Category World News

Torrential rains have killed more than 100 people across Southern Africa, forcing mass evacuations and rescue operations as authorities warn that more destructive weather may still be to come.

Weeks of heavy rainfall have battered South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, overwhelming rivers and infrastructure and leaving entire communities cut off. Weather services across the region have issued further alerts, raising fears of additional flooding.

In South Africa, officials said on Friday that flooding in the northern provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga had killed at least 30 people.

Army helicopters have been deployed to rescue residents trapped on rooftops and in trees as swollen rivers swept through towns and villages. Security personnel were also evacuated from a border checkpoint with Zimbabwe after floodwaters surrounded the area.

President Cyril Ramaphosa toured affected parts of Limpopo on Thursday, saying the province had received about 400mm (16 inches) of rain in less than a week. In one district, he said, “there are 36 houses that have just been wiped away from the face of the earth.”

Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba said more than 1,000 homes had been damaged across the province. “It’s so terrible,” she said.

Hundreds of thousands displaced

In neighbouring Zimbabwe, the government’s disaster management agency reported at least 70 deaths since the start of the year, with more than 1,000 homes destroyed, and schools, roads and bridges collapsing under the force of the floods.

Mozambique has been the hardest hit. Its disaster management authorities said 103 people had died during an unusually severe rainy season since late last year. The figure includes deaths caused by flooding, lightning strikes, infrastructure collapse and a cholera outbreak linked to contaminated water supplies.

More than 200,000 people have been affected nationwide, with thousands of homes damaged and tens of thousands facing evacuation, according to the World Food Programme. The agency warned that flooding has submerged more than 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) of crops, deepening food shortages for small-scale farmers in a country already struggling with poverty and repeated cyclones.

The United States Famine Early Warning System said flooding was reported or expected in at least seven Southern African countries, possibly linked to the La Nina phenomenon, which often brings heavier rainfall to the region.

South Africa’s Kruger National Park has also been hit, with about 600 tourists and staff evacuated from flood-affected camps. Park authorities said no deaths or injuries had been reported, but large areas remain inaccessible after rivers burst their banks.

The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children is suing his artificial intelligence company, saying its Grok chatbot allowed users to generate sexually-exploitative deepfake images of her that have caused her humiliation and emotional distress.

The lawsuit was filed just before ‍California Attorney ‍General Rob Bonta sent a cease-and-desist letter to Musk’s xAI company demanding that it stop the creation and distribution of Grok-generated nonconsensual sexualised imagery.

“The avalanche of reports detailing this material – at times depicting ​women and children engaged in sexual activity – is shocking ‍and, as my office has determined, potentially illegal,” Bonta said on Friday.

Ashley St Clair, a writer and political commentator, alleges in a lawsuit filed on Thursday in New York City against xAI that she was the victim of sexualised deepfake images generated by Grok.

St Clair, who is the mother of Musk’s 16-month-old son, Romulus, said she reported the images to Musk’s X social media platform, which hosts Grok, after they began appearing last year and asked that they be removed.

The platform replied that the images did not violate its policies, she said. Then it promised not to allow images of her to be used or altered without her consent. Later, the social platform retaliated against her by removing her premium X subscription and verification checkmark, and continued to allow degrading fake images of her, she said.

“I have suffered and continue to suffer serious pain and mental distress as a result of xAI’s role in creating and distributing these digitally altered images of me,” St Clair said in a document attached to the lawsuit.

“I am humiliated and feel like this nightmare will never stop so long as Grok continues to generate these images of me,” she said.

‘A public nuisance’

On Thursday, lawyers for xAI countersued St Clair in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, alleging she violated the terms of her xAI user agreement that requires lawsuits against the company be filed in federal court in Texas. It is seeking an undisclosed monetary judgement against her.

Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer for St Clair, called the countersuit a “jolting” move that she had never seen by a defendant before.

“Ms St Clair will be vigorously defending her forum in New York,” Goldberg said in a statement.

