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SEOUL, Nov. 6 (UPI) — South Korean rescue crews are searching for workers believed to be trapped after a large structure collapsed at a power plant in the southeastern city of Ulsan on Thursday, according to reports from authorities and local media.

At least seven people were trapped when a 200-foot-tall boiler tower gave way at the Ulsan branch of the state-run utility Korea East-West Power, news agency Yonhap reported, citing the National Fire Agency. The collapse occurred shortly after 2 p.m. local time.

Two people were pulled from the debris earlier, while emergency responders continue to search for others feared buried beneath twisted metal and concrete.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok ordered the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, National Fire Agency, Korean National Police Agency and local authorities to “mobilize all available equipment and personnel to prioritize saving lives.”

“In particular, we will make every effort to ensure the safety of firefighters working on-site and thoroughly implement safety measures such as on-site control and evacuation guidance for residents,” Kim said in a statement.

Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung also issued an emergency directive calling for mass mobilization of personnel and equipment to the accident site, adding that a situation-management officer had been dispatched to coordinate on-site operations.

Photos shared by local media showed a massive steel structure toppled on its side with a heap of crumpled beams and scaffolding at its base.

The disaster has renewed scrutiny of South Korea’s industrial safety regime, which has faced criticism following a series of fatal workplace accidents.

President Lee Jae Myung has repeatedly called for tougher safety enforcement to curb such tragedies.

“When fatal accidents occur in the same way, it ultimately amounts to condoning these deaths,” Lee said at a July cabinet meeting.

In August, he ordered that every workplace fatality be reported directly to his office and proposed sanctions such as revoking business licenses and restricting bids from companies with repeated deaths.

Lee, who suffered a factory accident as a teenager, has pledged to reduce South Korea’s industrial accident mortality rate — the highest among the 38 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development member countries — to the OECD average within five years.

A village in the UK has been hailed for its “insane” chippy and for providing visitors with an accurate taste of life in the past thanks to its “trapped in time” aesthetic and feel

A village in the north of England has been praised for its “insane” chip shop and its ability to transport visitors back in time with its “trapped in time” atmosphere. The UK is home to a wealth of scenic and historical locations that are well worth a visit.

One such place is Beamish, an open-air museum village located in County Durham, England – north-east of Stanley. It offers 350 acres of rural countryside, as well as being a “living” museum, complete with vintage shops and restaurants, Georgian gardens, historic modes of transport like trams and buses, and much more. This charming and fascinating destination has been designed to give visitors a realistic glimpse into the history of northern England, attracting hundreds of thousands of people each year who come to experience it first-hand.

The official Beamish website states: “Step into the past at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North.

“Beamish is a world famous open air museum which brings the history of North East England to life at its 1820s Pockerley, 1900s Town, 1900s Pit Village, 1940s Farm, 1950s Town and 1950s Spain’s Field Farm exhibit areas.”

It’s a mix of original buildings, replicas, and relocated structures that together create a functional “living museum” that visitors can experience as if it were the real thing.

Food content creator Callum recently embarked on a journey to the village, which look like a seemingly untouched, historic British town.

He made a stop at the renowned Davy’s Fish and Chips, known for its traditional cooking methods.

In a video tour of the chippy and the town, Callum said in a voiceover: “This is the fish and chip shop trapped in time – one of the last in the world that uses coal to heat the original 1950s fryers, with fish and chips cooked in beef dripping.”

He added: “The sweet shop makes candy by hand, the bakery makes the same cakes as a century ago. There’s no mobile phone reception up here so people actually have to talk to each other.

“A slice of England unchanged. It’s one of the most incredible fish and chips, it’s Davy’s in Beamish.”

In the caption alongside the video, he added: “Insane chippy stuck in history. Absolute scenes. Davys Fish and Chips, Beamish”.

TikTok users were quick to share their thoughts in the comments section. One user enthused: “Beamish museum if you’ve not yet been then go, it’s brilliant, them chips and fish best ever”.

Another reminisced: “We went on a school trip to Beamish when I was about 10. Loved it! I’m 57 now”.

A third said: “Wonder if no mobile reception is a specific tactic. What a world with no mobiles and social media.”

One enthusiastic fan shared: “I’ll just tell ya right now fish in beef dripping from that shop heated by coal is the BEST fried fish you will ever eat in your f***ing life”.

Another declared Beamish’s fish and chips the “best fish and chips [they] have ever had.”

While another user pleaded: “Make the WHOLE of the UK like this”.

A final commenter confessed: “Not me Googling if people live here, in attempt to escape modern society”.

Video shows part of Rome’s medieval Torre dei Conti collapse for a second time during a restoration near the Colosseum. One seriously injured worker remained trapped Monday evening with firefighters continuing a high-risk rescue as the tower’s stability is assessed.

Thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa wait near the coast in Tunisia for an opportunity to make the treacherous voyage across the Mediterranean. Under an agreement signed with the European Union, the Tunisian government does what it can to stop them. NGOs and migrants accuse the Tunisian coastguard of deliberately sinking migrant boats at sea, leaving those on board to drown. Others say migrants are regularly bused out to the desert and abandoned. We investigate these allegations and meet the humans caught in the crossfire of a political battle over migration.

A BRITISH grandad and veteran suffering from cancer has been left homeless and starving in Dubai after being arrested for a crime he’d been acquitted of a decade earlier.

John Murphy, who served in the British military before building a life in the UAE, was arrested a decade earlier over allegations of being offensive to hotel security.

The 59-year-old’s lawyers said he should have walked free but he was jailed awaiting trial.

In the interim period, John’s landlord sued him for rent arrears that piled up during his detention.

His belongings were seized, a travel ban imposed, and his passport withheld.

The travel ban imposed on him has also never been lifted.

For nearly 10 years he has been trapped in Dubai, unable to work and unable to leave, putting John in an ‘inescapable legal limbo’.

John’s lawyers now say he has been ‘literally starving’.

