What will be left?’ 20,000 flee Canada city as fire surges
How do this year’s wildfires compare to previous years?
As you can see from the chart below, Canada is experiencing a record year for wildfires.
The comparison goes all the way back to 1983, which had a relatively minuscule amount of fires.
“It is by far the worst forest fire season in our history… it is an incredibly difficult year,” says Canada’s federal minister for environment and climate change, Steven Guilbeault.
Summary
- The evacuation of the northern Canadian city of Yellowknife is continuing as wildfires bear down
- As of Thursday, the fire was 15km (9 miles) north-west of the city, which is home to some 20,000 people
- Residents have been ordered to get out by noon on Friday and long queues have formed as locals wait for planes to evacuate them
- A separate fire about 2,000km (1200 miles) away has caused the city of Kelowna, home to 150,000 people, to declare a state of emergency and begin evacuations
- There are nearly 240 wildfires in the Northwest Territories as Canada battles with its worst fire season on record
Ecuador election: assassination looms large as voters prepare to go to polls
Winner of Sunday’s vote will face huge public demand to tackle violence after killing of candidate Fernando Villavicencio
The brazen assassination of a presidential candidate will hang heavy over Ecuadorian voters as they choose a new president this weekend, following the latest eruption of drug cartel violence in the once-peaceful nation.
The winner of Sunday’s vote will face an overwhelming public demand for security – but may not have the budget or the political capital to overhaul failed crime-fighting policies and fund new ones.
The killing of the journalist turned politician Fernando Villavicencio in broad daylight on 9 August – less than two weeks before the first-round vote – has transformed the presidential race. His name remains among the eight candidates on the ballot papers, but Christian Zurita, a close friend and fellow journalist, was chosen to run in his place.
Germany: AfD politician convicted over Holocaust remarks
In a Facebook post, the former Bundestag member for the far-right party had compared COVID measures with the persecution of Jews by the Nazis.
A court in the German city of Munich on Friday convicted a politician from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party over remarks comparing a coronavirus vaccination campaign with Nazi-era anti-Jewish pogroms.
Florian Jäger, who served as a member of Germany’s national parliament, the Bundestag, posted a video on his Facebook page in 2021.
In it, he claimed that the German government’s COVID measures were comparable with the November pogrom terror campaign against German Jews in 1938.
What the court said about the AfD politicians remarks
The court ruled that the comments in question amounted to incitement and sentenced Jäger to pay a fine of €2,700 ($2,930). The amount was reduced from €5,400 due to the poor state of the politician’s personal finances.
More than 2,400 killed in Haiti gang violence since January 1, says UN
More than 2,400 people have been killed in Haiti since the start of 2023 amid rampant gang violence, including hundreds killed in lynchings by vigilante mobs, the UN said Friday.
The toll comes as gang violence in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince this week left 30 residents dead and more than a dozen injured.
“Between January 1 and August 15 of this year, at least 2,439 people have been killed and a further 902 injured,” UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
In addition, she said, “951 people have been kidnapped” during the same period.
And as anger grows over the gang violence, she warned that a rise in popular justice movements and self-defence groups was spurring further violence.
“Since April 24 up to mid-August, more than 350 people have been lynched by local people and vigilante groups,” she said, adding that of those, 310 were alleged gang members and one was a police officer.
ECOWAS defence chiefs continue talks on possible Niger intervention
ECOWAS defence chiefs are attending a two-day meeting in Accra to fine-tune details of a potential military operation in Niger.
West African military chiefs are holding a second day of talks in Ghana on Friday, preparing for a possible armed intervention in Niger after a coup removed President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed a day earlier to activate a “standby force” as a last resort to restore democracy in Niger after generals toppled and detained Bazoum.
ECOWAS defence chiefs are having a two-day meeting in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, to fine-tune details of a potential military operation to restore Bazoum if continuing negotiations with coup leaders fail.
China’s ‘Lehman moment?’ Big investment firm misses payments
A major Chinese investment trust has missed payments to corporate investors, sparking a rare protest and adding to concerns that a slump in China’s property market could trigger a wider financial crisis.
At least three Chinese companies — Nacity Property Service, KBC Corporation and Xianheng International Science and Technology — said in separate stock exchange filings in recent weeks that Zhongrong Trust had failed to pay the interest and principal on several investment products. The scale of payments missed exceeded 110 million yuan ($15 million), according to their statements.
Zhongrong Trust, which managed $87 billion worth of funds for corporate clients and wealthy individuals as of the end of 2022, is one of thousands of wealth management firms in China that offer relatively high levels of return to investors.
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