SEDAVI, Spain: Francisco Murgui went out to try to salvage his motorbike when the water started to rise. He never came back.
One week after catastrophic flooding devasted eastern Spain, María Murgui still holds out hope that her father is alive and among the unknown number of the missing.
“He was like many people in town who went out to get their car or motorbike to safety,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press. “The flash flood caught him outside, and he had to cling to a tree in order to escape drowning. He called us to tell us that he was fine, that we shouldn’t worry.”
But when María set out into the streets of Sedaví to try to rescue him from the water washing away everything in its path, he was nowhere to be found.
“He held up until 1 in the morning,” she said. “By 2, I went outside with a neighbor and a rope to try to locate him. But we couldn’t find him. And since then, we haven’t heard anything about him.”
At least 218 have been confirmed dead after a deluge caused by heavy rains late on Oct. 29 and the next morning swamped entire communities, mostly in Spain’s Valencia region, catching most off guard. Regional authorities have been heavily criticized for having issued alerts to mobile phones some two hours after the disaster had started.
Authorities have yet to any give an estimate of the missing seven days on. Spanish state broadcaster RTVE, however, shows a steady stream of appeals by people who are searching for family members who are not accounted for.
María Murgui herself has posted a missing person’s message on social media with a photo of her father, a 57-year-old retiree.
“This is like riding a rollercoaster. Sometimes I feel very bad and sometimes I feel better. I try to stay positive,” she said. “This truly is madness. We don’t know what else to do. Neither does anybody else in town.”
Central government passes relief package
While many search for their loved ones, the gargantuan recovery efforts in Sedaví and dozens of other communities slowly moved forward.
To aid those in need, the central government approved a 10.6-billion-euro relief package for 78 communities on Tuesday. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez compared it to the measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The package includes direct payments of 20,000 euros to 60,000 euros to owners of damaged homes, among other financial aid for businesses and municipal governments.
“We have a lot of work left to do, and we know it,” Sánchez said.
Sánchez said that he will ask the European Union to help pay for the relief, saying “it is time for the European Union to help.”
Many people are still without basic goods amid scenes of devastation
The floods have left behind post-apocalyptic scenes.
Street after street in town after town is still covered with thick brown mud and mounds of ruined belongings, clumps of rotting vegetation, and wrecked vehicles. A stench arises from the muck.
In many places, people still face shortages of basic goods, and lines form at impromptu emergency kitchens and stands handing out food. Water is running again but authorities say it is not fit for drinking.
The ground floors of thousands of homes have been ruined. It is feared that inside some of the vehicles that the water washed away or trapped in underground garages there could be bodies waiting to be recovered.
Thousands of soldiers are working with firefighters and police reinforcements in the immense emergency response. Officers and troops are searching in destroyed homes, the countless cars strewn across highways, streets, or lodged in the mud in canals and gorges.
Authorities are worried about other health problems caused by the aftermath of the deadliest natural disaster in Spain’s recent history. They have urged people to get tetanus shots and to treat any wounds to prevent infections and to clean the mud from their skin. Many people wear face masks.
Thousands of volunteers are helping out, filling the void left by authorities. But the frustration over the crisis management boiled over on Sunday when a crowd in hard-hit Paiporta hurled mud and other objects at Spain’s royals, Sánchez and regional officials when they made their first visit to the epicenter of the flood damage.
Sánchez’s national government is set to announce a new package of relief on Tuesday.
A week after Spain’s floods, families hold out hope that loved ones are not among the dead
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A week after Spain’s floods, families hold out hope that loved ones are not among the dead
- At least 218 have been confirmed dead after a deluge caused by heavy rains late on Oct. 29
- Authorities have yet to any give an estimate of the missing seven days on
Frustrated families await news days after 222 killed in Dominican club disaster
- Aerial images of the site showed a scene resembling the aftermath of an earthquake, with a gaping hole where the club’s roof had been
- The president’s office had earlier put the final death toll at 221, with 189 people pulled alive from the rubble
Dozens of desperate relatives waited in tents at the forensic morgue in Santo Domingo, the capital city where the Jet Set club’s roof caved in on hundreds of people gathered to see merengue singer Rubby Perez in the early hours of Tuesday.
Perez was on stage when disaster struck, and the 69-year-old was given a sendoff Thursday at the National Theater attended by President Luis Abinader and the singer’s daughter Zulinka, who had escaped the calamity alive.
Many other families, though, still await closure before they can start the grieving process following the Caribbean nation’s worst tragedy in decades.
“It is distressing, it is something you cannot imagine... the wait for the bodies is exasperating,” cried Yuni Garcia, who lost her brother, a club security guard, but has yet to recover his corpse.
The president’s office had earlier put the final death toll at 221, with 189 people pulled alive from the rubble of the popular nightclub now reduced to mounds of twisted steel, zinc and brick.
But a woman injured in the collapse has died after being sent to a hospital, the national health agency announced on Friday evening.
Aerial images of the site showed a scene resembling the aftermath of an earthquake, with a gaping hole where the club’s roof had been.
A video posted on social media showed the venue, which could hold 1,700 guests, suddenly plunged into darkness while Perez was singing, followed by crashing sounds and screams.
