The Scotsman Bulletin Monday July 24 2023
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin
00:02 for Monday, July the 24th.
00:05 My name's Dale Miller.
00:06 I'm head of news at the Scotsman,
00:08 and I'm joined by our world editor, Jane Bradley.
00:11 Good morning, Jane.
00:13 Good morning.
00:14 We're going to talk about the front page today.
00:16 And obviously, you were involved heavily in the coverage.
00:20 Can you just explain what's happening in some
00:22 of the Greek islands at the moment?
00:24 Yeah, so I mean, obviously, today and yesterday,
00:26 the focus has been heavily on what
00:28 is happening in roads, wildfires blazing there
00:31 in a certain part of the island.
00:34 And firefighters are really struggling to put them out.
00:36 As a result, people have been evacuated from their homes.
00:39 Obviously, local people are hugely affected by this.
00:42 But also, holidaymakers, some hotels
00:45 have been badly damaged in the fires, I believe.
00:48 And people have been evacuated from hotels.
00:51 And some of them are sleeping on floors of schools
00:54 that have been opened.
00:55 Head teachers have been drafted in in school holidays
00:57 to come and open the doors and put mattresses down
01:00 on the floor for people to sleep in.
01:02 Some people are sleeping in the airport.
01:05 Some of them have been moved to hotels
01:07 in other parts of the island where
01:08 they're sleeping on sun lounges in the lobbies,
01:10 that kind of thing.
01:12 And there's obviously a big debate as to whether people
01:15 should be being brought back by airlines.
01:17 But what is particularly interesting
01:19 is some airlines are still flying people out there
01:21 for their holidays.
01:22 So there are still new people arriving on roads
01:25 for when they booked it.
01:26 What they were expecting to be, you know,
01:28 a relaxing week or two weeks break
01:30 on a beautiful Greek island.
01:32 And they'll be arriving at an airport that is in chaos.
01:36 Jane, some of the pictures coming out are remarkable.
01:38 These big plumes of smoke coming up behind holidaymakers
01:42 literally walking with their suitcases back to the airport
01:45 or wherever they are to try and get away.
01:48 But we've heard earlier today that it's not just
01:51 contained to roads, which has been getting all the coverage
01:54 over the past 24 hours.
01:55 Can you talk us through that?
01:56 That's right.
01:57 So Corfu is now affected as well.
01:59 There's been a series of fires there,
02:01 which authorities are actually saying
02:03 could potentially be arson.
02:04 So they could have been set deliberately.
02:06 But whatever has caused them, there are fires there.
02:09 Not on the scale that we're seeing in roads at the moment.
02:11 There's been about, I think, 2,500 people
02:13 have been evacuated from their homes.
02:15 Again, all locals or people who have houses there.
02:18 No hotels have been affected so far.
02:20 And the tourism authorities in Greece are playing it down.
02:22 The tourism minister spoke this morning saying,
02:24 she thinks people should still arrive not just to Corfu,
02:27 but to roads as well.
02:28 She's saying, business as usual, come and enjoy your holiday.
02:30 The whole island is not affected.
02:32 It's only affecting about 10% to 20%.
02:34 But obviously, holidaymakers are going
02:36 to have a big decision to make if they have a holiday booked.
02:39 Should they go or should they not?
02:42 Jane, I know you're a former consumer correspondent as well.
02:45 I'm not saying that you'll be completely across what
02:48 consumer rights are here.
02:49 But is it fair to say if you do to go to somewhere
02:53 like roads or Corfu, then you should
02:55 be checking what your rights are and what the situation is?
02:58 Yes, absolutely.
02:59 I mean, the most important thing to do
03:01 is to check with your individual airline or package operator.
03:03 I mean, most of the package operators, 2E and Jet2,
03:06 and even EasyJet Holidays, which is a separate spin-off
03:10 arm from EasyJet Flights.
03:11 It's EasyJet's package holiday.
03:13 They have all said they're not flying to roads
03:16 at the moment for package holidays.
03:18 However, airlines, including EasyJet's flight-only airline,
03:23 they are still flying.
03:24 So if you've got a package, you're probably fine.
03:28 That is just canceled.
03:29 It's not fine for you if you're planning a lovely holiday.
03:31 But you will get your money back.
03:33 You'll be able to rebook the various options available to
03:36 you, check with your operator.
03:38 If you have only a flight and you've booked your own hotel
03:40 or you've booked an Airbnb or something like that,
03:43 the situation might be different.
03:44 Some airlines are saying you've got the right to cancel anyway.
03:47 You can get a refund.
03:48 But others may not.
03:49 We need to check at the moment.
03:51 - Jane, you've been writing plenty about the situation
03:54 in Europe.
03:54 I mean, this has captured all the headlines.
03:56 But if you go to the World tab on the Scotsman site,
03:59 you can read through previous stories from the past week.
04:01 I mean, this has been a sustained heatwave
04:03 that's really hit the whole European continent, hasn't it?
04:06 - Yeah, absolutely.
04:07 I mean, it's not just Europe either.
04:09 You know, other places--
04:09 China had a record temperature quite recently.
04:12 The States has obviously had very, very high temperatures
04:15 in certain areas, especially sort of over on the West Coast.
04:17 So yeah, I mean, it is a sustained problem.
04:20 In Southern Europe, I mean, Italy's
04:22 had hugely high temperatures.
04:25 In some areas, quite unusual for the time of year.
04:27 Spain, people I've spoken to in those places
04:29 have said some days they've just had to stay in their flats
04:32 or hotel rooms or whatever and just not
04:34 leave until the evenings.
04:35 You know, I mean, it's pretty extreme.
04:39 - You can read all the latest on the situation in Rhodes, Corfu,
04:43 and more widely in Europe on scotsman.com.
04:46 Just go to the News and World tab,
04:48 where you'll find news via the navigation page as well.
04:53 Jane will also be covering the latest on the Spanish elections.
04:56 You can read her coverage and her analysis of that
04:59 later today on the website.
05:01 Please go out and pick up a copy of The Scotsman tomorrow,
05:04 and you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram,
05:07 and Twitter.
05:07 We've got some great stories up on the site, including
05:10 hundreds of ghost flights still going out
05:12 of Scottish airports in the first three months of this year.
05:15 Read about that and the latest at the site.
05:18 Thanks very much for joining us.
05:20 [END PLAYBACK]
05:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]