International
Brazil exceeds 100 deaths from floods in the southern region of the country
The number of deaths from the catastrophic floods in the southern region of Brazil has exceeded one hundred, in one of the greatest climatic tragedies in the country, according to the latest balance published this Wednesday by the Civil Defense.
The most hit state is Rio Grande do Sul, bordering Uruguay and Argentina and where 100 deaths have been reported, five more than Tuesday night, 128 missing and 372 injured, according to official figures.
The neighboring state of Santa Catarina has so far recorded a death, which brings the preliminary balance to the 101 deaths throughout southern Brazil, which since Monday of last week has been dealing with heavy rains linked to the effects of climate change.
In Rio Grande do Sul, 80% of the municipalities have been affected by severe floods, which have partially or totally flooded cities, including Porto Alegre, the regional capital and whose main airport has become a lagoon.
In that state, one of the prosperous of the country, about 230,500 people have had to leave their homes and in total there are 1.5 million victims, according to the Civil Defense.
Rainfall and the consequent floods have left a large part of the population without water and electricity and caused considerable material damage to roads, bridges and other urban infrastructure.
The rescue teams, with the support of the Armed Forces, are still working in the area to find more victims and save the incommunicado survivors, many of whom only had time to climb to the roof of their homes.
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said this Wednesday, during an event to present investments in the areas of infrastructure and prevention of natural disasters, that this climate tragedy is “a warning for the world” and “a bill that the planet is passing” to humanity.
The governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite, has said that the state is experiencing “a war situation” in the face of what is already one of the worst climatic tragedies in the history of Brazil and that could worsen in the coming hours, since a new storm is expected in the extreme south of the region.
The heavy rains in the south of the country, an important agricultural pole, contrast with the high temperatures, above 30 degrees Celsius, which have been recorded in recent days in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, not common for this time of year.
International
Chilean mother travels 1,300 kilometers on foot to try to save her son with dystrophy
In the city of Ancud, one of the most important of the Chiloe archipelago, in the south of Chile, there is no hospital, so if one of its about 165,000 inhabitants gets sick, he must take the ferry and travel about 50 kilometers to reach the neighboring city of Puerto Montt, the nearest place.
Camila Gómez, a young mother, decided to take a trip but this time to walk to the Palacio de la Moneda, in Santiago de Chile, more than 1,300 kilometers from her home, to raise funds and make visible the drama of her son Tomás, who suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy, one of the so-called “rare diseases”, which almost no one worries and no one finances.
Its main objective is to help collect the nearly four million dollars that costs a vital treatment that does not exist in Chile – it must be imported from the United States – and that would help stop the progression of the child’s ailment, barely five years old.
“Tomás has Duchenne muscular dystrophy in a neuromuscular degenerative disease that gradually weakens the muscles, the respiratory system and the heart, which leads to premature death,” he explains in one of the highs of his journey.
“In Chile there is no type of treatment for this disease, but in the United States there are several treatment options, there are three and here they told me that it was not possible to cover a medicine that is abroad. And it motivated me to do this walk, this physical effort,” he adds.
Gómez regrets that no one, neither the precarious public service nor the greedy private insurance, has offered him an exit in the country, although his son “does have options abroad.
“That’s why we decided to walk, to make the disease visible and take it very particularly to collect the 3.9 million dollars that the drug that is administered for the only time in a lifetime costs. So far (its administration) is approved until the age of four and five. Tomás is five and a half years old. So we are against time,” she urges in anguish.
Even so, hope has not been erased from his face and sometimes, especially when asked about solidarity, he outlines a smile of love and trust.
“We are all aware of the great health deficit, that Chile is a country very backward in health, unlike other more developed countries and we are all aware of that. So people have empathized, supported and contributed to the campaign,” he says.
Along with this mother, who left Ancud on April 28, her husband and father of Tomás, Alex Ross, a friend Álvaro Neira and Marco Reyes, president of the Duchenne Families corporation in Chile, who has two teenage children with the same disease and who proposed the Ross Gómez family to the odyssey.
