International

A strong magnitude 6.7 earthquake shook the southern Philippines yesterday, killing a married couple as people fled buildings and part of a shopping mall ceiling collapsed.No tsunami threat was issued after the quake struck off Sarangani province on the main southern island of Mindanao at a depth of 78km at 4.14pm (0814GMT), the US Geological Service said in a statement.A man and his wife were found crushed to death beneath a concrete wall outside a wood factory near General Santos City where the couple worked, city police said.“The wall fell on them” during the quake, corporal Christopher Larano said.The quake was felt across a wide area of the mountainous island.“I think it was the strongest earthquake I’ve ever experienced,” Keeshia Leyran, 27, said from Davao City, about 200km from the epicentre, where she was attending a conference.“People around me were panicking and running to go outside.”A photo shared on Facebook and verified showed a collapsed ceiling inside a shopping mall in General Santos, less than 100km from the epicentre.A video showed terrified shoppers in another mall in the same city hiding under fast-food restaurant tables and screaming as the building shook and pieces of the ceiling fell.“We were on the second floor so there was nothing we could do but duck under the tables,” said Gregorio Narajos, 34, who shot the video.“Power went out two or three seconds into the quake. It came back after a while,” Narajos said.“I saw stuff falling from the ceiling. When we got out we saw cracks and debris outside.”About 30 students at a nearby high school were treated for breathing difficulties due to panic following the quake, said Adrian Imbong, an emergency medical services worker in General Santos.

Rocked gently on his mother’s knees, a fly on his nose, a baby sleeps fitfully in a tent in a barren border camp as his family prepares to leave the waypoint to rebuild their lives in Afghanistan.In the transit camp at Torkham, where returnees driven out of Pakistan sweat in burning heat during the day and shiver through the night, many of the blue tents at the foot of rocky mountains standing stark against a cloudless sky have already emptied.Trucks overloaded with several families, carrying cushions, brightly coloured blankets and kitchen utensils, are readied to set off.Border officials say that at least 210,000 Afghans, including many who have lived decades, if not their whole lives, outside their country, have passed through the Torkham border point since Pakistan ordered those without documents to leave.From the reception camp, they have dispersed to various Afghan provinces with a handout of around 15,000 afghanis ($205) – just enough to support a family for a month.For many, nothing, and no one, awaits them.“We have nowhere to go, we don’t have a house, or land, I don’t have any work,” said Sher Aga, a former security guard in Pakistan.He bundled his nine children and all the family’s belongings into a truck to head north, to Kunduz province, where he was born.However, the 43-year-old has no memory of his homeland, having left Afghanistan when he was five.“I don’t have any family there anymore,” he told AFP. “My children ask me, ‘What country are we going to?’”In a tent that she, her husband and their 10 children are sheltering in, 40-year-old Amina hides her face behind a red headscarf.They are destined for Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province where Torkham is located, and where she has “many brothers”.“I asked my family to find us a house” to rent, she said, “but they say there are none”.“No one has called us or come to see us,” she added.In Pakistan, her sons worked selling vegetables or driving rickshaws to pull in enough money to sustain the family, but Amina fears for their prospects in Afghanistan, wracked by economic crisis and unemployment.“If the boys don’t work, we’re not going to make it.”Another nearby tent is crammed with the 16 members of Gul Pari’s family, who have been sleeping on cardboard boxes without blankets since arriving at the transit camp.Her voice is drowned out by the honking of tanker trucks delivering much-needed water to the camp, with clusters of laughing, barefoot children clinging to the back.The 46-year-old grandmother, her grandchild’s rail-thin body cradled in her lap, said that in five days they will leave for Kunduz to start a new life in a country that she hasn’t seen in four decades.Life was precarious for the family collecting scraps in Pakistan, but in Afghanistan, “we have nothing”, she said.“We fear starvation. But if we find work, it’ll be OK. We will be happy in our homeland. In Pakistan, we were being harassed.”Most of those returning fled an Afghanistan ravaged for decades by deadly conflict, but the end to fighting since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 has encouraged some to come back.On the road to Jalalabad, Shazia and 20 other women and children piled into a small truck that leaned precariously as it veered around bends in the road, whipping the women’s blue burqas around a teetering mound of bundles.Of the Afghans returning from Pakistan, she is luckier than most: her husband went ahead of them to Jalalabad and found a four-room house to rent for four families.“The rent is expensive,” said the 22-year-old mother-of-three, her youngest child only two months old. “But tonight we will be able to sleep.”The Taliban’s acting commerce minister has said that he had asked Pakistan to help return the assets of expelled Afghans and discussed ways to overcome Afghanistan’s stalled banking sector transactions during a four-day visit to Islamabad this week.Acting minister Nooruddin Azizi’s arrival in the Pakistani capital marked the first public visit by a senior Taliban official since Pakistan announced its policy to deport thousands of undocumented Afghans and other foreign citizens after November 1.It comes just a week after Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister said its expulsion plan was a response to the unwillingness of the Taliban-led administration to act against militants using Afghanistan to carry out attacks in Pakistan.The Taliban have said the security issues are a domestic matter for Islamabad and called on Pakistan to stop deportations.Azizi said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday night that the negotiations had mainly focused on trade issues and had been “friendly”.He said that Pakistan officials had raised counter-terrorism issues and he had reiterated the Taliban’s policy that Afghan soil would not be used against other nations.Azizi said a major focus of the visit had been raising the problem of Afghan deportees being unable to return their assets from Pakistan.He said that the Afghan embassy’s charge d’affaires in Islamabad and Pakistan’s foreign office would work on a “detailed roadmap” on how the assets could be returned but said it would take time.“This is not a matter of 10 people or 100 people, this is a matter of 1.7mn people,” Azizi said.Afghan citizens returning to Afghanistan have said there are restrictions on the transfer of cash and property from Pakistan, where many had built businesses and homes for decades.

