Latest from Egypt Independent
Egypt Independent
15 hours ago
- Climate
- Egypt Independent
French firefighters battle to contain blaze that killed elderly woman and tore through area bigger than Paris
Nearly 2,000 French firefighters are battling to contain a fast-moving blaze that has burnt through an area bigger than Paris and killed an elderly woman. The 13,000 hectare fire is spread across 15 municipalities and is the country's biggest of the year so far, local officials said Wednesday. 'We mourn the death of an elderly woman in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, who apparently did not want to leave her home,' Remi Recio, a regional official, told CNN affiliate BFMTV. The blaze, which broke out Tuesday afternoon near Ribaute in the Aude department, has also injured two civilians and seven firefighters, Recio added. About 1,500 firefighters battled the flames overnight, with 320 more reinforcements arriving Wednesday. Christophe Magny, head of the Aude region fire brigade, told BFMTV that extreme weather conditions combining low humidity (25 percent), wind at more than 30km/h and temperatures around 35 degree celsius, created ideal conditions for the fire to spread. Prime Minister François Bayrou and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau will be travelling to the Aude region on Wednesday afternoon, the interior ministry said. French President Emmanuel Macron said on X Wednesday morning that 'the wildfire in Aude is progressing,' and 'in this ordeal, everyone must exercise the utmost caution and follow the authorities' instructions.' Aerial operations had resumed Wednesday morning with four Canadair water bombers, a heavy-lift helicopter capable of carrying four tons of water, and four DASH aircraft assisting ground crews. 'The very provisional material toll indicates approximately thirty vehicles burned out and 25 homes affected by the flames. 2,500 homes are currently without power,' said the Aude prefecture in a press release Wednesday. 'The fire remains very active and weather conditions will still be adverse on August 6.'
Egypt Independent
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Egypt Independent
Tapes, transcripts, subpoenas, and legal twists: Trump's Epstein storm deepens again
Lordy, there are tapes. In the latest turn of the immortal scandal over Jeffrey Epstein, CNN first reported Tuesday that Donald Trump's administration has recorded conversations with Epstein's convicted sex trafficker accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and is working on a transcript, which it may even release. The revelation about Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's conversations with Maxwell last month is certain to renew demands for transparency from sectors of the president's base that first whipped the Epstein storm into overdrive. And it comes as senior administration officials plan to meet at Vice President JD Vance's residence for dinner Wednesday to discuss how to better handle the Epstein case, CNN's team reported. Taking a step back, it's an extraordinary use of an administration's power for a top Justice Department official to spend two days talking to someone convicted of grooming, abusing and trafficking young girls for a figure as reviled as Epstein. The idea that officials would then consider releasing an account of the meeting to brazenly help a president escape a political scandal raises ethical, legal and political questions that reflect the unfathomable times in Trump's second term. But it's hard to see how releasing a transcript of the interview with Maxwell could end up making people less interested in the intrigue — which would be the ostensible purpose of the exercise. More likely, such a move would risk repeating the damaging cycle that has plunged the White House ever deeper into a political morass. Every time the administration takes a step designed to quell the scandal, all it succeeds in doing is raising expectations and brewing new conspiracy theories among MAGA activists obsessed with the case while widening public exposure to an episode that has blotted out the president's summer winning streak. Three senior administration officials told CNN that discussions are taking place about releasing the transcript of Maxwell's interviews with Blanche in Florida two weeks ago. That was before she was moved, without explanation, to a less draconian prison in Texas — a step that itself launched new speculation and suggestions that Trump was misusing presidential power to advance his personal interests. A final decision on next steps on a transcript has not been made, one of the officials said. But this news came on a day when the Epstein question broke the surface in Washington again — just when the White House hoped it was fading. News came Tuesday that the House Oversight Committee had issued a dozen subpoenas to the Justice Department and high-profile Democratic and Republican figures for files and information related to Epstein. And in the latest step of a complex dance with the administration, Maxwell's lawyers warned against the release of sealed grand jury transcripts about the