The record-breaking heatwaves in Europe this summer have highlighted why cities need to urgently adapt to extreme weather brought by climate change. And reducing the impact of such high temperatures were among the solutions shared by 7 LIFE projects at this year’s European Urban Resilience Forum.

The forum took place in Guimarães, Portugal, on 17-19 June – just as one of the most severe heatwaves on record began to grip Western Europe, leaving 100 million people enduring temperatures of up to 41°C and claiming at least 20 000 lives. 

The intense heat underlined the importance of the city cooling measures outlined during a workshop at the forum by the LIFE project COOLIFEALMADA team. They are aiming to cool the city centre of Almada, in Portugal, by up to 3°C with combination of interventions.

Some of the actions they have taken include creating microforests in a 0.5 km ‘urban green corridor’ between 2 public parks. They have planted vegetation in public spaces and installed heat-reflective surfaces on roads. Green roofs and facades are also being tested to lower temperatures inside buildings. They have also installed netting to provide shade in areas without trees alongside micro-sprinklers in public spaces.

Climate shelters

One of the messages from the forum – attended by around 420 climate adaptation and resilience experts – was the need to build public trust in climate adaptation measures. With this in mind, the COOLIFEALMADA team are developing digital tools, including a mobile app to help vulnerable people locate cool shelters throughout the city during a heatwave. The app will also provide public health information and early warnings of extreme weather. 

However, the project’s approach goes beyond digital solutions. COOLIFEALMADA combines nature-based solutions, green infrastructure, heat-reflective materials, shading systems and climate shelters to reduce urban temperatures and strengthen resilience across four intervention areas: COOL SOIL, COOL BUILDINGS, COOL SKY and COOL LIVING.

‘We showcased COOLIFEALMADA’s comprehensive and multi-dimensional approach to addressing urban heat and increasing climate resilience in the municipality,’ says Diana Henriques, project manager for COOLIFEALMADA at Almada Municipality. ‘This combination allows us to tackle urban heat not only as an environmental issue, but also as a public health, urban planning and social resilience challenge.’

The LIFECOOLCITY project also attended the forum, where it presented its work to inform the public and policymakers about nature-based solutions for tackling heat. The project uses satellite data to map green spaces and water features across Europe. This allows people to see the positive effect these measures are having on city temperatures.

Engaging citizens directly in helping their cities improve climate resilience is also an approach being taken by the LIFE ASAP project, which also showcased its work at the forum. It is using the Worldwide Fund for Nature’s One Planet City Challenge to encourage cities to take climate action.

‘LIFE ASAP benefits citizens, municipalities and the environment by helping cities develop more ambitious and effective climate action while ensuring that local communities, especially young people, have a meaningful voice in shaping sustainable urban futures,’ says Alice Fonseca, climate and policy officer with WWF Portugal, which is leading the project.

Measures such as planting vegetation cannot only help cool cities but also provide nature-based solutions to other climate-related problems such as flooding, members of the LIFE LATESTadapt team told attendees at the forum in another workshop.

They have also been building buffer ponds and improving riverbeds at 8 demonstration sites in Estonia and Latvia to increase the resilience of urban areas in the two countries to extreme weather.

The LIFE SeedNEB project also shared how it has been combining nature-based solutions with the sustainable urban design concepts of the New European Bauhaus in the municipalities of Lorquí in Spain, Potenza in Italy and Dunaújváros in Hungary. These are expected to help protect against floods and heatwaves while creating attractive natural spaces for people to live.

The use of the New European Bauhaus to improve urban resilience was also outlined by the LIFEBauhausingEurope project team while the LIFE FLOPRES team shared how they have developed an early warning system for flooding in cities in Slovakia and Poland, alongside using nature-based solutions to reduce the flood risk.

The LIFE projects taking part in the European Urban Resilience Forum contribute to the EU Adaptation Strategy, the Floods Directive and the upcoming Integrated Climate Resilience Framework.

All necessary equipment and material resources are being used

Reports about an alleged shortage of food and essential goods in the Chechen Republic are false, and attempts to artificially instill anxiety among the population are doomed to failure, said Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kadyrov said that rumors have begun to appear on the Internet from people who like to stir up trouble about the impending shortage of essential goods and food supplies in the Chechen Republic.

