World

Protesters in Sri Lanka defied tear gas, water cannon and a state of emergency to storm the prime minister’s office on Wednesday after the president fled overseas, with the crowd demanding both men step down in the face of an economic crisis.

In a televised statement Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he had instructed the military and police to do “what is necessary to restore order”.

But footage showed armed security personnel standing by in the grounds of his office as protesters, some holding national flags, milled and took pictures.

Other demonstrators at one point broke into state television studios, as the country’s months-long political and economic crisis appeared to be moving towards a climax.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised at the weekend to resign on Wednesday after escaping his own official residence in Colombo just before tens of thousands of protesters overran it.

As president, Rajapaksa enjoys immunity from arrest, and he is believed to have wanted to go abroad before stepping down to avoid the possibility of being detained. The 73-year-old, his wife and two bodyguards took a military aircraft to the neighbouring Maldives, immigration sources told AFP.

Hours later, with no formal announcement he was stepping down, thousands of demonstrators mobbed the office of Wickremesinghe — whom Rajapaksa named as acting president during his absence — demanding both officeholders should go.

“Go home Ranil, Go home Gota,” they shouted.

Tear gas and water cannon fired by police and the declaration of both a nationwide state of emergency and a curfew failed to disperse them and the crowd poured into the building.

Wickremesinghe, also 73, would automatically become acting president if Rajapaksa steps down, but has himself announced his willingness to resign if consensus is reached on forming a unity government.

“We can’t tear up our constitution,” he said in his statement. “We can’t allow fascists to take over. We must end this fascist threat to democracy,” he said, adding that the official buildings occupied by protesters must be returned to state control.

The protesters’ actions were a repeat of the capture of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s home and office on Saturday, when Wickremesinghe’s private home was also set ablaze.

The prime minister’s office confirmed that Rajapaksa had left the country, but said it had no schedule for any presidential resignation announcement.

The succession process could take between three days — the minimum time needed for parliament to elect an MP to serve out Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in November 2024 — and a maximum of 30 days allowed under the statute. 

– A complicated exit –

Rajapaksa is accused of mismanaging the economy to a point where the country ran out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports, leading to severe hardships for its 22 million people.

Earlier Wednesday, smiling Sri Lankans again thronged the corridors of the president’s official residence after his departure, with young couples walking around hand in hand in a mood of quiet celebration.

“People are very happy, because these people robbed our country,” said retired civil servant Kingsley Samarakoon, 74.

“They’ve stolen too much money, billions and billions.”

But he held little hope for an immediate improvement in Sri Lanka’s plight.

“How are people going to run the country without money?” he asked. “It’s a problem.”

Sri Lanka defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt in April and is in talks with the IMF for a possible bailout.

The island has nearly exhausted its already scarce supplies of petrol. The government has ordered the closure of non-essential offices and schools to reduce commuting and save fuel.

The departure of Rajapaksa, 73 and once known as “The Terminator”, had been stymied for more than 24 hours in a humiliating standoff with immigration personnel in Colombo.

He had wanted to fly to Dubai on a commercial flight, but staff at Bandaranaike International withdrew from VIP services and insisted that all passengers had to go through public counters. 

On arrival in the Maldives on Wednesday, Rajapaksa was driven to an undisclosed location under police escort, an airport official in the capital Male said.

His youngest brother Basil, who resigned in April as finance minister, missed his own Emirates flight to Dubai on Tuesday after a tense standoff of his own with airport staff.

The leader of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya party, Sajith Premadasa, who lost the 2019 presidential election to Rajapaksa, has said he will stand for the presidency.

Premadasa is the son of former president Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was assassinated in a Tamil rebel suicide bombing in May 1993.

Marcel Remy, the grand old man of Swiss Alpinists and one of the oldest active climbers in the world, has died aged 99, newspapers and several specialist websites reported Wednesday.

“For almost a century you have inspired people all over the world with your unwavering passion for climbing,” his sponsor, the Swiss mountain sports company Mammut, said on Instagram.

