The Scotsman Bulletin Monday July 24 2023

The Scotsman

Transcript

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.

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