leave

In the past 24 hours there has been a backlash against Gabriel and his family, for the direction he is taking and around his professionalism and attitude.

Sources close to the player believe this is massively unfair and overlooks the dedication and commitment which means he is so well-regarded by so many clubs.

In addition, he is not the first young player to have a difference of opinion over their future direction with their club.

Jadon Sancho was 17 when he stopped training at City to force through a £10m move to Borussia Dortmund in the belief that he would play more often in Germany than under Pep Guardiola.

Morgan Rogers was Barry’s team-mate in the West Brom side that reached the FA Youth Cup semi-final in 2019. Within three months he had left for City, a move completed on his 17th birthday.

Sources feel that, in meetings with the United hierarchy that led to Gabriel committing his short-term future to the club last summer, promises were made over his career path that have not been kept.

He did start to appear in senior training sessions, initially under Ruben Amorim and then Michael Carrick, but speculation around a senior debut last season, which could only be in the FA Cup, was doused by Under-18s coach Darren Fletcher, who had by now taken the senior team manager’s role on an interim basis following Amorim’s dismissal. Fletcher felt it was too early for Gabriel.

It had been anticipated that Gabriel would feature during United’s pre-season programme.

His absence from the trip to Helsinki for a meeting with Wrexham on 18 July was put down to the date he returned for pre-season training.

He was part of every squad after that, but played only once, for eight minutes against Atletico Madrid in Stockholm.

Did that lack of action sow the seeds of discontent? Gabriel travelled to Trondheim for a meeting with Rosenborg on 24 July. Carrick used 11 substitutes that day. Gabriel was one of two United players who did not come on. Five of those who did have left, either permanently or on loan.

It was noted that 18-year-old Tynan Thompson was given a 45-minute senior debut against Leeds United at Croke Park – another game Gabriel travelled to but was not involved in – three weeks after his arrival from Tottenham.

Nevertheless, it was felt Gabriel was likely to become United’s youngest player this autumn – probably in the EFL Cup.

While the third-round draw delivered an Old Trafford rematch with Brighton, United’s Champions League schedule opened up another avenue.

It is conceivable that Azerbaijani champions Sabah could be the least difficult home game Carrick’s side have this season.

United were 3-0 up at half-time and Carrick had used all five substitutes by the 72th minute.

But Gabriel was not among them. As with Max Dowman at Arsenal last season, Uefa’s registration rules meant that, because he was 15, Gabriel could only feature if he was named on United’s A list of players.

It is not entirely clear why that did not happen. United named a maximum of 25 players, but among them was midfielder Manuel Ugarte, who will not play until after the registration window opens again in January because of a knee injury. Thompson was also on the list.

United coaches have previously suggested that Gabriel is not yet at the physical level required to be a senior player. Sources close to the player reject this.

Instead, they see how Arsenal gave Dowman his chance at 15 and Bayern Munich gave Lennart Karl his debut at 17, and wonder why United are not doing the same.

The Loose Women panel touched on the recent video showing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new life in the UK.

The ITV star didn’t hold back.

During Monday’s Loose Women, presenter Christine Lampard spoke about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s move back to the UK with their two children after spending six years in America. Recently, the Duchess of Sussex shared a glimpse of their new lives on social media in a compilation of videos.

Christine highlighted that Meghan and Harry have been accused of hypocrisy in the past, having stated they wanted a private life and then giving snippets into their lives online.

The ITV star shared that the Duchess of Sussex has turned the comments off on the post as she asked the panel, “Is it time to let the couple live in peace?”

Kelly Brook commented, “I think when you have to turn the comments off, I think you know that she’s already expecting a backlash. There’s nothing in that video that I wouldn’t share on social media after a lovely weekend in the countryside.”

Meanwhile, panellist Coleen Nolan didn’t hold back on sharing her thoughts as she remarked that people need to leave them alone. She said: “For me, your question on whether we should just leave them alone and let them enjoy life, from my point of view, yes, absolutely.

