VALENCIA: Tens of thousands of people demonstrated on Sunday in Valencia, hit hard by recent floods, in the latest such protest over the government response to the unprecedented natural disaster.
The October 29 tragedy killed 231 people and devastated swathes of the eastern Valencia region, leaving thousands of victims to spend Christmas without loved ones, homes or property in the traditionally Catholic country.
On Sunday, some 80,000 people, according to regional police, again denounced the handling of Spain’s deadliest natural disaster in decades.
“After everything that has happened with the floods, no politician has resigned, nor have there been any consequences, nor are they doing anything,” said Enrique Soriano.
Much of the popular anger has been directed at the head of the Valencia region, Carlos Mazon, with protesters shouting “murderer” and “criminal” and carrying signs reading “Mazon resign.”
“Mazon did not do his job. And those who don’t do their job have to go to the streets. Especially a civil servant,” said Amparo Mateos from the town of Picana.
The anger is acutely raw in Valencia, which bore the brunt of the disaster: out of the 231 people killed in the disaster, 223 were in the Valencia region. Four people are still listed as missing.
It marked a third major demonstration in Valencia over the government response, following protests held on November 9 and 30 that attracted 130,000 and 100,000 people, respectively, according to Valencia police.
Much of the anger has been focused on the fact that many residents received telephone alerts after water was already engulfing their homes, while some municipalities went without aid for days, relying on volunteers for immediate rescue work.
The popular fury was on stark display during a November 3 visit to the epicenter of the disaster by Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia, alongside Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Mazon, when survivors pelted the delegations with mud in images that stunned the country.
Tens of thousands protest over Spain flood response
https://arab.news/2v6zj
Tens of thousands protest over Spain flood response
- The October 29 tragedy killed 231 people and devastated swathes of the eastern Valencia region
Malaysia expels two boats ferrying about 300 Myanmar migrants
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia said Saturday it expelled two boats ferrying about 300 undocumented migrants from Myanmar from the country’s waters.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said the boats were located two nautical miles (3.7 kilometers) southwest of the northern resort of Langkawi late Friday evening.
“MMEA provided assistance, including food and clean drinking water, before expelling the boats out to the national maritime border to continue their journey,” Director-General Mohd Rosli Abdullah said in a statement.
“We are also working closely with Thai authorities to obtain additional information on the movements of these boats.”
On Friday Malaysian police detained almost 200 suspected Rohingya migrants from Myanmar after their boat ran aground in Langkawi.
The Rohingya experience persecution in their predominantly Buddhist homeland of Myanmar, with many fleeing to affluent, Muslim-majority Malaysia or refugee camps in Bangladesh.
They often endure harrowing, months-long sea journeys to arrive in Malaysia by boat or sneak into the country via its porous border with Thailand.
If caught, they are often sent to detention centers that rights groups say are typically overcrowded and filthy.
Ghana announces visa-free entry for African passport holders
- Ghana joins Rwanda, Seychelles, Gambia and Benin in offering visa-free entry to African travelers
ACCRA: Ghana’s outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo Friday announced visa-free travel for all African passport holders from the start of this year, marking a step toward continental economic integration.
The announcement came during his final state of the nation address as he prepares to step down on January 6 after two terms in office.
“I am proud to have approved visa-free travel to Ghana for all African passport holders, with effect from the beginning of this year,” Akufo-Addo said in his speech to parliament.
“This is the logical next step to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the workings of the largest trading bloc in the world,” he said.
“All these are essential elements to the realization of the AU’s Agenda 2063, which envisages an integrated and connected Africa by 2063,” he added, referring to the African Union’s development blueprint for a 50-year period.
Ghana joins Rwanda, Seychelles, Gambia and Benin in offering visa-free entry to African travelers.
Ghana had previously allowed visa-free access to citizens of 26 African nations and visas on arrival for travelers from 25 others, while only two African countries — Eritrea and Morocco — required a visa before entry.
