AFP UK

Many French people enjoyed barbecues during the summer holidays

Are barbecues “a symbol of virility”? A prominent French green MP has sparked a national debate by suggesting that red meat is macho and grilled ribs are a gender issue.

Sandrine Rousseau, a leading figure in the EELV party and self-declared “eco-feminist”, has raised one of the most talked about topics of the end-of-holidays period.

In seeking to draw attention to the impact of meat-eating on climate change, she told an event at the weekend that the country needed “to change mentality so that eating steak cooked on a barbecue is not a symbol of virility.”

Citing figures from researchers, the 50-year-old former academic said that men ate twice as much red meat as women in the country of “steak frites” and “beef bourguignon”. 

As French people return to work after the long August break, radio and TV stations as well as social media are sizzling with hot-headed views on Rousseau’s barbecue-bashing.

“That’s enough of accusing our boys of everything. Stop ‘deconstructing’ our men. Stop Rousseau’s fantasies,” right-wing MP Nadine Morano wrote on Twitter.

Far-right lawmaker Julien Odoul asserted that “since the dawn of time, the muscular mass of men means they eat more meat (protein) than women. It’s not ‘virilism’, it’s nature.” 

He vowed to continue his “Cro-Magnon diet based on French meat,” referring to carnivorous cave-dwelling early humans found in southwest France.

– Climate change fears –

The EELV is seeking to capitalise on a summer of weather-related catastrophes ranging from a severe drought to huge wildfires in France to draw attention to climate change.

In recent weeks, the party has floated the idea of a ban on building new private swimming pools as well as restrictions on private jets.

Rousseau defended herself in an interview on LCI television on Monday, saying she was taking part in a discussion about how to convince people to change their eating habits.

“In fact, reducing your quantity of meat is the most effective action against climate change from a personal perspective, even more so than the car,” she said.

Men are more resistant than women to change their diets, she alleged, while admitting that she ate “small amounts” of red meat and was not fully vegetarian.

“I’m fed up… What are we prepared to do? We’ve just lived through a summer when we’ve seen the real impact of climate change for the first time and what are we prepared to do?” she said.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) devoted a chapter this year to its climate solutions report to stress how consumers could drastically reduce global emissions.

It also singled out shifting to a plant-based diet instead of meat as one of the most effective changes individuals could make.

But the biggest potential for avoidance was in reducing long-haul flights.

– Fall in meat consumption –

Rousseau cited work by French writer Nora Bouazzouni, author of the 2021 book “Steaksisme,” which explored attitudes to food consumption.

Bouazzouni argues that eating habits are not gendered — or driven by protein requirements — but are instead learned cultural behaviours.

Health scares, higher prices and growing awareness about animal rights have led to a gradual fall in meat consumption in France since the end of the 1990s.

But most French people remain proudly carnivorous and the majority of school children are fed meat at least four days a week despite recent efforts to introduce vegetarian options.

Rousseau has emerged as a leading face in the EELV party since seeking the party’s nomination for April’s presidential elections by promising “punk ecology”, though she lost out to rival Yannick Jadot.

Though EELV fared poorly in the presidential and parliamentary elections this year, they won control of a host of major towns and cities at the local level in 2020, including Lyon.

Lyon’s Mayor Gregory Doucet caused another food-related scandal last year by taking meat off the menu in school canteens to simplify the feeding of children during the Covid-19 epidemic. 

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin attacked that move as an “unacceptable insult” to French farmers and butchers. 

burs-adp/js/pvh

Displaced people wait to receive food aid in an area hit by monsoon flooding in Pakistan's Punjab province

Aid efforts ramped up across flooded Pakistan on Tuesday to help tens of millions of people affected by relentless monsoon rains that have submerged a third of the country and claimed more than 1,100 lives.

The rains that began in June have unleashed the worst flooding in more than a decade, washing away swathes of vital crops and damaging or destroying more than a million homes.

Authorities and charities are struggling to accelerate aid delivery to more than 33 million people, a challenging task in areas cut off because roads and bridges have been washed away.

Displaced people have been wandering what remains of dry land seeking shelter, food and drinking water.

“For God’s sake help us out,” said Qadir, 35, who was camped out with his extended family on a road near the southern city of Sukkur.

“We walked along the road for three days to reach here. There’s nothing left back at home, we only managed to save our lives.”