Rocked gently on his mother’s knees, a fly on his nose, a baby sleeps fitfully in a tent in a barren border camp as his family prepares to leave the waypoint to rebuild their lives in Afghanistan.In the transit camp at Torkham, where returnees driven out of Pakistan sweat in burning heat during the day and shiver through the night, many of the blue tents at the foot of rocky mountains standing stark against a cloudless sky have already emptied.Trucks overloaded with several families, carrying cushions, brightly coloured blankets and kitchen utensils, are readied to set off.Border officials say that at least 210,000 Afghans, including many who have lived decades, if not their whole lives, outside their country, have passed through the Torkham border point since Pakistan ordered those without documents to leave.From the reception camp, they have dispersed to various Afghan provinces with a handout of around 15,000 afghanis ($205) – just enough to support a family for a month.For many, nothing, and no one, awaits them.“We have nowhere to go, we don’t have a house, or land, I don’t have any work,” said Sher Aga, a former security guard in Pakistan.He bundled his nine children and all the family’s belongings into a truck to head north, to Kunduz province, where he was born.However, the 43-year-old has no memory of his homeland, having left Afghanistan when he was five.“I don’t have any family there anymore,” he told AFP. “My children ask me, ‘What country are we going to?’”In a tent that she, her husband and their 10 children are sheltering in, 40-year-old Amina hides her face behind a red headscarf.They are destined for Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province where Torkham is located, and where she has “many brothers”.“I asked my family to find us a house” to rent, she said, “but they say there are none”.“No one has called us or come to see us,” she added.In Pakistan, her sons worked selling vegetables or driving rickshaws to pull in enough money to sustain the family, but Amina fears for their prospects in Afghanistan, wracked by economic crisis and unemployment.“If the boys don’t work, we’re not going to make it.”Another nearby tent is crammed with the 16 members of Gul Pari’s family, who have been sleeping on cardboard boxes without blankets since arriving at the transit camp.Her voice is drowned out by the honking of tanker trucks delivering much-needed water to the camp, with clusters of laughing, barefoot children clinging to the back.The 46-year-old grandmother, her grandchild’s rail-thin body cradled in her lap, said that in five days they will leave for Kunduz to start a new life in a country that she hasn’t seen in four decades.Life was precarious for the family collecting scraps in Pakistan, but in Afghanistan, “we have nothing”, she said.“We fear starvation. But if we find work, it’ll be OK. We will be happy in our homeland. In Pakistan, we were being harassed.”Most of those returning fled an Afghanistan ravaged for decades by deadly conflict, but the end to fighting since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 has encouraged some to come back.On the road to Jalalabad, Shazia and 20 other women and children piled into a small truck that leaned precariously as it veered around bends in the road, whipping the women’s blue burqas around a teetering mound of bundles.Of the Afghans returning from Pakistan, she is luckier than most: her husband went ahead of them to Jalalabad and found a four-room house to rent for four families.“The rent is expensive,” said the 22-year-old mother-of-three, her youngest child only two months old. “But tonight we will be able to sleep.”The Taliban’s acting commerce minister has said that he had asked Pakistan to help return the assets of expelled Afghans and discussed ways to overcome Afghanistan’s stalled banking sector transactions during a four-day visit to Islamabad this week.Acting minister Nooruddin Azizi’s arrival in the Pakistani capital marked the first public visit by a senior Taliban official since Pakistan announced its policy to deport thousands of undocumented Afghans and other foreign citizens after November 1.It comes just a week after Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister said its expulsion plan was a response to the unwillingness of the Taliban-led administration to act against militants using Afghanistan to carry out attacks in Pakistan.The Taliban have said the security issues are a domestic matter for Islamabad and called on Pakistan to stop deportations.Azizi said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday night that the negotiations had mainly focused on trade issues and had been “friendly”.He said that Pakistan officials had raised counter-terrorism issues and he had reiterated the Taliban’s policy that Afghan soil would not be used against other nations.Azizi said a major focus of the visit had been raising the problem of Afghan deportees being unable to return their assets from Pakistan.He said that the Afghan embassy’s charge d’affaires in Islamabad and Pakistan’s foreign office would work on a “detailed roadmap” on how the assets could be returned but said it would take time.“This is not a matter of 10 people or 100 people, this is a matter of 1.7mn people,” Azizi said.Afghan citizens returning to Afghanistan have said there are restrictions on the transfer of cash and property from Pakistan, where many had built businesses and homes for decades.

