Venice

Globetrotting German director Herzog honoured at Venice festival

  • Herzog "has never ceased from testing the limits of the film language," said festival artistic director Alberto Barbera in announcing the award in April.
  • Globetrotting filmmaker Werner Herzog, an eclectic risk-taker whose monumental works often explore humankind's conflict with nature, was honoured with a special award on Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival.
  • Herzog "has never ceased from testing the limits of the film language," said festival artistic director Alberto Barbera in announcing the award in April.
Globetrotting filmmaker Werner Herzog, an eclectic risk-taker whose monumental works often explore humankind's conflict with nature, was honoured with a special award on Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival.
The 82-year-old arthouse giant, who helped launch New German Cinema in the 1960s, received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement ahead of the debut of his latest documentary, "Ghost Elephants," about a lost herd in Angola, on Thursday.
He was handed a special winged Golden Lion statue by "The Godfather" director and friend Francis Ford Coppola who praised the German's "limitless creativity".
"I have always tried to strive for something that goes deeper beyond what you normally see in movie theatres, a deep form of poetry that is possible in cinema," Herzog told a star-studded audience in an acceptance speech. 
Guided by a search "for truth in unusual ways", he added: "I always try to do something which was sublime, or something transcendental."
Herzog has made more than 70 movies, rising to fame in the 1970s and 80s with sweeping films about obsessive megalomaniacs and struggles with the natural world.
The German director and daredevil explorer has made a series of documentaries in recent years, many in exotic locales, while continuing to make film appearances, including cameos in "The Simpsons".
Herzog "has never ceased from testing the limits of the film language," said festival artistic director Alberto Barbera in announcing the award in April.

Outdoors director

Born in Munich in 1942, Herzog began experimenting with film at age 15, going on to make his name as a writer, producer and director.
A long and contentious collaboration with German screen icon Klaus Kinski resulted in epic films like 1972's "Aguirre, the Wrath of God", about the search for El Dorado in the Amazon jungle, or 1982's "Fitzcarraldo", about a mad dreamer hellbent on building an opera house in the jungle -- in which Herzog had the extras haul a huge steamship up a hill.
Other noteworthy films include 1979's gothic horror film "Nosferatu the Vampyre", the 2005 documentary "Grizzly Man" and "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" in 2009, with Nicolas Cage.
An inveterate traveller, Herzog is known for shunning studios for the outdoors, shooting in the Amazon, the Sahara desert or Antarctica.
Often placing himself at the centre of his documentaries -- a genre for which Herzog is particularly noted -- the director strayed dangerously close to active volcanoes in 2016's "Into the Inferno", while entering death row in Texas for "Into the Abyss" in 2011.
A prolific opera director -- including at Bayreuth and La Scala -- Herzog has also published poetry and prose, including his 2021 novel "The Twilight World", a 1978 diary and a memoir in 2023.
ams-adp/giv

nature

Conservationists call for more data to help protect pangolins

BY ROBIN MILLARD

  • "Today, they are under immense pressure due to exploitation and habitat loss," warned IUCN director general Grethel Aguliar.
  • All eight known pangolin species remain at high risk of extinction due to over-exploitation and loss of habitat, conservationists warned Wednesday, warning knowledge gaps were hampering protection efforts.
  • "Today, they are under immense pressure due to exploitation and habitat loss," warned IUCN director general Grethel Aguliar.
All eight known pangolin species remain at high risk of extinction due to over-exploitation and loss of habitat, conservationists warned Wednesday, warning knowledge gaps were hampering protection efforts.
The scale of the threat faced by the world's most heavily-trafficked mammals is not yet fully understood, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Found in the forests, woodlands, and savannas of Africa and Asia, pangolins are small, nocturnal creatures known for their distinctive appearance, slow and peaceful demeanour, and habit of curling into a ball when threatened.
The world's only scaly mammals, often likened to walking pinecones, have keratin scales that are coveted in traditional medicine, while their meat is also considered a delicacy in some regions.
"Today, they are under immense pressure due to exploitation and habitat loss," warned IUCN director general Grethel Aguliar.
Pangolins, which use their long, sticky tongues to feast on ants and termites, "are one of the most distinctive mammals on Earth and are among the planet's most extraordinary creatures: ancient, gentle, and irreplaceable," Aguliar said in a statement.
"Protecting them is not just about saving a species, but about safeguarding the balance of our ecosystems and the wonder of nature itself."

'Highly organised' trafficking

A report prepared for CITES by IUCN experts called for more robust and targeted conservation measures, particularly involving local and indigenous communities as the first line of defence.
Under CITES, international commercial trade in wild pangolins has been banned since 2017.
Despite a sharp decline in legal trade since then, trafficking remains "extensive and highly organised", IUCN said.
Between 2016 to 2024, seizures of pangolin products involved more than an estimated half a million pangolins across 75 countries and 178 trade routes, it said, with scales accounting for 99 percent of confiscated parts.
"However, while seizure records provide useful indicators, they capture only a fraction of the overall trade as not all illicit consignments are detected or seized by law enforcement," said IUCN.
Besides international trafficking, demand for pangolin meat and other products persists. 
Matthew Shirley, who co-chairs the IUCN Species Survival Commission's pangolin specialist group, suggested "even pangolin consumers" and those in the supply chain should be brought onboard to help devise conservation solutions.
"Ongoing pangolin trafficking and population declines underscore that trade bans and policy changes alone are not enough," he said.
rjm/nl/cw

climate

Pakistan blows up dam embankment as it braces for flood surge

  • At the Qadirabad dam on the Chenab River, authorities carried out a controlled explosion of an embankment on Wednesday as the water levels rose. 
  • Pakistan authorities blew up an embankment next to a monsoon-engorged dam on Wednesday as flooding submerged one of the world's holiest Sikh sites.
  • At the Qadirabad dam on the Chenab River, authorities carried out a controlled explosion of an embankment on Wednesday as the water levels rose. 
Pakistan authorities blew up an embankment next to a monsoon-engorged dam on Wednesday as flooding submerged one of the world's holiest Sikh sites.
Three transboundary rivers in the east of the country have swollen to exceptionally high levels as a result of heavy rains across the border in India.
It has triggered flood alerts throughout Punjab province, home to nearly half of Pakistan's 255 million people. The army was also deployed to help evacuate people and livestock near the Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej rivers.
Around 210,000 people had moved to another location, according to the disaster authorities.
At the Qadirabad dam on the Chenab River, authorities carried out a controlled explosion of an embankment on Wednesday as the water levels rose. 
"To save the structure, we have breached the right marginal embankment so that the flow of the water reduces," said Mazhar Hussain, a spokesperson for Punjab's disaster management agency.
The Kartarpur temple, which marks where the founder of the Sikh faith Guru Nanak is said to have died in 1539, was submerged by floodwater.
Five boats were sent to the sprawling site to rescue around 100 stranded people.
Pakistan authorities said neighbouring India had released water from upstream dams on its side of the border, further increasing the flow headed towards Pakistan.
Islamabad's foreign ministry said New Delhi gave advanced notice through diplomatic channels ahead of opening the spillways.
Indian government officials have not commented.
The flood surge "is expected to pass through Lahore tonight and tomorrow morning", provincial disaster chief Irfan Ali said of the Punjab capital.
Pakistan has been battered by a brutal monsoon season this year, with landslides and floods triggered by torrential rain killing more than 800 people since June.
bur/ecl/lb/dhw

