Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town

Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town
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King Felipe VI of Spain and his delegation visit Paiporta, in Spain's eastern region of Valencia, on Nov. 3, 2024, in the aftermath of devastating deadly floods. (AFP)
Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town
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Angry residents heckle and hrow mud and objects as King Felipe VI of Spain visits Paiporta, in Spain's eastern region of Valencia, on Nov. 3, 2024, in the aftermath of devastating deadly floods. (AFP)
Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town
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Police restrain protesters during a visit of Spain's King Felipe, following heavy rains that caused floods, in Paiporta, in Spain's eastern region of Valencia, on Nov. 3, 2024, in the aftermath of devastating deadly floods. (Reuters)
Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town
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Spain's King Felipe and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez shake hands as they visit the areas affected by the DANA, following heavy rains that caused floods, in Paiporta, in the eastern region of Valencia, on Nov. 3, 2024. (Casa de S.M. el Rey/Jose Jimenez/Handout via REUTERS)
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Updated 04 November 2024
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Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town

Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town
  • Nasty protest underscored the fury over the response to the disaster that has now killed at least 217 people with many more still missing
  • Most of the fury seemed directed at Prime Minister Sanchez and Valencia regional government head
  • Spanish media later reported of the possible involvement of far-right groups during the incident

VALENCIA, Spain: Furious locals hurled mud and insults at Spain’s king, queen and prime minister on Sunday in a startling show of anger in the worst hit town in the flood disaster that has killed more than 210 people.
More heavy rain fell on the Valencia region after King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were forced to leave Paiporta where more than 70 people died in floods last Tuesday.

Mud hit the monarchs in the face and clothes as they tried to calm the angry crowd in scenes that underscored the fury over the response to the disaster that has now killed at least 217 people with many more still missing.
 

 

The king and queen went to a crisis center in Paiporta. But extra security guards soon had to keep the angry crowd, shouting “murders,” away from the royals and prime minister. They put up umbrellas to stop mud hitting the royal couple.
The king said later that Spain had to “understand the anger and frustration” of people affected by the devastation to towns where cars have been left in muddy heaps in streets.

In a social media video, the king called on the public to give the victims “hope and their guarantee that the state in its entirety is present.”
Most of the fury seemed directed at Prime Minister Sanchez and Valencia regional government head Carlos Mazon.
“I understand the social anger and of course, I’m here to receive it. This is my political and moral obligation,” Mazon said in a post on X.
 




Queen Letizia of Spain (L) talks with a person as angry residents heckled during the Spanish royal couple's visit to Paiporta on Nov. 3, 2024. (AFP)

The rear window of Sanchez’s car was broken before he and the local politicians quickly left. The socialist leader said that while he empathized with the “anguish and suffering” of the victims, he condemned “all forms of violence.”
Spanish media later reported of the possible involvement of far-right groups during the incident. Sanchez’s deputy Maria Jesus Montero reacted to the allegations on X, saying “We will not allow radical groups to profit from people’s pain.”
Spain’s meteorological agency issued a “red alert” for new storms in the Valencia region on Sunday and heavy rain started falling in the night.
Police using megaphones urged Valencia residents to stay in their homes. While the alert was later downgraded, schools in Valencia were to remain closed Monday.

Authorities have come under fire over the lack of warnings before the floods and the slow reaction after.
“I am aware the response is not enough, there are problems and severe shortages ... towns buried by mud, desperate people searching for their relatives ... we have to improve,” Sanchez said.
With an extra 10,000 troops, police and civil guards sent to the Valencia region, Spain has now ordered its largest peacetime military and security force deployment, Sanchez said.
“Thank you to the people who have come to help us, to all of them, because from the authorities: nothing,” a furious Estrella Caceres, 66, told AFP in the town of Sedavi.
In Chiva, restaurant owner Danna Daniella said she was still in shock, haunted by memories of people trapped by the raging floods “asking for help and there was nothing we could do.”
“It drives you crazy. You look for answers and you don’t find them.”




Soldiers clean a street covered in mud in Massanassa, near Valencia, Spain, on Nov. 3, 2024. (REUTERS)

Transport Minister Oscar Puente told El Pais daily that certain places would probably remain inaccessible by land for weeks.
An army of volunteers with food, water and cleaning equipment have played a key role in the recovery, though authorities have urged people to stay home to avoid congestion.
On Sunday, the Valencia government limited the number of volunteers authorized to travel to the city’s southern suburbs to 2,000 and restricted access to 12 localities.
Despite this thousands made their way to stricken communes on foot, carrying brooms and shovels.