’Days of uncertainty’
Waiting at the morgue Friday was Esperanza Dominguez, who told AFP she had yet to find her missing relative’s face in photos of the dead being circulated by forensic teams working to identify the victims.
“I am worn out, I am going crazy because... of the many things I have seen,” she said near a large screen displaying the names of identified victims.
Fany Martinez, 46, waited for news on her sister who lived in Spain and was in Santo Domingo on a visit.
“We have been waiting for many days, many days of uncertainty... It has been very hard, it has been very difficult for us,” she said.
The extent of the tragedy has outstripped capacity.
Health Minister Victor Atallah said Thursday that “no pathology institute has the capacity to handle so many bodies so quickly.”
He had vowed, however, that “no one will be left unidentified... We are going to move every last stone that needs to be moved.”
Authorities said that by Friday, 191 autopsies had been done. They vowed all will be completed by Friday, and victims’ remains will be returned to their families by 2:00 am on Saturday.
Some reported errors, however.
“They gave us a body that wasn’t hers,” said a distraught Julio Alberto Acosta, who lost his stepdaughter in the tragedy.
“They gave us a bag and we said we had to open it to see if it was her, but it wasn’t... We want them to give us the right one so her mom can see her and go to bury her.”
The preliminary victims list included a Haitian, an Italian, two French citizens and, according to the US State Department, “several” Americans.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to Abinader Friday “to express his deepest condolences,” department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
The victims also included two retired Major League Baseball players and a provincial governor.
What, why, how
Twelve extra forensic pathologists were brought on board to aid in the identification process, according to the health ministry.
The mayor’s office had provided six funeral homes with 170 coffins free of charge.
The government has extended an initial three-day national mourning period for another three days to Sunday and announced the creation of a special commission of national and foreign experts to determine the cause of the disaster.
Hundreds of rescuers, aided by sniffer dogs, have worked tirelessly since Tuesday to pull survivors from the rubble.
They called off the search for live victims late Wednesday and shifted their focus to recovering the dead.
Abinader on Friday pledged to find out “what happened, why it happened, how it happened.”
‘Mr Satan’ charged with Trump assassination threat, Justice Department says
- Officials said Shawn Monper was detained and charged with “making threats to assault and murder” Trump and other US officials
- Monper is coincidentally from Butler, Pennsylvania where Trump was nearly assassinated during a campaign rally in July 2024
WASHINGTON: A US man posting content online as “Mr Satan” has been charged with threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump and other government officials, the Department of Justice announced Friday.
Shawn Monper, 32, was detained and charged in a federal criminal complaint with “making threats to assault and murder” Trump and other US officials, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
In a statement, the DOJ said the FBI received an emergency message about threats posted on YouTube by a user who identified himself as “Mr Satan,” whose Internet activity was determined to correspond with Monper’s residence.
Monper is coincidentally from Butler, Pennsylvania where Trump was nearly assassinated during a campaign rally in July.
Shortly after Trump’s inauguration in January, Monper obtained a firearms permit and commented from his account that he had “bought several guns and been stocking up on ammo since Trump got in office,” the DOJ said.
On February 17 he wrote: “Nah, we just need to start killing people, Trump, Elon, all the heads of agencies Trump appointed, and anyone who stands in the way,” referring to Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
“Remember, we are the majority, MAGA is a minority of the country, and by the time its time to make the move, they will be weakened, many will be crushed by these policies, and they will want revenge too. American Revolution 2.0,” he said, according to the DOJ.
Then on March 4, in a YouTube video titled “Live: Trump’s address to Congress,” Monper said he was “going to assassinate him myself,” the DOJ added.
Monper hails from Butler township, scene of a shooting last July 13 that nearly took Trump’s life, when a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed the Republican’s ear at an outdoor campaign rally. One person was killed and three were injured.
“Rest assured that whenever and wherever threats of assassination or mass violence occur, this Department of Justice will find, arrest, and prosecute the suspect to the fullest extent of the law and seek the maximum appropriate punishment,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the statement.
A detention hearing is scheduled for April 14.
US senators ask SEC for Trump insider trading probe
- Trump posted on his website Truth Social early Wednesday that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” as stock markets were tanking
- A few hours later, Trump announced a 90-day suspension of additional tariffs against some countries, triggering a historic stock market rebound
WASHINGTON: A group of US senators on Friday urged the government’s markets watchdog to investigate whether President Donald Trump or White House insiders broke securities laws ahead of his dramatic reversal on global tariffs.
The six Democrats — led by Massachusetts progressive Elizabeth Warren — noted in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Trump posted on his website Truth Social early Wednesday that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” as stock markets were tanking.
A few hours later, Trump announced a 90-day suspension of additional tariffs against dozens of countries, triggering a historic stock market rebound and the best day for the S&P 500 since the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.
“We urge the SEC to investigate whether the tariff announcements... enriched administration insiders and friends at the expense of the American public,” senators wrote in a letter to regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The letter urged the SEC to probe whether “any insiders, including the president’s family, had prior knowledge of the tariff pause that they abused to make stock trades ahead of the president’s announcement.”
