When 12 people died trying to escape a wildfire around the mountain village of Bedar and a nearby hamlet in southern Spain on July 9, regional officials said some of them had ignored advice to remain at their homes

International News via Reuters:

When 12 people died trying to escape a wildfire around the mountain village of Bedar and a nearby hamlet in southern Spain on July 9, regional officials said some of them had ignored advice to remain at their homes.

But five residents and survivors who spoke to Reuters said no advice of any kind ever reached them, while two others who did receive warnings as the fire — one of Spain’s deadliest — approached, said these came via church bells, WhatsApp Groups and house visits by local officials, in a piecemeal operation.

Bob Layton, a retired technical manager from Britain, said he received no warning about the fire or advice on what to do. He decided himself to flee, driving away just a minute before the wildfire engulfed his home in Paraje el Curato, a hamlet about 2.5 km (1.55 miles) from Bedar and where most of the victims lived who died trying to escape.

A 13th person, a 93-year-old British woman, died in hospital of burns.

“If I had received any advice to stay in my home we would have been dead – it was burned to the ground,” Layton said.

“I knew the track to get out on, others attempted to take the same track, a slightly different route and didn’t survive. The fire became an inferno.” 

The main village of Bedar was left unscathed while in Paraje el Curato some homes were burned and others survived.

Eight people, neighbours of Layton, tried to leave Paraje el Curato down the same track but found it cut off by the blaze. They died in the fire after abandoning their cars and attempting to set out on foot. Four others died in a separate convoy of cars.

The fire didn’t reach the hamlet until about 8 p.m., 3.5 hours after it was first reported, and by which time the main road out was blocked.

Antonio Sanz, head of emergencies for Andalusia, said the region had decided not to use an emergency warning system that sends alerts to mobile phones for the fire because it couldn’t be tailored to specific communities, where some needed to evacuate and others stay at home.

Other regions such as Madrid, Aragon and Castile La Mancha last week used the system for wildfires. 

The Andalusia government said in a statement on July 11 that Bedar’s mayor and other officials had gone door to door in the area to issue advice, and had also told victims from Paraje el Curato to shelter in place.

However, Sophie Vandebroek, whose brother Stanislas Verdonckt was among those who died, said he didn’t receive a warning, which would have given them time to evacuate safely.

“If only there had been communication through the emergency alert system when the fire broke out, hours before my brother saw the fire, then Stanislas and his seven neighbors would still be alive today,” she said.

She and her family had spoken with the mayor and victims’ families she said. Some relatives had discussed with their loved ones whether they should flee or not.

“It appears that none of the people who died received any official communication before it was too late,” she added.

The mayor, Angel Collado, declined a request for an interview and Bedar town hall didn’t respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment. 

A spokesperson for the local military police said all of the relevant facts about the fire were being investigated but made no further comments as the case is sealed. A spokesperson for Andalusia’s Supreme Court said the judge was basing the investigation on the cause of the fire. 

FIRES SPREADING FASTER 

As wildfires in Europe occur more frequently and spread with greater speed, experts say communicating clear evacuation plans and details of how to stay safe must happen long before a fire breaks out. 

“The public must be aware in advance of the risks in the area, evacuation routes, and basic self-protection measures. This means mapping out scattered dwellings, planning evacuations and carrying out drills,” said Fernando Medina, a professor of geography at the University of Las Palmas of Gran Canaria.

Only 42 out of 103 municipalities in Almeria, the Andalusian province which includes Bedar, had plans in place for emergencies, including wildfires. Just nine of those had met the requirement for an updated fire plan every four years if in an area of risk, according to data from the Andalusia government. 

Bedar’s emergency plan was last approved in 2019 and was in the process of being updated, a spokesperson for the Andalusian government said. The municipality is classified as at risk from wildfires.

Asked about the lack of plans, the spokesperson said the Andalusian government provides advice and help but it’s the responsibility of municipalities to update their emergency plans.

Bedar’s town hall did not respond to several requests for comment on its evacuation plans and whether it had carried out drills for wildfires.

Almeria province’s government held a meeting in February in Los Gallardos, next to Bedar, with 49 municipalities about how to streamline the process of updating their emergency plans, according to an online statement. Bedar town hall didn’t respond to an email asking whether it had participated in the meeting. 

Some of those who lived closer to Bedar than the hamlet did receive warnings. Waheed Mumtaz, a goatherd, said police visited him at 10:30 p.m. to tell him to evacuate. 

