The Ministry of Social Affairs reported that its Charity Societies Department has given the "user" password to roughly 64 charity societies so they can use the automated donation system the Ministry is aiming to introduce soon after it has finished gathering the data for each association independently.

According to the sources who spoke to a local Arabic newspaper, the ministry will then upload charitable projects on the special platform in accordance with the laws and regulations currently in effect in requests to implement annual charitable projects inside and outside Kuwait. These projects fall under six models, including construction (internal and external), social development (internal and external), and guarantees (internal and external), in addition to various projects (internal and external), external relief campaigns.

According to the sources, the approved electronic method for collecting donations enjoys a high level of confidentiality in safeguarding the data and information of associations, up to 100%. It is anticipated that the automated system will be put into operation before the start of next year./agencies

Kuwaiti shooters Abdulrahman Al-Faihan and Isa Al-Zankawi won Thursday two gold medals in the trap shooting and Discus throw contests respectively at the fifth Islamic solidarity games hosted by the Turkish city of Konya. Their compatriot Talal Al-Rashidi obtained the silver in the trap of the games, which will run until 18 August. Earlier, Kuwaiti Shooter Sarah Al-Huwal won the gold medal in female Single trap shooting competition. About 6,000 male and female athletes from more than 50 countries are partaking in the games.

 Source: KUNA

Wildfires have torn through parts of France, Spain and Portugal as heatwaves baked Europe, and the head of the European Space Agency urged immediate action to fight climate crisis.

Heatwaves, floods and crumbling glaciers in recent weeks have heightened concerns over climate change and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather across the globe.

The head of the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher, said rising land temperatures and shrinking rivers as measured from space left no doubt about the toll on agriculture and other industries from climate crisis.

ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite series has measured "extreme" land surface temperatures of more than 45C (113F) in Britain, 50C in France and 60C in Spain in recent weeks.

"It's pretty bad. We have seen extremes that have not been observed before," Aschbacher said.

'Extreme heat'

Britain's Met Office on Thursday issued a four-day "extreme heat" warning for parts of England and Wales.

With a dangerous cocktail of blistering temperatures, tinder-box conditions and wind fanning the flames in France, President Emmanuel Macron said several European Union nations were deploying reinforcements to help beat back the blaze.

In Portugal, more than 1,500 firefighters spent a sixth day fighting a wildfire in the central Covilha region that has burned 10,500 hectares (40 square miles), including parts of the Serra da Estrela national park.

In Spain, electrical storms triggered new wildfires and hundreds of people were evacuated from the path of one blaze in the province of Caceres.

Climate crisis risks

With successive heatwaves baking Europe this summer, bringing record temperatures and unprecedented droughts, renewed focus has been placed on climate crisis risks to farming, industry and livelihoods.

Severe drought is set to slash the European Union's maize harvest by 15 percent, dropping it to a 15-year low, just as Europeans contend with higher food prices as a result of lower-than-normal grain exports from Russia and Ukraine.

Swiss army helicopters have been drafted in to airlift water to thirsty cows, pigs and goats sweltering under a fierce sun in the country's Alpine meadows.

In France, suffering its harshest drought on record, trucks are delivering water to dozens of villages where taps have run dry, nuclear power stations have received waivers to keep pumping hot discharge water into rivers, and farmers warn a shortage of fodder may lead to milk shortages.

In Germany, scant rainfall this summer has drained the water levels of the Rhine, the country's commercial artery, hampering shipping and pushing freight costs.

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

The US state of California has unveiled a new water strategy that plans for a future with 10 percent less water and shifts the emphasis from conservation to capturing more water that otherwise flows out to sea.

"The hots are getting a lot hotter, the dries are getting a lot drier and ... the wets are getting wetter," Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday at a desalination plant under construction in Antioch, 72 kilometres inland from San Francisco, that will turn brackish water into drinking water.

His plan calls for creating storage for four million acre-feet of water and recycling or reusing 800,000 acre-feet per year by 2030 in addition to more stormwater capture and desalination projects.

An acre-foot of water is generally considered enough to supply two urban households per year.

The climate crisis has contributed to more severe drought but has also set the stage for more intense flooding when rain does fall, as was the case last week in California's Death Valley, one of the hottest, driest parts of the United States.

Megadrought in western US

In the past three years, California has set over an $8 billion budget to renovate water infrastructure that would generate enough water for 8.4 million households in the state.

California and the western US have experienced a megadrought since the turn of the century that some scientists have measured as the driest 22-year period in 1,200 years, with many of the conditions attributed to the human-influenced climate crisis.

State officials estimate hotter and drier weather will reduce existing water supplies by 10 percent by 2040. In addition, the state's allotment of water from the Colorado River is expected to be cut next year, US Bureau of Reclamation officials have told Congress.

Many consumers have ramped up conservation with the increased public awareness of recent years, Newsom said, leaving less room for additional cutbacks.

Source: Reuters

Thousands of Brazilians have taken to the streets in a symbolic "defence of democracy" march after President Jair Bolsonaro's sustained attacks on democratic institutions just weeks ahead of elections.

Thursday's demonstrations in several cities were sparked by fears that the far-right leader, currently lagging behind in opinion polls, would not accept the outcome of October's vote given his repeated attempts to cast doubt on Brazil's electoral system.

"After 200 years of independence in Brazil, we should be thinking about our future... but we are focused on preventing a regression," University of Sao Paulo rector Carlos Gilberto Junior told a gathering of hundreds of academics, businessmen, trade union leaders and civil society members.

Outside the campus, thousands held up banners denouncing Bolsonaro and proclaiming: "Respect the vote, respect the people."

Some were dressed as electronic voting machines, which Bolsonaro claims, makes rigging the elections easier.

At the university gathering, a video was shown of Brazilian artists reading out a petition "in defence of the democratic state of law."

The petition has garnered more than 900,000 signatures since being posted online weeks ago.

Demonstrations were also held in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Recife.

Voters in Brazil cast their ballots electronically at voting stations. But Bolsonaro has long argued for a paper printout to be made of each vote cast, suggesting the absence of a paper trail enables cheating.

He has not provided evidence of fraud, and the Superior Electoral Court insists the system is fair and transparent.

Violence feared if 'Brazil's Trump' loses

Last month, Bolsonaro repeated his claims at a meeting with foreign ambassadors, prompting the US embassy to later declare that Brazil's electoral system was a "model for the world."

His repeated attacks have led analysts to fear Bolsonaro may refuse to accept defeat like his former American counterpart Donald Trump, whose supporters stormed the US Capitol building after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Several Brazilian business associations have also published open letters of concern, including the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban) and the Federation of Industries of the State of Sao Paulo (Fiesp).

This is seen as a setback for Bolsonaro, who drew much support from the business sector in his 2018 election.

According to the latest opinion poll by the Datafolha Institute, published on July 28, Bolsonaro lags 18 points behind former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is the favourite to win the election.

Source: AFP