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Heatwave grips Spain as UK readies for soaring temperatures

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Spain and Portugal were sweltering in their second heatwave in a month on Monday, with scorching temperatures also expected in France and Britain in the coming days.

In Spain the southern city of Seville recorded Monday’s highest temperature with the mercury hitting 42.4 degrees Celsius (108.3 Fahrenheit), according to Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET.

Temperatures neared 42 degrees Celsius in the eastern cities of Badajoz and Merida, it added.

“This heatwave really has the potential to be exceptional,” said AEMET spokesman Ruben del Campo.

The current temperature surge began Sunday and could “last nine or ten days, which would make it one of the three longest heat waves Spain has seen since 1975,” he told AFP.

Heatwaves have become more frequent due to climate change, scientists say. As global temperatures rise over time, heatwaves are expected to become more intense.

June also saw Spain grapple with temperatures above 40C in swathes of the country.

The previous month was Spain’s hottest May since the beginning of the century.

In August 2021 Spain recorded its highest ever temperature when the mercury reached 47.4C in the southern town of Montoro.

Meteorologists did not rule out the prospect of that record being broken in the coming days.

The heightened temperatures have been accompanied by a lack of rainfall.

Reservoirs in Spain stood at 45.3 percent of capacity on Monday, well below the average of 65.7 percent recorded during the same period over the past decade.

In neighbouring Portugal temperatures topped 44C over the weekend, fuelling wildfires and vast smoke clouds which were visible in the capital Lisbon.

Firefighters brought the largest blaze under control on Monday after it had burned through swathes of the central municipality of Ourem, local officials said.

– ‘Maximum risk’ –

While temperatures eased somewhat in Portugal on Monday they were expected to soar again in the coming days with 44C forecast for the southeastern city of Evora.

“In the coming days we will experience conditions of maximum risk,” Prime Minister Antonio Costa said.

“The slightest lapse in vigilance could result in a fire of significant proportions.”

A front of hot air began pushing into France on Monday, with the mercury rising above 30C across much of the country, according to national weather forecaster Meteo-France.

Temperatures could hit 39C in some parts of France on Tuesday, it added.

The heat wave should reach its peak between Saturday and next Tuesday, said Sebastien Leas of Meteo-France.

Britain on Monday issued an extreme heat warning, with temperatures predicted to hit more than 30C across large parts of England and Wales.

The extreme heat warning was classified as “amber”, the second-highest alert level, indicating a “high impact” on daily life and people.

Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Rebekah Sherwin said the UK highs would continue into early next week.

“From Sunday and into Monday, temperatures are likely to be in excess of 35C in the southeast (of England), although the details still remain uncertain,” she said.

Kyiv warns Russia will step up Donbas fight, six killed in Kharkiv

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Ukraine warned Monday that Russian forces were preparing to intensify their fight for key cities in the Donbas, where the death toll from a weekend attack rose to 30 as rocket strikes killed six in the country’s second city.

The attacks in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine came as Europe braced for deeper cuts in gas supplies from Russia.

Kharkiv regional chief Oleg Synyegubov said Russian fire on Monday targeted “a shopping centre and civilian residences”.

Prosecutors in his region said “six civilians were killed, including a 17-year-old and his father, who were driving past” at the time of the attack, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Russian state-run news agency TASS reported meanwhile that the pro-Moscow head of the Russian-occupied village of Velikiy Burluk in Kharkiv had been killed after his car was blown up.

The Russian-run administration there blamed Yevgeny Yunakov’s death on a “terror attack” organised by Ukrainian authorities, according to TASS.

In eastern Ukraine — the focal point for a grinding Russian offensive — 30 people were left dead by Russian strikes over the weekend on the town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, the emergency services said.

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed “more than 300” Ukrainian combatants had been killed in a Russian strike near Chasiv Yar, without giving a date.

Having fought long battles to capture areas of the eastern Lugansk region, Russian troops are now turning their focus to Donetsk as they look to take control of the whole Donbas.

