United Airlines became the first major airline carrier to require COVID-19 vaccinations for all its workers, in a move announced Friday.

Chief Executive Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart said in a letter to United's 67,000 employees that they must be fully vaccinated by five weeks after the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval to the vaccines, or by Oct. 25, whichever comes first. Till now, the vaccines have been approved under emergency use authorization.

Kirby and Hart acknowledged there will be backlash for the vaccine mandate, but said: "The facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated."

"Over the last 16 months, Scott has sent dozens of condolences letters to the family members of United employees who have died from COVID-19. We're determined to do everything we can to try to keep another United family from receiving that letter."

United has already been requiring new employees to show proof of vaccination, a rule implemented in June.

As an incentive, the company is offering an extra vacation day to employees who show proof of vaccination by Sept. 20.

Employees who do not show proof of vaccination must leave the company, but the company says it will decide on a case-by-case basis whether to grant exceptions for health or religious reasons.

With cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant surging across the US, a growing number of American companies are now requiring some or all employees to show proof of vaccination, including Google, Facebook, Disney, Walmart and Netflix./aa

Wildfires have spread to many parts of the world, according to the US space agency NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System.

Most regions of North America and South America, the African plateau, Madagascar, the eastern Arabian Peninsula, and the Mediterranean coast of Europe as well as northern and eastern Europe have been affected by fires.

In Asia, fires have been detected on some coasts of India, Sri Lanka, and in Russia's Siberia region as well as in China, Malaysia, Japan, and Indonesia.

Ukraine and Georgia in Eurasia, and eastern and northern Australia in Oceania are also adversely affected by forest fires.

Countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece, Tunisia, and Egypt as well as Algeria which have a coast on the Mediterranean, are also struggling with forest fires.

According to an emergency map of the European Commission showing forest fires, large and small fires on the entire continent reached almost as far as the north of Russia. On the satellite map, it is seen that fires of various sizes have been burning for at least a week across the EU countries.

Italy

The northern and southern parts of the country are experiencing many forest fires, both large and small.

According to local media, thousands of hectares of land have been burned as a result of fires in the Sicily Island and the Calabria, Puglia, and Campania regions in the south of the country over the last few weeks.

Italy requested firefighting aircraft from EU countries, in addition to using its own firefighting aircraft.

Greece

Thousands were evacuated to safe areas due to the forest fires in the north of the capital Athens.

Five people were injured in fires in Greece and nearly 60 villages and settlements in the south of the country were evacuated.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said they were facing unprecedented conditions due to the prevailing heatwave in the country.

Also, it was decided that the Greek army should intervene in the forest fires.

Nikos Hardalias, the Greek civil defense and deputy minister for crisis management, said forest fires broke out at 118 points in the last 24 hours, and 60,000 acres of forest area were burned in the last four days, as well as many houses and vehicles were damaged.

Albania

Albania is also battling numerous forest fires in recent days.

The Albanian Defense Ministry reported that six fires are still continuing throughout the country.

Portugal

A forest fire that broke out on July 17 in the city of Monchique in southwestern Portugal destroyed more than 2,000 hectares of land.

Spain

The Catalonia region of northeastern Spain on July 26 faced the biggest wildfire in the last two years.

France

Over 850 hectares of land were destroyed in a fire on July 25 in the province of Aude in the south of France and the road between Toulouse and Narbonne was closed to transportation.

The fire caused damage to lines transmitting electricity to France, Spain, and Portugal.

Losses above average in Europe

According to the European Forest Fire Information System data, the 2008-2020 average has already been surpassed in terms of burned area in Italy, as well as in France and Romania.

While 53,797 hectares of land burned this year in Italy, the 12-year average was recorded as 40,781 hectares.

In France, while 22,807 hectares were burned, the average of previous years was 9,283. Similarly, 18,620 hectares of land burned in Romania in 2021, and the average of 12 years is 16,082 hectares.

The data also showed that among non-EU countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina also lost 25,583 hectares of land in the fire, which is very close to the 2008-2020 average of 30,199.

As 17,599 hectares of land in Tunisia burned this year, it is recorded that this has already exceeded the 12-year average of 6,257 hectares.

Russia

Efforts are still underway to extinguish forest fires that started in July in Russia’s northeastern Yakutia region.

Authorities declared a state of emergency for the region, where over 1.3 million hectares of forestland have gone up in flames.

US and Canada

In the US, according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center, the number of active forest fires in the country is 96, and over 1.8 million acres of land were damaged by fires.

The forest fire, which has been going on for about three weeks in the state of California, has turned a historic town into ashes.

The big fire, which is known as "Dixie," started on July 13-14 in the northern region of the state. It spread in the last two days, threatening many settlements.

