International
Israel reproaches in a video in X Spain’s policy of recognizing the Palestinian State
Israel again reproached Spain’s policy with the recognition of the Palestinian State, with a video published this Sunday on the account of X of the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, accompanied by a mention of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and then the message “Hamás thanks him for his service.”
In the video, which lasts 18 seconds, it starts with the flag of Spain and some of the images of the attacks of the Palestinian group on October 7 appear, alternating with those of two people who imitate flamenco dancers, all the time with the phrase printed on “Hamás: “Thanks Spain.”
In the last few hours, numerous X accounts are distributing recordings without filters or warnings of the crudest moments of the October 7 massacre.
The circulation of these videos has intensified following the announcement by Spain, Norway and Ireland of their decision to recognize the Palestinian state on May 28.
With his message today, Katz again charges against the Spanish Government after its recent announcement that it will recognize the Palestinian State, after last Friday it banned the Spanish Consulate in Jerusalem to “provide services to the Palestinians” and ordered the connection between the Spanish Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Palestinians to be cut off.
Katz also criticized on Friday the vice president of Spain, Yolanda Díaz, for publishing the day after the announcement of the recognition of the Palestinian State a video on her social networks of support in which she stated “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea,” a slogan of the Palestinian cause that Israel considers anti-Semitic because they say that it implies the disappearance of its state.
“If this ignorant and hateful person wants to understand what radical Islam is really looking for, let him learn about the 700 years of Islamic rule in Al Andalus, in what is now Spain,” Katz wrote in a message on his X account this past Friday against Díaz.
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, considered “scandalous and execrable” the video published today by his Israeli counterpart in which he reproaches Spain for its imminent recognition of the Palestinian State and uses flamenco in a “huring” way.
“The video seems scandalous and execrable to me. It is scandalous because it is known to the whole world, especially to my Israeli colleague, that the Government of Spain has condemned Hamas terrorism from the first moment and in all its actions,” Albares said at a press conference in Brussels with the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohamad Mustafa.
“I have said it many times and today I reiterate it here again, the people of Israel are a friendly people of the Spanish people, and Israel, of course, has the right to have its State,” said the head of Spanish diplomacy in his appearance before the press at the headquarters of Spain’s permanent representation before the European Union (EU), after meeting with Mustafa.
For Albares, the video is also “execrable for the use it wants, although it does not achieve it, hurtful, of one of the greatest symbols of Spanish culture such as flamenco.”
A symbol of Spanish culture of which he said he was “especially proud because I love it,” he said.
And, he added: “As soon as I have an hour free, I will go to see a flamenco show to vindicate it, because it is what the world needs right now, a universal art, an open music, a music that dialogues and, therefore, a universal language that brings us closer to all the peoples of the world and that inspires us.”
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, assured this Saturday that what is happening in Gaza “is a real genocide” and has pointed out that the recognition of the Palestinian State “does not go against Israel,” whose embassy in Spain has regretted that it has made the story of Hamas its own.
Diplomatic relations between Israel and Spain have been tense since Sánchez’s last visit to the country, last November, in which he reproached the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that his offensive in Gaza was not respecting international humanitarian law.
Spain will formally recognize the Palestinian State on May 28, along with Ireland and Norway, which provoked the anger of Israel, which called for consultations with its ambassadors in those countries and summoned their respective representatives in Tel Aviv for a reprimand.
International
At least ten dead in Iran in a bus accident in the west of the country
At least ten people lost their lives this Saturday when a passenger bus fell down a ravine on a highway in the province of Lorestan, in western Iran.
“The bus that left Andimeshk (Juzestan province) to Poldokhtar (Lorestan), went off the road and fell into a ravine so unfortunately at least 10 people have died,” announced the executive director of the Red Crescent of the province of Lorestan, Mohammad Ghadami, reported the Tasnim agency.
The official did not give details about the number of injured in the accident and their state of health.
Ghadami said that four rescue teams were sent to the scene of the incident immediately after it was reported at 12:39 local time (9:10 GMT) this Saturday.
Mortality on roads, one of the highest in the world
Traffic accidents are very common in Iran, where the road mortality rate is one of the highest in the world, with an average of 20,000 deaths per year.
Many of the accidents are due to the poor condition of the vehicles and the poor compliance with traffic rules by drivers.
Last August, at least 28 Pakistani pilgrims died when the bus in which they were traveling overturned in central Iran, in an accident that occurred due to a brake failure.
International
Helene, the violent hurricane that destroyed the southeastern United States
Hurricane Helene is one of the extreme climatic events that have starred this 2024 after leaving more than 150 direct deaths and billions of dollars in losses in six states of the southeastern United States, according to preliminary figures.
The deadly Helene, which in the continental United States has only been surpassed by Katrina (2005), ended with more than 150 deaths, at least a hundred in North Carolina, in addition to leaving a path of destruction that reached the mountainous area of that state with special virulence.
After impacting Central America and the Yucatan Peninsula, Helene made landfall on September 26 with winds of 225 kilometers per hour in the Big Bend region of Florida, in the northwest of that state, as the most powerful cyclone in that region since records have been available.
From Florida, where it arrived as a major hurricane, and while it weakened progressively to become a tropical depression, Helene continued on land through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
North Carolina was the one that took the worst part, not only for the number of deaths but for the economic losses, which amount to more than 59.6 billion dollars, according to an update from the state government released this month.