The grandfather has been forced to sleep on public transport and wash in shopping centre toilets, according to his legal contacts.

“I haven’t eaten in four days,” Murphy said in a message sent from Dubai.

“I’ve been on the streets for three weeks.

“I try to ride the metro all day to rest, but security chase me away.

“I wash in mall toilets, I’ve been in the same clothes for weeks, and my health is failing.

“I need urgent cancer treatment and dental care, but I have nowhere to turn.”

Despite homelessness being illegal in the UAE, when John attempted to surrender to the police, they refused to arrest him.

He has been surviving on public transport, caught between a rock and a hard place – unable to leave, unable to work, unable to resolve his debts.

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Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai said John’s situation was “outrageous”.

“John was found innocent, yet ten years later he is starving on the streets, denied cancer treatment, food, or shelter,” she said.

“This is the direct result of a system that criminalises debt and traps people in a cycle of poverty and despair.

“They won’t let him leave, and they won’t even arrest him. He is being left to die in plain sight.”

A friend of John’s has launched a GoFundMe page and appealed directly to both the British and Irish embassies for help.

To date, neither has secured his release.

“The Trump administration successfully repatriated a number of American citizens from the UAE,” Stirling added.

“It is disappointing that Britain and Ireland have not stepped in to save John Murphy.

“He is a veteran, a grandfather, and he has already suffered enough.

“The Irish and British governments must act now.”

John’s quagmire comes after British student Mia O’Brien was detained in the city after being busted with 50g of cocaine.

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Mia was sentenced to spend 25 years in a UAE prison after she was found with the drugs that had a street value of £2500.

Her family this week issued a plea for help saying she had “never done a bad thing in her life” and had made a “very stupid mistake”.

But now her heartbroken mum Danielle McKenna, 46, has revealed new details about her lengthy jail term.

She revealed that Mia, 23, was caught with 50 grams of the Class A drug in the Middle East last October.

The huge amount of cocaine was found inside Mia’s apartment in “one big chunk”.

The Liverpool University law student was arrested alongside two other people – her friend and the friend’s boyfriend.

All three have been charged with drug dealing.

Mia was convicted by a judge after a one day hearing on July 25.

She was also fined a staggering £100,000 by the court before being sent to the hellish Dubai Central Prison, also known as Al-Awir.

The notorious lock-up has been dubbed the affluent city’s version of infamous jail Alcatraz.

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“Mia feels she has destroyed her life as she wanted to be a lawyer or solicitor, ” Danielle told the Daily Mail.

“I speak to her but she can’t say too much on the phone.

“She’s just made a stupid mistake after going over to see a friend and her boyfriend in Dubai.”

The mother-of-five said Mia pleaded not guilty to intent to supply the drugs.

But the judge swiftly ended the trial and handed her a life sentence of which she has to serve 25 years.

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ITALY has been battered by brutal floods after a wave of torrential rainfall swamped vast parts of the north.

Streets and railways erupted into rivers, trapping people in cars and houses, and hundreds of school children had to be rescued from flood waters.

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North-western Italy swallowed the worst of the weather, with orange alerts issued for parts of Lombardy and Liguria on Sunday, but the capital Milan has also suffered with severe rainfall on Monday night.

In Meda, Lombardy, cars were picked up by the surging water and taken away down the streets.

One clip shows the powerful river depositing a car on top of another – while a railway track can be seen full to the brim with gushing brown water.

The Seveso river which runs through Milan burst its banks and completely submerged several neighbourhoods, and the Lambro is also threatening to overflow in the city.

Specialised flood vehicles had to rescue around 300 children stranded in schools in the Niguarda district of Milan.

In Cabiate, Como province, fire crews plucked residents from swamped neighbourhoods by winching them up to helicopters after the Tarò River overflowed.

They also combed the streets checking submerged vehicles for anyone trapped inside.

Landslides and flooding have brought chaos to the Bormida Valley in Lugaria, and most of the region’s schools have been forced to shut.

Water spurted up through manhole covers along the busy Via Vittorini road – where flood defences have been erected to protect homes.

Milan’s Palace of Justice has been forced to shut down after water pooled inside and the power had to be turned off.

Milan’s Civil Protection Councilor, Marco Granelli, urged all residents to exercise “maximum caution”.

More than 70 emergency calls have been put into the fire service amid the watery mayhem.

The flooding was caused by heavy storms which swept across the north of the country.

A German tourist is currently reported to be missing in Piedmont after flash flooding, with a search operation underway.

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Officials said more than 650 emergency interventions were carried out across Lombardy, with over 200 firefighters mobilized.

A mother and her 10-month-old baby were rescued from the roof of their car in Monza and Brianza province after being trapped by floodwaters.

In Florence, a pine tree collapsed onto a parked van, though no injuries were reported.

Weather forecasters said unstable conditions would continue in the coming days, with thunderstorms forecast for central and northern Italy and temperatures expected to fall.

Heavy rainfall could also extend to southern regions over the weekend.

Italy‘s flood trouble follows similar scenes in Spain.

One child died as torrential floods continue to wreak havoc across a Spanish holiday hotspot.

Horror weather sparked travel chaos with flights cancelled and trains abandoned due to fallen trees on the tracks – as officials warn of more rain to come.

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ALMOST 150 miners were trapped underground in eastern Ukraine after Russia bombed a coal facility, killing one worker.

The terrifying ordeal comes as details about the security guarantees Trump is prepared to offer Ukraine begin to emerge – namely big guns and intel, according to officials.

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One miner was killed and three injured by the shelling on the coal mine – while 146 were left stuck inside the dark labyrinth.

The mine belongs to DETK, Ukraine’s largest energy company.

A spokesperson for them said: “The attack damaged the company’s buildings and equipment and caused a power outage.

“At the time, 146 miners were underground, and efforts to bring them to the surface are ongoing.”

The precise location of the trapped miners was not revealed by the firm, but a union leader reported they were stuck in the Dobropillia community in Donetsk.

