LONDON:Thousands of travelers stranded by a huge fire near London’s Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, scrambled to find ways to get home and reunite with their families on Friday as they faced what could be days of disruptions.
Heathrow was shut as around 70 firefighters sought to put down the blaze at a nearby electrical substation in the west of London that knocked out power at the airport as well as the area’s back-up power system.
Airlines advised passengers not to travel to the airport, and Britain’s energy minister Ed Miliband warned it would take time to recover from the “catastrophic” fire.
Waiting at central London’s Paddington station, which normally offers express train service to Heathrow, US traveler Tyler Prieb contacted airlines Friday morning, hoping to find a new flight back to his home in Nashville, Tennessee.
“I’m sure everybody is going to need a new flight somewhere, somehow. So I’m just trying to get ahead of that the best I can,” said Prieb, 36, who was in London for work and to see friends.
“Hopefully, it will just take me an extra day to get back to my wife and my daughter. And they are probably wishing I would be home already,” he said.
In the meantime, Prieb said he had asked OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT for ways to pass the time.
“I thought maybe I’d go explore another city somewhere,” he said.
Heathrow was due to handle 1,351 flights during the day, flying up to 291,000 passengers.
A Heathrow spokesperson told Reuters in an email that there was no clarity on when power would be restored, and they expected significant disruption over the coming days.
John Moriarty, another US traveler, listened attentively to his phone’s speaker, hoping to get through to his airline’s customer service helpline.
The 75-year-old said he was anxious to return to Boston to see his daughter, who had traveled from New York to visit him.
“All the lines are busy, so I might be here another day. Not the worst thing in the world. (London) is my favorite city, but I need to be home,” 75-year-old John Moriarty said.
Travel experts said the disruption would extend far beyond Heathrow, and global flight schedules will be affected more broadly, as many aircraft will now be out of position.
Mahmoud Ali, 40, an employee of Domino’s Pizza in London, had been due to fly to his native Pakistan to be with his wife and children, who he has not seen since last summer.
“They are waiting for me. I’m trying to call the airline and Heathrow (to find out) what time the situation will be resolved,” he said.
The fire has also forced the rerouting of incoming flights, leaving passengers unsure of where they will land.
Some flights from the United States were turning around mid-air and returning to their point of departure.
Adrian Spender, who works at British retailer Tesco, said in a post on X that he was on an Airbus A380 that had been headed for Heathrow.
“#Heathrow no idea where we are going yet. Currently over Austria,” he wrote.
‘I need to be home’: stranded Heathrow passengers separated from loved ones
https://arab.news/5c2c4
‘I need to be home’: stranded Heathrow passengers separated from loved ones
- Fire at electrical substation causes Heathrow shutdown
- Global flight schedules affected, incoming flights rerouted
Singapore PM urges voters to re-elect his cabinet to deal with US, China
- PM Wong urges voters to stick with his team in face of US tariffs, US-China tensions
- Last day of campaigning ahead of May 3 election
Addressing a 1.4 million-strong labor union on the last day of campaigning, Wong warned of economic turbulence and job losses if US tariffs slow global growth. His government has warned the trade-reliant economy may face a possible recession.
“We must expect more pressure on us and to navigate these pressures, it will take experience and skill. It will take people in government who have built up trust and close relationships with their counterparts in both America and China,” Wong said.
He said voters needed to re-elect his whole team to effectively deal with these economic headwinds.
“I have backups, I have reserves, sure. But everyone knows that the team cannot function at the same level. It’s the same in any organization, and it will be so in our next cabinet if we end up with such a loss,” he said, referring to the possible loss of his deputy prime minister.
Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party, in power since 1959, is widely expected to be easily re-elected, but there is growing unhappiness with its governance in the face of rising costs of living.
Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong was nominated at the 11th hour in a hotbed contest in a ward in northeast Singapore in an effort to stop the main opposition Workers’ Party, which won 10 seats in the last parliament.
Campaigning in recent days has zeroed in on Gan being new to the area, after an incumbent ruling party candidate called the opposition team strangers. The opposition fired back, asking if Gan was the real stranger to the constituency.
Wong has thrown his weight behind Gan, calling him his “taskforce man” because Gan co-headed the COVID-19 taskforce and is now chairing the “economic resilience” taskforce dealing with the impact of US tariffs.
“The key person in charge of this work is no stranger to you. He is no stranger to the whole of Singapore,” Wong said on Thursday.
This is the first electoral test for Wong, who took over from long-time premier Lee Hsien Loong last year as leader of the People’s Action Party.
Six political parties and an independent candidate have rallies scheduled for Thursday night.
Parties get to fire their last salvos on Thursday before 2.76 million voters go to a compulsory poll on Saturday after a short nine-day campaign season. Friday is designated as a “cooling off” day, meant for voters to decide on their ballot, and parties are not allowed to campaign.
Former VP Harris says Trump’s America is ‘self-serving’
- Critics have been appalled at what they say is a vengeful administration carelessly overstepping democratic and constitutional norms
- Recent polls have shown a majority of the country is becoming disenchanted with the political and economic tumult
The defeated Democrat told supporters the apparent “chaos” of the last three months was actually the realization of a long-cherished plan by conservatives who are using Trump to twist the United States to their own advantage.
“What we are, in fact, witnessing is a high velocity event, where a vessel is being used for the swift implementation of an agenda that has been decades in the making,” she told an audience in San Francisco.
