Travel company Tui criticised for still flying holidaymakers out to Greek island on Saturday night
British tourists said they had been left in “a living nightmare” after wildfires caused the emergency evacuation of 19,000 people on the Greek island of Rhodes.
More than 3,000 people were rescued from beaches and another 16,000 taken to safety on land as flames intensified in the south-eastern region of the island on Saturday.
Continue reading...Britons among those evacuated from hotels and homes as strong winds sweep blaze towards coast
More than 1,000 people were forced to flee homes and hotels on Rhodes after an uncontrolled wildfire swept across the Greek island on Saturday.
The fire had been burning for most of the past week but had been confined to the island’s mountainous interior until strong winds, high temperatures and dry conditions swept the blaze towards the coast on the island’s central-eastern side.
Continue reading...Temperatures reached as high as 53.3C in the US and flooding hit South Korea and India
A remote township in the north-western region of Xinjiang set a Chinese record of 52.2C (125.9F) on Sunday – in a country that was battling -50C weather six months ago. Sanbao is in the Turpan Depression, an arid basin of sand dunes and dried-up lakes where 50.3C was recorded in 2015. Beijing topped its record for high-temperature days in a year on Tuesday, with 27 days above 35C. The temperature in its southern suburbs soared even higher on Wednesday to 36.3C.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: How countries have responded to record-breaking temperatures – and what it will take to change minds and policy
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition
Good morning.
When the temperature in Sicily is approaching 50C, you know something is wrong.
New Zealand | Two people died and six people were injured after a shooting at a building site in Auckland city centre, hours before the Women’s World Cup is due to start. The gunman was also dead. New Zealand’s PM, Chris Hipkins, said the World Cup would proceed as planned.
Politics | Almost 200,000 families living under Labour-run councils are affected by the two-child benefit cap, a Guardian analysis has revealed. Keir Starmer’s decision not to scrap the policy if Labour wins power has led to attacks from anti-poverty campaigners and disquiet from senior figures in the party.
Health | MPs have urged the government to introduce restrictions on the packaging and marketing of disposable vapes to tackle the “alarming trend” of children using these addictive products. The health and social care committee said there should be restrictions on how e-cigarettes are sold, in line with those applied to tobacco products.
Slavery | Caribbean countries are considering approaching the UN’s international court of justice for a legal opinion on demanding compensation from 10 European countries over slavery, as the fight for reparative justice is stepped up. Ralph Gonsalves, the current leader of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, said he is also looking for an apology from the British government and expressed disappointment in Rishi Sunak’s lack of engagement in the matter.
Strikes | A strike by train staff in the RMT union will severely affect rail services across Britain in the next week. About 20,000 RMT members at 14 train operators will strike for 24 hours on Thursday and again on Saturday, coinciding with the end of a week-long overtime ban by train drivers in the Aslef union. The 10 days of transport disruption will coincide with the peak summer holiday getaway weekend.
Continue reading...Parts of Sicily reach almost 47C and Spanish coastal water temperatures hit new high for mid-July
Temperatures reached almost 47C in southern Italy on Wednesday and factory workers threatened to strike over the extreme heat, while wildfires continued to rage in Greece and temperatures in coastal waters around Spain broke records.
In Sicily, where the European record of 48.8C was registered in August 2021, the mercury climbed to almost 47C in the area between Mazara del Vallo, in the province of Trapani, and Sciacca, in Agrigento province, according to data from ilMeteo.it. Temperatures in Sardinia reached 46C while Rome – where there were energy blackouts on Tuesday due to pressure on the grid believed to be from air conditioners – peaked at 38C.
Continue reading...Flying boats dispatched as state of emergency called in Loutraki, with firefighters battling fast-moving blaze
The EU has weighed in with help to combat wildfires in Greece, dispatching four Canadair water bombers as the battle to douse blazes that have raged around Athens intensified.
Conflagrations whipped by gale-force winds left a trail of devastation, decimating pine forests, destroying homes and forcing thousands to flee as flames tore through terrain turned tinder dry by extreme heat.
Continue reading...New system pushing into region from north Africa could lead to temperatures above record 48.8C
Southern Europe is bracing for a second heat storm in a week, with Italy, Greece and Spain, along with Morocco and other Mediterranean countries, being told temperature records could be broken on Tuesday.
A new anticyclone that pushed into the region from north Africa on Sunday could lift temperatures above the record 48.8C (120F) seen in Sicily in August 2021, and follows last week’s Cerberus heatwave.
Continue reading...Erdoğan throws another obstacle in way of agreement by insisting Turkish EU membership be back on table
Joe Biden will try to nail down a four-country deal that would lead to Turkey allowing Sweden into Nato in return for the sale of US F-16 jets to Ankara, on the condition they are not used to threaten Greece.
But Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threw a surprise obstacle in the way of Biden’s plan by announcing he wanted Turkey’s stalled application to join the EU to be included in the package. Speaking at the airport before departing for the Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, the Turkish president said: “First, let’s pave the way for Turkey in the European Union, and then we will pave the way for Sweden just as we did for Finland.”
Continue reading...Research into loss of trawler with hundreds of deaths strongly contradicts official accounts – while finding a failure to mobilise help and evidence that survivor statements were tampered with
Attempts by the Greek coastguard to tow a fishing trawler carrying hundreds of migrants may have caused the vessel to sink, according to a new investigation by the Guardian and media partners that has raised further questions about the incident, which left an estimated 500 people missing
The trawler carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the coast of Greece on 14 June. There were 104 survivors.