The eastern region was under persistent shelling, but Russian ground attacks were all but paused, the Ukrainian army said Monday.

– ‘No safe place’ –

It warned, however, that Russian troops were likely planning to launch some of their heaviest attacks yet in the Donetsk region.

“There are signs of enemy units preparing to intensify combat operations in the direction of Kramatorsk and Bakhmut,” it said, referring to two main cities still under Ukrainian control.

Moscow’s slow advance into the east — despite fierce Ukrainian resistance emboldened by recent deliveries of Western-supplied artillery — contrasts with their failure to capture the capital Kyiv at the start of the invasion.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte during a visit to Kyiv said his country would supply Ukraine with more long-range artillery and an aid package worth 200 million euro ($201 million).

“This war may last longer than we all hoped or expected. But that does not mean we can sit back and passively watch how it unfolds. We have to stay focused and continue to support Ukraine in every way,” Rutte told a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Western weapons — in particular, precision, long-range artillery — were “already changing the course of the war,” Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said earlier Monday.

In Bucha, a town outside Kyiv, 36-year-old web designer Maxim said just three months ago, Russian soldiers were rummaging through his home and sleeping in his children’s bedroom.

“In this atmosphere, I feel like nothing can happen and that life is normal,” he said, sitting with his family outside his home.

“But we know there’s a war and there’s no place safe in Ukraine right now.”

– Gas worries –

The repercussions of the conflict were being felt in western Europe as Russian gas giant Gazprom on Monday began more than a week of routine maintenance on its Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

Germany and other European countries cast a worried eye on energy supplies after Italy’s Eni and Austria’s OMV said Gazprom was further reducing the supply of gas.

Eni said flows were dropping to 21 million cubic meters (741 million cubic feet) per day, down from a recent average of about 32 million, while OMV said it would see a 70-percent reduction.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Germany suspended certification of a second pipeline, Nord Stream 2, as fears grew over Europe’s massive dependence on Russian gas.

In a bureaucratic swipe at Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree to fast-track citizenship for all Ukrainians.

The foreign ministry in Kyiv hit back calling it “another encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, incompatible with the norms and principles of international law.

The decree builds on previous orders — including one issued earlier in the invasion — making it easier for Ukrainians living under Moscow-occupied territory to receive Russian passports.

Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, strongman Alexander Lukashenko, meanwhile discussed possible joint measures against neighbouring Lithuania over its “illegal” transit restrictions affecting Moscow’s exclave of Kaliningrad.

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Biden says guns turning US neighborhoods into 'killing fields'

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

US President Joe Biden said Monday that a flood of guns is turning US communities into “killing fields” and vowed to reinstate a ban on assault rifles.

In a White House ceremony to mark new gun control legislation that he signed on June 25, Biden said it was the first significant progress in 30 years, but did not go far enough to rein in US gun violence.

“This has taken too long, with too much of a trail of bloodshed and carnage,” Biden said.

“The past many years, across our schools, places of worship, workplaces, stores, music festivals, nightclubs, and so many other everyday places, they have turned into killing fields.”

Biden cited recent mass shootings that left 19 students and two teachers dead at the primary school in Uvalde, Texas, 10 dead at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and seven killed at a Highland Park, Illinois July 4 parade.

In addition, Biden said, every day there are “tragic killings that don’t make the headlines.”

“Neighbourhoods and streets have been turned into killing fields as well,” he said.

Biden pledged to restore a ban on assault rifles that existed from 1994 to 2004. After it was lifted, millions of the high-powered semi-automatic war weapons were sold across the country, and used repeatedly in mass shootings.

“I’m determined to ban these weapons again…. I’m not going to stop until we do it,” he said.

Biden also called for legislation that would require gun owners to store their guns securely in homes, saying he himself did so with the shotguns he owns — two his, and two of his late son.

“I have four shotguns… that are locked up,” he said. “Every responsible gun owner that I know does that.”

