U.K News

10,000 People Are Missing And Thousands Are Feared Dead As Eastern Libya Is Devastated By Floods

Published

1 year ago

2023-09-12

CAIRO, Egypt – On Tuesday, emergency personnel discovered hundreds of victims in the debris of Libya’s eastern city of Derna, and it was feared that the death toll could rise further, with 10,000 people still missing after floodwaters crashed through dams and carried away entire neighborhoods.

The unexpected mortality and damage caused by the Mediterranean storm Daniel revealed the storm’s ferocity and the vulnerability of a nation torn apart by anarchy for more than a decade. The country is divided by competing governments, one in the east and one in the west, and as a result, infrastructure in many parts needs to be addressed.

On Tuesday, more than 36 hours after the accident, outside assistance was only beginning to arrive in Derna. The floods damaged or destroyed many access roads to the seaside city of 89,000 people.

Several victims were seen covered in blankets in the yard of one hospital. Another image depicted a mass cemetery overflowing with bodies. More than 1,000 bodies were gathered, with at least 700 buried so far, according to the health minister for eastern Libya. According to the ambulance authorities, the current death toll in Derna is 2,300.

According to Tamer Ramadan, Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the death toll is expected to be in the thousands. He told a United Nations briefing in Geneva via videoconference from Tunisia that at least 10,000 individuals were unaccounted for.

Ramadan described Libya as “as devastating as the situation in Morocco,” alluding to the tragic earthquake that struck near the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on Friday night.

On Sunday night, the destruction descended on Derna and other sections of eastern Libya. Residents of Derna said they heard tremendous booms as the storm hit the coast and realized dams outside the city had collapsed. Flash floods swept down Wadi Derna, a river that flows from the highlands through the city and into the sea.

Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Local emergency responders, including troops, government personnel, volunteers, and citizens, sifted through the wreckage on Tuesday in search of the deceased. Inflatable boats were also used to recover bodies from the water.

Many dead were reported to be trapped under rubble or washed out into the Mediterranean Sea, according to Othman Abduljaleel, the health minister for eastern Libya.

“We were stunned by the amount of destruction… the tragedy is very significant, and beyond the capacity of Derna and the government,” Abduljaleel said by phone from Derna to The Associated Press.

On Tuesday morning, Red Crescent crews from other parts of Libya arrived in Derna, but extra excavators and other equipment had yet to arrive.

Flooding occurs frequently in Libya during the wet season, although rarely with this much devastation. A crucial concern was whether the rains could break through two dams outside Derna due to inadequate maintenance or the sheer volume of rain.

According to Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist and meteorologist at Leipzig University, Daniel quickly poured 440 millimeters (15.7 inches) of rain on eastern Libya.

“The infrastructure could probably not cope,” he said, adding that human-caused rises in ocean surface temperatures likely contributed to the storm’s ferocity.

Local officials have ignored Derna for many years. “Even the aspect of maintenance was simply missing.” “Everything kept getting pushed back,” said Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London specializing in Libya.

Many dead were reported to be trapped under rubble or washed out into the Mediterranean Sea, according to Othman Abduljaleel, the health minister for eastern Libya.

Factionalism is also a factor. For many years, Islamic extremist groups ruled over Derna. After months of hard urban battle, military leader Khalifa Hifter, the strongman of the east Libyan government, conquered the city in 2019.

Since then, the eastern government has been wary of the city and has worked to exclude its citizens from decision-making, according to Harchaoui. “This mistrust could be disastrous during the upcoming post-disaster period,” he said.

Hifter’s eastern administration, based in Benghazi, is at odds with the western government, headquartered in Tripoli. Each is supported by formidable militias as well as international forces. Egypt, Russia, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates back Hifter, while Turkey, Qatar, and Italy back the west Libya authority.

Nonetheless, the first reaction to the calamity resulted in some division crossing.

The Western Libyan administration, based in Tripoli, dispatched a plane carrying 14 tonnes of medical supplies and health staff to Benghazi. It also stated that it had set aside $412 million for rehabilitation in Derna and other eastern municipalities. Airplanes delivering humanitarian aid and rescue teams from Egypt, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates landed in Benghazi on Tuesday. Egypt’s military chief of staff also met with Hifter to discuss relief coordination.

Given the realities on the ground, it was unclear how quickly supplies could be delivered to Derna, 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Benghazi. Derna municipal administrator Ahmed Amdourd has called for a sea corridor to transfer relief and supplies.