“For people that are out there constantly criticising, constantly sla****g off, don’t follow it, don’t look at it, block it. Get it off your timeline. If you don’t want to see them, don’t see them, but there are equally people who will love seeing that.”

The ITV star shared she thought it was nice to see and has ‘no issue’ with Harry and Meghan. She added that while there’s an argument to be had about people putting themselves out there, it doesn’t give people the right to slam anybody.

She added: “There are things that I don’t like on social media, I will unfollow it or I’ll block it, or I’ll have my say about someone or something, but it will be to my family around the kitchen table, I wouldn’t dream of doing that on social media.

“So, it really, really offends me, and certainly, they’ve had their fair share. Some say, ‘they deserve it’. Maybe they do, but have that conversation privately. They’ve got people out there that love them, family and all of that, I just think it’s awful, just leave them alone.”

In the sweet video shared online, people got to see their children, Archie and Lilibet, chasing a flock of deer in the countryside.

Another snippet showed the couple holding hands, whilst one clip showed Harry teaching his children how to catch a fish, and another showed Lilibet sitting by a roaring fire.

Loose Women is available to watch on ITV weekdays from 12:30pm.

DAMASCUS: Syria’s Culture Ministry is stepping up efforts to combat illiteracy and expand access to adult education as the country grapples with the legacy of years of war and displacement that has left about one in five Syrians unable to read or write.

The ministry highlighted the scale of the challenge at an event marking International Literacy Day, where officials outlined plans to expand literacy programs, introduce new teaching methods and use digital technology to reach people who have been excluded from education.

Ministry data presented at the event showed that around 4 million people in Syria are illiterate, equivalent to about 20% of the population, while an estimated 2.5 million children have dropped out of education.

Officials said years of war, displacement and deteriorating economic and social conditions had contributed to the high numbers, making literacy not only an educational issue but also a challenge for the country’s broader recovery and development.

Targeting single-digit illiteracy rate

Mohammad al-Asha, director of the Cultural Development and Adult Education Department at the ministry, said authorities were pursuing two parallel approaches to address the problem.

More than 400 literacy courses have been launched since the beginning of the year as part of an immediate response, while the ministry is also developing a national plan aimed at reducing the illiteracy rate to single digits within three years.

New curricula are expected to go beyond basic reading and writing skills to include digital and legal literacy, critical thinking and Syrian cultural identity, as well as awareness aimed at preventing extremism, addiction and behavioral problems.

Deputy Culture Minister Ahmad al-Sawwaf said literacy was closely linked to human dignity, development and citizenship, describing reading and writing as essential tools for people to understand their rights and responsibilities and participate in rebuilding their communities.

Digital tools to broaden access

The event also focused on using digital technology and artificial intelligence to expand adult education at a time when limited resources and staffing pose additional challenges.

Engineer Ramez al-Sammak said digital tools could be used to assess learners’ abilities and tailor educational content to individual needs, helping move literacy programs beyond traditional classroom-based teaching.

Such technology could also help programs reach more people and address difficulties including low motivation and the challenge of attending lengthy courses, participants at a specialized seminar on digital literacy education said.

The event honored 18 people who had benefited from adult education programs, including some who went on to complete secondary education and others who used their newly acquired skills to start income-generating projects in food production, handicrafts, woodworking and crochet.

People with disabilities who continued their education despite difficult circumstances were also honored.

The Culture Ministry said tackling illiteracy required a broad national effort to help vulnerable groups regain access to education and overcome economic, social and psychological barriers.

Through its Adult Education Directorate, the ministry implements Syria’s national literacy policy and develops programs aimed at providing sustainable learning opportunities and helping people excluded from formal education participate more fully in social and cultural life.

Sept. 2 (UPI) — The USS Abraham Lincoln docked in Thailand Wednesday morning, the first break for the sailors aboard since before Thanksgiving.