According to the Canadian Wildlands Fire Information System, 292 wildfires, large and small, continue across the country. A total of 4,891 fires broke out in the country this year, while the previous 10-year average was 3,753. A total of 2,758 hectares of land were burned in the fires – an average of 1,736 hectares of land was damaged over the previous decade.

South America

About 267 major fires have been detected in the Amazon region in 2021, and over 105,000 hectares of forestland have burned. More than 75% of these fires occurred in the Brazilian Amazon.

China and India

Forest fires are less common in India and parts of China where the tropical climate prevails, as the effect of monsoon rains is felt during summer. However, increasing deforestation in these regions is increasing the destructive effect of floods caused by precipitation.

Dozens of people lost their lives in floods in both countries last week.

Australia

Australia, where over 10 million hectares of land were burned and more than 1 billion wild animals died in summer forest fires in 2019 and 2020, had a summer with fewer fires this year./aa

The more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus now makes up an estimated 97% of new COVID-19 cases in Germany, the country’s disease control agency said on Friday.

The Robert Koch Institute confirmed 3,448 more coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, showing that the case counts were on an upward trend again.

Health authorities recorded over 3,000 new infections for the third day in a row, for the first time since June.

New cases have particularly increased among teenagers and young adults, according to the institute.

As of Friday, there were 29,900 active COVID-19 cases across the country.

Despite a rapid increase in case numbers in recent weeks, hospitalizations and deaths stayed relatively low, compared to the first and second waves of the pandemic in Germany.

Health authorities confirmed 24 coronavirus-related fatalities on Friday, down from 30 deaths reported a week ago.

Currently, 393 seriously ill coronavirus patients are receiving treatment in intensive care units.

Germany has stepped up its vaccination campaign recently and achieved significant progress in fully vaccinating a high percentage of its population against COVID-19.

As of Thursday, nearly 45 million people in Germany – 54.1% of the population – were fully vaccinated against the virus, while more than 51.8 million people – 62.2 % of the population – have received at least one dose./aa

President Alassane Ouattara of the Ivory Coast and his arch political rival Laurent Gbagbo grinned as they held hands in front of dozens of cameramen in the capital Abidjan on July 27, for the first time since the country’s devastating civil war began over a decade ago.

People and experts, however, are skeptical of the two leaders’ drive for peace and reconciliation, citing various factors that point to their mutual distrust.

Gbagbo, who founded the Ivorian Popular Front in 1982, became the president of the Ivory Coast in 2000 and ruled the Western African country for a decade until the fateful elections of 2010.

He refused to accept Ouattara’s electoral victory, sparking a wave of deadly violence that claimed nearly 3,000 lives in the country, according to official figures.

Gbagbo was eventually arrested in April 2011 and extradited to The Hague in November, where he faced four charges of crimes against humanity.

In January 2019, a panel of the International Criminal Court dismissed the charges, clearing the way for his return to the Ivory Coast in June 2021, nearly 10 years after his arrest and extradition.

“What is important for Ivory Coast is peace in our country," said Ouattara, who leads the Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace party, after his meeting with Gbagbo last month.

Everyone wants to be the victim

Simi Deroux, a political scientist and historian from Ivory Coast, believes in reconciliation, but acknowledges that it will be hard to achieve because political leaders continue to play the victim card.

He accused politicians of exploiting the poor for their political objectives.

“The main political leaders, who unfortunately have an undeniable influence on the passionate and largely illiterate population, all believe they are victims. Their supporters also stubbornly believe their leaders’ claims,” Deroux told Anadolu Agency.

He said the problem has been a long-standing one, particularly exacerbated since the 1980s, when an economic crisis was caused by a global drop in the price of raw materials.

“The scarcity of land ownership, a primary necessity for agricultural activities, has complicated the situation. This has deteriorated the atmosphere of cohabitation and complementarity between Ivorian ethnic communities, on one hand, and between Ivorians and foreigners on the other,” he said.

“Pauperization, the struggle to acquire agricultural land, and competition for jobs have led to a loosening of community ties and converted relations of complementarity and trust into competitive, or even conflictual, relations.”

Deroux said the introduction of a multiparty system in the 1990s, at the expense of a one-party model, “could not really build national consciousness” as it was done at a time of grave economic challenges.

“This has led politicians, unable to solve the resurgence of poverty, to take advantage of the instinctive irascibility of a population with little education and inclination to survive, to exploit ethnicity,” he said.

The perpetuation of certain ethnic stereotypes and unhealthy manipulation of development inequalities has also further deepened divisions within communities, he added.

Nevertheless, Deroux believes that reconciliation is possible “even if it will not be easy.”

He proposed some measures that could calm tensions, including amnesty for and release of all political and military prisoners, facilitating the return of all civilian, military, and political exiles, and addressing issues of land and illegal gold mining.

