International
At least three dead in the fishing vessel sunk in the Falkland Islands with Galician crew members
At least three crew members have died in the accident of the fishing boat ‘Argos Georgia’, which sank in the Malvinas Islands on Monday, according to the Government Delegation in Galicia.
According to information transferred by the maritime authorities of the Falklands to the Spanish ones, the fishing boat ‘Puerto Toro’ has recovered two corpses and the ‘Robin M. Lee’, based in Cangas (Pontevedra), has rescued a survivor and a lifeless body.
Currently, operations are being carried out to recover the survivors of another life raft.
The bad weather conditions in the area have prevented the takeoff of helicopters for the rescue, a decision that is reviewed every hour in case there is a possibility of the aircraft operating, and have also hindered the tasks of the fishing vessels that have come to the aid of the crew of the ‘Argos Georgia’.
In the area, in addition to the two fishing boats, a patrol boat and a plane are deployed.
The ship, as it has transpired, would carry Russian, Indonesian, Uruguayan and Peruvian crew members.
The Maritime Authority of the Falkland Islands received information on Monday afternoon that the fishing boat, with 27 people on board, requested assistance about 200 miles east of Stanley.
Ten Spaniards were on board the fishing boat Argos Georgia which, with 27 crew members, including the captain, has sunk in the early hours of the Falkland Islands, the Government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, has confirmed.
As he told reporters on a visit to Redondela (Pontevedra), he specified that among the ten Spaniards are the captain of the ship, the fishing skipper, the cook, the two machine operators and two oceanographic observers.
Blanco has specified that by the surnames “it seems that there are Galicians” on board, although he is pending to determine how many.
Knowing the facts, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established “permanent contact” with its consulates in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and London (United Kingdom) to follow the rescue operation of the crew of the sunken fishing vessel. This was confirmed by Minister José Manuel Albares at a press conference.
In addition to the ten Spanish crew members, 8 Russians, 2 Uruguayans, 2 Peruvians and 5 Indonesians were traveling on the ship, according to local media.
The Falkland Islands Maritime Authority received information on Monday that the fishing vessel Argos Georgia requested assistance when it was about 200 miles east of Stanley, the capital of the archipelago.
According to the Malvinas authority, after the ship’s alert and despite the difficult maritime conditions, a rescue operation was carried out with aerial and surface means, including the BFSAI A-400, BFSAI search and rescue helicopters, FPV Lilibet, as well as two fishing boats.
Among those trawlers who have come to the rescue, in fact, there is one from Cangas (Pontevedra), although belonging to a mixed society, according to sources from the Government Subdelegation in Pontevedra.
Blanco added in his appearance that the crew members made use of the lifeboats.
According to this statement from the Falkland authorities, communications were quickly established between the Government of the Islands, the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the headquarters of the British Forces in the South Atlantic Islands, the United Kingdom Maritime and Coast Guard Agency, the fishing vessel company and other vessels.
The Argos Georgia, built in 2018, belongs to the British-Norwegian shipowner Argos Froyanes, with more than 30 years of experience in the fishing sector.
After the first operation, the Government of the Falkland Islands announced that it will resume the rescue of the 27 crew members of the sunken ship when the weather improves.
According to a statement, the BFSAI A-400M Atlas helicopter was the first to come to the scene and was able to “monitor and report” the position of the lifeboats.
Meanwhile, the fishing vessel FPV Lilibet and two other boats arrived “at the highest speed” at the location last night to begin the “rescue operations.”
Similarly, operating in adverse conditions, a search and rescue helicopter (SAR) of the British military contingent in the Falkland Islands tried to recover the personnel from the scene during the night of Monday “without success”, due to “extreme weather conditions and limited time.”
The helicopter returned to Stanley airport to refuel before a second attempt, “but the weather got even worse” and the rescue operations were then suspended, according to the note.
The weather conditions on Tuesday imply that the area is still “out of the limits” of helicopter operations, but “the situation is being reviewed regularly with a view to resuming operations as soon as possible.”
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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