The 5,000 crew members aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier stepped on land and headed to the beach town of Pattaya, Thailand, to begin their first significant shore leave in nine months.

The ship, based in San Diego, has spent more than 250 consecutive days supporting actions in Venezuela and Iran. The crew has faced issues with morale, plumbing and food supplies. At least one sailor aboard the ship has attempted suicide, and there have been reports of more.

During the Lincoln’s deployment in the Middle East, the U.S. naval base in Bahrain was mostly destroyed at the beginning of the war, making restocking and repairs more challenging.

After public outcry, the Navy replaced the Lincoln with the USS George Washington, allowing the Lincoln to head home.

The Lincoln docked Wednesday at Laem Chabang, north of Pattaya, and crew members traveled by bus into the beach town. Many of them booked hotels for their shore leave, said Pattaya Mayor Poramet Ngampichet.

“It is a well-deserved break for all of the crew, and we really look forward to our time here,” said Capt. Daniel J. Keeler, commanding officer of the Lincoln, The New York Times reported.

“It’s good to have you here,” the mayor said, shaking hands with the Captain.

The mayor and other local dignitaries greeted the first arriving sailors at the Hard Rock Hotel in Pattaya. They handed the crew members gifts and welcomed them to the area.

“Our arrival in Laem Chabang provides a well-deserved opportunity for our sailors and Marines to rest and recharge. It also underscores the strong and enduring partnership and alliance between the United States and Thailand,” Rear Adm. Robert E. Loughran, commander of Carrier Strike Group 3, which includes the Lincoln, said in a statement. “What this strike group has accomplished is truly historic. I could not be prouder of the exceptional professionalism and expertise demonstrated by every member of this team during our operations in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.”

The statement pointed out that Thailand has been a partner of the United States since the 1833 Treaty of Amity and Commerce, and it’s the only treaty ally in mainland southeast Asia.

Pattaya is just north of U-Tapao, where an airbase hosted U.S. B-52 bombers during the Vietnam War. It also provided a rest and relaxation spot for U.S. servicemembers during the war and since. For this shore leave, local authorities said the military has restricted certain activities, including consuming marijuana, parasailing and jet skiing.

After the weekend in Thailand, the Lincoln is scheduled to leave for San Diego Sunday.

The Iran war is settling into attrition, with no regime collapse and Gulf economies facing growing uncertainty

Analysts broadly agree the United States and Israel’s war on Iran will not see regime collapse in Tehran or a definite victory for Washington, but rather a dragged-out affair of stagnation and attrition.

The hope among the US leadership at the start of the war, which began after surprise Israeli and US attacks on February 28, was that mounting economic and military pressure on Iran would force a structural shift in Tehran. Six months on, it is clear this vision will not come about, and instead many are preparing for a protracted war and managed fallout.

Oil-dependent economies are still absorbing supply shocks after traffic in the Strait of Hormuz slowed to a trickle of pre-war levels following Iran’s attacks on shipping and a US blockade on Iranian ports.

The US military is still entrenched in a region that remains its most militarised in years. Although the war’s intensity has lessened since a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Washington and Tehran in June, there is no sign it will conclude, leading to continued uncertainty about the future.

Existing tensions, such as those between the Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia in Yemen, look only set to increase as the war drags on. The influence of rival powers, such as those of India and China, remains stalled rather than stopped, with Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative having already established itself within the Middle East and North Africa. All in all, the region remains in flux where formal alliances with outside powers no longer guarantee safety.

The defence agreement between Turkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia recently signed in Mecca will likely be the first of many such military pacts agreed in the region.

“The war has just accelerated trends, but hasn’t really started anything that wasn’t already under way. The Gulf countries were already diversifying their economies,” Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, told Al Jazeera. “Many were already looking at broadening their defence partnerships beyond existing US security guarantees, as well as increasing their own defence capability.”