Locals and volunteers remove muddy water on Nov. 1, 2024, after a flooding devastated the town of Paiporta, in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain. (AFP)

Storms coming off the Mediterranean are common this time of year. But scientists have warned that climate change is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of extreme weather events.
Emergency services on Sunday listed 213 dead in the Valencia region, one in Andalusia in the south and three in Castilla-La Mancha neighboring Valencia.
Authorities have warned the toll could rise as vehicles trapped in tunnels and underground car parks are cleared.
 


Concern grows over rise in fatal migrant shipwrecks in Greece

Concern grows over rise in fatal migrant shipwrecks in Greece
Updated 7 sec ago
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Concern grows over rise in fatal migrant shipwrecks in Greece

Concern grows over rise in fatal migrant shipwrecks in Greece
  • UNHCR representative: ‘Counting lives lost at sea cannot become a norm’

ATHENS: The UN refugee agency has voiced concern at a rise in deaths of migrants trying to reach Greece by sea in small boats from Turkiye, following two fatal shipwrecks this week.

The UNHCR said in a statement Friday that 17 people have died in such accidents this month, while the total so far this year is at least 45 deaths.

Some 56,000 people have illegally entered Greece since Jan. 1, mostly by sea. That’s a five-year high, and the number has already exceeded government estimates of some 50,000 arrivals by the year’s end in October.

The UNHCR representative in Greece, Maria Clara Martin, said the migrant deaths “highlight the urgent need for long-term responses and safer and credible alternatives” for people fleeing conflict, persecution, violence, or human rights violations.

“Counting lives lost at sea cannot become a norm — we should not get used to it,” she said.

The UN agency said that this week’s two fatal accidents off the eastern Aegean Sea island of Samos, which is close to the Turkish coast, saw a mother lose three of her children, while another survivor lost his wife and daughter.

Greek authorities have attributed this year’s rise in migrant arrivals to conflicts in the Middle East. 

While there’s been a surge in people attempting the long and dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Libya to the southern Greek island of Crete, most migrants pay smuggling gangs to ferry them from Turkiye to the eastern Aegean islands.

On Friday, the Greek coast guard said it arrested a 17-year-old Turkish youth on suspicion of having landed 16 migrants — including three children — on the eastern island of Chios.

Tunisia and Libya have become vital departure points for migrants, often from other African countries, who risk perilous Mediterranean Sea journeys in the hopes of reaching better lives in Europe.

Each year, tens of thousands of people attempt to make the crossing. Italy, whose Lampedusa island is only 150 km from Tunisia, is often their first port of call.

In the latest incident reported on Friday, two unidentified bodies were recovered off Tunisia’s eastern coast after a migrant boat capsized, with one person still missing and 28 rescued.

The boat had set sail from Teboulba, a coastal town some 180 km south of Tunis.

In late October, the bodies of 15 people believed to be migrants were recovered by authorities in Monastir, eastern Tunisia.

And in late September, 36 would-be migrants — mainly Tunisians — were rescued off Bizerte in northern Tunisia.

Since Jan. 1, at least 103 makeshift boats have capsized, and 341 bodies have been recovered off Tunisia’s coast, according to the Interior Ministry.


Kenyan, Ugandan presidents to mediate Ethiopia-Somalia dispute

Kenyan, Ugandan presidents to mediate Ethiopia-Somalia dispute
Updated 3 min 45 sec ago
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Kenyan, Ugandan presidents to mediate Ethiopia-Somalia dispute

Kenyan, Ugandan presidents to mediate Ethiopia-Somalia dispute
  • Somaliland has struggled to gain international recognition despite governing itself and enjoying comparative peace and stability since declaring independence in 1991

NAIROBI: Kenya’s President William Ruto said on Saturday he and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni would help mediate a dispute between Ethiopia and Somalia, threatening the region’s stability.

Landlocked Ethiopia, which has thousands of troops in Somalia to fight Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents, has fallen out with the Mogadishu government over its plans to build a port in the breakaway region of Somaliland in exchange for possible recognition of its sovereignty.

Somaliland has struggled to gain international recognition despite governing itself and enjoying comparative peace and stability since declaring independence in 1991.

The spat has drawn Somalia closer to Egypt, which has quarreled with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s construction of a vast hydro dam on the Nile River, and Eritrea, another of Ethiopia’s foes.

Somaliland has struggled to gain international recognition despite governing itself and enjoying comparative peace and stability since declaring independence in 1991.

“Because the security of Somalia ... contributes significantly to the stability of our region, and the environment for investors, business people, and entrepreneurs to thrive,” he told a news conference.

Several attempts to resolve the feud in Ankara, Turkiye, failed to make a breakthrough.

Ethiopia’s government and foreign affairs spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Somalia’s foreign minister could not immediately be reached by Reuters.

