AFIDNES, Greece: Fires raging in Greece claimed their first two lives on Friday during a punishing heatwave, while devastating wildfires in neighboring Turkey piled pressure on the Turkish government.
Greece and Turkey have been fighting blaze upon blaze over the past week, hit by the region’s worst heatwave in decades, a disaster that officials and experts have linked to increasingly frequent and intense weather events caused by climate change.
A UN draft report seen by AFP has warned that the Mediterranean region, which it called a “climate change hotspot,” will be hit by fiercer heatwaves, droughts and fires supercharged by rising temperatures.
Hundreds of people have been evacuated in both countries as temperatures hover between 40 to 45 degrees Celsius (104 to 113 Fahrenheit).
A 38-year-old man from Ippokrateio, a town north of Athens hit by giant flames, died in hospital on Friday after being hit by a falling electric pole as he was riding a moped, the health ministry said.
In the nearby town of Krioneri, Konstantinos Michalos, the president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was found unconscious in a factory and was transported to hospital where he was also confirmed dead, a hospital source said.
They are the first two deaths recorded from the fires in Greece, while 18 people have been injured, most with respiratory problems or minor burns. Two volunteer firefighters have been hospitalized in a critical condition, local media reported.
In Turkey, some eight people have been killed and dozens more hospitalized during 10 days of fire.
“Our country is facing an extremely critical situation,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.
“We’re facing unprecedented conditions after several days of heatwave have turned the country into a powder keg.”
North of Athens, a fierce blaze tore through vast areas of pine forest, forcing yet more evacuations of villages overnight and blowing thick, choking smoke all over the Greek capital.
Text alerts were sent out to people in Athens warning of “extreme fire danger in the coming days.”
In the small town of Afidnes, 30 kilometers (12 miles) north of the capital, firefighters were seen standing on their truck in the dead of night, dousing flames that leapt high above them.
In the morning, the fires had left desolation in their wake — burnt cars, trees, and houses destroyed.
In nearby Krioneri, the fire scorched homes, businesses and factories.
“The fire is uncontrollable,” said resident Vassiliki Papapanagiotis. “I don’t want to leave, my whole life is here.”
Part of a motorway linking Athens to the north of the country has been shut down as a precaution.
Around 5,000 residents and tourists were evacuated in the southern Peloponnese town of Gytheio, the ERT channel reported.
Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias said that out of 99 fires reported on Thursday, 56 were still active.
At least 450 Greek firefighters were fighting the blaze, along with water-dropping air support and reinforcements from France, Switzerland, Romania, Sweden, Israel and Cyprus.
In Turkey, 208 fires have flared up since July 28, and 12 were still ablaze on Friday, according to the presidency.
In one particularly critical event earlier this week, winds whipped up a flash fire that subsumed the grounds of an Aegean coast power plant in Turkey storing thousands of tons of coal.
More evacuations took place on Friday in five Turkish provinces, including tourist hotspots Antalya and Mugla, according to NTV.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has come under withering criticism for being slow or unwilling to accept some offers of foreign assistance after revealing that Turkey had no functioning firefighting planes.
The Turkish government is also facing pressure after the opposition referred to a report which showed only a fraction of the budget for forest fire prevention had been spent.
The General Directorate of Forestry (OGM) spent only 1.75 percent of nearly 200 million Turkish lira ($23 million) allocated for forest fires in the first six months of 2021, main opposition party MP Murat Emir said, referring to numbers apparently from the state agency’s own report.
“This is a situation that one could go as far as to describe as treachery,” he told AFP.
Extreme fires like those in Greece and Turkey will become even worse, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in a draft report due out next year seen by AFP.
“Climate change is forcing Mediterranean landscapes into a flammable state more regularly by drying out vegetation and priming it to burn,” said Matthew Jones, research fellow at the University of East Anglia’s Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research.