It was reported later in the day that all the miners had been rescued and brought back to the surface.

Donetsk, one half of the Donbas region, has mostly been overrun by Russia – but its famous “fortress belt” is still clinging on.

Donbas is Ukraine’s industrial powerhouse and holds rich reserves of coal and metal underground.

Russia has demanded Ukraine hands over the remaining land in exchange for peace – a proposal Zelensky screwed up and threw out.

Meanwhile, details have finally emerged about the security guarantees the US could give to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal.

Trump first confirmed the US would be involved in Ukraine‘s long-term safety during the White House summit with European leaders – but did not specify what they would look like.

We learned they would definitely not include American boots on the ground – though Trump suggested other willing nations would send manpower.

Now, the US has said it is willing to provide intelligence and battlefield leadership to Ukraine‘s army as part of a deal, reports the Financial Times citing four briefed officials.

Senior US officials have reportedly told European leaders in discussions since the summit that Washington would offer “strategic enablers” to the brave defenders.

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These would include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, command and control, and air defence weapons.

The objective of these helping hands would be to deter any future Russian attacks.

Members of the Coalition of the Willing – including the UK and France – are expected to take more active roles in Ukraine’s defence.

It’s not clear which countries, if any, would commit to sending troops to the frontline.

Nations have admitted that any deployment of boots would only happen under robust US support.

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This package of military aid offered by the US is dependent on European countries committing to sending tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine.

It could be retracted if that requirement is not fulfilled, the officials warned.

Nonetheless, the promises now firmed up with details mark a major shift in America’s attitude towards the future protection of Ukraine.

Just earlier this year, Trump had ruled out the States having any part in it.

First, however, a peace deal must be reached.

Trump and European leaders have pushed hard for a head-to-head meeting between Zelensky and Putin, but the Kremlin has once again stalled.

Concern is rising that the Alaska summit will turn out to have been fruitless.

The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, even warned that the red-carpet event even gave Putin “everything he wanted” without demanding a single concession from him.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — An undetermined number of people have died and many remained trapped inside a tour bus that crashed in upstate New York while returning from Niagara Falls on Friday afternoon, authorities said.

The bus was carrying 52 people, including the driver, when it crashed about 25 miles east of Buffalo on Interstate-90 between exits 49 and 48A, Spectrum News 1 reported.

The rollover accident ejected many of the passengers from the bus, and several passengers had died as of 2:30 p.m. EDT.

The bus was returning to New York City from Niagara Falls when the driver lost control for unknown reasons, causing a deadly rollover, New York State Police spokesman James O’Callaghan told media.

He said at least one of the fatalities was a child.

“It’s a very volatile scene,” O’Callaghan said. “We have vehicles going the wrong way on the 90.”

Most of the passengers were visitors from India, China and the Philippines, and first responders are taking accident victims to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, in a social media post, called the accident “tragic” and said first responders are assisting all involved.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Palestinian residents of Gaza City have come under relentless Israeli bombardment as the military prepares for a major offensive to seize and ethnically cleanse the area, barring emergency workers from reaching people trapped in the residential Zeitoun neighbourhood.

Gaza civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army had been firing at emergency vehicles trying to reach the wounded in Zeitoun on Friday, as Israeli quadcopters dropped leaflets threatening a forced displacement. Residents were told to leave sections of the eastern neighbourhood, where hundreds of homes have recently been destroyed.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said Israel had been deploying “heavy artillery, drones and fighter jets”, with four neighbourhoods of Gaza City “reporting relentless bombardment shaking the ground day and night” as the military advanced its plans.

It was, he said, “a full dismantling of civilian life to ensure that people will never be allowed back into this area”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing to seize Gaza’s largest urban hub and forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to concentration zones, despite a wave of criticism from families of captives held in Gaza and their supporters, the Israeli security establishment, and a multitude of nations and organisations around the world.

As the military closed in on Gaza City, it also continued attacks on other parts of the enclave, killing 44 people, including 16 aid seekers desperately seeking sustenance for their families, according to medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera.

Attacks included strikes on two hospitals, underscoring daily Palestinian pleas that no place in the besieged and bombarded enclave is safe. One person was killed at al-Shifa in Gaza City, which has been bombed and burned multiple times over the war. And at least two were killed at Deir el-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Hospital in an explosion preceded by a swarm of Israeli drones hovering over the hospital.

‘Human remains 46 days under the rubble’

Amid the reports of further Israeli killing, Al Jazeera Arabic reported that a woman in the devastated Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City retrieved the body of her brother and some remains of her father from the rubble of a bombed house.

The woman said that the bodies had been trapped along with 31 others since an air strike that had taken place 46 days earlier – the timeline indicating the attack occurred at the end of June. With no equipment to retrieve them under Israel’s harshly punitive blockade, it had been impossible to find them.

“What we are facing is too much. Too much torture and oppression. Torture, tiredness, and pain,” she said.

Starvation and dehydration as temperatures soar

In parallel, aid seekers continued to be targeted near humanitarian distribution sites run by the GHF, with medical sources reporting 16 were killed on Friday.

The United Nations human rights office said at least 1,760 Palestinians had been killed while seeking aid in Gaza since late May – a jump of several hundred since its last published figures at the beginning of August.

Of the 1,760, 994 were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 766 along the routes of supply convoys. Most of the killings were committed by the Israeli military, the agency said in a statement. United States security contractors have also fired on aid seekers.

Meanwhile, as reports emerged that another child had died of Israeli-induced starvation in the enclave, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA)  said nearly one in five young children in Gaza City were now deemed to be malnourished.

The starvation death toll has now reached 240, including 107 children, according to the Health Ministry.

The UN has said Gaza requires the equivalent of at least 600 trucks of aid entering daily to fight off the effects of man-made starvation caused by months of total Israeli blockade.