The historic rainfall of up to 76 centimeters caused floods and landslides in this state, which caused serious damage, and long-term, both in homes and in public infrastructure and the agricultural industry.
Million-dollar economic losses
Quantifying at this time the economic losses in all the states impacted by Helene, which generated strong winds and tornadoes, is difficult because there are discrepancies in the damage assessment since it produced “a large-scale disaster,” as Mónica Escaleras, professor of the Department of Economics at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), told EFE.
“The widespread nature of the damage, the diversity of affected sectors and ongoing recovery efforts” are factors that prevent an accurate estimate at present, he added.
Escaleras believes, however, that Helene is a reflection of how in recent years “extreme weather events have become increasingly frequent and intense, altering infrastructure and supply chains.”
A preliminary report from the Institute of Agricultural and Food Sciences of the University of Florida (UF/IFAS) estimates that agricultural losses in this southern state due to Helene can range between 40.3 and 162.2 million dollars, after destroying 6.1 million acres (2.4 million hectares) of arable land.
More hurricanes like Helene in the future
A key factor in Helene’s intensity were the high temperatures in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, whose surfaces were at about 29.4 degrees Celsius when the system began to form.
A preliminary study by the World Weather Attribution network of scientists reflected that this temperature is the result of climate change, which made Helene’s effects worse, responsible for example for 10% more rain.
“It is expected that the growing occurrence of these events will generate higher insurance premiums and may lead to the withdrawal of coverage in high-risk areas, which will affect both the real estate and business sectors,” Escaleras said.
This possible future scenario can, on the other hand, affect unprotected communities more, such as the Hispanic one in the United States. The Climate Power organization revealed last week a report that shows that Latino communities have been the great victims of the extreme weather events that occurred in 2024.
The report in question found that many Latino families in western North Carolina live in trailers flooded or destroyed by the storm, and that not mastering English they had obstacles when it came to receiving information about recovery tasks.
Antonieta Cádiz, executive director of the Climate Power In Action campaign, reminded EFE of the case of the workers of a plastics factory in Erwin (Tennessee) who died after a negligence in their evacuation, which was not carried out due to the imminent effects of Helene, employees who were mostly Hispanic.
The above, he said, is a sample of the disproportionate and “deep inequalities” that affect the Hispanic community when it comes to extreme weather events.
International
The piangua, the mangrove mollusk that empowers women in the Colombian Pacific
When the low tide in the Colombian Pacific, a group of women put on rubber boots, take a raft and enter a mangrove forest to collect the piangua, a mollusk that, in addition to providing food to their families, empowers them and gives them a voice in their territory.
They are in the community of La Plata, in the heart of the Uramba-Bahía Málaga National Natural Park, and they have just six hours to work before the sea rises again. Stuck in the mud they sing to liven up their days and regardless of the sun or rain they fill their containers with this mollusk similar to the mussel with which they prepare delicious recipes.
“It is a very important ancestral activity because it allows us to have economic sustainability as women, to be a symbol of resistance to cultural traditions and to take care of our gastronomic traditions,” Matilde Mosquera Murillo, legal representative of the Raíces Piangüeras Association.
Mosquera, 27 years old and a sociologist by profession, took on the challenge of leading that organization created in 2019 and has managed to bring together more than 70 women who are dedicated to this profession in the Community Council of La Plata-Bahía Málaga, where they play a fundamental role in conservation.
“We monitor mangroves, because we know the importance they have in the ecosystem, they are the cradle of thousands of species. We also make every process sustainable so that all the initiatives we lead allow us to take care of nature,” Mosquera insists.
International recognition
Their work already has international recognition and since 2023 they have held the ‘Meeting of Women of the Colombian Pacific’. In the first edition they asked the National Government to advocate before UNESCO to declare the piangüeo as Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
“We believe in the need for a political strengthening of women, that our voice is heard and that we are part of the decisions that are made in the country so that we have votes in public policies and that they recognize our ancestral work in the world,” she adds.
The environmental richness of the La Plata archipelago is enormous and its 32 islands and islets are the habitat of 1,396 species of birds, reptiles, mammals and felines, as well as 60 classes of frogs, 25 of lizards and 52 of snakes.
There are also eight species of sharks, 22 rays and 348 of fish that have six types of mangroves as their home: red mangrove, born mangrove, ped mangrove, button or button mangrove, bobo mangle and feeder mangle.
Unity and awareness
According to Santiago Valencia, leader of the Community Council of La Plata-Bahía Málaga, women use a ‘piangüímetro’, a tool that works as a rule that allows them to measure the mollusk when it has already passed its reproductive stage.
“Their organization is as strong as the roots of the mangrove and they even come together to reforest when they see it necessary. This unity has made them look for other alternatives because they see that everything is possible and today they see themselves as what they are: powerful women, businesswomen and nature lovers,” says Valencia.
Currently, women piangüeras work in the search for resources that allow them to access studies to improve and strengthen their processes.
Some of them have already created other ventures for the manufacture of ointments based on medicinal plants from the jungle, ancestral drinks and even think about packing the piangua in a vacuum to export it to other countries.
“When we go to the mangrove we sing as a symbol of power, to express our feelings, it also serves to harmonize our activity and understand that we are important; we will leave this inheritance to our children and it will continue for generations,” concludes Mosquera.
At least ten dead in Iran in a bus accident in the west of the country
Helene, the violent hurricane that destroyed the southeastern United States
The piangua, the mangrove mollusk that empowers women in the Colombian Pacific
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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