Mexico arrests drug boss

over 43 missing students

MEXICO CITY: A suspected drug cartel boss allegedly linked to the disappearance a decade ago of 43 college students was arrested in Mexico after being released from prison in 2019, authorities said Friday. Gildardo Lopez Astudillo, alias “El Gil,” is an alleged leader of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, accused of being behind the disappearance and suspected murders of the students from Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in 2014. — AFP

German emergency services

tackle massive forest fire

FRANKFURT: Firefighters and aircraft Saturday ramped up efforts to tackle a massive forest fire in the mountains of central Germany that has reportedly forced the evacuation of hundreds of people. Several blazes began in the Harz Mountains on Friday, and by the evening had joined together to form a huge forest fire. Around 150 firefighters, planes and helicopters were deployed on the Brocken mountain and the surrounding area was closed off, according to authorities in the district of Harz in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. — AFP

France’s newest nuclear

reactor resumes operations

PARIS: France’s newest nuclear reactor, plagued by massive delays and cost overruns, resumed operations on Saturday after shutting itself down automatically earlier this week. The European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) in Flamanville, Normandy — supposed to be the model for a new generation of nuclear plants pushed by President Emmanuel Macron for the coming decades — has been completed 12 years late at a cost of 13.2 billion euros ($14.6 billion). — AFP

Brazil’s Lula fires minister

accused of sexual harassment

BRASILIA: Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday fired his human rights minister, Silvio Almeida, following claims that he sexually harassed several women. “Given the grave accusations against minister Silvio Almeida and after summoning him for a conversation... President Lula decided to remove the head of the human rights and citizenship ministry,” the presidency said in a statement. The statement said the minister’s position had become “untenable.” — AFP

Thousands protest lack of

climate progress in S Korea

SEOUL: More than 30,000 protesters gathered in South Korea’s capital in broiling heat on Saturday, demanding more aggressive action by the government to combat global warming. With temperatures exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), protesters young and old marched in the country’s biggest demonstration so far this year, snarling traffic in central Seoul. They waved large banners reading “Climate justice,” “Protect our lives!” and “NO to climate villain (President) Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration”. — Reuters

“Truth is, without the air conditioner this summer was not liveable and people could not live like people,” said Yu Si-yun, an environmental activist leading the protest. “We are facing a problem not unique to a country or an individual. We need systemic change and we are running out of time to act.” --Reuters