The Israeli army entity in charge of managing aid – Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories – claimed that it allowed 310 aid trucks to enter Gaza on Thursday. It said that more than 290 were collected and distributed by the UN and other international organisations.

International and Palestinian groups are reporting only one-sixth of the necessary 600 trucks a day are actually entering the territory where Israeli-backed gangs are engaged in looting.

As people battle extreme hunger, they are also enduring severe dehydration in the current heatwave, with record temperatures surpassing 40C (or 104F), and are resorting to drinking contaminated water.

“It causes stomach cramps for adults and children, without exception,” Hosni Shaheen, whose family was displaced from Khan Younis, told The Associated Press. “You don’t feel safe when your children drink it”.

In September 2025, I am supposed to start a new life, not in war-torn Gaza, but in a lecture hall in the United Kingdom. After nearly a year of endless efforts, applications, exams, and navigating bombings, displacement and blackout zones just to apply, I was accepted. Not once, but five times, by the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Exeter, and Ulster. I even secured funding.

But instead of boarding a plane, I remain trapped in Gaza, a place where war has flattened homes, stolen futures and caged dreams. The bombs have not stopped. Neither has our will. Unlike students in other war-torn areas, we, Gaza Palestinian students, are not being offered any path out. Many countries, such as France, Ireland and Italy, have successfully evacuated their students through government-coordinated efforts and humanitarian corridors, like via the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). These governments made it clear that their students matter. The UK has not. Despite its global standing and historic reputation for championing justice and education, it remains silent.

This is not just my story. It is a collective cry from dozens of us, admitted to top British universities, with scholarships or personal savings, who survived bombs and sieges only to be abandoned at the final border: there is no visa centre in Gaza to submit fingerprints, and no route out without evacuation.

After the war broke out in late 2023, I was forced to pause my online university studies, as both the classes and the fees became impossible to maintain under the siege. But I did not give up on education. Instead, I began applying to UK universities through UCAS, a process that demanded a carefully written personal statement, recommendation letters, detailed documentation and weeks of waiting. I submitted everything using borrowed internet in relatives’ homes or from paid co-working spaces that I reached on foot, under the midday sun or pouring rain, with no transportation. There were days when I sat on a plastic chair in the street, emailing colleges and researching entry requirements while missiles flew overhead.

When universities asked for English qualification submissions, I had no centre in Gaza to support me, not for training, not even to register. Most UK universities would not accept Duolingo, the only test I could afford and access online. So I stretched every resource and applied for each institution’s approved test, juggling freelance mobile programming by day to support myself and studying English by night, often under a mobile flashlight.

Some tests required constant camera and microphone monitoring, difficult in a war zone where displacement, noise and unstable internet made focus nearly impossible. One infraction and the test would be void. My laptop battery often died before the test ended. But I endured and succeeded.

My family shares this hunger for education. My brother is a mechanical engineer who won the competitive Qaddumi scholarship last year to begin a master’s programme at the University of Liverpool in January 2025, but it has been deferred. My sister was accepted into a Turkish government-funded medical programme at Samsun University, which was also postponed because of the war. Three of us, all with dreams and drive, are stuck in Gaza. We did everything right. So why are we left behind?

After much struggle, I finally passed the tests and converted my conditional offers into unconditional ones. I even secured funding, enough for at least the first year’s tuition fees and living expenses. I was also promised support from private foundations, conditional only on submitting my visa application.

But when I tried to apply for a visa, I hit a dead end: biometric fingerprints. The UK has no visa centre in Gaza. To complete the process, I would need to cross a border that is shut unless I am listed for evacuation. There are more than 100 Gazan students accepted to UK universities, 48 with full scholarships, who face the same deadlock. Many, like me, are running out of time. Inside the UK, institutions like the Gaza Scholarship Initiative (GSI) have stepped in to amplify our voice to the government because they believe in us.

Some have carried their offers from 2024, after universities generously deferred their admission. Most universities, however, will not offer such flexibility again. For all of us, 2025 is our last chance.

Other countries acted.

Ireland coordinated directly with Israel to evacuate its students via the Karem Abu Salem (known to Israelis as Kerem Shalom) crossing. France and Italy did the same. Students were transported to nearby countries to finish visa processing and begin their studies. They understood the stakes, not just academic, but human. These governments coordinated with humanitarian agencies to get their students out, then facilitated visas and asylum claims.

The UK has done nothing similar, despite numerous appeals from students, universities, advocacy groups like GSI, and members of parliament. We have written letters to MPs, university heads and the British Council. Even university leaders who support our admission cannot help unless the UK government steps in.

This silence hurts most because it is not due to incapability. The UK can act but it simply chooses not to. If the government coordinated with Israeli authorities and humanitarian groups like the ICRC, students could be evacuated through Kerem Shalom into Egypt or Jordan, where they could finalise visas and travel.

This is not speculative. It is exactly what other democratic nations have done. The difference? They cared enough to try.

What does this say about whose futures matter?

The UK has invested for decades in international education, offering prestigious scholarships like Chevening and the Commonwealth. It champions learning and opportunity and leads countless international partnerships. But when it comes to Gaza students, who embody that very ethos, we are being forgotten. What message does that send? Does our survival, our future, matter less? Are we invisible to the very system that welcomed us in writing?

I still believe in British education. I am inspired by its professors, challenged by its rigour, and drawn to its diversity and values. I fought for my place there. I hope, not just for me but for my peers, that the UK government remembers its legacy and chooses to act.

Because if not now, when?

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

More than 100 people had been involved in the search for workers at the El Teniente copper mine, the world’s largest underground mine.

All five workers trapped at a copper mine in Chile have been found dead, according to a regional prosecutor, after rescue teams cleared more than 24 metres (78 feet) of underground passages that collapsed in a strong earthquake last week.

Prosecutor Aquiles Cubillo of the O’Higgins region said on Sunday that the body of the fifth trapped worker had been found at the El Teniente copper mine.