The government of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubbaland state said earlier it was suspending relations and cooperation with the federal government in Mogadishu following a dispute over regional elections.

Jubbaland, which borders Kenya and Ethiopia and is one of Somalia’s five semi-autonomous states, reelected regional president Ahmed Mohammed Islam Madobe for a third term in elections on Monday.

However, the national government based in Mogadishu, led by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, opposed the election, saying it was held without federal involvement.


Russian missile strike on central Ukraine kills 4: Zelensky

Russian missile strike on central Ukraine kills 4: Zelensky
Updated 25 min 56 sec ago
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Russian missile strike on central Ukraine kills 4: Zelensky

Russian missile strike on central Ukraine kills 4: Zelensky
  • More than a dozen others were wounded, including a child
  • “A rescue operation is currently underway in the Dnipro region,” Zelensky said

KYIV: A Russian missile strike on a town in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region on Saturday killed at least four people, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
More than a dozen others were wounded, including a child, while a residential building and shop were damaged, according to officials.
“A rescue operation is currently underway in the Dnipro region after the missile strike. As of now, it is known that four people were killed,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
Tsarychanka is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the region’s capital Dnipro.
The town had a population of around 7,000 people before the war.
The nearly three-year conflict has seen a sharp escalation in recent days, with Moscow pummelling Ukrainian towns and cities ahead of the winter.
Russia launched more than a hundred drones at Ukraine on Friday, a day after knocking out power to more than a million people with strikes on energy infrastructure.


Zelensky says NATO offer for Ukraine-controlled territory could end ‘hot stage’ of war

Zelensky says NATO offer for Ukraine-controlled territory could end ‘hot stage’ of war
Updated 30 November 2024
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Zelensky says NATO offer for Ukraine-controlled territory could end ‘hot stage’ of war

Zelensky says NATO offer for Ukraine-controlled territory could end ‘hot stage’ of war
  • “You can’t give an invitation to just one part of a country,” the Ukrainian president said
  • “So legally, by law, we have no right to recognize the occupied territory as territory of Russia”

KYIV: An offer of NATO membership to territory under Kyiv’s control would end “the hot stage of the war” in Ukraine, but any proposal to join the military alliance should be extended to all parts of the country that fall under internationally recognized borders, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a broadcast interview.
Zelensky’s remarks on Friday signaled a possible way forward to the difficult path Ukraine faces to future NATO membership. At their summit in Washington in July, the 32 members declared Ukraine on an “irreversible” path to membership. However, one obstacle to moving forward has been the view that Ukraine’s borders would need to be clearly demarcated before it could join so that there can be no mistaking where the alliance’s pact of mutual defense would come into effect.
“You can’t give an invitation to just one part of a country,” the Ukrainian president said in an excerpt of the interview with Sky News, dubbed by the UK broadcaster. “Why? Because thus you would recognize that Ukraine is only that territory of Ukraine and the other one is Russia.”
Under the Ukrainian constitution, Ukraine cannot recognize territory occupied by Russia as Russian.
“So legally, by law, we have no right to recognize the occupied territory as territory of Russia,” he said.
Since the start of the war in 2022, Russia has been expending huge amounts of weaponry and human life to make small-but-steady territorial gains to the nearly one-fifth of Ukraine it already controls in east and southern Ukraine.
“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under the NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control. That’s what we need to do, fast. And then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically,” he said.
An invitation for Ukraine to join NATO is one key point of Zelensky’s “victory plan”, which he presented to Western allies and the Ukrainian people in October. The plan is seen as a way for Ukraine to strengthen its hand in any negotiations with Moscow.
Earlier this week, NATO’s new Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the alliance “needs to go further” to support Ukraine in its fight against a Russian invasion. Military aid to Kyiv and steps toward ending the war are expected to be high on the agenda when NATO members’ foreign ministers meet in Brussels for a two-day gathering starting on December 3.
However, any decision for Ukraine to join the military alliance would require a lengthier process and the agreement of all member states.
There is also uncertainty as to the foreign policy stance of President-elect Donald Trump. While Trump vowed on the campaign trail to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a single day, he has not publicly discussed how this could happen. Trump also announced Wednesday that Keith Kellogg, an 80-year-old, highly decorated retired three-star general, would serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia.
In April, Kellog wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.”
Meanwhile, during his only campaign debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump twice refused to directly answer a question about whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war — raising concerns that Kyiv could be forced to accept unfavorable terms in any negotiations.
Zelensky’s statement comes as Ukraine faces increasing pressure along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) frontline. In its latest report, the Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said Saturday that Russian forces had recently advanced near Kupiansk, in Toretsk, and near Pokrovsk and Velyka Novosilka, a key logistics route for the Ukrainian military.
Ukraine’s air force announced Saturday that the country had come under attack from ten Russian drones, of which eight were shot down over the Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kherson regions. One drone returned to Russian-occupied territory, while the final drone disappeared from radar, often a sign of the use of electronic defenses.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 11 Ukrainian drones had been shot down by the country’s air defense systems. Both the mayor of Sochi, Andrey Proshunin, and the head of Russia’s Dagestan region, Sergey Melikov, both in Russia’s southwest, said that drones had been destroyed in their regions overnight. No casualties were reported.
On Friday, the Ukrainian president announced a number of changes to military leadership, saying that changes in personnel management were needed to improve the situation on the battlefield.
General Mykhailo Drapatyi, who led the defense of Kharkiv during Russia’s new offensive on Ukraine’s second-largest city this year, was appointed the new head of Ukraine’s Ground Forces. Oleh Apostol was named as the new Deputy Commander-in-Chief responsible for improving military training.
Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi also announced Friday that he would bolster units in Donetsk, Pokrovsk and Kurakhove with additional reserves, ammunition, weapons and military equipment.


