SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico’s governor met mayors from around the ravaged island on Saturday after surveying damage to an earthen dam in the northwestern part of the US territory that was threatening to collapse from flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Some 70,000 people who live downstream from the compromised dam, which has formed a lake on the rain-swollen Guajataca River, were under orders to evacuate, with the structure in danger of bursting at any time.
“We saw directly the damage to the Guajataca dam,” Governor Ricardo Rossello said in a Spanish-language Twitter message on Saturday while reinforcing his request that people leave the area as soon as possible.
“The fissure has become a significant rupture,” Rossello said separately at a news conference on Saturday.
The US National Weather Service said on its website the dam was still in danger of failing and triggering life-threatening flash floods.
“Stay away or be swept away,” it warned.
Meanwhile, people across the island were struggling to dig out from the devastation left by the storm, which killed at least 25 people, including at least 10 in Puerto Rico, as it churned across the Caribbean, according to officials and media reports.
“To all Puerto Ricans, please know we will get back up,” the governor tweeted as he met mayors in the territory to identify their most urgent needs. “Together with the mayors, as one government.4Puerto Rico“
In a development that could help the recovery effort, the Port of San Juan reopened, according to a Twitter message from the agency that operates it, allowing ships to unload supplies.
Severe flooding, structural damage to homes and virtually no electric power were three of the most pressing problems facing Puerto Ricans, said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo during a tour of the island.
“It’s a terrible immediate situation that requires assistance from the federal government — not just financial assistance,” said Cuomo, whose state is home to millions of people of Puerto Rican descent.
“It is a dangerous situation today and it’s going to be a long-term reconstruction issue for months,” Cuomo, a Democrat and potential 2020 presidential candidate, told CNN.
PATH OF DESTRUCTION
Maria, the second major hurricane to savage the Caribbean this month and the most powerful storm to strike Puerto Rico in nearly a century, carved a path of destruction on Wednesday. It knocked out electricity, apart from emergency generators, on the island of 3.4 million inhabitants.
Near the rain-swollen Guajataca River, in the northwest part of the island, floodwater littered with branches and debris engulfed the first floor of a number of homes and swamped vehicles that were left behind.
“We lost our house, it was completely flooded,” said resident Carmen Gloria Lamb. “We lost everything, cars, clothes, everything.”
The storm has resulted in 10 confirmed fatalities on the island so far, Rossello’s office told CNN on Saturday. The governor’s office could not be reached for comment by Reuters.
Signs of the strain on Puerto Ricans were evident throughout San Juan, the capital.
Drivers had to wait up to seven hours at the few filling stations open on Saturday, according to news reports, and lines of cars snaked for blocks. Hotels warned that guests might have to leave soon without fresh supplies of diesel to keep generators operating.
Water rationing also began on Saturday. Signs posted throughout San Juan’s Old Town informed residents that service would return for two hours each day, between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., until further notice.
Telephone service was also unreliable, with many of the island’s cell towers damaged or destroyed.
People swarmed under some of the towers, holding up their devices in the hopes of getting a signal.
The governor also extended a nightly curfew on Saturday, the Caribbean Business newspaper reported.
At San Juan’s Luis Munoz Marin International Airport, Mary Ann Arciola, her 32-year-old daughter and two young grandchildren slept in a rented van hoping to get a flight home to the United States.
“There’s nobody at the desks. There’s nothing on the screens,” said Arciola, 62. “There’s a ton of people. They are starting to fight. It’s not good.”
DEBT CRISIS
Maria struck Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale as the island was already facing the largest municipal debt crisis in US history.
The storm may have caused an estimated $45 billion in damage and lost economic activity across the Caribbean, with at least $30 billion of that in Puerto Rico, said Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler at Enki Research in Savannah, Georgia.
Elsewhere in the Caribbean, 14 deaths were reported on Dominica, an island nation of 71,000 inhabitants.
Two people were killed in the French territory of Guadeloupe and one in the US Virgin Islands. Two people died in the Dominican Republic on Thursday, according to media outlet El Jaya.
Maria still had sustained winds of up to 115 miles per hour (185 km per hour) on Saturday, making it a Category 3 hurricane, but was expected to weaken gradually over the next two days as it turned more sharply to the north.
Dangerous surf and rip currents driven by the storm were expected along the southeastern coast of the US mainland for several days, the National Hurricane Center said.
