual due to climate change

^{People cool off under fountains in Nice, France. The French state weather forecaster says temperatures could reach 42C in some areas on Saturday. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock}

France, Spain and other western European nations braced for a sweltering weekend that is set to break records and sparked concern about forest fires and the effects of climate change.

Temperatures already nudged over 40C (104F) in parts of France on Friday.

The weather on Saturday will represent a peak of a June heatwave that is in line with warnings from scientists that such phenomena will now hit earlier than usual because of climate change.

Temperatures are due to relent slightly from Sunday, with thunderstorms forecast in parts of France and elsewhere in Europe.

But French state weather forecaster Meteo France said June temperature records had already been beaten in 11 areas on Friday and could reach as high as 42C in some areas on Saturday.

In Spain, forest fires burned nearly 9,000 hectares (22,240 acres) of land in the north-west Sierra de la Culebra region on Friday, forcing about 200 people from their homes, regional authorities said.

And more than 3,000 people were evacuated from the Puy du Fou theme park in central Spain due to a fierce fire nearby.

Firefighters were battling fires in several other regions, including woodlands in Catalonia, where weather conditions complicated the fight.

The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, praised firefighters “who risk their lives on the frontline of fires” on Friday, which is also World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.

Temperatures were above 35C Friday in most parts of the country.

^{A firefighting helicopter tries to put out a forest fire in Lladurs, Spain. Photograph: Eric Gomez/EPA}

– More than half of French departments were at the highest or second-highest heat alert level by the afternoon on Friday.

“Hospitals are at capacity, but are keeping up with demand,” the health minister, Brigitte Bourguignon, told reporters in Vienne, near Lyon in the south-east.

Schoolchildren were told to stay at home in departments at alert level “red” and the health ministry activated a special heatwave hotline.

The Red Cross also organised efforts to distribute fresh water to the homeless community in Toulouse, where temperatures are expected to soar to 38C on Saturday.

“There are more deaths of people in the streets in the summer than in the winter,” said volunteer Hugues Juglair, 67.

Meanwhile, rock and metal fans at the music festival Hellfest in western France were sprayed with water from hoses and enormous vaporisers in front of the stage as they headbanged to an opening-day line-up including Deftones and the Offspring.

“This is the earliest heatwave ever recorded in France” since 1947, said Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at Meteo France.

With “many monthly or even all-time temperature records likely to be beaten in several regions”, he called the weather a “marker of climate change”.

Several towns in northern Italy have announced water rationing and the Lombardy region may declare a state of emergency as a record drought threatens harvests.

The UK recorded its hottest day of the year on Friday, with temperatures reaching over 30C in the early afternoon, meteorologists said.

It was the third day in a row that temperature records had been broken in the UK, where it was over 28C on Wednesday and 29.5C on Thursday.

Experts warned that the high temperatures were caused by worrying climate change trends.

“As a result of climate change, heatwaves are starting earlier,” said Clare Nullis, a spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva.

“What we’re witnessing today is unfortunately a foretaste of the future” if concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continued to rise and pushed global warming towards 2C from pre-industrial levels, she added.

In France, special measures have been taken in care homes for elderly people, still haunted marked by the memory of a deadly 2003 heatwave.

Buildings are being sprayed down with water to cool them and residents are being rotated through air-conditioned rooms.

In the Gironde department, which includes Bordeaux, authorities said all public events outdoors or in non-air-conditioned venues would be banned from 2pm (12.00 GMT) on Friday, a measure set to be broadened across the region.

And speed limits in several regions, including around Paris, have been reduced to limit the concentration of harmful smog or ozone in the heat.

Fonte: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/18/europe-heatwave-france-braces-for-record-breaking-temperatures-as-spain-battles-forest-fires

Russian spy caught trying to infiltrate war crimes court, says Netherlands

Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov spent years building up fake ID and wanted to take up internship at ICC, says Dutch intelligence

^{The international criminal court in The Hague, Netherlands. Photograph: Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters}

A Russian spy tried and failed to secure an internship at the international criminal court (ICC) using the false identity of a Brazilian citizen that he had built up over more than a decade, according to Dutch intelligence.

Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, 36, accused of being an agent of Russia’s GRU military intelligence, flew to the Netherlands in April believing he had succeeded in an extraordinary attempt to gain inside access to the war crimes court, using the false identity of Viktor Muller Ferreira, 33.

However, Cherkasov had already been found out by western intelligence officers. When he arrived to take up his position, he was detained by Dutch immigration officials and sent back to Brazil, marking failure after years of preparation.