As the occupation aggression entered its 42nd consecutive day, the death toll from the Israeli bombing on the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip rose on Friday to 18 Palestinian.The death toll is likely to rise in light of the occurrence of a number of serious injuries and the loss of others under the rubble after 4 houses were completely destroyed in the camp.Meanwhile, the occupation forces continue to bomb homes over the heads of their residents, storm the Shifa Medical Complex, and continue genocide crimes. The ground incursions has expanded from several fronts amid fierce clashes with the resistance.Occupation aircraft launched today several raids east and west of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip and east of Rafah.Meanwhile, the occupation forces fired smoke bombs in the Abu Iskandar area, the Jabalia camp, and the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, north of Gaza City.The occupation artillery also bombed several areas in the northern Gaza Strip, including the Nazla area in the town of Jabalia, in addition to the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, and Jaffa Street in Gaza City.The Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip has been continuing since the seventh of last October, leaving an infinite toll of about 11,500 martyrs, including more than 4,700 children.

Israeli artillery bombed Friday morning the outskirts of the towns of Naqoura and Alma Shaab, south of Lebanon.This comes in parallel with the continued flights of Israeli reconnaissance aircraft from since night until this morning, in addition to dropping flares over the western and central sectors.Earlier, the occupation aircraft carried out an air strike on the forests of the town of Aita al-Shaab, in addition to a violent air strike on the forests of Labouneh, and also bombed the forests of Naqoura.The Israeli entity has continued its aerial and artillery bombardment of towns and villages in southern Lebanon since the seventh of last October, coinciding with its intensified aggression against the Gaza Strip.

