Month: October 2023

A fire broke out at a nightclub in the southeastern Spanish city of Murcia early on Sunday morning, killing at least 13 people and injuring four others, authorities said.

The fire started around 6 a.m. local time (4 a.m. GMT) at the Teatre nightclub, also known as Fonda Milagros, which was hosting a birthday party, according to local media reports.

Firefighters arrived at the scene and managed to extinguish the blaze by 8 a.m., but faced difficulties in accessing the building due to the risk of collapse and the presence of smoke, Murcia’s mayor José Ballesta said.

The mayor said that there were still bodies to be pulled out from the rubble and that he could not rule out the possibility of finding more victims

The injured were two women aged 22 and 25 and two men aged 41 and 45, who were all taken to the hospital due to smoke inhalation, the Murcia emergency services website said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation by forensic and judicial police experts, the national police service said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his solidarity with the victims and relatives of the tragedy and thanked the emergency services for their work.

The city’s town hall declared three days of mourning and set up a reception base for the relatives of victims, where a team of psychologists will provide assistance.

This is one of the deadliest nightclub fires in Spain’s history. In 1990, 43 people died in a fire at a nightclub in Zaragoza, and in 2017, 40 people were injured when a floor collapsed at a nightclub in Tenerife.

US is facing a precarious situation as the US budget crisis puts its vital military and humanitarian aid at risk. The war-torn country, which has been fighting against Russian relies heavily on the US support.

The US has been the largest donor to Ukraine, providing more than $113 billion in assistance since the war began. However, the domestic political fight in Washington has jeopardized the continuation of this support, as Congress failed to approve a new funding package that included $24 billion for Ukraine.

President Joe Biden has reassured Kyiv and its allies that the US will not walk away from Ukraine, and urged Congress to stop playing games and get the aid done as soon as possible. He said there is an overwhelming sense of urgency, as the funding bill lasts only until mid-November.

However, some Republicans have expressed doubts about the accountability and effectiveness of the US aid to Ukraine, and questioned whether it is in the national interest.

The uncertainty over the US aid comes at a critical time for Ukraine, which is trying to make progress in its counteroffensive against Russia before winter sets in. The country also faces challenges from its neighbors, such as Poland, which announced this week that it would no longer arm Ukraine due to its own political and economic issues.

Ukraine has appealed to the international community for more support and solidarity, as it fears that losing the US backing could embolden Russia and other adversaries in the future. Zelensky said that Ukraine is not only fighting for its own freedom, but also for the values and security of the democratic world.

Forty days after the head of Wagner died, there are reports that the private military company has been bequeathed to Prigozhin’s son, who is already negotiating the group’s future.

EU foreign ministers convened in Kyiv for their first ever meeting outside the bloc on Monday, broadcasting their support after a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia and the U.S. Congress left Ukraine war aid out of a spending bill.

Kyiv brushed off the wobbles on both sides of the Atlantic, especially the prospect that the U.S. Congressional vote, which excluded aid to Ukraine from an emergency bill to prevent a government shutdown, represented a deeper change in policy.

“We don’t feel that the U.S support has been shattered… because the United States understands that what is at stake in Ukraine is much bigger than just Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters as he greeted the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell.

As for the election victory of pro-Russian Slovakian former Prime Minister Robert Fico, Kuleba said it was “too early to judge”, noting that a new leader there would still have to form a coalition.

Monday’s meeting in Kyiv was touted by Borrell as an historic first, and provided striking photo opportunities for a succession of ministers in front of EU flags in the war-time capital.

But it comes at an awkward time for the Western alliance that has supported Kyiv. The summer is coming to a close after a slower-than-expected Ukrainian military counter-offensive, without the major success that Western leaders had hoped to see before autumn mud clogs the treads of their donated tanks.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for efforts to prepare Ukraine for the coming winter, including through air defence and guaranteed energy supplies, after Russia bombed Ukraine’s energy infrastructure last year.

“Last winter, we saw the brutal way in which the Russian president is waging this war,” said Baerbock. “We must prevent this together with everything we have, as far as possible.”

Public opinion in most Western countries is still largely behind Ukraine. But political leaders are worried about calls on both the far right and the far left of the political spectrum challenging the consensus that has held so far.

