The Full Belmonte, 6/18/2023
‘The Fires Here Are Unstoppable’
The first foreign firefighters to reach Quebec amid Canada’s worst wildfire season on record said that some of the blazes were 100 times bigger than any they had ever seen.
An out-of-control fire was advancing rapidly toward a logging road on Tuesday afternoon, tearing through Canada’s immense — and highly flammable — boreal forest with a force and intensity bewildering to a team of French firefighters.
Surrounded by thick smoke, a handful of them headed into the forest to search for water. A veteran knelt down and used his right finger to sketch a plan on the gravel road, pressing to attack the fire head-on.
But the commander was not convinced. The fire, he said, was of an immensity unimaginable in France. The conifers of a combustibility they had never encountered. Trying to douse this tiny patch would be ‘pointless.’…
Back at the base, Commander Mossé said, ‘If anybody in New York is wondering why there’s smoke there, it’s because the fires here are unstoppable.’
‘Unstoppable,’ he repeated.
A group of 109 French firefighters arrived in northern Quebec about a week ago to assist nearly 1,000 Canadian firefighters and soldiers, the first foreign reinforcements to help the province tackle the extraordinary outbreak of forest fires that sent smoke to New York and other cities across North America, forcing millions indoors because of hazardous air quality.
More than 400 wildfires have burned all across Canada. But much of the smoke over Manhattan drifted from Quebec, a province that is unaccustomed to so many enormous fires, and that has already suffered its worst wildfire season on record, with more than two months left to go….” Read more at New York Times
Russia, Learning From Costly Mistakes, Shifts Battlefield Tactics
Moscow’s forces remain uneven. But while bracing for a counteroffensive, they have improved discipline, coordination and air support, foreshadowing a changing war.
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Julian E. Barnes and Natalia Yermak
Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Natalia Yermak reported from Kramatorsk, Ukraine, near the front lines of the war. Julian E. Barnes reported from Washington.
June 17, 2023
“KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — The team of soldiers had been out of their Ukrainian armored personnel carrier for only a matter of minutes when the tree line in front of them erupted in Russian gunfire. The dozen or so soldiers, sent to reinforce a trench, found themselves pinned down for hours.
‘Never seen that much fire, from so many positions,’ a soldier recounted in a mission report obtained by The New York Times.
One soldier fighting for Ukraine was killed and nine were wounded in the battle, which took place in March near the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Russian troops, the report said, showed a ‘high level of skill and equipment.’
The ambush was part of a patient, disciplined operation that was in contrast to the disorderly Russian tactics that marked much of the first year of the war, which began in February 2022. It was a deadly demonstration that the Russian military was learning from its mistakes and adapting to Ukrainian tactics, having grossly underestimated them initially….” Read more at New York Times
Uganda School Attack Leaves at Least 37 Dead
The authorities attribute the attack, one of the deadliest in years, to the Allied Democratic Forces, an extremist group based in neighboring Congo.
Reporting from Nairobi, Kenya
June 17, 2023
“At least 37 people were killed — many of them students — and eight others were wounded when militants with an extremist group attacked a secondary school in western Uganda, the authorities said on Saturday, in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the East African nation in years.
The group, known as the Allied Democratic Forces, attacked the school on Friday night in Mpondwe, a town near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, a police spokesman said on Twitter. During the attack, a dormitory was burned and food in a store was looted, said the spokesman, Fred Enanga. All eight who were wounded were hospitalized in critical condition, he added.
Three people were rescued, but six students were abducted, a military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Felix Kulayigye, said in a statement. The attack, which began around 11:30 p.m. on Friday, was carried out by about five militants, the authorities said.
Militants from the same group staged an attack in Uganda in late 2021, when suicide bombers set off coordinated explosions in the capital, Kampala, that killed three people, sowing fears about the Allied Democratic Forces’ reach and posing a vexing challenge for the Ugandan authorities….” Read more at New York Times
Remote work's boom cities
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
“1 in 6 remote workers moved in 2021 — many of them to new cities in new states.
Of the metros that had the highest share of remote workers moving in or out, the bigger, pricier cities saw a net loss of people — and smaller metros saw a net gain, the N.Y. Times reports in a new analysis of census data.
Winners:
Austin, up a net 28,000 residents
Denver, +23,000
Dallas, +10,000
Nashville, +10,000
Portland, Ore., +9,000
Losers:
New York City, down a net 116,000 people
L.A., -53,000
San Francisco, -32,000
Chicago, -29,000
San Jose, Calif., -27,000
[AXIOS]
Gamer’s $100 million deal
Lengyel at the 2022 YouTube Streamy Awards in Los Angeles. Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
“One of the biggest stars on Twitch, the video-game streaming platform, signed a megadeal with its rival, Kick.
Why it matters: The contract for gamer Félix Lengyel — which pays $70 million over two years, and could climb to $100 million with extra incentives — mirrors blockbuster deals signed by NFL and NBA athletes,the N.Y. Times' Kellen Browning writes (subscription).
It's roughly the size of the two-year contract extension LeBron James signed with the Lakers last year.
The deal is a blow to Amazon-owned Twitch — which is losing a creator who has 12 million followers, and who can attract tens of thousands of viewers at a given time, Browning notes.” [Axios]