President speaks to “a young audience engaged in social and environmental issues” at “Power Our Planet” in Paris

First Lady Janja Lula da Silva said she was “very proud” to see President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) speak at the Power Our Planet Festival this Thursday (June 22, 2023). The Power Our Planet event is sponsored by the NGO Global Citizen and will take place at the Campo de Marte in Paris, France.

According to Lula, the invitation came from the English musician Chris Martin, lead singer of the band Coldplay. The information has been confirmed Power360. “Brazil has returned to the center of global climate discussions,” said Janja, sharing a video of the end of the President of the Republic’s speech on her social media.

Watch (29s):

In his speech, the Prime Minister said that rich countries have a “historic debt” to pay for polluting the planet. In front of an international audience, the PT candidate praised the Brazilian energy matrix for its high level of renewability and invited the public to get to know the Amazon during the COP30, which will take place in Belém (PA) in 2025.

The music event organized by the NGO focuses on ending extreme poverty. Entitled “Power Our Planet: Live in Paris”, the French edition of the festival will feature artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Billie Eilish, HER and Jon Batiste.

Lula has been in Europe since Tuesday (June 20) and completed an agenda in Italy and the Vatican on Wednesday (June 21).

The weather conditions make it difficult to fight forest fires. The lack of rain and the very high temperatures forecast for the next few days are giving new impetus to the fires raging in Quebec on Thursday, forcing Lebel-sur-Quévillon to be evacuated a second time in less than a month.

In the afternoon, the mayor of the town of Jamésie, Guy Lafrenière, again asked the population to leave their homes. “Unfortunately, Route 113 is now blocked by fire,” the official-elect wrote on Facebook. For this reason, the civil defense strongly recommends the complete evacuation of the city. The 2,180 Quevillonnais had until 6:30 p.m. Thursday evening to set off.

The day before, the fire had first managed to encroach on Route 113, but firefighters were quickly able to extinguish the escape line. On Thursday morning, the wind appeared to be having a positive impact on the site, moving the flames away from the 113. However, the lack of rain and the heat fueled the fire and dashed any overly hasty optimism.

“We have to leave for a few days,” warned Guy Lafrenière. It absolutely, absolutely needs rain before we get home. »

However, the rain is expected to hold off until Monday or Tuesday. Environment Canada, meanwhile, is forecasting an increase in mercury levels over the next few days. Faced with this bounty of nature, several fires take the opportunity to find new winds and thwart the firefighters.

Two new fires broke out between Wednesday and Thursday, bringing the total to 104. Of these, 80 are in the Intensive Protection Zone, ie in the southern part of the territory of Quebec, where most of the population is concentrated.

“If several fires get out of control, the speed of spread will increase,” warns the Society for the Protection of Forests from Fires (SOPFEU). In addition, since the beginning of the week, four more contained fires have gotten out of control. »

Some fires are making “significant progress,” the company adds, and the risk of others breaking out is “also significant.”

A total of 1,476 people are involved in fighting forest fires, of which 1,316 are active on site. The situation required the seizure of 21 tanker planes and 78 helicopters, and the mobilization of reinforcements not only from Europe and the United States, but also from other Canadian provinces and Army ranks.

Chibougamau under the smoke

Around Chibougamau, two runaway fires are still mobilizing more than 160 firefighters. SOPFEU is continuing to build a helipad to combat the 379 fire that required ground and aerial irrigation work on Wednesday, as well as the construction of a stop line to protect a Hydro-Québec substation. Efforts made Wednesday had succeeded in slowing the fire’s progress: The city of Chibougamau said Thursday that the fire had made “no significant progress” since the previous day.

If the Chibougamois can’t see these fires, still dozens of kilometers from their town, they might smell them. A dense cloud shrouded the municipality of Jamésie on Thursday due to a phenomenon called “temperature inversion”. The latter ensures that cold air is trapped under a warm blanket of air, preventing smoke from spreading into the atmosphere.

Air quality is compromised: at midday, the concentration of particulate matter in Chibougamau was 43 micrograms per m3, a concentration 8.5 times higher than the World Health Organization’s annual benchmark. Health.