“But frankly, any jurisdiction will recognise the gravamen of Ms St Clair’s claims – that by manufacturing nonconsensual sexually explicit images of girls and women, xAI is a public nuisance and a not reasonably safe product.”

In an interview with US media earlier this week, St Clair said her battle with Grok was “not just about me”.

“It’s about building systems, AI systems which can produce, at scale, and abuse women and children without repercussions. And there’s really no consequences for what’s happening right now,” she told CNN.

“They are saying ‘we are going to make it illegal, where it’s illegal’. That is absent [of] all morality and, guess what, if you have to add safety after harm, that is not safety at all. That is simply damage control,” she said.

Musk’s Grok is already under scrutiny and facing an international backlash for the creation of explicit deepfake images in ‌the United Kingdom, the European Union, and other jurisdictions, ⁠including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Japan.

Myanmar’s military-backed political party has extended its lead after the second round of voting, according to official figures from the country’s election body, and the country now heads into the final phase of its three-stage general election amid widespread conflict.

The latest data published on Friday indicates that the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is on track to win 182 seats from the combined first and second phases of voting, more than half of the seats in the country’s 330-member lower house.

According to figures reported by state broadcaster MRTV, citing the Union Election Commission, the USDP won a whopping 86 of 100 seats up for grabs in the second phase of voting held on Sunday. The third and final round of voting is scheduled for January 25.

Critics, including human rights and opposition groups, say the polls are neither free nor fair and are an effort by the military to legitimise its rule after seizing power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

The military takeover triggered widespread opposition that has grown into a civil war.

The election is being held in three phases due to armed conflicts in the country.

The first and second rounds took place in 202 of the country’s total 330 townships on December 28 and January 11. The final round will take place in more townships, but 65 others are not participating because of fighting in those areas.

Final results for all seats in both national and regional legislatures are expected to be announced by late January.

Major-General Zaw Min Tun, the military’s spokesperson, said last weekend that the two houses of parliament will be convened in March, with a new government taking up its duties in April.

During the first two rounds of voting, armed groups opposing the army carried out attacks against polling stations and government buildings in many townships, the military government said.

The election also comes as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is currently holding hearings in a case brought by The Gambia, accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against its Rohingya community.

While more than 4,800 candidates from 57 political parties are competing for seats in national and regional legislatures, only six parties are contesting seats nationwide.

One of them, the People’s Pioneer Party, is facing a pending legal case that could result in its dissolution after its chairwoman, Thet Thet Khine, and another senior party member were scrutinised by authorities for holding a meeting with representatives of a foreign embassy in Yangon, the country’s largest city, without prior approval from the election commission.

Nine women soldiers were among 47 Venezuelan ‍troops ‍killed earlier this month when the United States attacked the capital Caracas ⁠and abducted President ​Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez ‍said.

Revising the number of Venezuelan forces killed upward from an initial report of 23, the defence minister said on Friday that a total of 83 people were killed in the January 3 raid by US forces.

Those killed included 32 Cuban soldiers, some of whom had been assigned to President Maduro’s personal protection team.

“What have the men and women of our Bolivarian National Armed Forces done in the face of military aggression? They have given their lives, they have honoured history and the homeland,” Padrino said at a ceremony to honour those killed in the attack.

The minister also said that a site will be located for the construction of a memorial to those killed.

Cuba on Thursday received the remains ​of the 32 soldiers it said were killed in combat ‌in the early hours of January ⁠3.

More than 112 people were reported injured in the US raid that began with the bombing of military targets and culminated with US troops landing in helicopters and abducting Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from their residence in Caracas.

The full extent of civilian casualties from the US raid has yet to be determined by authorities in Venezuela. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said earlier this week that experts needed to use DNA testing to identify victims, as some were blown to “little pieces” in the US attack.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, who has decreed seven days of mourning for those killed in the US attack, met on Thursday in Caracas with CIA director John Ratcliffe, whose agency played a key role in Maduro’s abduction, The Associated Press news agency reports.

A US official told the AP that Ratcliffe discussed potential economic collaboration between the two countries and warned that Venezuela can never again allow the presence of US adversaries, including drug traffickers, on its soil.

