Reuters exclusively reported that Volkswagen has walked away from talks with Renault to jointly develop an affordable electric version of the Twingo car, in a setback for the EU carmakers’ efforts to fend off Chinese rivals.
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Fear and tension in Lebanon under deadly Israeli bombardment
EPAAcross southern Lebanon, families scrambled together belongings and headed north in cars and trucks and on motorcycles as the Israeli military struck targets it said were linked to the Lebanese Shia armed group Hezbollah.
Some residents reported receiving warnings in the form of text messages and voice recordings from the Israeli military to leave areas near the Iran-backed group’s positions.
Zahra Sawli, a student in the southern town of Nabatieh told the BBC’s Newshour programme the bombardment was intense.
“I woke up at 6am to the sound of bombing. By noon it started to get really intense and I saw a lot of strikes in my area.”
“I heard a lot of glass shattering.”
Unlike many, she and those she was with did not leave the house – they didn’t dare, she said.
“Where are we supposed to go? A lot of people are still stuck on the streets. A lot of my friends are still stuck in traffic because a lot of people are trying to flee,” she said.
By the middle of the day roads north towards Beirut were clogged with traffic, with vehicles heading towards the capital on both sides of a six-lane coastal highway.
Other images showed people walking along the beach in the southern city of Tyre as smoke rose from air strikes in the countryside inland.
The BBC spoke to one family of five who had arrived in Beirut on a single motorbike.
From a village in the south, they were heading to Tripoli in the north. They were exhausted.
“What do you want us to say? We just had to flee,” the father said.
Hassan HarfoushBy Monday evening the Lebanese health ministry reported that 492 people had been killed and more than 1,600 injured in the bombardment. It said at least 35 children were among those killed. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had carried out 1,100 strikes over the previous 24 hours.
That included an air strike in southern Beirut that the IDF said had targeted a senior Hezbollah commander.
In Beirut too there was widespread anxiety. As people from the south arrived in the capital in cars with suitcases strapped to the top, some of the city’s residents were themselves leaving.
Israel has warned people to evacuate areas where it says Hezbollah is storing weapons – but it also sent recorded warnings to people in Beirut districts not considered Hezbollah strongholds including Hamra, an area home to government ministries, banks and universities.
Parents rushed to pick up their children from school after receiving more warnings to leave the area.
One father, Issa, took his son out of school, telling Reuters news agency: “[We’re here] because of the phone calls.
“They’re calling everyone and threatening people by phone. So we’re here to take my boy from school. The situation is not reassuring,” he said.
ReutersMohammed, a Palestinian man on the road with his wife, spoke to the BBC on the way out of Beirut.
When asked if he would stay in the capital he said: “In Lebanon nowhere is safe, Israel is saying they are going to bombard everywhere. Now they threatened this neighbourhood, so where should we go?”
“It’s scary, I don’t know what to do – work, go home, no idea what to do.”
Meanwhile as a BBC crew set up on one side of the road, a taxi driver called out asking if they knew of a fuel crisis unfolding. “Too many people are coming to Beirut,” he said.
Schools have been hastily converted into shelters for the streams of evacuees coming from the south. On a government order, schools in Beirut and Tripoli as well as eastern Lebanon were established as shelters.
The BBC was at a classroom at a public school in Bir Hasan, west Beirut on Monday which was being prepared for people coming from the Bekaa Valley – a Hezbollah stronghold in north-eastern Lebanon which Israel said it was targeting too.
The classrooms were stacked with mattresses but would be fully occupied by the end of the day, workers said.
EPAMeanwhile Lebanon’s hospitals were also ordered to cancel all non-elective surgeries on Monday as physicians braced for a wave of casualties and injuries.
Despite the tense and uncertain atmosphere in Beirut, some people were defiant.
“If a total war happens, we should stand as Lebanese people together regardless of our political affiliations because at the end of the day, our country is getting bombed,” one man told the BBC.
Others were simply resigned to the violence.
“If they want war, what can we do? It was imposed on us. We cannot do anything,” shop owner Mohammed Sibai told Reuters.
