PARIS: A boat carrying migrants ripped apart in the English Channel as they attempted to reach Britain from northern France on Tuesday, plunging dozens into the treacherous waterway and leaving 12 dead, authorities said.
Many didn’t have life preservers in what one official called the deadliest migrant accident in the channel this year.
“Unfortunately, the bottom of the boat ripped open,” said Olivier Barbarin, mayor of Le Portel near the fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, where a first aid post was set up to treat victims. “If people don’t know how to swim in the agitated waters ... it can go very quickly.”
The mayor said 12 died after initially giving a toll of 13. Lt. Etienne Baggio, a spokesman for the French agency that oversees that stretch of sea, said rescuers pulled a total of 65 people from the waters in a search operation that lasted more than four hours. Doctors confirmed 12 died, he said.
Baggio called it the deadliest migrant boat tragedy in the English Channel this year. In July, four migrants died while attempting the crossing on an inflatable boat that capsized and punctured. Five others, including a child, in another attempt in April. And five dead were recovered from the seas or found washed up along a beach after a migrant boat ran into difficulties in the dark and winter cold of January.
Many of those aboard the vessel that broke up in the English Channel on Tuesday didn’t have life vests, Baggio said. It was not immediately clear what kind of boat it was. Three helicopters, a plane, two fishing boats and more than six other vessels were involved in the rescue operation.
In another sea tragedy Tuesday involving migrants seeking a better life in Europe, a boat carrying migrants capsized off the Libyan coast, leaving one person dead and 22 missing, Libyan authorities said.
The agency overseeing the rescue operation in the English Channel said the boat got into difficulty off Gris-Nez point between Boulogne-sur-Mer and the port of Calais further north. Sea temperatures off northern France were around 20 degrees C, or about 68 F.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin went to Boulogne-sur-Mer to meet those involved in handling what he described as the “terrible shipwreck.” He said the boat was frail and small — less than 7 meters (23 feet) long — and that smugglers are packing more and more people aboard such vessels.
Last week, the leaders of France and Britain agreed to deepen cooperation on illegal migration in the channel.
UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called it “a horrifying and deeply tragic incident” and paid tribute to French rescuers “who undoubtedly saved many lives, but sadly could not save everyone.”
“The gangs behind this appalling and callous trade in human lives have been cramming more and more people onto increasingly unseaworthy dinghies, and sending them out into the Channel even in very poor weather,” she said.
“They do not care about anything but the profits they make, and that is why — as well as mourning the awful loss of life — the work to dismantle these dangerous and criminal smuggler gangs and to strengthen border security is so vital and must proceed apace.”
Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have been pushing them north.
At least 30 migrants have died or gone missing while trying to cross to the UK this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. That figure doesn’t include the latest deaths.
At least 2,109 migrants have tried to cross the English Channel on small boats in the past seven days, according to UK Home Office data updated Tuesday. The data includes people found in the channel or on arrival.
A boat with dozens of migrants rips apart in the English Channel off France, killing 12
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A boat with dozens of migrants rips apart in the English Channel off France, killing 12
- “Unfortunately, the bottom of the boat ripped open,” said Olivier Barbarin, mayor of Le Portel near the fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer
- “If people don’t know how to swim in the agitated waters ... it can go very quickly“
Released Indian opposition leader Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister
- Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party quickly rose to mainstream politics
NEW DELHI: Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday he will resign as chief minister of the Delhi regional government, a day after he was released from prison on bail in a graft case. Kejriwal was granted bail on Friday by India’s Supreme Court and left prison on Saturday almost six months after being detained in relation to alleged irregularities in the capital city’s liquor policy.
Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) quickly rose to mainstream politics, although its clout is relatively small compared to older opposition parties.
AAP had expected that Kejriwal’s release from prison would allow him to campaign as a chief minister in regional elections next month in the northern state of Haryana, and in Delhi early next year.
Kejriwal, announcing his resignation as chief minister at a meeting with AAP workers, said he would only return to the post if people certify his honesty by voting for him in the upcoming Delhi election. He called on the Election Commission to bring forward the Delhi election to November, from February 2025.
“I demand elections be held in November with Maharashtra elections, I demand the elections be held immediately,” Kejriwal said.
He was first taken into custody in March by India’s financial crime-fighting agency, weeks before the country’s national elections, in relation to Delhi’s liquor policy.
Although he was granted bail in that case in July, he remained in detention due to his arrest the previous month by the federal police in another graft case related to the same policy.
Kejriwal, 55, and AAP deny the allegations and say the cases are “politically motivated.”
Student at a Japan university shaves her head to support Palestinians
- ITO Risa is a University student in Japan who joined the Palestine Solidarity Camp,
- Her protest is part of a worldwide movement among students at various universities with the aim of encouraging and supporting those who are being oppressed
TOKYO: A Japanese female university student has shaved her head as a sign of solidarity with campaigning students in the United States who have been attacked for supporting the people of Palestine and Gaza.