“I am the logistical support for Camila and Marco who have been walking from Chiloé. I assist them on the way, usually with a change of clothes, food, food, I manage the lodging,” explains Alex.
“(Camila) Walk through Tomás, because we are against time, but he also does it so that no mom has to do it,” he says.
Camila’s third objective is to be able to speak in person with the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric, to urge him to promote a bill to Congress that allows improving the coverage of rare diseases in the country, and medical assistance in rural areas, abandoned by the state in a country where the privatization of health care prevails.
Neira joined the walk because he was moved by Tomás’ suffering but also because he is worried that “in Chile we do not have the means, a clinic where we can have these medicines, that we have to go to this.”
Tomás was diagnosed in March 2023 with Duchenne’s syndrome, the most common but also most severe form of this type of muscular dystrophy that is triggered by a defective gene that affects dystrophin, a protein that helps keep the body’s cells intact.
It causes problems when walking and running, fatigue, learning difficulties and heart and respiratory deficiencies, and those who suffer from it usually have a life expectancy of between 20 or 30 years in difficult conditions.
With more than 700 kilometers of love in her terrified legs, this mother hopes to arrive in the Chilean capital at the end of this month of May from Chiloe, where there is a movement so that the spending on a bridge that they believe is unnecessary, is dedicated to the construction of a perentory hospital
International
The Iranian Army claims that it has located the helicopter in which Raisí was traveling
The Iranian Army claims that it has located the “exact” position of the helicopter in which the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisí, was traveling, thanks to a signal from the device and another from the mobile of one of the crew members.
“The exact location of the helicopter accident was identified,” said the commander of the army of East Azerbaijan, General Asghar Abbasqolizadeh, according to the official agency IRNA.
“Now we are going with all the military forces to the area and we hope to give good news,” Abbasqolizadeh added.
Previously, the vice president of executive affairs, Mohsen Mansouri, had stated that he had contacted on several occasions two passengers of the helicopter in which Raisí was traveling and that he had to make a forced landing in a mountainous area of the province of Eastern Azerbaijan.
Mansouri indicated that three helicopters left Tabriz, capital of the province of Eastern Azerbaijan, at 13:00 local time (11.30 GMT) and about 30 minutes later contact with the aircraft in which Raisí was traveling was lost.
Along with the president were the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hosein Amir Abdolahian, the governor of East Azerbaijan, Malik Rahmati, and the leader of the Friday prayers of Tabriz, Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem.
After the loss of contact, a large device was launched that already has at least 65 rescue teams, but the operations have been affected by bad weather, rain and dense fog in the mountainous area where the incident has occurred, when it has already darkened in Iran, the Red Crescent reported.
Hundreds of people have gathered at the mausoleum of Imam Reza in the northeastern city of Mashad to pray for the health of the Iranian president.
Iranian state television broadcast images of the prayers in the important mausoleum of Imam Reza, the eighth imam of the Shiites, located in Mashad, hometown of the 63-year-old president.
The parishioners prayed the “tawsassul”, which means invocation and is used to invoke something or someone before God, led by a cleric, according to the television.
For his part, the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, calls for calm after hours of unsuccessful searches after the helicopter in which the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, was traveling, made a forced landing.
“The people of Iran should not worry, there will be no interruptions in the country’s functions,” Khamenei said in a meeting with the families of the members of the Revolutionary Guard in Tehran, the IRNA agency said.
The Iranian supreme leader called to pray for the health of the president and his companions, including the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hosein Amir Abdolahian.
“We hope that Almighty God will return the respected and honorable president and his companions into the arms of the nation. Everyone should pray for the health of this group of servants,” the religious begged.
The Prime Minister of Iraq, Mohamed Shia al Sudani, ordered several departments and the Iraqi Red Crescent to lend their capabilities to Iran to help find the helicopter in which the Iranian president was traveling.
The Iraqi Government said in a statement that Al Sudani ordered the Ministry of the Interior, the Iraqi Red Crescent and other competent authorities to “present the capabilities available to the Islamic Republic of Iran to help find the Iranian president’s helicopter, which disappeared in northern Iran.”