“Merci pour tout (Thanks for everything), Marcel. Climb on in peace.”

In 2017, at the age of 94, Remy conquered the Miroir d’Argentine, a Swiss climbing classic with its 500 metres (1,640 feet) of limestone wall.

Even in his late 90s, he would still tackle the 16-metre high wall at the indoor climbing centre in Villeneuve, southwest Switzerland, with his oldest son Claude.

Climbing was always a major part of Remy’s life. Brought up on tales of the mountains, he loved discovering the great outdoors and the Alps became his playground.

Remy worked on the Swiss railways and spent all his free time in the mountains, taking his two sons with him.

“He was a tough dad. With him it was do or die, whatever the conditions,” his son Claude told AFP last year.

Remy passed on his passion for the Alps. Claude and his brother Yves are also well-known in the climbing world.

In August 2020, the top French climbing magazine Grimper devoted 40-odd pages to the family’s exploits and the most impressive climbs they accomplished together.

In an interview with AFP in June last year, Remy said the secret to his longevity was pacing himself.

“It’s the rhythm that you have to take — for breathing, for the movements,” he explained.

“If I go beyond that, there’s a price to pay afterwards. I can’t tell you exactly what, but either the shoulders or the muscles. It’s better to go calmly, without over-exertion — and then it works.

“It gives me a lot of pleasure because you have to work, think and surpass yourself; that’s what suits me well.”

And he added: “If I’m still enjoying it and feeling good, why not carry on?”

Climate-threatened Pacific islands are pushing for the International Court of Justice to throw its weight behind efforts to arrest climate change, with the initiative gaining support at a key regional summit in Fiji Wednesday.

The Pacific nation of Vanuatu is spearheading a campaign to ask the Hague-based tribunal “to protect the rights of present and future generations against the effects of climate change”.

Vanuatu’s Foreign Minister Marc Ati told AFP on Wednesday that he was confident leaders from neighbouring islands, including Australia and New Zealand, would endorse the push at this week’s Pacific Islands Forum in the Fijian capital Suva.

The plan will need the backing of a majority of countries at the United Nations General Assembly in September to be put to the world’s highest court.

Support from the countries meeting at this week’s Fiji summit could be crucial to get the UN vote across the line.

Ati said he had “met with all my counterparts, they confirmed their support”.

The initiative began in a classroom at the University of the South Pacific in 2019.

Some 27 law students wrote to Pacific leaders asking them to take up the campaign — and Vanuatu answered the call.

Fijian university student Vishal Prasad, 26, was one of those involved. 

He told AFP that even a non-binding “advisory opinion” from the International Court of Justice would have “wide-reaching impacts”.

Prasad hopes the court weighing in would spur more ambitious actions on climate change, and put polluters on notice that they will be held accountable.

For young people in the Pacific, “the existential threat, the reality” of climate change “is quite scary”, he said.

Rising sea levels and stronger storms are already causing serious problems across the Pacific, where many communities live just above sea level.

“We are already seeing impacts on a daily basis. We are seeing the onset of cyclones,” said Prasad. “We are seeing communities being relocated.”

– Skin in the game –

Pacific leaders will discuss Vanuatu’s campaign during the summit’s final meeting on Friday — alongside other key issues for the region including climate and security.

The Pacific summit marks the first time leaders have been able to meet in person since Covid-19 hit, forcing countries across the region to close their borders.

Tuvaluan Foreign Minister Simon Kofe told AFP he would like to see Vanuatu’s campaign supported as it was “consistent with our efforts to protect our people that are impacted by climate change”.

“Tuvalu fully supports that initiative by Vanuatu,” he told AFP.

One country whose position is being closely watched this week is Australia, a major emitter in the region and one of the world’s top fossil fuel exporters.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived Wednesday in Suva for his first visit to the Pacific as leader, hoping to mend Australia’s fractured relationship with the Pacific after a near-decade at odds on climate policy.

