Reuters World News - El Nino threatens more wildfires and Germany’s far-right surge

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

It’s Canada’s worst ever start to wildfire season – we look at how El Nino’s hot, dry conditions could make matters worse. In Germany, the country's most successful far-right party since the Nazis are surging on an anti-immigration, anti-green agenda. Plus, the unions fighting in Long Beach to make sure zero-emissions do not equal lost jobs. **Please note episode updated to clarify that Long Beach is aiming to have the world’s first zero-emissions terminal, not be the world's first zero-emissions port. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, New York's air quality hits record lows as Canada braces for a long, dry wildfire summer. Germany's far right rides high on a wave of anti-immigration and anti-green sentiment. And we take you inside America's busiest port, where longshoremen hope a push to go green may be a chance to save jobs. It's Thursday, June 8th. This is Reuters World News. with everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in London. And I'm Christopher Walgesper in Chicago. We start with headlines making news around the world.

Several young children have been injured in a stabbing in the French Alps. Police say an adult was also hurting the attack in a park near Lake Aasi. The children were all about three years old. French interior minister, Gerald Domainant, says the attacker has been arrested. You can follow the developments of this breaking story at Reuters.com. Federal prosecutors have notified Donald Trump's attorneys that he is the target of an investigation into his handling of classified materials. It's the clearest sign yet that the investigation could be moving toward an indictment,

but it doesn't mean he will definitely be charged. Over in Iowa, Mike Pence has officially launched his bid for the White House. In doing so, the former vice president launched his strongest attack yet on his old boss, with a forceful condemnation of Trump's role in the January 6th attacks. And anyone who asks someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again. President Zelensky in an ambitious situation, in an emotional national address,

calling for aid agencies to do more to help those hit by the destruction of the Nova Kakova Dam. The surge of water has left tens of thousands of hectares of farmland underwater, and thousands of people are homeless. 26-year-old Vitali is one of them and took Reuters in a canoe

in his submerged house in Korsunka, which he says was flooded in just 10 minutes. Australia is to ban public displays and sales of Nazi hate symbols after a rise in far-right activities. It means the use of the swastika and the insignia of the SS will be outlawed on flags and armbands or printed on clothes. The Pope is out of surgery for a hernia and obstructed bowel.

And his doctor, Sergio Alfieri, says he's doing well. He's fine and he's already at work. The 86-year-old will likely recover in hospital for the next week or more. Over to markets now and it is all happening at GameStop. Carmel Crimmons is here to tell us more. Carmel, what's going on? So shares in GameStop plunged in after I was trading after the company ousted its CEO Matt Furlong

and made Ryan Cohen, executive chairman. Now, Cohen is a hero to meme stock traders. He bought a big stake in GameStop back when it was a retail investor darling, and he's actually now its biggest investor. But the market clearly has doubts about his ability to turn this company around. It's a video game retailer, and it's been struggling to find ways to boost sales. A lot of its customers are now downloading their games from the internet, rather than buying the sort of hard copies that it sells. Across the US, hazy skies have been settling over cities as historic wildfire. burn across Canada. But as the climate shifts into an El Nino cycle, the warming pattern could mean more volatile

tropical storms in the Pacific and drier conditions across parts of the Americas, including our neighbors to the north. Nia Williams is in British Columbia and has been covering the fires. Nia, first of all, is this normal for Canada? No, it's not normal. Canada's facing its worst ever start to wildfire season. something like 13 times the amount of land has been burned. So it's just really unusual to have this scale of fires at this point in the season. It feels like wildfires are becoming more frequent. Is that accurate?

Whether or not the more frequent, what we are seeing is more of these really large destructive fires and also what are known as interface fires, especially in a country like Canada, which is vast. A lot of wildfires will be burning way out in the back country. What we're getting now are more large destructive fires close to population centers. and those are the really worrying ones because that's when homes gets destroyed and when lives are under threat. Scientists are predicting that this year could mark the start of a strong El Nino cycle. How does that impact volatile weather and the possibility of more wildfires, not just in Canada but around the world? El Nino means hotter, drier conditions generally.

So that means the more higher risk of wildfires. And we're still going to get precipitation, but there are also going to be lightning strikes with those storms. I was talking with the executive director of BC Wildfire, and he said if the forests are really, really dry after a week of 90-degree weather, it doesn't matter how many people you have on hand. You're not going to be able to put out every lightning strike before the fire starts spreading. And this El Niño pattern, it's not just impacting North America. India has below average rainfall. Australia is looking at drier than normal conditions. So it's definitely a concern this year that bigger and more destructive wildfires could happen globally, not just in North America. America. Alice Vardel, co-leader of the far-right AFD party in Germany, kicking off what was ultimately

a poor showing in national elections in 2021. But 18 months later, support has bounced back, big time. In fact, AFD's polling 17 to 19% nationwide, vying with Chancellor Olaf Schultz social Democrats for second place in some surveys. But why? Sarah Marsh is in Berlin. Sarah, what's causing the surge for the AFD? So the party is benefiting from people's worries about a host of crises that the country is facing right now. On the one hand, you have inflation, you also have a surge in migration. Then there's also the fear about the cost of the green transition. And there's a general sense that the government of Chancellor Olaf Schultz is not dealing with these issues as they wish it were. And there's a lot of infighting in the government.

And I think that that's not helping reassure people that the government is in control. So what does Schultz and the coalition have to do to push back against this? So the government needs to show that it's united. We've also seen a few policy proposals that it's had to retract. And so that's not helped with trust in the government. If they can't show that they're really making strides on these issues and that they are a united front, then the AFD will likely continue to strengthen and gain more supporters who are just disappointed in the establishment. And now to Long Beach, California, and one of the busiest shipping ports in the world.

The port is aiming to have the world's first zero emissions terminal, thanks to a $30 million federal grant. But unions are pushing to make sure electrification doesn't equal lost jobs to automation. Lisa Bartline in Los Angeles visited one of those terminals to see how it could play out. On either side of you, there's cargo moving everywhere. Within the Port of Long Beach, the most automated terminal and also the greenest terminal, you notice straight away that there are fewer people everywhere. When ships come in, the containers are. are placed onto flat little carts that zip around

and within this no-man zone, automatic cranes, pick up and stack the containers just like little Lego. Anthony Otto, the CEO of Long Beach Container Terminal, explained how it all works. Running on a grid of transponders that are embedded in the payment, and of course, wirelessly the operating system is speaking to each vehicle, telling where to go, what to do.

There's a real temptation right now, to move to automation since people are replacing the equipment anyway to go green. And that really has unions worried. So unions see an avenue for protecting jobs in federal contracts and federal grants. And that tends to find success and even bipartisan success because most terminals in U.S. ports are owned by major shipping companies that are based in other countries. So you're basically giving money to foreign owned businesses. So that has been a pretty good place for them to save jobs.

The jury's kind of out on automation. You require a lot of flexibility on ports, and human crews are pretty flexible. I think both sides are going to be at opposite sides on for quite a long time. I'm Lisa Bartline in Long Beach. That's it for this edition of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily news show. To make sure you know what's going on in the world,

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