SEDAVI, Spain: Francisco Murgui went out to try to salvage his motorbike when the water started to rise. He never came back.
One week after catastrophic flooding devasted eastern Spain, María Murgui still holds out hope that her father is alive and among the unknown number of the missing.
“He was like many people in town who went out to get their car or motorbike to safety,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press. “The flash flood caught him outside, and he had to cling to a tree in order to escape drowning. He called us to tell us that he was fine, that we shouldn’t worry.”
But when María set out into the streets of Sedaví to try to rescue him from the water washing away everything in its path, he was nowhere to be found.
“He held up until 1 in the morning,” she said. “By 2, I went outside with a neighbor and a rope to try to locate him. But we couldn’t find him. And since then, we haven’t heard anything about him.”
At least 218 have been confirmed dead after a deluge caused by heavy rains late on Oct. 29 and the next morning swamped entire communities, mostly in Spain’s Valencia region, catching most off guard. Regional authorities have been heavily criticized for having issued alerts to mobile phones some two hours after the disaster had started.
Authorities have yet to any give an estimate of the missing seven days on. Spanish state broadcaster RTVE, however, shows a steady stream of appeals by people who are searching for family members who are not accounted for.
María Murgui herself has posted a missing person’s message on social media with a photo of her father, a 57-year-old retiree.
“This is like riding a rollercoaster. Sometimes I feel very bad and sometimes I feel better. I try to stay positive,” she said. “This truly is madness. We don’t know what else to do. Neither does anybody else in town.”
Central government passes relief package
While many search for their loved ones, the gargantuan recovery efforts in Sedaví and dozens of other communities slowly moved forward.
To aid those in need, the central government approved a 10.6-billion-euro relief package for 78 communities on Tuesday. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez compared it to the measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The package includes direct payments of 20,000 euros to 60,000 euros to owners of damaged homes, among other financial aid for businesses and municipal governments.
“We have a lot of work left to do, and we know it,” Sánchez said.
Sánchez said that he will ask the European Union to help pay for the relief, saying “it is time for the European Union to help.”
Many people are still without basic goods amid scenes of devastation
The floods have left behind post-apocalyptic scenes.
Street after street in town after town is still covered with thick brown mud and mounds of ruined belongings, clumps of rotting vegetation, and wrecked vehicles. A stench arises from the muck.
In many places, people still face shortages of basic goods, and lines form at impromptu emergency kitchens and stands handing out food. Water is running again but authorities say it is not fit for drinking.
The ground floors of thousands of homes have been ruined. It is feared that inside some of the vehicles that the water washed away or trapped in underground garages there could be bodies waiting to be recovered.
Thousands of soldiers are working with firefighters and police reinforcements in the immense emergency response. Officers and troops are searching in destroyed homes, the countless cars strewn across highways, streets, or lodged in the mud in canals and gorges.
Authorities are worried about other health problems caused by the aftermath of the deadliest natural disaster in Spain’s recent history. They have urged people to get tetanus shots and to treat any wounds to prevent infections and to clean the mud from their skin. Many people wear face masks.
Thousands of volunteers are helping out, filling the void left by authorities. But the frustration over the crisis management boiled over on Sunday when a crowd in hard-hit Paiporta hurled mud and other objects at Spain’s royals, Sánchez and regional officials when they made their first visit to the epicenter of the flood damage.
Sánchez’s national government is set to announce a new package of relief on Tuesday.
A week after Spain’s floods, families hold out hope that loved ones are not among the dead
https://arab.news/r68yw
A week after Spain’s floods, families hold out hope that loved ones are not among the dead
- At least 218 have been confirmed dead after a deluge caused by heavy rains late on Oct. 29
- Authorities have yet to any give an estimate of the missing seven days on
Trump administration says man deported to El Salvador ‘in error’
“Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador,” the filing said
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration erroneously deported a man it alleges is a gang member in Maryland back to El Salvador as part of its March 15 deportation flights despite a judge’s ruling prohibiting his removal, according to a court filing on Monday.
Lawyers for the man, Kilmer Abrego-Garcia, in a separate filing said he is not a member of the MS-13 gang and demanded his immediate return to the United States.
In Monday’s filing, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Abrego-Garcia was on a third flight deporting people under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act “in error” despite a 2019 judgment granting him protection.
“Through administrative error, Abrego-Garcia was removed from the United States to El Salvador. This was an oversight, and the removal was carried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego-Garcia’s purported membership in MS-13,” the filing said.
The Trump administration invoked the 18th-century law to deport Venezuelans and Salvadoreans it alleges are violent gang members as part of its sweeping immigration crackdown.
Representatives for some deportees have denied any gang ties, and the courts have temporarily blocked use of the law amid legal challenges. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, in a March 28 filing, called on the US District Court in Maryland to order his return to the United States and halt US funding of his detention at the mega-prison in El Salvador, which they called a “notorious torture chamber.”
