NEW DELHI: India can expect hotter-than-usual temperatures this summer with more heatwave days taking a toll on lives and livelihoods, the weather office warned.
The country is no stranger to scorching summers but years of scientific research has found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
Summer in India lasts from April to June, when temperatures often soar past 45° Celsius (113° Fahrenheit) at the season’s peak.
This year, the hot weather season will see “above-normal” maximum temperatures over most parts of the country, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said in a forecast late Monday.
The number of heatwave days, when abnormally high temperatures several degrees above the long-term average are recorded, will also increase.
“Up to 10 heatwave days or even more can be expected, especially over east India,” leading to heat stress, weather bureau boss Mrutyunjay Mohapatra told reporters.
India usually experiences four to seven heatwave days between April and June.
Infants, the elderly, people with health problems and outdoor workers are particularly vulnerable to hotter temperatures.
The resulting heat stress can cause symptoms ranging from dizziness and headaches to organ failure and death.
City dwellers surrounded by concrete, brick and other heat-absorbing surfaces also face an elevated risk.
Prolonged periods of extreme heat can also strain infrastructure such as power grids and transportation systems.
The IMD said heat action plans must be devised to address those challenges.
“This includes providing access to cooling centers, issuing heat advisories, and implementing strategies to alleviate urban heat island effects in affected areas,” it said.
India sweltered through its longest-ever heatwave last year, with temperatures regularly passing 45° Celsius.
The World Health Organization has calculated that heat kills a minimum of half a million people every year, but warns the real figure could be up to 30 times higher.
India forecasters warn abnormally hot summer looms
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India forecasters warn abnormally hot summer looms
- India usually experiences four to seven heatwave days between April and June
- India sweltered through its longest-ever heatwave last year
Macron to honor craftspeople who rebuilt Notre Dame
On Tuesday, Macron will once again speak of France’s “pride” over the operation’s success
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday will bestow awards on around 100 craftspeople and officials who helped restore Notre Dame to its former glory after a fire nearly destroyed the beloved Paris cathedral six years ago.
The ceremony at the Elysee Palace will take place from early Tuesday evening, around the same time the devastating fire broke out at the Gothic masterpiece on April 15, 2019.
Macron will bestow the awards in the presence of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou and government members including Culture Minister Rachida Dati.
Jean-Claude Gallet, who presided over the Paris fire brigade during the disaster, will also be in attendance.
“You have achieved what was thought impossible,” Macron told restoration workers and officials after he toured the cathedral last November, days before the cathedral re-opened to the public on December 7.
On Tuesday, Macron will once again speak of France’s “pride” over the operation’s success, according to his team, which said an average of 30,000 people a day now visit the restored cathedral.
Macron will also honor Philippe Jost, who headed the public organization tasked with restoring the cathedral and was elevated to the rank of “commander” of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest national award.
Jost succeeded Jean-Louis Georgelin, the general who had been put in charge of overseeing the restoration but who died in 2023.
Georgelin was conferred with the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, the highest rank of the award established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802.
The architects Remi Fromont and Philippe Villeneuve will also be decorated.
Alongside them, nearly 100 civil servants, entrepreneurs and craftspeople will be awarded the Legion of Honour or the National Order of Merit, another top award established by Charles de Gaulle.
They represent around 2,000 people who took part in the restoration of the cathedral.
They come from “all the trades” and include carpenters, ironworkers, scaffolders, rope access workers, organ restorers and stained glass artisans, the French presidency said.
Aymeric Albert, who will be made a knight of the Legion of Honour, combed the forests of France to select oak trees needed to rebuild the spire, the nave and the choir.
The massive restoration project was financed thanks to nearly 850 million euros (around $960 million at today’s rate) in donations from all over the world.
French prisons attacked in response to government’s narco crackdown, minister says
- Military-grade weapons were fired at entrance to Toulon prison, in southern France, the prison officials’ union UFAP said
- “Attempts have been made to intimidate staff in several prisons, ranging from burning vehicles to firing automatic weapons,” Darmanin wrote on X
PARIS: Multiple French prisons have been attacked in recent nights, including with automatic weapons, in what the justice minister said on Tuesday was a response to a government clamp-down on a drug trade turbocharged by a surge in cocaine trafficking.
Military-grade weapons were fired at entrance to Toulon prison, in southern France, the prison officials’ union UFAP said.
Vehicles were also set on fire outside the jails in Villepinte, Nanterre, Aix-Luynes, and Valence, UFAP said. In Nancy, a prison officer was threatened at their home, while in Marseille there was an attempted arson attack.
Years of record South American cocaine imports to Europe have metastasised local drug markets, sparking a wave of drug violence across the continent.
France has not been spared, with record cocaine seizures, and gangs reaping windfalls from the white powder as they expand from traditional power bases in cities such as Marseille into smaller regional towns unaccustomed to drug violence.
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who plans to build new high-security prisons to crack down on gangsters who run their empires from behind bars, said he would travel to Toulon.
“Attempts have been made to intimidate staff in several prisons, ranging from burning vehicles to firing automatic weapons,” Darmanin wrote on X. “The French Republic is facing up to the problem of drug trafficking and is taking measures that will massively disrupt the criminal networks.”
