Pakistan floods: Desperation and displacement in Sindh province - BBC

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The Prime Minister of Pakistan has said the "magnitude of the calamity" is bigger than expected, after visiting flood-hit areas.

Shehbaz Sharif was speaking from Sindh province - which has had nearly eight times its average August rainfall.

The floods have killed nearly 1,000 people across Pakistan since June, while thousands have been displaced - and millions more affected.

As the BBC drove through Sindh, there were displaced people in every village.

The full scale of the devastation in the province is yet to be fully understood - but the people described it as the worst disaster they've survived.

Floods are not uncommon in Pakistan, but people here said these rains were different - more than anything that's ever been seen. One local official called them "floods of biblical proportions".

Near the city of Larkana, thousands of mud homes have sunk under water. For miles all that's visible is treetops. Where the water level is lightly lower, thatched roofs creep out from underneath the water.

In one village, the people are desperate for food. In another, many children have developed waterborne diseases.

When a mobile truck pulled over, scores of people immediately ran towards it. Children carrying other children made their way to the long queue.

One 12-year-old girl said she and her baby sister had not eaten for a day.

"No food has come here, but my sister is sick, she has been vomiting," the girl said. "I hope they can help."

The desperation was evident in every community. People ran towards car windows to ask for help - anything.

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On one of the main streets out of the city of Sukkur, hundreds of people have settled.

Many of them walked from remote villages, and were told that help is easier to get in the urban areas. But there's not much difference here.

On Friday, PM Sharif said 33 million people had been hit by the floods - about 15% of the country's population.

He said the losses caused by floods this season were comparable to those during the floods of 2010-11, said to be the worst on record. The country has appealed for more international aid.

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In Sindh, it's not that local authorities are not trying, but they admit that they are out of their depth.

The provincial government says this is a "climate change catastrophe" and that the people of Pakistan, especially in the poorer communities, have been the worst affected.

The solutions will not be quick - acres of land are waterlogged and the water is not receding fast enough for any rebuilding to take place here.

There's not much to do for the people but to wait - wait for the rains to stop, wait for the water to go down, wait for more resources to be allocated to these kinds of communities.

In the meantime, life continues to be difficult.

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2022-08-27 16:10:11Z
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Turks frustrated by 'deliberate' increase in number of European visa rejections - Reuters

ISTANBUL, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Turkish sports presenter Sinem Okten was surprised to see her visa application to Europe's Schengen area rejected twice, having visited often to cover matches and interview figures like Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon and Liverpool's Juergen Klopp.

"I applied first to Germany then to France. Both rejected my application," she said. "I've travelled abroad numerous times to follow and film matches and interview people, maybe 50-60 times. This is the first time I am having this problem."

Turks applying for visas to the 26 Schengen countries are increasingly being rejected, data shows, and tours are being cancelled. Ankara said this week it was a deliberate effort to put President Tayyip Erdogan in a difficult position ahead of tight elections next year, a charge the European Union denies.

According to data from schengenvisainfo.com, 16.5% of applicants from Turkey last year were denied a visa, up from 12.5% a year earlier. Schengen rejections were only 4% in 2015 and started ramping up in 2017 for Turks, it shows.

The visa costs - amounting to some 100 euros, or a third of Turkey's minimum wage - are not refundable whether a visa is issued or not.

"Overall, the rejection rates for Schengen visa applications have increased worldwide...however, when compared to other countries like Russia, Turkey's rejection rate growth is way bigger and consistent," said Shkurta Januzi, editor-in-chief at SchengenVisaInfo.com.

Okten said the German embassy gave no reason for rejecting her application. A document from the French embassy, seen by Reuters, said it did not see enough evidence that the TV presenter could finance her stay in France or return to Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he believed the lengthy processing times and an increase observed in rejection rates were deliberate, adding that he raised the issue in meetings with his counterparts.

"Unfortunately, the U.S. and some EU and non-EU western countries give our citizens visa appointments one year, 6-7-8 months later. They also increased the rejection rate. This is planned and deliberate," he said on Tuesday.

Cavusoglu dismissed "excuses" related to coronavirus measures or personnel shortages, and said, without providing evidence, that the visa rejections were intended to give Erdogan a pre-election headache.

His ministry will warn ambassadors of some Western countries about the issue in September, he said. "If the situation does not improve after that we will take counter, restrictive measures."

Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, head of the EU delegation to Turkey, told Reuters the Schengen applications are treated on their merits and not on political grounds, adding relatively more incomplete and potentially fraudulent applications are seen from Turkey.

"No decisions are taken on political grounds but rather on objective grounds," he said, adding Turkey's rejection rate last year was near the global rate of 13-14% for Schengen visas.

TOURS CANCELLED

Twenty-two of the 26 Schengen area members are EU states.