More than 100 people had been involved in the search for workers at the El Teniente copper mine, the world’s largest underground mine, in Rancagua, about 100km (62 miles) south of Santiago.

“We deeply regret this outcome,” Cubillos said.

The latest death brings the total toll from the accident to six, including one person who died at the time of the incident on Thursday evening.

Chile’s state-owned mining company Codelco discovered the first trapped worker on Saturday and another three on Sunday. It has not yet commented on the final worker.

The miners had been working at a depth of more than 900 metres when the collapse happened, killing one colleague and halting operations at the site. Their exact location had been pinpointed with specialised equipment.

Minister for Mining Aurora Williams announced the temporary cessation of activity at the mine on Saturday.

The mine began operating in the early 1900s and boasts more than 4,500km (some 2,800 miles) of underground tunnels.

Last year, El Teniente produced 356,000 tonnes of copper – nearly 7 percent of the total for Chile.

The cave-in happened after a “seismic event” on Thursday afternoon, of which the origin – natural or caused by drilling – was not yet known, the authorities said on Saturday. The tremor registered a magnitude of 4.2.

“It is one of the biggest events, if not the biggest, that the El Teniente deposit has experienced in decades,” Andres Music, the mine’s general manager, said in a statement.

The search team included several of the rescuers who participated in successfully surfacing 33 miners trapped in a mine for more than two months in the Atacama Desert in 2010, attracting a whirlwind of global media attention.

Chile is the world’s largest copper producer, responsible for nearly a quarter of global supply, with about 5.3 million tonnes in 2024.

Its mining industry is one of the safest on the planet, with a death rate of 0.02 percent last year, according to the National Geology and Mining Service of Chile.

It also lies in the seismically active “Ring of Fire” that surrounds the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

At least 100 people are involved in search operations at the world’s largest underground copper mine.

Rescue teams in Chile are searching for five miners trapped after a partial collapse triggered by a tremor killed one colleague and halted operations at the world’s largest underground copper mine.

At least 100 people were involved in the perilous search effort, said Andres Music, general manager of El Teniente mine in Rancagua, some 100km (62 miles) south of Santiago.

“So far, we have not been able to communicate with them. The tunnels are closed, they are collapsed,” he told reporters on Friday.

The miners had been working at a depth of more than 900 metres when the collapse happened. Their exact location has been pinpointed with specialised equipment.

“We will do everything that is humanly possible to rescue the five trapped workers,” Maximo Pacheco, the president of Chile’s state-owned mining company Codelco, told a news conference on Friday afternoon.

“All of our experience, all of our knowledge, all of our energy and all of our strength are dedicated to this cause and to seeing this through,” he added.

Codelco cancelled a presentation of its first-half financial results, set for Friday morning, due to the rescue efforts.

Temporary closure

Mining minister Aurora Williams earlier announced the temporary cessation of activity at the mine, which began operating in the early 1900s and boasts more than 4,500km (some 2,800 miles) of underground tunnels.

Last year, El Teniente produced 356,000 tonnes of copper – nearly 7 percent of the total for Chile.

The cave-in happened after a “seismic event” on Thursday afternoon, of which the origin – natural or caused by drilling – is not yet known, according to authorities. The tremor registered a magnitude of 4.2.

“It is one of the biggest events, if not the biggest, that the El Teniente deposit has experienced in decades,” said Music, adding: “We are making every effort to try to rescue these five miners.”

“The next 48 hours are crucial,” the manager said.

The search team included several of the rescuers who participated in successfully surfacing 33 miners trapped in a mine for more than two months in the Atacama Desert in 2010, attracting a whirlwind of global media attention.

Chile is the world’s largest copper producer, responsible for nearly a quarter of global supply with about 5.3 million tonnes in 2024. Its mining industry is one of the safest on the planet, with a death rate of 0.02 percent last year, according to the National Geology and Mining Service of Chile.

It also lies in the seismically active “Ring of Fire” that surrounds the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Official says ‘contingency plan had flaws’ as torrential rains, floods kill 31 people at senior centre near Beijing.

Torrential rains and flooding across northern China have killed dozens of people, authorities say, including more than 30 elderly residents who were trapped at a care facility in a suburb of the capital Beijing.

Officials said on Thursday that 31 people died at the Taishitun Town Elderly Care Center in the Miyun district, about a 90-minute drive from central Beijing, which was one of the areas hit hardest by this week’s storms.

“For a long time, this senior centre was in the town’s centre and was safe, and such was not included in the preparedness plans,” said Yu Weiguo, the Communist Party secretary for Miyun, expressing his condolences and adding it was a “bitter lesson”.

“This showed that our contingency plan had flaws, and our understanding of extreme weather was inadequate,” Yu said.

The care centre housed 69 residents, including 55 who were disabled in some capacity. The facility sat on low-lying ground near a river that had flooded after the unusually intense rains, local media outlet Caixin reported.

Torrential rains began a week ago and peaked around Beijing and its surrounding provinces on Monday.

In the space of a few days, the hilly Miyun district in the northeast of the capital saw rainfall of up to 573.5mm (22.6 inches). By comparison, the average annual precipitation in Beijing is around 600mm (23.6 inches).

The Miyun Reservoir, the largest in northern China, saw record-breaking water levels during the rains.

The Qingshui River, which runs through Taishitun feeding into the reservoir and is normally a small stream, was flowing at 1,500 times its normal volume on Monday morning when the disaster struck, Yu said.

One Beijing resident’s 87-year-old mother managed to get out of the elder care centre in Miyun, Caixin reported.

“She doesn’t know where she got the strength, but she managed to climb onto the windowsill,” the woman’s daughter said, noting her mother’s roommate was unable to escape and drowned.

Hundreds of thousands affected

At a news conference on Thursday, Beijing’s Deputy Mayor Xia Linmao said at least 44 people died over the past week in the city.

In total, more than 300,000 people have been affected by the rain and flooding in the capital, with more than 24,000 homes, 242 bridges and 756km (470 miles) of roads damaged, said Xia, citing preliminary figures.