Israel, for its part, is still pursuing its regional project of “paramountcy”, HA Hellyer of the Royal United Services Institute said, despite its failure to bring Iran to its knees this year.

“There is no chance of the government in Tehran falling in the next six months,” Hellyer told Al Jazeera. “If everything were to theoretically stay the same … with just increased economic pressure, that could eventually cause a ripple effect that could lead to state collapse in Iran. But we’re talking years, not months, and everything is not likely to stay the same.”

The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and strikes on regional cities have hindered Gulf states’ plans to use oil revenues as an engine to diversify their economies and build on their reputations as a safe haven to encourage investors.

Shipments of oil, derivative products and liquefied natural gas (LNG) have been repeatedly and severely disrupted since the US and Israel launched their attacks on Iran in February.

Transit through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which saw attacks on shipping by the Houthis during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, became even more hazardous in July, when the Iran-allied Houthis declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia.

“The price of oil has increased broadly in line with the Gulf states’ difficulties in exporting it,” John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Gulf Research Center, told Al Jazeera. “Is this going to go for six months? Is it going to go on for longer?”

Exacerbating the Gulf states’ difficulties is that, although the price of oil has risen, so has inflation. In addition to the economic difficulties the war has created, there is also growing pressure for Gulf states to invest more in defence.

For now, the majority of the states caught in the middle will look at ways of living with the turmoil and managing the consequences.

Aug. 26 (UPI) — Three Secret Service employees have been put on administrative leave during an investigation into “potential misconduct,” the agency confirmed.

The three staffers are “non-law enforcement personnel,” including Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi and two others in the agency’s communications office, CNN, CBS News and The Hill reported. CNN first reported the investigation.

It isn’t clear what the “potential misconduct” was or why they were put on leave.

The employees lost their security clearances and access to work devices, which is common practice during internal investigations.

A Secret Service spokesperson said the investigation is being handled by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in fulfilling our zero-fail mission of protecting the President and other high-level government officials. Our critical work demands that our workforce maintain an unwavering commitment to duty, honesty, and courage in all aspects of their jobs. We will continue to pursue the level of excellence that is worthy of the mission which has been entrusted to us by the American people,” the spokesperson said.

On Tuesday, the Secret Service said it was “aware” of a video by Iran threatening Barron Trump’s life.

A week ago, the Secret Service launched a probe into a member of Vice President JD Vance’s security detail for allegedly leaking sensitive information.

The agency has faced intense scrutiny over several assassination plots and attempts on President Donald Trump‘s life.

Celebrity Hunted aired a dramatic finale as four ‘fugitives’ successfully managed to outrun the hunters

The winners of Celebrity Hunted have been confirmed in a dramatic end to the series, while one fugitive was sent home.

On Tuesday evening (August 25), the grand finale of the Channel 4 show kicked off with five celebrities still on the run from the Hunters. Former EastEnders star Brian Conley and his daughter Lucy were still a team, remaining undetected, along with Strictly Come Dancing pros Amy Dowden and Carlos Gu. It comes as disability advocates JJ Chalmers and Sophie Morgan were caught on Monday’s episode.

And on Tuesday’s episode, television presenter Scarlette Douglas was on her own after her brother Stuart was caught in a previous episode, yet the end was in sight, and she made a bid for the extraction point. As she headed to the motorway in a car being driven by her friend, the Hunters were hot on Scarlette’s heels, and after she tried to run away on foot, she was captured moments later.

“I’m gutted that I didn’t get all the way to the end. But I managed to do three days without my brother, and that has made me super proud”, Scarlette said as she was eliminated from the series.

Across the country, the two remaining teams headed to Birmingham train station to retrieve details of the extraction point from a left luggage facility, and the Hunters wasted no time in following them.

Carlos and Amy tried to dress up in hopes of not being caught on CCTV, while Brian waited in a pub as his trusty daughter headed over to retrieve the information, but they were all captured on camera, and the Hunters closed in.

