The blast on the Warsaw-Lublin line follows a wave of arson, sabotage and cyberattacks that has hit Poland

International News via Reuters:

An explosion that damaged a Polish railway track on a route to Ukraine was an “unprecedented act of sabotage”, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Monday, and he vowed to catch those responsible for an incident he said could have ended in tragedy.

The blast on the Warsaw-Lublin line follows a wave of arson, sabotage and cyberattacks that has hit Poland and other European countries since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Warsaw has in the past held Russia responsible, saying Poland has become one of Moscow’s biggest targets due to its role as a hub for aid to Kyiv. Russia has repeatedly denied being responsible for acts of sabotage.

“The blowing up of the railway track on the Warsaw-Lublin route is an unprecedented act of sabotage aimed at the security of the Polish state and its citizens,” Tusk wrote on X.

“An investigation is underway. Just like in previous cases of this kind, we will catch the perpetrators, regardless of who their backers are.”

Warsaw said in October that Poland and Romania had detained eight people suspected of planning sabotage on behalf of Russia.

Local police said on Sunday that a train driver had reported damage on the railway line, but authorities were not able to immediately confirm that it was a result of sabotage.

“This route is also used to transport weapons to Ukraine,” Tusk said in a video address. “Fortunately, no tragedy occurred, but the legal implications are very serious.”

Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said the military was inspecting a 120 km (74.6 miles) stretch of track leading to the Ukrainian border.

Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz, Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk, Alan Charlish; Editing by Frances Kerry and Hugh Lawson

A landslide in the city of Cilacap last week buried a dozen houses in Cibeunying village

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Rain-triggered landslides in two regions in Indonesia’s Central Java province last week have led to the deaths of at least 18 people, authorities said on Monday, with search operations ongoing.

A landslide in the city of Cilacap last week buried a dozen houses in Cibeunying village, the disaster mitigation agency said. Search and rescue efforts were challenging as people were buried 3 to 8 metres (10 to 25 feet) deep, it said.

The Cilacap landslide has killed at least 16 people, with 7 missing, said M Abdullah, chief of the search and rescue agency’s local division.

Excavators were deployed to dig through dirt in Cilacap, footage from news channel KompasTV showed on Monday.

Separately, two people died and 27 were missing after a landslide on Saturday in the region of Banjarnegara in Central Java, the disaster mitigation agency said on Monday. As many as 30 houses as well as farms were damaged, it said.

The Southeast Asian country’s wet season started in September and is likely to last until April, bringing a high risk of extreme rainfall and flooding, the weather agency said.

Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Christopher Cushing

The drugmaker expects a decision on U.S. approval before the end of the year

International News via Reuters:

Novo Nordisk has more than enough of its Wegovy weight-loss pills to support an aggressive product launch, CEO Mike Doustdar said on Monday, looking to avoid a repeat of the supply issues that plagued the drug’s original version.

The drugmaker expects a decision on U.S. approval before the end of the year, with the pill format expected to appeal to patients who prefer to avoid injections of the current Wegovy formulation.

“We have more than enough pills this time, so we’re going to go all in and really make this happen,” Doustdar said at an event hosted by the Danish Shareholders Association.  

Novo has faced slowing sales growth for the blockbuster obesity drug that helped it to become Europe’s most valuable company. The slowdown was largely the result of supply constraints that allowed Eli Lilly and others to erode the Danish drugmaker’s first-mover advantage.

Doustdar also said that a pricing deal struck with U.S. President Donald Trump aimed to broaden access to its weight-loss drugs for the U.S. Medicare programme, a federal health insurance programme for people aged 65 and older or who have disabilities.

Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-PedersenWriting by Stine JacobsenEditing by David Goodman

Haunted by his own injuries as a child labourer, South Korea’s new President Lee Jae Myung has vowed to lower the country’s above-average rate of industrial accidents

International News via Reuters:

South Korean Kim Yong-ho thought he would die within seconds after a 200-kilogram (441-pound) industrial press at a Hyundai Steel plant sprang to life during maintenance and crushed his legs and back. 

It was 2019, and Kim said he thought the heavy machinery around him had been switched off as he made repairs.

“I was flattened like a squashed frog in a roadkill,” he said. “I couldn’t breathe for a few seconds.”

A quick-thinking colleague saved his life by alerting the machine’s operator, said Kim, now 39.

Haunted by his own injuries as a child labourer, South Korea’s new President Lee Jae Myung – who crushed his finger and arm making rubber and later baseball gloves – has vowed to lower the country’s above-average rate of industrial accidents in what he calls “workplaces of death.”

So far, his administration has raided companies, increased spending to prevent industrial accidents and expanded workplace protections to subcontracted labourers, among other initiatives. His critics, however, say he is punishing companies – not proactively protecting workers – and they believe his pro-labour rhetoric is nothing more than repackaged populism.

In its 37 trillion won ($27 billion) budget for 2026, the Labour Ministry increased spending to prevent industrial accidents and said it would fine companies up to 5% of their operating profit if they recorded three deaths or more in a year.

The president has also visited firms to press for improved safety and set up a special team to investigate industrial accidents. Some companies have already reacted by shortening work shifts, sacking officials and pausing projects.