Biden said he supports the constitutional right to bear arms, but also pointed out that guns have become the number one killer of children across the country.

“We also have a right to live freely, without fear for our lives,” he said.

James Bond theme composer Monty Norman dies aged 94

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

British composer Monty Norman, best known for writing the iconic theme music for the James Bond films, died on Monday at the age of 94, his official website announced.

“It is with sadness we share the news that Monty Norman died on 11th July 2022 after a short illness,” read the statement.

Norman was born Monty Noserovitch in east London, to Jewish parents, on April 4, 1928.

He began his singing career with big bands before turning to composing, penning songs for musicals and films including “Songbook” and “Poppy and Make Me An Offer” and for pop stars such as Cliff Richard.

His best-known work came when he was asked to score the first James Bond film, “Dr No”, in 1962, although the producers drafted in John Barry to rearrange the piece.

Barry said he had actually written the piece, but Norman won a libel case against the Sunday Times when it made similar claims.

The theme became an integral part of the Bond brand, featuring in 24 subsequent films.

Global stocks down ahead of earnings, inflation data

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Global stock markets slid Monday as investors braced for the start of the US corporate earnings season later this week and a key US inflation report.

The euro continued to head towards parity against the dollar as the European Commission said it would again cut its growth forecast for the current year and hike expectations for inflation.

“It is no longer a question of if euro-dollar will fall to one, but more a question of how quickly and will it stop there,” City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta told AFP.

“With energy security concerns rising by the day in Europe, a recession seems almost impossible to avoid,” the expert said.

At the same time, a strong US jobs report meant that an interest hike of a full percentage point “can’t be discounted,” Cincotta said.

“The diverging economic outlooks and the significantly more hawkish Fed means that euro-dollar could comfortably fall below parity,” she said.

OANDA analyst, Craig Erlam, also felt it was “only a matter of time until euro-dollar hits parity.

“It shows how quickly the situation has evolved and economic pessimism has set in. Europe isn’t alone on this, but the energy dynamic leaves it particularly vulnerable and a recession is increasingly looking inevitable,” Erlam said.

While the European Central Bank is readying to raise interest rates for the first time in 11 years, “It’s offering little support for the single currency as any hikes will simply compound the economic misery at this point,” the analyst said.

– China growth fears –

The prospect of another coronavirus lockdown sparked an equities sell-off in Hong Kong and Shanghai on Monday.

Chinese tech firms took a battering after authorities fined giant Tencent and Alibaba over not properly reporting past deals.

Hong Kong-listed casino operators were also sharply lower after officials in Macau embarked on a week-long lockdown to curb its worst coronavirus outbreak.

There were also losses in Sydney, Seoul, Taipei, Manila, Mumbai, Jakarta and Wellington.

However, Tokyo rose as traders welcomed Japan’s ruling bloc securing a strong win in Sunday’s upper house election, held days after the assassination of former premier Shinzo Abe.

The result should provide the government with some stability, while there were also hopes for a cabinet reshuffle and economic stimulus.

Shanghai recorded more than 120 virus cases at the weekend, having seen its first one of the highly contagious BA.5 Omicron strain, forcing officials to launch another mass testing drive.

With China fixated on its zero-Covid strategy to wipe out the disease, there is increasing concern that authorities will revert to another painful lockdown. Shanghai residents only emerged from a two-month confinement in June.

There have meanwhile been new infections uncovered in other parts of the country, including Beijing.

Data this week will provide a fresh update on the economic impact of those measures, as well as similar strict controls in Beijing.