Continue reading...With cruise ships decanting thousands of tourists in Athens, tough new controls have been imposed at the country’s most visited site
It’s official: more than 25 centuries after it was built and nearly 200 years after it began attracting tourists, the Acropolis will adopt crowd control policies to ease the very modern plague of soaring visitor numbers.
Unprecedented queues at the foot of the site, a dramatic rise in sightseers since the Covid-19 pandemic and unruly scenes at the gateway to the sanctuary have spurred the Greek government to take action.
Continue reading...Leftwing opposition leader who was PM during eurozone crisis says party needs ‘profound renewal’
Alexis Tsipras, the former student activist who rose to become Greece’s first radical leftwing prime minister, has resigned as leader of Syriza four days after the party’s crushing defeat in general elections.
Eight years after taking Europe by storm, Tsipras said he was stepping down to make way for a new leader who could oversee Syriza’s “profound renewal”.
Continue reading...Kyriakos Mitsotakis of centre-right New Democracy party wins second term as prime minister but unheard-of group delivers shock
Greece’s general election has propelled a far-right group called the Spartans, a previously unheard-of political force, into the Athens parliament with the help of an imprisoned, neo-Nazi leader of the now-disbanded Golden Dawn party.
While the centre-right politician Kyriakos Mitsotakis has won a second term as prime minister, the Spartans have emerged as the fifth biggest group in the 300-seat parliament.
Continue reading...Kyriakos Mitsotakis of centre-right New Democracy party says he now has ‘strong mandate’ to modernise nation
Greece’s new prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, vowed to immediately press ahead with his ambitious reform programme after winning a decisive victory in the general elections on Sunday.
The New Democracy leader said his commanding 24-point lead over the leftist main opposition Syriza party had given him a “strong mandate” to modernise a country long seen as resistant to reform.
Continue reading...Disparity between rescue responses has sparked debate in Pakistan about double standards
Anees Majeed, who lost five relatives in the boat that sank off Greece on 14 June, watched in disbelief and growing anger as a frantic, multimillion-dollar rescue effort played out for five other men lost at sea last week.
Like thousands of others across Pakistan, Majeed, a law student from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, grieved at funeral prayers without a body to bury. At least 350 Pakistani citizens were on the overcrowded craft, the interior minister, Rana Sanaullah, confirmed on Friday.
Continue reading...Poverty drove young men from small Kashmir town to board ill-fated fishing trawler, say families
The last time Mohammed Yousaf talked to his son, Sajid Yousaf, on 8 June, the son was waiting anxiously in Libya for smugglers to pack him and hundreds of others on to a boat bound for the other side of the Mediterranean.
Six days later, the overcrowded fishing trawler sank off the coast of Greece. Sajid, 28, a shopkeeper and father of two from the small town of Khuiratta in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, is among the hundreds missing, presumed dead.
Continue reading...Suspected people smugglers to appear in court in Kalamata, as police in Kashmir announce 10 arrests
Nine suspected people smugglers are to appear before a Greek court accused of piloting the fishing trawler that sank off the coast of Greece last week leaving hundreds missing and presumed dead in one of the Mediterranean’s worst boat disasters.
Greek authorities have said 78 dead and 104 survivors – mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Pakistan – were brought ashore after the overcrowded boat sank about 50 miles (80km) off the southern Greek town of Pylos early on Wednesday, days after it set sail from Tobruk in Libya heading towards Italy.
Continue reading...UN calls for urgent action to prevent further tragedies as police believe up to 500 people remain missing
Greek authorities have rejected claims that a fishing boat that sank in the Mediterranean this week with the loss of potentially hundreds of lives capsized after the coastguard attempted to tow it, as the UN called for urgent action to prevent further tragedies.
Authorities have confirmed 78 deaths and said 104 survivors – mostly from Syria, Egypt and Pakistan – had been brought ashore, but police believe as many as 500 are missing. Witnesses have reported that up to 100 children were in the ship’s hold.
Continue reading...Nine suspects expected to face court as search enters third day and initial response to disaster is criticised
Rescuers have launched the third and final day of their search for survivors of one of the Mediterranean’s worst boat disasters, as authorities detained nine suspected people-smugglers and criticism of Greece’s initial response mounted.
The Greek coastguard said on Friday a helicopter, a frigate and three smaller vessels were searching waters 50 miles (80 km) from the southern town of Pylos where the fishing boat, reportedly carrying between 400 and 750 people, sank on Wednesday.
Continue reading...As anguished family members arrive in Kalamata, search operation continues with negligible progress
Hope dies last and for Kassem Abo Zeed it was running out fast. Hope was the force that had led him to board a plane from Hamburg and fly to Greece after he heard that a boat carrying his wife had capsized off the country’s southern coast.
But by 2pm on Thursday, 36 hours after the blue fishing trawler packed with migrants and refugees had sunk in one of the worst maritime disasters in recent Greek history, hope was fading in a way he had prayed would never happen.
Continue reading...Women also said to have been in the hold, amid fears 78 so far confirmed dead could rise into the hundreds
Survivors from an overcrowded fishing boat that capsized and sank on Wednesday off the Greek coast in one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean in recent years have told doctors and police that women and children were travelling in the hold of the vessel.
Seventy-eight people have been confirmed dead, but there are fears the number of victims could run into the hundreds.
Continue reading...