Local residents look on at a burning forest fire, near Puntagorda on the Canary Island of La Palma, Saturday, July 15, 2023. (AP)
At least 2,000 people have been evacuated as a forest fire burned out of control in the Spanish island of La Palma, authorities said on Saturday, as Europe was gripped by a heatwave.
Many parts of southern Spain saw scorching temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) last week and even higher temperatures are expected next week in Spain and across southern Europe.
The fire in La Palma started in the early hours of Saturday morning in El Pinar de Puntagorda, a wooded area at the north of the island in the Canaries. The blaze forced the evacuation of Puntagorda and neighbouring Tijarafe.
Marcos Lorenzo, the mayor of Tijarafe, told the Spanish television station RTVE that people in the village were evacuated as the fire spread, but it was not clear how many had actually left.
A view of a wildfire on the Canary Island of?La?Palma, Spain, July 15, 2023, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. 1-1-2 Canarias via Twitter/Handout via REUTERS.
At least 12 houses were destroyed as the fire advanced, said Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands.
"The number of people who need to be evacuated could rise. It depends on whether we can bring these strong winds under control," Clavijo told reporters in La Palma.
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About 4,500 hectares (11,120 acres) of land have been affected by the fire, authorities said.
The Spanish army deployed 150 of its firefighters to help local crews battle the blaze and other firefighters are arriving from the neighbouring island of Tenerife, Clavijo said.
Four helicopters and four firefighting units on the ground were battling to bring the fire under control in the island, which forms part of a Spanish archipelago off the coast of western Africa.
The forest fire is the first natural crisis on the island since a volcanic eruption in September 2021. More than 2,000 buildings were destroyed and many thousands of people were forced to leave their homes when lava began pouring out of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.
Ash covered the island for months until the eruption ended three months later.
Ahmad Alloush, 32, has been given permission by the police for a public gathering to burn a Torah and a Bible outside the Israeli Embassy, holds a Qur’an in his hand after choosing not to burn the books in Stockholm on July 15, 2023. (Reuters)
Ahmad Alloush, 32 year old, who sparked condemnation from Israel for his plans to burn a Torah in Stockholm, on Saturday said he was not going to go ahead with his protest. But he can live freely, comfortably without any legal action from the Swedish government.
He explained that his intention was in fact to denounce those who burn sacred books such as the Qur'an in the Nordic country.
Swedish police on Friday said they had granted a permit for a protest which was to include a burning of the Torah and the Bible outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog was one of several Israeli representatives and Jewish organizations to immediately condemn the decision.
Ahmad Alloush, the organizer of the demonstration, explained that his aim actually was not to burn the holy books but to criticize the people who have burnt copies of Al-Qur'an in Sweden in recent months, something that Swedish law does not prohibit
“This is a response to the people who burn the Qur'an. I want to show that freedom of expression has limits that must be taken into account,” explained the Swedish resident of Syrian origin.
“I want to show that we have to respect each other, we live in the same society. If I burn the Torah, another the Bible, another the Qur'an, there will be war here. What I wanted to show is that it’s not right to do it,” he added.
In January, Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan burned a Qur'an to denounce Sweden’s membership application to NATO and the negotiations with Turkiye to allow Sweden to join the alliance.
On 28 June, Ahmad Alloush, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden burnt some pages of a copy of the Qur'an in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque during Eid Al-Adha, a festival celebrated by Muslims around the world.
The two events triggered a series of condemnations in the Muslim world.
Although the Swedish police pointed out that permission to demonstrate was not a formal authorization to burn a sacred book, there is no law prohibiting the burning of holy books.
But the police can refuse to allow a demonstration if it jeopardizes the security or gives rise to acts or words that incite racial hatred.
A Russian airstrike destroyed a UAV control center and a Starlink communication station on the right bank of the Dnieper River in the Kherson Region on Saturday, a spokesman for the region’s emergency services told reporters.
"Near Nikolskoye, a UAV control center, a Starlink station and 25 Ukrainian servicemen were eliminated in a Su-34 airstrike on the command post of the 222nd separate battalion of the Ukrainian armed forces," he said.
He said that thanks to cohesion of Battlegroup Dnepr units, three M777 155 mm howitzers were destroyed in the past day.
Ukraine’s military suffers over 600 casualties in battles in past day – Russia’s top brass
The Ukrainian military lost over 600 troops in battles in the zone of the special military operation in the past day, according to the data released by Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday.
The Ukrainian army’s losses amounted to 315 troops in the Donetsk area, 210 in the south Donetsk and Zaporozhye areas, 70 in the Krasny Liman area and 20 in the Kupyansk area, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported.
