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Cross-Continental Headlines: Trump Faces Charges, Johnson Steps Down, Berlusconi’s Farewell
June 2023 was a month of significant events for three former world leaders.
In Miami, former US President Donald Trump faced 37 criminal charges related to his handling of classified documents at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort after leaving office. Despite the charges, Trump pleaded not guilty and vowed to stay in the 2024 race.
Across the pond, Britain’s former prime minister, Boris Johnson, abruptly resigned his parliamentary seat after an investigation into the Partygate scandal found he misled parliament. Johnson accused the privileges committee of trying to force him out.
In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media tycoon and scandal-ridden former prime minister, passed away at the age of 86. Berlusconi had a recent history of health issues and had recently been diagnosed with leukemia.
Belarusian Opposition Leader: Nuclear Weapons Alert
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has warned of the danger of transferring nuclear weapons from Russia into “the hands of a crazy dictator” in Belarus, after Alexander Lukashenko confirmed that the first “missiles and bombs” had arrived in the country. Lukashenko stressed that the Russian bombs were three times more powerful than those dropped by the US on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in World War Two. Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya accused Western politicians of staying silent about this first deployment of tactical nuclear weapons outside of Russia since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
Cyclone Biparjoy
The western Indian state of Gujarat was on high alert as an extremely severe cyclone, named Biparjoy, was due to hit parts of it on Thursday, June 15th. Biparjoy, a cyclone over the Arabian Sea, was predicted to move towards the state’s coastline in the next two days. Heavy rains and high tides were forecasted in several coastal districts in the state.
Biparjoy was predicted to weaken but could bring torrential rain, high waves and strong winds. The Indian Meteorological Department said that the cyclonic storm was likely to move northwards until June 14th and then move “north-northeastwards and cross Saurashtra and Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts between Mandvi (Gujarat) and Karachi (Pakistan) by noon of June 15th”.
El Niño Record
Global temperatures accelerated to record-setting levels, an ominous sign in the climate crisis ahead of a gathering El Niño that could potentially propel 2023 to become the hottest year ever recorded. Preliminary global average temperatures taken so far in June were nearly 1C (1.8F) above levels previously recorded for the same month, going back to 19791.
El Niño conditions have developed, as the atmospheric response to the warmer-than-average tropical Pacific sea surface kicked in over the past month. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said El Niño conditions are now present and will “gradually strengthen” into early next year1. Climate scientist Michael Mann said human-caused warming will be exacerbated by an event that typically adds between 0.1C to 0.2C (0.18F to 0.36F) to the overall global temperature.
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