fires

Wildfires pile pressure on Spanish PM

BY ALFONS LUNA

  • The row comes as Sanchez's political standing has taken a hit from several investigations into alleged corruption among his inner circle.
  • Wildfires that have swept across Spain this summer are piling pressure on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is already reeling from a string of corruption allegations against members of his inner circle.
  • The row comes as Sanchez's political standing has taken a hit from several investigations into alleged corruption among his inner circle.
Wildfires that have swept across Spain this summer are piling pressure on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is already reeling from a string of corruption allegations against members of his inner circle.
The twin crises have intensified disputes between Sanchez's Socialist minority government and the conservative Popular Party (PP), which governs many of the regions hardest hit by the fires.
Blazes have destroyed more than 415,000 hectares, mostly in August, according to the European Forest Fire Information System, marking a new annual record since reporting began in 2006. 
Four people have died and thousands have been evacuated because of this month's fires.
The Socialists blame the PP for failing to implement effective fire prevention policies and for playing down climate change. 
The PP points to arson as the cause of the fires and accuses the central government of withholding resources, including enough military support.
PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo has proposed creating a creating a national registry of arsonists.
But government minister Angel Victor Torres insisted on public television on Wednesday that regional governments were responsible for disaster response. 
"The opposition leader shows up and points fingers instead of helping," he said, referring to the proposed arson registry.
Defence Minister Margarita Robles said many PP-led regional governments had "failed to act". 
"When there has been no investment in prevention, it is not enough to say, 'The army will arrive,'" she told radio station Ser.

'Incompetent'

PP spokeswoman Ester Munoz countered, accusing the government of scapegoating. 
"The response of a "serious government should be 'where and when do you need resources' and not that local authorities are incompetent," she said.
The political debate mirrors the controversy that followed deadly floods in October 2024 in PP-governed Valencia.
The row comes as Sanchez's political standing has taken a hit from several investigations into alleged corruption among his inner circle.
His wife, Begona Gomez, has been ordered to appear in court again in September for questioning into alleged embezzlement of public funds.
Sanchez has dismissed the allegations against his wife -- which are related to her past job at Madrid's Complutense University -- as an attempt by the right to undermine his government.
The prime minister's former right-hand man, Santos Cerdan, was detained in June in an ongoing probe into alleged kickbacks for public contracts.
And his younger brother, David Sanchez, has been under investigation since 2024 for alleged embezzlement, influence peddling and tax fraud.
Sanchez's minority government is propped up by smaller regional parties and it has struggled to pass legislation or even a budget.
Feijoo has dismissed Sanchez as a "zombie" head of government because of his difficulty in passing laws and called for an early general election.
al/ds/giv/jxb

weather

Record-breaking rain fuels deadly floods in India's Jammu region

  • A landslide on the route to the famous Hindu shrine Vaishno Devi killed 33 people, local disaster management official Mohammad Irshad told AFP. India's Meteorological Department said the torrential rain had smashed records in two locations. 
  • Floods and landslides triggered by record-breaking heavy rain have killed more than 30 people in India's Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Wednesday.
  • A landslide on the route to the famous Hindu shrine Vaishno Devi killed 33 people, local disaster management official Mohammad Irshad told AFP. India's Meteorological Department said the torrential rain had smashed records in two locations. 
Floods and landslides triggered by record-breaking heavy rain have killed more than 30 people in India's Himalayan region of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Wednesday.
A landslide on the route to the famous Hindu shrine Vaishno Devi killed 33 people, local disaster management official Mohammad Irshad told AFP.
India's Meteorological Department said the torrential rain had smashed records in two locations. 
Jammu and Udhampur recorded their highest 24-hour rainfall on Wednesday, with 296 mm (11.6 inches) in Jammu, nine percent higher than the 1973 record, and 629.4 mm (24.8 inches) in Udhampur -- a staggering 84 percent surge over the 2019 mark.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the loss of lives was "saddening".
The intense monsoon rainstorm in the Indian-administered territory has caused widespread chaos, with raging water smashing into bridges and swamping homes.
Floods and landslides are common during the June-September monsoon season, but experts say climate change, coupled with poorly planned development, is increasing their frequency, severity and impact.
Climate experts from the Himalayan-focused International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) warn that a spate of disasters illustrates the dangers when extreme rain combines with mountain slopes weakened by melting permafrost, as well as building developments in flood-prone valleys.
ICIMOD warned this month that the wider Hindu Kush Himalaya region is suffering "accelerated glacier melt, shifting weather patterns, and an increasing frequency of disaster events", including floods.
The local administration said on Wednesday thousands of people were forced to flee in the Jammu region.
Schools have been shut, with the region's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah saying officials were struggling with "almost non-existent communication".
The main Jhelum river in the Kashmir valley has also risen above the danger mark and authorities sounded flood alerts, including for the key city of Srinagar.
Powerful torrents driven by intense rain smashed into Chisoti village in Indian-administered Kashmir on August 14, killing at least 65 people and leaving another 33 missing.
Floods on August 5 overwhelmed the Himalayan town of Dharali in India's Uttarakhand state and buried it in mud. The likely death toll from that disaster is more than 70 but has not been confirmed.
pzb-ash/pjm/pbt

heat

Tokyo logs record 10 days of 35C or more

  • Japan this year had its hottest June and July since data collection began in 1898 and in August the country logged its highest temperature ever, with the mercury hitting 41.8C in the central city of Isesaki.
  • Tokyo experienced a record 10 consecutive days of temperatures 35C or above, the weather office said Wednesday, after the country sweltered through its hottest ever June and July.
  • Japan this year had its hottest June and July since data collection began in 1898 and in August the country logged its highest temperature ever, with the mercury hitting 41.8C in the central city of Isesaki.
Tokyo experienced a record 10 consecutive days of temperatures 35C or above, the weather office said Wednesday, after the country sweltered through its hottest ever June and July.
Heatwaves are becoming more intense and frequent worldwide because of human-caused climate change, scientists say, and Japan is no exception.
This "is the first time since the survey started" in 1875 that such a run has been recorded, the Japan Meteorological Agency told AFP, saying that Wednesday marked the 10th day of the heat streak.
On the streets of Tokyo, residents and tourists said they were struggling in the stifling conditions.
"Even just walking outside a little makes me sweat a lot," said Haruka Fujii.
"When I have errands to run, I try to stay in the shade of buildings and use a parasol when I go out," she said.
Aiko Natsume, meanwhile, said she was doing her best to get used to the oppressive heat.
"I even go to saunas, trying to acclimatise myself."
It came after a town on the northern island of Hokkaido was deluged by a record level of rainfall on Tuesday, according to public broadcaster NHK.
Toyotomi logged more than a month's worth of rainfall in an average August in just 12 hours, it said.
And in western Yamaguchi prefecture nearly 400 households in Hagi City were urged to evacuate, NHK added, due to a high risk of landslides. 
Japan this year had its hottest June and July since data collection began in 1898 and in August the country logged its highest temperature ever, with the mercury hitting 41.8C in the central city of Isesaki.
Japanese officials urge the public to seek shelter in air-conditioned rooms during the summer to avoid heatstroke.
The elderly in Japan -- which has the world's second-oldest population after Monaco -- are particularly at risk.
Last week more than 8,400 people were hospitalised in Japan, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, and 12 of them died.

