At least 25,000 ordered to evacuate as wildfires burn in Canada’s Jasper National Park
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(NEW YORK) — At least 25,000 people have been forced to evacuate due to wildfires in Jasper National Park in Canada, officials said.
The town of Jasper and Jasper National Park in Alberta have closed and are being evacuated due to active wildfires, the park said Tuesday.
The evacuation impacts 15,000 people who were visiting and staying in the park when the order was issued, as well as about 10,000 people in the town of Jasper, including seasonal workers, according to the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.
“The Town of Jasper and Parks Canada’s priority is the safety of our staff, residents and visitors,” Jasper National Park said in a statement on Tuesday. “We acknowledge this is a stressful time and appreciate patience as this is an evolving and complex situation.”
Thousands of residents and visitors already evacuated overnight, as multiple wildfires burn in Jasper National Park, the largest national park in the Canadian Rockies, the park said.
Parks Canada is mobilizing additional firefighting resources and aircraft to assist in battling the blazes, according to Jasper National Park.
“Our priority is to protect the town and community of Jasper, limiting wildfire growth towards town, Highway 16 and critical infrastructure,” Jasper National Park said.
Reservations through Aug. 6 in Jasper National Park have been canceled. A reopening date has not yet been announced.
Alberta is experiencing “extreme wildfire conditions,” with more than 170 wildfires burning across the province, according to the government of Alberta.
Pope Francis is welcomed during his arrival at SoekarnoHatta International Airport in Jakarta on Sept. 3, 2024. (Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images)
(JAKARTA, Indonesia) — Pope Francis on Monday embarked on his 45th and most ambitious trip of his papacy, both in terms of distance and duration.
It’s a 12-day, four-country, two-continent odyssey; with stops in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore.
This is not his first journey to the region: Early in his pontificate, he made four long-distance trips to South Korea, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Japan. In more recent years he has also visited Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and, last year, Mongolia.
The historic voyage comes amid recent concerns regarding his health. The Pope suffers from mobility issues and has been repeatedly hospitalized with respiratory illnesses.
As he often does, on Monday he boarded the Papal plane in a wheelchair, using a lift. He later used a cane to walk down the aisle to greet reporters, but appeared to be in good spirits. Francis turns 88 in just three months; this marks the first time he’s left Italy in almost a year.
In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, the Pope’s message will focus on interreligious dialogue and cultural plurality, according to the Vatican. Francis will deliver remarks at Jakarta’s famed Istiqlal Mosque, alongside Indonesia’s Grand Imam.
Later the Pope will visit the “Tunnel of Fraternity” linking the mosque to a nearby Catholic church. The underground lane was recently built as a symbol of religious harmony.
On the eve of this departure, Pope Francis appealed for “concrete commitment” to tackle climate change. Francis will also travel to more remote parts of the country to meet with missionaries. According to Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni, some of the trip’s other themes include social and technological development, as we well as the environment and the need to combat climate change.
In Papua New Guinea, one of the world’s poorest countries, Pope Francis will stop in Port Moresby, one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
The Pope will then head to Timor-Leste, Asia’s newest country, where he’ll be confronted with the aftermath of another clergy sex abuse scandal. The Pope’s first visit to the country comes just two years after the Vatican sanctioned independence hero Bishop Carlos Ximenes for having sexually abused young boys.
Many in the deeply Catholic country have brushed aside the allegations, choosing instead to continue celebrating the Nobel Peace Prize winner as a figure who saved lives during the country’s bloody struggle for Independence. It’s unclear if Francis will address the issue or meet with some of the victims, as he has in the past in other countries.
And in Singapore, the pope will again focus on how different religions can live in harmony.
“Pope Francis will especially meet young people engaged in interreligious dialogue, entrusting them with the future of this path, so that they may become protagonists of a more fraternal and peaceful world,” Cardinal Piero Parolin told Vatican Media.
His trip to Singapore is also widely seen as an attempt to improve ties with China, a constant diplomatic push by the Vatican over recent years, in the hope of improving circumstances for Catholics in China. The pope has previously said it is his dream to visit the country. Three-quarters of the city state’s population of Singapore are ethnically Chinese, and Mandarin is one of four official languages.
(LONDON) — Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, Sudan’s army chief, was the target of a drone attack that killed five people, officials said Wednesday.
Al-Burhan had been attending a ceremony for military graduates in Jebeit, a small town in eastern Sudan, when the strike took place.
In April 2023, a civil conflict broke out between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group following months of tensions linked to a planned transition to civilian rule. The conflict has led to at least 16,000 deaths, according to the United Nations. Local groups, however, warn the true toll is likely much higher.
“Today, our ground anti-aircraft missiles responded to two hostile marches that targeted the site of the celebration of the graduation of batches from the Military, Air and Naval Colleges after its conclusion in Jebeit,” the Sudanese Army said in a statement.
At least five people were killed in Wednesday’s drone attack, the Sudanese Army announced.
Army officials also said the incident led to “minor injuries.”
The United States has invited warring parties to begin cease-fire talks in Switzerland next month.
“A few things have changed: One is the acuteness of the horrors, and two is the greater alignment across the region among our African and Gulf counterparts that this is an unacceptable situation, and that nobody wins from the continued destabilization,” a senior U.S. official told ABC News last week.
In a statement, RSF chief Mohammed Daglo — commonly known as Hemedti — welcomed the talks, saying the RSF is “ready to deal with these talks constructively.”
Al-Burhan said he is open to talks “only on the condition” that RSF and allied militias vacate civilian homes.
“We appreciate the initiatives from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and other countries. However, these efforts must be coordinated with the Sudanese government, and Sudan should be involved in every detail of the discussions, including the participants and the negotiation agenda,” he said.
The RSF has yet to publicly comment on the drone attack.
Ukrainian tank crew take a break while operating a Soviet-made T-72 tank in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, on August 12, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukrainian forces are still seeking to advance deeper into Russia’s Kursk region, but appear to be coming up against increased Russian resistance more than a week since Ukraine launched its unprecedented incursion across the border.
Russia’s Defense Ministry and pro-Kremlin military bloggers reported Tuesday that Ukrainian forces again launched multiple attempts overnight to break through Russian defensive lines roughly 20 km, or about 12 miles, inside the Kursk region, seeking to further expand a bridgehead captured there in the first days of the Ukrainian offensive operation.
Those reports claimed the Ukrainian attacks were largely rebuffed, but that Russian positions remained under pressure. More Russian forces continue to also arrive to counterattack Ukraine’s surprise attack, which is the first foreign incursion into Russia since World War II.
On the border of Ukraine’s Sumy region, foreign journalists, including The New York Times, reported seeing columns of Ukrainian troops and armored vehicles continuing to cross over into Russia, passing unhindered through the border crossing.
Ukrainian troops are trying to expand their area of control from the border town of Sudzha in multiple directions. They have been attempting for several days to capture the village of Korenevo, which is about 40 km northwesterly, which would allow them to move toward a key highway, but so far have been unable to dislodge Russian units, according to Russian military bloggers.
Ukraine’s top commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday that Ukraine controlled roughly 1,000 square km, or about 386 square miles, of Russian territory in Kursk.
Ukrainian forces have not moved significantly forward in the past several days, suggesting that advancing has become more difficult as Russia recovers from the initial surprise and rushes more reinforcements to the region. Russia has been using aircraft and drones to target Ukrainian units.
An increased number of videos appearing to show destroyed Ukrainian vehicles have been appearing on pro-Russian social media accounts, including some associated with Russia’s military.
Russian analysts have also warned Ukraine could attempt to launch new incursions at other points along the border.