ITO Risa is a University student in Japan who joined the Palestine Solidarity Camp, and her protest is part of a worldwide movement among students at various universities with the aim of encouraging and supporting those who are being oppressed.
“I wanted to highlight the connection between the genocide in Gaza and the genocide of the Holocaust,” Risa told Arab News Japan. “When I thought about a symbol of the Holocaust, I considered an image of a Jewish man and woman being shaved. By referencing this image, I aimed to re-enact the death of Jews in the Holocaust and by wearing the kufiya to connect these two narratives.”
Risa said students supporting Palestine at Columbia University had been attacked by Zionists, but she made it clear that she and her colleagues are not discriminating against Jews, only the actions of Israel and Zionism. But the main thrust of her protest was to support the Palestinians.
“To the people of Gaza and the Palestinians suffering in Palestine, you are not alone,” she said. “There are many people who want to support you. Many are working together with Palestinians all over the world, including in Japan. We are standing together with Palestinians.”
“I hope this circle of support will continue to grow. I also hope that those watching this video will join this circle, and that it will continue to expand. I believe that resolving the crisis in Palestine will lead to the recovery and empowerment of Palestinians.”
Why Philippines tops ranking of disaster risk countries
- Archipelago nation of 120 million people has faced five typhoons since May
- Country heads 2024 World Risk Index, which breaks down disaster risk of 193 countries
MANILA: The Philippines is the country most at risk from natural disasters, the 2024 World Risk Report shows, with environmentalists highlighting sluggish climate action amid worsening and extreme weather conditions.
The archipelago nation of nearly 120 million people is no stranger to natural disasters, with millions of people often displaced during annual storms and typhoons, which have been made more unpredictable and extreme by the changing climate.
For the third year in a row, the Philippines tops the report’s World Risk Index, which breaks down the disaster risk of 193 countries.
Published by Germany-based research institute IFHV and the alliance of development organizations Bundnis Entwicklung Hilft, this year’s top five most at-risk countries include Indonesia, India, Colombia and Mexico.
“It is definitely a worsening and concerning trend. There are noticeable extreme weather conditions, heat during the summers have been record-breaking, seasons have been unpredictable, there have been high intensity and (high) frequency typhoons,” Ann Dumaliang, a Filipino conservationist and managing trustee of Masungi Georeserve, told Arab News.
“In the Philippines, it is no longer vulnerable communities that are affected. It’s now felt widely across the nation — schools need to be canceled, heatstroke patients overwhelm emergency rooms, in addition to devastating floods.”
This month, more than a dozen people were killed when Typhoon Yagi, known locally as Enteng, passed central and northern Philippines, before it wreaked havoc in southern China and parts of Vietnam and Thailand.
For Filipinos, it is the fifth tropical storm to hit their country since May.
It is more accurate to describe natural disasters as geographical realities, Dumailang said, which for the Philippines are multifold due to its archipelagic nature and location in the “Ring of Fire,” the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
Those aspects intersect with “man-made causes that lead to continuous environment degradation and poor infrastructure,” and are further “exacerbated by lack of political willpower to make the necessary interventions at the right time,” she added.
John Leo Algo, national coordinator of Aksiyon Klima Pilipinas, a leading civil society network for climate action, said the country’s vulnerability to natural disasters has got worse over time.
“The Philippines’ vulnerability to the climate crisis is worsening because of a combination of more extreme impacts and the lack of capacity to address them. There really is no such thing as a ‘natural disaster’; disasters, by definition, occur when stakeholders do not properly prepare against an impending hazard,” Algo said.
The country’s vulnerability can be traced to insufficient local understanding of the climate crisis and its effects, delays and incoherence in climate policy development, as well as issues with funding and support to implement climate solutions, he added.
Resolving the issue would require “every sector, every stakeholder, and every community” to be prepared to address the effects of the climate crisis.
For now, the Philippines’ National Adaptation Plan and Nationally Determined Contribution Implementation Plan, new mechanisms adopted in an effort to address climate change, “are crucial to reduce the country’s risk to the climate crisis,” Algo said.
“But a lot of work still has to be done, especially in improving its inclusion of communities and civil society groups in both the decision-making and implementation process.”
New Delhi’s chief minister announces resignation two days after he was released on bail
- Arvind Kejriwal, a fierce Modi critic, was arrested nearly six months ago ahead of elections
- Kejriwal said his party will hold a meeting later to decide who will take over his position
NEW DELHI: One of India’s main opposition figures and New Delhi’s chief minister said he would resign from office Sunday, two days after he was granted bail in a bribery case.
Arvind Kejriwal, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was arrested nearly six months ago ahead of national elections on charges of receiving bribes from a liquor distributor. India’s top court released him on bail Friday.
Kejriwal has consistently denied the accusations and called them a political conspiracy.