Special operation, 15 July. Main:
▪️The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that during the day the Armed Forces of Ukraine made attempts to attack in the Donetsk, Krasnolimansk and YuzhnoDonetsk directions
▪️In the Krasnoliman direction, the losses of Ukrainian troops per day amounted to more than 70 servicemen, in Donetsk - up to 315, in Yuzhno-Donetsk and Zaporozhye - up to 210, the Russian Defense Ministry said
▪️Putin spoke by phone with the President of South Africa, the leaders discussed, among other things, the African Peace Initiative on Ukraine. Its consideration will be continued in connection with the Russia-Africa summit at the end of July.
▪️Putin told the President of South Africa that the obligations to remove obstacles to the export of Russian food and fertilizers have not been fulfilled
▪️An air defense system worked over Belgorod, 2 air targets were shot down on approach to the city, preliminary, there were no victims, the governor said
▪️Not a single ship with Russian fertilizers was sent during the entire period of the Black Sea initiative, the UN coordinating center said
▪️The poorest countries received only 10% of the corn and 40% of the wheat sent in the grain deal, the center said
▪️The FSB announced the prevention of the preparation by the Ukrainian special services of an assassination attempt on Simonyan and Sobchak. Later, a court in Moscow arrested the defendants in the case.
▪️The British Ministry of Defense reported that at the moment, as part of Operation Interflex, 18,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained on the territory of the kingdom.
Russia-Ukraine conflict ‘at a stalemate’ – Pentagon official
Fighting in Ukraine has reached “a bit of a stalemate,” US Defense Intelligence Agency Chief of Staff John Kirchhofer told a conference in Washington on Thursday. His assessment of Ukraine’s chances is considerably gloomier than that of other Biden administration officials.
“Certainly we are at a bit of a stalemate,” Kirchhofer said, according to Bloomberg. “One of the things that the Russian leadership believes is that they can outlast the support of the West.”
Ukrainian forces have been bogged down in a counteroffensive against Russian defenses from Kherson to Donetsk since early June, and have failed to make any significant territorial gains against the Russians. The offensive has cost Ukraine 26,000 men and more than 3,000 pieces of military hardware, according to the latest figures from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
However, Kirchhofer warned that no one weapon system will change Kiev’s fortunes. Neither US-supplied HIMARS rocket artillery and cluster bombs, nor British Storm Shadow cruise missiles, have thus far tilted the battlefield situation in Ukraine’s favor, he pointed out.
“None of these, unfortunately, are the holy grail that Ukrainians looking for that will allow them to break through,” he said.
While recent media reports suggest that Kiev’s American and European backers are frustrated with the pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, Washington officials have publicly insisted that all is well. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said last month that Ukrainian forces were “advancing steadily,” but that progress would be slow and “very bloody.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN last month that heavy Ukrainian casualties are “to be expected,” but that Zelensky will continue to receive “the support he needs not just from the United States, but from 50 other partners.”
US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have both repeatedly rejected the idea of Ukraine entering into peace talks with Russia. Both insist that Ukraine will decide when to sit down to negotiate, and neither have spoken on whether this position will change if Kiev’s counteroffensive continues to fail.
Russia maintains that Western arms deliveries will only serve to prolong the conflict, without altering its eventual outcome.
Hasil survei Indostrategic yang memperlihatkan ketidaksetujuan publik terkait pemindahan Ibukota Negara ke Kalimantan Timur bukti megaproyek IKN hanya kehendak elite, bukan kemauan rakyat.
“Elite berupaya memaksakan kehendaknya agar IKN pindah Agustus 2024. Elite yang dimaksud tentunya termasuk Presiden Joko Widodo. Presidenlah yang menetapkan lokasi IKN di Kalimantan Timur,” kata pengamat komunikasi politik Universitas Esa Unggul, Jamiluddin Ritonga dalam keterangannya, hari Sabtu, 15/07/2023.
Jamiluddin menambahkan, rakyat tidak dilibatkan dalam menetapkan lokasi IKN. Baik pemerintah maupun DPR sebagai perwakilan rakyat juga tidak meminta persetujuan dari rakyat saat pembahasan megaproyek senilai ratusan triliun rupiah itu.
“Mereka seolah-olah sudah memahami kehendak rakyat, sehingga merasa tak perlu lagi menanyakannya kepada rakyat,” katanya.
Padahal, kata Jamiluddin, Indonesia menganut sistem demokrasi. Sistem ini seharusnya melibatkan rakyat dalam setiap memutuskan hal-hal strategis, termasuk pemindahan IKN.
“Itu tentu menjadi preseden buruk bagi perkembangan demokrasi Indonesia. Kedaulatan rakyat terkesan diabaikan. Rakyat hanya jadi penonton di tengah hingar bingar pembangunan IKN,” pungkasnya.
