Global report
1 CLIMATE CRISIS
Merkel: efforts on global warming must speed up
Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany must work faster to tackle the climate crisis, after more flash floods devastated towns in Germany, Bavaria and Austria at the weekend.
While one flood in itself was not an indicator of the climate crisis, Merkel said during a visit to one of the two regions in western Germany hardest hit by last week’s record rainfall, the number of such extreme weather events had increased in recent years.
“We have to up the pace in the fight against climate change,” the German leader said.
The alpine district of Berchtesgadener Land became the latest region to be affected by floods. Heavy rain on Saturday evening led to flooded streets and landslides, leaving at least one person dead.
Across the border in Austria, a brook swollen with rainwater flooded the historic centre of Hallein, south of Salzburg, trapping residents in buildings, upending cars and inundating ground-floor shops. The town’s mayor, Alexander Stangassinger, told the broadcaster ORF the floods had caused damage worth millions of euros.
2 US/RUSSIA
Putin ‘signed off plot to help Trump reach White House’
Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump in the 2016 US
