DHAKA: The death toll from devastating floods caused by relentless monsoon rain and overflowing rivers in Bangladesh has risen to 23, with around 1.24 million families stranded across 11 districts, officials said on Monday.
As floodwaters recede slowly, many of the 5.7 million affected people remain isolated and in urgent need of food, clean water, medicine and dry clothes, above all in remote areas where blocked roads have hindered rescue and relief efforts.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department said that flood conditions could persist if the monsoon rains continued, as water levels were receding very slowly.
Around 470,000 people have taken refuge in 3,500 shelters in the flood-hit districts, where around 650 medical teams are on the ground to provide treatment, with the army, air force, navy, and the South Asian country’s border guard assisting in rescue and relief operations, authorities said.
Vast areas of land are submerged, posing a significant threat to crops if the floodwaters linger for an extended period, agriculture ministry officials said.
An analysis in 2015 by the World Bank Institute estimated that 3.5 million people in Bangladesh, one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, were at risk of annual river flooding. Scientists attribute the exacerbation of such catastrophic events to climate change.
“Countries like Bangladesh with negligible emissions and whose people have shown super resilience deserve immediate funds to address the impacts of climate change and frequent disasters,” said Farah Kabir, director of ActionAid Bangladesh.
“We need to recover from the losses and damage we have faced, as well as build resilience to future impacts and take on green development pathways.”
In one of the worst-hit districts, Noakhali, 56-year-old Shukuri Begum lost her home as it was swept into a pond by the floodwaters, according to ActionAid. Terrified, she fled with her grandchildren to a neighbor’s house, but couldn’t stay there long as it was no longer safe.
“I have a son with physical disabilities, and we couldn’t bring him with us. We had to stack beds and leave him on top, hoping he would be safe. I don’t know what’s waiting for us,” ActionAid quoted her as saying.
Bangladesh floods leave 23 dead, 5.7 million people affected
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Bangladesh floods leave 23 dead, 5.7 million people affected
- As floodwaters recede slowly, many of the 5.7 million affected people remain isolated and in urgent need of food, clean water, medicine and dry clothes
- Bangladesh Meteorological Department said that flood conditions could persist if the monsoon rains continued, as water levels were receding very slowly
Chile weighs future of charming German village with dark past
- Villa Baviera is the former home of a brutal cult that was used for torturing and killing dissidents under the rule of Augusto Pinochet
- The Chilean state wants to turn it into a memorial for the victims of the country’s 1973-1990 dictatorship
VILLA BAVIERA: With its pristine swimming pool, manicured lawns and lush forest backdrop, Villa Baviera, a German-themed settlement of 122 souls in southern Chile, looks like the perfect holiday getaway.
But Colonia Dignidad, as it was previously known, is a byword for horror, as the former home of a brutal cult that was used for torturing and killing dissidents under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Twenty years after the cult leader, former Wehrmacht soldier Paul Schaefer, was jailed for the sexual abuse and torture of children at the colony, the Chilean state wants to turn it into a memorial for the victims of the country’s 1973-1990 dictatorship.
In June last year, President Gabriel Boric ordered that 116 hectares (287 acres) of the 4,800-hectare site, an area including the residents’ homes, a hotel, a restaurant, and several food processing factories, be expropriated to make way for a center of remembrance.
But some of the inhabitants, who were separated from their families as children, subjected to forced labor, and in some cases, sexually abused, say they are being victimized all over again.
Colonia Dignidad
Schaefer founded Colonia Dignidad in 1961 as an idyllic German family village — but instead abused, drugged and indoctrinated the few hundred residents and kept them as virtual slaves.
The boundaries between abuser and abused were blurred, with the children of Schaefer’s sidekicks counting themselves among his victims.
Anna Schnellenkamp, the 48-year-old manager of the colony’s hotel and restaurant, said she “worked completely free of charge until 2005,” the year of Schaefer’s arrest. “So much work I broke my back.”
Several years ago Schnellenkamp, whose late father Kurt Schnellenkamp was jailed for five years for being an accomplice to Schaefer’s abuse, finally found happiness.
She got married, had a daughter and started to create new, happier memories in the colony, where everyone still communicates in German despite being conversant in Spanish.
But she still views the settlement as part of her birthright.
“The settlers know every detail, every building, every tree, including where they once suffered and were forced to work,” she explained.
Chile’s dictatorship
Around 3,200 people were killed and more than 38,000 people tortured during Chile’s brutal dictatorship.
An estimated 26 people disappeared in Colonia Dignidad, where a potato shed, now a national monument, was used to torture dozens of kidnapped regime opponents.
But on the inside too, abuse was rife.
Schaefer was captured in 2005 on charges of sexually abusing dozens of minors over nearly half a century. He died in prison five years later while in preventive custody.