Impact on health and productivity

Japan's summer last year was the joint hottest on record, equalling 2023, and was followed by the warmest autumn since records began 126 years ago.
Experts warn Japan's beloved cherry trees are blooming earlier due to the warmer climate -- or sometimes not fully blossoming -- because autumns and winters are not cold enough to trigger flowering.
The famous snowcap of Mount Fuji was absent for the longest recorded period last year, not appearing until early November, compared with the average of early October.
The speed of temperature increases across the world is not uniform.
Of the continents, Europe has seen the fastest warming per decade since 1990, followed closely by Asia, according to global data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The United Nations warned last week that rising global temperatures are having an ever-worsening impact on the health and productivity of workers, with manual workers in sectors such as agriculture, construction and fisheries particularly hard hit.
The UN's health and climate agencies said in a report that worker productivity dropped by two to three percent for every degree above 20C.
The related health risks include heatstroke, dehydration, kidney dysfunction, and neurological disorders.
bur-aph/mtp

climate

Pakistan's monsoon misery: nature's fury, man's mistake

BY WITH SAMEER MANDHRO IN KARACHI

  • Days after villages were swept away in the north, a spell of rain in the south brought Pakistan's financial capital, Karachi, to a standstill.
  • Floodwaters gushing through mountain villages, cities rendered swamps, mourners gathered at fresh graves -- as Pakistan's monsoon season once again delivers scenes of calamity, it also lays bare woeful preparedness.
  • Days after villages were swept away in the north, a spell of rain in the south brought Pakistan's financial capital, Karachi, to a standstill.
Floodwaters gushing through mountain villages, cities rendered swamps, mourners gathered at fresh graves -- as Pakistan's monsoon season once again delivers scenes of calamity, it also lays bare woeful preparedness.
Without better regulation of construction and sewer maintenance, the annual downpours that have left hundreds dead in recent months will continue to kill, experts say.
Even Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appeared to agree as he toured flood-stricken northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province last week, where landslides killed more than 450 people. 
"Natural disasters are acts of God, but we cannot ignore the human blunders," he said.
"If we keep letting influence-peddlingand corruption control building permits, neither the people nor the governments will be forgiven." 
Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with limited resources for adaptation.
In the devastated mountain villages the prime minister visited, and beyond, residential areas are erected near riverbeds, blocking "natural storm drains," former climate change minister Sherry Rehman told AFP.
Entrepreneur Fazal Khan now recognises the "mistake" of building too close to the river.
His home in the Swat Valley was destroyed first by 2010 floods and then again in the 2022 inundation that affected nearly four million Pakistanis.
"On August 15, once again, the floodwater surged through the channel and entered our home," the 43-year-old father said.
– Man-made mistakes –
Since it began in June, this year's monsoon has killed around 800 people and damaged more than 7,000 homes, with further downpours expected through September. 
While South Asia's seasonal monsoon brings rainfall that farmers depend on, climate change is making the phenomenon more erratic, unpredictable and deadly across the region.
By the middle of this month, Pakistan had already received 50 percent more rainfall than this time last year, according to disaster authorities, while in neighbouring India, flash floods and sudden storms have killed hundreds.
Extractive practices have also compounded the climate-related disasters, with cash-strapped but mineral-rich Pakistan eager to meet growing American and Chinese demand.
Rehman, the former minister, said mining and logging have altered the natural watershed.
"When a flood comes down, especially in mountainous terrain, a dense forest is very often able to check the speed, scale and ferocity of the water, but Pakistan now only has five percent forest coverage, the lowest in South Asia," she said.
Urban infrastructure, too, has faltered. 
Days after villages were swept away in the north, a spell of rain in the south brought Pakistan's financial capital, Karachi, to a standstill.
The coastal megacity -- home to more than 20 million people -- recorded 10 deaths last week, with victims electrocuted or crushed by collapsing roofs.
A Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) report said brown water inundating streets is not only the result of rain but "clogged drains, inadequate solid waste disposal, poor infrastructure, encroachments, elitist housing societies... and so on."
Published in the wake of 2020's deadly floods, the report still rings true today.

'Negligence'

According to the commission, the problems are "inherently political" as various parties use building permits to fuel their patronage networks -- often disregarding the risks of constructing on top of drainage canals.
In some areas, "the drain has become so narrow that when high tide occurs and it rains simultaneously, instead of the water flowing into the sea, it flows back into the river," urban planning expert Arif Hasan said in an interview after the 2022 floods.
In the sprawling, rapidly swelling city, the various authorities, both civil and military, have failed to coordinate urban planning, according to the rights commission. 
As a result, what infrastructure does get built can solve one problem while creating others.
"Karachi isn't being destroyed by rain, but by years of negligence," said Taha Ahmed Khan, an opposition lawmaker in the Sindh provincial assembly.
"Illegal construction and encroachments on stormwater drains, along with substandard roads... have only worsened the crisis," he added.
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab says he has been asking Islamabad every year for help financing the revamping of drainage canals, to no avail.
"It's easy to suggest that drainage capacity should be enhanced, but the cost is so high that it might require spending almost the entire national budget," he told AFP.
Yet during June's budget vote, the opposition accused the city of having spent only 10 percent of funds earmarked for a massive development project.
The five-year plan, designed with international donors, was supposed to end the city's monsoon suffering by the end of 2024.
But nearly a year later, there is no respite.
stm-jma-sma/lb/jfx/cwl

Global Edition

Sci-fi skies: 'Haboob' plunges Phoenix into darkness

  • the City of Phoenix warned on X, sharing a photo of the dust wall looming over planes, a sight reminiscent of a science-fiction film.
  • A massive wall of dust swept through Phoenix, plunging the southwest US city into near-total darkness, grounding flights, forcing motorists off the road and cutting power to thousands.
  • the City of Phoenix warned on X, sharing a photo of the dust wall looming over planes, a sight reminiscent of a science-fiction film.
A massive wall of dust swept through Phoenix, plunging the southwest US city into near-total darkness, grounding flights, forcing motorists off the road and cutting power to thousands.
The giant haboob, which occurred on Monday, is a common phenomenon during the arid region's monsoon season. 
Haboobs form when a thunderstorm collapses, sending cold air crashing onto the desert floor, where it scoops up dust into a towering wall of sediment that can stretch for miles and rise thousands of feet.
The dust storm was followed by heavy rain and lightning that triggered flash flood warnings.
"This monsoon dust isn't messing around...Please be safe!" the City of Phoenix warned on X, sharing a photo of the dust wall looming over planes, a sight reminiscent of a science-fiction film.
Local media said the weather tore part of the roof off Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
The Trico Electric Co-op reported 7,200 customers without power, while police in the town of Gilbert said downed trees and traffic light outages created hazardous driving conditions.
The dust reduced visibility to just dozens of feet on the I-10 highway, while another busy roadway, the I-17, was partly closed due to flooding, according to the Arizona Department of Transport.
In all, more than two million people were affected, according to the National Weather Service (NWS), which advises motorists caught in haboobs to pull over and turn off their lights so other drivers don't mistake them for moving vehicles and crash into them.
The NWS forecasts isolated thunderstorms from Tuesday through Thursday, before a return to dry conditions on Friday.
bur-ia/bgs