Maria hit about two weeks after Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, killed more than 80 people in the Caribbean and the United States. It followed Hurricane Harvey, which also killed more than 80 people when it struck Texas in late August and caused flooding in Houston.
Fears of dam collapse add to Puerto Rico’s misery after hurricane
Fears of dam collapse add to Puerto Rico’s misery after hurricane
Indonesia puts spotlight on Palestine as Jakarta hosts meeting with OIC states
- Delegations representing member countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, attending conference
- Indonesian government sees Palestinian statehood as being mandated by constitution
JAKARTA: Indonesia began hosting a meeting of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States on Monday with a special focus on the situation in Gaza, as Jakarta seeks to strategize efforts for Palestine among Muslim countries.
Representatives from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s member countries are in Jakarta for the 19th Session of the PUIC Conference, which is being hosted by Indonesia’s House of Representatives from May 12-15.
Delegations have arrived from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Malaysia, Morocco, and Egypt, among other countries.
Discussions during the three-day event will cover Palestine and particularly Gaza, where 19 months of Israeli attacks have killed more than 52,000 Palestinians and destroyed much of the territory’s civilian infrastructure, while Tel Aviv continues to block humanitarian aid from entering the enclave.
“I raised Palestine as one of the main topics during the opening session. And everyone agreed to continue fighting for Palestinian independence and to punish Zionist Israel for brutality and genocide,” Mardani Ali Sera, head of the Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation, or BKSAP, said in a statement.
The focus on Palestine had been raised in the weeks leading up to the conference by Indonesian officials, who saw the meeting as an opportunity to coordinate collective action.
“We are all here to talk about the situation in Gaza, how we can help the people of Palestine in various aspects,” BKSAP deputy head Muhammad Husein Fadlulloh said.
“But what’s more important is how we can unite our strategies so that the international community, outside of OIC, will also support this fight.”
A staunch supporter of Palestine, the Indonesian government and its people see Palestinian statehood as being mandated by its own constitution, which calls for the abolition of colonialism.
Since Israel began its assault on Gaza, Indonesians have shown their support of Palestine through a series of mass demonstrations, organized boycotts and solidarity campaigns.
Indonesian Culture Minister Fadli Zon, who hosted a cultural dinner with OIC member states ahead of the start of the conference, is among those calling for more action on Palestine, including a permanent ceasefire.
“Our efforts must also be intensified to champion Palestinian independence and (a) permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” he said in a speech on Sunday, addressing representatives of OIC countries.
“Collective steps to contribute to international peace and security is a necessity, not an option. We must promote the Islamic values of peace and equality, ensuring that the voice of the voiceless are heard, the right to self-determination is fulfilled and that cultural justice triumphs.”
UK veterans break silence on ‘barbaric’ killings in Iraq, Afghanistan
- Unlawful executions ‘became routine,’ ex-special forces members tell BBC
- Veteran: ‘Everyone knew. There was implicit approval for what was happening’
LONDON: British special forces allegedly carried out a pattern of war crimes going back more than a decade to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, former members have told the BBC.
Breaking years of silence to provide eyewitness accounts to the “Panorama” investigative program, multiple veterans reported that their colleagues had killed people in their sleep, executed detainees — including children — and planted weapons to justify the murders.
The two units at the center of the reports are the British Army’s Special Air Service and Royal Navy’s Special Boat Service, the country’s top special forces units.
One SAS veteran who served in Afghanistan said: “They handcuffed a young boy and shot him. He was clearly a child, not even close to fighting age.”
The eyewitness accounts relate to allegations of war crimes that took place more than a decade ago, far longer than the scope of a public inquiry into the allegations now being carried out in the UK, which is examining a three-year period.
The SAS veteran told “Panorama” that the execution of detainees by British special forces “became routine.”
Soldiers would “search someone, handcuff them, then shoot them,” before “planting a pistol” by the body, he added.
British and international law only permits deliberate killing when enemy combatants pose a direct threat to the lives of troops or other people.
An SBS veteran told the program that some troops suffered from a “mob mentality,” causing them to behave “barbarically.”
He added: “I saw the quietest guys switch, show serious psychopathic traits. They were lawless. They felt untouchable.”
The “Panorama” investigation includes witness testimony from more than 30 people who served with or alongside British special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Another SAS veteran said: “Sometimes we’d check we’d identified the target, confirm their ID, then shoot them. Often the squadron would just go and kill all the men they found there.”
Killing became “an addictive thing to do,” another SAS Afghanistan veteran said, adding that some soldiers in the elite regiment were “intoxicated by that feeling.”