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) said it had taken charge of the probe into the attacks, which also targeted the National School of Prison Administration. The PNAT said officers from France’s domestic intelligence agency DGSI would assist in the investigation.
It was not immediately clear why the PNAT, rather than organized crime prosecutors, was in charge. The letters “DDPF” — apparently an acronym for “French prisoners’ rights” — were tagged on many of the sites that were attacked, leading to some media speculation it could be the work of a militant group.
Wilfried Fonck, national secretary of the UFAP, told Reuters he was unaware of any such movement operating in French jails, but said that was almost certainly why PNAT had taken charge of the investigation.
RECORD COCAINE SEIZURES
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he had instructed local prefects, alongside the police and gendarmerie, to immediately step up the protection of staff and prisons.
“These targeted, cowardly, and heinous attacks aim to terrorize those who embody the authority of the State and ensure the safety of all on a daily basis, even at the cost of their own peace of mind,” UFAP said. “Prison staff are not cannon fodder.”
The rise in gang crime has lifted support for the far-right National Rally party, and helped drag French politics rightward.
Darmanin, a former interior minister, and Retailleau have prioritized tackling drug trafficking.
In February — as he announced record cocaine seizures of 47 tons in the first 11 months of 2024, versus 23 tons in all of 2023 — Retailleau said France had been hit by a “white tsunami” that had rewritten the rules of the criminal landscape.
Darmanin has proposed a series of measures to tighten prison security, including building high-security jails to isolate the country’s top 100 kingpins.
Lawmakers are also close to approving a sweeping new anti-drug trafficking law that would create a new national organized crime prosecutors’ office and give greater investigative powers to police probing narcos.
French authorities scored a win against drug crime in February, when they recaptured Mohamed Amra, a French fugitive known as “The Fly.” His escape as he was being transported from prison to a court hearing resulted in the deaths of two prison guards and was seized upon by right-wing politicians as evidence that France had lost its grip on drug crime.
Maldives ban Israelis to protest Gaza war
- President Mohamed Muizzu ratified the legislation shortly after it was approved by parliament on Tuesday
- Official data showed that only 59 Israeli tourists visited the archipelago in February, among 214,000 other foreign arrivals
MALE, Maldives: The Maldives announced Tuesday it was banning the entry of Israelis from the luxury tourist archipelago in “resolute solidarity” with the Palestinian people.
President Mohamed Muizzu ratified the legislation shortly after it was approved by parliament on Tuesday.
“The ratification reflects the government’s firm stance in response to the continuing atrocities and ongoing acts of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people,” his office said in a statement.
“The Maldives reaffirms its resolute solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”
The ban will be implemented with immediate effect, a spokesman for Muizzu’s office said.
The Maldives, a small Islamic republic of 1,192 strategically located coral islets, is known for its secluded white sandy beaches, shallow turquoise lagoons and Robinson Crusoe-style getaways.
Official data showed that only 59 Israeli tourists visited the archipelago in February, among 214,000 other foreign arrivals.
The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and briefly moved to restore relations in 2010.
Opposition parties and government allies in the Maldives have been pressuring Muizzu to ban Israelis as a statement of opposition to the Gaza war.
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged its citizens last year to avoid traveling to the Maldives.
The Gaza war broke out after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that at least 1,613 Palestinians had been killed since March 18, when a ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,983.
China’s top Hong Kong official warns US ‘hillbillies’ over tariffs
- Top Hong Kong official: Imposing tariffs on the city is ‘hegemonic and shameless in the extreme’
- Xia Baolong: US sanctions and tariffs would not shake the determination of Beijing and Hong Kong governments
HONG KONG: Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong slammed US tariffs on China as “hegemonic” and attacked American “hillbillies” on Tuesday, as the world’s two largest economies face off in a trade war that has battered global markets.
Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office, said in a speech that the Chinese finance hub has never levied taxes on imports and that the United States enjoyed a $272 billion trade surplus in the city over the past decade.
US President Donald Trump has increased the levies imposed on China to 145 percent, while Beijing has set a retaliatory 125 percent toll on American imports – a move not followed by Hong Kong.
Imposing tariffs on the city is “hegemonic and shameless in the extreme,” and shows that the United States does not want Hong Kong to thrive, Xia said.
The United States, he said, “is the greatest culprit in undermining Hong Kong’s human rights, freedom, rule of law, prosperity and stability.”
“It is not after our ‘tariffs’ – it wants to take our ‘lives’.”
Xia said the US sanctions and tariffs would not shake the determination of Beijing and Hong Kong governments and that “victory must belong to the great Chinese people.”
“Let those American ‘hillbillies’ wail before the 5,000-year-old civilization of the Chinese nation!” he said, adding that anyone seeking to bring China into poverty was an “enemy.”
The comments were part of a pre-recorded speech at a Hong Kong event to mark the 10th iteration of China’s annual national security education day.
Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong after the city saw huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Last year, the city passed another homegrown security law, which officials say is needed to restore order.
The United States imposed a fresh round of sanctions this month on Hong Kong’s outgoing police chief, justice secretary and other officials over human rights concerns.