U.S. Special Envoy for Libya Richard Norland stated on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter that the U.S. is cooperating with the U.N. and local authorities to determine the best way to target official U.S. support.

The storm also hit other parts of eastern Libya, notably Bayda, where 50 people were killed. According to footage released by the Medical Centre of Bayda on Facebook, the main hospital was inundated, and patients had to be evacuated.

According to the administration, other towns that suffered included Susa, Marj, and Shahatt. Hundreds of people were uprooted and sought refuge in schools and other government buildings in Benghazi and other parts of eastern Libya.

Northeast Libya is one of the country’s most fertile and green areas. According to the World Bank, the Jabal al-Akhdar region, which includes Bayda, Marj, and Shahatt, has one of the highest average annual rainfalls in the country.

SOURCE – (AP)

U.K News

London Hit With Heavy Snow as Temperatures Plummet

Published

5 days ago

2024-11-19

Geoff Brown

London, England, has been gripped by an Arctic freeze, with temperatures dipping well below zero, snow forcing trains to stop, and over 200 schools closing in and across the UK.

Commuters faced traffic mayhem as Braemar in Aberdeenshire recorded the coldest temperature in the UK this early in the season since 1998, at -11.2C (12.2F).

Today, the Met Office issued three yellow weather warnings for snow and ice across the Midlands and North of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

The UK Health Security Agency issued the season’s first amber cold weather health advisory, warning that circumstances could be hazardous to vulnerable people.

Poor weather hampered rail travel, with no trains running between Nottingham and Worksop or between Llandudno and Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales.

A couple walks on the snow-covered ground at Pavillion Gardens in Buxton, Derbyshire.

Northern services in Yorkshire between Bradford and Huddersfield, Hebden Bridge to Halifax, and Halifax to Hull were all disrupted while flooding at Ulverston in Cumbria caused delays between Barrow-in-Furness and Lancaster.

Around 130 Welsh schools closed in Wrexham, Powys, Denbighshire, and Flintshire, with closures also reported in Birmingham, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire.

Nearly 5 inches (12 cm) of snow fell at Watnall in Nottinghamshire, with 3 inches (8 cm) at Cranwell in Lincolnshire and 2 inches (5 cm) at Lake Vyrnwy in Powys, Wales.

The Met Office issued warnings that vehicles might become trapped, power outages could occur, remote communities could be shut off, and falling on ice could cause injury.

England has a yellow warning until 11 a.m., while Scotland has a warning until 10 a.m. tomorrow. Another warning for Northern Ireland expired at 10 a.m.

The UK Health Security Agency issued an amber cold weather health notice for the East and North of England, the Midlands, Yorkshire, and the Humber.

Yellow health alerts went into effect for the South East, South West, and London at 8 a.m. today and will run until 6 p.m. on Saturday.

National Rail warned that the cold weather would impair several routes on northern rail services until at least 2 p.m. today.

Merseyrail issued a notice informing passengers that due to the possibility of snow and ice covering tracks, the first train on each line in North West England would run without passengers to allow conditions to be examined.

National Highways also issued a strong amber weather advisory for snow, indicating that the M1 in Leeds and Sheffield, the M56 in Manchester, junction 39 of the M6, and junctions 21-23 of the M62 may see interruption.

WEATHER WARNING 1: The Met Office snow warning in Northern Ireland terminated at 10 a.m. today.

WEATHER WARNING 2: A separate snow and ice warning for Northern England until 11 a.m. today.

WEATHER WARNING 3: Scotland’s snow and ice warning is live until 10 a.m. tomorrow.

The Met Office, which characterized the weather as ‘the first taste of winter,’ said heavy snow will cause problems in England, with Derbyshire being the most vulnerable.

According to Dan Suri, the Met Office’s chief meteorologist, a low-pressure system will move eastward on Monday night.

The related frontal system, which marks the border between cold air in the north and milder weather in the south, may deliver disruptive snow to certain locations between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

Dr. Agostinho Sousa of the UK Health Security Agency stated, “This is the first amber Cold Weather Health Alert of the season, but we can expect more as winter approaches. It is critical to check in on vulnerable friends, family, and neighbors to ensure they are well prepared for the onset of cold weather.”

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U.K News

Windsor Castle Robbed While Royal Family Slept

Published

6 days ago

2024-11-19

Geoff Brown

UK police report two men broke into the Windsor Castle estate, home to Prince William and Catherine and their three children and stole two vehicles.