In neighbouring Hebei province, authorities announced an additional eight deaths on Thursday and 16 deaths total this week.

At least 31 people were missing in Beijing and Hebei province, authorities said.

Meanwhile, in northern Shanxi province, authorities said on Wednesday evening that 10 people were dead after a minibus carrying farm workers washed away in heavy rain.

Four people were still missing as the rescue continued, according to a city government statement three days after the bus disappeared.

Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon – Fatima Kandeel, 43, and her two sons moved into a new rented apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut in March.

They had been staying with her sister Aida nearby for four months after a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon had stopped the worst, but not all, of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, and it felt good to have their own place.

In their barely furnished living room in Laylake, Dahiyeh, with only two armchairs and a shisha pipe between them, the walls make clear where the family stands.

A framed photo of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hangs beside a martyr’s portrait of Fatima’s 21-year-old nephew, a Hezbollah fighter killed in an Israeli air strike in Jnoub in October.

In the rubble, scraps of home

When the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah declared its support for Palestine and escalated tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border for about a year until Israel invaded and launched full-scale war.

The suburbs of Dahiyeh have been repeatedly targeted in Israeli strikes as it is widely recognised as a Hezbollah stronghold.

The family’s previous home in Dahiyeh’s Hay el-Selom, a 10-minute walk from Laylake, was destroyed by an Israeli air strike in October.

Yet Fatima was warm and hopeful in early June, her hazel eyes still smiling from below her hijab while recounting the pain of loss, displacement and hardship.

Energetic and confident, she spoke expressively, using her hands as if she were on stage.

Like many Lebanese hosts, she offered drinks and an invitation for lunch while chatting about what it was like to feel under attack in Dahiyeh and whether that changed her relationship with her neighbourhood.

After her family’s home was destroyed and they fled to Aida’s, Fatima said, her sons, 24-year-old Hassan and 20-year-old Hussein, managed to salvage two wardrobes and a bed from the rubble along with other scraps from their lives there.

Proud of that small victory, Fatima flung open the bedroom doors to show off the two wardrobes restored to the point where it would be hard to guess they had been in a bombing. The rescued bed is used by one of her sons after getting new slats and a new lease on life.

“These are the most important pieces of furniture in the house,” she said, gently running her hand over one of the damaged surfaces.

“They’re historical [because they survived]. I was so happy we got them back.”

Hassan and Hussein found more in the rubble of their home: a stuffed toy that Hassan used to play with and a few of the books from their mother’s library.

As she spoke, Fatima held the stuffed toy in her hands, smiling and looking at it. Hussein was quietly observing his mother as she shared her thoughts.

“He used to sleep with it beside him every night,” Fatima recalled. “I couldn’t save much from their childhood after my divorce, but I kept this, and now it survived the war too.”

In her bedroom, a small table holds a stack of books about history, religion and culture – a fragment of what she once owned.

Scars, visible and invisible

From the living room balcony, the scars of war are visible. The top floors of a neighbouring building have been destroyed, the lower floors still standing – a daily reminder of what was lost.

Yet Fatima holds Dahiyeh dear and is determined to stay.

“I love the people here,” she said. “Everyone is kind. … Dahiyeh is home.”

Hussein agreed that he feels most at home in Dahiyeh with its strong sense of community and friends and neighbours all around.

During the war, he struggled emotionally, constantly stressed and getting into fights. He has seen two therapists but hasn’t felt much improvement.

Unlike his mother, Hussein is open to the idea of leaving Dahiyeh, but he pointed out practicalities – rents and the overall cost of living outside Dahiyeh are much higher if they could find a place to rent.

And, he said, they could face sectarian discrimination if they relocate.

The family had to leave Dahiyeh briefly during Israel’s war on Lebanon and sought shelter in the nearby coastal Beirut suburb of Jnah. Fatima still carries a painful memory from that time.

A Jnah grocery store owner snidely remarked: “Look at those trashy Shia people,” as he looked at newly arrived families dressed in the slippers and pyjamas they fled in.

The comment left a scar, and she refuses to leave Dahiyeh again.

“If war comes again, what do you teach the next generation?” she asked. “That it’s OK to give up your home? Or that you stand your ground?”

‘If it were just me, I’d stay’

While Fatima has chosen to stay in Dahiyeh, her 55-year-old sister, Iman, wants to leave.

Iman lives with her husband, Ali, a plastering foreman, and their four children: Hassan, 25, a programmer; Fatima, 19, a university student; and 16-year-old twins Mariam and Marwa, both in school.

All the children still share a single bedroom in their modest but light and joyful home.

The living room was full of laughter as Iman sat with Mariam and Hassan, passing around chocolate and juice while cousins chatted in the background.

There was teasing as they shared memories of fear, displacement and resilience.

Dahiyeh has never been entirely safe. Its history has been shaped by the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War and Israeli assaults, including the devastating 2006 war.

It’s a cycle, Iman said – another war, another wave of fear and displacement. During Israel’s most recent war on Lebanon, the family fled multiple times.

They first went to Kayfoun village in the Mount Lebanon governorate in late September, but tensions there were high, and a local man spread rumours of imminent Israeli strikes, trying to scare displaced families away.

They left Kayfoun after a week and fled to Tripoli in the north, where life was quieter and the presence of nearby relatives offered some comfort, but mistrust lingered.

Iman was often judged by her hijab, which marked her as “resistance-aligned” to people who blamed Hezbollah for Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.

“We all became introverts,” Hassan recalled. “We stayed home most of the time, but we had relatives nearby and met some good friends. We’d sit together, play cards. It helped.”

In early October, they followed friends to Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, where they were welcomed warmly – more warmly, they said, than in parts of Lebanon.

After the ceasefire, they returned. “There’s no place better than our country,” Iman insisted, but Dahiyeh does not feel safe to her any more despite her deep ties to the neighbourhood, so she is searching for a new home – anywhere that’s safer.