At the time, the ICC had begun to investigate alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Had Cherkasov succeeded he would have obtained access to the court’s email systems and might have been able to copy, tamper with or destroy documents or evidence submitted.

The spy had developed an elaborately constructed false identity over many years, marking him out as one of Russia’s prized programme of “illegals” – a spying programme that dates back to the cold war and has been revived extensively under Vladimir Putin.

Western sources fear the Ukraine crisis has prompted the GRU and other Russian agencies to take a more aggressive and potentially reckless attitude to their espionage operations, as Moscow has been dramatically isolated by the west since the invasion of Ukraine.

Erik Akerboom, the director general of the Dutch intelligence agency, said: “It clearly shows us what the Russians are up to, trying to gain illegal access to information within the ICC. We classify this as a high-level threat.”

The Dutch said that Cherkasov now faced court proceedings from the Brazilian authorities, although there was no immediate comment from Brazil on the case.

Illegals are Russian agents who are given false credentials from another country and tasked with building up a fake identity over many years, keeping it secret from partners and children, with a view to eventually reaching a position of influence.

Dutch intelligence published what it said was Cherkasov’s cover story, a short document originally written in a somewhat ungrammatical Portuguese, that it believed dated back to 2010.

The document, also translated into English, is a short summary, probably written by the spy himself, of his early life, known in the espionage community as a “legend” – and was probably intended to be memorised.

It suggests that Cherkasov arrived in August 2010 to look for his estranged father in Rio de Janeiro, who may have been taken in by the long-term deception.

“My farther [sic] came across as a very friendly and open person but to my surprise I blamed him for the deaths of my mother and aunt and all the difficulties and humiliations I had to suffer in my life,” the document says.

It concedes that the would-be spy “had forgotten Portuguese”, but after the meeting with the father, Cherkasov, alias Ferreria, decides to remain in Brazil “to learn the language and restore my citizenship”. According to the document, Cherkasov then moved to the Brazilian capital, Brasília, when he would have been 25.

But there are some details which suggest the spy was not obviously Brazilian. At school, the false backstory claims, “my fellow pupils used to joke about my looks and accent”. The document continues: “Even though I looked like a German, they called me ‘gringo’. That is why I did not have many friends.”

It also notes that Ferreira hates fish, “contrary to most other Brazilian people who enjoy all the sea has to offer”, because he disliked the “stench of fish” from a port near a home where he supposedly grew up.

There is other baffling incidental detail, claiming that he had a “real and honest crush” on his school geography teacher; that a garage where he worked had a poster of “a young Verónica Castro … replaced by one of Pamela Anderson”, and that he regularly visited “the only nightclub that plays trance music” in the capital, accompanied by its address.

The ICC thanked the Dutch for exposing the spy but gave few other details of the incident.

“The International Criminal Court was briefed by the Dutch authorities and is very thankful to The Netherlands for this important operation and more generally for exposing security threats,” spokeswoman Sonia Robla said in a statement to AFP.

There was no immediate reaction from Russia.

The Dutch have a history of exposing Russian intelligence operations on their soil, and particularly in The Hague where dozens of international courts and organisations are based.

Fonte: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/jun/16/russian-spy-caught-trying-to-infiltrate-war-crimes-court-says-netherlands

Ukraine facing grinding campaign as it waits for weapons

By JOHN LEICESTER and ELENA BECATOROS

^{A Ukrainian serviceman patrols a village near the frontline in the Donetsk oblast region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, June 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)}

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces locked in a grinding battle for control of the country’s east struggled to hold off Russian troops and buy themselves some time Thursday while they await the arrival of the advanced rockets and anti-aircraft weapons promised by the West.

With the arms deliveries possibly weeks away, Ukraine is looking at a prolonged period of grueling combat, military analysts said.

“There’s a time lag, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough for our Ukrainian friends,” said retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commanding general of U.S. Army forces in Europe.

Ukraine is intent on exhausting Russian forces, as evidenced by street-to-street fighting in the critical eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, said Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov.

“And this can go on for quite some time,” he warned.

Britain on Thursday pledged to send sophisticated medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine, joining the U.S and Germany in equipping the country with some of the advanced weapons it had been begging for for shooting down aircraft and destroying artillery and supply lines.

Western arms have been critical to Ukraine’s success in stymieing Russia’s much larger and better-equipped military during the war, which was in its 99th day Thursday.

The Kremlin warned of “absolutely undesirable and rather unpleasant scenarios” if the latest Western-supplied weapons are fired into Russia.