In the country’s south and west, many Pakistanis have crammed onto elevated highways and railroad tracks to escape the flooded plains.

“We don’t even have space to cook food. We need help,” Rimsha Bibi, a schoolgirl in Dera Ghazi Khan in central Pakistan, told AFP.

Pakistan receives heavy — often destructive — rains during its annual monsoon season, which are crucial for agriculture and water supplies.

But such intense downpours have not been seen for three decades.

Pakistani officials have blamed climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather around the world.

– ‘Mind-boggling devastation’ –

“To see the devastation on the ground is really mind-boggling,” Pakistan’s climate change minister Sherry Rehman told AFP.

“When we send in water pumps, they say, ‘Where do we pump the water?’ It’s all one big ocean, there’s no dry land to pump the water out.”

She said “literally a third” of the country was under water, comparing scenes from the disaster to a dystopian movie.

Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan needed more than $10 billion to repair and rebuild damaged infrastructure.

“Massive damage has been caused… especially in the areas of telecommunications, roads, agriculture and livelihoods,” he told AFP Tuesday.

The Indus River, which runs the length of the South Asian nation, is threatening to burst its banks as torrents of water rush downstream from its tributaries in the north.

Pakistan as a whole has been deluged with twice the usual monsoon rainfall, the meteorological office said, but Balochistan and Sindh provinces have seen more than four times the average of the last three decades.

– International help –

The disaster could not have come at a worse time for Pakistan, where the economy is in free fall.

Appealing for international help, the government has declared an emergency.

Aid flights have arrived in recent days from Turkey and the UAE, while other nations including Canada, Australia and Japan have also pledged assistance.

The United Nations has announced it will launch a formal $160 million appeal on Tuesday to fund emergency aid.

Pakistan was already desperate for international support and the floods have compounded the challenge.

Prices of basic goods — particularly onions, tomatoes and chickpeas — are soaring as vendors bemoan a lack of supplies from the flooded breadbasket provinces of Sindh and Punjab.

There was some relief on Monday when the International Monetary Fund approved the revival of a loan programme for Pakistan, releasing an initial $1.1 billion.

Makeshift relief camps have sprung up all over Pakistan — in schools, on motorways and in military bases.

In the northwestern town of Nowshera, a technical college was turned into a shelter for up to 2,500 flood victims.

They sweltered in the summer heat with sporadic food aid and little access to water.

“I never thought that one day we will have to live like this,” said 60-year-old Malang Jan.

“We have lost our heaven and are now forced to live a miserable life.”

Rockstrom says spiralling inflation is a result of government failures to decarbonise their economies

The cost-of-living crisis pushing millions of people towards poverty in Europe is driven by fossil fuels, according to a leading Earth systems scientist, who has warned that global heating risks causing runaway climate change. 

Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and co-author of the new book Earth For All, said that spiralling inflation was in large measure a result of decades of government failures to decarbonise their economies.

“I find it very disturbing that our political leaders in Europe are unable to communicate that high living costs right now are caused by higher prices on fossil fuels,” he told AFP at the book’s launch on Tuesday. 

“So this is fossil fuel-driven, supply-driven inflation. If 20 years ago you invested in solar (panels) or had a share in a wind farm, you’re not affected today. 

“The only reason why we have this crisis now is that we’ve had 30 years of underinvestment in preparing towards this turbulent phase which we knew would be coming,” said Rockstrom. 

“We’ve been saying since 1990 that we need to phase out the fossil fuel-driven economy towards a renewable-driven economy. And now here we are — we’re now hitting the wall.”

European energy prices soared to new records last week ahead of what many analysts expect to be a challenging winter as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to disrupt oil and gas supplies.

The year-ahead contract for German electricity reached 995 euros ($995) per megawatt hour, while the French equivalent surged past 1,100 euros — a more than tenfold increase in both countries from last year.

In Britain, energy regulator Ofgem said it would increase the electricity and gas price cap almost twofold from October 1 to an average £3,549 ($4,197) per year.

Rockstrom, who helped pioneer the concept of planetary boundaries — thresholds of pollution or warming within which humanity can thrive — said he hoped the current energy price crisis would be “communicated as another nail in the coffin” for oil, gas and coal.

“This should accelerate our transition towards renewable energy systems,” he said. 