Elections are looming in several European countries, and above all next year in the United States, where right-wing Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump have increasingly called for funding of Ukraine to be halted.

Republicans control the House of Representatives, one of the two houses of the U.S. Congress, where speaker Kevin McCarthy might need to rely on Democrats to support any bill to fund Ukraine. Right wingers have threatened to try to remove him.

President Joe Biden’s administration says it expects the House to pass a measure to keep aid to Ukraine flowing. Biden on Sunday pressed congressional Republicans to back the aid, saying he was “sick and tired” of the political brinkmanship that had nearly shut the government.

Kuleba said he believed the move over the weekend to pass a bill excluding aid was “an incident” rather than “a system”, and Kyiv expected aid to continue.

“We have a very in-depth discussion with both parts of the Congress – Republicans and Democrats,” he said.

Moscow, for its part, also saw little change in U.S. policy, for now at least.

“They will continue their support,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, according to state news agency TASS. “We should not think that anything has changed: it’s just a show for the public, it’s just noise.”

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said public opinion on the Ukraine issue in the West was fragmenting, despite the position of governments.

In Europe, pro-Russian former prime minister Fico won the most votes in an election in Slovakia on Sunday and will get a first chance to form a government. His campaign had called for “not a single round” of ammunition from Slovakia’s reserves to be sent to Ukraine.

“We are not changing that we are prepared to help Ukraine in a humanitarian way,” Fico said at a news conference after his victory. “We are prepared to help with the reconstruction of the state but you know our opinion on arming Ukraine.”

To form a government, Fico would have to establish a coalition with at least one other party that does not publicly share his position on Ukraine.

Russia’s Peskov defended Fico, saying it was “absurd” that politicians who support their country’s national interest were labelled “pro-Russian”.

“Of course, we would like to see more experienced politicians, sober politicians, politicians who tend to soberly assess the situation. We’ll watch what happens next,” he told a regular Kremlin news briefing.

Slovakia, a NATO state with a small border with Ukraine, has taken in refugees and, under the outgoing government, has provided a disproportionately major supply of weapons, notably being among the first to send fighter jets.

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The new head of the UN migration agency on Monday voiced concern that the deaths of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean were being “normalised” and vowed to work with governments to provide options for economic migration to address the crisis.

U.S. former White House adviser Amy Pope started as head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Oct. 1 at a time of record forced displacement around the world and high political tensions over irregular immigration.

In recent days, an Italian minister and billionaire Elon Musk have criticised Germany for backing charities helping distressed migrants on the world’s most dangerous route, the Mediterranean, where 22,000 people have died or gone missing since 2014. Germany’s foreign ministry defended its policies.

Asked to comment on the debate, Amy Pope said: “Our biggest concern is that the deaths in the Mediterranean have been normalised and that people take for granted that this is just a cost of human movement.”

“If we’re really going to stop people crossing the Mediterranean on rickety boats and dying as they do so, we need to approach the situation far more comprehensively,” she said. She declined to comment directly on Musk’s remarks.

Pope, who wants to build partnerships with private companies to better manage migration, won a tense election in May against her then-boss, becoming the first female head of the U.N. agency since it was created in 1951. IOM seeks to ensure humane and orderly migration and intervenes where needed.

In her first press conference, she vowed to work with countries that want to renew their labour forces like Spain.

“The evidence is fairly overwhelming that migration actually benefits economies,” she said, saying this was especially true in wealthy countries with ageing populations and low birth rates.

Pope said her first trip will be to east Africa to meet with the African Union Commission in Ethiopia and then to Brussels where she will meet with senior European officials as they search for a deal on handling irregular migration.

NEW YORK (AP) — With control over some of his most prized real estate holdings in jeopardy, former President Donald Trump says he will make a rare, voluntary trip to court in New York on Monday for the start of a civil trial in a lawsuit that already has resulted in a judge ruling that he committed fraud in his business dealings.

“I’m going to Court tomorrow morning to fight for my name and reputation,” Trump wrote Sunday night on his Truth Social platform.

Trump lashed out in his post at New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is suing him, and Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the non-jury trial and made the fraud ruling last week.

“THIS WHOLE CASE IS SHAM!!!” Trump wrote. “See you in Court — Monday morning.”

The trial is the culmination of a yearslong investigation by James, who accused Trump and his company of habitually lying about his wealth in financial statements.