The conflict in Sudan, which has left thousands dead and seven million people displaced over seven months, is spreading to new regions of the nation, the UN said Thursday, warning of a mounting "humanitarian calamity."The deadly unrest includes outbreaks of interethnic violence and attacks against women, according to the global body.The United Nations assistant secretary-general for Africa, Ghanaian diplomat Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, expressed alarm over the deteriorating crisis in a Security Council meeting, where she told members: "Sudan is facing a convergence of a worsening humanitarian calamity and a catastrophic human rights crisis."War erupted in Sudan on April 15, pitting army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, in fighting that has left more than 9,000 people dead, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. The number is widely considered an underestimate."Hostilities have spilled over to new areas, such as Gezira, White Nile and West Kordofan states, placing even more civilians at risk as well as humanitarian operations," Pobee said.She said the RSF made significant military gains in Darfur from October 26 to November 4, taking control of Sudanese army bases in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state; Zalingei in Central Darfur; and the West Darfur state capital of El Geneina."The warring parties have reportedly carried out indiscriminate attacks, while also conducting targeted attacks against civilians, in apparent violation of international humanitarian law," she added.Despite the difficulties, some 4.1 million people have received humanitarian aid in the last seven months -- but that amounts to just 22 percent of the people whom humanitarian organizations aim to assist this year.Sudan's warring parties resumed negotiations late last month in Jeddah, brokered by Saudi Arabia and the United States. While both parties expressed willingness to negotiate a ceasefire, the fighting on the ground has intensified, Pobee said.

The United States on Thursday signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with the Philippines, clearing a path for US investment to jumpstart atomic power in a country racing to expand its electricity supply.Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who has become a close US ally in his more-than one year in power, was on hand when his energy secretary signed the pact with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in San Francisco."We see nuclear energy becoming a part of the Philippine energy mix by 2032 and we will be more than happy to pursue this path with the United States as one of our partners," Marcos said."Nuclear energy is one area where we can show that the Philippines-US alliance and partnership truly works for our peoples, our economies, and the environment," he added.Marcos said he was fulfilling an earlier pledge to build "affordable, reliable and sustainable energy supply for the entire country in order to meet our growing energy demands."The deal signed with Blinken commits the Philippines to safeguards against the use of transferred nuclear material to produce nuclear weapons.Known as 123 agreements after their section in the US Atomic Energy Act, the pacts are critical for investment by US nuclear companies, which are wary of running afoul of laws related to proliferation.US Vice President Kamala Harris announced the start of 123 agreements during a November 2022 visit to the Philippines.Blinken said the one-year completion was the fastest ever for a 123 agreement.The United States in recent years has enthusiastically embraced nuclear power as a reliable and carbon-free form of electricity, rejecting environmentalists' concerns about the risk of accidents."As peak energy demands are expected to nearly quadruple in the Philippines by 2040, nuclear power can consistently produce enough energy to meet the community's critical needs without emitting more greenhouse gases," Blinken said.The Philippines already has some of the region's highest energy costs and faces a looming crisis as the Malampaya gas field, which supplies about 40 percent of power to the archipelago's main island Luzon, is expected to run dry within a few years.As part of its climate goals, the Philippines also aims for renewable energy -- not including nuclear -- to make up 35 percent of power generation by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.

Indian rescuers warned Friday it could take another two days of clearing rubble before they can reach 40 workers who have been trapped in a collapsed tunnel for nearly a week.Excavators have been removing debris since Sunday morning to create an escape route for the workers after a portion of the tunnel they were building collapsed in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.Rescue efforts have been slowed by debris that has continued to fall as workers labour to clear the tunnel.After an earth-boring drill developed problems, the air force on Wednesday flew in a second drilling machine on a C-130 Hercules military plane, with the giant drill bit stretching much the length of the aircraft's cargo hold.Engineers are trying to drive a steel pipe about 90 centimetres (nearly three feet) wide through the debris -- wide enough for the trapped men to squeeze through.By Thursday night, only 18 metres (60 feet) of pipe had been inserted into the debris with the help of the new machine."If the work continues at this rate, it will take another 40-48 hours to rescue the workers," rescue leader Deepak Patil said Friday morning.As rescuers race to save the men, India has sought advice from the Thai company that rescued children from a flooded cave in 2018, as well as engineering experts in soil and rock mechanics at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute.Rescuers have been communicating with the trapped men using radios.Food, water, oxygen and medicine have also been sent to the trapped workers via a six-inch-wide (15-centimetre) pipe.No official details have been given about the condition of the men, but local media reported that some were suffering from vomiting, headaches, anxiety and stomach problems.A six-bed field hospital has also been set up outside the site with ambulances on standby to transfer serious cases to a proper hospital.