fires

Spain calls wildfires one of its worst disasters in years

  • The cabinet declared areas hit by the wildfires a disaster area, a move that unlocks direct aid, tax breaks and other assistance for affected communities.
  • The Spanish government on Tuesday described wildfires that have swept the country as one of the country's worst environmental disasters in years, as it approved relief measures for affected areas.
  • The cabinet declared areas hit by the wildfires a disaster area, a move that unlocks direct aid, tax breaks and other assistance for affected communities.
The Spanish government on Tuesday described wildfires that have swept the country as one of the country's worst environmental disasters in years, as it approved relief measures for affected areas.
Blazes that flared across Spain this month have ravaged over 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres), killed four people and forced thousands of people to temporarily evacuate.
"It is obvious we are facing one of the biggest environmental catastrophes in recent years," Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told a news conference after a weekly cabinet meeting.
The cabinet declared areas hit by the wildfires a disaster area, a move that unlocks direct aid, tax breaks and other assistance for affected communities.
 There were 15 still active wildfires fires at level two -- meaning they pose a threat to people and property -- on Tuesday.
The main opposition Popular Party (PP) has accused Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s administration of delaying support for regional governments, which are responsible for disaster response.
The worst-hit areas -- Castile and Leon, Extremadura, and Galicia in the north and west -- are governed by the PP.
PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo on Monday accused the government of poor planning, and proposed a 50-point plan that included creating a national registry of arsonists.
Grande-Marlaska insisted, though, that "all available state resources" had been deployed, with assistance also arriving from foreign fire crews. 
He accused the PP of “using these difficult moments for many people as part of their political agenda”.
The minister said the government would review the opposition’s proposals, but stressed that arson accounted for only a small proportion of the fires.
The blazes started during a two-week heatwave that sent temperatures above 40C.
Scientists say climate change is driving longer, more intense, and more frequent heatwaves worldwide, fuelling wildfires.
du/ds/rmb

weather

Typhoon death toll rises in Vietnam as downed trees hamper rescuers

BY TRAN THI MINH HA

  • - Chaos in Hanoi - Further north in Hanoi, the heavy rains left many streets under water, bringing traffic chaos on Tuesday morning.
  • The death toll from Typhoon Kajiki rose to three in Vietnam on Tuesday, as rescue workers battled uprooted trees and downed power lines and widespread flooding brought chaos to the streets of the capital Hanoi.
  • - Chaos in Hanoi - Further north in Hanoi, the heavy rains left many streets under water, bringing traffic chaos on Tuesday morning.
The death toll from Typhoon Kajiki rose to three in Vietnam on Tuesday, as rescue workers battled uprooted trees and downed power lines and widespread flooding brought chaos to the streets of the capital Hanoi.
The typhoon hit central Vietnam on Monday with winds of up to 130 km/h (80 mph), tearing roofs off thousands of homes and knocking out power to more than 1.6 million people.
Authorities on Tuesday said three people had been killed and 13 injured, and warned of possible flash floods and landslides in eight provinces as Kajiki's torrential rains continue to wreak havoc.
On the streets of Vinh, in central Vietnam, AFP journalists saw soldiers and rescue workers using cutting equipment to clear dozens of trees and roof panels that had blocked the roads.
"A huge steel roof was blown down from the eighth floor of a building, landing right in the middle of the street," Tran Van Hung, 65, told AFP.
"It was so lucky that no one was hurt. This typhoon was absolutely terrifying."
Vietnam has long been affected by seasonal typhoons, but human-caused climate change is driving more intense and unpredictable weather patterns.
This can make destructive floods and storms more likely, particularly in the tropics.
"The wind yesterday night was so strong. The sound from trees twisting and the noise of the flying steel panels were all over the place," Vinh resident Nguyen Thi Hoa, 60, told AFP.
"We are used to heavy rain and floods but I think I have never experienced that strong wind and its gust like this yesterday."
Flooding has cut off 27 villages in mountainous areas inland, authorities said, while more than 44,000 people were evacuated as the storm approached.

Chaos in Hanoi

Further north in Hanoi, the heavy rains left many streets under water, bringing traffic chaos on Tuesday morning.
"It was impossible to move around this morning. My front yard is also flooded," Nguyen Thuy Lan, 44, told AFP.
Another Hanoi resident, Tran Luu Phuc, said he was stuck in one place for more than an hour, unable to escape the logjam of vehicles trapped by the murky brown waters.
"The flooding and the traffic this morning are terrible. It's a big mess everywhere," he told AFP.
After hitting Vietnam and weakening to a tropical depression, Kajiki swept westwards over northern Laos, bringing intense rains.
The high-speed Laos-China railway halted all services on Monday and Tuesday, and some roads have been cut but there were no immediate reports of deaths.
Residents of Luang Prabang, the ancient Laotian capital and a UNESCO world heritage site, said there had been heavy rains but no flooding yet.
"The river is high now but we're safe. I think nothing different, it's going to be like every year," Bounchan Chantaphone, 38, in Xiengngeun District outside Luang Prabang city, said.
In Vietnam, more than 100 people have been killed or left missing from natural disasters in the first seven months of 2025, according to the agriculture ministry.
In September last year Typhoon Yagi battered northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, triggering floods and landslides that left more than 700 people dead and causing billions of dollars' worth of economic losses. 
burs-pdw/jfx

health

1 in 4 people lack access to safe drinking water: UN

BY ROBIN MILLARD

  • In 2024, 89 countries had universal access to at least basic drinking water, of which 31 had universal access to safely managed services.
  • More than two billion people worldwide still lack access to safely-managed drinking water, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that progress towards universal coverage was moving nowhere near quickly enough.
  • In 2024, 89 countries had universal access to at least basic drinking water, of which 31 had universal access to safely managed services.
More than two billion people worldwide still lack access to safely-managed drinking water, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that progress towards universal coverage was moving nowhere near quickly enough.
The UN's health and children's agencies said a full one in four people globally were without access to safely-managed drinking water last year, with over 100 million people remaining reliant on drinking surface water -- for example from rivers, ponds and canals.
The World Health Organization and UNICEF said lagging water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services were leaving billions at greater risk of disease.
They said in a joint study that the world remain far off track to reach a target of achieving universal coverage of such services by 2030.
Instead, that goal "is increasingly out of reach", they warned.
"Water, sanitation and hygiene are not privileges: they are basic human rights," said the WHO's environment chief Ruediger Krech.
"We must accelerate action, especially for the most marginalised communities."
The report looked at five levels of drinking water services.
Safely managed, the highest, is defined as drinking water accessible on the premises, available when needed and free from faecal and priority chemical contamination.
The four levels below are basic (improved water taking less than 30 minutes to access), limited (improved, but taking longer), unimproved (for example, from an unprotected well or spring), and surface water.

Drinking of surface water declines

Since 2015, 961 million people have gained access to safely-managed drinking water, with coverage rising from 68 percent to 74 percent, the report said.
Of the 2.1 billion people last year still lacking safely managed drinking water services, 106 million used surface water -- a decrease of 61 million over the past decade.
The number of countries that have eliminated the use of surface water for drinking meanwhile increased from 142 in 2015 to 154 in 2024, the study said.
In 2024, 89 countries had universal access to at least basic drinking water, of which 31 had universal access to safely managed services.
The 28 countries where more than one in four people still lacked basic services were largely concentrated in Africa.