Mohammed, a 57-year-old in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieyh – Hezbollah’s main power base in the capital – told the BBC he had “survived all the wars since 1975” so “it’s normal for me”.
“I will not leave, I will be in my house,” he said.
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Raised $27 million
In an impressive fundraising effort, Harris raised $27 million at a recent event in New York, signaling her strong financial backing as the campaign progresses. She is expected to deliver a speech on the economy this week, further outlining her vision for America.
In contrast, Trump is reluctant to participate in further debates, particularly one proposed by CNN. He claims that the timing is not favorable, as early voting has already begun in many states.
“The issue with another debate is that it’s too late. She had her chance to debate on Fox, but now she wants a CNN debate because she is losing,” Trump remarked, reflecting his strategy to focus on rallies rather than televised confrontations.
As early voting continues across the country, with only three states — Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire — prohibiting in-person early voting, the dynamics of the race could shift dramatically in the coming weeks.
Trump has also indicated that if he loses this election, he may not run again, adding to the stakes of the current political climate.
Automotive
17 May 2024, 10:01 am 1 minute
Market Impact
A potential partnership between Volkswagen and Renault would have brought together household names of Europe’s top two economies and formed a counterweight against Asian rivals muscling into the local market.
Article Tags
Topics of Interest: Automotive
Type: Reuters Best
Sectors: Transport & Logistics
Regions: Europe
Win Types: Exclusivity
Story Types: Exclusive / Scoop
Media Types: Text
Customer Impact: Important Regional Story
An eight-year-old girl and a woman have been found dead at a property in Salford.
Officers were called following reports of a concern for welfare at the property in South Radford Street, Salford, shortly after 10.30am on Monday, Greater Manchester Police said.
Both the child and the woman, 40, were found dead at the scene after assistance from North West Ambulance Service and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.
The force said it was not actively looking for anyone else in the investigation and that there was no wider threat in the community.
All known next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.
Detective Superintendent Simon Moyles said: “A woman and young girl were both tragically found dead and we are working hard as a team to establish what happened here this morning.
“We have placed a number of highly visible officers to patrol in and around the area should any residents wish to come and talk to us or pass on any information they may have about this tragic incident.”
Anyone with information on the incident has been asked to call 101 quoting log 998 of 23/09/2024.
Vishal JaiswalVishal Jaiswal has been flying drones since he was young.
Now 27, that childhood hobby has become his profession. A recent project involved mapping part of the Sundarbans, a vast area of mangrove forests where the waters of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers spill into the Bay of Bengal.
Covering more than 4,000 sq miles (10,360 sq km) of coastal India and Bangladesh, it is the world’s biggest area of mangroves.
“It’s a very dense area with mix of everything, including forests with wild animals,” says Mr Jaiswal.
Along with two other team members he mapped 150 sq km in three days.
“A trained and skilled person is needed to fly a drone in thick mangroves area,” he says.
“It was a difficult task. We mapped the area from deep inside the forest, travelling there on boats and roads.”
It was one of many projects aimed at protecting the mangrove forest from the effects of climate change and human activities.
Globally, more than half of all mangrove ecosystems are at risk of collapse by 2050, according to a recent report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“Mangroves are threatened by deforestation, development, pollution, and dam construction, but the risk to these ecosystems is increasing due to sea-level rise and the increased frequency of severe storms associated with climate change,” the report said.
In India the picture is mixed.
The mangroves of South India, Sri Lanka and Maldives are “critically endangered,” according to the IUCN report.
Getty ImagesOther Indian mangroves are not on that “red list”.
The Sundarbans are one of those mangroves not considered endangered by the (IUCN).
However, Dr Sahadev Sharma, a consultant scientist to the USDA Forestry Service, says there are signs of both manmade and natural stress, which he identified during his field survey beginning of this year.
“We are seeing a loss in dense mangrove cover in Sundarbans. Additionally, patches on the western coast are extremely fragmented and eroded due to shrimp farming and development,” he says.
