Cincunri Sakia

Rabu, 01 Maret 2023

Holiday hotspot Spain sees 2ft of snow as temperatures plummet to -16C - Manchester Evening News

Brits usually head to Spain for sunshine and sandy beaches, yet the country has been hit by heavy snow showers as Storm Juliette batters parts o f the country. Temperatures have dropped to as low as -16C in Spain while the Balearic island of Majorca has been especially hard hit.

The freak weather has caused sinkholes to open up in Palma, Majorca’s main city, while roads have also been blocked by snow. According to the authorities, buildings have collapsed, others have been flooded, roads have been closed and 13 neighbourhoods were left without electricity on the island.

A red weather alert was issued due to the possibility of eight metre high waves, The Mirror reports. On Tuesday night temperatures dropped to -16C in Molina de Aragon, Guadalajara, in central Spain, according to Spain’s official meteorological agency AEMET.

“It was a very cold night for us to be starting the meteorological spring,“ AEMET spokesman Ruben del Campo told local media. Images of snow have been shown in coastal areas including San Sebastian and Barcelona as well as Majorca.

Snow covers small village of Cirauqui, near to Pamplona, northern Spain (Image: Alvaro Barrientos/AP/REX/Shutterstock)

A statement from AEMET read: “Very cold air has arrived to the north east of the country from the Arctic that has caused a significant drop in the temperatures for the peninsula and the Balearic islands. From Wednesday onwards it should start to move away and there should be a slow improvement in the temperatures.”

Residents in Majorca have been told to stay indoors over the past couple of days with the emergency services inundated with more than 350 incidents due to the snow and high winds. There were 50 people trapped in a monastery after police were forced to close a road due to the conditions.

Orange and yellow weather warnings remain in place across the area for winds of up to 80kmph, snow and waves. In the centre of Palma, emergency services are trying to tackle a number of sinkholes which are causing traffic chaos.

The mayor, Jose Hila, has asked people to use the roads as little as possible while the clean up operation continues.

He, reported Diario de Mallorca, said: "We are trying to find the cause and the areas which are affected. The first priority is for safety and then we will look to cover up the holes.

"If it is just a question of what we can see then it will take about two or three days but if there is more to the problem than that then it will take several days longer. We are asking for residents to use the roads as little as possible at the moment."

For more of today's top stories, click here.

READ NEXT:

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiX2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm1hbmNoZXN0ZXJldmVuaW5nbmV3cy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3dvcmxkLW5ld3MvaG9saWRheS1ob3RzcG90LXNwYWluLXNlZXMtMmZ0LTI2MzYwMDQx0gFjaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubWFuY2hlc3RlcmV2ZW5pbmduZXdzLmNvLnVrL25ld3Mvd29ybGQtbmV3cy9ob2xpZGF5LWhvdHNwb3Qtc3BhaW4tc2Vlcy0yZnQtMjYzNjAwNDEuYW1w?oc=5

2023-03-01 14:09:04Z
1808363898

Greece train crash: Survivors describe 'nightmarish seconds' - BBC

This video can not be played

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

By Alys Davies

BBC News

Survivors have told of a "nightmarish 10 seconds" as their train carriage overturned and was engulfed in flames in a crash in northern Greece.

At least 36 people have died and dozens more were injured in the head-on collision between two trains near the city of Larissa on Tuesday night.

Rescuers have been working through the night to find survivors.

"We heard a big bang," said 28-year-old passenger Stergios Minenis, who jumped to safety from the wreckage.

"We were turning over in the carriage until we fell on our sides and until the commotion stopped. Then there was panic. Cables, fire. The fire was immediate. As we were turning over we were being burned. Fire was right and left," Mr Minenis was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"For 10, 15 seconds it was chaos. Tumbling over, fires, cables hanging, broken windows, people screaming, people trapped."

People have described having to crawl through windows and over broken glass as they tried to escape.

According to one shaken passenger who spoke to Skai television, "the windows suddenly exploded" and "people were screaming and were afraid".

"Fortunately, we were able to open the doors and escape fairly quickly. In other wagons, they did not manage to get out, and one wagon even caught fire."

Fellow passenger Angelos Tsiamouras told local media the crash had felt like an earthquake, while another named Lazos told the newspaper Protothema: "I wasn't hurt, but I was stained with blood from other people who were injured near me."

The passenger train had been travelling from Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki when it crashed head-on with the other freight train, leading to a fire in at least one of the carriages.

It is being described as the worst train crash Greece has ever seen, but the cause of the collision is not yet known.

About 150 firefighters and 40 ambulances were at the scene, Greek emergency services said, with cranes also used to remove debris.

"It was a very powerful collision," the regional governor of the Thessaly region, Kostas Agorastos, told state-run television.

"This is a terrible night... It's hard to describe the scene."

