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The Vatican says Pope Francis has gone to a Rome hospital for scheduled surgery for a stenosis, or restriction, of the large intestine. The brief announcement Sunday afternoon didn’t say when the surgery would be performed but it said there would be announcement when the surgery is complete. Just three hours earlier, Francis had cheerfully greeted the public in St. Peter’s Square in keeping with a Sunday tradition and told them he will go to Hungary and Slovakia in September. A week earlier, Francis, 84, had used the same traditional appearance to ask the public for special prayers for the pope, which, in hindsight might have been hinting at the planned surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Polyclinic. 
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Four people were found dead as a huge fire raged for a second day in Cyprus, razing tracts of forest in a blaze one official called the worst on record.The blaze, fanned by strong winds, affected at least 10 communities over an area of 50 square kilometers in the foothills of the Troodos mountain range, an area of pine forest and densely vegetated shrubland.The victims, thought to be Egyptian nationals, were found dead close to the community of Odou, a mountainous community north of the cities of Limassol and Larnaca.”All indications point to it being the four persons who were missing since yesterday,” Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said.The EU’s executive, the European Commission, said firefighting planes had departed from Greece to battle the fire and Italy was also planning to deploy aerial firefighters.The EU’s emergency Copernicus satellite was also activated to provide damage assessment maps of the affected areas, the Commission said in a statement.”It is the worst forest fire in the history of Cyprus,” Forestries Department Director Charalambos Alexandrou told Cyprus’s Omega TV.Attempts were being made to prevent the blaze from crossing the mountains and stop it before reaching Machairas, a pine forestland and one of the highest peaks in Cyprus.The cause of the fire, which started around midday on Saturday, was unclear. Cyprus experiences high temperatures in the summer months, with temperatures in recent days exceeding 40 Celsius. Police said they were questioning a 67-year-old person in connection with the blaze. 
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Tropical Storm Elsa left three people dead Saturday as it downed trees and blew off roofs in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The storm, which had been a Category 1 hurricane, weakened and it now heads for Cuba and Florida.One death was reported on St. Lucia, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, and two deaths were reported in the Dominican Republic, according to the Emergency Operations Center.Elsa was still a hurricane when it damaged several Caribbean islands, with Barbados among the hardest hit.More than 1,100 people reported damaged houses, including 62 homes that collapsed. Schools and government offices were also damaged, and hundreds were without power Saturday, according to the Associated Press.”This is a hurricane that has hit us for the first time in 66 years,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said Saturday, according to the AP. “There is no doubt this is urgent.”Haitian authorities used social media to alert the population about the storm, urging those living near water or mountainsides to evacuate. Downed trees have been reported there.Late Saturday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm was about 280 kilometers east-southeast of Montego Bay, Jamaica, and was moving west-northwest at 28 kph with maximum sustained winds of 100 kph.Elsa is forecast to strike Cuba next and then Florida. The Hurricane Center’s forecast shows it bearing down on the west coast of Florida as a tropical storm by Tuesday morning. Other tracking models, though, would have the storm moving into the Gulf of Mexico or up along the Atlantic Coast.Information from the Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report. 
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The European Union on Saturday deployed aerial assistance to help Cyprus contain a huge forest fire raging north of the cities of Limassol and Larnaca, a blaze one official called the worst on record.The blaze, fanned by strong winds, affected at least six communities in the foothills of the Troodos mountain range, an area of pine forest and densely vegetated shrubland.The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, said firefighting planes had departed from Greece to battle the fire and Italy was also planning to deploy aerial firefighters.The EU’s emergency Copernicus satellite was also activated to provide damage assessment maps of the affected areas, the Commission said in a statement.”It is the worst forest fire in the history of Cyprus,” Forestries Department Director Charalambos Alexandrou told Cyprus’s Omega TV.Attempts were being made to prevent the blaze from crossing the mountains and stop it before reaching Machairas, a pine forestland and one of the highest peaks in Cyprus.Alexandrou said the perimeter of the fire was “at least 40 kilometers.”Dozens of properties were damaged, but no injuries were reported. There were widespread power cuts in the area. Plumes of smoke were visible in the capital Nicosia, some 75 kilometers away.Officials said that in addition to Greece’s assistance with two aircraft, help was also expected from Israel.”This is a very difficult day for Cyprus. All of the state’s mechanisms are in gear, and the priority is for no loss of life,” Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades tweeted.Israel accepted Nicosia’s plea for help, a statement from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, and will send firefighting aircraft to Cyprus on Sunday.The cause of the fire, which started around midday, was unclear. Cyprus has experienced a heatwave this week, with temperatures exceeding 40 Celsius. Police said they were questioning a 67-year-old person in connection with the blaze.”It passed through like a whirlwind, it destroyed everything,” said Vassos Vassiliou, the community leader of Arakapas, one of the communities affected.
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Protests against President Jair Bolsonaro spread across Brazil on Saturday, a day after a Supreme Court justice authorized a criminal investigation into his response to allegations of potential corruption involving a vaccine deal.Demonstrators gathered by the hundreds or thousands in more than 40 cities to demand Bolsonaro’s impeachment or greater access to vaccines against COVID-19.”If we have a minute of silence for each COVID death, we would be quiet until June 2022,” read a poster held aloft by a man in Belem, the capital of Para state. More than half a million Brazilians have died, by official count.In Friday’s decision, Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber said the investigation is supported by recent testimony in a Senate committee investigating the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.Prosecutors will investigate whether Bolsonaro committed the crime of “prevarication,” which entails delaying or refraining from action required as part of a public official’s duty for reasons of personal interest. Weber didn’t rule out the possibility other potential wrongdoing could be investigated.The inquiry comes after Luis Ricardo Miranda, the chief of the Health Ministry’s import division, said he faced undue pressure to sign off on the import of 20 million vaccine doses from Indian pharmaceutical Bharat Biotech. He said there were irregularities in the invoices, particularly a $45 million upfront payment to a Singapore-based company.Demonstrators march on Paulista Avenue to demand that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro resign, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 3, 2021.Miranda testified before the Senate committee June 25 along with his brother, Luis Miranda, a lawmaker who until recently was allied with Bolsonaro. The Mirandas said they took their concerns directly to Bolsonaro, who assured them he would report the irregularities to the Federal Police.However, the Federal Police never received any request to investigate, a Federal Police source with knowledge of investigations told The Associated Press. He spoke anonymously for lack of authorization to speak publicly.The secretary-general of the presidency, Onyx Lorenzoni, confirmed Bolsonaro met with the Mirandas, but claimed they presented fraudulent documents. Bolsonaro ordered the brothers investigated, he said.Bharat has denied any wrongdoing with respect to vaccine supply. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of corruption and told reporters on June 28 he can’t know what transpires within his ministries.The Supreme Court decision greenlighting an investigation came in response to a request filed by three senators. A majority of senators on the investigating committee previously told the AP that, once their inquest concludes, they would vote to recommend Bolsonaro be indicted for prevarication.The crime carries with it a prison term of three months to a year, plus a fine.In Rio de Janeiro’s protest, 63-year-old retiree Terezinha Zanata said the government had mismanaged violence, the environment and Indigenous rights.”This in addition to the disregard for the pandemic issue,” she said, complaining of a sluggish vaccine campaign and a president who long minimized the seriousness of the disease.
