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Europe
Hungary
(Friday), 20.09.2024 Photos on social media and Hungarian media show that bridges and the banks of Danube, where the parliament building is also located in central Budapest, were flooded. The Danube level reached 780 cm high yesterday evening, and is expected to reach 850 cm at peak level on Saturday. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told today that the population seemed calmer than in the 2013 floods and called for them to avoid mobility over the weekend. PM Orbán says preparations to counter floods will stay in place until next Thursday. Eastern and Central Europe are grappling with Storm Boris. After hitting Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania, flooding was expected to affect Slovakia and Hungary next as a result of a low-pressure system from northern Italy that has been dumping record rainfall in the region. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes across a swathe of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. (Source: aa *)
* Anadolu Agency
European Commission
20/09/2024 - 13:04 A loan was announced by der Leyen today during her visit to Kyiv, promising 'maximum flexibility' in how the money will be spent. 'The European Union will raise a €35 billion loan' to support the Ukrainian economy and military as the war-torn country battles to resist a renewed Russian offensive that has badly damaged the power systems and made territorial advances in the East. (Source: euronews)
European Parliament
September 20, 2024 'In a resolution, adopted yesterday with 425 votes in favour, 131 against and 63 abstentions, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) demand that EU countries lift current restrictions hindering Ukraine from using Western weapons systems against legitimate military targets in Russia'. (Source: euneighbourseast)
United Kingdom
(20 September 2024 11:56 AM) King Charles expresses his profound shock and sadness after floods across Europe caused by Storm Boris forced thousands to evacuate their homes. Fatalities have been recorded in Romania, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, with fears growing about the impact on Italy. Five people were killed in Austria, five in Czechia, seven in Poland and seven in Romania. In Hungary, flood waters continued to rise on Friday as authorities closed roads and rail stations. In Budapest water spilled over the city’s lower quays and threatened to reach tram and metro lines. Floods have threatened new areas and heavy rains have forced around 1,000 people in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna to evacuate. The latest evacuations come as King Charles said he and his wife were “profoundly shocked and saddened to see the destruction and devastation caused by the catastrophic flooding in central Europe”. He said he sent their heartfelt condolences to those who have lost loved ones. King Charles said in a statement: “Many people in the United Kingdom have strong, enduring and personal ties to the region and, together with them, my wife and I send our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to all those who have so tragically lost their loved ones, their homes and their livelihoods. “We have immense admiration for the sheer courage and dedication of the emergency services across the region who have clearly worked relentlessly to provide desperately needed support, relief and assistance to the countless people whose lives and properties have been dreadfully disrupted". Storm Boris was triggered by a low-pressure system, where cold Arctic air collided with warm air from the south, further intensified by record-high sea-surface temperatures in the Mediterranean. The atmospheric pressure pattern caused the storm to remain stationary for an extended period. (Source: independent *)
* United Kingdom
Africa
Nigeria
(Friday,) September 20, 2024 Torrential rains sweep through West and Central Africa. While Africa is responsible for a small fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions, it is among the most vulnerable to extreme weather events, the World Meteorological Organization said earlier this month. Over 4 million people have been affected by flooding so far this year in West Africa,, according to the U.N. Torrential rains across Central and West Africa have unleashed the most catastrophic floods in decades. The floods have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands across the region this year. The countries which have been impacted the most: Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria. So far, at least 487 were reported dead in Chad, 55 in Mali, 265 in Niger, 230 in Nigeria in the most catastrophic flooding since the 1960s. Residents of Maiduguri, the capital of the fragile Nigerian state of Borno - which has been at the center of an Islamic extremists’ insurgency - said they have seen it all. Last week, floods killed about 80% of the animals at the Borno State Museum Park and an unspecified number of reptiles escaped. Houses were swept away to the very last brick, hundreds of inmates frantically were fleeing the city’s main prison as its walls got washed away by water rising from an overflowing dam. Corpses of crocodiles and snakes were floating among human bodies on what used to be main streets. Older people and people with disabilities did not know what was going on, and some were left behind. Those who did not wake up on time drowned right away. Over the last decade, Borno has been hit by a constant string of attacks from Boko Haram militants, who want to install an islamic state in Nigeria and have killed more than 35,000 people in the last decade. The World Food Program has set up kitchens providing food to the displaced in Maiduguri. USAID said Wednesday it has provided more than $3 million in humanitarian assistance to West and Central Africa. In Maiduguri, 15% of the city remains underwater, according to local authorities. As forecasts predicted more rains across the region, Nigerian authorities warned earlier this week that more floods are expected.
(washingtontimes)
Asia
Taiwan
(Friday), 20.09.24, 02:09 PM How or when the pagers were weaponised and remotely detonated remains a public mystery and the hunt for answers has involved Taiwan, Bulgaria, Norway 'and Romania'. Authorities in Taiwan and Bulgaria today denied involvement in the supply chain of thousands of pagers that detonated on Tuesday in Lebanon in a deadly blow to Hezbollah. Tuesday's attack, and another on Wednesday involving exploding hand-held radios used by Hezbollah, together killed 37 people and wounded about 3,000 in Lebanon. Security sources said Israel was responsible for the pager explosions that raised the stakes in a growing conflict between the two sides. Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said this week it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that Budapest-based company BAC to which the pagers were traced has a license to use its brand. "The components are (mainly) low-end IC (integrated circuits) and batteries," Taiwan's Economy Minister Kuo told adding, regarding the pagers: "I can say with certainty they were not made in Taiwan". Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin, also speaking to reporters at parliament, answered "no" when asked if he had met with the de facto Israeli ambassador to express concern about the case. "We are asking our missions abroad to raise their security awareness and will exchange relevant information with other countries", he said. Taiwanese authorities look into any potential link between its sprawling global tech supply chains and the devices used in the attacks in Lebanon. The Shilin District Prosecutors Office in Taipei said it had questioned two people as witnesses and was given consent to conduct searches of their firms' four locations in Taiwan as part of its investigation. "We'll seek to determine if there was any possible involvement of these Taiwanese companies as soon as possible, to ensure the safety of the country and its people," the spokesperson said. Gold Apollo's president and founder, Hsu, was questioned by prosecutors late into the night yesterday, then released. Another person also at the prosecutors office was Wu, the sole employee of a company called Apollo System. Teresa did not speak to reporters as she left late yesterday. Hsu said this week a person called Teresa had been one of his contacts for the deal with BAC. Bulgaria also became a focal point for investigations yesterday, after local media reported that Sofia-based Norta Global Ltd was involved in selling the pagers. But Bulgaria's state security agency DANS said on today it had "indisputably established" that no pagers used in the Lebanon attack were imported to, exported from, or made in Bulgaria. It also said that neither Norta nor its Norwegian owner had traded, sold or bought the pagers within Bulgaria's jurisdiction. Iran-aligned Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for the detonations. The two sides have been engaged in cross-border warfare since conflict in Gaza erupted last October.
(telegraphindia / Reuters)
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