6 Established 1961 International Thursday, July 1, 2021 Scores dead as record-breaking heat wave grips Canada and US 134 deaths in Vancouver mostly related to the heat VANCOUVER: Scores of deaths in Canada’s ing heat stretching from the US state of Oregon to Vancouver area are likely linked to a grueling heat wave, Canada’s Arctic territories has been blamed on a high- authorities said Tuesday, as the country recorded its pressure ridge trapping warm air in the region. highest ever temperature amid scorching conditions that Temperatures in the US Pacific Northwest cities of extended to the US Pacific Northwest. At least 134 peo- Portland and Seattle reached levels not seen since ple have died suddenly since Friday in the Vancouver record-keeping began in the 1940s: 115 degrees area, according to figures released by the city police Fahrenheit in Portland and 108 in Seattle Monday, department and the Royal Canadian Mounted police. according to the National Weather Service. Vancouver The Vancouver Police Department alone said it had on the Pacific coast has for several days recorded tem- responded to more than 65 sudden deaths since Friday, peratures above 86 degrees Fahrenheit (or almost 20 with the vast majority “related to the heat.” degrees above seasonal norms). Canada set a new all-time high temperature record The chief coroner for the province of British for a third day in a row Tuesday, reaching 121 degrees Columbia, which includes Vancouver, said that it had Fahrenheit (49.5 degrees Celsius) in Lytton, British “experienced a significant increase in deaths reported Columbia, about 155 miles (250 kilometers) east of where it is suspected that extreme heat has been con- Vancouver, the country’s weather service, Environment tributory.” The service said in a statement it recorded Canada, reported. “Vancouver has never experienced 233 deaths between Friday and Monday, compared to heat like this, and sadly dozens of people are dying 130 on average. because of it,” police sergeant Steve Addison said. Other local municipalities have said they too have ‘Hottest week ever’ responded to many sudden death calls, but have yet to “We are in the midst of the hottest week British release tolls. Some Vancouver locals said they had never Columbians have ever experienced, and there are conse- experienced such temperatures before. “It’s never this quences to that, disastrous consequences for families bad. I’ve never seen anything like this,” said a Vancouver and for communities,” British Columbia Premier John resident who only gave her name as Rosa. Horgan told a news conference. He urged “checking up ANNAPOLIS, US: A man lies on the beach as his family plays in the Chesapeake Bay trying to escape the heat at Sandy “I hope it never becomes like this ever again. This is on those people we know might be at risk, making sure Point State Park in Annapolis, Maryland Tuesday.— AFP too much.” Others lamented that some residents were we have cold compresses in the fridge or we’re staying more vulnerable to the heat than others. “I feel for those in the coolest part of our homes, and making sure that people whether they’re the elderly demographic or peo- we’re taking steps to get through this heat wave.” water fountains and misting stations on street corners. heat, combined with intense drought, also created the ple who live on the downtown eastside of Vancouver Environment Canada has issued alerts for British Stores quickly sold out of portable air conditioners perfect conditions for several fires to break out over the who don’t have a cool spot to live or sleep,” said river Columbia, Alberta, and parts of Saskatchewan, and fans, so several people without cooling at home told weekend, and one blaze on the California-Oregon bor- swimmer Graham Griedger. Manitoba, Yukon and the Northwest Territories, saying AFP they hunkered down in their air conditioned cars or der had already burned about 1,500 acres (600 Climate change is causing record-setting tempera- the “prolonged, dangerous and historic heat wave will underground parking garages at night. hectares) by Monday morning. tures to become more frequent. Globally, the decade to persist through this week.” The heat wave has forced Cities across the western United States and Canada “Dubai would be cooler than what we’re seeing now,” 2019 was the hottest recorded, and the five hottest years schools and COVID-19 vaccination centers to close in opened emergency cooling centers and outreach work- David Phillips, a senior climatologist for Environment have all occurred within the last five years. The scorch- the Vancouver area, while officials set up temporary ers handed out bottles of water and hats. The extreme Canada, told AFP on Monday. —AFP kilometers (15 miles) north