He said: “On some operations, the troops would go into guesthouse-type buildings and kill everyone there.
“They’d go in and shoot everyone sleeping there, on entry. It’s not justified, killing people in their sleep.”
One veteran recalled an execution in Iraq, saying: “It was pretty clear from what I could glean that he posed no threat, he wasn’t armed. It’s disgraceful. There’s no professionalism in that.”
Awareness of the alleged war crimes was not confined to individual units or teams, veterans told “Panorama.”
Within the command structure of the British special forces, “everyone knew” what was taking place, one veteran said.
“I’m not taking away from personal responsibility, but everyone knew,” he added. “There was implicit approval for what was happening.”
In order to cover up the killings, some SAS and SBS members went as far as carrying “drop weapons,” such as Kalashnikovs, to plant at the scene of executions.
These would be photographed alongside the dead and included in post-operational reports, which were often falsified.
One veteran said: “We understood how to write up serious incident reviews so they wouldn’t trigger a referral to the military police.
“If it looked like a shooting could represent a breach of the rules of conflict, you’d get a phone call from the legal adviser or one of the staff officers in HQ.
“They’d pick you up on it and help you to clarify the language. ‘Do you remember someone making a sudden move?’ ‘Oh yeah, I do now.’ That sort of thing. It was built into the way we operated.”
The investigation also revealed that David Cameron, UK prime minister at the time of the alleged war crimes, was repeatedly warned about the killings by then-Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
He “consistently, repeatedly mentioned this issue,” former Afghan National Security Adviser Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta told the program.
Gen. Douglas Lute, a former US ambassador to NATO, said Karzai was “so consistent with his complaints about night raids, civilian casualties and detentions that there was no senior Western diplomat or military leader who would have missed the fact that this was a major irritant for him.”
In response to the gathering of new witness testimony by “Panorama,” the UK’s Ministry of Defense said it is “fully committed” to supporting the public inquiry into the alleged war crimes. It urged all veterans with knowledge relating to the allegations to come forward.
US, China agree to slash tariffs in trade war de-escalation
- The United States and China announced Monday an agreement to drastically reduce tit-for-tat tariffs for 90 days
GENEVA: The United States and China announced Monday an agreement to drastically reduce tit-for-tat tariffs for 90 days, de-escalating a trade war that has roiled financial markets and raised fears of a global economic downturn.
After their first talks since US President Donald Trump launched his trade war, the world’s two biggest economies agreed in a joint statement to bring their triple-digit tariffs down to two figures and continue negotiations.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the weekend talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and international trade representative Li Chenggang as “productive” and “robust.”
“Both sides showed a great respect,” Bessent told reporters.
US President Donald Trump had imposed duties of 145 percent on imports for China last month — compared to 10 percent for other countries in the global tariff blitz he launched last month.
Beijing hit back with duties of 125 percent on US goods.
Bessent said the two sides agreed to reduce those tariffs by 115 percentage points, taking US tariffs to 30 percent and those by China to 10 percent.
In their statement, the two sides agreed to “establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations.”
China hailed the “substantial progress” made at the talks.
“This move... is in the interest of the two countries and the common interest of the world,” the Chinese commerce ministry said, adding that it hoped Washington would keep working with China “to correct the wrong practice of unilateral tariff rises.”
The dollar, which tumbled after Trump launched his tariff blitz in April, rallied on the news while US stock futures soared. European and Asian markets also rallied.
The trade dispute between Washington and Beijing has rocked financial markets, raising fears the tariffs would rekindle inflation and cause a global economic downturn.
The head of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, praised the talks on Sunday as a “significant step forward” that “bode well for the future.”
“Amid current global tensions, this progress is important not only for the US and China but also for the rest of the world, including the most vulnerable economies,” she added.
Ahead of the meeting at the discreet villa residence of Switzerland’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Trump had signalled he might lower the tariffs, suggesting on social media that an “80 percent Tariff on China seems right!“
However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that the United States would not lower tariffs unilaterally, saying China would also need to make concessions.
The Geneva meeting came days after Trump unveiled a trade agreement with Britain, the first with any country since he unleashed his blitz of global tariffs.
The five-page, nonbinding deal confirmed to nervous investors that Washington was willing to negotiate sector-specific relief from recent duties.
But Trump maintained a 10 percent levy on most British goods, and threatened to keep it in place as a baseline rate for most other countries.