Greece fires claim first deaths as Turkey under pressure
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Greece fires claim first deaths as Turkey under pressure
- Greece and Turkey have been fighting blaze upon blaze over the past week
- A UN draft report seen by AFP has warned that the Mediterranean region will be hit by fiercer heatwaves, droughts and fires supercharged by rising temperatures
Indian private university opens first international campus in Dubai
- Indian FM inaugurated the Dubai campus of Symbiosis International University on Thursday
- Under national education policy, New Delhi wants to internationalize Indian education system
New Delhi: A private Indian university has opened its first international campus in Dubai this week, marking a growing education cooperation between New Delhi and Abu Dhabi.
Symbiosis International University is a private higher education institution based in the western Indian city of Pune with at least five other campuses operating across the country, offering undergraduate, postgraduate and doctorate-level programs.
It is considered one of the top private business schools in the South Asian country, ranking 13th in management in the Indian Ministry of Education’s National Institutional Ranking Framework.
SIU’s Dubai campus, which will offer management, technology and media and communications courses, was officially inaugurated on Thursday by Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the UAE minister of tolerance and coexistence.
“I am sure that this campus will foster greater collaboration and research linkages between scholars of India and UAE, for mutual prosperity and global good,” Jaishankar said during the ceremony.
“(The) ceremony is not just an inauguration of a new campus; it is a celebration of the growing educational cooperation between our two countries. Right now, Indian curriculum and learning is being imparted through more than 100 International Indian Schools in UAE, benefitting more than 300,000 students.”
Under India’s National Education Policy 2020, New Delhi aims to internationalize the Indian education system, including by establishing campuses abroad.
Another top Indian school, the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, began its first undergraduate courses in September, after starting its teaching program in January with a master’s course in energy transition and sustainability.
Initially launched in September with more than 100 students, the SIU Dubai Campus is the first Indian university in Dubai to start operations with full accreditation and licensing from the UAE’s top education authorities, including the Ministry of Education.
“A university setting up a campus abroad is not just a bold step, but a concrete commitment to the goal of globalizing India. They certainly render an educational service, but even more, connect us to the world by strengthening our living bridges,” Jaishankar added as he addressed the students.
Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar, pro-chancellor of Symbiosis International University, said that the school’s establishment in Dubai was in line with the UAE’s education goals.
“Internationalization is central to the UAE’s educational vision,” Yeravdekar said on Friday.
“By opening our campus in Dubai, we are creating a gateway for students from around the world to engage in a truly global academic experience, where they can benefit from international faculty, real-world industry collaborations, and a curriculum that meets the needs of a changing world.”
Russia captures two villages in eastern Ukraine, defense ministry says, according to agencies
MOSCOW: Russian forces have captured the villages of Makarivka and Leninskoye in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russian news agencies reported on Saturday, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.
UN climate chief asks G20 leaders for boost as finance talks lag
- Negotiators at the COP29 conference in Baku struggle in their negotiations for a deal intended to scale up money to address the worsening impacts of global warming
BAKU: The UN’s climate chief called on leaders of the world’s biggest economies on Saturday to send a signal of support for global climate finance efforts when they meet in Rio de Janeiro next week. The plea, made in a letter to G20 leaders from UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, comes as negotiators at the COP29 conference in Baku struggle in their negotiations for a deal intended to scale up money to address the worsening impacts of global warming.
“Next week’s summit must send crystal clear global signals,” Stiell said in the letter.
He said the signal should support an increase in grants and loans, along with debt relief, so vulnerable countries “are not hamstrung by debt servicing costs that make bolder climate actions all but impossible.”
Business leaders echoed Stiell’s plea, saying they were concerned about the “lack of progress and focus in Baku.”
“We call on governments, led by the G20, to meet the moment and deliver the policies for an accelerated shift from fossil fuels to a clean energy future, to unlock the essential private sector investment needed,” said a coalition of business groups, including the We Mean Business Coalition, United Nations Global Compact and the Brazilian Council for Sustainable Development, in a separate letter.