“This pumping of Ukraine with weapons … will bring more suffering to Ukraine, which is merely a tool in the hands of those countries that supply it with weapons,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russian forces continued to pound towns and cities overnight and to tighten their grip on Sievierodonetsk in Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region, which Moscow is intent on seizing.

Britain’s Defense Ministry reported that Russia had captured most of Sievierodonetsk, one of two cities in Luhansk province that had remained under Ukrainian control. The Donbas is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.

Meanwhile, residents forced to flee the Kyiv area after the Russians’ abortive attempt to storm the capital weeks ago confronted the overwhelming task of rebuilding their shattered lives.

Nila Zelinska and her husband, Eduard, returned for the first time to the charred ruins of their home outside Kyiv. They fled with her 82-year-old mother amid Russian shelling and airstrikes in the early days of the war.

A sobbing Zelinska recovered from the rubble a doll that belonged to one of her grandchildren, clutching it as if it were a real child.

“May there be peace on earth, peace so that our people are not suffering so much,” she said.

Speaking by video link to a security conference in Slovakia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for even more weapons and sanctions against Russia to halt such horrors.

“As of today, the occupiers control almost 20% of our territory,” he said.

Zelenskyy said Russia had fired 15 cruise missiles in the past day and used a total of 2,478 missiles since invading Ukraine. He said “most of them targeted civil infrastructure.”

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain will send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles). Ukrainian troops will be trained in Britain to use the equipment, he said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. said it would supply advanced rocket launchers to Ukraine, and Germany agreed to provide up-to-date anti-aircraft missiles and radar systems.

Analysts think Russia is hoping to overrun the Donbas before any weapons that might turn the tide arrive. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said.

Military analyst Zhdanov said Russia stepped up missile strikes in response to the newly promised arms.

“Supplies of Western weapons are of great concern for the Kremlin, because even without sufficient weapons the Ukrainian army is daringly resisting the offensive,” he said.

Zhdanov predicted Russian forces will be exhausted when the fierce fighting in and around Sievierodonetsk is over, giving Ukraine time to get the weapons and prepare a counteroffensive.

Kyiv also got a diplomatic boost with the formal installation Thursday of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink.

Brink said her top priority “is to help Ukraine prevail against Russian aggression.”

“There is no place on the planet I would rather be,” she said after presenting her credentials to Zelenskyy. “President Biden has said that we’re going to be here, helping Ukraine, for as long as it takes. And that’s what we’ll do.”

Brink is Washington’s first ambassador in Kyiv since former U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Fonte: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-government-and-politics-moscow-61ef29e1911bf2e38a19a6110e764e09

Ukraine aide says any Moscow deal not worth ‘broken penny’, Zelenskiy says Russia officials powerless

^{Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, receives questions from a member of the media after a meeting with Russian negotiators in Istanbul, Turkey March 29, 2022. REUTERS/Kemal Aslan/File Photo}

KYIV, May 28 (Reuters) – Ukrainian presidential adviser and peace talks negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Saturday that any agreement with Russia could not be trusted, adding the only way to stop Moscow’s invasion was by force.

“Any agreement with Russia isn’t worth a broken penny,” Podolyak wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Is it possible to negotiate with a country that always lies cynically and propagandistically?”

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other after peace talks stalled, with the last known face-to-face negotiations on March 29. The Kremlin said earlier this month Ukraine was showing no willingness to continue peace talks, while officials in Kyiv blamed Russia for the lack of progress. read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the only person worth talking to was Russian President Vladimir Putin, since he made all the decisions.

“It doesn’t matter what their foreign minister says. It doesn’t matter that he sends some negotiating group to us … all these people are nobodies, unfortunately,” he told Dutch television in an interview filmed on Friday.

Putin says Russian forces are on a special operation to demilitarise Ukraine and rid it of radical anti-Russian nationalists. Ukraine and its allies call that a false pretext.

“Russia has proved that it is a barbarian country that threatens world security,” Podolyak said. “A barbarian can only be stopped by force.”

Fonte: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-negotiator-says-any-agreement-with-russia-isnt-worth-broken-penny-2022-05-28/

Europe: WHO supporting countries affected by rare monkeypox outbreak

^{© CDC/Cynthia S. Goldsmith
Monkeypox is a rare but dangerous infection similar to the now eradicated smallpox virus.}

The World Health Organization (WHO) is working closely with countries where cases of the rare viral disease monkeypox have been reported, the UN agency said on Friday. The UN agency said in a statement that there were around 80 cases confirmed so far, across 11 countries, with a further 50 cases pending investigation.