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A Vatican judge on Saturday indicted 10 people, including a once-powerful cardinal, on charges including embezzlement, abuse of office, extortion and fraud in connection with the Secretariat of State’s 350 million-euro investment in a London real estate venture.The president of the Vatican’s criminal tribunal, Giuseppe Pignatone, set July 27 as the trial date, though lawyers for some defendants questioned how they could prepare for trial so soon given they hadn’t yet formally received the indictment.The 487-page indictment request was issued following a sprawling, two-year investigation into how the Secretariat of State managed its vast asset portfolio, much of which is funded by donations from the faithful. The scandal over its multimillion-dollar losses has resulted in a sharp reduction in donations and prompted Pope Francis to strip the office of its ability to manage the money.Five former Vatican officials, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu and two officials from the Secretariat of State, were indicted, as well as the Italian businessmen who handled the investment.Vatican prosecutors accuse the main suspects of bilking millions of euros from the Holy See in fees, bad investments and other losses related to financial dealings that were funded in large part by Peter’s Pence donations to the pope for works of charity. The suspects have denied wrongdoing.One of the main suspects, Italian broker Gianluigi Torzi, is accused of having extorted the Vatican of 15 million euros to turn over ownership of the London building in late 2018. Torzi had been retained by the Vatican to help it acquire full ownership of the building from another indicted money manager who had handled the initial investment in 2013, but lost millions in what the Vatican says were speculative, imprudent deals.Vatican prosecutors allege Torzi inserted a last-minute clause into the contract giving him full voting rights in the deal.The Vatican hierarchy, however, signed off on the contract, with both the pope’s No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and his deputy approving it. Neither was indicted. In addition, Francis himself was aware of the deal and Torzi’s involvement in it.Vatican prosecutors say the Vatican hierarchy was hoodwinked by Torzi and aided in part by an Italian lawyer — who was also indicted Saturday — into agreeing to the terms. The Secretariat of State intends to declare itself an injured party in the case.Torzi has denied the charges and said the accusations were due to a misunderstanding. He is currently in London pending an extradition request by Italian authorities, who are seeking to prosecute him on other financial charges. His representatives said they had no immediate comment Saturday since they hadn’t yet seen the indictment.Cardinal indictedAlso indicted was a onetime papal contender and Holy See official, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who helped engineer the initial London investment when he was chief of staff in the Secretariat of State.Francis fired him as the Vatican’s saint-making chief last year, apparently in connection with a separate issue: Becciu’s 100,000-euro donation of Holy See funds to a diocesan charity run by his brother.Becciu had originally not been part of the London investigation but was included after it appeared that he was behind the proposal to buy the building, prosecutors say, alleging that he also interfered in the investigation.In a statement Saturday issued by his lawyers, Becciu insisted on the “absolute falsity” of the accusations and denounced what he said was “unparalleled media pillory” against him in the Italian press.”I am the victim of a plot hatched against me. And I have been waiting for a long time to know any accusations against me, to allow myself to promptly deny them and prove to the world my absolute innocence,” he said.One of Becciu’s proteges, self-styled intelligence analyst Cecilia Marogna, was indicted on separate embezzlement charges. Becciu had hired Marogna as an external consultant after she reached out to him in 2015 with concerns about security at Vatican embassies in global hot spots. Becciu authorized hundreds of thousands of euros of Holy See funds to her to free Catholic priests and nuns held hostage in Africa, according to WhatsApp messages reprinted by Italian media.Her Slovenian-based holding company, which received the funds, was among the four companies also ordered to stand trial.Marogna says the money was compensation for legitimate intelligence work and reimbursements. Prosecutors say she spent the money on luxury purchases that were incompatible with the humanitarian scope of her company.In a statement Saturday, her legal team said Marogna had been prepared for months to “provide a full accounting of her work and fears nothing about the accusations made against her.”Also indicted were the former top two officials in the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency, for alleged abuse of office. Prosecutors say by failing to stop the Torzi deal, they performed a “decisive function” in letting it play out.The lawyer for the former office director, Tommaso di Ruzza, said he had only seen the Vatican press statement about the allegations but insisted that his client “has always acted in the most scrupulous respect of the law and his office duties, in the exclusive interest of the Holy See.”The former head of the office, Rene Bruelhart, defended his work and said his indictment was a “procedural blunder that will be immediately clarified by the organs of Vatican justice as soon as the defense will be able to exercise its rights.”A former Secretariat of State official, Monsignor Mauro Carlino, expressed shock at his indictment on alleged extortion and abuse of office charges, saying his only involvement in the deal was after he was ordered by his superiors to negotiate Torzi down from a 20 million-euro fee to 15 million euros.”It seems incomprehensible that a worthy act … that brought him no personal advantage and had on the contrary provided a significant savings for the Secretariat of State could lead to an indictment,” said a statement from his lawyer, Salvino Mondello.
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Six people, including two American missionaries, were killed when a private airplane crashed southwest of Port-au-Prince, local authorities said Saturday.The aircraft had taken off from the city’s airport at 6:57 p.m. (2257 GMT) on Friday and should have arrived at Jacmel, on Haiti’s southern coast, around an hour later, according to the National Civil Aviation Office (NCAO).”The plane crashed en route with six people on board,” an NCAO incident report said.Gutenberg Destin, the coordinator of civil protection for Haiti’s Ouest Department, confirmed to AFP that all six people on board had been killed.The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately clear.The U.S.-based missionary organization Gospel to Haiti said on its Facebook page that Americans Trent Hostelter, 35, and John Miller, 43, were among the victims.They were part of a larger group making the trip in two planes, with Hostelter’s wife and children on the first flight.”When the second plane didn’t show up, they were very concerned and soon heard that the plane had gone down somewhere near Leogane,” Gospel to Haiti said.”A search team was formed and sent out and they located the plane early this morning and confirmed that all six people were killed, including Trent and John.”Hostetler and his wife worked for the missionary organization, while Miller was volunteering for a short period, according to GoFundMe pages opened to support of their families.With heavily armed gangs controlling the main land route from Port-au-Prince to the southern half of Haiti, charter flights to Jacmel have become increasingly popular — among the tiny number of Haitians able to afford them.