– ‘Giant changes required’ –

Rockstrom has spent two years working on Earth For All — a guide to help humans survive climate change — with several of the authors of The Limits to Growth.

Written 50 years ago, that groundbreaking work warned that the development of civilisation could not go on indefinitely with no limit to resource consumption.

The new book outlines two growth trajectories this century.

The first — “Too Little, Too Late” — sees the economic orthodoxy of the last 40 years endure, leading to ever starker inequality as the Earth’s average temperature rises by 2.5 degrees Celsius (36.5 degrees Farenheit) by 2100.  

The second — the “Great Leap” scenario — sees unprecedented mobilisation of resources to produce five changes: eradicate poverty and inequality, empower women, transform the global food system towards more plant-based diets, and rapidly decarbonise energy. 

In particular, the book says the International Monetary Fund must provide $1.0 trillion annually to poorer nations to create green jobs, and rich governments to cancel debt to low-income creditors while giving their own citizens a “universal basic dividend” to help share corporate windfalls.

Rockstrom said the tools are already available to make the Great Leap possible.

“(It) is to do with the current knowledge on all the current existing technologies and practices and policies. If we could put in place all the five turnarounds and scale them up very fast, that’s the best outcome we can have.”

– ‘Urgency point’ –

The project comes after another record-breaking summer that has seen unprecedented heatwaves and drought in Europe and China and devastating floods in Pakistan. 

Rockstrom said the world had reached an “urgency point” as climate-linked disasters occur more frequently than predicted in climate models. 

“Here we are — at 1.1C (of warming now), the things that we thought would happen perhaps at 2C are happening much earlier and are hitting harder,” he said. 

Rockstrom was recently involved in a paper studying the “climate endgame” — scenarios such as the complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet or heating “feedback loops”, which are deemed by scientists to be extremely unlikely and, he believes, therefore understudied.

He explained the possibility of “self-amplified warming”, which is when the Earth itself is triggered into producing emissions from carbon stored in forests and methane in permafrost.

“There is a risk of rolling towards a worst-case scenario, not because we are ploughing in more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses from (manmade) sourcing but that the Earth system itself starts emitting these greenhouse gasses.”

Rockstrom said scientists needed to “open up a much broader palette of scenarios” in climate models that could incorporate the kind of low-probability, high-impact events that could lead to runaway warming. 

As to whether governments were finally ready to take the kind of system-changing action needed to avoid climate meltdown, Rockstrom said that he was “actually quite pessimistic”.

“If you asked me three years ago, I would have said I was optimistic — we saw a post-Paris momentum and more policies coming into play and businesses stepping on board,” he said.

“Now with the post-Covid meltdown in public trust and the rise of populism … I cannot see that we are really ready to implement all these giant leaps.

“That’s why timing is really important. We need to bring back the debate and we have to have a conversation about the urgency of action. But is it a challenge? Definitely.”

Catastrophic monsoon floods in Pakistan have sent the prices of stapes, such as onions, skyrocketing

Catastrophic monsoon floods in Pakistan have sent food prices skyrocketing, putting many staples out of the reach of the poor as the cash-strapped nation battles shortages.

The floods have submerged a third of the country, killing more than 1,100 people and affecting over 33 million.

Recovery could cost more than $10 billion, according to the planning minister.

The rains — which began in June, and whose unusual intensity has been blamed on climate change — have also damaged vast swathes of rich agricultural land and crops. Parts of the mountainous north and breadbasket south have been cut off because roads and bridges have been washed away.

“Things are so expensive because of this flood that we can’t buy anything,” said Zahida Bibi, who had come to a market in the central city of Lahore to get vegetables for dinner.

She told AFP she had to forego some items on her shopping list because inflation had put them out of reach.

“What can we do? We don’t make enough money to buy things at such high prices.”

Onions and tomatoes — common ingredients in most Pakistani meals — have been affected the most.

The prices of both had increased by 40 percent, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

But on Monday, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said the price of onions had shot up by more than five times, and that the government was trying to quickly implement policies to stabilise food prices — including importing from arch-rival India.

“We need to consider getting some vegetables over the land border,” he told broadcaster Geo News.

“We have to do it because of the kind of prices and shortages we are experiencing… Inflation has broken people’s backs.”