“If it were just me, I’d stay,” she said. “But I have kids. I have to protect them.”

‘They don’t rent to Shia families’

Iman’s son Hassan recalls the first time Israel bombed near their apartment – on April 1 in breach of the November ceasefire.

“I just wanted out,” he said. “I don’t care where we go. Just somewhere that isn’t a target.”

But finding a new place to rent is far from simple.

They considered moving to Hazmieh. It is close to Dahiyeh but not part of it, making it relatively safer. And it would be closer to Iman’s sister Mariam, who lives there.

But Iman said: “In Hazmieh, most of them don’t rent to Shia families, or they would double the price.”

Despite the mounting fear, the family does not want to leave Lebanon, and Hassan has turned down a job offer abroad. They’re exhausted, they said, but not ready to abandon their country.

Even in the midst of war, Hassan said, his parents did not want to leave Dahiyeh. He had to work on convincing them to go first to Kayfoun, then eventually Iraq.

It was the same after the ceasefire with long discussions about whether to leave, and it was his mother’s fear for her children that made her eventually agree.

But more than a month after they spoke to Al Jazeera in early June, they’re still searching for a place that will take them and that they can afford.

Late one fateful evening, Malam Muhammadu Sodangi of Tuwon Tsoro watched helplessly as armed raiders made off with the cattle, sheep, and goats belonging to his family. The livestock, including prized ploughing bulls and small ruminants raised by his wives, were their sole means of livelihood. Without the bulls, Malam Sodangi cannot farm, and his wives cannot trade.

“They came in the late evening. My livestock and those of Malam Hamidu and Abubakar Garba were gone, making life very difficult for us,” said the 62-year-old.

In northwestern Nigeria, a surge in livestock raids has been linked to terror groups, with the Lakurawa group, an affiliate of the Islamic State in the Sahel (IS-Sahel), being among the most notorious. 

Operating with stealth, Lakurawa conduct their attacks through door-to-door, farm-to-farm, and pen-to-pen raids, often under the pretext of collecting zakat (an Islamic form of almsgiving). This strategy has wreaked havoc on rural communities across Sokoto and Kebbi States, leaving farmers and pastoralists reeling from the loss of their herds and livelihoods. 

Farmers and herders have been brutalised and the local economy crippled, leaving residents in a desperate struggle for survival. Lakurawa’s use of Niger Republic as a fallback position after each raid has made the group both elusive and resilient.

Muhammadu and his neighbour, Malam Hamidu, told HumAngle that since November 8, 2024, rural communities across Augie and Arewa Local Government Areas (LGA) in Kebbi State have come under increasing threat from armed groups.

Augie shares borders with Silame and Gudu in Sokoto State, two LGAs known to harbour Lakurawa hideouts. To the east lies Arewa LGA, considered the group’s most active stronghold in Kebbi, and Niger Republic, whose porous frontier serves as a strategic entry and escape route for the militants.

“The porous border has left Augie’s rural communities dangerously exposed to repeated attacks. Residents are routinely subjected to livestock raids carried out by the Lakurawa militants,” said Hamidu.

Operating from entrenched strongholds in Tangaza, Silame, Gudu, and Arewa in Sokoto and Kebbi states, as well as the forested regions of neighbouring Niger Republic, the assailants launch sporadic incursions.

Rustled Herds, Havoc Funds

In northwestern states like Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, and Sokoto, armed groups engage in cattle rustling as a means to finance their operations. Multiple reports have confirmed this. 

While an analysis by ENACT–an organisation promoting knowledge on response to organised crime in Africa–indicates that non-state armed groups have long relied on cattle rustling as a primary revenue stream, an estimate by the local newspaper Vanguard places total annual criminal earnings from livestock theft, kidnapping for ransom, illegal gold mining, and extortion between ₦200 billion and ₦500 billion.

Livestock remains a key early driver of this illicit economy, and this has long been the case, not only in Nigeria’s North West, but also in Chad and Cameroon. A study conducted by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Chad and Cameroon revealed that “stolen cattle are sold to fund weapons and fighters.”

Academic research (via Tandfonline) has also stated that “cattle rustling offers a crucial channel for financing, especially for the procurement of arms and sustaining the loyalty of gang members, and this makes it indispensable to terrorism financing in the North West.”

Malam Hamidu of Tuwon Tsoro told HumAngle that Lakurawa’s activities in and around Augie, Arewa, Silame, Gudu, and Tangaza are reportedly funded by huge revenues generated through the sales of stolen herds in local markets.

Proceeds from these illicit transactions are believed to fund essential operational demands, including the procurement of firearms, compensation for local recruits, and the upkeep of remote hideouts scattered across forested areas in the North West and along the porous border regions of neighbouring Niger Republic.

A victim of livestock theft in Mera community, Augie, speaking on condition of anonymity, said:

“We learnt that whenever they steal our cows and sheep, they transport them to rural markets in Arewa and Bunza LGAs, where they’ve effectively taken control of local trade. The money from those sales is used to buy weapons, fuel, and food, and even to recruit more locals into their ranks.”

Communities shattered

While the cattle rustling crisis first emerged in Augie in 2021 with sporadic kidnappings and seizures of ploughing bulls by armed groups crossing over from Tangaza, Silame, and Gudu in Sokoto State, the situation has worsened significantly over the past eight months. 

Since November 8, 2024, attacks have intensified from the Lakurawa group through door-to-door raids. Entire communities have been devastated, and at least 27 communities have had their herds raided. 

The victims are mostly farmers and pastoralists, including women for whom livestock formed the household and economic backbone.

According to Babangida Augie and Lauwali Aliyu Sattazai, who have tracked the violence since a deadly raid on November 8, the losses are staggering.

“Apart from the Mera incident, which saw over 100 cows stolen, we estimate that about 2,000 cows and more than 1,500 other ruminants have been rustled in just eight months,” said Babangida Augie, with Aliyu Sattazai corroborating it. 