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The World Food Program says it has delivered a first batch of food for thousands of school children in Venezuela.The delivery follows a deal concluded earlier this year between the U.N. food agency and the government of Venezuela. Schools in Venezuela currently are closed.  So, World Food Program spokesman Tomson Phiri says his agency will provide take-home rations, which families will pick up at the schools where the children are enrolled.”Our plan is to start, is to reach gradually 185,000 people, including children under the age of six and school staff by the end of the year,” Phiri said. “The ration that I have spoken about is enough to cover a child for 30 days, which is a month.”   World Food Program to Give Daily Meals for 185,000 Venezuelan ChildrenWFP aims to expand operation over two years to reach 1.5 million students with daily mealsThe WFP says 42,000 food packages have arrived at its logistics hub in Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second largest city.  Each package contains more than 11 kilograms of food, including rice, lentils, iodized salt, and vegetable oil.Venezuela’s once prosperous economy has been in free-fall since President Nicolas Maduro came to power more than eight years ago.  The United Nations says more than 5.3 million people have fled the country because of political repression and harsh economic conditions.Official figures about the health status of Venezuelans are not available.  A WFP study in 2020 suggests, however, one in three Venezuelans do not have enough nutritious food to eat daily.A study by the Swiss charity Caritas of five Venezuelan states and the capital, Caracas, found 16 percent of children under five suffer from acute malnutrition.  The condition can cause stunting, wasting, cognitive difficulties and even death.The WFP says its work in Venezuela will focus on the provision of nutritious school meals, the rehabilitation of school canteens, and the training of school staff to observe and implement the highest food safety practices.The agency says it hopes to expand its school feeding program to include 1.5 million children and school personnel by the end of the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Hurricane Elsa is hurtling Saturday toward Haiti and the Domincan Republic, raising fears of flooding and mudslides in those countries before slamming Cuba and Florida.   Haitian authorities used social media to alert the population about the hurricane, urging those living near water or mountain sides to evacuate.The National Hurricane Center in Miami says the Category 1 storm was located about 635 kilometers east-southeast of Isla Beata, Dominican Republic, and was moving  west-northwest at 48 kilometers per hour with maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers per hour. Elsa is expected to weaken to a tropical storm after striking Cuba, and the Hurricane Center’s long-term forecast shows it bearing down on Florida as a tropical storm by Tuesday morning. Other tracking models, though, would have the storm blowing into the Gulf or up along the Atlantic Coast.NHC: Hurricane Elsa to Weaken ‘A Little,’ Then Regain StrengthElsa to move across Caribbean Sea on SaturdayHurricane warnings are in effect Saturday for the southern coast of the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque to the border with Haiti; the southern portion of Haiti from Port Au Prince to the southern border with the Dominican Republic; and in Jamaica beginning Sunday.  
 
A hurricane watch is in effect for the Cuban provinces of Camaguey, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Las Tunas, and Santiago de Cuba.   
 
Meanwhile, a tropical storm warning is in effect for the coast of Haiti north of Port Au Prince and the south coast of the Dominican Republic, east of Punta Palenque to Cabo Engano.  
 
The hurricane center said the outer rain bands associated with Elsa will affect Puerto Rico with rainfall totals of up to seven centimeters, with amounts as much as 12 centimeters possible through Saturday. This rain could lead to isolated flash flooding and minor river flooding, along with the potential for mudslides, the center said.     
 
Across portions of southern Hispaniola and Jamaica, rainfall of 20 centimeters with higher isolated maximum amounts possible Saturday into Sunday, possibly leading to scattered flash flooding and mudslides.  
 
The Hurricane center said there is an increasing risk of storm surge, wind and rainfall beginning Monday in the Florida Keys. The impacts could be felt northward along the Florida peninsula through Tuesday.  However, the center emphasizes there is still significant uncertainty about the Florida portion of its forecast.  
 Information from the Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.
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Ukrainian authorities found themselves buried in controversy Friday after official pictures showed women soldiers practicing for a parade in heels.Ukraine is preparing to stage a military parade next month to mark 30 years of independence following the Soviet Union’s breakup, and the defense ministry released photographs of fatigue-clad women soldiers marching in mid-heel black pumps.”Today, for the first time, training takes place in heeled shoes,” cadet Ivanna Medvid was quoted as saying by the defense ministry’s information site ArmiaInform.”It is slightly harder than in army boots, but we are trying,” Medvid added in comments released on Thursday.The choice of footwear sparked a torrent of criticism on social media and in parliament, and led to accusations that women soldiers had been sexualized.”The story of a parade in heels is a real disgrace,” commentator Vitaly Portnikov said on Facebook, arguing that some Ukrainian officials had a “medieval” mindset.Another commentator, Maria Shapranova, accused the defense ministry of “sexism and misogyny.””High heels is a mockery of women imposed by the beauty industry,” she fumed.Several Ukrainian lawmakers close to Ukraine’s former president Petro Poroshenko showed up in parliament with pairs of shoes and encouraged the defense minister to wear high heels to the parade.”It is hard to imagine a more idiotic, harmful idea,” said Inna Sovsun, a member of the Golos party, pointing to health risks.She also said that Ukraine’s women soldiers — like men — were risking their lives and “do not deserve to be mocked”.Ukraine has been battling Russian-backed separatists in the country’s industrial east, in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014.Olena Kondratyuk, deputy speaker of the legislature said authorities should publicly apologize for “humiliating” women and conduct an enquiry. Kondratyuk said that more than 13,500 women had fought in the current conflict.More than 31,000 women now serve in the Ukrainian armed forces, including more than 4,000 of whom are officers.