– Out of reach –

With millions of acres of farmland still under water and certain roads inaccessible, prices are expected to climb further.

“About 80 percent of the tomato crop in Pakistan has been damaged in the floods, and onion supply has been badly hit as well,” Shahzad Cheema, secretary of the Lahore Market Committee, told AFP.

“These are basic items, and ultimately it is the average buyer who will be most affected.”

Vegetable seller Muhammad Owais at a market in Lahore was struggling to find buyers at the current high prices.

“Prices have increased so much because of (the flood) that many customers leave without buying anything,” he told AFP.

Pakistan was struggling with record high inflation even before the floods, because of rising global oil prices and a balance of payments crisis.

The government found some room to manoeuvre Monday when the International Monetary Fund approved the resumption of a massive loan programme for Pakistan, releasing $1.1 billion immediately.

Displaced people wait to receive food aid in an area hit by monsoon flooding in Pakistan's Punjab province

Aid efforts ramped up across flooded Pakistan on Tuesday to help tens of millions of people affected by relentless monsoon rains that have submerged a third of the country and claimed more than 1,100 lives.

The rains that began in June have unleashed the worst flooding in more than a decade, washing away swathes of vital crops and damaging or destroying more than a million homes.

Authorities and charities are struggling to accelerate aid delivery to more than 33 million people affected, a challenging task in areas cut off because roads and bridges have been washed away.

In the south and west, dry land is limited, with displaced people crammed onto elevated highways and railroad tracks to escape the flooded plains.

“We don’t even have space to cook food. We need help,” Rimsha Bibi, a schoolgirl in Dera Ghazi Khan in central Pakistan, told AFP.

Pakistan receives heavy — often destructive — rains during its annual monsoon season, which are crucial for agriculture and water supplies.

But such intense downpours have not been seen for three decades.

Pakistani officials have blamed climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather around the world.

“To see the devastation on the ground is really mind-boggling,” Pakistan’s climate change minister Sherry Rehman told AFP.

“When we send in water pumps, they say ‘Where do we pump the water?’ It’s all one big ocean, there’s no dry land to pump the water out.”

She said “literally a third” of the country was under water, comparing scenes from the disaster to a dystopian movie.

Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan needed more than $10 billion to repair and rebuild damaged infrastructure.

“Massive damage has been caused… especially in the areas of telecommunications, roads, agriculture and livelihoods,” he told AFP Tuesday.

The Indus River, which runs along the length of the South Asian nation, is threatening to burst its banks as torrents of water rush downstream from its tributaries in the north.

Pakistan as a whole had been deluged with twice the usual monsoon rainfall, the meteorological office said, but Balochistan and Sindh provinces had seen more than four times the average of the last three decades.

– International help –

The disaster could not have come at a worse time for Pakistan, where the economy is in free fall.

Appealing for international help, the government has declared an emergency.

Aid flights have arrived in recent days from Turkey and the UAE, while other nations including Canada, Australia and Japan have also pledged assistance.

The United Nations has announced it will launch a formal $160 million appeal on Tuesday to fund emergency aid.

Pakistan was already desperate for international support and the floods have compounded the challenge.

Prices of basic goods — particularly onions, tomatoes and chickpeas — are soaring as vendors bemoan a lack of supplies from the flooded breadbasket provinces of Sindh and Punjab.

There was some relief on Monday when the International Monetary Fund approved the revival of a loan programme for Pakistan, releasing an initial $1.1 billion.

Makeshift relief camps have sprung up all over Pakistan — in schools, on motorways and in military bases.

In the northwestern town of Nowshera, a technical college was turned into a shelter for up to 2,500 flood victims.

They sweltered in the summer heat with sporadic food aid and little access to water.

“I never thought that one day we will have to live like this,” said 60-year-old Malang Jan.

“We have lost our heaven and are now forced to live a miserable life.”

Displaced people wait to receive food aid in an area hit by monsoon flooding in Pakistan's Punjab province

Aid efforts ramped up across flooded Pakistan on Tuesday to help tens of millions of people affected by relentless monsoon rains that have submerged a third of the country and claimed more than 1,100 lives.

The rains that began in June have unleashed the worst flooding in more than a decade, washing away swathes of vital crops and damaging or destroying more than a million homes.