Monkeypox occurs primarily in tropical rainforest areas of Central and West Africa, but outbreaks have emerged in other parts of the world in recent days. Symptoms include fever, rash, and swollen lymph nodes.

WHO said it was “working with the affected countries and others to expand disease surveillance to find and support people who may be affected, and to provide guidance on how to manage the disease.”

The UN health agency stressed that monkeypox spreads differently from COVID-19, encouraging all people “to stay informed from reliable sources, such as national health authorities” on the extent of any outbreak in their own communities.

WHO said in an earlier news release at least eight countries are affected in Europe – Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

No travel link

Hans Kluge, Europe Regional Director for the UN agency, said the cases are atypical, citing three reasons. 

All but one, are not linked to travel to endemic countries. Many were detected through sexual health services and are among men who have sex with men.  Furthermore, it is suspected that transmission may have been ongoing for some time, as the cases are geographically dispersed across Europe and beyond.

Most of the cases are so far mild, he added.

“monkeypox is usually a self-limiting illness, and most of those infected will recover within a few weeks without treatment,” said Dr. Kluge. “However, the disease can be more severe, especially in young children, pregnant women, and individuals who are immunocompromised.”

Working to limit transmission

WHO is working with the concerned countries, including to determine the likely source of infection, how the virus is spreading, and how to limit further transmission.

Countries are also receiving guidance and support on surveillance, testing, infection prevention and control, clinical management, risk communication and community engagement.

Concern over summer uptick

monkeypox virus is mostly transmitted to humans from wild animals such as rodents and primates.   It is also spread between humans during close contact – through infected skin lesions, exhaled droplets or body fluids, including sexual contact – or through contact with contaminated materials such as bedding.

People suspected of having the disease should be checked and isolated.

“As we enter the summer season in the European Region, with mass gatherings, festivals and parties, I am concerned that transmission could accelerate, as the cases currently being detected are among those engaging in sexual activity, and the symptoms are unfamiliar to many,” said Dr. Kluge.

He added that handwashing, as well as other measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, are also critical to reduce transmission in healthcare settings.

Cases in other regions

Australia, Canada, and the United States are also among non-endemic countries that have reported cases of monkeypox.

The US detected its first case for the year after a man in the northeastern state of Massachusetts tested positive on Tuesday following recent travel to Canada.

Health authorities in New York City, home to UN Headquarters, are also investigating a possible case after a patient at a hospital tested positive on Thursday.

The US recorded two monkeypox cases in 2021, both related to travel from Nigeria.

Fonte: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/05/1118712

Ukraine prosecutor seeks life sentence for Russian soldier in war crimes trial

By Max Hunder and Tom Balmforth

^{Russian soldier Vadim Shishimarin, 21, suspected of violations of the laws and norms of war, sits inside a defendants’ cage during a court hearing, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine May 13, 2022. REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi}

KYIV, May 19 (Reuters) – A Ukrainian state prosecutor asked a court on Thursday to sentence a Russian soldier to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian in the first war crimes trial arising from Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.

Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old Russian tank commander, asked widow Kateryna Shelipova to forgive him for the murder of her husband, Oleksandr, in the northeast Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka on Feb. 28.

“I acknowledge my blame … I ask you to forgive me,” he told Shelipova at the hearing on Thursday attended by Reuters.

He pleaded guilty to the murder on Wednesday. read more

Oleksandr Shelipov’s killing was one of what Ukraine and Western nations say is a far wider picture: Ukraine has accused Russia of atrocities and brutality against civilians during the invasion and said it has identified more than 10,000 possible war crimes. Russia has denied targeting civilians or involvement in war crimes.

At Thursday’s court hearing, Shishimarin cut a forlorn spectacle in a glass booth for defendants – boyish, dressed in a tracksuit and with his shaven head lowered.

The Kremlin has said it has no information about the trial and that the absence of a diplomatic mission in Ukraine limits its ability to provide assistance.

The widow told the court that on the day her husband was killed, she had heard distant shots fired from their yard and that she had called out to her husband.

“I ran over to my husband, he was already dead. Shot in the head. I screamed, I screamed so much,” she said. She looked distraught and her voice trembled with emotion.

Shelipova told the court she would not object if Shishimarin was released to Russia as part of a prisoner swap to get “our boys” out of the port city of Mariupol, a reference to hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who have given themselves up to Russia. read more

The trial takes place as much of Ukraine is gripped by the fate of its soldiers who it hopes Russia will hand over as part of an exchange. In Russia, some senior lawmakers have called for the Azov Regiment fighters to be put on trial.

