Canadian inferno, Chinese Communist Party, Ethiopia's turning point, Will Zuma go quietly?

They are certainly paying attention in Lytton, British Columbia, a town you would not normally associate with extreme heat. But after breaking Canada's all-time record with a high temperature of 49.5°C on Tuesday, now come the brush fires. The heat dome over the Pacific Northwest extends all the way to the Arctic Circle.

It is gunning to become capitalism's dominant power, while, taking a day on Thursday to celebrate communism. There was plenty of pageantry in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere as China marked 100 years since the day a clandestine meeting of 13 men in Shanghai signalled the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2021, socialism with Chinese characteristics comes with muscle flexing.

Last Monday seems like a long time ago in Ethiopia. It was the day the country's Nobel Peace Prize-winning president staged a delayed general election in most but not all of the country. The government in Addis Ababa announced a unilateral ceasefire in the rebel province of Tigray as the TPLF's armed wing took back the regional capital of Mekele with celebrations in the streets. Note the distress of aid agencies after the destruction of a second bridge on the Tekeze River, aid that has not been allowed through in ten days and phone service and internet to Tigray still cut off. Some 350,000 civilians face the immediate danger of starvation.

Will Jacob Zuma go to jail and will he go quietly? South Africa's highest court has ordered the former president to turn himself in by Sunday to serve 15 months for egregious contempt over his long-running refusal to appear before a corruption inquiry. His supporters, gathering around his ranch in KwaZulu-Natal, call it a political witch-hunt.

Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Juliette Laurain, Léopoldine Iribarren and Jack Colmer Gale.