Authorities and charities are struggling to accelerate aid delivery to more than 33 million people affected, a challenging task in areas cut off because roads and bridges have been washed away.

In the south and west, dry land is limited, with displaced people crammed on to elevated highways and railroad tracks to escape the flooded plains.

“We don’t even have space to cook food. We need help,” Rimsha Bibi, a schoolgirl in Dera Ghazi Khan in central Pakistan, told AFP.

Pakistan receives heavy — often destructive — rains during its annual monsoon season, which are crucial for agriculture and water supplies.

But such intense downpours have not been seen for three decades.

Pakistani officials have blamed climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather around the world.

“To see the devastation on the ground is really mind-boggling,” Pakistan’s climate change minister Sherry Rehman told AFP.

“When we send in water pumps, they say ‘Where do we pump the water?’ It’s all one big ocean, there’s no dry land to pump the water out.”

She said “literally a third” of the country was under water, comparing scenes from the disaster to a dystopian movie.

The Indus River, which runs along the length of the South Asian nation, is threatening to burst its banks as torrents of water rush downstream from its tributaries in the north.

The meteorological office says the country as a whole had been deluged with twice the usual monsoon rainfall, but Balochistan and Sindh provinces had seen more than four times the average of the last three decades.

– ‘Pakistan is drowning’ –

The disaster could not have come at a worse time for Pakistan, where the economy is in free fall.

The government has declared an emergency and appealed for international help.

Aid flights have arrived in recent days from Turkey and the UAE, while other nations including Canada, Australia and Japan have also pledged assistance.

The United Nations has announced it will launch a formal $160 million appeal on Tuesday to fund emergency aid.

Pakistan was already desperate for international support and the floods have compounded the challenge.

Prices of basic goods — particularly onions, tomatoes and chickpeas — are soaring as vendors bemoan a lack of supplies from the flooded breadbasket provinces of Sindh and Punjab.

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has told local media that the disaster could cost upwards of $10 billion, and on Monday said “Pakistan is drowning”.

There was some relief on Monday when the International Monetary Fund approved the revival of a loan programme for Pakistan, releasing an initial $1.1 billion.

Makeshift relief camps have sprung up all over Pakistan — in schools, on motorways and in military bases.

In the northwestern town of Nowshera, a technical college was turned into a shelter for up to 2,500 flood victims.

They sweltered in the summer heat with sporadic food aid and little access to water.

“I never thought that one day we will have to live like this,” said 60-year-old Malang Jan.

“We have lost our heaven and are now forced to live a miserable life.”

Ukrainian servicemen work inside a Polish howitzer on the front line in the Donetsk region

Ukrainian forces pressed their counter-offensive to retake the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson, while a team of UN experts were en route to inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant which was targeted by fresh shelling over the weekend.

The coastal region of Kherson and its capital city of the same name have been contested by Russian troops since the war broke out six months ago.

“Ukrainian armed forces have launched their offensive in several areas in the south,” the head of the regional administration, Yaroslav Yanushevych, said on the Telegram app.

In his daily address Monday night, President Volodymyr Zelensky did not specifically mention the counter-offensive but said they would oust the occupying forces “to the border”.

“If they want to survive, it is time for the Russian military to flee. Go home,” he said.

Russian forces seized Kherson, a town of 280,000 inhabitants, on March 3.

It was the first major city to fall following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. 

“Today there was a powerful artillery attack on enemy positions in… the occupied Kherson region,” local government official Sergey Khlan told Ukraine’s Pryamyi TV channel.

“This is what we have been waiting for since the spring — it is the beginning of the de-occupation of Kherson region.”

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Ukraine’s move was already having an impact on Russian military capabilities as it forced them to reposition forces and deplete some units in the east.

“Because the Russians have had to pull resources from the east simply because of reports that the Ukrainians might be going more on the offence in the south,” Kirby told reporters Monday, CNN reported.

A senior Pentagon official said Russia was struggling to find soldiers to fight in Ukraine and that many new recruits were older, in poor shape and lacking training.

– ‘Ukraine regaining its own’ –

Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile claimed it had repulsed attacks in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions and inflicted “heavy losses” on Ukrainian forces.

The spokeswoman for the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command, Nataliya Gumenyuk, had said Kyiv’s forces were attacking from many directions to push the Russians back to the other bank of the Dnipro river.

