World

FORT MCMURRAY, Canada — Thousands of residents of Fort McMurray, a city in Canada’s major oil-producing region, fled as an out-of-control wildfire drew near and thick smoke filled the skies.

Shifting winds gusting to 40 kilometers per hour fanned the flames, scorching 9,600 hectares of surrounding forests as it advanced to within 13 kilometres of the city in the western province of Alberta that had been gutted by wildfires in 2016 — one of the biggest disasters in the nation’s history.

Four neighbourhoods were ordered to evacuate and by mid-afternoon, a highway south was jammed with cars and trucks fleeing to safety against a backdrop of plumes of dark smoke glowing orange in the distance. 

Resident Ashley Russell was packed and ready to leave on a moment’s notice, as the rest of the city was put on alert. “I’m experiencing a lot of anxiety. In 2016, my place burned down, so I’m reliving that,” she told AFP.

“We’re seeing extreme fire behaviour,” Alberta Wildfire spokeswoman Josee St-Onge told a news conference. 

“Smoke columns are developing and the skies are covered in smoke,” she said. “Firefighters have been pulled from the fire line for safety reasons.”

Officials said the fire had grown significantly in multiple directions since Monday.

Regional fire chief Jody Butz, however, assured residents that crews were prepared, having cleared brush and erected fire barriers over the winter, and that water bombers were now dropping retardant to slow its advance.

“We are confident that we have the resources to defend these areas, but we need people out of harm’s way,” he said.

Fears of 2016 repeat 

In 2016, the entire city with a population of more than 90,000 was evacuated while production of 1 million barrels of oil per day — almost one third of Canada’s total output at the time — stopped. Canada is the world’s fourth largest producer and a leading exporter of crude to the United States.

More than 2,500 homes and businesses were razed, with damage assessed at more than Can$3.7 billion. Thousands of residents never returned to the city.

Authorities have been bracing for another possibly devastating wildfire season, after Canada’s worst ever last year that saw flames burning from coast to coast and charring more than 15 million hectares of land.

Dozens of zombie fires sustained by layers of dried peat continued to smolder beneath the surface of the boreal forest through the winter, which was warmer than usual and left a smaller snowpack, while drought has persisted across the region.

In British Columbia, thousands of residents of remote towns remained under evacuation orders, while CN railway on Tuesday suspended rail service between Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, and north of High Level in Alberta “due to wildfire activity”.

Rob Fraser, the mayor of Fort Nelson told AFP: “It’s cool, it’s overcast and the wind is just very slight. If everything continues like this, you know, we just might corral this beast.”

Air quality warnings, meanwhile, have been issued across Canada and the United States as smoke from the Canadian wildfires wafted as far south as the US state of Oklahoma and over to Quebec province in the east.

KYIV, Ukraine — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured Ukraine on Tuesday that US military aid was "on its way", as Russia claimed a "deep" advance into Ukrainian defensive lines in a new offensive.

Blinken's trip comes just weeks after the US Congress finally approved a $61-billion financial aid package for Ukraine after months of political wrangling, unlocking much-needed arms for the country's stretched troops.

"The assistance is now on its way. Some of it has already arrived. More will be arriving," Blinken told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"That's going to make a real difference against the ongoing Russian aggression on the battlefield," he said.

Zelensky thanked Washington for the aid, saying it was "crucial" and added that it was "important to get it as quickly as possible".

Zelensky said air defence was the "biggest problem" for Ukraine and requested two Patriot batteries for the Kharkiv region, where Russian forces have been advancing and pounding villages all along the border since Friday.

Blinken was on his fourth visit to Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

After meeting Zelensky, he met Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Veterano, a pizzeria set up by a military veteran in the city centre.

Russia's surprise ground offensive in the Kharkiv region has forced thousands to evacuate and pushed Kyiv to mobilise troop reinforcements.

Ukraine said several civilians have been killed by Russian fire in the region, including on Tuesday two aged 80 and 83.

The governor of the Kharkiv region said 15 people were wounded by Russian strikes in the border territory's largest city, also called Kharkiv.

One civilian, a 47-year-old man, was also reported killed in the city of Nikopol in southern Ukraine.