“This information is a figment of someone’s imagination and, of course, is completely false,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.

He added that Chechnya has sufficient supplies of food and essential goods, and all organizations and enterprises are operating normally. In addition, all necessary equipment and resources are available for seasonal field work.

According to him, weather conditions have slightly delayed the harvest campaign in some regions of Chechnya. He added that the harvest is continuing as planned.

“120,000 hectares of grain and leguminous crops have already been harvested. The gross harvest is 369,000 tons, with an average yield of 30 cents per hectare,” Kadyrov noted.

The head of Chechnya stressed that the figures exceed those for the same period a year earlier.

“There is no reason to assume or predict a food shortage. According to preliminary forecasts, the gross grain harvest this year will exceed 500,000 tons,” he added.

Illustrative photo: pexels-zkadoshi-20351395

Tribune — Isaac Hammouch

À l’approche des élections législatives de 2026, la rumeur d’une pré-désignation de Fouzi Lekjaa à la primature enfle. Derrière l’ascension fulgurante du patron du football marocain, c’est tout un système de captation du pouvoir qui se dévoile. En imposant des technocrates adoubés d’en haut, le Makhzen ne se contente pas de mépriser le suffrage universel ; il étouffe les aspirations d’un peuple épuisé par les crises sociales et assoiffé de véritable souveraineté.

Il y a quelque chose de profondément tragique dans la manière dont se dessine l’avenir politique du Maroc. À près de deux ans des élections législatives de 2026, les dés semblent déjà pipés. Dans les salons de Rabat, dans les rédactions sous contrôle et sur les réseaux sociaux, un seul nom résonne comme une évidence préfabriquée : Fouzi Lekjaa. Ministre délégué au Budget, patron de la Fédération Royale Marocaine de Football (FRMF), l’homme vient d’adhérer officiellement au Parti Authenticité et Modernité (PAM). Une manœuvre qui n’a trompé personne. Le message est clair : voici votre prochain Chef du gouvernement.

Mais qui a décidé ? Certainement pas les Marocains.

Cette chronique d’une nomination annoncée est une insulte à l’intelligence d’un peuple qui a pourtant prouvé sa maturité politique. En propulsant une figure technocratique vers le sommet de l’exécutif avant même que le premier bulletin ne soit glissé dans l’urne, l’appareil d’État — le Makhzen — perpétue une tradition funeste : celle de la confiscation du choix démocratique.

L’illusion du « sauveur » technocrate
L’histoire bégaie, et la mémoire marocaine saigne encore de la précédente expérience. Souvenons-nous de 2021. Aziz Akhannouch, milliardaire et leader du Rassemblement National des Indépendants (RNI), avait été porté au pouvoir par une ingénierie politique similaire. Il était présenté comme le manager providentiel, l’homme capable de gérer l’État comme on gère un conglomérat florissant.

Trois ans plus tard, le constat est implacable. Les Marocains étouffent sous le poids d’une inflation galopante. Le chômage ravage la jeunesse — un jeune actif sur trois est sur le carreau —, la crise de l’eau assèche les campagnes et le pouvoir d’achat n’est plus qu’un lointain souvenir. Les hôpitaux publics manquent de tout, et les écoles continuent de fabriquer de l’inégalité. Akhannouch, propulsé par les hautes sphères pour « faire le job », a surtout démontré les limites d’une gouvernance déconnectée des réalités populaires.

Aujourd’hui, on nous rejoue la même pièce avec Fouzi Lekjaa. Parce qu’il a équilibré des budgets et brillamment orchestré l’épopée des Lions de l’Atlas au Mondial 2022, il serait l’homme providentiel pour mener le Maroc vers la Coupe du monde 2030. Mais depuis quand la gestion d’une fédération sportive, aussi prestigieuse soit-elle, tient-elle lieu de projet de société ? Un pays de près de 40 millions d’âmes, traversé par des fractures sociales béantes, ne se gère pas comme on prépare un tournoi de football. Les Marocains ne réclament pas des stades climatisés ; ils exigent du pain, de la dignité, des hôpitaux qui soignent et des écoles qui instruisent.