His arrest, and those of 20 other accomplices, marked a turning point for the colony, which had been rebranded Villa Baviera a decade previously.
Suddenly, residents were free to marry, live with their children, send them to school and earn a paycheck.
Some of the settlers returned to Germany.
Others remained behind and built a thriving agribusiness and resort, where tourists can sample traditional German fare, such as sauerkraut.
Some residents feel that Chile, which for decades turned a blind eye to the fate of the enclave’s children, now wants to make them pay for the sins of their fathers.
“One feels a kind of revenge against us,” said Markus Blanck, one of the colony’s business directors, whose father was charged as an accomplice of Schaefer’s abuse but died before being sentenced.
The government argues that the expropriations are in the public interest.
“There is a national interest here in preserving our country’s historical heritage,” Justice Minister Jaime Gajardo told AFP, assuring that those expropriated would be properly compensated.
Memorial site
While several sites of torture under the Chilean dictatorship have been turned into memorial sites, Gajardo said the memorial at Villa Baviera would be the biggest yet, similar to those created at former Nazi concentration camps in Europe.
It is not yet clear whether it will take the form solely of a museum or whether visitors will also be able to roam the site, including Schaefer’s house and the infamous potato shed.
The clock is ticking down for Boric to make the memorial a reality before his term runs out in March 2026.
His government wants to proceed quickly, for fear that the project be buried by a future right-wing government loathe to dwell on the abuses of the Pinochet era.
How Biden cancer diagnosis could have gone undetected
- Republicans shared conspiratorial posts to the effect that Biden and his White House medical team had long concealed his illness for political purposes
WASHINGTON: Joe Biden’s diagnosis with an aggressive form of prostate cancer has spurred some prominent conservatives to accuse the former president of a cover-up, but oncologists told AFP that screening limitations could very well have left his condition undetected until now.
The 82-year-old received the diagnosis last week after he experienced urinary issues and a prostate nodule was found, his office said Sunday.
While President Donald Trump said he was “saddened” to learn of his rival’s condition, a chorus of Republicans led by Vice President JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr said or shared conspiratorial posts to the effect that Biden and his White House medical team had long concealed his illness for political purposes.
Questions over Biden’s health dogged him throughout the waning months of his presidency and his short-lived reelection campaign. And they have been renewed in recent weeks ahead of the expected release of a book detailing what it calls his declining physical condition.
Prostate cancer, the most common among men, is typically diagnosed much sooner than other kinds of cancer. It can be caught in its early stages using blood tests that measure for a protein called PSA.
Medical experts interviewed by AFP said the late identification of an advanced cancer would not be unheard of, even for a former president receiving top-of-the-line medical care.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that it was an aggressive form that developed quickly,” said Natacha Naoun, an oncologist with France’s Gustave-Roussy Institute.
Annual PSA screening after the age of 70 is not universally recommended.
The US Preventive Services Task Force advises against it, reasoning that the risk of false positives and the harms from biopsies and treatment outweigh the benefits.
“It could be they decided to stop checking PSA annually, and then he had urinary symptoms,” said Russell Pachynski, an oncologist with Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, who told AFP that prostate cancer patients do not always experience telltale pains or signs.
It is also possible that Biden was undergoing routine screenings, but that those checks failed to turn up indications of cancer, Pachynski said.
“Maybe it was just unlucky that his particular cancer didn’t express a lot of PSA and he still had a normal PSA. In that setting, you would not go checking the prostate or do a biopsy, etcetera, unless it was driven by symptoms.”
Otis Brawley, an oncologist and epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, said studies have shown both PSA testing and rectal exams are imperfect.
“It is not unusual for a man to be diagnosed with metastatic prostate disease despite normal annual screening,” he told AFP. “This is part of the limitations of prostate screening.”
Philippines’ Marcos says open to reconciling with Dutertes
- Marcos has distanced himself from the impeachment process, and on Monday said it was in the hands of the Senate
MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said he was open to reconciling with the Duterte family, one week after allies of his estranged Vice President, Sara Duterte, outperformed expectations in a fiercely contested and pivotal Senate race.
In a podcast shared on his Facebook page on Monday, Marcos said he needed friends rather than enemies as he seeks to use the remaining three years of his term to deliver on his agenda.
Philippine presidents are limited to a single six-year term.
“Yes,” Marcos said when asked if he would be open to mending fences, after a bitter and very public falling-out between Marcos and the Duterte camps, which has fractured the once-powerful alliance that swept both to victory in 2022.
“As much as possible, what I am after is stability... so that we can do our jobs. That is why I am always open to things like that,” he told the podcast.
Duterte’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Marcos’ remarks.
Sara Duterte is facing a Senate impeachment trial that could see her removed from office and permanently barred from holding public office again, denying her a presidential run in 2028.