Epstein case. They said the move — one way the DOJ is seeking to appease demands for transparency from the Trump base — would prejudice her due process interests as she petitions the Supreme Court to take up her appeal. 'Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not,' Maxwell's attorney, David Oscar Markus, wrote to the judge in a filing. The aphorism is factual. But Epstein's poisoned influence on politics has never been so alive, six years after he was found dead by suicide in his cell while awaiting trial on a catalogue of horrific charges of abusing young women and girls. Many of those victims on Tuesday questioned the motives of the Trump administration in its dealings with Maxwell and said that indications that she was being 'legitimized' had traumatized them all over again. They told the judge in the grand jury documents case that survivors supported transparency but said the 'safety, privacy and dignity' of victims must be protected. Why a Maxwell transcript might make the scandal even worse There's been intense speculation about the past friendship between Epstein and Trump, both New York and Florida celebrities, in the 1990s and the early 2000s, before the future president threw the disgraced financier out of his Mar-a-Lago club. Epstein 'stole' his employees, Trump told reporters last week. There's no evidence that Trump did anything legally wrong during his friendship with Epstein, and he has never been charged with any crimes related to their connection. This undated trial evidence image obtained December 8, 2021, from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, shows Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein in Queen's log cabin at Balmoral. US District Court for the Southern District of New York The president, however, keeps refocusing attention on Epstein's case by refusing to rule out a pardon or commutation for Maxwell. Trump instead keeps noting that he has the power to ease the plight of someone who has a huge incentive to help him. 'I'm allowed to do it, but nobody's asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don't know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it,' Trump said in an interview with Newsmax, a conservative outlet, last week. It is unclear what Blanche and Maxwell spoke about. But the point of releasing a transcript might be to show Epstein knew multiple famous people and not just Trump. This might defuse concerns about the president's past relationship with him. But such a release might also be unfair to people who came across Epstein but who committed no crimes. There would be issues with Maxwell's credibility as a witness, given the nature of the conviction for which she is serving a 20-year prison sentence. People would ask what she got in return for her cooperation. Already, survivors of Epstein's abuse and the family of Virginia Giuffre, one of his most well-know victims, who took her life this year, have warned there should be no leniency. Trump insisted, as he answered a question from CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday, that he knew nothing about the contents of Blanche's talks with Maxwell. 'So, I know this. I didn't discuss it with him, but anything he talked about with her, or the fact that he did that — not unusual, number one, and most importantly, is something that would be totally above board,' the president said. But it is highly unusual for a deputy attorney general to meet with an imprisoned inmate convicted of child sex trafficking as a related scandal swirls around the president who appointed him. And Blanche is Trump's former personal lawyer. And in any case, any notion that a transcript would end the Epstein drama feels far-fetched. The document would need to be heavily redacted to avoid revealing sensitive details like the names of victims. But this would surely fuel fringe intriguers who argue that the government is involved in a massive cover-up. It's the nature of conspiracy theories that efforts to squelch them only spark new tributaries of unhinged speculation. This has already happened. Previous disclosures by Attorney General Pam Bondi of documents and details in the case only conjured claims of a deep state plot to hide the truth when the release fell far short of her promises to MAGA activists. House Oversight ensures this drama will run and run The House Oversight Committee's subpoena to the Justice Department calls for the provision to Congress of any Epstein files in its possession, with victims' names redacted. The GOP-led panel also wants communications between former Biden administration officials and the Justice Department related to the case. Departments of Justice often resist releasing sensitive documents to Congress: They often leak. But Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who serves on the House Oversight Committee, told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday the House would reinforce the demand for action in September, when Khanna is hoping for a vote on his bipartisan bill demanding the full release of information. 