Un déficit démocratique asphyxiant
Ce qui est en jeu ici dépasse largement la personne de Fouzi Lekjaa. C’est la survie même de l’idée démocratique au Maroc. La Constitution de 2011, arrachée par la rue lors du Mouvement du 20 Février, promettait une monarchie parlementaire où les urnes dicteraient l’alternance. Pourtant, la réalité est celle d’une démocratie de façade.

Lorsque les partis politiques, censés être les courroies de transmission de la volonté populaire, se réduisent à de simples coquilles vides attendant qu’on leur parachute un leader de l’administration, c’est tout le contrat social qui s’effondre. Le PAM, en accueillant Lekjaa, ne recrute pas un militant ; il importe une caution étatique pour garantir sa victoire. C’est le triomphe de la bureaucratie sur la politique, du casting sur l’élection.

Ce verrouillage s’accompagne d’un climat de répression qui ne dit pas son nom. Comment parler de choix libre quand la presse indépendante a été méthodiquement laminée ? Les condamnations de journalistes d’investigation comme Taoufik Bouachrine, Soulaimane Raissouni ou Omar Radi — souvent sous le couvert d’accusations de mœurs fallacieuses — ont envoyé un message glacial à tous ceux qui osent regarder le pouvoir en face. Les rapports de Human Rights Watch et d’Amnesty International décrivent un « écosystème de répression » où la dissidence est écrasée pour maintenir l’illusion d’une stabilité parfaite. Dans ce silence forcé, la nomination préventive d’un Premier ministre passe pour une simple formalité administrative.

Le peuple mérite mieux
Est-ce que ce pays ne mérite pas mieux ? Est-ce que les Marocains, qui ont bâti ce pays à la sueur de leur front, ne méritent pas le droit fondamental de choisir librement ceux qui les gouvernent ?

Attendre les élections. Laisser les partis débattre, proposer des visions contradictoires, et laisser chaque citoyen trancher dans le secret de l’isoloir. Cela s’appelle la démocratie. C’est le minimum vital pour une nation qui prétend s’asseoir à la table des grands émergents.

La stratégie des grands chantiers et du rayonnement international — TGV, ports géants, Coupe du monde 2030 — est une vitrine magnifique. Mais une vitrine ne nourrit pas un peuple. Si le développement ne ruisselle pas, s’il ne se traduit pas par une justice sociale tangible et un respect scrupuleux des droits humains, il n’est qu’un mirage.

Le Maroc se trouve à un point de bascule. Poursuivre dans la voie de la confiscation du pouvoir par une élite technocratique, c’est prendre le risque d’une rupture définitive entre l’État et la société. La colère gronde, silencieuse mais profonde. Il est temps de rendre le pouvoir à qui il appartient de droit : au peuple marocain.

La démocratie n’est pas un luxe réservé aux autres. Elle est la seule garantie d’une paix sociale véritable. Il ne tient qu’à nous, citoyens, de refuser les scénarios écrits d’avance.

(*) Isaac Hammouch est journaliste et écrivain belgo-marocain. Auteur de plusieurs ouvrages et de nombreuses tribunes, il analyse les enjeux de société, les questions de gouvernance et les mutations du monde contemporain.

New Commission guidance frames subsidy control as a tool for housing, care, skills and clean public services

The European Commission has moved to clarify how EU State aid rules can be used for social support and public-interest investment, seeking to reassure governments and local authorities that subsidy control need not stand in the way of housing, care, training or clean infrastructure when support is targeted and transparent.

The guidance, announced in Brussels on Monday, comes at a politically sensitive moment for the European Union. Across the bloc, governments are under pressure to respond to high housing costs, strained public services, industrial transition and uneven regional development, while still protecting the single market from a subsidy race that would favour larger and richer member states.

In its same-day announcement on State aid rules and social support, the Commission presented the clarification as evidence that EU competition rules can enable, rather than block, investments serving the public interest. The message is technical, but its consequences are practical: whether a city can support social housing renovation, whether a region can help reskill workers, or whether public finance can reach social-economy organisations without breaching EU law.

A balancing act inside the single market

State aid control is one of the EU’s oldest and most consequential internal-market tools. Its basic purpose is to prevent national governments from giving selective advantages to companies in ways that distort competition and trade between member states. But the same framework also allows public support where market forces alone do not deliver social, environmental or regional goals.