With details of the extraction point stored on a burner phone, the teams headed to Black Rock Sands beach in North Wales, where they stayed overnight in local B&Bs before heading for the checkpoint.

Amy, Carlos, Brian and Lucy concealed themselves in the sand dunes while they waited for extraction, which came in the form of a small aeroplane that could land directly on the beach.

The teams sprinted to the aircraft as the Hunters raced across the beach on foot and by car, with help from a helicopter.

Amy and Carlos jumped through the doors of the plane, followed by Lucy, but Brian struggled to run across the sand and was seen holding his lower back.

Thankfully, the 65-year-old made it into the aircraft, which began moving down the sand, ready to take off and complete the extraction.

The Hunters made one final push to cut them off, racing alongside the plane in their car, but they failed as the plane took off, leaving Brian, Lucy, Amy, and Carlos as the show’s winners and the Hunters at HQ annoyed.

Celebrity Hunted is available to stream on Channel 4

The Channel 4 challenge has said goodbye to two more celebrities

Two ‘gutted’ Celebrity Hunted stars have been forced to leave the hit show.

A new season of the Channel 4 programme is well underway, challenging a fresh group of stars to go on the run and hide from expert hunters.

The team of hunters is led by Ray Howard and they have a mixture of police and military backgrounds at their disposal. Ray’s agents are also allowed to use everything from CCTV to helicopters in their hunt for the famous faces.

Several contestants have already been captured, including stand-up comedian Jen Brister and actor Laura Smyth, as well as Love Island duo Chris Taylor and Toby Aromolaran.

And the hunters added two more victims to their list just minutes into Monday’s (August 24) episode. They caught disability advocates JJ Chalmers and Sophie Morgan following a heated car chase.

The duo originally tried to evade the hunters by driving away, but they eventually accepted defeat. Following their capture, Sophie admitted that she was “sad” but still spoke highly of her experience.

Sophie said: “I’m gutted we got caught. We did really well and we just slipped up at the end. Not because of our disabilities.

“If anything, I think it aided us at times. I think it’s been a really lovely experience to just feel [like] disability doesn’t always get in the way.”

JJ also reflected on the challenge fondly, adding: “What I take away from this, more than anything, will just be the kindness of strangers. If you ever doubted that there was goodness in the world, there is more good in this place than there is bad.”

But viewers at home have been left divided by the pair’s eviction.

Some felt they gave up too easily, with one X user posting: “Why didn’t JJ Chalmers and Sophie Morgan just lock the car doors and stay inside the car when the hunter reached the car door? They could have avoided capture yet. #CelebrityHunted.”

Meanwhile, others praised their decision to forfeit: “Sensible decision by JJ and Sophie. They weren’t going to win in a car chase. Well played though. Lovely people. #Hunted #CelebrityHunted.”

Following the latest capture, there are five fugitives still at large including father-daughter duo Brian and Lucy Conley, Strictly’s Amy Dowden MBE and Carlos Gu, as well as lone wolf Scarlette Douglas.

Celebrity Hunted is available to stream on Channel 4.

Assam, India – Debiram Panika, a 37-year-old daily wage labourer from northeastern India’s Assam state, would speak to his wife and two daughters on video calls every day from Dimapur, a town in neighbouring Nagaland state where he worked.

But when his phone rang at about 11am on July 19, there was panic in the voice of his 30-year-old wife, Dipika.

“I could only see my wife telling me on the video call, ‘This is it for us. We are going to die,’ before the call was disconnected,” Panika recalled, speaking to Al Jazeera.

It was the last time they spoke. Moments later, rising waters from the nearby Dikhow River, which snakes past their village in Assam’s Sivasagar district, surged into their bamboo-and-mud home with a ferocious current and swept away Dipika and four-year-old daughter Radhika.