In an update on Facebook early Tuesday, the Southern Command said the situation remained “tense” in its area of operations.

“The enemy attacked our positions five times, but was unsuccessful,” it said. The city of Mykolaiv, just northwest of Kherson, had come under “massive bombardment” from Russian anti-aircraft missiles, with two civilians killed and 24 wounded, it said.

“Ukraine is regaining its own. And it will regain the Kharkiv region, Lugansk region, Donetsk region, Zaporizhzhia region, Kherson region, Crimea,” Zelensky said in his address.

Kherson city lies some 200 kilometres (125 miles) southwest of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant — Europe’s largest atomic facility — which has also been occupied by Russian troops since early March. 

Regional governor Oleksandr Starukh said early Tuesday that Russia had launched a missile attack on Zaporizhzhia city.

“According to preliminary information, there are no casualties,” he said. “So far, no significant damage to infrastructure facilities has been detected.”

– UN team to assess damage –

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday he was en route with a team of experts to inspect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

The team would assess the damage to the facilities and determine the functionality of the main and backup safety and security systems, the UN nuclear watchdog said.

“At the same time, the mission will undertake urgent safeguards activities to verify that nuclear material is used only for peaceful purposes,” it said.

The IAEA has for months been asking to visit the site, warning of “the very real risk of a nuclear disaster”.

The plant was targeted over the weekend by fresh shelling, its operator said, with Moscow and Kyiv trading blame for attacks around the complex of six nuclear reactors in Energodar, a town on the banks of the Dnipro River.

Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom has warned of the risk of a radiation leak.

The United Nations has called for an end to all military activity in the area surrounding the complex.

Ukraine initially feared an IAEA visit would legitimise the Russian occupation of the site, before finally supporting the idea of a mission.

Ukraine was the site of the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe in 1986, when a reactor at the northern Chernobyl plant exploded and spewed radiation into the atmosphere.

Experts say any leak at Zaporizhzhia would more likely be on the scale of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Energoatom on Monday warned any leak would scatter radiation over swathes of southern Ukraine and southwestern regions of Russia.

The United States on Monday urged a complete shutdown of the plant and renewed calls for a demilitarised zone around the facility.

Schools in Zaporizhzhia city began distributing iodine pills to reduce medical risk of radiation in the event of a disaster, with some 200 people turning up to collect them on Friday when distribution began, an AFP correspondent said.

“The tablet is taken in case of danger, when the alarm is raised,” said Elena Karpenko, a nurse at the Zaporizhzhia Children’s Hospital. 

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Men line up to get food for for their families at a makeshift camp in Nowshera, Pakistan

Makeshift camps have sprung up all over Pakistan — in schools, along motorways and at military bases — to give shelter to millions of displaced flood victims.

But the relief at finding safety can turn to desperation for many.

In the northwestern town of Nowshera, a technical college was turned into a shelter for up to 2,500 flood victims, who sweltered in the summer heat with sporadic food aid and little access to water for bathing.

“We have been only eating rice for the past three days,” 60-year-old Malang Jan told AFP.

“I never thought that one day we will have to live like this. We have lost our heaven and are now forced to live a miserable life.”

Jan’s family were rescued by boat when his home was submerged in the floods that have swamped a third of the country, killing more than 1,100 people and affecting tens of millions more.

The college gardens are lined with tents — the classrooms are filled with the families who arrived first and grabbed the chance for privacy.

Others rest shoulder-to-shoulder in corridors with their meagre bundles of belongings.

Goats and chickens salvaged from the rising water graze in the campus courtyard.

The camp of 2,500 is managed by various charities, political parties and administrative officials overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.

Volunteers hand out tents, mattresses, water, daal and naan.

“It’s a situation of panic,” said Mushfiq ur Rehman, a district court official who stepped in to oversee food delivery for the local administration.

“There is enough food, but people are getting desperate because they don’t trust if they will get a meal again or not.”

– ‘We’re humiliated’ –

It is particularly difficult for women in this deeply conservative region of the country, where the all-covering burqa is commonly worn, and women rarely mix with men who are not relatives.

“We are Pashtun people; we don’t come out of our homes often, but now we are forced to come out,” said Yasmin Shah, 56, who is sheltered in a classroom with her family.