At Normetal, after 11 days of relative calm, Fire 281 again eluded Engineer control. SOPFEU is ensuring that the flames do not threaten any community for the time being, but is still concerned that winds are favoring the fire’s spread to the northeast and into the Val Paradis sector. The machines were busy building firebreaks around the site “to better protect it as the fire approaches.”

To see in the video

United States President Joe Biden this Thursday downplayed the importance of calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator” at a fundraiser last Tuesday. Although the embassy in Washington has taken its protest to the State Department, Biden said he doesn’t think his words have “any real consequences” and that he hopes to meet with Xi soon. Biden made these statements at a joint press conference in the White House with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with whom the United States wants to strengthen its relations as a counterweight to China.

In the first question, Biden was asked whether his testimony could undermine or complicate relations with China. “The answer is no,” Biden said, but then offered a somewhat choppy and confusing explanation. After stuttering, he began, “Not much will change if you decide or avoid saying what I believe are the facts about relations with China,” he said. He apparently described the Chinese balloon incident as a mix-up and assured Foreign Minister Antony Blinken’s trip had been a success. “I hope to meet President Xi at some point in the future and in the near future and I don’t think there have been any real consequences,” he concluded.

The US President remained deaf to the Chinese embassy in Washington, which had announced that it had lodged a formal protest. Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng on Wednesday told senior White House and State Department officials that Washington should “take serious steps to reverse the negative impact” of Biden’s remarks or “face all the consequences.” “In the face of recent irresponsible remarks about China’s political system and its supreme leader, people cannot help but question the sincerity of the US side” in its attempt to stabilize ties, the embassy statement said, calling it ” provocative”. Politics” Biden’s words.

Although Modi is not head of state but prime minister, he was received with all the pageantry and frills of a state visit. The Indian president had a more informal White House dinner on Wednesday, but this Thursday he will be attending the third state dinner Biden has hosted in his nearly two-and-a-half years as president.

The two gave speeches in front of around 7,000 guests in the gardens of the White House in the morning, in which they spoke out in favor of economic, commercial, political and defense cooperation and for strengthening relations between the two countries. More than four million Americans have roots in India, including Vice President Kamala Harris. Modi described both countries as “the two greatest democracies in the world”.

Narendra Modi with Joe Biden at the White House this Thursday. Andrew Harnik (AP)

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After meeting in the Oval Office, both appeared at a press conference. Biden called the United States-India relationship “one of the most important in the world, stronger, closer, and more dynamic than at any time in history.” “Our nations look to one another on the issues that matter most and will shape the future, including on critical global and regional issues,” Biden said.

Curiously, Modi’s White House press conference was the first he has granted since taking office nine years ago. He has always shied away from answering the press and on this occasion he was confronted with two questions. The first was about denouncing human rights violations by some minorities in his country, particularly Muslims. Modi has denied this while groups of activists demonstrated outside the White House against these abuses. “There is absolutely no room for discrimination,” he said.

“Democracy is our spirit,” clarified Modi, who has attempted to equate Indian democracy with that of the United States. “Democracy is in our blood. We live democracy and our ancestors gave words to the concept.” He explained that India has “proved that democracies can deliver and when I say deliver, it is without regard to class, creed, religion or gender.

Biden assured that both had a “good conversation about democratic values” during their meeting. He began by implying that the alliance between the two countries should be based “on the principles of democracy, human rights, freedom and the rule of law”. The mere mention of these issues is an indication that democratic backsliding in the country is affected.

Another issue they dealt with was the war in Ukraine, where both countries had different points of view. India abstained from voting on UN resolutions condemning Russia and refused to join the anti-Moscow global coalition. Also, India has dramatically increased its purchases of Russian oil since the war began. The differences also persist in the vocabulary. While Biden speaks of “brutal war”, Modi speaks of “events” and “strife”.

“We discussed our joint efforts to mitigate the human tragedies unleashed by Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine and uphold the fundamental principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity in the United Nations Charter,” Biden said. “Since the beginning of events in Ukraine. India has emphasized resolving the dispute through dialogue and diplomacy. “We are fully ready to help restore peace with whatever we can,” Modi said.

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