He said the first four carriages of the passenger train were derailed, and the first two carriages caught fire and were "almost completely destroyed".

"They were travelling at great speed and one (driver) didn't know the other was coming," the governor said.

Footage of the collision's aftermath showed thick plumes of smoke rising from derailed carriages.

Conditions for rescue workers were "very difficult" because of "the severity of the collision", fire service spokesman Vassilis Varthakoyiannis told reporters.

"I've never seen anything like this in my entire life. It's tragic. Five hours later, we are finding bodies," an exhausted rescuer emerging from the wreckage told AFP news agency.

"We are living through a tragedy. We are pulling out people alive, injured... there are dead. We are going to be here all night, until we finish, until we find the last person," another volunteer rescue worker told ERT state broadcaster in comments cited by Reuters.

A wrecked train carriage pictured at the scene of the crash where two trains collided near the city of Larissa, Greece

Passengers rescued from the train crash arrive at Thessaloniki railway station, Greece

Selasa, 28 Februari 2023

Russia says military drone attempted to strike gas facility near Moscow - The Guardian

A military drone attempted to strike a gas facility in the Moscow region, according to a senior Russian official, and photos of the wreckage suggested it was Ukrainian-made, indicating a rare attempted strike hundreds of miles behind Russian lines.

The alleged attack was one of several reports of successful or attempted unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strikes in at least four regions of Russia.

The Moscow region governor, Andrei Vorobyov, on Monday confirmed a UAV crash-landed in the village of Gubastovo near the capital and was apparently aiming for a “civilian infrastructure site”.

The target was a Gazprom gas compression station in the Moscow suburbs, just over 50 miles south-east of the Kremlin. Photographs of the drone posted to social media indicate it was a Ukrainian-made UJ-22.

Ukraine does not publicly claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia.

The UAV apparently clipped trees just before its target and landed 10 metres from the outer fence of the gas compression station, a Gazprom representative confirmed to Russian media.

Ukrjet, the producer of the UJ-22, claims the drone can fly 500 miles (800km) and is armed with an interchangeable payload.

If the strike, along with others on Tuesday, were launched from Ukrainian territory, then it would make them some of the most ambitious since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion last February.

Drone strikes launched in December targeted several airfields used by Russian bombers but it was not immediately clear if they were launched from inside or outside Russian territory.

The strikes caused a nervous day in Russia, where airspace was closed over St Petersburg and hackers managed to broadcast a “missile strike threat” over several TV channels and radio stations in the Moscow and St Petersburg regions, as well as areas closer to the border with Ukraine, Voronezh and Belgorod.

“Attention: an air alert is in effect,” a voice read. “Proceed to shelters immediately. Attention, attention, missile strike threat.” A similar incident occurred late last week.

In at least one case, the drones appeared to have struck their targets. Early Tuesday morning, drones armed with explosives also slammed into a Rosneft oil depot in the Krasnodar region, Russian media reported, sparking a fire that required the Russian emergencies ministry to extinguish. Video published on Telegram also appeared to show UAVs flying over the city shortly before the attack.

The drone strikes hit the boiler room of the depot, the Astra news outlet reported. But the city administration of Tuapse, where the facility is located, claimed the drones did not strike the oil tanks. “There is no oil spill. There are no victims,” the city administration said.

Tuapse is about 300 miles from Ukrainian territory and close to the large Russian port of Novorossiysk and the Black Sea city of Sochi.

Unsuccessful drone strikes were also reported in Russia’s Belgorod and Bryansk regions, both on the border with Ukraine. And the head of Russia’s Adigeya also reported that a drone was downed in the region last night.

As regional heads confirmed the drone strikes, Russia closed its airspace over St Petersburg, the country’s second-largest city, in what the government claimed was a drill to simulate the discovery of an enemy UAV flying over the region.

Dozens of flights were cancelled or turned back as St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport was closed to arriving and departing flights. Some early reports said a drone had also been spotted near St Petersburg, but those have not been confirmed.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMidGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS93b3JsZC8yMDIzL2ZlYi8yOC9ydXNzaWEtbWlsaXRhcnktZHJvbmUtYXR0ZW1wdGVkLXN0cmlrZS1nYXMtZmFjaWxpdHktbW9zY293LXVhdi11a3JhaW5l0gF0aHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAudGhlZ3VhcmRpYW4uY29tL3dvcmxkLzIwMjMvZmViLzI4L3J1c3NpYS1taWxpdGFyeS1kcm9uZS1hdHRlbXB0ZWQtc3RyaWtlLWdhcy1mYWNpbGl0eS1tb3Njb3ctdWF2LXVrcmFpbmU?oc=5