Last week, Engoron resolved the lawsuit’s top claim before the trial even began, ruling that Trump routinely deceived banks, insurers and others by exaggerating the value of assets on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans.

The former president and a who’s who of people in his orbit — his two eldest sons, Trump Organization executives and former lawyer-turned-foe Michael Cohen are all listed among dozens of potential witnesses.

Trump isn’t expected to testify for several weeks. His trip to court Monday will mark a remarkable departure from his past practice.

Trump didn’t come to court as either a witness or a spectator when his company and one of its top executives was convicted of tax fraud last year. He didn’t show, either, for a trial earlier this year in which a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting the writer E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room.

In some ways, though, this new trial comes with higher stakes.

James, a Democrat, is seeking $250 million in penalties and a ban on doing business in New York.

Engoron’s ruling of last week, if upheld on appeal, would also shift control of some of his companies to a court-appointed receiver and could force him to give up prized New York properties such as Trump Tower, a Wall Street office building, golf courses and a suburban estate.

Trump called it a “a corporate death penalty.”

“I have a Deranged, Trump Hating Judge, who RAILROADED this FAKE CASE through a NYS Court at a speed never before seen,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

In his post Sunday night, Trump wrote that Engoron is “unfair, unhinged, and vicious in his PURSUIT of me.”

Engoron will decide on six remaining claims in James’ lawsuit, including allegations of conspiracy, falsifying business records and insurance fraud.

James’ lawsuit accused Trump and his company of a long list of fibs in the financial statements he gave to banks. In a recent court filing, James’ office alleged Trump exaggerated his wealth by as much as $3.6 billion.

Among the allegations were that Trump claimed his Trump Tower apartment in Manhattan — a three-story penthouse replete with gold-plated fixtures — was nearly three times its actual size and worth an astounding $327 million. No apartment in New York City has ever sold for close to that amount, James said.

Trump valued Mar-a-Lago as high as $739 million — more than 10 times a more reasonable estimate of its worth, James claimed. Trump’s figure for the private club and residence was based on the idea that the property, now a private club, could be developed for residential use, but deed terms prohibit that, James said.

Trump has denied wrongdoing, arguing in sworn testimony for the case that it didn’t matter what he put on his financial statements because they have a disclaimer that says they shouldn’t be trusted.

He and his lawyers have also argued that no one was harmed by anything in the financial statements. Banks he borrowed money from were fully repaid. Business partners made money. And Trump’s own company flourished.

James’ lawsuit is one of several legal headaches for Trump as he campaigns for a return to the White House in next year’s election. He has been indicted four times since March, accused of plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss, hoarding classified documents and falsifying business records related to hush money paid on his behalf.

The trial could last into December, Engoron said.

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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

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Follow Sisak at x.com/mikesisak and send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips

This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.

The government has slashed more than 70 percent of the funding it has been giving to organizations that provide mental health support since the coronavirus pandemic erupted in 2020.

Due to the pandemic’s impact on mental health, the Health Ministry started giving these organizations additional funding. But with the pandemic over, it says, there is no longer any need for the extra funding.

Yet data from one such organization, Eran – Emotional First Aid, indicates that the number of appeals for assistance remains higher than it was before the coronavirus crisis. Eran says it has helped some 300,000 people just over the last year.

The funding cuts will hurt roughly 15 organizations. These include Eran, which provides telephone and online assistance; Natal – Israel Trauma and Resiliency Center, which specializes in trauma caused by war or terror attacks; and the Israeli Center for Cult Victims.

Eran’s government funding, for instance, has fallen from 5.5 million shekels in 2020 to just 1.6 million shekels ($420,000) this year, even less than the years preceding the coronavirus. In 2018 and 2019, Eran received over 2 million shekels from the state.

The Health Ministry’s baseline budget for psychological support organizations comes to 3.7 million shekels. In 2020, it added 9.5 million shekels due to the pandemic. The extra funding shrank in subsequent years, but remained substantial – 6 million shekels in 2021 and 3 million shekels in 2022. This year, there is no extra funding, so the budget has remained at 3.7 million shekels.

But Eran says the number of people seeking mental health assistance remains higher than it was before the coronavirus. In 2019, some 200,000 people contacted the organization. In the first half of this year, the figure was 130,000.