The visa-free policy builds on Ghana’s efforts to strengthen its international reputation, particularly through initiatives like the 2019 Year of Return, which celebrated the African diaspora and commemorated 400 years since the transatlantic slave trade.
The campaign attracted thousands of visitors, including celebrities, to Ghana and led to some receiving citizenship, bolstering the country’s global profile as a cultural and tourism hub.
Akufo-Addo also used his last address to trumpet economic progress under his leadership, citing an increase in Ghana’s gross international reserves to $8 billion, from $6.2 billion in 2017, and significant GDP growth in 2024.
“Economic growth has returned to the pre-Covid trajectory,” he said, projecting a 6.3-percent growth rate for 2025.
“I leave behind a Ghana that is thriving, one that has navigated significant global challenges with remarkable tenacity, whose economy is steadily rebounding, and whose institutions are operating effectively,” he said.
The oil-and-gold-rich West African nation is one of the most stable democracies in Africa.
Since 2022, it has been battling one of its worst economic crises in decades and is currently under a $3-billion International Monetary Fund relief program.
The outgoing president hands over power to John Mahama, who won the December elections.
New protests, fear over India’s handling of 1984 Bhopal toxic gas disaster
- After 40 years of inaction, authorities move 337 tons of toxic material for disposal
- Fears grow over contamination of the area where poisonous waste will be incinerated
NEW DELHI: Violent protests broke out in the central Indian town of Pithampur on Saturday, after authorities moved hundreds of tons of toxic waste to its disposal facility from the site of the worst industrial accident in history: the Bhopal chemical leak disaster that took place 40 years ago.
Pithampur, which is located in the Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh some 230 km from Bhopal, the state’s capital, was selected by the local government as the place where 337 metric tons of the toxic waste remaining in Bhopal after the 1984 catastrophe will be incinerated over the next several months.
Twelve trucks carrying the toxic material reached Pithampur on Thursday, raising fears among its residents that, after the material is burnt, its residue will pollute the soil and water in nearby villages.
Protests against the move began at the disposal facility on Friday evening and turned violent on Saturday morning, as hundreds of residents threw stones and clashed with police.
“We don’t want a repeat of the tragedy that took place in Bhopal 40 years ago that claimed thousands of lives and that has impacted the lives of thousands of families,” Dr. Hemant Kumar Herole, president of the Save Pithampur Committee, which helped organize the protest, told Arab News.
“This is a tribal area and people are simple, and they just want to save their lives from possible exposure to toxic waste ... Under no circumstances will we allow this waste to remain in Pithampur. The administration tried to explain that they would conduct some sort of trial, but we oppose any trial as well. We want this toxic waste to be removed from here and sent to a place where it poses no danger to humans, animals, or the environment.”
Local authorities were not available for comment but the state’s chief minister, Mohan Yadav, told reporters that the government “respects the spirit of public sentiment” and would suspend the waste incineration at least until Monday, waiting for advice from the court that had ordered the Bhopal cleanup.
The efforts to clean the Bhopal site follow a high court decision that gave Madhya Pradesh a one-month deadline following the 40th anniversary of the disaster to clear the toxic waste.
On Dec. 3, 1984, about 45 tons of the deadly chemical methyl isocyanate leaked from an insecticide plant owned by the Indian subsidiary of the US Union Carbide Corporation, located in Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh.
The poisonous gas spread over the densely populated neighborhoods surrounding the plant, killing around 20,000 people. Nearly half a million survivors were left suffering from respiratory diseases, blindness, and other chronic health issues.
Some survivors with life-changing injuries or health issues have received compensation, but that usually amounted to just a few hundred dollars.
Toxic material remaining in the abandoned factory continued to pollute groundwater in the surrounding areas and has been linked to high rates of birth defects among residents.
