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At least 90 active blazes in British Columbia in what PM says is one of the country’s most intense seasons on recordHow dangerous are wildfires and how can we stop them from getting worse?Fresh wildfires have broken out in western Canada and forests continued to ⁠burn in Ontario as the country ⁠battled what the prime ​minister, Mark Carney, called one of the most intense wildfire seasons on record.Nearly 34,000 lightning strikes over the past week led to a series of fires ⁠and evacuation orders in southern British Columbia. There were 25 evacuation orders and 90 active wildfires in the province as of Friday morning, and authorities said warming ⁠and drying conditions could cause them to grow. Continue reading...

Former ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul expressed on MS NOW Friday morning extreme dismay at the sloppiness of President Donald Trump’s nuclear cooperation agreement with the Saudis.McFaul scoffed at the deal that would allow U.S. companies to help the Middle Eastern nation develop its atomic energy infrastructure and the reason it recently stalled: Trump's sudden demand Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel.“This is so crazy,” McFaul said. “I just just just to step back for a minute: This is a pattern of how they make decisions in the Trump administration.”McFaul explained his frustration stemmed from the Trump administration's tendency to make big moves without clearing it first in-house. “There's no interagency process, the National Security Council doesn't meet Secretary [Marco] Rubio's the national security adviser and half a dozen other jobs, so they roll this out,” he elaborated. “There doesn't sound like there was a discussion with the president, no explanation why they didn't sign the additional protocol that is to give more inspections. I think that's a huge mistake.”“And then the president finds out what's happening,” he added with a laugh. “He says, ‘Well, no, I want to change the deal.’ And I just think we're suffering from the consequences of this chaos.”“Same with the decision to invade Iran,” the diplomat exclaimed. “Was there a big decision? They sit down, did they talk about secondary consequences, tertiary consequences? It appears they didn't. And this is yet another case where it just appears that they didn't really talk about what they were doing.” - YouTube youtu.be

Of the estimated 179 people aboard, 76 were rescued as efforts continue to salvage the ship and recover all bodiesThe confirmed death toll from the recent capsizing of a state ferry off Guyana’s coast has risen to 72, with more bodies recovered as a multinational team struggle to salvage the partially submerged vessel.Of the estimated 179 people aboard, 76 people were rescued. The government has estimated that 100 may have died in the accident, which would make it the worst marine tragedy on record for the South American nation. Continue reading...

A decision by President Donald Trump’s administration to delete the names of four US service members from the Iran war dead was slammed Friday on MS NOW as “among the more offensive moves that the administration has made."The panel was responding to a New York Times report that the number of dead listed by the Pentagon mysteriously dropped from 18 to 14, ostensibly “because their deaths occurred after President Trump declared a cease-fire in the war in April.” The “Morning Joe" panel said they didn't buy it, calling the move both “outrageous” and “despicable,” with co-host Jonathan Lemire reminding viewers of the president’s low opinion of American service members who die in wars.“I mean, this wouldn't be the first time that the government, that the Trump administration has tried to doctor things to make the president look better,” Lemire stated. "It is a nonsensical argument that these four lives would matter less because they happened after a ceasefire was declared, when obviously the ceasefire is over; there are major strikes happening in the region now for well more than a week. To me, this was particularly outrageous and disgraceful.”MS NOW contributor Sam Stein offered, “Well, to me too. It's both not shocking that the Trump administration would do this, and it's shocking that it happened. What is the actual goal of doing something like this is to try to limit your political exposure for the war.”“It's despicable, honestly,” he added. "It's failing to own the consequences of their actions, or at least trying to avoid the consequences of their actions. And honestly, it's insulting to the people who sacrificed to say, ‘Hey, this was not actually a war casualty.’ It was what a casualty of a — what's the word he uses? — skirmish. I found this to be among the more offensive moves that the administration has made politically, but it obviously reflects a larger thinking that they have internally, which is that this is politically problematic.”“The callousness here is off the charts,” Lemire agreed. “And but perhaps not surprising. I agree with you, Sam. Remember, President Trump and his first term called those who were reportedly killed in combat ‘suckers and losers.’” - YouTube youtu.be

A Republican senator admitted that Americans were feeling "pain" from President Donald Trump's decision to launch a war against Iran.Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) appeared Thursday on Fox News, where he told anchor Sandra Smith that fuel costs would go back down once hostilities cooled after the unraveling of the memorandum of understanding signed last month."It's important, I don't discount it," the Indiana Republican said. "I hear from Hoosiers that talk about high gas prices, and we want gas prices to come down, and the good news, as you saw when the president signed the short-term [memorandum of understanding] with the Iranians, you saw gas prices immediately go down; now they are creeping back up."The 14-point framework agreed to by the Trump administration mandated a permanent ceasefire, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and 60 days to negotiate a nuclear agreement, but the terms of that memorandum are effectively dead with the resumption of military strikes."We know that as soon as we strike a deal and end Iran's ability to have a nuclear weapon and we can finish the war," Banks said, "we know gas prices will immediately go down to where they need to be, lower than we've ever seen before because of President Trump's energy policies.""This is temporary," he added. "I feel the pain. I hear this from Hoosiers as well. Gas prices will go down as soon as Iran does the right thing and ends their nuclear program."

The men were convicted over alleged plan to stage coup and organise deadly demonstrations over fuel prices last yearTwo Russian men have been found guilty by an Angolan court of terrorism and spying after being accused of planning a coup and helping to organise deadly demonstrations in the southern African country last year.Lev Lakshtanov and Igor Ratchin were sentenced to eight and 11 years in jail respectively. They had denied the charges, claiming they were in Angola for cultural and business activities. Continue reading...

September exercise called off after Kenya raises concerns over funding and jurisdiction for criminal offencesThe British army has been forced to cancel training for its troops in Kenya after the Kenyan government refused to ratify a bilateral defence agreement.While the UK government wanted to renew the existing agreement, Kenyan lawmakers had sought changes to give local authorities greater powers to hold British soldiers accountable for any offences committed in the country. Continue reading...

Dunedin will be the focal point, having last experienced such an eclipse in 1163 – before any humans reached New ZealandHotels are booking out two years in advance in the New Zealand city of Dunedin as it prepares for the region’s first total solar eclipse in more than 850 years.At 4.17pm on 22 July 2028, the moon will pass in front of the sun, casting a roughly 100km-wide shadowy band across parts of southern New Zealand. Everywhere within that band – from tourist hotspot Queenstown in the west to Dunedin city in the east – will be plunged into daytime darkness for 2 minutes and 51 seconds. Continue reading...