Juan Pedro, a waiter at Bedar’s Miramar restaurant, said the church bells began ringing soon after the fire broke out. A message through a WhatsApp group from the town hall told him he should evacuate, he said.  

“Here in the village, as soon as we saw the smoke, heard the bells and word got round, everyone knew they had to get out,” he said.

But not everyone was in that WhatsApp group. Pedro Tierney, 31, saw the fire from afar and hurried home in time to escape with his grandmother and aunt by car. 

It was “my gut feeling that we had to leave the village – and that’s what saved our lives,” he said, adding he received no alert to evacuate.

Wildfires can change direction suddenly with the wind, making authorities’ task of communicating instructions challenging, said David Alexander, emeritus professor of emergency planning and management at University College London.

But haphazard messaging during this fire suggests poor planning, he said. They should have at least used an alert to warn of a fire, even if they could not send targeted instructions, he said.

Layton urged authorities to plan with residents how to warn of imminent danger in future.

“I don’t blame anybody – it all happened so quickly – but I found it despicable that they should try to assign blame,” he said. 

Reporting by Nina Lopez, Charlie Devereux, Aislinn Laing; additional reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by Alexandra Hudson

Motorcycles weave through traffic before pulling up beside clusters of volunteers, ferrying donations from supporters across India and abroad unable to join a rare display of public dissent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government

International News via Reuters:

A steady stream of food delivery riders carrying meals, snacks and bottled water is helping sustain a youth-led protest movement that has sprung up in the heart of India’s capital.

Motorcycles weave through traffic before pulling up beside clusters of volunteers, ferrying donations from supporters across India and abroad unable to join a rare display of public dissent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

“From Kerala to the USA, orders are coming from everywhere,” said rider Suraj Kumar, 25, sitting atop his motorcycle with a bag of kachoris, a popular deep-fried snack, as some volunteers climbed over police barricades to take delivery of the packages.

A volunteer took the packet and passed it hand-to-hand towards the centre of the protest site a few hundred metres away around Delhi’s Jantar Mantar observatory, where hundreds of people gathered around a raised platform.

There, leaders of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a movement that began as online satire in May, demanded the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over repeated test paper leaks. They have been there since last month but the protest gained momentum only in recent days after a prominent activist began an indefinite hunger strike in support.

PROTEST SUSTAINED BY ‘PEOPLE’S KINDNESS’, SAYS STUDENT

The encampment has endured despite a major police crackdown on Monday, when tens of thousands of mostly young people tried to march on parliament. Indians under 30 are estimated to make up more than half of the country’s 1.42 billion population, and many have long complained that years of strong economic growth have failed to create enough jobs.

“People are angry, especially after the police started beating innocent students. But not everyone can come here so they are sending food,” said Raj Rathore, 25, a volunteer who has spent the past few days unloading and distributing deliveries including water bottles, fruit and biscuits.

Those contributions, along with volunteer-run support networks, have helped keep the protest running around the clock, students said.

“This protest is running purely because of people’s kindness, and the fact that we are all united,” said Rina Rawat, a Delhi University student herding people into queues inside the protest site.

Rawat, 20, was struck on her left leg by police batons on Monday but returned the next day to “do her duty”, she said.

PROTEST FEATURES RARE OPEN CRITICISM OF MODI

Modi has not directly commented on the protests, though a minister said after a meeting of the ruling coalition that the premier had told them the “strongest possible steps are being taken to protect the interest of the students”. Pradhan promised “answers, reforms and accountability”.

At the protest site, the number of protesters swelled to 5,000 by late afternoon on Wednesday despite intermittent monsoon showers. Most were Gen Z students carrying placards, blasting patriotic Bollywood songs and chanting slogans.

“Modi, we won’t tolerate your autocracy,” shouted a protester as the crowd cheered, a rare sight under a leader who has dominated Indian politics since taking power in 2014.

“I was a Modi supporter until 10 days ago,” said Mukesh, who declined to give his second name. “But when I saw the police brutality, I was shocked.”

YOUNG DOCTORS, MEDICAL STUDENTS PROVIDE FIRST AID, MEDICINES

Volunteers cleared puddles and collected garbage while others used hand-held fans to keep protesters cool in the humidity.

A medical stall staffed by volunteer doctors and medical students has operated at the site for about a month. Volunteers said they had been especially busy over the past two days.

“We are providing first aid and medicines for dizziness and nausea,” said Bhavna, 23, who did not want to share her last name. “We too have suffered because of paper leaks, the anxiety that gives you is enormous.”