Her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, was elected mayor of Davao last week, even as he is detained at the International Criminal Court on charges of murder as a crime against humanity.
Despite surveys predicting a Senate sweep by the president’s allies in the May 12 midterm polls, some victories by Duterte-aligned candidates have given Sara Duterte an important foothold in the Senate that could prove pivotal in an impeachment trial.
All 24 Senators will serve as jurors in the trial, with two-thirds required to vote for the impeachment for it to succeed.
Marcos has distanced himself from the impeachment process, and on Monday said it was in the hands of the Senate.
“There’s a process for that, let’s allow the process to take its course,” he said.
Spanish PM: Israel should be excluded from Eurovision
- Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine 'who are experiencing the injustice of war'
- Russia has not been allowed to participate in Eurovision since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine
MADRID: The Eurovision song contest should exclude Israel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday, expressing solidarity with “the people of Palestine who are experiencing the injustice of war and bombardment.”
The intervention by Sanchez, one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s devastating war in Gaza, comes after protests against Israeli participation marked last weekend’s extravaganza in Switzerland.
Russia has not been allowed to participate in Eurovision since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“Therefore Israel shouldn’t either, because what we cannot allow is double standards in culture,” Sanchez said at an event in Madrid.
“Spain’s commitment to international law and human rights must be constant and must be coherent. Europe’s should be too,” added the Socialist leader.
Ahead of the Eurovision final on Saturday, Spanish public broadcaster RTVE aired a message in support of Palestinians — despite being warned to avoid references to Gaza by Eurovision organizers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
In April, RTVE wrote to the EBU requesting a “debate” over Israeli participation amid civil society “concerns” about the situation in Gaza, where the risk of famine is rising.
Sanchez, who last year recognized a Palestinian state, also expressed on Monday “a supportive embrace for the people of Ukraine and the people of Palestine who are experiencing the injustice of war and bombardment.”
At an Arab League summit in Baghdad on Saturday, the Socialist leader called for more international pressure on Israel to stop the “massacre in Gaza.”
The occupied Palestinian territory has been under a complete aid blockade by Israel since March 2.
Spain will submit a proposal to the United Nations General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice to rule on Israel’s compliance with international obligations on humanitarian aid access to Gaza, Sanchez added.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Hamas also took 251 hostages during the attack, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 53,339 people in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The UN considers the ministry’s figures to be reliable.
First Filipino pilgrims depart Manila for Hajj
- 5,000 Filipino Muslims are expected to perform the pilgrimage this year
- Special Hajj flights from the Philippines will operate through May 29
MANILA: Philippine officials and Saudi Arabia’s ambassador saw off on Monday the first group of Filipino pilgrims departing from Manila to Madinah to take part in this year’s Hajj.
A total of 5,000 Filipino Muslims are set to undertake the spiritual journey that is one of the tenets of Islam.
Saudi Ambassador Faisal bin Ibrahim Al-Ghamdi accompanied hundreds of them as they prepared to board flights operated by Saudia, the Kingdom’s national flag carrier, at the Manila airport.
“As you embark on this sacred journey, I pray that your Hajj is accepted, your efforts are rewarded, and your deeds are righteous,” he told the pilgrims.
“I wish to assure you, dear brothers and sisters, that the relevant authorities in the Kingdom have completed all preparations to receive the pilgrims in line with the leadership’s clear commitment to making the Hajj experience smooth and spiritually fulfilling for all.”
Muslims constitute roughly 10 percent of the country’s 110 million predominantly Catholic population. The majority of them live on the southern island of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, as well as in the central-western province of Palawan.
The last of the special Hajj flights carrying Philippine Muslims to Saudi Arabia will depart on May 29 as the annual pilgrimage is expected to begin on June 4.
“As you embark on this sacred journey to the blessed place … may your hearts be filled with peace, prosperity and gratitude,” National Commission on Muslim Filipinos chairman Sabuddin Abdurahim said during the sendoff ceremony.
“Hajj is not only a physical journey, but it is a profound spiritual transformation where you will be going to reflect, to purify your souls, and renew your commitment to a new life of compassion, humility, and righteousness.”
Sahawi Mua, a pilgrim from Marawi, said he waited almost 10 years to be able to save money and take part in the pilgrimage.
“(With) the help of the Almighty … I prepared for this not only financially but also physically and health-wise, and hopefully I’ll be successful,” he told Arab News.
“I’ve prepared myself my whole life.”
For Marion Gandawali and his wife, the wait was even longer. Farmers from Lanao del Norte, they will be visiting Makkah and Madinah for the first time.
“We waited for 40 years … Whatever we earned from farming corn, coconut, we saved it all, our whole life, to get this chance to perform the Hajj,” Gandawali said.
“Even though we waited a long time, it was all worth it as my wife and I are doing this together.”