Australian authorities charged a bouncy castle operator Friday over a 2021 disaster in which six children were killed after strong winds lifted one of the inflatable play structures into the air.The company, Taz-Zorb, has been charged with breaching health and safety legislation, said Robyn Pearce, the work health and safety regulator in the state of Tasmania, where the tragedy occurred.Strong winds blew a large inflatable castle into the air at an end-of-term school party in December, 2021, killing six children aged between 11 and 12.Authorities at the time said the children were thrown from a height of about 10 metres (33 feet), citing initial witness reports.Prosecutors filed a complaint alleging Taz-Zorb had "exposed the children to a risk of death or serious injury", Pearce said in a statement."Throughout the last year I have continued to meet with the families of the children who died or were injured in this incident and would again like to express my condolences to each of them."The company can be punished with a fine of up to Aus$1.5 million (US$970,000) for the alleged offence.

Madagascar voted in highly contested presidential elections yesterday that were boycotted by most opposition candidates and appeared to have resulted in a very low turnout.As polling stations closed and counting started, two senior sources at the electoral commission told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that preliminary data suggested less than 20% of those registered showed up to vote.The electoral body CENI said it did not yet have official figures and could not comment.Campaign group Transparency International warned authorities against legitimising the results of an electoral process they describes as “opaque and captured”.President Andry Rajoelina has voiced confidence in being re-elected, brushing off weeks of protests that have rocked the Indian Ocean island nation.However, most opposition candidates disowned the vote.“We do not recognise these elections and the Malagasy population in its great majority does not recognise them either,” Hajo Andrianainarivelo, 56, told a press conference in the capital Antananarivo, speaking on behalf of 10 of 12 opposition candidates.“The elections did not respect the required democratic standards and this was proven by the participation rate, which was the lowest in Madagascar’s electoral history,” he added, citing observers’ reports which also put turnout at around 20%.The opposition grouping had urged voters to shun the ballot, complaining of an “institutional coup” in favour of Rajoelina, 49.“I’m confident in the maturity of Malagasy democracy, and I’m also confident in the choice of the Malagasy people,” Rajoelina said after voting in Antananarivo. “There are always people trying to stir up trouble and prevent elections in Madagascar. But I thank the wisdom of the people.”A poor turnout is likely to strengthen the opposition grouping, which has vowed to continue protesting until a fair election is held.Eleven million people were registered to vote in the country of about 30mn.Voting passed off calmly in the capital, AFP journalists saw, with voters emerging from rudimentary polling centres, their thumbs stained with indelible ink.“I’m worried because there are some factions who just want the country to be in chaos,” computer science student Francky Randriananantoandro told AFP. “We have to move on, turn the page. For 60 years that was already the case, and I think we have to stop now.”Madagascar is the leading global producer of vanilla but also one of the world’s poorest countries and has been shaken by successive crises since independence from France in 1960.From October, the opposition grouping, including two former presidents, has led near-daily, largely unauthorised protest marches.Police have regularly dispersed them, firing tear gas.On Wednesday, authorities imposed a night-time curfew in Antananarivo, following what police said were “various acts of sabotage”.Rajoelina first took power in 2009 on the back of a coup that ousted then president Marc Ravalomanana, who is among the boycotting opposition candidates.After not contesting the 2013 election due to international pressure, Rajoelina was voted back into power in 2018.As his opponents refused to campaign, he flew across the country by private plane, showcasing schools, roads and hospitals built during his tenure.“I’m voting, but we know this isn’t normal,” said 43-year-old Eugene Rakatomalala. “There weren’t any candidates who did campaigns.”Many others seemed to have stayed away.Two hours before polls closed, at a polling station in Ravalomanana’s stronghold district in Antananarivo, an election official yawned. Another sat with his head resting on his hands.Only 18% of those registered there had shown up.“It’s really not much,” said one official.Mama Pota, a shop vendor in the capital, said she had no intention of voting.“I am not going to vote because it is an election that doesn’t meet the standards, so what’s the point,” the 50-year-old said.At another polling station in a poor district of the capital, officials told an AFP reporter during the afternoon that turnout was around 30%.For many, politics takes a back seat to making ends meet.“In the morning, I don’t eat – only a little at lunchtime and in the evening. Otherwise, I can’t get by, I don’t have enough,” Josiane Rasomalala, 41, told AFP. “I’m voting because we need a better life.”Madagascar has been in turmoil since media reports in June revealed Rajoelina had acquired French nationality in 2014.Under local law, the president should have lost his Madagascan nationality, and with it, the ability to lead the country, his opponents said.Rajoelina denied trying to conceal his naturalisation, saying that he became French to allow his children to study abroad.He said that the constitution does not require the head of state to exclusively hold Malagasy nationality, and that any loss of nationality is subject to signed authorisation by the government.His critics were further enraged by another ruling allowing for a presidential ally to take over on an interim basis after Rajoelina resigned under the constitution to run for re-election.They have also complained about electoral irregularities.In Androy, southern Madagascar, “The polling stations are literally closed, there are no voters”, said Siteny Randrianasoloniaiko, one of two opposition candidates not taking part in the boycott. “In some offices, there are no voting booths ... we are already seeing fraud.”Results are not expected for at least a week.