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One of Sweden’s biggest supermarket chains said Saturday it had to temporarily close around 800 stores nationwide after a cyberattack blocked access to its checkouts.”One of our subcontractors was hit by a digital attack, and that’s why our checkouts aren’t working any more,” Coop Sweden, which accounts for around 20 percent of the sector, said in a statement.”We regret the situation and will do all we can to reopen swiftly,” the cooperative added.Coop Sweden did not name the subcontractor or reveal the hacking method used against it beginning on Friday evening.But the attack comes as a wave of ransomware attacks has struck worldwide, especially in the United States.Ransomware attacks typically involve locking away data in systems using encryption, making companies pay to regain access.Last year, hackers extorted at least $18 billion using such software, according to security firm Emsisoft.US IT company Kaseya on Friday urged customers to shut down servers running its VSA platform after dozens were hit with ransomware.In recent weeks, such attacks have hit oil pipelines, health services and major firms, and made it onto the agenda of US President Joe Biden’s June meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
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French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is facing stinging criticism for making her party too mainstream, dulling its extremist edge, and ignoring grassroots members, with voices from inside and outside warning this could cost her votes in next year’s presidential race.The rumblings grew louder after the National Rally’s failure a week ago in regional elections and come just ahead of this weekend’s party congress.Le Pen is the anti-immigration party’s unquestioned boss, and her fortunes aren’t expected to change at the two-day event in the southwestern town of Perpignan, hosted by local Mayor Louis Aliot — Le Pen’s former companion and, above all, the party’s top performer in last year’s municipal elections. But there could be an uncomfortable reckoning, just as Le Pen is trying to inject new dynamism into the National Rally.Critics say Le Pen has erased her party’s anti-establishment signature by trying to make it more palatable to the mainstream right. As part of the strategy, she softened the edges and strove to remove the stigma of racism and antisemitism that clung to the party after decades under her now-ostracized father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. She even changed the name from National Front, as it was called under her father, who co-founded the party in 1972 and led it for four decades.“The policy of adapting, of rapprochement with power, even with the ordinary right, was severely sanctioned,” said Jean-Marie Le Pen. “(That) was a political error and translates into an electoral failure, and perhaps electoral failures,” he added, referring to the regional election result and the 2022 presidential vote.The defiant patriarch, now 93, was expelled in the effort to boost the party’s respectability, but his criticism reflects that of more moderate members who say his daughter has muddled the message.Her goal is to reach the runoff in the presidential race in 10 months with greater success than in 2017, when she reached the final round but lost to centrist Emmanuel Macron.National Rally candidates — including several who originally hailed from the mainstream right — failed in all 12 French regions during elections last Sunday marked by record-high abstention with only one in three voters casting ballots. Polls had suggested the party, which has never headed a region, would be victorious in at least one. Instead, it lost nearly a third of its regional councilors, in voting regarded as critical to planting local roots needed for the presidential race — a task that some say has been neglected.“It’s local elections that are the launch pad for the rocket” that could take Marine Le Pen to the presidential palace, Romain Lopez, mayor of the small southwest town of Moissac, said in an interview. “Today, we look like eternal seconds. That can … demobilize the National Rally electorate for the presidential elections.”Some local representatives have resigned in disgust since the regional elections defeat, among them the delegate for the southern Herault area, Bruno Lerognon.’Losing strategy’In a bitter letter to Le Pen, posted on Facebook, Lerognon blasted his boss’ strategy to lure voters from other parties as “absurd.” He said members of the party’s local federation were “odiously treated” — removed from running in the regional elections in favor of outsiders. Cronyism had “rotted” the local far-right scene, he wrote, alluding to long-standing criticism of power clans within the National Rally whose voices are decisive. Le Pen replaced him a day later.In western France, all four members of a small local federation resigned between rounds of the regional elections. None of the four was represented on local electoral lists — “pushed aside,” as they claimed, by higher-ups elsewhere. They bemoaned a “losing strategy” born at the Lille party congress in 2018, when Le Pen first proposed changing the party’s name and severed remaining ties with her father.A party figure with a national reputation, European Parliament lawmaker Gilbert Collard, has criticized the strategy of opening up as “a trap.” He said he won’t attend the congress.Lopez, the mayor of Moissac, will be there, hoping that he and others with complaints will be heard.Lopez, 31, is a proponent of Le Pen’s outreach to other parties and credits his own broad appeal to voters for his election last year, in an upset for the previously leftist town.But the party hierarchy is disconnected from its scarce, albeit vital local bases, Lopez said. National officials treat local representatives like children “and impose everything, how to communicate, build a local campaign,” Lopez said. “And by imposing everything from the top, you have a national strategy … disconnected from the reality of each town or region.”He is unsure whether the party will give local officials like himself speaking time, beyond his five minutes at a roundtable, but hopes to be heard.“When you’re in self-satisfaction, when you refuse to look at imperfections, you go straight into the wall,” he said. 
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Swimming caps designed for natural Black hair won’t be allowed at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, with the sport’s world governing body saying they are unsuitable due to them not “following the natural form of the head.”The British brand Soul Cap sought to have its products officially recognized by FINA, the federation that administers international competitions in water sports, but its application submitted last year was rejected. The company makes extra-large caps designed to protect thick, curly, and voluminous hair.The caps were barred by FINA on the grounds that to their “best knowledge, the athletes competing at the international events never used, neither require to use, caps of such size and configuration.”FINA described the swim caps as unsuitable due to them not “following the natural form of the head.”The Switzerland-based governing body said Friday that it is currently reviewing the situation with Soul Cap and similar products while “understanding the importance of inclusivity and representation.”FINA said in the statement that it is committed to ensuring all aquatics athletes have access to appropriate swimwear for competition as long as such swimwear doesn’t provide a competitive advantage.“We don’t see this as a setback, but a chance to open up a dialogue to make a bigger difference in aquatics,” Soul Cap cofounders Toks Ahmed-Salawudeen and Michael Chapman tweeted. “A huge thanks to all who have supported us and our work so far.”The men founded the company in 2017 after meeting a woman with natural Black hair who struggled with her swim cap. According to the company’s website, it has shipped over 30,000 swim caps to customers worldwide.“For younger swimmers, feeling included and seeing yourself in a sport at a young age is crucial,” Ahmed-Salawudeen said in an online post. “There’s only so much grassroots and small brands can do — we need the top to be receptive to positive change.”Alice Dearing, who will compete in marathon swimming in Tokyo as the only Black swimmer for Britain, endorses the company’s caps.“People used to tell me my hair was ‘too big’ for the cap — never that the cap was too small for my hair,” she said in a blog post on the company’s website.FINA pointed out Friday that there is no restriction on Soul Cap usage for recreational and teaching purposes. It said it appreciates the efforts of the company and other suppliers in making sure people have a chance to enjoy the water.FINA said it would speak with Soul Cap officials about using the company’s products at its development centers located in Dakar, Senegal, and Kazan, Russia. 