2023-02-28 18:00:00Z
CBMidGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS93b3JsZC8yMDIzL2ZlYi8yOC9ydXNzaWEtbWlsaXRhcnktZHJvbmUtYXR0ZW1wdGVkLXN0cmlrZS1nYXMtZmFjaWxpdHktbW9zY293LXVhdi11a3JhaW5l0gF0aHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAudGhlZ3VhcmRpYW4uY29tL3dvcmxkLzIwMjMvZmViLzI4L3J1c3NpYS1taWxpdGFyeS1kcm9uZS1hdHRlbXB0ZWQtc3RyaWtlLWdhcy1mYWNpbGl0eS1tb3Njb3ctdWF2LXVrcmFpbmU

China hits out at US over TikTok ban on federal devices - BBC

Getty Images

By Matt Murphy

BBC News

China has accused the US of overreacting after federal employees were ordered to remove the video app TikTok from government-issued phones.

On Monday, the White House gave government agencies 30 days to ensure that employees did not have the Chinese-owned app on federal devices.

The order follows similar moves by the EU and Canada in recent weeks.

A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry accused the US of abusing state power to suppress foreign firms.

"We firmly oppose those wrong actions," spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters during a news briefing on Tuesday. "The US government should respect the principles of market economy and fair competition, stop suppressing the companies and provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for foreign companies in the US."

"How unsure of itself can the world's top superpower like the US be to fear young people's favourite app like that," she added.

Western officials have become increasingly concerned about the popular video sharing app - which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance - in recent months.

TikTok has faced allegations that it harvests users' data and hands it to the Chinese government, with some intelligence agencies worried that sensitive information could be exposed when the app is downloaded to government devices.

The company insists it operates no differently to other social media companies and says it would never comply with an order to transfer data.

On Monday, the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young told agencies they had to scrub the app from all state-issued phones to protect confidential data.

The agency said the guidance marked a "critical step forward in addressing the risks presented by the app to sensitive government data".

Some federal offices - including the White House and the Departments of Defence, Homeland Security and State - have already banned TikTok from their devices.

The US Federal Chief Information Security Officer Chris DeRusha said the move emphasised the Biden administration's "ongoing commitment to securing our digital infrastructure and protecting the American people's security and privacy".

Tuesday's announcement follows the passage of legislation by the US House of Representatives in December which banned the use of TikTok on state-issued phones and gave the White House 60 days to issue agency directives.

And congressional Republicans are expected to pass further legislation in the coming weeks which would give President Joe Biden the power to ban the app nationally.

"We hope that when it comes to addressing national security concerns about TikTok beyond government devices, Congress will explore solutions that won't have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans," a TikTok spokesperson told the BBC.

Canada has also imposed a new ban on the app on government devices starting from Tuesday. The decision followed a review conducted by the country's chief information officer, who ruled the app presented "an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security".

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was enough concern about security around the app to require the change.

"This may the first step, this may be the only step we need to take," he said on Monday at a press conference near Toronto.

And the European Parliament also approved a ban on the app on staff phones, following the European Commission's move last week.

A TikTok spokesperson told the BBC that the bans had been adopted "without any deliberation" and amounted to "little more than political theatre".

Senin, 27 Februari 2023

62 people are dead off the coast of Italy. How many more will anti-migrant policies kill? - The Guardian

The photograph of the body of two-year-old Alan Kurdi lying on Turkish shores made headlines in 2015. “Never again,” cried an outraged international press, after Kurdi and his Syrian family drowned attempting to reach safety in Europe.

The latest tragedy in the Mediterranean, claiming the lives of at least 62 individuals, including children, is a stark reminder that nothing has changed. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, expressed “deep sorrow”. The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, warned that the tragedy should leave “no one indifferent” and appealed to the European Union. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, promised to “redouble the efforts”.

There is no doubting their personal sincerity. And yet, the institutions they preside over bear responsibility for the continuing loss of life in the Mediterranean sea. European migration policy continues to condemn more than 2,000 men, women and children to death in the Mediterranean each and every year.

Meloni’s government has actively sabotaged the NGO-led search and rescue missions attempting to save lives at sea. Under her government’s new legislation, boats that have rescued migrants onboard cannot remain at sea to continue their mission. They must go to assigned ports based in northern Italy by Italian authorities, days of sailing away from the main theatre of operations. This has resulted in a drastic reduction of the time the vessels can engage in saving lives, and surely a corresponding increase in the death rate.

Europe, however, has a deeper responsibility for the loss of lives in the Mediterranean sea. The boat that capsized off the coast of Calabria was coming from distant Turkey. Why did it not try to dock in much closer Greece? The reason is twofold. In 2016 the German government, then presided over by Angela Merkel, agreed a migration deal with Turkey that, to this day, showers Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s illiberal regime with European money in exchange for allowing any refugee who arrives in Greece irregularly from Turkey to be sent back there.