Many protesters drew inspiration from India’s independence movement, carrying portraits of revolutionary Bhagat Singh, holding copies of the Constitution and handing out roses. Others donned Spider-Man masks and held slogans describing themselves as “baddies”.

Nearby, 19-year-old Arpita Verma said “there’s been too much Hindu-Muslim politics in India”, referring to sharper religious divisions under Modi’s party that draws support mainly from the Hindu majority.

“But we have no space for that here — now we are united by a common cause, and we are not afraid at all.”

Editing by Krishna N. Das, Editing by William Maclean

The outage also hit the prime minister’s office and various ministerial offices, along with many businesses, media said

International News via Reuters:

Malta’s capital Valletta was without power on Wednesday, a day after the island’s prime minister issued an “unconditional” apology for a wave of power cuts across the country over several days.

“I want to apologise to all those who were without electricity in the last hours. That apology is unconditional,” Prime Minister Robert Abela said on Tuesday as people in several localities reported having spent the night without a fan or air-conditioning.

The outage also hit the prime minister’s office and various ministerial offices, along with many businesses, media said. Restaurants said they had to throw away food.

Wednesday’s power cut briefly interrupted the trial of a businessman accused of association in the car bomb murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017.

The Mediterranean island is at the end of a five-day heat wave which has seen temperatures reach 42 degrees. A July record of 43.3 degrees centigrade was reached on Saturday.

State energy company Enemalta said the power cuts have been caused by faults in the distribution network owing to the extreme temperatures and record demand for electricity.

“While we have done a lot, the challenges are big. The effects of climate change are showing, and temperatures are constantly rising and lasting longer,” Abela said.

The opposition Nationalist Party demanded compensation for damages to families and businesses.

Reporting by Christopher Scicluna, Editing by Louise Heavens

The two longtime foes have held more than three months of face-to-face talks, billed as a way to put a permanent end to hostilities since a new war erupted on March 2 between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, triggered by the wider regional conflict

International News via Reuters:

Lebanon and Israel are scheduled to hold their next round of U.S.-brokered talks on August 4 in Italy, a Lebanese official told Reuters on Wednesday, as the two countries begin implementing a plan for Israeli withdrawals and Lebanese army deployments in southern Lebanon.

The two longtime foes have held more than three months of face-to-face talks, billed as a way to put a permanent end to hostilities since a new war erupted on March 2 between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, triggered by the wider regional conflict.

The ambassador-level direct meetings are unusual for countries that remain formally at war and have had no normal diplomatic relations through decades of invasion, military occupation and cross-border conflict.

Five meetings hosted by the United States produced a framework deal late last month which foresees the disarmament of Hezbollah, the progressive withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon and the deployment of Lebanese troops. 

The ambassador-level talks have since moved to the Italian capital so delegations could discuss the technical details and guidelines of the pilot zones — the term for the geographical areas where that phased process would be implemented. 

LEBANON PRESSES FOR FULL ISRAELI PULL-OUT

The first Israeli withdrawal under the pilot zone programme took place this week. 

Israeli forces pulled out of the southern Lebanese town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh and the Lebanese army began deploying troops there, but asked residents to delay their return until the town was cleared of unexploded ordnance. 

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam visited Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh on Wednesday and planted a Lebanese flag there, saying the state would work to reopen roads, clear rubble and restore public services so that residents could return.

Salam said Israel’s withdrawal was a significant first step but that Lebanon wanted a full Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese territory. 

Israel continues to occupy what it describes as a buffer zone about 10 km (6 miles) inside Lebanon along the length of the border, where Israeli troops have ordered the local populations to leave and razed villages. Israeli officials say the zone is necessary to protect northern Israeli communities from attacks by Hezbollah.

Despite a ceasefire that came into force last month, controlled demolitions have continued, Lebanese security sources said. 

Tens of thousands of Lebanese people remain displaced, unable to return home because their villages remain occupied by Israeli troops or have been destroyed. 

Israeli officials have said they will remain in southern Lebanon as long as Hezbollah remains armed. The group has rejected the Lebanese government’s direct talks with Israel and has refused to disarm in full. 

During his first official trip to Washington, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said that Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon could remove “the root cause that Hezbollah has long cited as its justification”.

Only then could Hezbollah be disarmed, Aoun told guests at a reception at the Lebanese embassy in Washington, according to comments shared by his office. 

Reporting by Maya Gebeily and Tala Ramadan, Editing by William Maclean