Wildfires burn in Tenerife, Canada and Portugal amid warning of ‘alarming’ speed of climate change
Wildfires raging across the world and record heatwaves are “really alarming” evidence of the speed of climate change, Europe’s top space official has said.
He urged politicians not to abandon European leadership in combating global warming as it causes “enormous changes” to the planet.
Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency, made the comments as wildfires burn in Portugal, Tenerife and Canada.
At least 106 people have died after devastating fires in Hawaii in recent days.
Fires burn on the Canary island of Tenerife. Pic: Gerardo Ibelli/Reuters
Spanish authorities ordered the evacuation of four villages on the Canary island on Wednesday after a fire broke out in a nature park surrounding the Mount Teide volcano.
The fire, which started on Tuesday night, was raging through a forested area in steep ravines in the northeastern part of Tenerife, making firefighters’ task more difficult.
It comes after the Canary Islands were hit by a heatwave that left many areas bone dry, increasing the risk of wildfires.
A Yellowknife Fire Department truck leaves a neighbourhood as smoke plumes near the city
In Canada’s Northwest Territories, the authorities have declared a state of emergency due to wildfires that have largely destroyed a remote community and now pose a risk to the territorial capital, Yellowknife.
There have been 265 wildfires in the Northwest Territories this year, much higher than its 10-year annual average of 185.
Wildfires have engulfed parts of nearly all 13 Canadian provinces and territories this year, forcing home evacuations, disrupting energy production, and drawing in federal as well as international firefighting resources.
The World Meteorological Organisation said July had the highest global average temperature for any month on record.
“This is really alarming,” Mr Aschbacher, a leading expert on environmental observation, said.
“It just confirms that climate change is the biggest threat to our planet, to humankind, and will remain so for the next decades and we do need to do everything we can to mitigate the effects.”
Read more:
Countries worst affected by extreme water stress
Factors behind Hawaii’s devastating wildfires
Scientists predict how often heatwaves will now occur
Satellite pictures show the extent of wildfires in Portugal. Pic: European Space Agency
Scientists say climate change is making heatwaves more frequent, intense and likely to happen across seasons, not just in what were regarded as the summer months.
But pressure is growing on some governments over the cost of net-zero commitments on emissions, and analysts say looming elections in Europe could put future measures at risk.
In Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned of climate policies that “unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs”.
Mr Ashbacher said long-term costs were likely to be far higher unless governments respond to “crystal clear” evidence, including satellite measurements, of the recent heat emergency in southern Europe.
World
‘Almost like a game of target practice’: British surgeon says IDF shooting Gazans at aid points
A British surgeon who recently returned from Gaza has told Sky News that there is “profound malnutrition” among the population – and claims IDF soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points “like a game of target practice”.
Dr Nick Maynard spent four weeks working inside Nasser Hospital, where a lack of food has left medics struggling to treat children and toddlers.
The conditions inside the hospital, in the south of the Strip, have been documented in a Sky News report.
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Malnourished girl: ‘The war changed me’
Dr Maynard told The World with Yalda Hakim: “I met several doctors who had cartons of formula feed in their luggage – and they were all confiscated by the Israeli border guards. Nothing else got confiscated, just the formula feed.
“There were four premature babies who died during the first two weeks when I was in Nasser Hospital – and there will be many, many more deaths until the Israelis allow proper food to get in there.”
Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
In other developments:
• Israel and the US have recalled their teams from Gaza ceasefire talks
• US envoy Steve Witkoff has accused Hamas “of failing to act in good faith”
• France has announced that it will recognise the state of Palestine
• An influential group of MPs is calling on the UK to “immediately” do the same
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‘Starvation used as a weapon’
‘They were shells’
Dr Nick Maynard has been going to Gaza for the past 15 years – and this is his third visit to the territory since the war began.
The British surgeon added that virtually all of the kids in the paediatric unit of Nasser Hospital are being fed with sugar water.
“They’ve got a small amount of formula feed for very small babies, but not enough,” he warned.
Dr Maynard said the lack of aid has also had a huge impact on his colleagues.
“I saw people I’d known for years and I didn’t recognise some of them,” he added. “Two colleagues had lost 20kg and 30kg respectively. They were shells, they’re all hungry.
“They’re going to work every day, then going home to their tents where they have no food.”
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Ex-Gaza aid worker claims personnel shot at Palestinians
IDF ‘shooting Gazans at aid points’
Elsewhere in the interview, Dr Maynard claimed Israeli soldiers are shooting civilians at aid points “almost like a game of target practice”.
He has operated on boys as young as 11 who had been “shot at food distribution points” run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
“They had gone to get food for their starving families and they were shot,” he said.
“I operated on one 12-year-old boy who died on the operating table because his injuries were so severe.”