In a call to Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the "intensification of Russian strikes" and the Kharkiv offensive.

In Moscow, Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday its forces had captured another village in the Kharkiv region.

“Units of the North group of troops liberated the village of Bugruvatka in the Kharkiv region and advanced deep into the enemy defence,” the ministry said in a statement.

The advance is the latest in a string of tactical successes for Russia on the battlefield this year after initial setbacks in a conflict that Russia hoped would be wrapped up in a matter of days.

Russia’s incoming defence minister, economist Andrei Belousov, said that Moscow’s priority was to secure victory on the battlefield against Ukraine while minimising human losses.

“The key task, of course, remains achieving victory and ensuring the military-political goals of the special military operation, set by the president, are achieved,” Belousov told a session of the Russian parliament on Tuesday.

“In this respect, I want to especially emphasise ‘with minimal human losses’.”

The Ukrainian army has acknowledged Russian successes in Kharkiv but Zelensky has stressed that reinforcements have been sent there and Ukrainian “counterattacks are ongoing”.

At a checkpoint outside the city of Kharkiv, a Ukrainian official said Russian forces had entered Ukraine through “villages on the very border, which was complicated for us to defend”.

Russian forces “are on high ground and are shelling us from there”, added Volodymyr Usov, head of the Kharkiv district military administration.

The head of Ukraine’s security council, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, said Moscow had massively upped its troop deployment for the new offensive in the Kharkiv region.

In an interview this week with AFP, he said Russia had sent more than 30,000 troops over Russia’s border.

But he added that there was no threat of an assault on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Usov, the Kharkiv district head, estimated there were still around 300 residents left in Lyptsi, a border village under Russian bombardment.

“They are shelling the villages, firing on everything they can,” Sergiy Kryvetchenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian military administration in Lyptsi, told AFP.

Guided aerial bombs are falling “like rain” said one serviceman, who was resting after fending off Russian assaults in Lyptsi.

LONDON — UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted on Monday that his beleaguered governing Conservative Party can win a general election despite polls consistently indicating the opposite, but refused to set a date for the vote.

Sunak mounted a defence of the Tories’ 14 years in power and claimed that Britain would be less safe under Keir Starmer’s Labour opposition, which is widely tipped to come back to power.

The UK leader said he was “confident” his party would win a fifth consecutive term but conceded that Labour, out of government since 2010, may ultimately inflict defeat.

“I’m clear-eyed enough to admit that, yes, maybe they can depress their way to victory,” Sunak said in a speech in central London, accusing Labour of “scaremongering” and “gaslighting”.

“But I don’t think it will work because at heart we are a nation of optimists,” he added, before warning of several dangers himself.

Sunak cited Russia’s war in Europe, Iran’s firing of missiles in the Middle East and the uncertainty posed by artificial intelligence as threats that needed to be tackled.

He also referred to “authoritarian” states including China and North Korea, Scottish nationalists who want to break away from the United Kingdom and “cancel culture”.

“Our country stands at a crossroads,” he said.

“I’m convinced that the next few years will be some of the most dangerous, yet most transformational, our country has ever known,” Sunak added.

‘Storms ahead’ 

Sunak’s speech at the right-wing Policy Exchange think-tank is a clear pre-election pitch to voters, as Labour increasingly puts flesh on the bones of its policies before a manifesto launch.

Its repeated attacks on Starmer also gave an indication of a potentially bitter and personal election battle ahead.

But Sunak refused again to be drawn on when he would call the vote, repeating his well-trodden line that he was aiming for the second half of the year.

He can go to the polls no later than January 2025.

Labour has enjoyed double-digit leads over the Tories in surveys since the disastrous short-lived premiership of Liz Truss that ended in October 2022, and inflicted heavy losses on the Conservatives in local elections earlier this month.

The opposition — overhauled since Starmer took over in the aftermath of Boris Johnson’s election landslide for the Conservatives in 2019 — has pledged to run the economy responsibly and hopes to match Sunak’s recent pledge to raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP.

But the prime minister argued that only his party can protect Britons’ safety and financial security, even after a decline in defence spending from 2010 to 2016 and the financial meltdown caused by Truss.

“There are storms ahead. The dangers are all too real,” said Sunak, a former finance minister.