Herders from different ethnicities are affected. Abubakar Lamido, Secretary of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) in Kebbi State, said the Lakurawa indiscriminately target both Hausa and Fulani herders.

“They steal from both Hausa and Fulani communities. As at [sic] the time of the Mera incident alone, Lakurawa have seized 120 cows, 51 goats and numerous sheep from Fulani pastoralists in Augie, under the guise of collecting zakat,” Lamido stated.

“They arrived at my home around 6:30 p.m. with guns and took away 32 cows, 27 sheep and several goats, including those belonging to my wives. We were left with nothing, not even a horn,” said Sodangi.

Malam Hamidu and Abubakar Garba were pulling ploughs on their farms when the attackers struck.

“They met us in the field with guns. They took away my work bulls, which we rely on for ploughing. From my farm, they moved to Abubakar Garba’s farm, also stealing work bulls and several sheep. Without those animals, we cannot survive,” he said.

Beyond material losses 

For some, the consequence runs deeper than material losses. In Mera, where the November attack not only saw herds of cows carted away but also left 18 people dead, residents now live in constant fear.

Alhaji Bawa Mera was among those affected by the attack. He spoke of losing not only his 24 cattle and his son, Garba, who was tragically killed while pursuing the Lakurawa in a bid to recover the stolen herds, but also his peace of mind, shattered in the wake of the violence.

“Since that day, we have not known peace of mind,” he said. “Some of us no longer dare to farm our distant fields. We fear we might not return alive.”

Sodangi of Tuwon Tsoro told HumAngle that he had also been having sleepless nights for more than two weeks. “Since the day they took our herds, I’ve not trusted any unfamiliar face. I’ve been having sleepless nights, and this place no longer feels like home. I’m considering relocating to a safer community.”

Crippling rural economies

Academic studies show that livestock rustling dramatically undermined the socioeconomic well-being of agro-pastoral communities across the North West. Herders and farmers lost their means of livelihood. In many rural communities, such as in Katsina, Sokoto, and Zamfara, rustling led to a significant reduction in household income, deepening poverty.

In Kebbi, it appears to be part of a deliberate strategy to destabilise livelihoods. Victims and community members believe the sustained raids by armed groups are intended to cripple the rural economy and instil fear across farming and herding communities. 

With each attack, farmers and pastoralists are forced to abandon their traditional ways of life. Many have fled their villages and farmlands out of fear, seeking safety in communities across Nigeria and the Niger Republic. Some herders, seeing their livestock as a magnet for attacks, have sold them off, surrendering their livelihoods so they can live.

“Keeping animals now is like inviting death,” one herder, who requested anonymity, revealed. “It is not worth the risk.”

“It is a calculated plan to destroy our economy,” said Abubakar. 

The increasing collapse in livestock ownership is fuelling a growing crisis: unemployment among rural youth, many of whom are now vulnerable to recruitment by the very armed groups tormenting their communities.

The economic toll has been heavy on both men and women.

“My wives have lost their only source of income,” said Sodangi. “Their sheep and goats were stolen. They can no longer trade or support the family.”

Communities respond

Many of these affected areas have developed some defence strategies. In Zamfara and Katsina states, there are community volunteer security groups called Yan-Sakai, composed of local hunters, ex-servicemen, and herders. The groups patrol forests, roads, and grazing corridors where rustlers often strike.

In the face of incursions and raids by Lakurawa, the people of Augie are refusing to fold their arms. 

With little more than grit, local knowledge, and a commitment to protecting their way of life, communities are stepping up where institutions fall short. 

The heart of this resistance lies in grassroots security efforts. Youth vigilantes, mostly volunteers, have taken up the task of guarding their villages, often confronting well-armed raiders with sticks, locally made weapons, and sheer courage.

“When our cattle were taken in Mera, Yan-Sakai mobilised immediately,” said a member of Yan-Sakai who asked not to be named for safety reasons. “We went after them, not because we had better weapons, but because we had no choice,” he added.

Fear and uncertainty

While pastoralists are offloading their herds, farmers face a difficult decision: whether to keep their work bulls or sell them to purchase ploughing machines, known as power tillers, in the hope that machines may be spared where animals are not.

Tensions escalated when reports emerged from some communities in Sokoto and Garu village, near the Augie border with Niger Republic, that certain directives were being given by the terror groups to farmers.

“Farmers are being threatened for attempting to replace their work bulls with ploughing machines,” said Abubakar. “The implication is clear: retain livestock that can easily be stolen or risk losing the right to farm entirely.”

Sodangi expressed growing concern: “We’ve heard that the Lakurawa have warned people [in other areas] not to switch from work bulls to power tillers. They don’t want machines in the fields, they want bulls, so they can come and take them. That’s why panic is spreading, and many of us are now considering relocation to safer communities. I am considering moving to Tibiri, in the Niger Republic, to stay with my relatives.” 

While the local response has been swift and defiant, official responses are not as efficient.

“They only come after the attacks,” said Babangida Augie. “We have noticed a pattern of Lakurawa scouting for villages first, then returning a few days later to strike. This happened in Tungar Tudu, Sattazai, Bagurar More, and now, they have visited Illelar and Zagi once. We fear they will be next,” Babangida added.

Call for proactive security

The stolen herds are not just livestock, but a symbol of broken security, broken lives, and broken rural economies in the North West. The trend reflects the growing humanitarian fallout of insecurity in Nigeria’s northwestern frontier.

“We are not just losing cows,” said Sodangi. “We are losing our futures, our means of survival, our confidence in government, our belief that tomorrow will be better.”

There is a growing call for the Nigerian state to ensure the presence of security personnel in rural areas of the North West, fully equipped with modern tools, training, and welfare support needed to confront the Lakurawa threat effectively. 

Without such measures, human lives in the rural communities in the zone and beyond may continue to buckle under the weight of a crisis that shows no signs of abating.