The Commission’s own overview of EU State aid policy says member states granted €168.23 billion in aid in 2024, equal to 0.94% of EU GDP. The largest areas included environmental protection and energy savings, research and innovation, and regional development. Those figures show how far State aid has moved beyond narrow industrial rescue cases into the everyday architecture of Europe’s green and social transition.

For public authorities, the difficulty is often not whether social investment is legally possible, but whether the rules are understood well enough to be used confidently. Smaller municipalities, social enterprises and non-profit providers can struggle with the administrative burden of assessing whether a grant, guarantee, loan or preferential contract falls within State aid rules, and what conditions apply if it does.

That uncertainty can have a chilling effect. A local authority may delay a renovation programme. A social enterprise may avoid applying for support. A national ministry may design a scheme too narrowly out of fear that Brussels will later object. The Commission’s guidance is therefore not merely a legal clarification; it is also an attempt to make public policy less hesitant where social needs are urgent.

Social goals, fair process

The strongest case for flexibility lies in areas where public intervention corrects clear market failures: affordable and social housing, care services, labour-market inclusion, energy-efficient renovation, disability access, skills training and community infrastructure. These are sectors where the people most affected often have the least market power, and where delays in public investment can deepen inequality.

Yet flexibility carries risks. Wealthier states have more fiscal room to subsidise, and better administrative capacity to navigate complex rules. If State aid becomes too permissive without safeguards, poorer regions may fall further behind, while well-connected firms could capture support intended for social outcomes.

That is why transparency and proportionality matter. Public money should be tied to clearly defined objectives, open procedures, measurable delivery and safeguards against overcompensation. Social value cannot become a blank cheque; it must be demonstrated in practice.

The debate also fits a wider EU conversation about whether competitiveness and social protection can be treated as mutually reinforcing. As The European Times has reported, EU leaders have increasingly linked affordable housing, strong welfare systems and quality jobs to Europe’s broader economic resilience rather than treating them as separate social costs.

From legal architecture to lived outcomes

The next question is implementation. Guidance from Brussels can help, but social organisations and local authorities will judge it by whether it reduces delays, makes eligibility clearer and gives public bodies the confidence to fund projects that improve daily life.

For citizens, State aid can sound remote. In practice, it may shape whether an apartment block is insulated before winter, whether a training centre opens in a declining industrial town, whether clean buses reach a low-income district, or whether a care provider can expand without being trapped in legal uncertainty.

The Commission’s clarification therefore arrives as a reminder that competition policy is not only about markets. At its best, it is also about fairness: ensuring that public money can serve public needs without allowing power, wealth or proximity to government to decide who benefits.

That balance will define the credibility of the EU’s social investment agenda. The rules must be strict enough to prevent subsidy privilege, but clear enough that social need does not get lost in administrative caution.

New transparency rules take effect as Lisbon faces a sharper public debate over influence, access and integrity in government

Portugal’s first lobbying transparency law entered into force on Monday, opening a new phase in the country’s long-running effort to make political influence more visible. The reform creates a public register for interest representation and new disclosure duties for contacts with public authorities, but its first day arrives amid renewed scrutiny of integrity in government and unresolved questions over how strongly the system will be enforced.

The measure matters beyond Lisbon. Across Europe, lobbying rules have become a central part of the rule-of-law agenda, not because representation of interests is illegitimate, but because citizens are entitled to know who is trying to shape public policy, procurement, regulation and legislation. Portugal is now moving from a largely informal influence culture into a more documented system, where access to decision-makers is supposed to leave a public trace.

A public register for political influence

Under Law No. 5-A/2026, Portugal creates the Registo de Transparência da Representação de Interesses, a public and free register housed with the Assembly of the Republic. The law applies to private Portuguese and foreign entities seeking to represent legitimate interests before public bodies, including the presidency, parliament, government, regulators, public administration and local authorities.

The register is intended to show who is representing which interests, who their clients are when they act for third parties, which sectors are involved, and what income or public and EU financial support is linked to the activity. Registered representatives also face duties to identify themselves clearly when approaching public office-holders, keep information updated, avoid misleading decision-makers, and respect access rules in public buildings.