Shelipova said her husband had been unarmed and was dressed in civilian clothes. They had a 27-year-old son and two grandchildren together, she added.

Ukrainian state prosecutors have said Shishimarin fired several shots with an assault rifle at a civilian’s head from a car after being ordered to do so. read more

Asked if he had been obliged to follow an order that amounted to a war crime, Shishimarin said “no”.

“I fired a short burst, three or four bullets,” he told the court.

“I am from Irkutsk Oblast (a region in Siberia), I have two brothers and two sisters … I am the eldest,” he said.

Fonte: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-soldier-asks-forgiveness-ukraine-war-crimes-trial-2022-05-19/

Putin warns Finland NATO membership would harm relations

By JARI TANNER

^{FILE – Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto makes a point during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Finland appears on the cusp of joining NATO. Sweden could follow suit. By year’s end, they could stand among the alliance’s ranks. Russia’s war in Ukraine has provoked a public about face on membership in the two Nordic countries. They are already NATO’s closest partners, but should Russia respond to their membership moves they might soon need the organization’s military support. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool, File)}

HELSINKI (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin warned his Finnish counterpart Saturday that relations between the two neighbors could be “negatively affected” if Finland follows through with plans to apply for NATO membership.

The Kremlin’s press service said in a statement that Putin told Sauli Niinisto Finland’s abandonment “of its traditional policy of military neutrality would be an error since there are no threats to Finland’s security.”

“Such a change in the country’s foreign policy could negatively affect Russian-Finnish relations, which had been built in the spirit of good neighborliness and partnership for many years, and were mutually beneficial,” the statement added.

The response came after Niinisto told Putin in a phone conversation that the militarily non-aligned Nordic country, which has a complex history with its huge eastern neighbor, “will decide to apply for NATO membership in the coming days.”

Niinisto’s office said in a statement that the Finnish head of state told Putin how starkly Finland’s security environment had changed after Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, and pointed to Russia’s demands for Finland to refrain from seeking membership of the 30-nation Western military alliance.

“The discussion (with Putin) was straightforward and unambiguous and was held without exaggeration. Avoiding tensions was considered important,” said Niinisto, Finland’s president since 2012 and one of a handful of Western leaders who has been in regular dialogue with Putin over the past decade.

Niinisto pointed out that he had already told Putin at their first meeting in 2012 that “each independent nation would maximize its own security.”

“That is still the case. By joining NATO, Finland will strengthen its own security and assume its responsibilities,” Niinisto said.

Niinisto stressed that Finland, despite its likely future membership in NATO, wants to continue to deal with Russia bilaterally in “practical issues generated by the border neighborhood” and hopes to engage with Moscow “in a professional manner.”

According to the Kremlin statement, the two leaders also discussed Russia’s “military operation” in Ukraine, and the possibility of achieving a political solution. Putin said negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv had been suspended due to Ukraine’s “lack of interest in a serious and constructive dialogue.”

The phone call was conducted on Finland’s initiative, Niinisto’s office said.

Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia, the longest by any European Union member.

Niinisto and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Thursday jointly endorsed their country’s NATO bid and recommended that Finland “must apply for NATO membership without delay” to guarantee its security.

A formal announcement from Niinisto and Marin of Finland’s intention to apply for NATO membership is expected on Sunday. Marin’s governing Social Democratic Party approved the membership bid on Saturday, paving way for a parliamentary vote next week to endorse the move. It’s expected to pass with overwhelming support. A formal membership application would then be submitted to NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Neighboring Sweden is set to decide on its NATO stance on Sunday at a meeting of the governing Social Democratic Party led by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.

One possible hurdle to Finland and Sweden joining the alliance came from NATO member Turkey, whose president said Friday he was “not favorable” to the idea.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan cited support in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries for Kurdish militants — whom Turkey considers to be terrorists.

Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Saturday that he had already called his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, “to take the tensions down.”

“I’m sure that we will find a solution to this item as well,” he told reporters at the start of an informal NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Berlin late Saturday.

U.S. President Joe Biden held a joint call Friday with both Niinisto and Andersson where, according to a White House statement, he “underscored his support for NATO’s Open Door policy and for the right of Finland and Sweden to decide their own future, foreign policy and security arrangements.”

Fonte: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-sauli-niinisto-cd1f994d0bb8a38fced938ce4c4ec28d