According to the Sun newspaper, the robbers broke into a farm building on the Windsor estate and stole a black Isuzu pick-up truck and a red quad bike stashed in a barn.

The Prince and Princess of Wales reportedly arrived at their estate home during the nighttime burglary.

Thames Valley Police stated the individuals ran to the Old Windsor/Datchet area, but no arrests have been made.

“Offenders entered a farm building and stole vehicles,” the police added. An investigation is underway regarding the incident.

There have been previous security incidents at Windsor. On Christmas Day in 2021, an intruder was apprehended on the grounds of Windsor Castle. Jaswant Singh Chail, who was equipped with a crossbow, received a nine-year prison sentence.

The Windsor estate, located west of London, spans 15,800 acres and contains functioning farms, conservation areas, Windsor Great Park, and well-known royal attractions, including Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle received 1.4 million visitors last year, making it the UK’s most popular royal tourist site.

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U.K News

Britain’s Conservative Party Elects Kemi Badenoch as Leader

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-11-02

Ana Wong

Conservatives pick Kemi Badenoch as party leader

U.K. Conservatives pick Kemi Badenoch as their party's new leader

Britain’s Conservative Party elected outspoken MP Kemi Badenoch as its new leader on Saturday, making her the first woman of color to lead a major British political party.

She has promised to give the right-of-center Tories “renewal” by advocating for a smaller state and rejecting identity politics.

The new leader faces a daunting challenge in restoring the party’s reputation after years of division, scandal, and economic turbulence, hammering Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s policies on key issues such as the economy and immigration and returning the Conservatives to power in the 2029 election.

“The task that stands before us is tough but simple,” Kemi Badenoch said in a victory address to a room full of Conservative legislators, staff, and journalists in London. She stated that the party’s role was to hold the Labour administration accountable while developing commitments and a government strategy.

Addressing the party’s electoral defeat, she stated, “We have to be honest — honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.”

“The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party, and our country, the new start that they deserve,” according to Badenoch.

Kemi Badenoch was Born in London

Kemi Badenoch, a business secretary in Sunak’s cabinet, was born in London to Nigerian parents and grew up in West Africa.

The former software engineer positions herself as a disruptor, advocating for a low-tax, free-market economy and promising to “rewire, reboot, and reprogram” the British state. Like her adversary Jenrick, she has opposed multiculturalism and advocated for decreased immigration, but unlike him, she has not asked that Britain abandon the European Convention on Human Rights.

Kemi Badenoch, a self-proclaimed hater of wokeness, opposes identity politics, gender-neutral toilets, and government initiatives to reduce carbon emissions in the United Kingdom. During the leadership race, she was chastised for claiming that “not all cultures are equally valid” and implying that maternity pay was excessive.

Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, predicted that under Badenoch, the Conservative Party would “swing to the right both in terms of its economic and social policies.”

He foretold that Badenoch will follow “what you might call the boats, boilers and bathrooms strategy …. focusing very much on the trans issue, the immigration issue and skepticism about progress towards net zero.”

Conservative Party Becoming More Diverse

While the Conservative Party is unrepresentative of the country as a whole, with a decreasing membership of 132,000 mostly affluent, elderly white men, its higher echelons have become significantly more diverse.

Badenoch is the Tories’ fourth female leader, following Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May, and Liz Truss, who became prime ministers.

She is the second Conservative leader of color, following Sunak, and the first with African heritage. The center-left Labour Party has a more diversified membership, but its leaders have always been white men.

In a more than three-month leadership contest, Conservative MPs narrowed the field from six to two in a series of votes before presenting the last two to a vote of the party’s membership.

Both finalists were from the party’s right-wing and claimed they could reclaim votes from Reform U.K., the hard-right, anti-immigrant group led by populist leader Nigel Farage that has eroded Conservative support.

However, the party lost many votes to the winning party, Labour, and the centrist Liberal Democrats, and some Conservatives are concerned that tacking right may move the party away from popular sentiment.

Kier Starmer’s Labor government has had a difficult first few months in power, plagued by unfavorable headlines, fiscal woes, and a sinking approval rating.

However, Bale stated that the historical record implies Badenoch’s chances of leading the Conservatives back to power in 2029 are slim.

“It’s quite unusual for someone to take over when a party gets very badly beaten and manage to lead it to election victory,” according to him. “However, Keir Starmer did just that after 2019. So there are records to break.”

Source: AP