North Korean leader calls for expanding his nuclear forces in the face of alleged US threats

North Korean leader calls for expanding his nuclear forces in the face of alleged US threats
Updated 30 November 2024
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North Korean leader calls for expanding his nuclear forces in the face of alleged US threats

North Korean leader calls for expanding his nuclear forces in the face of alleged US threats
  • Kim Jong Un condemns the US for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea
  • He also criticized American support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un renewed his call for a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program to counter US-led threats in comments reported Monday that were his first direct criticism toward Washington since Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election.
At a conference with army officials on Friday, Kim condemned the United States for updating its nuclear deterrence strategies with South Korea and solidifying three-way military cooperation involving Japan, which he portrayed as an “Asian NATO” that was escalating tensions and instability in the region.
Kim also criticized the United States over its support of Ukraine against a prolonged Russian invasion. He insisted that Washington and its Western allies were using Ukraine as their “shock troops” to wage a war against Moscow and expand the scope of US military influence, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
Kim has prioritized his country’s ties to Russia in recent months, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and displaying a united front in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.
He has used Russia’s war on Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate the development of his nuclear-armed military, which now has various nuclear-capable systems targeting South Korea and intercontinental ballistic missiles that can potentially reach the US mainland.
Kim has yet to directly acknowledge that he has been providing military equipment and troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine and the KCNA’s report didn’t mention whether Kim made any comments toward Trump, whose election win has yet to be reported in the North’s state media.
Kim met Trump three times in 2018 and 2019 in Trump’s first presidency, but their diplomacy quickly collapsed over disagreements in exchanging the release of US-led sanctions and North Korean steps to wind down its nuclear and missile program. North Korea has since suspended any meaningful talks with Washington and Seoul as Kim ramped up his testing activity and military demonstrations in the face of what he portrayed as “gangster-like US threats.” There’s concern in Seoul that Kim in exchange for his military support of Russia would receive Russian technology in return to further develop his arsenal.
Trump’s election win has touched off speculation about a resumption of a summit-driven diplomacy with Kim, which was described by critics as a “bromance.” But some experts say a quick return to 2018 is highly unlikely, as too much has changed about the regional security situation and broader geopolitics since then.
While the North Korean nuclear problem was relatively an independent issue during Trump’s first term, it is now connected with broader challenges created by Russia’s war on Ukraine and further complicated by weakened sanctions enforcement against Pyongyang, Hwang Ildo, a professor at South Korea’s National Diplomatic Academy, wrote in a study last week.
North Korea’s nuclear and missile program is now much more advanced, which would increase Kim’s perception of his bargaining powers. Kim’s efforts to boost North Korea’s presence in a united front against Washington could also gain strength if Trump spikes tariffs and rekindles a trade war with China, the North’s main ally and economic lifeline, Hwang said.
Amid the stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations with Washington, Kim has been dialing up pressure on South Korea, abandoning his country’s long-standing goal of inter-Korean reconciliation and verbally threatening to attack the South with nukes if provoked.
Kim has also engaged in psychological and electronic warfare against South Korea, such as flying thousands of balloons to drop trash in the South and disrupting GPS signals from border areas near the South’s biggest airport.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea again flew trash-laden balloons toward the South early Monday and issued a statement warning the North “not to test our military’s patience any further.” The North has launched about 7,000 balloons toward the South since May, causing property damage but so far no injuries. On at least two occasions, trash carried by North Korea’s balloons fell on Seoul’s presidential compound, raising concerns about the vulnerability of key sites.