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Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open
Dr Maynard continued: “What was even more distressing was the pattern of injuries that we saw, the clustering of injuries to particular body parts on certain days.
“One day they’d be coming in predominately with gunshot wounds to the head or the neck, another day to the abdomen.
“Twelve days ago, four young teenage boys came in, all of whom had been shot in the testicles and deliberately so.
“The clustering was far too obvious to be accidental, and it seemed to us like this was almost like a game of target practice.
“I would never have believed this possible unless I’d witnessed this with my own eyes.”
Palestinians brought to Nasser Hospital after being shot by Israeli forces, according to hospital officials and eyewitnesses. Pic: AP
Sky News has contacted the Israeli Defence Forces for comment.
An IDF spokesperson previously told Sky News it “strongly rejected” the accusations that its forces were instructed to deliberately shoot at civilians.
“To be clear, IDF directives prohibit deliberate attacks on civilians,” the spokesperson said, adding that the incidents are “being examined by the relevant IDF authorities”.
Read more:
Medics at Nasser hospital struggle to feed children
Gaza food situation ‘worst its ever been’
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Israeli military show aid waiting inside Gaza
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been managing the supply of aid to Gaza since Israel lifted an 11-week blockade in May.
It has four aid distribution sites, all of which are located in Israeli military zones, with journalists prohibited from entering.
More than 1,000 people have been reported killed while trying to receive food aid since the GHF took over, according to the UN.
UNRWA, its relief agency for Gaza, has heavily criticised the scheme.
Commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said: “The so-called ‘GHF’ distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap. Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a licence to kill.”
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Just a fraction of the aid trucks needed are making it into the enclave, the UN has said, while multiple aid groups and the World Health Organisation have warned Gazans are facing “mass starvation”.
Mr Lazzarini quoted a colleague on Thursday and said malnourished Palestinians in the Gaza “are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses”.
In Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, they have virtually nothing left to eat.
Warning: This article contains images that some readers may find distressing.
Huda has lost half her body weight since March, when Israel shut the crossings into Gaza, and imposed a blockade.
The 12-year-old girl knows she doesn’t look well.
“Before, I used to look like this,” Huda says, pointing to a picture on her tablet.
“The war changed me. Malnutrition has turned my hair yellow because I lack protein. You see here, this is how I was before the war.”
Her mother says her needs are simple: fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, maybe a little meat – but she won’t find it here.
Huda can only wish for a brighter future now.
“Can you help me travel abroad for treatment? I want to be like you. I’m a child. I want to play and be like you,” she says.
Huda wishes for a brighter future
Amir’s story
Three-year-old Amir was sitting in a tent together with his mother, father and his grandparents when it was hit by projectiles.
Medical staff carried out surgery on his intestines and were able to stop the bleeding – but they can’t feed him properly.
Instead, he’s given dextrose, a mixture of sugar and water which has no nutritional value.
Amir’s mother and siblings were killed in an attack that also left his father ‘in a terrible state’
Medical staff performed surgery on three-year-old Amir – but can’t feed him properly
Amir’s mother and his siblings were all killed in the attack and his father is no longer able to speak.
“His father is in a terrible state and won’t accept the reality. What did these children do? Tell me, what was their crime?” Amir’s aunt says.
The desperate scenes of hungry children in Gaza have not been caused by scarcity.
There’s plenty of food waiting at the crossings or held in warehouses within the territory. Israel claims the United Nations is failing to distribute it.
Amir’s relative holds pictures of the toddler and his family before the war
Both Israel and the US have taken charge of the food distribution, with the UN’s hundreds of aid centres shut.
Instead, the UN tries to organise convoys but says it can’t obtain the necessary permits – and faces draconian restrictions on aid.
Sometimes food is made available at communal kitchens called ‘tikiya’.
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Malnourished girl: ‘The war changed me’
‘I want life to be how it was’
Everyone is desperate for whatever they can get – and many leave with nothing.
“It’s been two months since we’ve eaten bread,” one young girl says. “There’s no food, there’s no nutrition. I want life to go back to how it was, I want meat and flour to come in. I want the end of the tikiya.”
Read more:
Gazan doctor held in ‘inhumane’ conditions
Starvation ‘knocking on every door’ in Gaza
Dr Adil Husain, an American doctor who spent two weeks at Nasser Hospital, treated a three-year-old called Hasan while he was there.
Weighing just 6kg, Hasan should be 15kg at his age.
“He needs special feeds, and these feeds are literally miles away. They’re literally right there at the border, but it’s being blockaded by the forces, they’re not letting them in, so it’s intentional and deliberate starvation,” Dr Husain tells me.
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Hasan died two days after Dr Husain examined him.
“It’s just so distressing that this is something man-made, this is a man-made starvation, this is a man-made crisis,” he says.
Israel says it has not identified starvation, but this feels like a situation that is entirely preventable.
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