Turkey and the bloc enjoy good trade ties and decades of migration however relations are strained over issues including freedom of speech in Turkey and EU policies on refugees from Syria.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Schengen states received more than 900,000 visa applications annually from Turkey but that figure had dropped to around 270,000 in 2021.

Citizens from all Schengen countries are exempt from visas when visiting Turkey, most for up to 90 days, and some can enter with only their ID cards, according to Turkey's foreign ministry website.

As more and more Turks are being rejected, tour operators have cancelled regular trips, Tur Andiamo chairman Cem Polatoglu said.

"We are having problems. Our tours are getting cancelled. We used to schedule tours to Italy every week, now we have to offer them every fortnight," Polatoglu said.

At a visa application centre in Istanbul, 57-year-old Hikmet Dogan said it was easier to get a visa in his previous trips to see his son in Sweden.

"I travelled 2-3 times but this time it is harder, the costs jumped too...Unfortunately young people are trying to leave the country as the Turkish economy is getting worse," Dogan said.

Beyond the Schengen area, the United States vowed on Wednesday to expand its visa processing capacity in Turkey after the foreign minister's public complaints. read more

Okten, the sports presenter, said she would continue her efforts to secure a visa.

"The season started and I need to cover some matches on site. I need to be able to travel abroad to do my job...I will apply again and try my chance through Greece this time," she said.

Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Daren Butler and Raissa Kasolowsky

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2022-08-26 06:18:00Z
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Redacted version of Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit set to be made public on Friday - Sky News

A redacted version of the affidavit used for the search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is set to be made public on Friday.

It is likely to contain key information about the justification for the search by FBI special agents on 8 August and some of the evidence the government presented to the judge.

The order by US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart came hours after federal law enforcement submitted under seal the portions of the affidavit that they want to keep secret, as their investigation moves forward.

But the redactions or blacked-out portions proposed by the department are likely to be extensive, so it is unclear how much new information about the investigation will be revealed.

On Monday, Judge Reinhart acknowledged it was possible that the redactions would be so extensive as to leave the public version of the document without any meaningful information.

The justice department had opposed its release, even in redacted form, saying it risks compromising an ongoing criminal investigation and revealing information about witnesses.

Mr Trump, who has repeatedly claimed that the search was politically motivated, has made statements on social media calling on the court to unseal the unredacted version.

What we know so far about the search

Image: Aerial view of Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP

The search of the former president's Florida estate was part of a federal investigation into whether Mr Trump illegally removed documents when he left office in January 2021 after losing the presidential election to Joe Biden.

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Documents already made public as part of the investigation show that the FBI retrieved from the property 11 sets of classified documents, including information marked at the top-secret level.

They also showed the FBI was investigating the "wilful retention of national defence information", the concealment or removal of government records and obstruction of a federal investigation.

Image: The three page itemized list of property seized during the search

Under the law, presidential documents are not the president's property and should be handed to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the government body that preserves historical and government records.

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Why did FBI raid Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate
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Trump's social media app surges in popularity after raid

Mr Trump announced the search himself in a statement, claiming agents had broken into his safe and saying it represented "dark times for our nation".

He has tried to defend his actions, saying without providing evidence that he had a standing order to declassify the documents in question. However, none of the three laws cited by the justice department in the search warrant require a showing that the documents were in fact classified.

The former president's lawyers have asked a federal judge to prevent the FBI from continuing to review documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.

He has suggested he might run for the White House again in 2024, but has not made any commitment.

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2022-08-26 02:02:00Z
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Children among 25 killed in Russian attack on Ukraine's Independence Day - The Times

Russia has admitted launching an Iskander cruise missile at Chaplino railway station in a strike that killed 25 people, including two children.

The defence ministry in Moscow said, however, that it had hit a military train, and killed more than 200 Ukrainian servicemen, without providing supporting evidence.

The missiles slammed “directly” into four train carriages at the station in the Dnipropetrovsk region, President Zelensky of Ukraine said.

A further 31 people were said to have been wounded in the attack, which coincided with Ukraine’s Independence Day and a surprise visit by Boris Johnson.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a presidential aide, said that the death toll had risen from yesterday’s report of 22. He said an 11-year-old boy had been killed when a missile struck a nearby building

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2022-08-25 09:19:00Z
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Uvalde's district police chief Pete Arredondo sacked over hesitant response to school massacre - Sky News

Uvalde's district police chief has been sacked over the hesitant response by hundreds of heavily armed law enforcement officers during the May massacre at Robb Elementary School.

In a unanimous vote, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District's (UCISD) board of trustees dismissed police chief Pete Arredondo, three months to the day after one of the deadliest classroom shootings in US history.

He had been on unpaid administrative leave since shortly after the 24 May shooting.

Parents yelled "coward" in the room where the meeting took place.