In addition, the European Union has been busy helping Balkan countries to invest in policing and border management. Taken together, the routes to Europe via Turkey, Greece or the Balkans have been sealed off, encouraging migrants to travel farther west towards Italy.

Meloni, astutely, claims she merely wishes to replicate in northern Africa what Europe has already agreed with Turkey and the Balkans. Europe, she says, should seal agreements to lock migrants in before they make their journey.

This system is partly already in place: hundreds of thousands of migrants are illegally detained in makeshift concentration camps in Libya run by militias, where torture and rape are well documented. This measure was agreed in 2017 by the social-democratic Italian government of Paolo Gentiloni, currently the EU commissioner for economic affairs. However immoral Meloni’s policies may be, their immorality is shared by Italian and European institutions alike.

Could things be different? Yes. Hundreds of NGOs, civil platforms and municipalities have for years gathered proposals for a different European approach to migration. A European search and rescue mission should take matters in public hands and run regular operations in the Mediterranean sea.

Migrants saved at sea should be redistributed across the EU and agreements between states should be accompanied by a greater role for municipalities. Why is it that France should block, say, Montpellier from welcoming rescued migrants?

As the Italian search and rescue mission Mediterranea argues, illegal human trafficking exists only because there are no legal channels for migration to Europe. The EU needs to define yearly quotas for job-seeking visas and arrange for the paperwork to be handled by its consulates across the world. Germany, with its recent steps towards extending work visas directly in Ghana, shows the way. Many will prefer a waiting list, however long, to a life-threatening two-year crossing of desert and sea.

Finally, circular migration schemes need to be drastically increased. Migration is never a good solution for countries of origin, leading to a brain drain and breaking up communities. Circularity of labour enables migrants to come to the EU for a limited period on a regular basis. Spain, for instance, plans to train and employ a group of Moroccan truck drivers, expanding on tried and tested schemes in the agricultural sector.

The latest migration tragedy causes grief and anger to any human being and represents another stain on the conscience of any European. We should, however, look with suspicion to any politician offering empathy as a response. We don’t need any more tears. We need policies to change.

Lorenzo Marsili is a philosopher, activist and founder of European Alternatives and Fondazione Studio Rizoma. He is the author of Planetary Politics: a Manifesto
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMidGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS9jb21tZW50aXNmcmVlLzIwMjMvZmViLzI3L2dpb3JnaWEtbWVsb25pLWV1LW1pZ3JhbnQtc2hpcHdyZWNrLWNydWVsLWxlZ2FsLWdyZWVjZS1iYWxrYW5z0gF0aHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAudGhlZ3VhcmRpYW4uY29tL2NvbW1lbnRpc2ZyZWUvMjAyMy9mZWIvMjcvZ2lvcmdpYS1tZWxvbmktZXUtbWlncmFudC1zaGlwd3JlY2stY3J1ZWwtbGVnYWwtZ3JlZWNlLWJhbGthbnM?oc=5

2023-02-27 16:45:00Z
1806094390

Nigeria election: outsider Peter Obi wins in Lagos - The Times

Peter Obi, the anti-corruption outsider who may become Nigeria’s president, has won in Lagos, defeating the ruling party candidate known as the “godfather” of a city he ran as his personal fiefdom for two decades.

In a result that will shake up what is already Nigeria’s least predictable presidential election in a generation, Obi took more than 582,000 votes in the city, according to provisional results. He eclipsed Bola Tinubu by fewer than 10,000.

It will be seen as evidence that Obi, 61, has converted social media momentum and youth popularity into success on the ground for his Labour party. He and his followers, known as Obidients, offer the first major challenge to the two parties that have governed Nigeria since the return of

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZXRpbWVzLmNvLnVrL2FydGljbGUvbmlnZXJpYS1lbGVjdGlvbnMtY29ycnVwdGlvbi1jbGFpbXMtcHV0LWNvdW50cnktb24tYS1rbmlmZS1lZGdlLThuYzk4OThubdIBAA?oc=5

2023-02-27 14:00:00Z
1805966791

Cincunri Sakia

Rabu, 01 Maret 2023

Holiday hotspot Spain sees 2ft of snow as temperatures plummet to -16C - Manchester Evening News

Greece train crash: Survivors describe 'nightmarish seconds' - BBC

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

Related Topics

Selasa, 28 Februari 2023

Russia says military drone attempted to strike gas facility near Moscow - The Guardian

China hits out at US over TikTok ban on federal devices - BBC

Related Topics

Russia says military drone attempted to strike gas facility near Moscow - The Guardian

Senin, 27 Februari 2023

62 people are dead off the coast of Italy. How many more will anti-migrant policies kill? - The Guardian

Nigeria election: outsider Peter Obi wins in Lagos - The Times