Success at this year’s UN climate summit hinges on whether countries can agree on a new finance target for richer countries, development lenders and the private sector to deliver each year. Developing countries need at least $1 trillion annually by the end of the decade to cope with climate change, economists told the UN talks.
But negotiators have made slow progress midway through the two-week conference. A draft text of the deal, which earlier this week was 33-pages long and comprised of dozens of wide-ranging options, had been pared down to 25 pages as of Saturday.
Sweden’s climate envoy, Mattias Frumerie, said the finance negotiations had not yet cracked the toughest issues: how big the target should be, or which countries should pay.
“The divisions we saw coming into the meeting are still there, which leaves quite a lot of work for ministers next week,” he said.
European negotiators have said large oil-producing nations including Saudi Arabia are also blocking discussions on how to take forward last year’s COP28 summit deal to transition the world away from fossil fuels.
Saudi Arabia’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Progress on this issue has been dire so far, one European negotiator said.
Uganda’s energy minister, Ruth Nankabirwa, said her country’s priority was to leave COP29 with a deal on affordable financing for clean energy projects.
“When you look around and you don’t have the money, then we keep wondering whether we will ever walk the journey of a real energy transition,” she said.
Protesters’ biggest day expected at UN climate talks, where progress is slow
- Several experts have said $1 trillion a year or more is needed both to compensate for such damages and to pay for a clean-energy transition that most countries can’t afford on their own
BAKU: The United Nations climate talks neared the end of their first week on Saturday with negotiators still at work on how much wealthier nations will pay for developing countries to adapt to planetary warming. Meanwhile, activists planned actions on what is traditionally their biggest protest day during the two-week talks.
The demonstration in Baku, Azerbaijan is expected to be echoed at sites around the world in a global “day of action” for climate justice that’s become an annual event.
Negotiators at COP29, as the talks are known, will return to a hoped-for deal that might be worth hundreds of billions of dollars to poorer nations. Many are in the Global South and already suffering the costly impacts of weather disasters fueled by climate change. Several experts have said $1 trillion a year or more is needed both to compensate for such damages and to pay for a clean-energy transition that most countries can’t afford on their own.
Panama environment minister Juan Carlos Navarro told The Associated Press he is “not encouraged” by what he’s seeing at COP29 so far.
“What I see is a lot of talk and very little action,” he said, noting that Panama is among the group of countries least responsible for warming emissions but most vulnerable to the damage caused by climate change-fueled disasters. He added that financing was not a point of consensus at the COP16 biodiversity talks this year, which suggests to him that may be a sticking point at these talks as well.
“We must face these challenges with a true sense of urgency and sincerity,” he said. “We are dragging our feet as a planet.”
The talks came in for criticism on several fronts Friday. Two former top UN officials signed a letter that suggested the process needs to shift from negotiation to implementation. And others, including former US Vice President Al Gore, criticized the looming presence of the fossil fuel industry and fossil-fuel-reliant nations in the talks. One analysis found at least 1,770 people with fossil fuel ties on the attendees list for the Baku talks.
Progress may get a boost as many nations’ ministers, whose approval is necessary for whatever negotiators do, arrive in the second week.
US plane hit by gunfire on Dallas runway: aviation agency
WASHINGTON: A Southwest Airlines plane was hit by gunfire while taking off from an airport in the US city of Dallas on Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
“While taxiing for takeoff at Dallas Love Field Airport, Southwest Airlines Flight 2494 was reportedly struck by gunfire near the cockpit,” a statement on the FAA’s website said.
“The Boeing 737-800 returned to the gate, where passengers deplaned.”
The incident happened at around 8:30 p.m. Friday (0230 GMT Saturday), with the flight headed from Dallas, Texas, to Indianapolis, Indiana.
There were no reported injuries, according to a statement from Dallas Love Field Airport on social media platform X.