– Key figures at around 1545 GMT –

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.5 percent at 31,198.48 points

London – FTSE 100: UNCHANGED at 7,196.59 (close)

Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.4 percent at 12,832.44 (close)

Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 0.6 percent at 5,996.30 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 1.0 percent at 3,471.69

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 1.1 percent at 26,812.80 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 2.8 percent at 21,124.20 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 1.3 percent at 3,313.58 (close)

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.0 percent at $103.78 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.5 percent at $106.45 per barrel

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0084 from $1.0183 on Friday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.1903 from $1.2034

Euro/pound: UP at 84.72 pence from 84.59 pence

Dollar/yen: UP at 137.31 yen from 136.10 yen

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Market values are destroying nature: UN report

11 Jul 2022 12 Jul 2022

A major UN report warned Monday that a global economy focused on short-term profit is wrecking the planet and called for a drastically different approach as to how we value nature.

Without this shift, universally accepted goals of sustainable development and greater equity will remain out-of-reach, the science advisory panel for biodiversity, known as IPBES, found.

“The way we understand economic growth is at the core of the biodiversity crisis,” Unai Pascual, an ecological economist at the University of Bern and co-chair of a 139-nation meeting in Bonn that approved the report, told AFP.

“The new assessment aims to bring different types of values into the decisions leading us to transformative change.”

Some 80 experts combed through more than 13,000 studies, looking at how market-based values have contributed to the destruction of ecosystems that sustain us, and what other values might best foster sustainability.

A 34-page Summary for Policymakers, approved over the weekend, comes as the UN steers an international process to stem species loss and protect nature.

In December, nations gather to finalise a treaty tasked with halting the decline of biodiversity and setting humanity on a path to “live in harmony with nature” by mid-century.

“Nature is what sustains us all,” commented Inger Andersen, head of the UN Environment Programme. “It gives us food, medicine, raw materials, oxygen, climate regulation and much more.”

But a five-fold increase in per-capita GDP since 1950 has maimed the natural world that made such growth possible.

A million species — including, arguably, our own — are threatened with extinction and global warming is on track to make large swathes of the planet unlivable.

– ‘Not going to be easy’ –

Two landmark UN reports — one on climate change in 2018, another on biodiversity in 2019 — concluded that only a wholesale transformation of the way we produce, distribute and consume almost everything can stave off runaway global warming and a collapse of ecosystems.

That already Herculean task becomes nigh impossible, the IPBES report warns, unless humanity also changes the way it perceives and values nature.

“If you think of nature as a factory at your service, your emphasis will be on extracting the highest yields possible,” said Patricia Balvanera, an ecologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a co-chair of the report.

Many still fear that sustainability can only be achieved at the expense of well-being, when in fact a natural world that can regenerate itself is the bedrock for healthy societies in the future, scientists say.

More nuanced valuations of nature could lead to better policy choices, the IPBES authors conclude.

A narrow cost-benefit analysis of development projects such as the Grand Renaissance Dam along Ethiopia’s Blue Nile or the Mayan Train project on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula weighed the value of electricity, tourism or jobs against the cost of construction or displacing populations.

A “living from nature” perspective may even quantify the economic value of damage to ecosystems, such as a CO2 absorbing forest or wetlands, or the loss of insect populations that pollinate crops.

“If nature is part of me, part of my family, then — as in a family — the priority is to take care of each other,” said Balvanera. “It is a totally different mindset.”

Many of the delegates and scientists in IPBES — the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services — are also part of the 196-nation Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), which has struggled to find consensus on the draft treaty to be delivered in December.

“We think this values assessment can help the negotiations, politically speaking, to provide find a solution,” noted Pascual, who said several delegates called it a “game-changer”.

“Right now, there is a gloomy sense that this is not going to be easy at all.”

Pharma company seeks to make its birth control over-the-counter in US

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

In a first, a pharmaceutical company applied Monday for US approval to make its birth control pill available over-the-counter, weeks after the US Supreme Court overturned a federal right to abortion care.

HRA Pharma, a subsidiary of Perrigo, said in a statement it was seeking the switch away from prescription-only for its product Opill, a progestin-only daily birth control pill — also referred to as a mini pill or non-estrogen pill.

Over-the-counter (OTC) birth control has long been backed by major medical organizations as a way to reduce barriers to contraception access.