Goals slipping from reach

As for sanitation, 1.2 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation services since 2015, with coverage rising from 48 percent to 58 percent, the study found.
These are defined as improved facilities that are not shared with other households, and where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or removed and treated off-site.
The number of people practising open defecation has decreased by 429 million to 354 million 2024, or to four percent of the global population.
Since 2015, 1.6 billion people have gained access to basic hygiene services -- a hand washing facility with soap and water at home -- with coverage increasing from 66 percent to 80 percent, the study found.
"When children lack access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene, their health, education, and futures are put at risk," warned Cecilia Scharp, UNICEF's director for WASH.
"These inequalities are especially stark for girls, who often bear the burden of water collection and face additional barriers during menstruation.
"At the current pace, the promise of safe water and sanitation for every child is slipping further from reach."
rjm/nl/giv

agriculture

'The marshes are dead': Iraqi buffalo herders wander in search of water

BY TONY GAMAL-GABRIEL

  • Abbas and tens of thousands of Iraqis like him who rely on the marshes -- livestock herders, hunters and fishermen -- have watched helplessly as their source of livelihood evaporated.
  • Like his father, Iraqi buffalo herder Watheq Abbas grazes his animals in Iraq's southern wetlands, but with persistent drought shrinking marshland where they feed and decimating the herd, his millennia-old way of life is threatened. 
  • Abbas and tens of thousands of Iraqis like him who rely on the marshes -- livestock herders, hunters and fishermen -- have watched helplessly as their source of livelihood evaporated.
Like his father, Iraqi buffalo herder Watheq Abbas grazes his animals in Iraq's southern wetlands, but with persistent drought shrinking marshland where they feed and decimating the herd, his millennia-old way of life is threatened. 
"There's no more water, the marshes are dead," said 27-year-old Abbas, who has led his buffaloes to pasture in the marshland for the past 15 years.
"In the past, the drought would last one or two years, the water would return and the marshes would come back to life. Now we've gone without water for five years," the buffalo herder told AFP.
This year has been one of the driest since 1933, authorities have said, with summer temperatures topping 50C across Iraq, which is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. 
The UNESCO-listed swamplands in the country's south -- where tradition has it that the biblical Garden of Eden was located -- have sustained civilisations dating back to ancient Mesopotamia.
But the unrelenting dry spell has reduced the mythical waterways to a barren land of cracked earth, stripped of the slender reeds that once dominated the landscape.
Abbas and tens of thousands of Iraqis like him who rely on the marshes -- livestock herders, hunters and fishermen -- have watched helplessly as their source of livelihood evaporated.
At the Chibayish marshes, scarce water still fills some channels, which authorities have deepened so that animals like Abbas's 25 buffaloes could cool off.
For years, he and his herd have been on the move, heading wherever there was still water, in Chibayish or in the neighbouring province of Missan.

'Battle for water'

But it has become an increasingly challenging feat. Last year, seven of his animals died.
Just recently Abbas lost another of his buffaloes which drank stagnant, brackish water that he said had "poisoned it".
The drought has been brought about by declining rainfall and soaring temperatures that increase evaporation. 
But upstream dams built in Turkey and in Iran have dramatically reduced the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq and exacerbated the effects of climate change.
With the Iraqi government forced to ration water supply to ensure the country's 46 million people have enough to drink and to meet agricultural needs, the marshes appear to be at the bottom of their priorities.
"There's a battle for water" in Iraq, said environmental activist Jassim al-Assadi, from the Nature Iraq NGO.
He was among a group of activists and engineers who two decades ago sought to re-flood 5,600 square kilometres (about 2,160 square miles) of marshland.
They were part of the areas that Saddam Hussein's government had drained in the 1990s to chase out Shiite Muslim militants sheltering there.
Today, only 800 square kilometres of the marshes are submerged, Assadi said, with many residents leaving the dried-up region.
The ecosystem of the marshes is also suffering irreversible damage, with turtles, otters and migratory birds among the victims.
"We used to have 48 species of fish but now only four remain, and from 140 species of wild birds we are now down to 22," said veterinarian Wissam al-Assadi.

'We have nothing else'

In collaboration with a French agriculture and veterinarian NGO, he helps treat the buffaloes, which in summer typically need be in the water for 14 hours a day and drink dozens of litres to avoid heat exhaustion.
But the reduced water flow means "the water does not renew, and salinity and pollution levels increase," the veterinarian explained.
"Animals that used to weigh 600 kilos (1,300 pounds) are now 400 or 300 kilos, their immune systems weaken and diseases multiply," he added.
The Mesopotamian water buffaloes now produce one-third of their usual output of milk, which is used to make cheese and geymar, a thick clotted cream that is a popular breakfast food in Iraq.
A UN report issued in July warned that "without urgent conservation measures", the buffalo population was "at risk of extinction".
Citing water scarcity as the cause, it said their numbers in the marshes have gone from 309,000 in 1974 to just 40,000 in 2000.
Towayeh Faraj, 50, who has lived in the hamlet of Hassja in Chibayish for the past two years, said he has been wandering the marshes for three decades to find water for his buffaloes.
"If the livestock is alive, so are we," he said.
"We have nothing else: no salary, no jobs, no state support."
He has 30 animals -- down from the 120 he began his career with, selling many off one-by-one to buy fodder for the remaining herd.
Faraj inherited the profession from his father, but the family tradition might end with him. His eldest of 16 children works for a Chinese oil company, and another is a minibus driver.
tgg/ami/dcp/csp

mountains

Drones take on Everest's garbage

BY ANUP OJHA

  • "People in the fixing team were very happy," said record-holding climber Nima Rinji Sherpa, the youngest to summit all 14 of the world's highest peaks.
  • A team of drone operators joined climbers and guides at Everest Base Camp this climbing season, armed with heavy-duty drones to help clear rubbish from the world's highest peak.
  • "People in the fixing team were very happy," said record-holding climber Nima Rinji Sherpa, the youngest to summit all 14 of the world's highest peaks.
A team of drone operators joined climbers and guides at Everest Base Camp this climbing season, armed with heavy-duty drones to help clear rubbish from the world's highest peak.
Tonnes of trash -- from empty cans and gas canisters, to bottles, plastic and discarded climbing gear -- have earned once-pristine Everest the grim nickname of the "highest dumpster in the world".
Two DJI FC 30 heavy-lifter drones were flown to Camp 1 at 6,065 metres (19,900 feet), where they airlifted 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of trash down during the spring climbing season, which usually lasts from April to early June.
"The only options were helicopters and manpower, with no option in between," said Raj Bikram Maharjan, of Nepal-based Airlift Technology, which developed the project.
"So, as a solution for this problem, we came up with a concept of using our heavy-lift drone to carry garbage."
After a successful pilot on Everest last year, the company tested the system on nearby Mount Ama Dablam, where it removed 641 kilos of waste.
"This is a revolutionary drive in the mountains to make it cleaner and safer," said Tashi Lhamu Sherpa, vice chairman of the Khumbu Pasang Lhamu rural municipality, which oversees the Everest area.