‘Emperor of the White House’

Tens of thousands of Cubans demonstrated outside the US embassy in Havana on Friday to decry the killing of the 32 Cuban soldiers in the Venezuela attack.

Crowds poured into the open-air Jose Marti Anti-Imperialist plaza across from the US diplomatic compound in a rally organised by the Cuban government.

The US “is governed by a president who considers himself an emperor”, said Rene Gonzalez, 64, one of the protesters.

“We must show him that ideas are worth more than weapons,” he said.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel shook hands with protesters before giving a speech in which he said Washington had “opened the door to an era of barbarism, plunder and neo-fascism”.

“No one here surrenders,” Diaz-Canel said. “The current emperor of the White House and his infamous secretary of state haven’t stopped threatening me.”

“Cuba does not have to make any political concessions, and that will never be on the table for negotiations aimed at reaching an understanding between Cuba and the United States,” he said.

“It is important that they understand this. We will always be open to dialogue and improving relations between our two countries, but only on equal terms and based on mutual respect,” he added.

US President Donald Trump recently demanded that Cuba make a deal with him before it is “too late”. He did not explain what kind of deal or what would occur beyond his deadline.

Trump also said that Cuba will no longer live off Venezuela’s oil reserves, which the US president has repeatedly said now belong to the US.

Havana is highly dependent on Venezuelan oil, and experts warn that if supplies run dry, it could have catastrophic consequences for cash-strapped Cuba, which is already struggling with severe power blackouts and years of US-imposed sanctions.

Friday’s demonstration in Havana was organised a day after tens of thousands of Cubans gathered at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Armed Forces in the capital to pay their respects to the 32 slain officers as their bodies arrived from Venezuela.

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued notices to airlines, urging them to “exercise caution” over Mexico and other Central American countries, as well as Ecuador and Colombia, due to “military activities”.

On Friday, the FAA released a series of advisories that come amid an ongoing US military buildup in the Latin America region, including US military attacks on Venezuela, and US President Donald Trump’s warning to Cuba and threats of strikes against drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia, leaving many in the region on edge.

The FAA issued warnings of a “potentially hazardous situation” in a number of areas, including above parts of the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortes.

The warnings issued on Friday will last 60 days, the FAA said.

Last month, a JetBlue passenger jet bound for New York took evasive action to avoid a midair collision with a US Air Force tanker plane near Venezuela.

JetBlue Flight 1112 had departed the Caribbean nation of Curacao and was flying about 64km (40 miles) off the coast of Venezuela when the Airbus plane reported encountering the Air Force jet, which did not have its transponder activated.

Following the US military’s January 3 attack on Caracas and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Trump has raised the possibility of other military actions in the area, including against Colombia.

Trump said last week that cartels were running Mexico and that the US “will now start hitting land” to combat them, in one of a series of threats to deploy US military force against drug traffickers.

After the attack on Venezuela, the FAA restricted flights throughout the Caribbean, which forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights by major airlines.

Mexico records ‘compelling results’

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday that efforts to crack down on Mexico’s drug cartels and slow migration north were showing “compelling results” following Trump’s recent threats of strikes targeting drug cartels inside Mexico.

Sheinbaum has sought to placate Trump and has worked to build a strong relationship between the Mexican and US administrations.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mexican Foreign Secretary Juan Ramon de la Fuente released a joint statement after a phone call, saying they agreed “more must be done to confront shared threats”.

Sheinbaum, mentioning the call on Friday in her morning news briefing, said that Mexico’s government had made significant progress, citing a steep drop in the homicide rate, much lower fentanyl seizures by US authorities at the border and sparse migration.

The president also reiterated her call for Washington to stop the trafficking of weapons into Mexico from the US and highlighted drug use in the US as a key factor heightening cartel violence in Mexico.

“The other side also has to do its part. This consumption crisis they have over there also has to be addressed from a public health perspective, through education campaigns,” Sheinbaum said.