Albanese said he supported “the broad concept” of Vanuatu’s campaign but wanted to see the details of the reference.

“It’s hard for any nation to just sign off sight unseen,” he said.

“But with regard to the general principle, we understand that it is a reasonable principle being put forward.”

Pacific expert Wesley Morgan of the Climate Council said there is still a “robust discussion” about the exact question that would be put to the International Court of Justice.

He said the new Australian government has “its work cut out for it to convince island countries that it is actually serious about tackling climate change”.

The question is “how much skin is Australia prepared to lose” he said.

By the end of the summit “we will find out whether or not Australia has tried to change the language of the question that they would prefer to take to the ICJ” he added.

A Rwandan genocide survivors’ group said Wednesday it welcomed the jailing in France of a former top official convicted of a role in the 1994 slaughter as a “strong” message.

Laurent Bucyibaruta was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in jail, the highest-ranking Rwandan to have faced trial in France over the massacres in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in 100 days of bloodletting.

“It is a strong indication that the political will by France to pursue justice against genocide fugitives is positively changing,” said Naphtal Ahishakiye, executive secretary of Ibuka, the Rwandan umbrella support group for genocide survivors.

“Genocide survivors have little to celebrate considering what they lost but nevertheless, this sentencing is an indication that the truth will always prevail,” Ahishakiye told AFP, calling for other genocide fugitives who have found safe haven in Europe to face justice.

France has long been under pressure from activists to act against suspected Rwandan perpetrators who took refuge on French soil after the massacres.

The French government at the time of the genocide had been a long-standing backer of the Hutu regime in power, something that has since caused decades of tension between the two countries.

Bucyibaruta, the former prefect of the southern province of Gikongoro, was accused of having persuaded thousands of people to take refuge in the Murambi Technical School by promising them food, water and protection. 

Days later, in the early hours of April 21, tens of thousands of Tutsis were executed there in one of the genocide’s bloodiest episodes.

Remy Kamugire, a survivor of the Gikongoro killings who travelled to France to testify in the trial, said the sentence against the 87-year-old should have been tougher.

“Justice is welcome but a 20-year jail term is not enough for Laurent Bucyibaruta, considering his big role in the genocide crimes that were committed and what we lost as survivors.

“We lost everything,” said Kamugire, whose parents were among the victims in 1994. “After he evaded justice for two decades, he deserved life in jail.”

A Tokyo court Wednesday ordered former executives from the operator of the devastated Fukushima nuclear plant to pay 13.32 trillion yen ($97 billion) for failing to prevent the disaster, plaintiffs said.

Four ex-bosses from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) were ordered to pay the damages in a suit brought by shareholders over the nuclear disaster triggered by a massive tsunami in 2011.

Plaintiffs emerged from the Tokyo court holding banners reading “shareholders win” and “responsibility recognised”.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs hailed the ruling, and said they believed it to be the largest amount of compensation ever awarded in a civil lawsuit in Japan.

“Nuclear power plants can cause irreparable damage to human lives and the environment,” the plaintiffs said in a separate statement after the ruling.

“Executives for firms that operate such nuclear plants bear enormous responsibility, which cannot compare with that of other companies.”

The shareholders argued that the disaster could have been prevented if TEPCO bosses had listened to research and carried out preventative measures like placing an emergency power source on higher ground.

Defendants said the studies they were not credible and the risks unpredictable.

But the court ruled nuclear plant operators have “an obligation to prevent severe accidents based on the latest scientific and expert engineering knowledge,” and the executives failed to heed credible warnings.

In a statement read to AFP by a TEPCO spokesman, the firm declined to comment on the ruling, saying only: “We again express our heartfelt apology to people in Fukushima and members of society broadly for causing trouble and worry” with the disaster.

The damages are intended to cover the costs to TEPCO for dismantling the reactors, compensating affected residents, and cleaning up contamination.

The lawsuit is designed so the money will go to TEPCO itself, which the plaintiffs own partially as shareholders.