“An agenda to slash public education. An agenda to shrink government and then privatize its services. All while giving tax breaks to the wealthiest.
“A narrow, self-serving vision of America where they punish truth-tellers, favor loyalists, cash in on their power, and leave everyone to fend for themselves.”
Trump’s first 100 days in power have been marked by a dizzying array of executive orders tackling everything from immigration to foreign aid to showerhead pressure.
Critics have been appalled at what they say is a vengeful administration carelessly overstepping democratic and constitutional norms, including clashing with the courts.
While Trump’s supporters have cheered some of the rapid-fire changes, recent polls have shown a majority of the country is becoming disenchanted with the political and economic tumult, particularly from his oft-changing tariffs.
Harris, who is thought to be mulling a run for the governorship of her home state of California in 2026 or a possible White House run in 2028, has largely stayed out of the limelight since leaving Washington in January.
On Wednesday she was a guest speaker at an event run by Emerge, a political organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for public office.
She told the crowd that Trump was targeting universities and courts because he wanted to cow the opposition.
“President Trump, his administration, and their allies are counting on the notion that fear can be contagious,” she said.
“They are counting on the notion that, if they can make some people afraid, it will have a chilling effect on others.”
But, she said, there were judges, academics, politicians and regular people who were standing up to the government.
“Fear isn’t the only thing that’s contagious. Courage is contagious,” she said.
“The courage of all these Americans inspires me.”
South Korean prosecutors indict ex-President Yoon for abuse of authority
- The indictment is in addition to an ongoing trial on insurrection charges
- The latest indictment is without arrest, Yonhap said, citing the prosecutor’s office
SEOUL: South Korean prosecutors have indicted former President Yoon Suk Yeol for abuse of authority, Yonhap said on Thursday.
The indictment is in addition to an ongoing trial on insurrection charges, brought against Yoon over his brief imposition of martial law in December.
The latest indictment is without arrest, Yonhap said, citing the prosecutor’s office. An official at the prosecutor’s office could not be immediately reached for comment.
Indian FM says Kashmir attackers ‘must face justice’
NEW DELHI: India’s foreign minister said Thursday that those who planned and carried out an attack in Kashmir last week that left 26 men dead “must be brought to justice.”
New Delhi blames Pakistan for the gun attack on civilians at the tourist site of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22.
Islamabad has rejected the charge and both countries have since exchanged gunfire in Kashmir and issued a raft of tit-for-tat punitive diplomatic measures.
“Its perpetrators, backers and planners must be brought to justice,” India’s top diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a statement following a conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday evening in which they discussed the attack.
Rubio also spoke to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and in a US readout of the call, told Sharif of the “need to condemn the terror attack” in Kashmir.
Indian and Pakistani soldiers fired at each other overnight along the Line of Control, the de facto border in contested Kashmir, the Indian army said.
It was a seventh straight night gunfire was reported by India.
“During the night... Pakistan Army posts initiated unprovoked small-arms fire across the Line of Control opposite Kupwara, Uri and Akhnoor,” the army said in a statement.
“These were responded proportionately by the Indian Army.”
There were no reported casualties and there was no immediate confirmation from Pakistan.
Indian police have issued wanted posters for three men accused of carrying out the Kashmir attack — two Pakistanis and an Indian — who they say are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, a UN-designated terrorist organization.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the military “complete operational freedom” to respond to the attack during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday, a senior government source told AFP.
Pakistan’s government has denied any involvement in the shooting and vowed that “any act of aggression will be met with a decisive response.”
Stay as long as you want, Trump says as chief disruptor Elon Musk eyes exit
- At a Cabinet meeting, Trump hinted at Musk giving up his DOGE role “to get back home to his cars”
- Musk's Tesla car company had been hit by boycott calls over his role in gutting the US bureaucracy
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Tesla boss Elon Musk could stay working for the White House as long as he wanted but understood the tycoon wanted to get back to his businesses.
Musk last month said he will step back from his role as the unofficial head of the administration’s cost-cutting “Department of Government Efficiency” to focus more on his troubled Tesla car company.
“The vast majority of the people in this country really respect and appreciate you,” Trump told Musk during a White House cabinet meeting, which could be his last before giving up his DOGE role.
“And you know you’re invited to stay as long as you want,” Trump said, though added that Musk may want “to get back home to his cars.”
Musk, the world’s richest person, has seen his Tesla car company, which is the major source of his wealth, suffer significant brand damage from his political work.
Tesla showrooms have been hit by vandalism and boycott calls in Europe and the United States in a backlash against public service cuts introduced by Musk in his role as a close adviser to Trump.
“You really have sacrificed a lot. They treated you very unfairly,” Trump said of opponents to Musk.
“They did like to burn my cars, which is not great,” Musk responded.
The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday reported that Tesla’s board had begun procedures several weeks ago to find a successor to Musk as CEO.
The outlet reported — citing people familiar with the matter — that the board had met with Musk and told him that he needed to spend more time with the company, rather than in Washington.
David Sacks, a close Musk ally who is also a member of the Trump administration, last week said that Musk would not be leaving DOGE but reducing his role.
This was the same plan he carried out during his takeover of Twitter in 2022, he said.
“Once he felt like he had a mental model and he had the people in place that he trusted, he can move to more of a maintenance mode,” Sacks told the All-In podcast.