'I think soon you are going to see many victims speaking out themselves about how this is important for them, in terms of disclosure in terms of transparency,' Khanna said. The Republican-led panel additionally subpoenaed 10 individuals for closed-door depositions between August and mid-October. Those are: former Attorneys General Merrick Garland, William Barr, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Alberto Gonzales; former FBI Director James Comey; former special counsel and FBI Director Robert Mueller III; former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Clinton; and former President Bill Clinton. But there are huge omissions on the list of subpoenas that raise doubts about whether it's really seeking full transparency. Like Trump, who was mentioned multiple times in the Epstein files, and his first-term Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who handed Epstein a sweetheart plea deal in 2008. There are also no victims — people who have often been ignored in the current political uproar — on the subpoena list. Ryan Goodman, a New York University law professor, said the omission of Trump from the subpoenas was 'very glaring,' since a subpoena sent to former President Bill Clinton said Clinton could have information regarding Epstein that may be relevant to the investigation. The same is true of Trump. 'It only stands to reason that if you are looking around for the people that would provide information for the investigation, he (Trump) would be pretty close to the top of that list,' Goodman told CNN's Erin Burnett. The subpoenas likely mean months of negotiations and legal battles about the timing and scope of testimony. So the Epstein saga is here to stay. The inclusion of the names of high-profile Democrats and past Republican officials may be an attempt to spare Trump from being the only person tainted by association with Epstein. Maxwell's legal conundrum The warning by Maxwell's lawyers that grand jury testimony should not be released potentially puts their client in opposition to the Justice Department at a time when she has strong incentives to help the administration. The DOJ went to court to ask for the release of grand jury transcripts about Epstein and Maxwell, hoping to placate the MAGA base. The testimony, however, is thought to be only a fraction of investigative material the DOJ is holding. Some observers question whether officials really want grand jury documents released or whether they petitioned the judge only to create political cover. CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig explained that Maxwell's lawyers are protecting her interests in the event that Supreme Court accepts her appeal. Her lawyer would 'not want this grand jury material out there for the public,' he told CNN's Kasie Hunt. Taken together, Tuesday's developments mean Epstein drama will go on. And the history of tapes in American scandals — from Watergate onward — create evocative echoes. Audio and questions about its release, redaction and editing have been inseparable from lore about cover-ups and chicanery in Washington politics. That's why — amid a previous scandal — Comey replied, when asked whether there were recordings of his conversations with Trump: 'Lordy, I hope there are tapes.'
Egypt Independent
15 hours ago
- General
- Egypt Independent
Over 60 African migrants killed and dozens missing after boat capsizes near Yemen, says UN
Cairo AP — A boat capsized Sunday in waters off Yemen's coast leaving 68 African migrants dead and 74 others missing, the UN's migration agency said. The tragedy was the latest in a series of shipwrecks off Yemen that have killed hundreds of African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in hopes of reaching the wealthy Gulf Arab countries. The vessel, with 154 Ethiopian migrants on board, sank in the Gulf of Aden off the southern Yemeni province of Abyan early Sunday, Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration in Yemen told The Associated Press. He said the bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore in the district of Khanfar, and 14 others were found dead and taken to a hospital morgue in Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan on Yemen's southern coast. Only 12 migrants survived the shipwreck, and the rest were missing and presumed dead, Esoev said. In a statement, the Abyan security directorate described a massive search-and-rescue operation given the large number of dead and missing migrants. It said many dead bodies were found scattered across a wide area of the shore. Despite more than a decade of civil war, Yemen is a major route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa trying to reach the Gulf Arab countries for work. Migrants are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden. Hundreds of migrants have died or gone missing in shipwrecks off Yemen in recent months, including in March when two migrants died and 186 others were missing after four boats capsized off Yemen and Djibouti, according to the IOM. More than 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, down from 97,200 in 2023, probably because of greater patrolling of the waters, according to an IOM report in March.