Labour Minister Kim Young-hoon, a former train operator and labour activist, said the new policies would not be effective unless attitudes change about work.

“There has been a perception in South Korea that we should sacrifice some casualties in order to push the country to grow faster,” he said in an interview. “If we don’t bring a fundamental change to such perceptions, no policy would work.”

According to International Labour Organization (ILO) data from 2023, South Korea had 3.9 deaths per 100,000 workers, well above the OECD average of 2.6. 

For fatal construction accidents, South Korea has the second-highest rate among OECD member countries with 15.9 deaths per 100,000 workers, according to ILO and official Korean data compiled by Reuters.

DEADLY RECORD

Earlier this month, a hulking, decommissioned heating structure at a power station in Ulsan collapsed on nine workers as they prepared to demolish it. A couple were quickly rescued but seven others were trapped; rescuers worked for more than a week to recover their lifeless bodies.

“I used to be a factory worker and I was a victim of an industrial accident too,” President Lee said in July during a visit to a bread factory run by SPC Group where a worker was crushed to death in May. 

After Lee’s visit, SPC changed work shifts to an eight-hour schedule from 12-hour shifts.

Over the past few months, builder POSCO E&C sacked its chief executive and halted 103 construction sites following the deaths of two expressway builders. Shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean apologised and suspended operations after a supervisor died at its shipyard. Nearly 80 executives at DL Construction tendered their resignations after a death at a construction site. 

POSCO, DL and Hanwha said they resumed operations and construction after undertaking safety measures.

VENEER OF CHANGE?

In 2024, South Korea’s Serious Accidents Punishment Act was applied to workplaces employing five or more people. Under it, employers can face a jail term of at least a year for a single death.

But deaths have not dropped over the past five years, rising 4.1% to 2,098 in 2024. Nearly 86% of employers accused of violating the law were released on probation and paid an average fine of 73 million won.

Critics say the South Korean president is sounding populist notes and scapegoating companies rather than preventing accidents.

Jung Jin-woo, a professor in the Department of Safety Engineering at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, said South Korea has many more safety inspectors than some developed countries and Lee’s plans only give the perception of safety.

“If (Lee) keeps pushing companies to meet standards that they can never meet, they may focus on just pretending to do it,” Jung said.

Labour Minister Kim said the government is taking preventive – not just punitive – steps, like subsidising companies’ safety equipment purchases.

“This is not a political show or a temporary thing at all,” Kim said.

The minister said Korea’s problem with industrial accidents is made worse because companies hire chains of subcontractors to skirt legal responsibility and cut costs. In August, the liberal Democratic Party passed the Yellow Envelope Act, which expands protection to subcontracted workers.

In a statement, the 1.2 million-member Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said Korea East-West Power, the government-run company that operated the site of the deadly power plant collapse earlier this month, tried to avoid risks by hiring outsourced workers. The union also said the company’s safety rules were lacking. 

Kwon Myung-ho, CEO of Korea East-West Power, said on Thursday that the company will investigate the cause of the accident and try to remedy the situation.

Kim, the temporary Hyundai Steel worker who was hospitalised for a month and took a two-year leave to deal with mental illness after his accident, said he had to resume his former job to make a living, even though he saw no safety improvements. A Hyundai Steel spokesperson declined to comment.

“Nothing has changed after I returned,” Kim said. 

Reporting by Heejin Kim; Editing by Josh Smith and Thomas Derpinghaus

In Mexico City, a small group of hooded protesters tore down fences around the National Palace where President Claudia Sheinbaum lives

International News via Reuters:

Thousands protested across Mexico on Saturday under the banner of “Generation Z,” denouncing rising violence after the public killing of an anti-crime mayor earlier this month.

In Mexico City, a small group of hooded protesters tore down fences around the National Palace where President Claudia Sheinbaum lives, prompting a clash with riot police who deployed tear gas, according to Reuters witnesses.

Mexico City’s public safety secretary Pablo Vazquez said in a press conference that 100 police officers were injured, including 40 who required hospital treatment. Another 20 civilians were also injured, Vazquez told local media outlet Milenio.

The public safety secretary also said 20 people were arrested and another 20 “referred for administrative offenses.”

Other marches took place in various cities across Mexico, including in the western state of Michoacan, where anger has flared over the murder on November 1 of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Manzo, who was shot dead at a public Day of the Dead event.

Some demonstrators in Mexico City targeted their ire at Sheinbaum’s party, chanting, “Out, Morena.” Some also called for stronger state efforts to stop crime and violence, shouting, “Carlos did not die, the government killed him.”

A group calling itself “Generation Z Mexico” that called for the protests has said in a “manifesto” circulating on social media that it is non-partisan and represents Mexican youth that are fed up with violence, corruption and abuse of power.

Generation Z refers to people born between 1997 and 2012, on the heels of the millennials, and protest groups in other countries across the globe have taken on the label to push for social and political change.

Sheinbaum’s government has questioned the motives behind Saturday’s marches, saying they were organized in large part by right-leaning political opponents and promoted by bots on social media. 

Reporting by Raúl Cortés Fernández, Daina Beth Solomon, Alicia Fernandez y Liamar Ramos; editing by Diane Craft