“Where the government casts aside laws and the orders of courts, including administrative courts, state power consists solely of the capacity to commit violence,” they wrote, noting that the US government could have taken other steps to challenge the 2019 ruling.
ICE said it was aware of the earlier court order blocking Abrego Garcia’s removal, and that he was arrested on March 12 over his alleged MS-13 role and transferred to the staging area for the deportation flights.
He was not on the March 15 flight’s initial manifest, but was assigned to the flight as “an alternate” as other people were removed from the flight for various reasons, it added.
Volcano erupts in Iceland, triggering tourist evacuation
- The North Atlantic Island nation has now seen 11 eruptions south of Reykjavik since 2021
- “There is lava coming within the barrier at the moment, but it’s a very limited eruption so far,” said Rikke Pedersen, head of the Nordic Volcanological Center
COPENHAGEN: A volcano erupted to the south of Iceland’s capital on Tuesday, spewing lava and smoke in a fiery display of orange and red that triggered the evacuation of tourists and residents, although air traffic continued as normal.
Referred to as a land of ice and fire for its many glaciers and volcanoes, the North Atlantic Island nation has now seen 11 eruptions south of Reykjavik since 2021, when dormant geological systems reactivated after some 800 years.
“Warning: An eruption has begun,” the Icelandic meteorological office said in a statement.
The outbreak penetrated protective barriers close to the Grindavik fishing town, triggering an evacuation of those residents who had returned following previous eruptions, although most houses have stood empty for over a year.
“There is lava coming within the barrier at the moment, but it’s a very limited eruption so far,” said Rikke Pedersen, head of the Nordic Volcanological Center.
Emergency services also evacuated the nearby Blue Lagoon luxury spa in the hours ahead of the eruption, as geologists had warned it was imminent.
Pedersen said the outbreak was similar in size to an eruption from January 2024, which spewed lava into Grindavik.
The eruptions on the Reykjanes peninsula so far have not directly affected the capital city Reykjavik and have not caused significant dispersal of ash into the stratosphere, avoiding air traffic disruption.
Icelandic experts predict that the so-called fissure eruptions, characterised by lava flowing out of long cracks in the earth’s crust rather than a single volcanic opening, could repeat themselves for decades, or even centuries.
The North Atlantic Island, home to nearly 400,000 people, attracts thousands of tourists every year who come to explore its rugged nature, including geysers, hot springs and volcanoes.
Iceland sits astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are pulling apart, and is largely covered by black lava fields, contrasted with glaciers and blankets of vibrant green moss.
Defiant French far right insists ‘we will win’ despite Le Pen ban
- Addressing her lawmakers on Tuesday, Le Pen accused “the system” of rolling out “the nuclear bomb” in a bid to end her presidential hopes
- “If they use such a powerful weapon against us, it’s obviously because we’re about to win an election“
PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen insisted Tuesday that her movement could still win 2027 presidential elections after she was banned from standing for office as part of an embezzlement conviction.
She was given a prison term and fine on Monday after being convicted of a fake jobs scheme at the EU parliament, a verdict that sparked an international echo including from US President Donald Trump.
But the most serious part of the conviction was a five-year ban — effective immediately — on standing for office, which eliminates her from the race.
Addressing her lawmakers on Tuesday, Le Pen, who considered herself the favorite in the 2027 election where President Emmanuel Macron cannot stand again, accused “the system” of rolling out “the nuclear bomb” in a bid to end her presidential hopes.
“If they use such a powerful weapon against us, it’s obviously because we’re about to win an election,” said Le Pen, 56. “We won’t let this happen.”
Le Pen has said she will appeal the “political decision,” though a new trial is not expected to take place for at least a year.
Should that fail, there is also a “plan B,” a candidacy by her protege and RN party leader Jordan Bardella, a 29-year-old with a slick television and social media presence.
Le Pen’s conviction sparked angry reactions from far-right figures across Europe but also from the Kremlin, X owner Elon Musk and Trump, while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed concern.
“She was banned from running for five years and she is the leading candidate. That sounds like this country,” said Trump, comparing her conviction to the “lawfare” he says was waged against him before becoming president.
But the French government and prosecutors hit out against attacks on the judiciary and in particular against Benedicte de Perthuis, 63, the judge specialized in financial crimes who issued the verdict.
Analysts said the court decision could deepen France’s political crisis. Her National Rally (RN), which is the largest single party in parliament, can complicate life for Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, who does not have a majority in the lower-house National Assembly.
“Guilty,” French daily Liberation said on its front page, calling the ruling a “political earthquake.”
“No one is untouchable: she made a mistake, she must pay for it,” Nathanael Fichou, a waiter, said in the southern port of Marseille.
Nicole Prolhac, 78, said she was “annoyed” because Le Pen represented millions of French voters.
“But can we let someone who has committed embezzlement lead the country?“
Bardella said the party would seek to organize “peaceful” rallies this weekend.