The note did not provide more details about the search device provided by Iraq, which borders Iran in the west.
Similarly, the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, was willing to help Iran in the search operation for the damaged helicopter in which its president, Ebrahim Raisí, was traveling, who is in unknown whereabouts.
“As a neighboring country, friend and brother, Azerbaijan is willing to offer any support,” Aliyev said on his social networks.
Aliyev, who prayed to Allah for the well-being of Raisi, met this morning with his Iranian counterpart to inaugurate a dam on the Aras River, a common border between the two countries.
As well as the Armenian authorities offered Iran their help in the search operation for the damaged helicopter.
“Armenia, as a close and friendly neighbor of Iran, is willing to offer all the necessary support,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In addition, Russia and several Arab countries announced their willingness to provide Iran with the necessary assistance to search for the helicopter and investigate the accident.
On the other hand, the Houthi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the department follows “with great concern the unfortunate news about the helicopter accident that transported the Iranian president and his loyal companions.”
The European Union (EU) activated at Iran’s request the Copernicus map system, designed to respond to emergencies, to help locate the crashed helicopter.
“After the request for assistance made by Iran, we are activating the Copernicus rapid response map service in view of the helicopter accident that allegedly transported the Iranian president and his Minister of Foreign Affairs,” European Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, announced on social network X.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, also said in X that he is “following closely” together with the EU member countries and their partners all the information that comes around this event.
For its part, Turkey sent a team of 32 rescue expert mountaineers to Iran to help in the search.
“Iran has asked our country, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for a rescue helicopter with night vision,” the Turkish public emergency service, AFAD, says in a message in X.
From the Turkish provinces of Van and Erzurum, in the east of the country, six vehicles have already left with 32 rescue experts on the mountain to go to the search area, AFAD adds.
In addition, 15 other rescue mountaineers are prepared in several Turkish cities to intervene as well, the message says.
International
Russian anti-aircraft batteries shoot down another six drones over the Belgorod region
Russian anti-aircraft batteries shot down another six drones on Sunday over the border region of Belgorod, the most punished since the beginning of the war, according to Moscow’s military sources.
The Russian Ministry of Defense accused Ukraine of trying to perpetrate a new “terrorist attack” against targets on Russian territory.
An eleven-year-old girl who was playing in a playground was injured in the middle of gravity in the attack on a residential building in the regional capital, according to the governor, Viacheslav Gladkov, on his Telegram channel.
Gladkov estimated that almost a hundred, not counting the drones, the attacks perpetrated on Sunday by enemy artillery against the region.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Kiev attacked Belgorod during the early hours of the morning with three fixed-wing unmanned devices, which did not cause serious damage.
In total, more than a hundred aircraft have been shot down by Russian air defenses throughout the day throughout the country, more than half over the Krasnodar region, bathed by the Black Sea.
In addition, a dozen ATACM missiles, nine HIMARS and two HARM projectiles, all American-made, and four French Hammer aerial bombs were intercepted, according to Russian sources.
Russian president Vladimir Putin assured on Friday that the objective of the current ground offensive in the northeastern region of Kharkov is precisely to stop the attacks of enemy artillery against civilian targets on Russian territory.
He assured that the Kremlin wants to create a security zone along the border that prevents Ukrainian artillery from attacking populated areas.
The Ukrainian authorities have asked for authorization from the Western powers to be able to use their long-range weapons against targets in Russia, which since the beginning of the war have repeatedly attacked with drones.
The Russian authorities today numbered eleven injured in the attacks of the enemy artillery against the town of Shebekino, which is located in the Belgorod region a few kilometers from the border with Ukraine.
The regional governor, Viacheslav Gladkov, assured on his Telegram channel that among the injured there are three children aged 12, 15 and 17.
According to preliminary data, there are no serious injuries and, as doctors have proven after his hospitalization, they are mostly shatter wounds.
Material damage is also limited to broken windows and damage to about 25 parked cars.
Gladkov estimated at almost a hundred, not counting the drones, the attacks perpetrated on Sunday by Ukrainian artillery against the region.
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