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The National Hurricane Center said late Friday that a reconnaissance aircraft has determined that Hurricane Elsa has weakened “a little” but is expected to restrengthen by late Saturday.Elsa is slated to cross the central Caribbean Sea on Saturday and move near the southern coast of Hispaniola late Saturday or Saturday night, according to the hurricane center.   Elsa is predicted to be near Jamaica and portions of eastern Cuba by Sunday, and portions of central and western Cuba by Sunday night or Monday.Hurricane warnings are in effect Saturday for the southern coast of the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque to the border with Haiti; the southern portion of Haiti from Port Au Prince to the southern border with the Dominican Republic; and in Jamaica beginning Sunday.A hurricane watch is in effect for the Cuban provinces of Camaguey, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Las Tunas, and Santiago de Cuba.Meanwhile, a tropical storm warning is in effect for the coast of Haiti north of Port Au Prince and the south coast of the Dominican Republic, east of Punta Palenque to Cabo Engano.The hurricane center said the outer rain bands associated with Elsa will impact Puerto Rico with rainfall totals of 2.5-7.5 centimeters with amounts as much as 12.5 centimeters possible through Saturday. This rain could lead to isolated flash flooding and minor river flooding, along with the potential for mudslides, the center said.Across portions of southern Hispaniola and Jamaica, rainfall of 10-20 centimeters with isolated maximum amounts of 38 centimeters is possible Saturday into Sunday, possibly leading to scattered flash flooding and mudslides.The hurricane center said there is an increasing risk of storm surge, wind and rainfall beginning Monday in the Florida Keys. The impacts could be felt northward along the Florida peninsula through Tuesday.  However, the center emphasizes there is still significant uncertainty about the Florida portion of its forecast. 
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Venezuelan rights group Fundaredes said Friday authorities had arrested its director and two other activists who have lifted the lid on fighting near the border with Colombia.Director Javier Tarazona and two others were taken by Venezuelan intelligence services, the NGO said on Twitter.A fourth activist was arrested but released eight hours later, the group said, adding that the other three were transferred to Caracas.Fundaredes had reported on the presence of Colombian dissident guerrillas on Venezuelan territory and criticized the response of the government, which it accused of harboring the fighters.It reported on the fighting that broke out on March 21 before the government did. Clashes have since displaced thousands of civilians.Venezuela does not name the armed groups it blames for the unrest, apart from calling them “terrorists” or linking them to drug trafficking or to Colombian President Ivan Duque.However, security sources in Colombia say they are likely dissidents of the now-disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group, an analysis Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro has conceded was possible.Bogota has long accused Venezuela of shielding members of the FARC and armed rebel group ELN on its soil — a charge Maduro denies.Some FARC fighters who refused to join Colombia’s peace process have continued their struggle, while also mixing with and battling drug traffickers.Venezuela and Colombia, which share a 2,200-kilometer border, severed diplomatic ties in January 2019, after Bogota recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the leader of Venezuela over Maduro following a disputed election.
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The U.S. government is aware of reports that Belarus has closed its border with neighboring Ukraine, a senior administration official said on Friday, vowing that Washington would continue to hold the government of President Alexander Lukashenko accountable for its actions.”It appears the Lukashenko regime is once again seeking to deflect attention away from its campaign of repression against its people,” the official said. “We will continue to stand with the Belarusan people and hold the regime accountable.”Lukashenko on Friday ordered the full closure of the country’s border with Ukraine, seeking to block what he called an inflow of weapons to coup-plotters detected by his security services, according to the BelTA state news agency.Washington this week banned ticket sales for air travel to and from Belarus, acting after Minsk forced a Ryanair flight to land and arrested a dissident journalist aboard.It was not immediately clear what further actions might be taken in response to Lukashenko’s harsh crackdown against months of pro-democracy protests over his alleged rigging of an August 2020 election. The longtime ruler denies election fraud.
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A fire on the ocean surface west of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula early Friday has been extinguished, state oil company Pemex said, blaming a gas leak from an underwater pipeline for sparking the blaze captured in videos that went viral.Bright orange flames jumping out of water resembling molten lava was dubbed an “eye of fire” on social media due to the blaze’s circular shape, as it raged a short distance from a Pemex oil platform.The fire took more than five hours to fully put out, according to Pemex.The fire began in an underwater pipeline that connects to a platform at Pemex’s flagship Ku Maloob Zaap oil development, the company’s most important, four sources told Reuters earlier.Ku Maloob Zaap is located just north of the southern rim of the Gulf of Mexico.Pemex said no injuries were reported, and production from the project was not affected after the gas leak ignited around 5:15 a.m. local time. It was completely extinguished by 10:30 a.m.The company added it would investigate the cause of the fire.Pemex, which has a long record of major industrial accidents at its facilities, added it also shut the valves of the 30-centimeter-diameter pipeline.Angel Carrizales, head of Mexico’s oil safety regulator ASEA, wrote on Twitter that the incident “did not generate any spill.” He did not explain what was burning on the water’s surface.Ku Maloob Zaap is Pemex’s biggest crude oil producer, accounting for more than 40% of its nearly 1.7 million barrels of daily output.”The turbomachinery of Ku Maloob Zaap’s active production facilities were affected by an electrical storm and heavy rains,” according to a Pemex incident report shared by one of Reuters’ sources.Company workers used nitrogen to control the fire, the report added.Details from the incident report were not mentioned in Pemex’s brief press statement and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
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The United Nations’ political chief urged Tigrayan forces in northern Ethiopia on Friday to “immediately and completely” endorse a cease-fire declared by the government so that food aid can reach a growing number of starving people in the embattled region.”The cease-fire announcement provides an opportunity that all parties to the conflict, including the TPLF, must seize and build upon,” Rosemary DiCarlo said, referring to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.”As of today, the TDF has yet to agree to the cease-fire,” she said, referring to the Tigray Defense Forces, the group’s fighters.The U.N. appealed for calm so aid workers could reach starving people, particularly in remote areas.Hunger crisis has worsenedActing humanitarian chief Ramesh Rajasingham said that in the two weeks since he had last briefed council members on the food crisis, it has “worsened dramatically.” During that briefing, he said 350,000 people were in faminelike conditions.”More than 400,000 people are estimated to have crossed the threshold into famine, and another 1.8 million people are on the brink of famine,” he said Friday. “Some are suggesting that the numbers are even higher.”Overall, of the 6 million people who live in Tigray, the U.N. says 5.2 million need some level of food assistance. In the past two months, it has reached about 3.7 million of them.Rajasingham said it is urgent to start reaching people as the rainy season takes hold, food supplies become depleted, and risks grow from flooding and waterborne diseases.”The lives of many of these people depend on our ability to reach them with food, medicine, nutrition supplies and other humanitarian assistance,” he said. “And we need to reach them now. Not next week. Now.”He appealed to armed actors to provide guarantees for safe passage along roads for aid workers and supplies in and out of Tigray, as well as to remote areas of the region, and for aid flights to resume.On Monday, the Ethiopian government announced an immediate unilateral humanitarian cease-fire after nearly eight months of fighting with Tigrayan forces. Tigrayan fighters reclaimed control of the regional capital Mekelle after Ethiopian government forces withdrew.”The government must now demonstrate that it truly intends to use the cease-fire to address the humanitarian catastrophe in Tigray,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.She and several other council members called for a permanent cease-fire, inclusive dialogue and reconciliation, unhindered and safe access for humanitarians, and accountability for atrocities committed by all sides in the conflict.Friday’s meeting was the Security Council’s first public discussion of the situation, following six closed-door meetings since hostilities erupted in November.Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said holding an open session could further destabilize the country and politically weaken the Ethiopian government.”The situation in Tigray must remain a domestic issue of Ethiopia, and we believe interference by the Security Council in solving it is counterproductive,” he said.But Ireland’s envoy, who has been active in bringing the issue to the council, disagreed, saying that “it is clear a catastrophe is unfolding” and council action is overdue.”The council’s voice matters on this issue,” Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason said. “Today, finally, we meet publicly, and all council members have an opportunity to send a clear message to the parties on the ground: This conflict must end. Humanitarian needs must be urgently addressed.”The three African members of the council — Kenya, Niger and Tunisia — along with the Caribbean nation St. Vincent and the Grenadines, called on the council to act responsibly and to listen to Africa when it comes to African issues.”In our view, dialogue is strength, and it is at the core of the African identity,” Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani said on behalf of the group. “Embrace it and save the precious lives of the people of Tigray to protect your national peace and once again be an anchor of regional security.”Ethiopia’s envoy Taye Atske-Selassie told the council his government had made a “difficult political decision” to suspend the military operation in favor of protecting the state. But now it believes it has created the conditions for unhindered humanitarian assistance and for farmers to plant this season.Fighting between the Ethiopian federal government and the TPLF broke out in November, leaving thousands of civilians dead and forcing more than 2 million people from their homes. Some 60,000 refugees crossed to neighboring Sudan.Troops from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor to the north, and Amhara, a neighboring region to the south of Tigray, also entered the conflict in support of the Ethiopian government.  The U.N. said Friday that the Eritreans had withdrawn to the border and the Amhara regional force remained in place despite advances by the Tigrayan forces. 
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A ransomware attack paralyzed the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies on Friday, according to a cybersecurity researcher whose company was responding to the incident. The REvil gang, a major Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate, appears to be behind the attack, said John Hammond of the security firm Huntress Labs. He said the criminals targeted a software supplier called Kaseya, using its network management package as a conduit to spread the ransomware through cloud service providers. Other researchers agreed with Hammond’s assessment. “Kaseya handles large enterprise all the way to small businesses globally, so ultimately, [this] has the potential to spread to any size or scale business,” Hammond said in a direct message on Twitter. “This is a colossal and devastating supply chain attack.” Such cyberattacks typically infiltrate widely used software and spread malware as it updates automatically. It was not immediately clear how many Kaseya customers might be affected or who they might be. Kaseya urged customers in a statement on its website to immediately shut down servers running the affected software. It said the attack was limited to a “small number” of its customers. Brett Callow, a ransomware expert at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, said he was unaware of any previous ransomware supply-chain attack on this scale. There have been others, but they were fairly minor, he said. “This is SolarWinds with ransomware,” he said. He was referring to a Russian cyberespionage hacking campaign discovered in December that spread by infecting network management software to infiltrate U.S. federal agencies and scores of corporations. Cybersecurity researcher Jake Williams, president of Rendition Infosec, said he was already working with six companies hit by the ransomware. It’s no accident that this happened before the Fourth of July weekend, when IT staffing is generally thin, he added. “There’s zero doubt in my mind that the timing here was intentional,” he said. Hammond of Huntress said he was aware of four managed-services providers — companies that host IT infrastructure for multiple customers — being hit by the ransomware, which encrypts networks until the victims pay off attackers. He said thousand of computers were hit. “We currently have three Huntress partners who are impacted with roughly 200 businesses that have been encrypted,” Hammond said. Hammond wrote on Twitter: “Based on everything we are seeing right now, we strongly believe this [is] REvil/Sodinikibi.” The FBI linked the same ransomware provider to a May attack on JBS SA, a major global meat processor. The White House and the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency did not immediately return messages seeking comment. 
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Officials on Friday hunted for any missing residents of a British Columbia town destroyed by wildfire as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered federal assistance.The province’s Coroner’s Service said it had received reports of two deaths related to the fire but had not been able to send coroners in to confirm because “the area is still unsafe to attend.” It said it planned to send them in on Saturday.The roughly 1,000 residents of Lytton had to abandon their homes with just a few minutes’ notice Wednesday evening after suffering the previous day under a record high of 49.6 Celsius (121.2 Fahrenheit).Officials said it was unclear whether anyone remained in the village 150 kilometers (95 miles) northeast of Vancouver because cell service was out and it wasn’t safe to enter most of the area.”We do know there are some people who are unaccounted for,” said Mike Farnworth, the province’s public safety minister, though he said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Red Cross were working to locate people.The main wireless provider for the area, Telus Corp., said Friday that it had deployed emergency communications equipment to help authorities and emergency crews dealing with the wildfires.Meanwhile, a woman who escaped the fire said she didn’t even have time to put shoes on before fleeing.Fast flamesThe Canadian Press reported that Noeleen McQuary-Budde said her husband stepped out of the house and returned moments later, screaming that a fire was upon them and they had to leave.She said black smoke was pouring down the village’s main street and fire seemed to be coming from all directions as they drove out of town with 11 other people piled in the back of their pickup.”The whole village of Lytton went up in, I would say, 10 minutes,” she said. “We were watching it burn and just thanking Creator that we got out.”The couple spent the night on the field of a recreation center in nearby Lillooet with their dog, Daisy.In Ottawa, Trudeau pledged that the federal government would “help rebuild and help people come through this.”Trudeau said he had spoken with British Columbia Premier John Horgan and John Haugen, acting chief of the Lytton First Nation, and planned to convene an emergency response group.Another wildfire threat at Kamloops, 355 kilometers (220 miles) northeast of Vancouver, forced an evacuation of about 200 people Thursday night, but officials said they could return Friday.Kamloops recorded a record high temperature this week of 47.3 Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) but it had cooled to around 32 (90) on Friday.”I can’t imagine what the firefighters are going through working in these conditions,” said Noelle Kekula, a fire information officer for the British Columbia Wildfire Service. “We are up for a real battle.”The Wildfire Service said at least 106 fires were burning across the province, including dozens that started within just the past two days.