Speaking to Europe 1 radio, Bardella said that Le Pen had been judged with “brutality and violence” and that her only mistake was to “have the capacity to take the national camp to victory.”
“Everything will be done to prevent us from coming to power,” he said.
He added that the situation could boost the fortunes of the RN.
“I tell the French do not lose hope. I think that what is happening will make millions of people who do not vote for the RN, vote for the RN,” he said.
“We are wounded. But we are far from being dead.”
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin denounced “unacceptable” threats made against the judges while France’s prosecutor general Remy Heitz said the verdict was “not a political decision but a legal one.”
Le Pen took over the former National Front (FN) from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2011 and has since sought to clean up its image. Her father, who died in January, was often accused of making racist and anti-Semitic comments.
After three unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 2012, 2017 and 2022, polls had shown Le Pen to be on course to easily top the first round with a chance of winning the presidency in the second round run-off.
She was given a four-year prison term by the Paris court. Two years were suspended and the other two would be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet.
Le Pen was convicted for a scheme where the party was found to have eased the pressure on its own finances by using European Parliament monthly allowances to pay “fictitious” parliamentary assistants, who actually worked for the party.
Twenty-four people — including Le Pen — were convicted, all of them RN party officials or assistants.
18 dead in India firework factory blast: officials
- The fiery blast sent chunks of rock and metal flying far from the factory complex in the town of Deesa
- Authorities have launched a probe into the incident
AHMEDABAD, India: Eighteen people were killed and five others injured in an explosion at an illegal firecracker factory in western India on Tuesday, officials said.
The fiery blast sent chunks of rock and metal flying far from the factory complex in the town of Deesa in Gujarat state.
“There was a huge blast in the factory causing the concrete roof to collapse, killing 18 people and injuring five others,” government spokesman Rishikesh Patel told reporters.
The factory was operating without a license, he added.
Authorities have launched a probe into the incident.
Fireworks are hugely popular in India, particularly during the Hindu festival of Diwali, as well as for use during wedding celebrations.
Explosions are common in firecracker workshops, with owners often disregarding basic safety requirements.
Last year, 11 people died in a firework factory explosion in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
In 2019, at least 18 people were killed in a similar explosion in Punjab state, and another 10 were killed the same year in Uttar Pradesh.
Irregular immigration curbed, Germany’s outgoing government says
- “Migration policy isn’t something for jokers, but a management assignment you have to work on seriously,” Faeser said
- While the number of asylum claims halved over the past two years, she said, the number of people illegally present in Germany who were then repatriated had risen 55 percent
BERLIN: Germany’s interior minister claimed victory for her outgoing government in its battle against irregular immigration, saying deportations were up and asylum claims down in an apparent center-left pitch to be part of the next ruling coalition.
Nancy Faeser, a Social Democrat, remains as acting minister until her party and the election-winning conservatives agree on a new coalition deal, with how to handle immigration the sharpest dividing line between the would-be partners.
Conservative leader Friedrich Merz, seeking to win back voters his Christian Democrats (CDU) lost to the far right, pledged during the campaign to turn away at the borders people with the wrong documents. The SPD opposes this hard-line approach, saying it violates European Union law.
“Migration policy isn’t something for jokers, but a management assignment you have to work on seriously,” Faeser said in a statement asserting that outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government had run a successful migration policy.
While the number of asylum claims halved over the past two years, she said, the number of people illegally present in Germany who were then repatriated had risen 55 percent and the number of skilled workers who had immigrated legally had risen by 77 percent.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” she said. “Today we are a country that invests more in integration and is more attractive to talented and qualified workers from the world over.”
Talks between the two parties last week went into a second round after leaders acknowledged the drafts prepared so far fell far short of what was needed for a government program. Merz has said he wants to form a government by Easter.
FAR RIGHT RISES IN POLLS
Merz, the likely next chancellor, won the February 23 election but with a poorer-than-expected 28.5 percent of the vote. That left the SPD as Merz’s only possible partner if he sticks to his pledge not to cooperate with the runner-up far-right AfD party, or form an unstable three-way coalition as Scholz did.
Leaked drafts of coalition negotiating positions show the parties far apart on immigration policy. The conservatives demand more powers to expel and turn away migrants, while the SPD is focusing on integration of migrants and steps to recruit foreign skilled workers for labor-short German industries.
Concerns that commitments on migration and fiscal rigour could be watered down under the next government have preoccupied right-wing voters in particular — the AfD has gained three points in the polls since the election while the conservatives have lost three.
A series of deadly street attacks during the election campaign, blamed in some cases on foreigners illegally present in Germany, ensured the contest was dominated by a raw and angry debate over migration.
“We must carry out the migration debate without rancour, always in the awareness that we’re talking about people here,” said Faeser, who could stay on as interior minister or in another senior cabinet role if a conservative-SPD “grand coalition” comes to fruition.