Young women with burqas pulled up over their heads watch from upper floors.

“I cannot come out of this classroom unless I have to,” added another, looking after a blind uncle. 

Older women take their place in queues to ensure they get a share of food handouts. 

The heat is worsened when the few working fans stop working because of power cuts. There are no showers and only a few toilets available for the displaced. 

“Our self respect is at stake… I stink but there is no place to take a shower,” said Fazal e Malik, who is staying with seven family members in a tent.

“Our women are also facing problems and they too feel humiliated.”

When food aid arrives at the college, desperate families mob the trucks, and are sometimes pushed back by police armed with long sticks.

“People send relief goods here but the distribution is not well organised at all,” Yasmin said.

“There are routine scuffles and people have to fight to get some food. In the end, some people have a bigger share and others have nothing.”

The largest camp in the town was set up at the Pakistan Air Force academy centre, sheltering a further 3,000 people in the accommodation usually reserved for training staff.  

Nearby, armed members of a local political party have stepped in to protect abandoned homes, using rowing boats to navigate the flooded streets and watch for looters.

For some fleeing the deluge across the country, the only dry areas are elevated roads and railroad tracks, alongside which tens of thousands of poor rural folk have taken shelter with their livestock. 

Prosecutors in Ecuador said they have launched an investigation into the alleged hunting and killing of four giant tortoises in the Galapagos National Park

Prosecutors in Ecuador on Monday announced an investigation into the alleged hunting and killing of four giant tortoises on the Galapagos Islands, a unique and fragile ecosystem considered a world heritage site.

The prosecutor’s office said on Twitter it was investigating the “suspected hunting and killing of four giant tortoises in the Galapagos National Park wetland complex.” 

A unit that specializes in environmental crimes is collecting testimonies from national park agents and appointing experts to carry out autopsies on the tortoises. 

The park management has filed a complaint over the death of the animals, the Environment Ministry said on its WhatsApp channel. 

The ministry did not specify which species the four tortoises belonged to, but said they had been hunted in the wetlands of Isabela Island, located 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. 

Hunting wild animals is punishable by up to three years in prison in Ecuador.

In 2019, a man who rammed a tortoise and damaged its shell was fined $11,000. That same year, another driver had to pay over $15,000 for running over and killing a native Galapagos iguana. 

With an area of more than 4,500 square kilometers (1,800 square miles), Isabela is the largest island in the archipelago, and makes up 60 percent of the land surface of the remote oceanic chain. 

The Galapagos archipelago is designated as a biosphere reserve for its unique flora and fauna. It was once home to 15 species of tortoises, three of which went extinct centuries ago, according to the Galapagos National Park. 

In 2019, a tortoise of the species Chelonoidis phantastica was discovered on the island, more than a century after its supposed extinction.

Prosecutors in Ecuador said they have launched an investigation into the alleged hunting and killing of four giant tortoises in the Galapagos National Park

Prosecutors in Ecuador on Monday announced an investigation into the alleged hunting and killing of four giant tortoises on the Galapagos Islands, a unique and fragile ecosystem considered a world heritage site.

The prosecutor’s office said on Twitter it was investigating the “suspected hunting and killing of four giant tortoises in the Galapagos National Park wetland complex.” 

A unit that specializes in environmental crimes is collecting testimonies from national park agents and appointing experts to carry out autopsies on the tortoises. 

The park management has filed a complaint over the death of the animals, the Environment Ministry said on its WhatsApp channel. 

The ministry did not specify which species the four tortoises belonged to, but said they had been hunted in the wetlands of Isabela Island, located 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the coast of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean. 

Hunting wild animals is punishable by up to three years in prison in Ecuador.

In 2019, a man who rammed a tortoise and damaged its shell was fined $11,000. That same year, another driver had to pay over $15,000 for running over and killing a native Galapagos iguana. 

With an area of more than 4,500 square kilometers (1,800 square miles), Isabela is the largest island in the archipelago, and makes up 60 percent of the land surface of the remote oceanic chain. 

The Galapagos archipelago is designated as a biosphere reserve for its unique flora and fauna. It was once home to 15 species of tortoises, three of which went extinct centuries ago, according to the Galapagos National Park. 

In 2019, a tortoise of the species Chelonoidis phantastica was discovered on the island, more than a century after its supposed extinction.