UK govt toughens immigration plans as hard-right gains
- Document includes plans to cut overseas care workers and increase to 10 years length of time people will have to live in UK before qualifying for settlement, citizenship
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed Monday to “finally take back control” of Britain’s borders as his government unveiled policies designed to reduce legal immigration and fend off rising support for the hard right.
Labour leader Starmer announced he was ending an “experiment in open borders” that saw net migration rise to nearly one million people under the previous Conservative government, which lost last year’s general election.
The government’s Immigration White Paper policy document includes plans to cut overseas care workers and increase from five to 10 years the length of time people will have to live in UK before qualifying for settlement and citizenship.
English language rules will also be strengthened, with all adult dependents required to demonstrate a basic understanding, while the length of time students can stay in the UK after completing their studies will be reduced.
Starmer said the policies would “finally take back control of our borders,” recalling the pro-Brexit slogan used at the height of the campaign to leave the European Union in 2016.
Labour vowed in its general election manifesto last year to significantly reduce net migration, which stood at 728,000 in the 12 months to last June.
It had peaked at 906,000 in 2023 after averaging 200,000 for most of the 2010s.
Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who voted for the UK to remain part of the EU, is under renewed pressure to tackle immigration following the anti-immigration Reform party’s gains in recent local elections.
Arch-Euroskeptic Nigel Farage’s party won more than 670 local council seats as well as its first two mayoral posts. It is also riding high in national polls, while Labour is struggling.
However, Starmer’s tack to the right on immigration risks alienating Labour’s large base of liberal supporters, with the Liberal Democrats and the Greens picking up votes on the left.
The premier said that migrants “make a massive contribution” to Britain but alleged the country risks becoming an “island of strangers” without more controls.
He added that he wanted net migration to have fallen “significantly” by the next election, likely in 2029, but refused say by how much.
“Every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study, will be tightened up so we have more control,” he told reporters at a Downing Street press conference.
The white paper also includes new powers to deport foreigners who commit offenses in the country.
Currently, the government is only informed of foreign nationals who receive prison sentences.
Under the new arrangements all foreign nationals convicted of offenses will be flagged to the government.
“The system for returning foreign criminals has been far too weak for too long,” interior minister Yvette Cooper said on Sunday. “We need much higher standards.”
The paper also includes new visa controls requiring foreign skilled workers to have a university degree to secure a job in the UK.
And to reduce lower skilled migration Cooper has said she aims to cut 50,000 lower-skilled worker visas this year.
On the plans to double the length of time before migrants can make settlement or citizenship requests, high-skilled individuals “who play by the rules and contribute to the economy” could be fast-tracked, according to Downing Street.
Starmer said Britain has “had a system that encourages businesses to bring in lower-paid workers, rather than invest in our young people.”
Care England, a charity representing the adult care sector, said the decision to close social care visas to new applications from abroad was a “crushing blow to an already fragile sector.”
“International recruitment wasn’t a silver bullet but it was a lifeline. Taking it away now, with no warning, no funding and no alternative is not just short-sighted — it’s cruel,” said chief executive Martin Green.
Starmer is also under pressure to stop the flow of migrants crossing the Channel from France to England on flimsy rubber dinghies.
More than 36,800 made the journey last year, according to British government figures, with several dozen dying.
Separate legislation to tackle irregular immigration, called the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, is currently going through parliament.
India great Virat Kohli retires from test cricket
- Kohli, 36, announces retirement only days after Rohit Sharma stepped down from test cricket as well
- He scored 9,230 runs including 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries at a test batting average of 46.85
NEW DELHI, India: India great Virat Kohli retired from test cricket Monday after playing 123 matches in his glorious 14-year red-ball career.
“As I step away from this format, it’s not easy — but it feels right,” Kohli posted on Instagram. “It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It’s tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I’ll carry for life.”
The 36-year-old Kohli’s retirement comes only days after Rohit Sharma stepped down from test cricket, taking two senior batters out of selection contention for India’s tour to England.
Kohli scored 9,230 runs including 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries at a test batting average of 46.85. He also led India in 68 test matches and was India’s most successful captain with 40 test wins.
Kohli said the traditions and ebbs and flows of the five-day format were special to him, including “the quiet grind, the long days, the small moments that no one sees but that stay with you forever.”
“I am walking away with a heart full of gratitude — for the game, for the people I shared the field with, and for every single person who made me feel seen along the way,” he wrote. “I will always look back at my test career with a smile. #269, signing off.”
