Betharram affair, fires in Canada, Suez Canal, China: the night's news

Bétharram Affair: Bayrou Denies Any Wrongdoing. The Prime Minister vehemently rejected accusations of lying or interfering with the courts in the Béarn middle and high school case on Wednesday in the National Assembly. “It was about cornering me and forcing me to resign,” François Bayrou attacked before the commission of inquiry, which heard him for 5.5 hours, dedicating his hearing to the “victims,” to whom he promised participation in an “independent authority” dedicated to violence against children. “Under oath,” the head of government attempted on Wednesday “to extricate himself from the mess he has been mired in for months,” reports Le Soir . “I did not cover up any practices whatsoever […]. I did not stand by when I discovered the cases and I never intervened in a case,” he said, despite several testimonies contradicting his denials. Even “though he had meticulously prepared for this hearing, Bayrou appeared vague, imprecise on dates, and muddled in his defense due to his many digressions,” Le Soir believes. “It is above all politically that the Bétharram affair is acting on him like a slow poison,” the Belgian daily analyzes. “Until now, his tenure at Matignon is only sustained by the relative goodwill of the opposition, which has spared him censure […]. But if his hearing does not dispel suspicions, calls for his resignation could multiply.”

Two dead in Canada in the first major wildfires of the season. A woman and a man were "trapped" in the hamlet of Lac-du-Bonnet, in the central province of Manitoba, where a thousand residents had to be urgently evacuated in recent hours. The country has experienced megafires in recent years, but often in remote areas, and it is very rare for residents to die in a blaze. Some 24 wildfires are active in the province of Manitoba, and five of them were considered out of control as of Wednesday, including one located on the border with Ontario and covering more than 100,000 hectares. In the central and western part of the country, conditions are abnormally hot, dry, and windy, which favors the outbreak of fires. According to authorities, the fire season could be "above normal" in these regions in June and July, and "well above average" in August. “Summer could be dangerously smoky for some Americans,” as Canadian fires threaten to spread their smoke across the border, CNN warns .

The Suez Canal is reducing its prices for large vessels for three months. The Egyptian Waterway Authority announced Tuesday a 15% reduction in rates for container ships with a net tonnage of at least 130,000 tonnes starting Thursday, in an effort to encourage global shipping giants to use the canal. Egypt claimed in April that it had lost around $7 billion in Suez Canal revenue in 2024 due to attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels on ships transiting the Red Sea. The canal justified its decision Wednesday by citing the “relative calm of the security situation in the Red Sea region,” Egypt Today explains . The United States and the Houthis notably reached a ceasefire agreement in early May.

China: CO2 emissions down despite rising energy demand. Driven by new wind, solar, and nuclear capacity, the country saw its emissions fall by 1.6% year-on-year in the first quarter, according to a report published in the specialist media Carbon Brief . “This is not the first time” that such a decline has occurred in China, notes New Scientist . Emissions “had fallen in 2022, when the economy was at a standstill during Covid-19 lockdowns,” the scientific magazine points out. “But this is the first time that emissions have fallen even as the country consumes more electricity.” Electricity demand in the first quarter actually increased by 2.5%, according to the report. “This is an encouraging sign” that “the country’s massive development of clean energy has begun to replace fossil fuels,” concludes New Scientist .