'Game changer'

The drones are proving to be far more efficient, cost-effective and safer than earlier methods, said Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee.
"In just 10 minutes, a drone can carry as much garbage as 10 people would take six hours to carry," Sherpa told AFP.
The powerful drones cost around $20,000 each, but were supplied by the China-headquartered manufacturer to support the cleanup operation and promote its brand.
Other costs were borne partially by the local authorities.
Beyond waste removal, the drones have also been deployed to deliver essential climbing gear such as oxygen cylinders, ladders, and ropes -- reducing the number of dangerous trips across the Khumbu Icefall, one of Everest's deadliest sections.
That can help improve safety for the guides and porters, especially the early "fixing" teams who establish routes at the start of the new season.
"People in the fixing team were very happy," said record-holding climber Nima Rinji Sherpa, the youngest to summit all 14 of the world's highest peaks.
"They can simply just go by themselves and the drone will carry ladders or the oxygen and ropes for them. It saves a lot of time and energy."
Next month, Airlift Technology will take the drones to Mount Manaslu, the world's eighth-highest peak.
"It's not just in war that drones are useful," Maharjan said.
"They can save lives and protect the environment. For climate and humanitarian work, this technology is going to be a game changer."
str/pm/pjm/mtp/cwl

weather

Typhoon Kajiki lashes Vietnam, killing one as thousands evacuate

BY TRAN THI MINH HA

  • The typhoon made landfall packing windspeeds between 118 and 133 kilometres per hour (73 and 82 miles per hour), Vietnam's National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.
  • Vietnam's central belt was lashed by Typhoon Kajiki on Monday, with at least one person killed by deluges and gales howling more than 130 kilometres per hour, as tens of thousands of residents were evacuated from the path of the tempest.
  • The typhoon made landfall packing windspeeds between 118 and 133 kilometres per hour (73 and 82 miles per hour), Vietnam's National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.
Vietnam's central belt was lashed by Typhoon Kajiki on Monday, with at least one person killed by deluges and gales howling more than 130 kilometres per hour, as tens of thousands of residents were evacuated from the path of the tempest.
The typhoon -- the fifth to affect Vietnam this year -- roiled the Gulf of Tonkin with waves of up to 9.5 metres (31 feet) before hitting shore around 3:00 pm (0800 GMT).
Nearly 44,000 people were evacuated from the region as 16,000 military personnel were mobilised and all fishing boats in the typhoon's path were called back to harbour.
Two domestic airports were shut and 35 flights cancelled before it landed between Ha Tinh and Nghe An provinces, tearing the roofs off more than 600 homes according to authorities.
"I have never experienced such strong winds in all my life," 38-year-old Nguyen Thi Phuong told AFP in Vinh city, the provincial capital of Nghe An which was stricken by widespread blackouts on Monday night.
One fatality was reported by the agriculture ministry, with at least eight more people wounded.
The typhoon made landfall packing windspeeds between 118 and 133 kilometres per hour (73 and 82 miles per hour), Vietnam's National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said.
"The risk for flash floods overnight is very high, so we have to stay on high alert," director Mai Van Khiem told AFP.
Waterfront Vinh city was deluged early on Monday, its streets largely deserted with most shops and restaurants closed as residents and business owners sandbagged their property entrances.
"I have never heard of a typhoon of this big scale coming to our city," said 66-year-old Le Manh Tung at a Vinh indoor sports stadium, where evacuated families dined on a simple breakfast of sticky rice.
"I am a bit scared, but then we have to accept it because it's nature -- we cannot do anything," he added.

'Never this big'

Human-caused climate change is driving more intense and unpredictable weather patterns that can make destructive floods and storms more likely, particularly in the tropics.
"Normally we get storms and flooding, but never this big," said 52-year-old evacuee Nguyen Thi Nhan.
The typhoon's power is due to dramatically dissipate after it makes landfall.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said conditions suggested "an approaching weakening trend as the system approaches the continental shelf of the Gulf of Tonkin where there is less ocean heat content".
China's tropical resort island of Hainan evacuated around 20,000 residents on Sunday as the typhoon passed its south.
The island's main city, Sanya, closed scenic areas and halted business operations.
In Vietnam, more than 100 people have been killed or left missing from natural disasters in the first seven months of 2025, according to the agriculture ministry.
Economic losses have been estimated at more than $21 million.
Vietnam suffered $3.3 billion in economic losses last September as a result of Typhoon Yagi, which swept across the country's north and caused hundreds of fatalities.
tmh-jts/dhw

weather

Portugal counts the cost of its biggest ever forest fire

  • Ferreira said authorities still had nearly 1,000 firefighters and 300 vehicles on "surveillance operations" Monday though the numbers were expected to be gradually reduced.
  • Nearly 1,000 firefighters remained mobilised Monday in central Portugal to prevent flare-ups of what authorities said was the biggest forest fire the country has seen -- ravaging an area more than 10 times bigger than Manhattan island.
  • Ferreira said authorities still had nearly 1,000 firefighters and 300 vehicles on "surveillance operations" Monday though the numbers were expected to be gradually reduced.
Nearly 1,000 firefighters remained mobilised Monday in central Portugal to prevent flare-ups of what authorities said was the biggest forest fire the country has seen -- ravaging an area more than 10 times bigger than Manhattan island.
The blaze was only brought under control on Sunday after raging for 11 days and having burned 64,451 hectares (160,000 acres), National Civil Protection Authority spokesman Commander Telmo Ferreira told AFP.
That made it the largest fire ever recorded in Portugal, according to the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF). The previous biggest was 53,000 hectares devastated by a forest fire in October 2017.
The blaze covered seven municipalities in Coimbra, Guarda, and Castelo Branco districts and was caused by lightning strikes, officials said.
Ferreira said authorities still had nearly 1,000 firefighters and 300 vehicles on "surveillance operations" Monday though the numbers were expected to be gradually reduced.
Monday brought some respite as the civil protection system recorded no fresh outbreaks from a summer which has seen Portugal and neighbouring Spain suffer a slew of fires.
Since July, forest fires have killed four people in Portugal, destroyed homes and crops, and ravaged some 278,000 hectares, according to European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) data. Four people have also died in the most recent firest in Spain.
Portugal's worst year was in 2017, when more than 563,000 hectares were burned in wildfires that killed 119 people, according to EFFIS records.
The government has announced a number of emergency measures to help affected areas, including funding for the reconstruction of destroyed homes and aid for farmers.
The Iberian Peninsula has been severely affected by climate change, which is causing longer and more intense heatwaves, according to experts.
lf/tsc/cw/tw

poverty

'Restoring dignity': Kenya slum exchange offers water for plastic

  • For Aluoch, every sack of plastics and every green point earned goes beyond clean water and sanitation: it restores a sense of dignity.
  • Using a crutch to bear her weight, 85-year-old Molly Aluoch trudges from her mud-walled room on the outskirts of a sprawling Nairobi slum, shouldering a sack of used plastic to exchange for a shower or a safe toilet.
  • For Aluoch, every sack of plastics and every green point earned goes beyond clean water and sanitation: it restores a sense of dignity.
Using a crutch to bear her weight, 85-year-old Molly Aluoch trudges from her mud-walled room on the outskirts of a sprawling Nairobi slum, shouldering a sack of used plastic to exchange for a shower or a safe toilet.
For the 31 years she has lived in Kibera, Kenya's largest informal settlement, water and sanitation have remained scarce and costly -- often controlled by cartels who charge residents prices beyond their means.
The Human Needs Project (HNP) seeks to mitigate that. Residents can trade discarded plastic for "green points", or credits, they can redeem for services such as drinking water, toilets, showers, laundries and even meals.
"With my green points, I can now access a comfortable and clean toilet and bathroom any time of the day," Aluoch said.
Before, she would spend 10 shillings (eight US cents) to use a toilet and another 10 for a bathroom, a significant chunk from the residents' average daily income, 200 to 400 shillings, before food and housing costs.
"It meant that without money, I would not use a toilet," she said.
Unable to use Kibera's pit latrines owing to her frailty meant she would have to resort to "unhygienic means".
Now, that money goes towards food for her three grandchildren.
Aluoch, a traditional birth attendant, is among some 100 women who collect plastics for green points, helping them access water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
She takes her plastic to a centre 200 metres (yards) from her home, where one kilogramme of recyclable plastics earns 15 green points, equivalent to 15 shillings.
The project serves some 800 residents daily, allowing them access to modern bathrooms, clean water and menstrual hygiene facilities -- services that are out of reach for many Kibera households.
Since 2015, the project has distributed more than 50 million litres (13 million gallons) of water and more than one million toilet and shower uses.
In 2024 alone, it distributed 11 million litres of water and enabled 124,000 bathroom and toilet uses.