“But Britain can feel proud again. Britain can feel confident again. Because with bold action and a clear plan, we can and we will create a secure future.”

Asked about Sunak’s speech, Starmer said security would be the “first priority” of a Labour administration.

He said the choice at the ballot box would be between “a changed Labour Party that puts the country first and party second” and “the chaos and division” of the Conservatives.

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil — Brazil’s flooded south remained paralysed on Monday, with schools and health centres shut and streets cut off as overflowing rivers showed no sign of receding after torrential rains in a disaster that has left 147 dead.

More than 2 million people have been affected by the flooding in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where towns and part of the regional capital have been under water for about two weeks after being battered by heavy rains.

Regional capital Porto Alegre’s international airport remains under water, as do agricultural fields and roads, while more than 360,000 students were not in school.

The latest official figures showed that 127 people were missing, while more than 600,000 had been forced to abandon their homes as rivers burst their banks.

The floods are the latest weather extreme to hit Brazil, after record-breaking forest fires, unprecedented heat waves and drought, and experts have attributed the disaster to climate change exacerbated by the El Nino phenomenon.

Rains eased on Monday, but fresh downpours over the weekend in the region had led rivers to swell once again, raising fears of further flooding and damage.

“It is not the moment to return to homes in risk zones,” state governor Eduardo Leite told a press conference.

‘Endless drama’ 

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva put off a state visit to Chile this week to focus on the disaster.

The presidency said the trip was delayed due to the “need to monitor the situation linked to flooding in Rio Grande do Sul and coordinate aid to the affected population and reconstruction efforts”.

The Guaiba, an estuary bordering Porto Alegre which overflows when waters hit three metres, reached a historic high of 5.3 metres last week.

Authorities have warned it could still swell to a new record of 5.6 metres after the weekend deluge.

“We are experiencing the aftermath of an endless drama here in Rio Grande do Sul,” the state’s deputy governor Gabriel Souza told the Globo broadcaster.

In Porto Alegre, a busting state capital of 1.4 million inhabitants, aid operations continued to deliver food, clean water, medicine and clothing to residents.

This is “the largest logistics operation in the history of the state”, said Leite.

Among those seriously affected are about 80 Indigenous communities, according to the Indigenous Missionary Council of Brazil.

The government said Monday it had delivered food kits and drinking water for 240 Indigenous families in the Taquari Valley.

The heavy rains in southern Brazil have also led to the flooding of the Uruguay River which flows between Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.

Argentine authorities reported some 600 people had to be evacuated in the riverside city of Concordia.

Concordia Mayor Francisco Azcue said waters were expected to continue to rise in the coming days.

“Obviously we are going to have more evacuees,” he said.

TANAH DATAR, Indonesia — At least 34 people were killed and 16 more were missing in western Indonesia after flash floods and cold lava flow from one of the archipelago's most active volcanos damaged homes, roads and mosques, officials said Sunday.

Hours of heavy rain caused flooding in Agam and Tanah Datar districts in West Sumatra province on Saturday evening, threatening thousands of people after the downpours swept ash and large rocks down Mount Marapi.

"I heard the thunder and the sound similar to boiling water. It was the sound of big rocks falling," housewife Rina Devina told AFP, adding that three of her neighbours were killed.

"It was pitch black, so I used my cellphone as a flashlight. The road was muddy, so I chanted 'God, have mercy!' over and over again," she said of her evacuation to a local official's office.

West Sumatra disaster agency said 16 people died in Agam district and 18 in Tanah Datar, with 18 people injured overall.

"We are also still searching for 16 other people," agency spokesman Ilham Wahab told AFP.

He said the search effort involved local rescuers, police, soldiers and volunteers.

Abdul Malik, head of the search and rescue agency in provincial capital Pandang, told reporters three more people had died but they were yet to be confirmed by other authorities.

The flash floods and cold lava flow hit the two districts at around 10:30 pm (15:30 GMT) on Saturday, according to the Basarnas search and rescue agency.

Cold lava, also known as lahar, is volcanic material such as ash, sand and pebbles carried down a volcano's slopes by rain.