Temuan survei Indostrategic bertajuk "Keberlanjutan Vs Perubahan: Dinamika Peta Politik Menuju Pemilu 2024", hanya 40,1 persen responden setuju dengan pemindahan ibu kota negara. Rinciannya, yang menyatakan sangat setuju 8,1 persen dan cukup setuju 32 persen.
Sementara, 57,3 persen responden mengaku tidak setuju, dengan rincian kurang setuju 30,1 persen dan sangat tidak setuju 27,2 persen. Serta masih ada responden tidak jawab 2,6 persen.
Pemerintah Singapura menyampaikan mendukung penuh rencana Indonesia memindahkan Ibu Kota Negara (IKN), ke Penajam Pasir Utara, Kalimantan Timur.
Pernyataan itu, disampaikan Wakil Perdana Menteri (PM) Singapura yang juga Menteri Keuangan Singapura, Lawrence Wong, saat berdialog dengan jurnalis Indonesia di Singapura, hari Jumat, 07/07/2023.
Seperti dikutip Antara, Wakil PM Singapura menyampaikan Pemerintah Singapura mendukung penuh rencana pemindahan IKN ke Kalimantan Timur karena merupakan hal yang wajar dan pernah dilakukan beberapa negara, seperti Brasil, Turki, Myanmar, hingga Australia karena berbagai alasan.
Saat ditanya apakah Singapura tertarik investasi di IKN Nusantara, Lawrence mengungkapkan, hal itu diserahkan kepada perusahaan swasta atau investor Singapura yang berminat, dan pemerintah Singapura akan memfasilitasi.
"Kami hanya memfasilitasi pengusaha Singapura untuk berinvestasi di IKN, namun mengenai keputusan dan komitmen investasi semua bergantung kepada pihak swasta," ujar Lawrence.
Menurut dia, investasi di IKN Nusantara sangat menjanjikan dan banyak sekali delegasi bisnis Singapura yang berkunjung dan bertemu dengan pejabat Indonesia.
Sejauh ini, pemerintah Singapura memfasilitasi dan mendukung minat investasi perusahaan asal Singapura di IKN. Disebutkan sudah ada sekitar 20 surat ketertarikan investasi yang disampaikan perusahaan Singapura kepada Badan Otorita IKN.
Meski demikian, dia juga mengungkapkan ada kekhawatiran mengenai IKN akan dibawa ke mana setelah Presiden Joko Widodo tak lagi menjabat pada tahun 2024. Untuk itu, investor akan melihat progress pembangunan IKN Nusantara.
DPM Lawrence Wong (right) and ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa signed the agreement in Bali on July 14, 2022. PHOTO: MINISTRY OF FINANCE
SINGAPORE - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has refreshed its agreement with Singapore to spur more investment in private-sector development projects in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masatsugu Asakawa and Singapore Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote greater investment in the Asia and Pacific region and to recognize the importance of private sector finance as well as catalyzing public sector resources for sustainable and inclusive development.
Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and ADB president Masatsugu Asakawa signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Bali on Thursday (July 14), on the sidelines of the G-20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting that Mr Wong was there to attend.
The new agreement replaces an earlier one that both sides signed in 2012 to enhance knowledge sharing and cooperation in governance and public policy, private-sector development and climate change management.
With the new MOU, both sides aim to build on these areas of collaboration by focusing on mobilising investment and technology from Singapore's public and private sectors to finance private-sector development projects in ADB developing member countries, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Thursday.
ADB member countries include Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Timor-Leste.
Singapore was a founding member of the ADB when the bank was established in 1966. It borrowed from the ADB until 1980, formally graduated from borrowing in 1998, and since 2001 has contributed to multiple funds run or supported by the ADB.
With the agreement, the ADB and Singapore will also cooperate in promoting the use of new technologies and innovative processes in areas such as developing liveable cities and addressing the challenges of climate change. They will also further strengthen collaboration on digital innovation in areas like support for start-ups.
The ADB's Singapore Office, which opened in 2020, will play a central role in expanding cooperation under the new agreement. This includes deepening the engagement between the ADB and the Singapore Government, said MOF.
Mr Wong, who is also Minister for Finance, said the ADB's Singapore office made good progress mobilising investments for projects in developing member countries despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.
The refreshed MOU will enable both sides to use new and innovative approaches to challenges such as climate change and energy transition, and will help ensure shared prosperity and more sustainable development for the region, he added.
On Thursday, Mr Wong also met Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the sidelines of the G-20 meetings. He congratulated her on her re-election and discussed ways to strengthen multilateral institutions to better address climate change and pandemic response.
Mr Wong also spoke at the G-20 Ministerial Tax Symposium.
"Tax policies continue to help us promote a competitive economy, an inclusive society and a transition to a more sustainable future," he tweeted after the discussion. "And we work to ensure our tax and spending system is fair and progressive."