Hiroyuki Kawai, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, called the decision “historic”.

“We realise that 13 trillion yen is well beyond their capacity to pay,” he told reporters, adding that the plaintiffs expect the men to pay as much as their assets allow.

There was no immediate word on whether the executives would appeal, though the plantiffs’ legal team insisted “if they have heart to feel regret… they should deeply apologise to residents and follow the judgement without appealing.”

– ‘Retirement years in misery’ –

Three of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s six reactors were operating when a massive undersea quake triggered a devastating tsunami on March 11, 2011.

They went into meltdown after their cooling systems failed when waves flooded backup generators, leading to the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Around 12 percent of the Fukushima region was once declared unsafe but no-go zones now cover around two percent, although populations in many towns remain far lower than before.

TEPCO has been pursued in the courts by survivors of the disaster as well as shareholders, and six plaintiffs this year took the firm to court over claims they developed thyroid cancer because of radiation exposure.

In 2019, a court acquitted three former TEPCO officials in the only criminal trial to stem from the disaster. 

They were among the four men ordered to pay damages in Wednesday’s ruling: former chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, former vice presidents Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro and former president Masataka Shimizu.

The men had faced up to five years in prison if convicted of professional negligence resulting in death and injury, but that court ruled that they could not have predicted the scale of the tsunami that triggered the disaster.

Kawai said when the shareholder suit was filed in 2012 that senior managers at TEPCO must be made to pay.

“You may have to sell your house. You may have to spend your retirement years in misery,” he said then.

“In Japan, nothing can be resolved and no progress can be made without assigning personal responsibility.”

TEPCO is currently engaged in a decades-long effort to decommission the plant, a costly and difficult process.

No one was killed in the nuclear meltdown, but the tsunami left 18,500 dead or missing.

Shanghai roasted under some of its hottest temperatures ever recorded on Wednesday as a searing heatwave in China triggered a flurry of weather alerts and strained the farming and energy sectors.

Swathes of the northern hemisphere have sweltered under extreme heat this week, with France and Britain set to endure soaring temperatures on Wednesday as firefighters in western Europe battle forest blazes.

China has also suffered extreme weather this summer, with record floods last month forcing hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes while other regions have simmered in road-buckling heat.

Scientists say that heatwaves have become more frequent due to climate change, and will likely become longer and more intense as global temperatures continue to rise.

At a central Shanghai weather station on Wednesday, the mercury climbed to 40.9 degrees Celsius (105.6 Fahrenheit) by 2:30 pm, the official news site of the national meteorological service reported.

The figure “matched the record highest air temperature in the local area since records began in 1873,” the article said.

Social media users bemoaned the stifling weather, with one user on the popular Weibo platform saying they “felt like meat on a barbecue when I went for my Covid test just now.”

“Maybe it’ll burn off all the virus,” another commented.

Photos on social media showed health workers in Shanghai sitting or lying on blocks of ice to cool down as they carried out a mass testing drive aimed at stemming a rise in Covid-19 cases.

The economic hub experienced a gruelling virus lockdown earlier this year that confined most of its 25 million residents to their homes for around two months.

A spate of heat warnings were in place across eastern and southern China on Wednesday as authorities warned that temperatures could hit 42C in certain areas. 

Some media outlets reported heat-related deaths.

Authorities have also warned of potential damage to agriculture, saying Monday that the heat was “not conducive” for the growth or harvest of rice, corn, cotton and other crops.

Electricity consumption has hit records in several parts of the country as people and businesses have cranked up air conditioners to stay cool, Bloomberg News reported.

China is no stranger to hot summers, but this year is shaping up to be a scorcher even by the country’s standards.

Authorities in seven provinces last month warned millions of residents not to go outdoors as temperatures edged towards 40C, as state media showed footage of roads that had cracked under extreme heat.

At the same time, multiple places across the south chalked up record rainfall and flood levels after the National Climate Centre forecast “relatively worse” and “more extreme” deluges than previous years.