Mr Arredondo did not attend, however minutes before it got underway his lawyer released a scathing 4,500-word letter that amounted to the police chief's fullest defence so far of his actions.

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Over 17 defiant pages, it insisted Mr Arredondo was not the fumbling school police chief who a damning state investigation blamed for not taking command and wasted time by looking for keys to a likely unlocked door, but a brave officer whose level-headed decisions saved the lives of other students.

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The letter also accused Uvalde school officials of putting his life at risk by not letting him carry a weapon to the school board meeting.

"Chief Arredondo is a leader and a courageous officer who with all of the other law enforcement officers who responded to the scene, should be celebrated for the lives saved, instead of vilified for those they couldn't reach in time," the letter stated.

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It also said the district was in the wrong for dismissing him, saying it did not carry out any investigation "establishing evidence supporting a decision to terminate" his employment.

Image: Parents and family members hold signs at a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District

Because Mr Arredondo was UCISD police chief, the school board had the power to fire him.

State police and a damning investigative report in July criticised the former police chief of the roughly 4,000-student school district for failing to take charge of the scene, not breaching the classroom sooner and wasting time by looking for a key to a likely unlocked door.

Investigations and body camera footage have laid bare how police rushed to the scene with bulletproof shields and high-powered rifles within minutes - but waited more than an hour before finally confronting the gunman in a classroom of fourth graders.

Superintendent Hal Harrell had first moved to fire Mr Arredondo in July but postponed the decision at the request of the police chief's attorney.

Only one other police official at the scene, Uvalde police lieutenant Mariano Pargas, is known to have been placed on leave since the shooting.

Mr Pargas was the city's acting police chief during the massacre.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which had more than 90 state troopers at the scene, has also launched an internal investigation into the response by state police.

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2022-08-25 04:01:57Z
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Dugongs declared functionally extinct in Chinese waters - Sky News

The dugong has been declared functionally extinct in Chinese waters.

Fishing and ship strikes have caused a rapid decline of the "sea cows" since the 1970s, according to research by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

There has been no evidence of their presence in China since 2008, the teams found.

Their research said "this is the first functional extinction of a large mammal in China's coastal waters".

The marine mammal, whose diet is highly dependent on seagrass, has been classified as a Grade 1 National Key Protected Animal since 1998 by China's State Council.

The report said their marine habitats have been rapidly degraded by humans and although restoration and recovery efforts are a key priority in China they take "time that dugongs may no longer have".

Dugongs are found in coastal waters from East Africa to Vanuatu and as far north as Japan.

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The gentle animals are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Their appearance is thought to have inspired ancient stories of mermaids and sirens.

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Professor Samuel Turvey of ZSL's Institute of Zoology, a co-author of the study, said the likely disappearance of dugongs in China was a devastating loss.

"Their absence will not only have a knock-on effect on ecosystem function, but also serves as a wake-up call - a sobering reminder that extinctions can occur before effective conservation actions are developed," he said.

A team of international scientists conducted interviews in 66 fishing communities across four Chinese provinces along the coastal region of the South China Sea.

The authors said they would welcome any evidence dugongs might still exist in China.

They recommended the species' regional status be reassessed as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct).

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2022-08-24 09:27:18Z
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Japan set for new nuclear plants in post-Fukushima shift - Financial Times

Japan is preparing a big shift on nuclear power, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announcing plans to look at the construction of new plants, in what would be a break with more than a decade of energy policy.

With energy prices soaring in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kishida said Japan would restart more nuclear plants shut down after the 2011 Fukushima disaster and also study the development of next-generation reactors.

The prime minister had already announced the restart of some plants after Tokyo came close to suffering a power blackout this year, but his tentative plans for new nuclear reactors would be a U-turn on post-Fukushima policy.

No new plants have been built since the 2011 disaster, when the largest earthquake in recorded Japanese history led to the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The big increase in global energy prices largely driven by the Ukraine war has made other countries reconsider energy policy, notably Germany, which is rethinking its plan, decided in the aftermath of Fukushima, to exit nuclear power by the end of the year.

Japan’s energy policy has been in paralysis since the 2011 disaster prompted the shutdown of most of its nuclear reactors. That has forced Asia’s largest advanced economy to burn additional coal, natural gas and fuel oil even as it pledges to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Because Japan imports most of its energy, it has also been hit hard by the rise in commodity prices. The country relies on Russia for about 9 per cent of its liquefied natural gas.

Before Fukushima, Japan sourced about a third of its electricity from 54 nuclear reactors. Now, only six are operational with restarts hampered by a string of safety incidents and a deep public distrust of Tokyo Electric Power Co, the owner of the three reactors that melted down in Fukushima.

In July, Kishida unveiled plans to restart most of the 10 nuclear reactors that have been given clearance to avoid an electricity shortage in the winter months.

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2022-08-24 08:35:27Z
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