“Today I have come to ask the public whether you consider Kejriwal honest or a criminal,” he said in a public address Sunday at the headquarters of his Aam Aadmi Party, which governs New Delhi. “I will resign from the post of chief minister two days from today.”
Kejriwal said his party — a part of a broad alliance of opposition parties called INDIA and was the main challenger to Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in June’s elections — will hold a meeting later to decide who will take over his position.
He also demanded the New Delhi elections, scheduled for February next year, be held in November instead.
Opposition parties widely condemned Kejriwal’s arrest. They accused Modi’s government of misusing federal investigation agencies to harass and weaken its political opponents. They pointed to several raids, arrests, and corruption investigations of key opposition figures in the months before the elections.
Kejriwal’s supporters celebrated his release by lighting firecrackers and dancing in the rain outside his New Delhi residence, with many carrying placards with photos of the popular politician.
Some leaders from Modi’s party warned that he was released on bail and not acquitted.
Government agencies have accused Kejriwal’s party and ministers of accepting 1 billion rupees ($12 million) in bribes from a liquor distributor nearly two years ago in return for revising a liquor sales policy in New Delhi, allowing private companies greater profits.
Kejriwal, a former civil servant, launched the Aam Aadmi Party in 2012. He promised to rid the Indian political system and governance of corruption and inefficiency.
The party’s symbol — a broom — and its promise to sweep the administration of graft struck a chord with New Delhi’s residents, fed up with runaway inflation and slow economic growth.
Three Americans, two Spaniards held over alleged plot to ‘destabilize’ Venezuela
- The arrests come amid heightened tensions between Venezuela and both the United States and Spain over Venezuela’s disputed July 28 presidential election
CARACAS: Three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen have been detained in Venezuela on suspicion of plotting to destabilize the country, the government said, as the United States and Spain denied Caracas’s allegations they were involved.
The arrests come amid heightened tensions between Venezuela and both the United States and Spain over Venezuela’s disputed July 28 presidential election, which the country’s opposition accuses President Nicolas Maduro of stealing.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said Saturday the foreign nationals were being held on suspicion of planning an attack on Maduro and his government.
“We know that the United States government has links to this operation,” Cabello asserted.
Cabello said two Spaniards were recently detained in Puerto Ayacucho in the southwest.
He added that three Americans and a Czech national were also arrested and linked the alleged plot to intelligence agencies in the United States and Spain, as well as to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
Maduro has heaped blame for the tide of adversity his country faces on the “imperialist” United States, which he accuses of conspiring with his Venezuelan opponents to overthrow him.
A State Department spokesperson said Saturday that “any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false.”
The State Department spokesperson additionally confirmed that a US military member was being held and noted “unconfirmed reports of two additional US citizens detained in Venezuela.”
Spain also rejected allegations it was involved.
“Spain denies and categorically rejects any insinuation that it is involved in a political destabilization operation in Venezuela,” a foreign ministry source told AFP Sunday.
Cabello said those detained had “contacted French mercenaries, they contacted mercenaries from Eastern Europe and they are in an operation to try to attack our country.”
He added that “more than 400 rifles were seized” and accused the detainees of plotting “terrorist acts.”
The Czech Republic has yet to react to the sensational claims, which come amid a deepening standoff between Maduro and Western powers.
Maduro, who succeeded iconic left-wing leader Hugo Chavez on his death in 2013, insists he won a third term but failed to release detailed voting tallies to back his claim.
Tensions between Caracas and former colonial power Spain rose sharply after Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, went into exile in Spain a week ago, after being threatened with arrest.
Caracas on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Madrid for consultations and summoned Spain’s envoy to Venezuela for talks after a Spanish minister accused Maduro of running a “dictatorship.”
Venezuela was also angered by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s decision to meet with Gonzalez Urrutia and warned Spain against any “interference” in its affairs.
Caracas has additionally been engaged in a war of words with the United States, which recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as the winner of the election.
Washington announced new sanctions on Thursday against 16 Venezuelan officials, including some from the electoral authority, for impeding “a transparent electoral process” and not publishing accurate results.
Venezuela denounced the measures as a “crime of aggression” and Maduro decorated four military officers among those targeted by the sanctions.
Maduro’s claim to have won a third term in office sparked mass opposition protests, which claimed at least 27 lives and left 192 people wounded.
The opposition published polling station-level results that it said showed Gonzalez Urrutia winning by a landslide.
About 2,400 people, including numerous teens, were arrested in the unrest.
Opposition leader Machado called Saturday for more protests on September 28, two months since the election, to demand international recognition for Gonzalez Urrutia as president.
Maduro also claimed victory amid widespread accusations of fraud after Venezuela’s previous election in 2018.
With the support of the military and other institutions, he managed to cling to power despite international sanctions.
Maduro’s tenure since 2013 has seen GDP drop 80 percent in a decade, prompting more than seven million of the country’s 30 million citizens to emigrate.