Spain’s parliament voted to make Pedro Sanchez prime minister for another term yesterday, ending a protracted deadlock after an inconclusive general election in July.His Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) reached separate deals with a number of regional parties to earn their backing, including a contentious bill on amnesty for Catalan separatists that has sparked protests across Spain.Sanchez had 179 votes in favour and 171 against, with no abstentions.His confirmation as premier ends months of uncertainty.Alberto Nunez Feijoo, a candidate with the conservative People’s Party (PP), won the most seats but failed to secure enough support from other parties in his own bid to lead the country.It also represents a remarkable turnaround for Sanchez, who six months ago felt compelled to call a snap election after his party performed poorly in regional elections.Polls suggested that he would be voted out of government but his party staged a late rally and managed to contain a surge from the PP.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Sanchez on social media platform X.“It is good that we can continue to work side by side,” Scholz said. “We see many challenges in the world from a very similar perspective.”European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she looked forward to working to address important challenges faced by the EU while Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky also sent his congratulationsThe amnesty bill, which was registered in parliament on Monday, has angered many Spaniards.It proposes exculpating politicians and activists who took part in an attempt to separate Catalonia from Spain that reached its apex in 2017.Among the beneficiaries is Carles Puigdemont, who headed the regional government of Catalonia when it staged a failed secession bid in 2017.Puigdemont organised a referendum that was banned by the central government, followed by a short-lived declaration of independence that sparked Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.He fled to Belgium to avoid prosecution.An amnesty would allow him to return to Spain, while many Spaniards consider him an enemy of the state.As the vote was completed yesterday, some of the 400 protesters outside parliament shook barricades erected by police and shouted their dissent.Javier, 25, of the youth group Revuelta linked to Vox, said protests would continue outside PSOE headquarters in Madrid in the evening.Alberto Nunez Feijoo, whose PP won the most seats in the July vote, walked across the chamber to shake Sanchez’s hand as leftist lawmakers applauded and cheered, while Vox party leader Santiago Abascal walked out.Feijoo said he told Sanchez he was making a mistake for which he was responsible.The European People’s Party (EPP) said yesterday that the European Parliament had approved its request for a debate next week on whether the amnesty threatens judicial independence in Spain.Esteban Gonzalez Pons, vice-secretary of the PP, said the fact that Spain’s rule of law would be debated was a “humiliation for Spain’s prestige”.Sanchez will continue to depend on regional parties to pass key legislation, which will require “continuous negotiation and strict adherence to the agreements, especially in the case of the Catalan separatists”, Thinking Heads, a Madrid-based think tank, said in a report.While the Socialists say the deals include a guarantee of “stability” in the legislature, there is no formal agreement to support the budget.It will be negotiated “in good faith”, according to a senior Socialist source.“If progress is not made, we will not endorse any initiative put forward by your government,” Junts parliamentary spokesperson Miriam Nogueras warned on Wednesday.Feijoo described Sanchez as being “subject to a monthly contract with separatists” to be able to govern.Sanchez has pledged to extend measures to help Spaniards with the cost of living by making public transport free for the unemployed and young people as well as providing mortgage relief for some home owners.