'Days without water'

With water a scarce commodity in Kibera, it is common for vendors to create artificial shortages to inflate prices, forcing residents to pay more than 10 times the normal price.
The city's water service charges between $0.60 and $0.70 per cubic metre for connected households, but by comparison, Kibera residents have to stump up as much as $8 to $19 for the same amount.
"Getting water was hard. We could go several days without water," said Magret John, 50, a mother of three.
Today, her reality is different.
"The water point is at my doorstep. The supply is steady and the water is clean. All I need is to collect plastics, get points, redeem and get water," she said.
John, who has lived in Kibera for nine years, says the project has been a game changer, especially for women and girls.
"Access to proper sanitation services guarantees women and girls their dignity during menstruation."
Now, with 10 water points spread across Kibera -- pulled from a borehole with a daily capacity of half a million litres -- NHP shields some residents from informal vendors' exploitative pricing.
The project's dual mission is to meet basic human needs while tackling Kibera's mounting waste problem.
HNP's director of strategic partnerships Peter Muthaura said it helps to improve health and the daily living conditions in Kibera.
"When people cannot access dignified toilets and bathrooms, the environment bears the impact," he said.
It also fosters development, he said.
In the first quarter of 2025 alone, Kibera residents delivered two tonnes of recyclable plastic, with around 250 women directly engaged in daily collection and delivery.
For Aluoch, every sack of plastics and every green point earned goes beyond clean water and sanitation: it restores a sense of dignity.
"My prayer is that this project spreads to every corner of Kibera, and reaches thousands of women whose dignity has been robbed by a lack of sanitation services," she said.
str-rbu/rmb/jhb

jasmine

Egyptian farmers behind world's perfumes face climate fight alone

BY MENNA FAROUK

  • Global brands charge up to $6,000 per kilogram of jasmine absolute, the pure aromatic oil derived from the concrete and used by perfumeries, but Egyptian pickers earn just 105 Egyptian pounds ($2) per kilogram.
  • For years, Egyptian jasmine picker Wael al-Sayed has collected blossoms by night in the Nile Delta, supplying top global perfume houses.
  • Global brands charge up to $6,000 per kilogram of jasmine absolute, the pure aromatic oil derived from the concrete and used by perfumeries, but Egyptian pickers earn just 105 Egyptian pounds ($2) per kilogram.
For years, Egyptian jasmine picker Wael al-Sayed has collected blossoms by night in the Nile Delta, supplying top global perfume houses. But in recent summers, his basket has felt lighter and the once-rich fragrance is fading.
"It's the heat," said Sayed, 45, who has spent nearly a decade working the fields in Shubra Balula, a quiet village about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Cairo and a key hub for Egypt's jasmine industry. 
As temperatures rise, he said, the flowers bloom less and his daily harvest has dropped from six kilograms to just two or three in the past two years.
In this fertile pocket of the delta, jasmine has sustained thousands of families like Sayed's for generations, but rising temperatures, prolonged dry spells and climate-driven pests are putting that legacy at risk.
From June to October, families, including children, traditionally head into the fields between midnight and dawn to hand-pick jasmine at peak fragrance.
With yields shrinking, some are leaving the trade entirely and those that have stayed now work longer hours. 
More children are also being pulled in to help and often stay up all night to pick before going to school.
Child labour remains widespread in Egypt with 4.2 million children working in agriculture, industry and services, often in unsafe or exploitative conditions, according to a 2023 state study. 
This year, Sayed has brought two of his children -- just nine and 10 years old -- to join him and his wife on their 350-square-metre (3,800-square-foot) plot.
"We have no other choice," Sayed said.

Too hot to bloom

According to the country's largest processor, A Fakhry & Co, Egypt produces nearly half the world's jasmine concrete, a waxy extract from the plant that provides a vital base for designer fragrances and is a multi-million dollar export.
In the 1970s, Egypt produced 11 tonnes of jasmine concrete annually, according to the International Federation of Essential Oils and Aroma Trades.
Now, A Fakhry & Co says that's down to 6.5 tonnes.
Ali Emara, 78, who has picked jasmine since the age of 12, said summers used to be hot, "but not like now".
Mohamed Bassiouny, 56, and his four sons have seen their harvest halve from 15 to seven kilograms with pickers now taking over eight hours to fill a basket.
The region's jasmine is highly sensitive to heat and humidity, said Karim Elgendy from Carboun Institute, a Dutch climate and energy think tank.
"Higher temperatures can disrupt flowering, weaken oil concentration and introduce stress that reduces yield," Elgendy told AFP.
A 2023 report by the International Energy Agency found Egypt's temperature rose 0.38C per decade (2000–2020), outpacing the global average.
The heat is affecting the strength of the jasmine's scent, and with it the value of the oil extracted, said Badr Atef, manager of A Fakhry & Co.
Meanwhile, pests such as spider mites and leaf worms are thriving in the hotter, drier conditions and compounding the strain.
Alexandre Levet, CEO of the French Fragrance House in Grasse, France's perfume capital, explained that the industry is facing the effects of climate change globally.
"We have dozens of natural ingredients that are already suffering from climate change," he said, explaining that new origins for products have emerged as local climates shift.

Villages at risk

With the Nile Delta also vulnerable to the rising Mediterranean water levels, which affect soil salinity, jasmine farmers are on the front line of a heating planet.
The labourers are left "at the mercy of this huge system entirely on their own," said rural sociologist Saker El Nour, with "no stake" in the industry that depends on their labour.
Global brands charge up to $6,000 per kilogram of jasmine absolute, the pure aromatic oil derived from the concrete and used by perfumeries, but Egyptian pickers earn just 105 Egyptian pounds ($2) per kilogram.
A tonne of flowers yields only 2–3 kilograms of concrete and less than half that in pure essential oil -- enough for around 100 perfume bottles.
"What's 100 pounds worth today? Nothing," said Sayed.
Egypt's currency has lost more than two-thirds of its value since 2022, causing inflation to skyrocket and leaving families like Sayed's scraping by.
Last June, pickers staged a rare strike, demanding 150 pounds per kilogram. But with prices set by a handful of private processors and little government oversight, they only received an increase of 10 pounds.
Every year farmers earn less and less, while a heating planet threatens the community's entire livelihood.
"Villages like this may lose their viability altogether," Elgendy said.
maf/bha/csp/dcp/rsc

weather

Spain heatwave was 'most intense on record'