of the city in 2012, where he Gen ‘Butt Naked’ runs training sessions in a bid to reintegrate them into Paris threatens society. “For me, these kids are victims and not perpe- trators,” Blahyi said, adding that coaxing them out of to ban e-scooters rehabilitates the underworld is a challenge. “I usually explain to them my own story, and then I ex-child soldiers ask them to follow suit by giving their lives to Christ after woman’s death and leaving the drugs.” MONROVIA: Former Liberian rebel General Butt PARIS: Paris has threatened to ban e-scooters if their ‘Deep bitterness’ operators don’t enforce speed limits and other rules Naked, notorious for sacrificing children and charging Blahyi’s 0.6-hectare (1.5-acre) compound is sur- into battle in the nude, now spends his time trying to after a pedestrian was knocked down and killed by two rounded by high walls topped with barbed wire. riders who fled the scene. rescue ex-child soldiers from drugs. Inside, grown-up former child soldiers hoe the ground One of the most feared figures to emerge from the Amy Gutmann Some 15,000 devices are available for rental across and tend to four brick-bread ovens. the city, where they are supposed to travel no faster West African country’s civil wars, Joshua Blahyi, by his There is also a small chicken farm on site, and vol- own admission, sacrificed children and cannibalized than 20 km/h (12 mph) with one rider only, and only on unteers come to teach skills such as carpentry, plumb- streets or bike paths. Critics say those rules are hardly them. He would also fight naked in the belief this ing and painting. Some 500 former child soldiers have imbued him with spiritual power, earning him the mon- US picks Gutmann enforced, and abandoned scooters are often seen scat- passed through the compound, according to Blahyi. tered on sidewalks and squares. icker “General Butt Naked.” Mass killings, torture and One of them, 38-year-old William Wilson, said that he rape characterized Liberia’s two civil wars, which “Either the situation improves significantly and robbed people with machetes for drug money before as first woman scooters find their place in public areas without caus- raged from 1989 to 1997 and from 1999 to 2003, meeting Blahyi. “I chose to go to Bible school,” Wilson claiming the lives of around a quarter of a million peo- ing problems, in particular for pedestrians, or we are said. “Today I am an evangelist and married with three studying getting rid of them completely,” deputy may- ple. Many of these brutal crimes were carried out by kids to the daughter of a bishop.” Another former child envoy to Germany drugged-up child soldiers. When the fighting ended, or David Belliard, in charge of transportation, told AFP soldier, 33-year-old Titus Sylvester Borbor, said that late Tuesday. “Other cities have done it,” he said, citing many of the youngsters remained hooked on drugs and Blahyi helped him kick drugs and put him on the path slipped into a life of crime. WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden has nominat- the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux as well as to becoming a university student. ed University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann New York and Barcelona. “Today my parents are happy, they have accepted as ambassador to Germany, German government On Saturday, police charged a nurse with aggravat- me back,” he said. Many children took up arms to pro- sources said yesterday, after tumultuous years with ed manslaughter over a fatal collision earlier this month tect their relatives during the civil war, but found them- Donald Trump’s envoy. Gutmann, 71, the daughter of a with a 32-year-old Italian woman living in Paris, who selves rejected by their families once the fighting Holocaust survivor, would be the first woman appointed was standing on the banks of the Seine talking with stopped. “It put deep bitterness in them,” said Blahyi, to the post. friends when she was hit. explaining that the legacy of the conflict was still keen- The German officials, who spoke on condition of The rider and a passenger on the same scooter fled ly felt across the country. anonymity, confirmed a report in Der Spiegel magazine. the scene and were found after a 10-day search. Gutmann’s appointment must be confirmed by the US The woman’s death, which brings to at least three Atrocities Senate and approved by German President Frank- the number of people fatally hit by e-scooters in Paris In the first civil war, Blahyi led fighters from the Walter Steinmeier. The sources said no date had yet since 2019, revived the debate over allowing the feared ULIMO-the United Liberation Movement of been set for her accreditation. The United States had devices on the city’s streets.