“The water came flooding like sea waves, and they were gone in a flash,” Panika said, as he stood in front of the ruined home he has since returned to.

Sivasagar is part of the eastern Assam region, also referred to as Upper Assam. Incessant rains between July 18 and July 20 submerged the region and the neighbouring Naga Hills of Nagaland.

Monsoon floods usually impact northern and western Assam, and parts of central Assam, the worst. But several Nagaland districts bordering Upper Assam received heavy rainfall on those three days, leading to dozens of landslides. This intense run-off swelled Naga Hills-origin rivers and caused devastation downstream.

The resultant floods killed more than 100 people, destroyed 2,700 villages, and displaced 700,000 people across the state. The state government says 1.2 million people were impacted in all, their lives disrupted.

Most waters have since receded, but Radhika’s body is yet to be found.

“I look for Radhika every day in the bushes, tirelessly,” Panika said, holding back his tears. “Her last words, calling me ‘Papa’, are still reverberating in my ears.”

Panika’s other daughter, Ridhika, 10, was at a relative’s place a few metres away when her mother and sister were swept away by the flood. Ridhika held onto a bamboo bush and was later rescued by locals.

‘Apocalyptic event’

Several riverine villages in Sivasagar have been wrecked by debris carried down by the waters of the Dikhow from the surrounding Naga Hills.

Tens of thousands of tree trunks lie piled up in places that used to be homes, as lush rice fields, the main source of livelihood, have been washed away.

Kukil Das, a 30-year-old Facebook vlogger in Debiram’s village of Nepali Khuti, told Al Jazeera that “the torrent of the flood was like an apocalyptic event seen in the movies.

“Trees as tall as 30 to 40 metres (100-130ft) came down from the hills, flooding the river, and wiped out everything as they crashed against our homes,” he said. “There is no home left. It was a tsunami.”

Das and his friend Shravan Prasad, from the neighbouring Bihubor village, said they saved at least 1,000 lives by using boats the two villages had at that time.

“We put together a group of friends with the seven boats and started rescuing people turn by turn for two days and nights without food and water,” Prasad said.

Das said the floods forced residents to take shelter on the roofs of concrete homes they could find, as cries for help and the sounds of the river washing away homes echoed in the neighbourhood.

Laxmi Sharma, who owned one such concrete house, said she provided shelter to at least 60 people on her terrace after the river water gushed into Nepali Khuti.

“People ran towards the roof of my building. We thought we were going to die,” Sharma, 46, told Al Jazeera. “But it is a miracle that we are still alive even though my house was barely out of water.”

Not everyone could escape the flood’s wrath, though.

In Sivasagar’s Simaluguri village, two friends – Reihana Ahmed, a Muslim, and Ratul Swarna, a Hindu, both in their 30s – were swept away in the torrent.

When Ahmed, a mother of two, was drowning as the deluge entered her village, Swarna, who did not know how to swim, jumped to save her without thinking about his life.

The two friends were later found dead in the paddy fields. “It was humanity that won in a disaster like this,” Ahmed’s husband Aminul Haque said with a sorrowful smile.

‘Human-made flood’

Besides the eroding banks of the Dikhow River in Prajabasti, another flood-affected village, 75-year-old Asor Ali sat in disbelief next to his wife, Jamila Khatun.

“Even the generations preceding me have not seen a flood like this,” he said, staring at the flowing river. “Even the 1950s earthquake that triggered the floods here did not do so much damage.”

A magnitude 8.6 earthquake hit Assam and Tibet across the border in 1950, altering the region’s riverine system. Nearly 5,000 people died. Since then, Assam has witnessed frequent floods, which intensify during the monsoons, says Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman, a researcher on the basin of the Brahmaputra, the region’s major river: The Naga Hills rivers that flooded Upper Assam are its tributaries.

But residents say this year’s deadly deluge is not just a natural phenomenon.