China’s market regulator is looking into a deal by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison to offload 43 ports in 23 countries – including its two on the Panama Canal – to a US-led consortium.
The sale was seen as a political victory for Trump, who earlier vowed to “take back” the crucial waterway from alleged Chinese control.
Echoing earlier criticisms of the deal, Xia said on Tuesday “those who sell out the nation’s interest during key moments... will not meet a good end.”
Hong Kong leader John Lee also criticized the US tariffs as “absurd,” saying at the event that the correct reciprocal levy would be “zero” as Hong Kong is a free port.
Pakistan aims to deport millions of Afghans but local ties and resistance stall the campaign
- The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa appears reluctant to repatriate Afghans
- More than 35,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the start of April
- Many recent deportations have been from eastern Punjab, which is hundreds of kilometers from the border and home to some 200,000 Afghans with documents
PESHAWAR: Akber Khan is seeing a brisk trade at his restaurant in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar. Staff fan skewers of grilled meats and dole out rice and salad.
As an Afghan, Khan ought to be leaving as part of a nationwide crackdown on foreigners the Pakistani government says are living in the country illegally. But the only heat he feels is from the kitchen.
“I have been here for almost 50 years. I got married here, so did my children, and 10 of my family members are buried here. That’s why we have no desire to leave,” he said.
Khan is one of more than 3 million Afghans that Pakistan wants to expel this year. At least a third live in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and that’s just those with documents like an Afghan Citizen Card or proof of registration.
It is not clear how many undocumented Afghans are in the country.
Shared cultural, ethnic and linguistic ties
The provincial government — led by the party of imprisoned former premier Imran Khan — appears reluctant to repatriate Afghans. Mountainous terrain, sectarian violence and an array of militant groups have also challenged the central government's expulsion ambitions.
“Afghans can never be completely repatriated, especially from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as they return using illegal channels or exploiting loopholes in the system despite fencing at the border,” said Abdullah Khan, managing director of the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. “Many villages along the border are divided between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and people in the past three or four decades were never stopped from visiting either side.”
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s proximity to Afghanistan, together with shared ethnic, cultural and linguistic ties, make it a natural destination for Afghans. The province has hosted significant numbers since the 1980s.
Many Afghans have integrated, even marrying locals. The region feels familiar and it’s easier to access through legal and illegal routes than other parts of Pakistan.
While the provincial government was cooperating with federal counterparts, policy implementation remained slow, analyst Khan told The Associated Press.
“The (local) government is sympathetic to Afghans for multiple reasons," he said. "They share the same traditions and culture as the province, and former Prime Minister Imran Khan during his days in power consistently opposed coercive measures toward Afghan refugees.”
Authorities are also wary about unrest, with Afghans living in almost all of the province’s cities, towns and villages.
A slow repatriation rate
Although police were raiding homes in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and other cities in Punjab and Sindh province farther from the border, the “lack of aggressive enforcement” was the main reason for the slow repatriation rate, analyst Khan said.
Pressure on Pakistan to have a change of heart — from rights groups, aid agencies and Afghanistan's Taliban government — could also be a factor.
More than 35,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the start of April through the northwest Torkham crossing. It’s a far cry from the volume seen in the early phases of the expulsion campaign in 2023, when hundreds of thousands fled to beat a government-imposed deadline to leave.
Many recent deportations have been from eastern Punjab, which is hundreds of kilometers from the border and home to some 200,000 Afghans with documents.
‘We are going under duress’
At a highway rest stop on the outskirts of Peshawar, a truck carrying 30 Afghans stopped to give passengers a break before they left Pakistan for good. They had come from Punjab. Families nestled among furniture, clothes and other items. A woman in a burqa, the covering commonly seen in Afghanistan, clambered down.
Ajab Gul said the actions of Pakistani officials had forced them to leave: “We didn’t want to go. They raided our houses two or three times. We are going under duress.”
Another truckload of passengers from Punjab pulled over by the Torkham border crossing to speak to the AP.
Jannat Gul outlined the dilemma that awaited many. “Our children’s education (in Afghanistan) has been destroyed. We’re going there, but we have no connections, no acquaintances. In fact, people often call us Pakistanis. No one regards us as Afghan.”
‘If they take him, I will stop them’
There were happier scenes at the Kababayan refugee camp in Peshawar, where children played and ate ice cream in the sunshine. The camp, established in 1980 shortly after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, is home to more than 15,000 people and has schools, a health center, electricity and drinking water.
School is a crucial reason Afghans want to stay in Pakistan, because the Taliban have barred girls from education beyond sixth grade.
Muhammad Zameer, a camp resident, said girls’ education was “non-existent” across the border.
Other camp residents have a different concern: their Afghan husbands. Afghan men face deportation, and their local wives are unhappy.
Some are fighting to get their husbands a Pakistani identity card, which unlocks basic public services as well as indefinite stay, property ownership, bank account access and employment.
Some wives said they are willing to fight anyone deporting their husbands.
“I never imagined the government would treat my husband like this,” said one, Taslima. “If they take him, I will stop them."
