International

Rescuing trapped grandkids via kayak: the aftermath of Hurricane Ian

AFP | Gerard Martinez

Suzanne Clarke wades through waist-deep water, struggling to reach her daughter’s apartment as she drags a kayak behind her.

When she finally reaches the home, she loads her two small granddaughters into the boat and pushes them toward higher ground, where she has parked her car on a freeway.

The building where Clarke’s daughter lives, in McGregor, a small city in southwestern Florida, was flooded Wednesday as Hurricane Ian thrashed over the community, which is situated along the Caloosahatchee River.

“I am very stressed, it’s been rough,” said 54-year-old Clarke. “I came early. The water was really, really high and I was scared.”

A day after Ian’s fury was unleashed, the inhabitants of Lee County — one of the areas most affected by the storm — are left to count the damage inflicted over the last several hours, now standing under a radiantly sunny sky.

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Some six miles (10 kilometers) away in Iona, only a few particularly large cars dare to navigate through a flooded street.

Resident Ronnie Sutton spent the night with a friend in a town south of here called Cabo Coral. Even though he hasn’t been able to get to his house yet, he is sure the water has destroyed everything.

“It’s terrible,” the 67-year-old said. “I guess this is the price you pay for being at sea level. Sometimes it comes back to bite you.”

Boats in the street

Ian battered this section of southwestern Florida for hours on Wednesday, leaving behind scenes of destruction, including splintered trees, felled traffic lights and shattered glass.

In Fort Myers, a quiet city of approximately 83,000 people, the rising Caloosahatchee River pushed dozens of small boats — usually anchored at the local marina — up into the streets of downtown, where they remained Thursday on the now-dry ground.

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Tom Johnson witnessed the flooding up close from his apartment on the second floor of a two-story building.

Wednesday afternoon, he saw how the hurricane propelled two boats up into his complex’s courtyard in a matter of just five minutes.

“I was scared because I’ve never been through that,” recalled 54-year-old Johnson, whose home was not damaged, gesturing to the crafts still laying there.

“It was just the most horrifying sounds, with debris flying everywhere, doors flying off.”

One of Johnson’s neighbors, Janelle Thil, was not as lucky. Her ground-floor apartment began to flood, but she was able to ask another resident for help to get out.

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“They got my dogs and then I jumped out of the window and swam over there,” Thil said, pointing to a vacant second-floor unit where she and others took refuge.

The 42-year-old had finished clearing out the mud that found its way into her home, and began gathering her few possessions that were not lost in the flood.

“I cried a little bit when I finally got to my apartment,” she said. “Opened the door and I had to wait about five minutes for all the floodwaters to come out.”

“I loved my home, but I’m alive and that’s what matters.”

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International

Winter Storm Fern Leaves 30 Dead and Over One Million Without Power Across the U.S.

The massive winter storm Fern, bringing polar temperatures, battered large portions of the United States for a third consecutive day on Monday, leaving at least 30 people dead, more than one million households without electricity, and thousands of flights grounded.

In the Great Lakes region, residents awoke to extreme cold, with temperatures dropping below -20°C. Forecasts indicate that conditions are expected to worsen in the coming days as an Arctic air mass moves south, particularly across the northern Great Plains and other central regions, where wind chills could plunge to -45°C, temperatures capable of causing frostbite within minutes.

Across the country, heavy snowfall exceeding 30 centimeters in roughly 20 states triggered widespread power outages. According to PowerOutage.com, nearly 800,000 customers remained without electricity on Monday morning, most of them in the southern United States.

In Tennessee, where ice brought down power lines, approximately 250,000 customers were still without power. Outages also affected more than 150,000 customers in Mississippi and over 100,000 in Louisiana, as utility crews struggled to restore service amid dangerous conditions.

International

Spain approves plan to regularize up to 500,000 migrants in Historic Shift

In November 2024, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a reform of the country’s immigration regulations aimed at regularizing 300,000 migrants per year over a three-year period, in an effort to counter population aging in a country where births have fallen by 25.6% since 2014, according to official data.

Going against the trend in much of Europe, Spain’s left-wing government has now approved an exceptional migrant regularization plan that could benefit up to 500,000 people, most of them from Latin America.

The measure will allow the regularization of around “half a million people” who have been living in Spain for at least five months, arrived before December 31, 2025, and have no criminal record, Migration Minister Elma Saiz explained on public television.

The plan, approved on Tuesday by the Council of Ministers, establishes that applications will be processed between April and June 30, enabling beneficiaries to work in any sector and anywhere in the country, Saiz said.

“Today is a historic day for our country. We are strengthening a migration model based on human rights, integration, and one that is compatible with economic growth and social cohesion,” the minister later stated at a press conference.

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The socialist government of Pedro Sánchez stands out within the European Union for its migration policy, contrasting with the tightening of immigration measures across much of the bloc amid pressure from far-right movements.

Central America

Honduras swears in conservative president Asfura after disputed election

Conservative politician Nasry Asfura assumed the presidency of Honduras on Tuesday with an agenda closely aligned with the United States, a shift that could strain the country’s relationship with China as he seeks to confront the economic and security challenges facing the poorest and most violent nation in Central America.

Asfura’s rise to power, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, marks the end of four years of left-wing rule and secures Trump another regional ally amid the advance of conservative governments in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina.

The 67-year-old former mayor and construction businessman was sworn in during an austere ceremony at the National Congress, following a tightly contested election marred by opposition allegations of fraud and Trump’s threat to cut U.S. aid if his preferred candidate did not prevail.

Grateful for Washington’s support, Asfura—who is of Palestinian descent—traveled to the United States to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, before visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We need to strengthen relations with our most important trading partner,” Asfura said after being declared the winner of the November 30 election by a narrow margin, following a tense vote count that lasted just over three weeks.