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Overnight News Digest August 21, 2022 [1]

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Date: 2022-08-21

NPR

CHONGQING, China — China says it will try to protect its grain harvest from record-setting drought by using chemicals to generate rain, while factories in the southwest waited Sunday to see whether they would be shut down for another week due to shortages of water to generate hydropower. The hottest, driest summer since the government began recording rainfall and temperature 61 years ago has wilted crops and left reservoirs at half their normal water level. Factories in Sichuan province were shut down last week to save power for homes as air conditioning demand surged, with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit). The coming 10 days are a "key period of damage resistance" for southern China's rice crop, said Agriculture Minister Tang Renjian, according to the newspaper Global Times.Authorities will "try to increase rain" by seeding clouds with chemicals and spraying crops with a "water retaining agent" to limit evaporation.

NPR

At least 40 people are dead after floods and landslides leave hit northern India

NEW DELHI — At least 40 people have died and others are missing in flash floods triggered by intense monsoon rains in northern India over the past three days, officials said Sunday. The rains inundated hundreds of villages, swept away mud houses, flooded roads and destroyed bridges in some parts of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states. The Indian Meteorological Department predicted that heavy to very heavy rain would continue to fall in the region for the next two days. An official government release Sunday said landslides and flooding in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh over the last three days killed at least 36 people. Hundreds were taking shelter in relief camps after being displaced from their flooded homes. In the neighboring state of Uttarakhand, a series of cloudbursts Saturday left four dead and 13 went missing as rivers breached banks and washed away some houses.

The Guardian

Ukraine braces for intensified attacks after Moscow car bomb killing

Ukraine is bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide with its independence day on Wednesday in the aftermath of the car-bomb killing of the daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue. The country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing warships and submarines out in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for four days from Monday. Overnight on Saturday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had warned that “Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel” this week as the country celebrates its 31st anniversary of independence.Tensions between the two warring countries were at risk of heightening further after the killing of Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night.

Reuters

Oil falls as economic slowdown may dent fuel demand.

TOKYO, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Monday, ending three days of gains, on fears aggressive U.S. interest rate hikes may lead to a global economic slowdown and dent fuel demand. Brent crude futures for October settlement declined $1.17, or 1.2%, to $95.55 a barrel by 0054 GMT, with concerns over slowing demand in China because of a power crunch in some areas also weighing on prices. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures for September delivery, due to expire on Monday, was down $1.12, or 1.2%, at $89.65 a barrel. The more active October contract was at $89.29, down $1.15, or 1.3%.

Deutsche Welle

Greece's tourism industry is booming after pandemic slump

For a long time, Greece hasn't seen so much music, so much dancing, so much eating and drinking under bright summer skies: On August 14 and 15, residents on the Greek islands could again celebrate the traditional Assumption Day festival. And countless tourists joined them for those celebrations. Twelve years after financial crisis hitand two years of the coronavirus pandemic and, thus far, six months of the war in Ukraine people in Greece are craving some carefree days — before, possibly, having to face harsh realities again. During the third week of August, most Greeks are on vacation, trying to take some time out from the spyware scandal, refugee and energy crises, and high inflation, which stood at 11.6% in July 2022. At the same time, hopes are high in Greece that the tourist season will continue to be the success it has been up to now. The country is still highly dependent on the travel industry: in a good year, it accounts for more than 20% of the country's GDP. And 2022 appears to be turning into one of those good years.

Al Jazeera

At least 16 dead after truck collision in Russia

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