Egypt Independent
15 hours ago
- Automotive
- Egypt Independent
The US government has declared war on the very idea of climate change
Americans are used to whiplash in their climate policy. The US has been in and out and in and out again of the key Paris climate agreement over the past four presidencies. But in his second administration, President Donald Trump is not just approaching climate science with skepticism. Instead, his administration is moving to destroy the methods by which his or any future administration can respond to climate change. These moves, which are sure to be challenged in court, extend far beyond Trump's well-documented antipathy toward solar and wind energy and his pledges to drill ever more oil even though the US is already the world's largest oil producer. His Environmental Protection Agency announced plans this week to declare that greenhouse gas emissions do not endanger humans, a move meant to pull the rug out from under nearly all environmental regulation related to the climate. But that's just one data point. There are many others: ► Instead of continuing a push away from coal, the Trump administration wants to do a U-turn; Trump has signed executive orders intended to boost the coal industry and has ordered the EPA to end federal limits on coal- and gas-fired power-plant pollution that's been tied to climate change. ► Tax credits for electric vehicles persisted during Trump's first term before they were expanded during Joe Biden's presidency. Now, Republicans are abruptly ending them next month. ► The administration is also ending Biden-era US government incentives to bring renewable energy projects online, a move that actually appears to be driving up the cost of electricity. ► Republicans in Congress and Trump enacted legislation to strip California of its authority to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles beginning in 2035. ► Trump is also expected to overturn national tailpipe standards enacted under Biden's EPA and is also to challenge California's long-held power to regulate tailpipe emissions. ► The authors of a congressionally mandated report on climate change were all fired; previous versions of the report, the National Climate Assessment, which showed likely effects from climate change across the country, have been hidden from view on government websites. ► Other countries, large and small, will gather in Brazil later this year for a consequential meeting on how the world should respond to climate change. Rather than play a leading role — or any role at all — the US will not attend. ► Cuts to the federal workforce directly targeted offices and employees focused on climate change. The list goes on. But it is the Trump administration's move to undo the 'endangerment finding' that could have the most lasting effect. The 2009 declaration that planet-warming pollution from fossil fuels endangers human health is what allows the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Turning the EPA into a deregulatory agency Now, anticipating the end of that endangerment finding, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin bragged of the 'largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States.' That's the kind of statement that will excite people who don't see a threat from climate change and strike fear in the hearts of those who do. Zeldin is a former congressman with little background in environmental policy but a demonstrated loyalty to Trump. He has described his mandate at EPA less in terms of protecting the environment than in terms of unleashing businesses from regulation. The government's new climate report was written by skeptics The Trump administration is justifying its move to gut the endangerment finding based on a report it commissioned from five climate skeptics. After a public comment period, the Trump administration can move to undo the endangerment finding in the fall. It would essentially close off the Clean Air Act as a vehicle to combat climate change. Energy secretary has a unique take Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who made millions in the fracking industry, commissioned the report. In a preface, he did not deny that climate change exists. 'Climate change is real, and it deserves attention,' he wrote. 'But it is not the greatest threat facing humanity. That distinction belongs to global energy poverty.' In other words, Wright sees more damage to humans from cutting back on carbon emissions. That is a minority view in the scientific community, which has a much, much larger body of peer reviewed studies that raise the alarm about climate change. Most notably, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issues peer-reviewed reports with hundreds of authors from around world. The Trump administration has barred US government scientists from taking part in the next installment, due out in 2029. You don't need a government report to see the effects of climate change Katie Dykes, the commissioner of Connecticut's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, told me that you no longer need a government report to see the effects of changing climate. 'We see that the impacts of climate change have become part of everyday lives of our residents and our communities,' Dykes said. 'In ways that scientists were predicting years ago, we're seeing those impacts are happening faster and they're more severe than we had anticipated.' By moving to declare that greenhouse gas emissions don't endanger humans, the Trump administration is shifting the burden for dealing with climate change. 