Biren Gogoi, 43, says rampant stone and sand mining in regional rivers, coupled with aggressive deforestation and coal extraction in Nagaland’s Mon district, triggered the devastation.

Global Nature Watch, an open-source online platform that provides real-time data on deforestation across the world, showed that Nagaland lost 14 percent of its tree cover between 2002 and 2025, with Mon district bordering Assam’s Sivasagar being the most affected.

According to the latest report published in 2023 by the Forest Survey of India, Nagaland has lost about 794.88 square kilometres (306.9 square miles) of forest cover between 2013 and 2023.

Al Jazeera travelled along the Assam-Nagaland border and saw signs of deforestation on the hills and mining activities in both the states. Satellite images also confirmed rampant coal mining in Nagaland’s Mon district, and stone mining crushers on Assam’s side, especially in Bihubor, one of the epicentres of the Assam flood.

While Mon’s Deputy Commissioner Wennyei Konyak acknowledged the possibility of illegal mining in the district, he added that the land was protected under Indian laws to uphold the rights of Indigenous tribes, and therefore government interference in the area was limited.

“I would not blame mining activities for the flood. It was just the wrath of nature,” he told Al Jazeera.

But experts and political leaders in Assam say mining played a direct role in the floods.

Debabrata Saikia of the opposition Congress party, who is the legislator from Sivasagar constituency, accused Assam’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of allowing illegal excavations for stone and sand on the Dikhow riverbank, resulting in a cratered wasteland that worsened the floods.

“This unchecked plundering of riverbeds and hills under the ruling government has engineered this into a man-made disaster,” Saikia told Al Jazeera.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, however, rejected the allegation on August 4, blaming excessive rainfall in Nagaland for triggering the Upper Assam deluge. On August 14, Ranoj Pegu, a cabinet minister in the state’s BJP government, blamed erratic rainfall due to climate change for the deluge.

Rahman, the Brahmaputra river basin researcher, believes that while the climate crisis played a role, the flood was “purely human-made”, caused by the fracturing of the landscape.

“The unrestrained stone extraction from the Dikhow riverbed has damaged the river’s natural cushion,” Rahman said. “That means the river loses the capacity to resist high flows of torrents that break embankments and cause floods.”

An official document from 2022, seen by Al Jazeera, also highlights mining as a factor in possible large-scale floods downstream on the Assam side.

Al Jazeera reached out to senior district officials in Sivasagar as well as state government officials for their comments on allegations of unchecked coal mining but did not get any response.

Back in Prajabasti village, Ali, the septuagenarian, is mentally preparing himself for future floods.

“It will happen again, so long as there is greed for land and coal in humans,” he said. “Nature pays them back.”

A NUMBER of Ryanair passengers missed their flight this week due to more airport queue chaos.

Travellers at Copenhagen Airport became stuck in long queues on Tuesday.

The Ryanair flight was scheduled to have 179 passengers, however 54 didn’t even make it onboard.

When the flight closed for boarding, any passengers who weren’t onboard had their luggage unloaded from hold.

The delays were not due to the new Entry/Exit System (EES) that has been causing delays at other European airports.

Instead, they were due to a water leak.

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A spokesperson for the airport said: “The longer queues at passport control on Tuesday afternoon were caused by an extraordinary operational issue and were not related to the EES system.

“On Tuesday afternoon, an unfortunate water leak occurred in a server room connected to the passport control area in Pier E, one of the airport’s two passport control facilities.

“As a result, all passengers had to pass through passport control in Pier C for the remainder of the day.

“When half of the available passport control capacity is taken out of operation, longer waiting times are unfortunately unavoidable.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this caused our passengers.”

Sun Travel has contacted Ryanair for comment.

This is the latest in a number of incidents of passengers missing their flights in Europe recently.

However, other cases have been caused by long queues at airports due to EES.

For example, back in April, about 100 passengers were left stranded at Milan Linate Airport after their easyJet flight to Manchester left without them.