He also suggested that Gbagbo, Ouattara, and Aime Henri Konan Bedie, another former president who heads the Democratic Party, should be barred from future presidential elections.

The three men, according to Deroux, should focus their efforts on raising public awareness about the importance of peace.

Game of hypocrisy

“There is no genuine desire to reconcile,” Amadou Fofana, an accountant by profession, said about the July talks between Gbagbo and Ouattara.

Talking to Anadolu Agency, he described the meeting as a “game of hypocrisy,” where everyone thinks they are right and a “victim.”

Young Ivorians have yet to realize that politicians in other democratic countries are there to serve them, whereas in Africa, it is the other way round, he lamented.

“The people must realize that it is not necessary to put their lives on the line to save a politician,” Fofana said, referring to the violent years of civil strife in the Ivory Coast.

He identified tribalism and a lack of unity as additional barriers to reconciliation, saying the people are “divided into groups based on ethnic and geographical affiliations.”

The country, he added, is experiencing “a serious identity crisis.”

“Right now, people from the north, from where the current president hails, are considered foreigners and remain marginalized,” Fofana said.

“It is true that we have origins in neighboring countries, but after independence, we all have been in this country, which is ours, and we must all accept it.”

Politicians lack sincerity

A lack of sincerity and honesty, coupled with a lack of recognition between the stakeholders, is what prevents reconciliation, according to Oum'c Barou, a Zouglou music artist.

“No one wants to admit their guilt,” he said, blaming the “ambiguous political discourse” for furthering divisions and tribalism in the Ivory Coast.

Evelyne Kouassi, an employee of a local audit firm, said political leaders have “led the population into a dead end.”

“Ivorians are in this situation because they have failed to protect their common needs and gave precedence to individual needs,” she said./aa

Following a decade-long burst, wildfires around the world may start to decline as trees are wiped out by blazes or extreme drought, according to a recent US study.

By employing a model that focuses on the eastern California forests of Sierra Nevada, the scientists at the University of California (UC), Santa Barbara and University of Washington examined the longer-run future of bushfires under scenarios of rising temperature and drought.

The scientists found that under increased drought and rising temperatures, large wildfires could start to recede after about a decade, though smaller blazes could occur in warm and dry conditions.

"How climate change, tree growth and wildfires will interact over coming decades is only beginning to be explored," said Maureen Kennedy, the lead author in the study that involved 60-year simulations.

"These findings would likely apply to other forests that experience drought," said Kennedy, who is now using the model on other regions, according to the websites of the two universities involved in the study.

Examining potential future trends in wildfires is important for planning efforts now, Kennedy said, adding that the current understanding was that communities would have to coexist with wildfires, rather than preventing them entirely.

So, controlled burning along with thinning of forestry areas stand as two possible solutions to manage issues related to forests as they are vulnerable to both wildfires and climate change.

"With such high density in the forest, the trees are pulling a lot of water out of the soil," she said. "There is growing evidence that you can relieve drought stress and make more drought-resilient forests if you thin the forests, which should also help with, for example, reducing the impact of that initial pulse of wildfire."

World grappling with wildfires

Wildfires have broken all over the world in recent weeks, reducing millions of acres of forestland to ash and uprooting thousands who had to be evacuated.​​​​​​​

Most of North and South America, the African plateau, the northern Arabian Peninsula, and the Mediterranean coast of Europe as well as Northern and Eastern Europe have been affected by fires, according to US space agency NASA.

In Asia, fires have been detected on the coasts of India and in Russia's Siberia region as well as in China, Malaysia and Indonesia.

European countries with Mediterranean coasts such as Italy, Spain, and Greece are also struggling with forest fires./aa

Turkey's president announced on Friday that 196 wildfires have been contained since they began last week, while efforts to extinguish the remaining 12 blazes in five provinces are underway.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul that 208 wildfires have erupted in 44 provinces since July 28. So far, 196 forest fires have been put out, and efforts are underway to extinguish the remaining 12 fires in five provinces, including Antalya, Mugla, Isparta, Aydin, and Denizli, he added.

Erdogan said that five helicopters with night-fighting capability sent by Ukraine are operating round the clock to bring the wildfires under control.

A total of 56 helicopters,16 amphibious aircraft, and nine drones are currently battling the blazes, he noted.

Erdogan added that Azerbaijan has sent over 600 trained firefighters to assist in the ongoing fight against forest fires in the country's southern provinces. President Ilham Aliyev has promised to increase this number, he also said.

Underling that Turkey has mobilized all of its resources to combat the forest fires, the president said damage assessment studies are continuing in the areas affected by the fires.

“Damages in plant production and animal husbandry will be repaired as soon as possible,” he assured.

Turkey will hopefully plant a total of 252 million saplings, three saplings for each Turkish citizen, by the end of the year as part of the “Breath for the Future” campaign, Erdogan added./aa