'This effort to undo this long-standing framework is really abandoning our communities and our residents to shoulder these costs and these impacts of climate change,' Dykes said. Those include health risks like respiratory illness, safety risks from extreme weather events, and impacts on infrastructure, housing and neighborhoods. 'We've seen these impacts already in our state in terms of extreme heat and drought, wildfires and flooding,' Dykes said. 'Seeing EPA walk away from decades of their core mission of protecting public health, reducing pollution and setting common sense standards at a national level is really concerning,' she added. Cows graze in a field near the coal-fueled Oak Grove Power Plant on April 29, 2024 in Robertson County, Texas./File A legal document, not a scientific one The Trump administration's report should not be viewed as a scientific document, according to Andrew Dessler, director of the Texas Center for Extreme Weather at Texas A&M University. 'Their goal is not to weigh the evidence fairly but to build the strongest possible case for CO2's innocence,' he told my colleague Ella Nilsen. 'This is a fundamental departure from the norms of science.' Nilsen reached out to numerous scientists after the report's release. Phil Duffy, the chief scientist at Spark Climate Solutions, a nonprofit focused on climate change, told her tens of thousands of Americans die every year as a result of particulate pollution, but the numbers have declined as the US has reduced its dependence on coal. The Trump administration would reverse that trend. Michael Mann, director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media, sees a hostility to science in the Trump administration. 'Not since Stalin and Soviet Lysenkoism have we seen such a brazen effort to misrepresent science in service of an ideological agenda,' Mann told Nilsen, referring to the disastrous effects of political interference in the scientific process in the Soviet Union.
Egypt Independent
17 hours ago
- Business
- Egypt Independent
How to calculate your monthly rent after Egypt ratifies its old rental law?
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ratified Law #164 of 2025, which regulates rental laws and reorganizes the relationship between landlords and tenants, after it was approved by the House of Representatives. The law specifies how the monthly rent amount will be calculated after the law is implemented. The law classifies areas into three categories: 'distinguished,' 'medium,' and 'economic.' Article four of the law stipulates that, starting from the due date of the monthly rent following the date this law comes into effect: The legal rental value of residential rental properties in distinguished areas will be 20 times the current legal rental value, with a minimum of LE 1,000. The legal rental value of residential rental properties in medium areas will be 10 times the current legal rental value, with a minimum of LE 400. The legal rental value of premises rented for residential purposes in economic areas will be 10 times the current legal rental value, with a minimum of LE 250. The article also stipulates that 'The tenant or whoever the lease contract has been extended to, as the case may be, shall be obligated to pay the monthly rent following the effective date of this law, amounting to LE 250 per month,' until the inventory committees complete their work. The tenant, or whoever the lease contract has been extended to, as the case may be, shall be obligated, starting from the day following the publication of the decision of the competent governor, stipulated in the last paragraph of Article III of this law, to pay the differences due, if any, in monthly installments over a period equal to the period for which they are due. How do you calculate your monthly rent? The committees that will determine the nature of the areas on which the rental value of units is determined have not yet been formed. However, if one lives in a distinguished area and rent a unit under the old rental system, the monthly rent will be LE 1,000, with the rental value increasing by 15 percent each year. For those who live in a medium area and rent a unit under the old rental system, the monthly rent will be LE 400, with the rental value increasing by 15 percent each year. And those who live in an economic area and rent a unit under the old rental system, the monthly rent will be LE 250, with the rental value increasing by 15 percent each year. Monthly rent due date As of the monthly rent due date following the effective date of this law, the legal rental value of premises rented to natural persons for non-residential purposes shall be five times the current legal rental value, as stipulated in Article Five of the law. The rental value specified in this law shall also be increased periodically by 15 percent annually. The law stipulates the formation of a committee by the governor to determine the type of unit, whether distinguished, medium, or economic. Article One of the law stipulates that the provisions of this law apply to 'Places rented for residential purposes and places rented to natural persons for purposes other than residential purposes in accordance with the provisions of Laws #49 of 1977 regarding the rental and sale of premises and regulating the relationship between landlord and tenant, and Law #136 of 1981 regarding some special provisions regarding the rental and sale of premises and regulating the relationship between landlord and tenant.' According to the latest census issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics in 2017, approximately 1.64 million families, representing 6.13 million individuals, live in rental units under the old rental system. Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