While the removal of the 337 tons of waste has made headlines as a positive milestone, Rachna Dhingra, coordinator of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, said it was a “PR gimmick” that did little to mitigate the pollution or the other impacts of the disaster and would potentially create similar problems in a different place. She also stressed that those 337 tons were only a tiny portion of the total amount of dangerous material still left in Bhopal.
“This is just 1 percent of the waste. This is not the waste that is contaminating the groundwater and soil ... There are still thousands of tons of toxic waste sitting inside the factory in the pits and in the solar evaporation ponds outside the factory,” she told Arab News.
“The waste that has been removed, it was not causing any problem in Bhopal, but when you burn it and bury it in Pithampur, it will cause problems ... I think they’re going to create a slow-motion Bhopal in Pithampur.”
Dhingra also claimed that victims of the Bhopal disaster do not support the move.
“They say that we should use (the money spent on removing and transporting the waste) for our rehabilitation and not to pay for what the polluter should be paying for ... The only solution for this is to seal the waste in stainless steel drums and ask the polluter, Union Carbide and Dow Chemical, to take it to their country and do whatever they would like to do with it,” she said.
“Just as in 2003, when the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board asked Unilever to take their mercury waste back to the US, the polluter — Union Carbide and Dow —should be held accountable and should be asked to take their toxic waste back.”
Russia says downed 8 US-supplied ATACMS missiles
- Outgoing US President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use the 300-kilometer-range arms against Russia last year
MOSCOW: Russia said on Saturday it had shot down eight US-supplied ATACMS missiles, whose use Moscow has warned could spark a hypersonic ballistic missile attack on central Kyiv.
Outgoing US President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use the 300-kilometer- (190-mile-) range arms against Russia last year, in a move the Kremlin denounced as a grave escalation.
“Air defense systems downed eight ATACMS US-made missiles and 72 drones,” the Russian defense ministry said.
The ministry also said it had captured the Ukrainian village of Nadiia, one of the few settlements in the eastern Lugansk region still under Kyiv’s control.
Moscow advanced by almost 4,000 square kilometers (1,540 square miles) in Ukraine in 2024, according to an AFP analysis, as Kyiv’s army struggled with chronic manpower shortages and exhaustion.
Both sides have accused each other of fatal attacks on civilians since the year began.
A Russian strike on a village in Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region earlier on Saturday killed a 74-year-old man, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said.
Chinese dams to be discussed in India visit of US national security adviser
- Washington and its Western allies have long viewed India as a counter to China’s rising influence in Asia and beyond
- New Delhi says it has conveyed concerns about China’s plan to build a hydropower dam in Tibet on Yarlung Zangbo River
WASHINGTON: US national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s visit to New Delhi from Jan. 5-6 is expected to include discussions with Indian counterparts about the impact of Chinese dams, a senior US official said late on Friday.
Washington and its Western allies have long viewed India as a counter to China’s rising influence in Asia and beyond.
“We’ve certainly seen in many places in the Indo-Pacific that upstream dams that the Chinese have created, including in the Mekong region, can have really potentially damaging environmental but also climate impacts on downstream countries,” a senior US official said ahead of Sullivan’s visit.
The official added that Washington will discuss New Delhi’s concerns in the visit.
The Indian government says it has conveyed its concerns to Beijing about China’s plan to build a hydropower dam in Tibet on the Yarlung Zangbo River which flows into India. Chinese officials say that hydropower projects in Tibet will not have a major impact on the environment or on downstream water supplies.
The construction of that dam, which will be the largest of its kind in the world with an estimated capacity of 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, was approved last month.
Washington also expects that topics such as civilian nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence, space, military licensing and Chinese economic overcapacity will be brought up in the visit, the US official said.
American officials will not be meeting the Dalai Lama during the visit, another US official said.
Washington and New Delhi have built close ties in recent years with occasional differences over issues like minority abuse in India, New Delhi’s ties with Russia amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and alleged assassination plots against Sikh separatists on US and Canadian soil.
