ALBERTA, Canada: Around 5,000 people were forced to leave the western Canadian town of Jasper early on Tuesday to escape approaching wildfires, the latest victims of what experts say could be one of the worst-ever seasons for fires.
“This is an evolving emergency situation ... we will provide more information as it becomes available,” the local municipality said in a notice at 6.35 am ET (1035 GMT).
Video posted to social media showed a long line of cars slowly driving out of Jasper to the west in the dark. Evacuee Stephanie Goertz told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that it had taken her three hours to drive three km (1.9 miles).
The evacuation order covers Jasper and the surrounding Jasper National Park, which are located in the province of Alberta about 370 km (230 miles) to the west of Edmonton, the provincial capital.
In a separate notice, the province said the evacuation was progressing well.
Scorching heat in the Northern Hemisphere has baked much of the Western US and Canada. Alberta says around 50 fires are currently burning out of control across the province.
Last week, wildfires raging through the northern part of Alberta prompted evacuations of three communities. In neighboring British Columbia, up to 367 active wildfires are burning.
In April, federal officials said Canada risked another “catastrophic” wildfire season amid higher-than-normal spring and summer temperatures across much of the country.
Last year Canada endured its worst-ever fire season, with more than 6,600 blazes burning 15 million hectares, an area roughly seven times the annual average.
Earlier this month, Suncor, Canada’s second-largest oil company, temporarily curtailed some production and evacuated non-essential workers from its 215,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Firebag site because of a fire close by.
In the easternmost province of Newfoundland and Labrador, authorities said on Monday that thousands of people ordered from their homes in the face of a raging wildfire could
Return home.
Thousands forced to flee western Canadian town as wildfires approach
https://arab.news/z9xz4
Thousands forced to flee western Canadian town as wildfires approach
- Video posted to social media showed a long line of cars slowly driving out of Jasper to the west in the dark
- Evacuee Stephanie Goertz told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that it had taken her three hours to drive three km
India, Arab League target $500bn in trade by 2030
- It was the first such gathering of India–Arab FMs since the forum’s inauguration in 2016
- India and Arab states agree to link their startup ecosystems, cooperate in the space sector
NEW DELHI: India and the Arab League have committed to doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, as their top diplomats met in New Delhi for the India–Arab Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
The foreign ministers’ forum is the highest mechanism guiding India’s partnership with the Arab world. It was established in March 2002, with an agreement to institutionalize dialogue between India and the League of Arab States, a regional bloc of 22 Arab countries from the Middle East and North Africa.
The New Delhi meeting on Saturday was the first gathering in a decade, following the inaugural forum in Bahrain in 2016.
India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said in his opening remarks that the forum was taking place amid a transformation in the global order.
“Nowhere is this more apparent than in West Asia or the Middle East, where the landscape itself has undergone a dramatic change in the last year,” he said. “This obviously impacts all of us, and India as a proximate region. To a considerable degree, its implications are relevant for India’s relationship with Arab nations as well.”
Jaishankar and his UAE counterpart co-chaired the talks, which aimed at producing a cooperation agenda for 2026-28.
“It currently covers energy, environment, agriculture, tourism, human resource development, culture and education, amongst others,” Jaishankar said.
“India looks forward to more contemporary dimensions of cooperation being included, such as digital, space, start-ups, innovation, etc.”
According to the “executive program” released by India’s Ministry of External Affairs, the roadmap agreed by India and the League outlined their planned collaboration, which included the target “to double trade between India and LAS to US$500 billion by 2030, from the current trade of US$240 billion.”
Under the roadmap, they also agreed to link their startup ecosystems by facilitating market access, joint projects, and investment opportunities — especially health tech, fintech, agritech, and green technologies — and strengthen cooperation in space with the establishment of an India–Arab Space Cooperation Working Group, of which the first meeting is scheduled for next year.
Over the past few years, there has been a growing momentum in Indo-Arab relations focused on economic, business, trade and investment ties between the regions that have some of the world’s youngest demographics, resulting in a “commonality of circumstances, visions and goals,” according to Muddassir Quamar, associate professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“The focus of the summit meeting was on capitalizing on the economic opportunities … including in the field of energy security, sustainability, renewables, food and water security, environmental security, trade, investments, entrepreneurship, start-ups, technological innovations, educational cooperation, cultural cooperation, youth engagement, etc.,” Quamar told Arab News.
“A number of critical decisions have been taken for furthering future cooperation in this regard. In terms of opportunities, there is immense potential.”