  • AEMET said a 10-day period from August 8 to August 17, was the hottest 10 consecutive days recorded in Spain since "at least 1950".
  • A 16-day heatwave Spain suffered this month was "the most intense on record", the national meteorological agency said on Sunday.
  • AEMET said a 10-day period from August 8 to August 17, was the hottest 10 consecutive days recorded in Spain since "at least 1950".
A 16-day heatwave Spain suffered this month was "the most intense on record", the national meteorological agency said on Sunday.
With forest fires still burning across northern and western Spain, the AEMET meteorological agency said provisional readings for the August 3-18 heatwave exceeded the last record, set in July 2022, and showed an average temperature 4.6C higher than previous events.
AEMET said a 10-day period from August 8 to August 17, was the hottest 10 consecutive days recorded in Spain since "at least 1950".
The August heatwave exacerbated tinderbox conditions that have fuelled wildfires which have killed four people and forced thousands out of their homes. 
Four people have also died in fires in Portugal, where emergency services are still struggling to control the blazes.
More than 1,100 deaths in Spain have been linked to the August heatwave, according to an estimate released Tuesday by the Carlos III Health Institute.
The institute had already said that 1,060 deaths in July could be attributed to excess heat, a 50 percent rise on the figure for July 2024.
Since it began keeping records in 1975, AEMET has registered 77 heatwaves in Spain, with six going 4C or more above the average. Five of those have been since 2019.
Scientists say climate change is driving longer, more intense and more frequent heatwaves worldwide.
The agency said that it is "a scientific fact that current summers are hotter than in previous decades".
"Each summer is not always going to be hotter than the previous one, but there is a clear trend towards much more extreme summers. What is key is adapting to, and mitigating, climate change," it added.
Fires burning in northern regions have destroyed more than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) in the past weeks and a record of more than 400,000 hectares since the start of the year.
Authorities say they are only now starting to control the fires.
Firefighters and water-bombing planes from nine European countries have been helping Spanish emergency services.
Hundreds of people are still kept away from their homes though many have started returning in the past 24 hours.
Portugal announced its fourth fatality from the current wildfires on Saturday. The 45-year-old fireman had been critically injured battling the flames last week.
More than 60,000 hectares of land have burned in Portugal in the current heatwave and more than 278,000 hectares since the start of the year.
al/avl/tw/djt

weather

Fires ravage an ageing rural Spain

BY ALFONS LUNA

  • The fires burning in the north and west of Spain have destroyed more than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) in the past weeks, killing four people.
  • The biggest fear for senior citizens taking refuge in Benavente, a town in a zone ravaged by vast wildfires in Spain, is that "everything they own could burn", its mayor Beatriz Asensio told AFP. She was speaking as she visited a temporary shelter in her municipality, in Zamora province in the Castile and Leon region, hosting residents from surrounding areas who had been evacuated ahead of fast-moving fire fronts.
  • The fires burning in the north and west of Spain have destroyed more than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) in the past weeks, killing four people.
The biggest fear for senior citizens taking refuge in Benavente, a town in a zone ravaged by vast wildfires in Spain, is that "everything they own could burn", its mayor Beatriz Asensio told AFP.
She was speaking as she visited a temporary shelter in her municipality, in Zamora province in the Castile and Leon region, hosting residents from surrounding areas who had been evacuated ahead of fast-moving fire fronts.
Many were elderly, reflecting the demographic decline in much of rural Spain.
Zamora has the greatest concentration of residents in Spain aged over 80, representing 12.3 percent of the province's population, according to official statistics.
Ourense, in the neighbouring region of Galicia -- also weathering wildfires -- was close behind, with 12.1 percent.
The fires burning in the north and west of Spain have destroyed more than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) in the past weeks, killing four people. Authorities say they are only now starting to come under control.
"In Zamora province, we have an extremely large number of elderly, a lot of people who live alone, a little helpless," said Jesus Jose Gonzalez Tejada, the commander of Zamora's civil guard, which was tasked with evacuating the at-risk residents.
"There are times you have to remind them: 'Please get your medicine, things you need, some clothes, your mobile phone to be able to tell your family, a charger, very important," he told AFP.

A past consumed by flames

Among many of the elderly, a shared fear raised its head: that of irreparable loss, the possibility of needing to rebuild but lacking the youth and money to do so.
Amelia Bueno, 79, from the northern Asturias region, has spent more than 30 summers vacationing in Ribadelago Nuevo, a lakeside village in Zamora, from which she was evacuated.
She never sought to holiday anywhere else. "I've spent 32 years coming for vacation... Don't take me away or send me someplace else," she said.
Yet, she accepts with resignation the situation she is facing.
"The most important thing is that no one gets hurt. And that we're all right and being looked after. And that this is the hardest thing that could happen to us."
Pedro Fernandez, 85, followed a well-trodden path, of leaving when young to live and work in Barcelona, but hanging on to his parents' home in the region, in Vigo de Sanabria, for his vacations.
"Starting over again at my age wouldn't make any sense," he told AFP.
"I'm really afraid for my house," he said. "I inherited the house from my father, and if it's destroyed it can't be rebuilt. Building a house like that today would cost a fortune."
In his case, though, fortune smiled.
Fernandez and others from Vigo de Sanabria were able to return to the village on Friday, where they found their properties undamaged.
The same cannot be said of many other Spanish villages, where the flames have consumed the buildings -- and with them the past and their memories.
al/mdm/rmb/djt

environment

Bird call contest boosts conservation awareness in Hong Kong's concrete jungle

BY BRIGITTE PU

  • Despite its relatively small size, more than 580 types of birds -- about a third of China's total species -- have been recorded in Hong Kong.
  • The chirping of birds echoed through a packed lecture hall in Hong Kong, though there wasn't a feather in sight.
  • Despite its relatively small size, more than 580 types of birds -- about a third of China's total species -- have been recorded in Hong Kong.
The chirping of birds echoed through a packed lecture hall in Hong Kong, though there wasn't a feather in sight.
Residents, some pressing the sides of their throats or contorting their bodies, imitated the rhythmic calls of the koel, brown fish owl and Asian barred owlet. 
One donned elaborate headgear to mimic the yellow-crested cockatoo — a bird that is among the world's most endangered species. About a tenth of the 1,200 to 2,000 left call the financial hub's concrete canyons home.
Bob Chan, who took top prize at the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society's first-ever birdcall contest on Saturday, chose the tiny Eurasian Tree Sparrow, another longtime urban dweller.
"I saw other contestants giving their all ... and imitating very well," he said admiringly of his nearly 100 fellow participants, each judged on their rhythm and tone.
One judge, Hong Kong-based ecologist and ornithologist Paul Leader, told AFP he was thrilled the competition had gotten people like Chan thinking about the birds they share the city with.
"If people don't care about birds, how are you going to get them to protect them and conserve them?" he said. 
"I'm just happy to see people who have a genuine interest in birds and wildlife. That's a great start," he said of the event aimed at raising ecological awareness.
Despite its relatively small size, more than 580 types of birds -- about a third of China's total species -- have been recorded in Hong Kong.
That diversity is attributed to Hong Kong's status as a vital stopover on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway for migratory birds, thanks to the city's varied habitats -- from wetlands and forests to shrublands and coastal areas.
In recent years, a mega-development plan in Hong Kong's north has raised concerns among environmentalists about the reduction of the wetlands.
The government has said fears over the project's environmental impact are overblown.
But Tom Li, assistant research manager of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, told AFP the wetlands were a "critical issue" for birds in the city.
"Whether habitats like wetlands can be preserved over the next 10 to 20 years without being squeezed by large-scale urbanisation development" will be key to maintaining biodiversity, he said.
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