Eran runs a network of 1,650 volunteers who provide psychological support via 18 telephone hotlines and an online help site. Five of those hotlines, which serve nighttime callers, are located in the United States and Australia and staffed by Israelis living there, since due to the time difference, Israel’s nighttime hours overlap with normal work hours in those countries.

But given the increase in calls, the organization says it needs around 400 additional volunteers plus more hotlines, which will cost money. In particular, it says, the budget cut endangers the training sessions it had planned for volunteers to help them provide assistance effectively.

The Health Ministry said it “doesn’t support the organizations, but activities that provide psychological first aid. The amount of support the ministry provides for this issue, minus the coronavirus addition, has remained unchanged. However, over the years, additional organizations have entered this field, and the total is divided among them based on the standard criteria for this purpose.”

Eran claims that its operations “are a key and essential part of the mental health field and provide service to all Israelis without exception. However, even though in practice the organization is a genuine national agency, with many decades of activity during which Eran has provided service 24/7 every day of the year for every type of mental distress, both via its hotline and online,” its state funding still comes through an end-of-the-year grant whose size can vary.

“The increase in the scope of its operations, even relative to the years before the coronavirus, in comparison with the funding reduction … merely underscores the need” for the organization to be funded “the way all other essential emergency services are,” it added.

The post Israeli government cuts support to mental health organizations by 70% appeared first on The Forward.

Taiwan prosecutors said on Monday they are investigating accusations that people tried to interfere in the island’s submarine program and that details about it were leaked, in what would be a serious breach of security.

Taiwan unveiled its first domestically developed submarine on Thursday, a major step in a project aimed at strengthening the island’s defence and deterrence against the Chinese navy, though it won’t enter service for two years.

Huang Shu-kuang, who is leading the program, told local media last week that lawmakers, whom he did not name, had made it difficult for the program to purchase critical equipment, and that a contractor who had failed to obtain a bid forwarded information to China.

Taiwan’s Supreme Prosecutors Office, in a short statement, said Huang’s accusations had attracted “great attention” given the national security and defence implications.

It said it had instructed prosecutors to “investigate the case as soon as possible in order to safeguard national security”.

It did not give details or names.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has made the indigenous submarine program a key part of an ambitious project to modernise its armed forces as Beijing stages almost daily military exercises to assert its sovereignty claims.

The submarine program has drawn on expertise and technology from several countries – a breakthrough for diplomatically isolated Taiwan.

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BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese military released an animated short film on National Day showing pieces of a scroll painting torn in two more than 300 years ago being reunited, in a show of the mainland’s determination to bring self-ruled Taiwan into the fold.

The pieces of the “The Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains”, one of China’s best-known ancient paintings, are kept separately in museums in China and Taiwan, the democratically governed island that Beijing claims as one its provinces, and which it reserves the right to take over by force.

On National Day on Sunday, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command, known for belligerent videos of exercises around Taiwan, released an animated short film called “Dreams Come True on Fuchun River”, appealing to the shared cultural roots of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The film featured two elves, representing the two pieces of the painting by Yuan dynasty master Huang Gongwang, which was torn apart in the 17th century by one of its owners.

At the end of the movie, the two characters came together, magically making the painting whole again.

The shorter piece of the scroll, known as “The Remaining Mountain”, about 51 cm long, is at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou city. Taiwan’s National Palace Museum has kept the 640-cm long “Master Wuyong Scroll” since the 1950s.

The two pieces were reunited in 2011 when China lent its fragment to the Taiwanese museum for two months during a period of warmer relations as Taiwan pursued a policy of economic rapprochement with China.

But in recent years, as relations have cooled, China has ramped up military activities around Taiwan, including drills over the past month that Beijing said were targeted at combating separatist forces.

At the same time, China is drafting ambitious plans to “integrate” the economies of its Fujian province and Taiwan, on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, offering Taiwan firms a chance to take part in a joint development plan, which Taiwan’s government has spurned.

While China is keen to woo Taiwan with promises of economic gains, the threat of taking Taiwan by force is unrelenting.

During the journey by the two elves in the film, the Eastern Theatre Command inserted shots of aircraft carrier formations and J-20 fighter jets, reminding viewers of its battlefield capabilities.

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