Abdul Muhari, spokesman for the national disaster mitigation agency, or BNPB, said in a statement that 84 homes, 16 bridges and two mosques were damaged in Tanah Datar, as were 20 hectares of rice fields.

About 370,000 people live in the district, where several mosques and a public pool were also damaged, with large rocks and logs scattered on the ground, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.

In Lembah Anai, a popular tourist spot with a waterfall in Tanah Datar, a road connecting the cities of Padang and Bukittinggi was severely damaged and access for cars was cut off.

Aerial images seen by AFP of the district showed roads covered by mud, with roofs and a mosque’s minarets jutting out of the sea of brown mud.

Ilham said on Sunday that authorities were still receiving reports of missing people from relatives.

He said he could not give a figure for the number of people evacuated from the area because the search and rescue effort was still focused on the victims and the missing.

Two trucks had been swept away by the flooding and strong currents in a nearby river in Tanah Datar, the journalist said.

In Agam, which has a population of more than 500,000 people, dozens of homes and public facilities were damaged, the district’s disaster agency chief Budi Perwira Negara told reporters.

He said 90 people had been evacuated to a school being used as a shelter.

Nine bodies, including those of a three-year-old and an eight-year-old, were identified on Sunday, Malik said in an earlier statement.

Authorities sent a team of rescuers and rubber boats to look for the missing victims and to transport people to shelters.

The local government set up evacuation centres and emergency posts in several areas of Agam and Tanah Datar.

Indonesia is prone to landslides and floods during the rainy season.

At least 26 people were found dead in March after landslides and floods hit West Sumatra.

In 2022, about 24,000 people were evacuated and two children were killed in floods on Sumatra island, with environmental campaigners blaming deforestation caused by logging for worsening the disaster.

Trees act as natural defences against floods, slowing the rate at which water runs down hills and into rivers.

Marapi is the most active volcano on the archipelago’s Sumatra island.

It erupted in December and spewed an ash tower about 3,000 metres into the sky, taller than the volcano itself.

At least 24 climbers, most of them university students, died in the eruption.

KYIV, Ukraine — Hundreds of people were evacuated from areas near the Russian border in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, the regional governor said Saturday, a day after Moscow launched a surprise ground offensive.

Russian forces made small advances in the area it was pushed back from nearly two years ago, the latest in a series of gains as Ukrainian forces find themselves outgunned and outmanned.

"A total of 1,775 people have been evacuated," Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on social media.

He reported Russian artillery and mortar attacks on 30 settlements over the past 24 hours.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a "fierce battle" was under way in Kharkiv.

"We must disrupt Russian offensive operations and return the initiative to Ukraine," Zelensky said on Saturday.

The Kharkiv region has been mostly under Ukrainian control since September 2022.

A senior Ukrainian military source said Russian forces had advanced 1 kilometre into Ukraine and were trying to "create a buffer zone" in the Kharkiv and neighbouring Sumy regions to prevent attacks on Russian territory.

Ukrainian forces have multiplied attacks inside Russia and Russian-held areas of Ukraine, particularly on energy infrastructure.

On Saturday, Moscow-installed authorities in the Russian-occupied Lugansk region in eastern Ukraine said three people were killed by a Ukrainian strike with US-made missiles on an oil depot.

Governor Leonid Pasechnik said the strike "enveloped the oil depot in fire and damaged surrounding homes".

"The death toll has risen to three and eight more people are in hospital," he said on social media.

Officials in Kyiv had warned for weeks that Moscow might try to attack its northeastern border regions, pressing its advantage as Ukraine struggles with delays in Western aid and manpower shortages.

Ukraine’s military said it had deployed more troops and Zelensky said Ukrainian forces were using artillery and drones to thwart the Russian advance.

“Reserve units have been deployed to strengthen the defence in this area of the front,” it said.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said on Friday that Russia had made “tactically significant gains”.

But the main aim of the operation was “drawing Ukrainian manpower and materiel from other critical sectors of the front in eastern Ukraine”, it said.

ISW said it did not appear to be “a large-scale sweeping offensive operation to envelop, encircle and seize Kharkiv” — Ukraine’s second biggest city.

Washington announced a new $400 million military aid package for Kyiv hours after the offensive began, and said it was confident Ukraine could repel any fresh Russian campaign.