The timing of the application — which comes amid a wave of state-level restrictions and bans on abortion following the top court’s ruling — was “coincidental,” according to an HRA spokeswoman, who said the company had been compiling research for its application for the past seven years.

“This historic application marks a groundbreaking moment in contraceptive access and reproductive equity in the US,” said Frederique Welgryn, chief strategic operations and innovation officer at HRA Pharma, in a statement.

“Moving a safe and effective prescription birth control pill to OTC will help even more women and people access contraception without facing unnecessary barriers.”

Over-the-counter birth control is backed by major medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

It is also standard practice in many countries, including Brazil, Greece, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, South Korea and Turkey.

Generally speaking, wealthier countries favor more regulations and thus prescription only birth control.

But according to ACOG, “Data support that progestin-only hormonal methods are generally safe and carry no or minimal risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE),” also known as blood clots.

“Several studies have demonstrated that women are capable of using self-screening tools to determine their eligibility for hormonal contraceptive use,” adds the organization, in an opinion on the matter published on its website.

A 2016 study found that nearly one third of US women who have tried to obtain prescription contraception reported access barriers.

The application will now be reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration, a process that would normally take around a year to complete.

Twitter stock falls as Musk mocks lawsuit threat

11 Jul 2022 11 Jul 2022

Twitter shares tumbled Monday as Elon Musk issued a mocking, defiant commentary about a looming court battle after he ditched a $44 billion buyout of the social media giant.

About 60 minutes into trading Monday, Twitter shares sank 7.0 percent to $34.24.

After weeks of threats, Musk on Friday pulled the plug on the deal, accusing the company of “misleading” statements about the number of fake accounts, according to a letter from his lawyers included in a US securities filing.

In his first public remarks since the announcement, Musk took to Twitter late Sunday night to troll the company after it said it would sue to enforce the deal.

“They said I couldn’t buy Twitter. Then they wouldn’t disclose bot info. Now they want to force me to buy Twitter in court. Now they have to disclose bot info in court,” Musk wrote in a tweet, with each of the four statements accompanied by pictures of Musk laughing with increasing glee.

A second tweet showed an image of martial arts star Chuck Norris behind a chess board, which Musk captioned, “Chuckmate.”

Musk’s termination of the takeover agreement he inked in April sets the stage for a potentially lengthy court battle with the company, which initially opposed a transaction with the unpredictable billionaire entrepreneur.

The original merger agreement contained a $1 billion breakup fee.

Twitter has defended its fake account oversight and said it will sue to force Musk to complete the deal.

The social network says the number of fake accounts is less than five percent, a figure challenged by the multi-billionaire who believes the number to be much higher.

According to several US media reports, Twitter has hired prominent New York law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Twitter declined to comment to AFP.

– Still a chance at deal? –

The latest back-and-forth follows weeks of public squabbling between the sides after Musk amplified the fake accounts issue, with some analysts speculating that he was getting cold feet about a deal announcement that had aroused criticism from progressive advocacy groups concerned about Musk’s political agenda.

Musk’s norm-defying conduct has come as little surprise to longtime watchers of the Tesla boss, who are accustomed to a constant stream of statements that flout or test convention and sometimes provoke a crackdown from regulators.

Some market watchers predicted the deal would fall apart shortly after it was announced, but others still saw a way forward on Monday even in the wake of the latest happenings.

“While the two parties likely are facing a lengthy battle of which the final decision remains very uncertain, we believe Twitter may have the stronger case,” said Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi. “We also think that a scenario remains where Musk and Twitter reach a new, lower-price agreement.”

But Mogharabi lowered his estimate for Twitter shares to $47 from Musk’s bid price of $54.20, saying, “we expect Twitter will likely face distractions that set back its efforts to grow revenue and expand margins.”

For analyst Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities, “this is a ‘code red’ situation for Twitter and its Board as now the company will go head to head against Musk in a Game of Thrones court battle.”

“We see no other bidders emerging at this time while legal proceedings play out in the courts.”