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The U.N. Security Council is set to hold its first public discussion of the situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on Friday, as humanitarian groups attempt to resume and expand aid deliveries to millions of people in dire need in the embattled area.The 15-nation Security Council will meet later Friday (7pm GMT) to be briefed on developments by the U.N.’s department of political and peacebuilding affairs and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Ethiopia’s envoy is also expected to participate in the meeting.On Monday, the Ethiopian government announced an immediate, unilateral cease-fire, after nearly eight months of fighting with Tigrayan forces. Tigrayan forces reclaimed control of Mekelle after Ethiopian government forces withdrew.The French ambassador to the United Nations Nicolas de Riviere talks to reporters before a Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters, Jan. 3, 2020.“It’s a significant change, so it may be the beginning of a different phase,” said France’s U.N. Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere, who is president of the council this month.The U.N. said following the truce that an unpredictable calm had taken hold in major towns including the regional capital Mekelle, as well as Adigrat, Adwa, Axum and Shire. There were unconfirmed reports of clashes in the southern and northwestern zones. “Electricity and telecommunications are still cut off throughout the region,” Eri Kaneko, a U.N. spokesperson, told reporters on Thursday. “There are no flights or road transportation in or out of the region.”Getting aid inMeanwhile, aid organizations trying to reach millions of people in dire need of food aid have had their operations blocked or halted by fighting and armed actors who have not allowed them to pass. The U.N. said two critical bridges over the Tekeze river connecting the Western Zone and the rest of Tigray were destroyed on Thursday and were unusable.In a situation report Friday, the U.N. humanitarian office said its partners “are currently assessing the implications of recent events with the view of resuming relief operations as soon as possible, particularly in hard-to-reach areas that would have become more accessible.”Some six million people live in the Tigray region. The United Nations says more than five million of them are in need of emergency food assistance, and another 350,000 are coping with faminelike conditions after of eight months of fighting.On Tuesday, USAID official Sarah Charles told U.S. lawmakers that the number of people in faminelike conditions is closer to one million, and warned that without scaled-up aid deliveries, “we will likely see widespread famine in Ethiopia this year.” Despite the continuing challenges, some limited assistance has gotten through.The U.N. said as of June 22 it had reached about 3.7 million people in Tigray with food aid, out of a targeted 5.2 million.   For its part, the World Food Program said Friday it has resumed operations in Tigray after suspending them due to fighting on June 24. On Thursday the food agency reached 13,000 displaced people in two areas, many of whom are suffering from malnutrition. WFP hopes to reach 30,000 more people in northwest Tigray in the coming two days.“We have the teams on ground, trucks loaded and ready to go to meet the catastrophic food needs in the region,” said Tommy Thompson, WFP’s Emergency Coordinator in Mekelle. “What we need now is free, unfettered access and secure passage guaranteed by all parties to the conflict so we can deliver food safely.”Overall, WFP says it is targeting 2.1 million people with emergency food assistance in the northwestern and southern zones of Tigray. So far aid has reached 1.7 million people in two rounds of deliveries.The United Nations has appealed for $854 million to assist 5.2 million people until the end of this year, with almost $200 million needed before the end of July.Fighting between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) broke out in November, leaving thousands of civilians dead and forcing more than 2 million people from their homes.Troops from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor to the north, and Amhara, a neighboring region to the south of Tigray, also entered the conflict in support of the Ethiopian government.  
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Russia recently sent a group of 600 military instructors to the Central African Republic to train the army, police, and national gendarmerie, Russia’s foreign ministry said Friday.Moscow is in the spotlight after a United Nations report, seen by Reuters Tuesday, said Russian military instructors and local troops had targeted civilians with excessive force, indiscriminate killings, occupation of schools and large-scale looting.The Kremlin has said it is a lie that Russian instructors had taken part in killings or robberies.Russia notified the United Nations Security Council of the deployment of the 600 instructors, Russia’s foreign ministry told Reuters in a statement Friday. It did not say when exactly they arrived.Moscow has been jockeying for influence in the troubled African nation with France, which has around 300 troops there. The gold and diamond-rich country of 4.7 million people is mired in violence.Moscow’s latest deployment of instructors comes after it said it had sent 175 instructors to CAR to train the army at the request of the local authorities in 2018, a number that subsequently grew to 235. Another batch of 300 were sent ahead of last December’s elections to train local troops, it said.”The Russian specialists will continue their work based on the needs of the official authorities of the CAR, taking into account CAR’s leadership as well as the ongoing clashes between regular CAR troops and militants,” the foreign ministry said.It said that the instructors would not themselves be involved in combat operations against illegal groups.”The goals of achieving a lasting settlement and ensuring security in the country cannot be met without effective support for the CAR authorities in enhancing the combat capabilities of the national armed forces and law enforcement agencies,” it said.