The law also introduces a “legislative footprint” mechanism, requiring interactions during the preparation of legislative or regulatory acts to be recorded and made public in the relevant process. If it works in practice, that could help citizens, journalists and civil society follow not only the final text of a law, but some of the pressure and consultation that helped shape it.

The enforcement question

The reform’s credibility will depend less on the existence of the register than on the discipline behind it. Portugal’s law provides for sanctions, including suspension from the register or limits on institutional contacts for up to two years. False information or unregistered lobbying can be reported to prosecutors. Public bodies must also publish meetings with registered entities, although sensitive cases can be withheld where confidentiality, personal data or protected rights are at stake.

Those safeguards will require steady implementation. A transparency system that is technically public but incomplete, delayed, poorly searchable or weakly policed would do little to rebuild trust. The risk is familiar across the European Union: registers can become symbolic architecture unless public authorities update them promptly, disclosure rules are understandable, and sanctions are applied consistently.

Portugal’s timing is politically delicate. The first day of the new regime comes as Portuguese reporting on Interior Minister Luís Neves has raised questions about public contracts, alleged conflicts of interest and an inquiry linked to a contractor known to the minister. Neves has promised to explain the matter, and the facts remain subject to investigation. Still, the controversy gives the lobbying law an immediate public-interest setting: transparency rules are most convincing when they can withstand scrutiny around powerful people, not only routine administrative contacts.

Why this is a European story

Portugal is not alone in facing a trust problem around influence. The European Parliament’s own recent scandals and access restrictions have kept the issue alive in Brussels, where corruption and lobbying debates have repeatedly exposed the gap between formal rules and public confidence. The lesson is not that advocacy should be treated as suspect. Businesses, trade unions, charities, professional bodies and citizens all have a legitimate place in democratic decision-making. The problem begins when influence is hidden, unequal or insulated from accountability.

For rights groups and anti-corruption advocates, the strongest lobbying systems do more than list professional lobbyists. They make access legible to the public, protect whistleblowers and journalists, prevent revolving-door abuses, and ensure that communities with fewer resources are not drowned out by well-funded private interests. In that sense, transparency is not an administrative luxury. It is part of equal participation in public life.

Portugal’s law contains several elements pointing in that direction, including public access, machine-readable data, meeting disclosure, conflict-of-interest duties and a three-year cooling-off period for former political office-holders and senior public officials seeking to lobby their former institutions. But the coming months will show whether these tools become a living public record or another layer of formal compliance.

A first day, not a finished reform

The law’s entry into force should be treated as the beginning of an integrity cycle. Parliament and public entities will need to make the register usable, explain the rules clearly, and publish meaningful data. Civil society will need access to the information in a form that can be searched and compared. Journalists will need to be able to follow patterns of contact without facing needless opacity. Lobbyists and public officials, meanwhile, will need to accept that legitimate influence is stronger, not weaker, when it is open to scrutiny.

Portugal has now placed lobbying transparency inside its legal framework. The harder democratic task starts on Monday: proving that the public register can give citizens a clearer view of power before decisions are made, not only after controversy has already damaged trust.

An investigation in southern Italy has uncovered a horrific practice after authorities found cats with rags soaked in flammable liquid tied to their tails. The animals were released into the dry vegetation and turned into moving sources of fire, which led to a series of forest fires in Calabria, reported CNN.

According to Domenico Costarella of the local Civil Protection Agency, the cats literally ran and spread the flames. Other evidence of deliberate actions was found on the ground – lit candles on flammable materials and ignition devices. Firefighters continue to fight the fire around the Pollino National Park, with more than 160 missions carried out in just one day.

The Italian Association for the Protection of Animals has filed a crime report and announced a reward for information on the perpetrators. Such cases are not new – in 2016 and 2017, similar tactics were detected in Sicily and near Vesuvius, and according to experts, mafia groups often cause fires to acquire burned land cheaply or use it for green energy projects. Local authorities are demanding a change in public thinking and stricter measures against such crimes, defining the actions as “inhumane” and dangerous for people, animals and the environment.

Illustrative photo: pexels-thomasronveaux-17152995