Google ends the feature of unlimited cloud storage of the WhatsApp copies in Android. Google has indicated that starting from December, the backup copies of WhatsApp will take a storage space from the accounts of Android users in Google Drive cloud storage. According to what has been noted in the application's latest trial version of the Android system, there is a notification appearing in the settings, which indicates that the backup copies will start consuming storage space for Google in the next months. Google has clarified that, currently, the storage space of the users who subscribed to the paid (Workspace) service for work or education will not be affected by the new changes. Since years, Google has provided for the Android users an unlimited storage feature without affecting their available storage space in Drive. WhatsApp users in the Android system will have to check the size of the backup copies before downloading them to their accounts. They may have to copy text messages and dispense with the large size documents and videos.The new Google policy seems similar to that of Apple, which makes the backup copies of WhatsApp in iPhone part of iCould, despite the fact that it does not exceed 5 GB. The Google decision may force some users to subscribe to additional storage spaces made available through Google One service. The price of the subscription starts from $2 a month for the main storage of 100 GB. Google offers free storage space of 15 GB to all users of Drive service. (QNA)

China on Thursday sent a new-generation ocean color monitoring satellite into space to help improve understanding of marine waters.The satellite was launched by a Long March 2C carrier rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, and it later successfully entered the planned orbit.The launch was the 497th flight mission to use the Long March carrier rocket series. (QNA)

Twenty-six people have died and dozens were sent to hospital after a fire tore through a building in northern China's Shanxi province on Thursday, state media reported.The fire started at a four-storey building belonging to the Yongju coal company in Shanxi province's Luliang city at around 6:50 am local time (2250 GMT on Wednesday), state media said, citing local authorities.Twenty-six people were confirmed dead, state news agency Xinhua reported.Earlier, broadcaster CCTV said that 63 people had been evacuated, 51 of whom were hospitalised.The reports did not say if any of those taken to hospital had died."Rescue work is still in progress and the cause of the fire is under investigation," CCTV reported.A later update said the fire had "now been brought under control".Video footage posted on social media site Weibo showed bright flames and thick black smoke billowing from the building, while dozens of people stood in the parking lot watching.The building shown in the video matched images of the coal company's headquarters posted on its website.Emergency response personnel could be seen in the footage racing to put on protective gear outside a fire truck parked at the building's entrance.Industrial accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards and poor enforcement.In July, 11 people died after the roof of a school gym collapsed in the country's northeast.The month before, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in northwestern China left 31 dead and prompted official pledges of a nationwide campaign to promote workplace safety.In April, a hospital fire in Beijing killed 29 people and forced desperate survivors to jump out of windows to escape.One of the worst such accidents took place in 2015 in Tianjin, where a gigantic explosion at a chemical warehouse killed at least 165 people.