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Elsa strengthened into the first hurricane of the Atlantic season on Friday as it battered the eastern Caribbean, where officials closed schools, businesses and airports, and it appeared headed eventually for Florida or the U.S. Gulf Coast.Heavy rains and winds lashed Barbados as the Category 1 storm headed for islands including St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which are struggling to recover from recent massive volcanic eruptions.Elsa was located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of St. Vincent and was moving west-northwest at 28 mph (44 kph). It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.”That level of sustained wind can blow down a lot of buildings and cause a lot of damage,” said St. Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. “I am pleading with you. Let us not take this hurricane lightly. This is not the time to play the fool.”A hurricane warning was in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.The long-term track showed the storm rolling toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti as a hurricane before weakening back to tropical storm force and potentially heading in the direction of Florida by early Tuesday.  Authorities opened dozens of shelters in St. Vincent and urged people to evacuate if they lived near a valley, given the threat of flash flooding, mudslides and lahars, especially in the northern part of the island where La Soufrière volcano is located.”Do not wait until it’s too late to go to a shelter,” Gonsalves said.He said 94 shelters are open, a smaller number than in previous years because some 2,000 people remain in other shelters following massive volcanic eruptions that began in early April.A tropical storm warning was in effect for Martinique, the southern coast of Dominican Republic from Cabo Engano to the border with Haiti and the entire coast of Haiti. A tropical storm watch was in effect for Grenada, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Dominica and Jamaica, while a hurricane watch was in effect for Haiti’s southern region from the capital, Port-au-Prince, to the southern border with the Dominican Republic.Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record, beating out last year’s Eduardo which formed on July 6, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.Elsa was expected to pass near the southern coast of Hispaniola, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, on Saturday. The storm was then expected to move near Jamaica and portions of eastern Cuba on Sunday.The storm was forecast to bring 3 to 6 inches (7 to 15 centimeters) of rain with maximum totals of 10 inches (25 centimeters) inches on Friday across the Windward and southern Leeward Islands, including Barbados. The rain could unleash isolated flash flooding and mudslides.
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Many of the dead were found alone, in homes without air conditioning or fans. Some were elderly — one as old as 97. The body of an immigrant farm laborer was found in an Oregon nursery.As forecasters warned of a record-breaking heat wave in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada last weekend, officials set up cooling centers, distributed water to the homeless and took other steps. Still, hundreds of people are believed to have died from Friday to Tuesday.An excessive heat warning remained in effect for parts of the interior Northwest and western Canada Thursday.The death toll in Oregon alone reached 79, the Oregon state medical examiner said Thursday, with most occurring in Multnomah County, which encompasses Portland.  In Canada, British Columbia’s chief coroner, Lisa Lapointe, said her office received reports of at least 486 “sudden and unexpected deaths” between Friday and Wednesday afternoon. Normally, she said about 165 people would die in the province over a five-day period.She said it was too soon to say with certainty how many deaths were heat related, but that it was likely the heat was behind most of them.More Than 100 Deaths May Be Tied to Heat Wave in NW North AmericaCanada recorded its all-time high temperature of 47.9 degrees MondayWashington state authorities have linked more than 20 deaths to the heat, but authorities said that number was likely to rise.In Oregon’s Multnomah County, the average victim’s age was 67 and the oldest was 97, according to county Health Officer Jennifer Vines.In a telephone interview Thursday, Vines said she had been worried about fatalities amid the weather forecasts. Authorities tried to prepare as best they could, turning nine air-conditioned county libraries into cooling centers.  Between Friday and Monday, 7,600 people cooled off amid the stacks of books. Others went to three more cooling centers. Nearly 60 teams sought out homeless people, offering water and electrolytes.“We scoured the county with outreach efforts, with calls to building managers of low-income housing to be checking on their residents,” Vines said.  But the efforts weren’t enough, she said: “It’s been really sobering to see these initial (fatality) numbers come out.”Oregon Office of Emergency Management Director Andrew Phelps agreed. “Learning of the tragic loss of life as a result of the recent heat wave is heartbreaking. As an emergency manager – and Oregonian – it is devastating that people were unable to access the help they needed during an emergency,” he said.Among the dead was a farm laborer who collapsed Saturday and was found by fellow workers at a nursery in rural St. Paul, Oregon. The workers had been moving irrigation lines, said Aaron Corvin, spokesman for the state’s worker safety agency, Oregon Occupational Safety and Health, or Oregon OSHA.Oregon OSHA, whose database listed the death as heat-related, is investigating labor contractor Andres Pablo Lucas and Ernst Nursery and Farms, which did not respond to a request for comment. Pablo Lucas declined to comment Thursday.Farm worker Pedro Lucas said the man who died was his uncle, Sebastian Francisco Perez, from Ixcan, Guatemala. He had turned 38 the day before he died.Lucas, who is cousins with the labor contractor, was summoned to the scene. But by the time he arrived, his uncle was unconscious and dying. An ambulance crew tried to revive him but failed. Lucas said Perez was used to working in the heat and that the family is awaiting an autopsy report.Reyna Lopez, executive director of a northwest farmworkers’ union, known by its Spanish-language initials, PCUN, called the death “shameful” and faulted both Oregon OSHA for not adopting emergency rules ahead of the heat wave, and the nursery.Corvin said Oregon OSHA is “exploring adopting emergency requirements, and we continue to engage in discussions with labor and employer stakeholders.”He added that employers are obligated to provide ample water, shade, additional breaks and training about heat hazards.An executive order issued in March 2020 by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown would formalize protecting workers from heat, but it is coming too late for the dead farmworker. Brown’s order focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and also tells the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon OSHA to jointly propose standards to protect workers from excessive heat and wildfire smoke.  They had until June 30 to submit the proposals, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the two agencies requested the deadline be pushed back to September.In Bend, Oregon, a scenic town next to the snowy Cascade Range, the bodies of two men were found Sunday on a road where dozens of homeless people stay in trailers and tents.  Volunteer Luke Richter said he stepped into the trailer where one of the men, Alonzo “Lonnie” Boardman, was found.“It was very obviously too late. It was basically a microwave in there,” Richter told Oregon Public Broadcasting.  Cooling stations had been set up at the campsite on Saturday, with water, sports drinks and ice available.  Weather experts say the number of heat waves are only likely to rise in the Pacific Northwest, a region normally known for cool, rainy weather, with a few hot, sunny days mixed in, and where many people don’t have air conditioning.“I think the community has to be realistic that we are going to be having this as a more usual occurrence and not a one-off, and that we need to be preparing as a community,” said Dr. Steven Mitchell of Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, which treated an unprecedented number of severe heat-related cases. “We need to be really augmenting our disaster response.”This week’s heat wave was caused by what meteorologists described as a dome of high pressure over the Northwest and worsened by human-caused climate change, which is making such extreme weather events more likely and more intense.  Seattle, Portland and many other cities broke all-time heat records, with temperatures in some places reaching above 46 Celsius. 
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