Trump signed his Truth Social post with the letters “DJT” — both his initials and the stock market abbreviation for his media company, Trump Media & Technology Group.
The company’s shares closed up 21.67 percent on Wednesday.
“Corruption and lawlessness”
The senators called on the SEC to investigate whether the president, his donors or other insiders had engaged in market manipulation, insider trading or other violations of securities laws.
SEC chairman Paul Atkins has history with Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, who has accused him of having conflicts of interest over his ties to the financial services industry.
Atkins is not obliged to do what the senators ask, and four of the group followed up with a second letter to the National Association of Attorneys General asking for state-level investigations.
“Corruption and lawlessness have become a calling card of the Trump administration,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, one of the signatories of both letters.
The demand for action came amid concern over the growing number of avenues through which Trump and his family can monetize the power of the presidency, although no evidence of corruption had emerged.
Days before his inauguration, Trump released a “memecoin” — a digital cryptocurrency token with no inherent value — opening the door for secret donations from foreign buyers.
“Now anyone in world can essentially deposit money into bank account of President of USA with a couple clicks,” his former aide Anthony Scaramucci posted on social media after the launch.
“Every favor — geopolitical, corporate or personal — is now on sale, right out in the open.”
The White House told The Washington Post that Trump’s Truth Social post sought only to “reassure” the public and that he had a responsibility to “reassure markets and Americans about their economic security.”
US prosecutors seek release of ex-FBI informant who admitted fabricating claims against Biden
- The move is the latest by the Trump administration to reverse cases against supporters of President Trump or those who aided conservative causes
- Smirnov pleaded guilty in December to fabricating bribery claims against former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter
WASHINGTON: US prosecutors plan to review the case of a former FBI informant who admitted to fabricating bribery claims against former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to a court filing on Friday.
The disclosure came as prosecutors, together with defense lawyers for the informant, Alexander Smirnov, asked a federal judge to release him from prison while he appeals a six-year prison sentence.
“The United States intends to review the government’s theory of the case underlying Defendant’s criminal conviction,” prosecutors wrote in a filing in Los Angeles federal court.
The move is the latest by the US Justice Department during the Trump administration to review or dismiss cases against supporters of President Donald Trump or those who aided conservative causes.
Smirnov pleaded guilty in December to causing the creation of a false record after falsely telling his FBI handler years earlier that he had knowledge of bribes paid by executives at a Ukrainian energy company to Joe and Hunter Biden. He also admitted to tax evasion.
Smirnov’s claims, documented in an FBI record, briefly became the focus of a Republican-led impeachment investigation into Joe Biden that was later abandoned.
The case was brought by former Special Counsel David Weiss, who separately indicted Hunter Biden on tax and gun crimes. Joe Biden later issued a sweeping pardon for his son.
In seeking his release, prosecutors agreed that Smirnov was not likely to flee or pose a threat to public safety. His travel would be limited largely to Nevada, where he lived, according to the filing. It is not clear how the Justice Department review could impact the case. Smirnov already struck a plea agreement with prosecutors.
His appeal has so far been limited to arguing that his time spent in pretrial detention should count toward his six-year sentence.
Chinese nationals fighting for Russia in Ukraine are mercenaries, US officials say
- Ukrainian forces had captured two men of Chinese origin in eastern Ukraine, says commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific
- The mercenaries have no link to the Chinese government, but China had provided Moscow with material support for its war against Ukraine
WASHINGTON: More than 100 Chinese citizens fighting for the Russian military against Ukraine are mercenaries who do not appear to have a direct link to China’s government, two US officials familiar with American intelligence and a former Western intelligence official said.
Chinese military officers have, however, been in the theater behind Russia’s lines with Beijing’s approval to draw tactical lessons from the war, the former official told Reuters.
The head of US forces in the Indo-Pacific, Admiral Samuel Paparo, confirmed on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces had captured two men of Chinese origin in eastern Ukraine after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country had information about 155 Chinese citizens fighting there on Russia’s behalf.
China, which has declared a “no-limits” partnership with Russia and has refrained from criticizing Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, had called Zelensky’s remarks “irresponsible” and said China was not a party to the war.
The US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Chinese fighters appear to have minimal training and are not having any discernable impact on Russia’s military operations.
The CIA, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the National Security Council, as well as China’s embassy in Washington, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The former Western intelligence official with knowledge of the issue told Reuters there were about 200 Chinese mercenaries fighting for Russia with whom the Chinese government has no link.
But Chinese military officers have, with Beijing’s approval, been touring close to Russia’s frontlines to draw lessons and tactics from the war. The officers “are absolutely there under approval,” the former official said.
China has for years provided Moscow with material support to help aid its war against Ukraine, primarily in the shipment of dual-use products – components needed to maintain weapons such as drones and tanks.
Beijing has also supplied Russia with lethal drones to use on the battlefield. In October, the Biden administration sanctioned for the first time two Chinese companies for providing the weapons systems to Moscow.
Volunteers from Western countries, including the US, have been fighting for Ukraine since the early days of the war, and North Korea has deployed more than 12,000 troops to support Russian forces, thousands of whom have been killed or injured in combat.