Israeli occupation aircraft and artillery launched at Thursday dawn a series of raids on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza Strip and the northern areas of Gaza City, coinciding with the firing of flash bombs.The Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) reported that occupation aircraft bombed two houses in the Nuseirat camp, leading to the death and injury of a number of citizens.WAFA added that heavy raids were launched by occupation aircraft in Beit Lahia and the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, coinciding with the launching of flash bombs.The occupation artillery continues to bomb various areas of Gaza City, especially the Rimal neighborhood, as it besieges the city and prevents the movement of citizens and ambulances.The occupation forces also bombed the vicinity of the Central Petrol Station, which houses dozens of displaced people, leading to the death and injury of many citizens.The occupation continues its intense and unprecedented aggression against the Gaza Strip for the forty-first day, leaving thousands of martyrs and wounded, most of them children, women, and elderly, while hundreds are still under the rubble and have not been recovered due to the dangerous field conditions, amid a severe siege on the Gaza Strip, which cut off electricity and water and prevented the entry of medicines, foodstuffs, and vital aid, which increases the complexity and danger of the humanitarian situation on the lives of civilians.

Nineteen people were killed after a fire broke out Thursday morning at a building of a coal mine company in north China's Shanxi Province.Shanxi branch of the National Mine Safety Administration said that the death toll reached to 19 as a result of the fire that broke out today, according to China's News Agency (Xinhua).The fire ripped through the second floor of the five-story building located in Lishi District of Lyuliang City. Rescue efforts are underway, according to local authorities.The building belongs to the private Yongju coal mine company, which has a production capacity of 120 tonnes a year.

The Israeli occupation forces stormed at dawn on Thursday the town of Dura southwest of Hebron in the occupied West Bank and arrested a number of citizens.The Palestinian News Agency reported that the occupation forces stormed the town and arrested a number of citizens after raiding and searching their homes.The Israeli occupation forces also arrested citizens in Jericho city.Eyewitnesses said that the occupation forces stormed the city for the second time, through the northern entrance, and arrested Shams Abu Hussein and Adam Hazem. The occupation forces also stormed Ein el-Sultan camp and raided a house.Moreover, the occupation forces stormed Jericho City earlier and fired light bombs over Aqabat Jaber Camp.Furthermore, the occupation forces arrested, at dawn today, citizens from the villages of Abu Shukheidim and Kobar, north of Ramallah.Local sources said that the occupation forces arrested the two freed prisoners, Baligh Al-Barghouti from Kobar and Yasser Al-Sous from Abu Shukheidim after raiding and searching their homes.

The photo and video-sharing platform Instagram has revealed a new set of features that allow users to edit and customize content before posting it.The platform added more than 20 new filters, and these filters can be used to improve the appearance of images, adding color changes or completely changing the appearance of images by adding noise or other effects, with an indicator to control the intensity of the effect, this is the first time Instagram has updated the filters in years.Instagram has simplified the publishing interface, making it easier to find specific photos from your camera roll, thanks to improved previews and the ability to zoom in and search using keywords.The platform uses an artificial intelligence model from Meta to give users the ability to create custom stickers from their photos and videos or shared content available on Instagram, indicating that these features are now being tested and may not be available to all users at this time.Instagram is also testing new options to resize, crop, and rotate short video clips, update the editing interface to facilitate access to tools such as voiceover, add the undo and redo option, add ten new voices to convert written texts into spoken English, and six new fonts and text styles.Instagram is expected to launch these new features gradually over the coming weeks and months, through successive updates to the application.

The Israeli entity's attacks on villages and towns in southern Lebanon continued.Field sources told Qatar News Agency (QNA) correspondent in Beirut that the Israeli aircraft launched a raid targeting the Labouneh forest in the western sector of southern Lebanon and an Israeli drone fired a missile toward Wadi al-Bayadh in the central sector of southern Lebanon.Israeli artillery also bombed the towns of Mhaibib, Mays al-Jabal, Rab El Thalathine, and Ramyeh.

HE Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres expressed his deep concern about the bombing of the headquarters of Qatar Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza on Monday.HE also expressed profound concern about the shelling of civilians and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.HE the UN Secretary-General emphasized the importance of respecting and protecting civilians and civilian objects at all times.