But it’s hard for scientists to know exactly what’s happening to the Sundarbans. There’s a lack of field research, partly because it’s a difficult place to work.
“It requires coordination with officers and ground staff, procuring field supplies in remote areas, and planning extensive logistics for field operations.
“The risk of saltwater crocodiles and Bengal tigers, tides and treacherous terrain make the field work even more difficult,” he says.
So, scientists are turning to tech, like Mr Jaiswal’s drones, to monitor the mangroves.
One key bit of information needed is the height of the mangroves in relation to the sea level.
The rivers flooding into the Sundarbans dump sediment, raising the ground level.
But if the sea level rises faster than that soil building process, then the mangroves will be threatened.
This process is monitored by installing rSETs (rod surface elevation tables) across mangrove forests.
Sahadev SharmaThe first part of the process is to drive steel rods into the mud, to provide a base for the measuring equipment.
Then Lidar scanners are attached to the top of the rods. These use lasers to scan the ground up to 2m away from the central rod, taking hundreds of thousands of extremely accurate measurements.
It’s a big improvement on the previous system, which involved attaching cumbersome fibreglass arms to the rods, which were extended to take height measurements.
That method would take hours to produce just 36 measurements and relied on the user placing the arms in the exact same positions as previous surveys.
“Because we are using a laser, there is minimal human error and the precision of this method is much greater than the traditional pin methods,” says Mr Sharma.
But it has one drawback – it’s more expensive than the old way.
Nevertheless, the project is making progress with the help of local partners.
Measuring sites are in place in the Andaman Islands, Sundarbans and Coringa and there are plans to install more in Bhitarkanika National Park, Orissa.
The research is still in its early days, they have a few data sets, but are waiting for the water level to recede before they can start measuring in the Sundarbans.
Getty ImagesMany who live in the coastal regions that support mangrove forests rely on them for survival.
In Andhra Pradesh, which has a long coastline in eastern India, fisherman Laxman Anna blamed the destruction of mangroves for poor catches.
“A few years back it had become a frustrating job. Going into the creek to catch fish and coming back empty handed.”
“Imagine a day when I made just 60 cents for my entire day in the creek, as there were no fishes. Barely enough to sustain my family of five.”
He blamed shrimp farms for upsetting the ecosystem.
But Mr Anna says communities in his area have realised the importance of preserving the mangroves.
“We are planting saplings, nurturing them back to life with help of an NGO and the forest department.”
And that effort is paying off.
“Things are changing I have a smile on my face when I go to fishing now. I am able to get a good catch and make around seven to eight dollars a day, which is a good catch for my survival.”
More Technology of Business
Singer and TV presenter Jane McDonald appeared on The One Show on Monday night and was left in hysterics after a slip-up from presenter Alex Jones.
As an American-German family living on both sides of the Atlantic, I must sadly agree with Janan Ganesh’s assessment in his characteristically insightful article “Why Europe will not catch up with the US” (Opinion, September 19). He captures the core issues with precision. However, I find myself even more pessimistic about Germany’s ability to preserve the European “dolce vita” beyond Generation X.
The challenges facing Germany are multi-faceted. Entrepreneurs here continue to struggle with a lack of support and access to funding, which stifles innovation and economic growth. Despite the growing need for modernised industries and fresh ideas, the “old boys’ club” mentality persists, keeping power concentrated in the hands of the traditional elite. This resistance to change is not just limiting entrepreneurship but also the ability of Germany to adapt in a rapidly evolving global economy. Moreover, the country’s education system is underfunded, leaving younger generations with fewer opportunities to compete in a highly skilled, global workforce.
At the same time, the burden on the social welfare system is at an all-time high, with a worrying trend that many welfare recipients and their offspring may remain dependent on state support. This situation risks creating a growing divide between those who contribute to the system and those who rely on it, further hampering economic progress.
My 20-year-old, who sees these issues first-hand, recently commented that if things continue this way, she may reluctantly move back to the US — a decision she views as a last resort.
It’s a sentiment I hear echoed more often by young people in Germany, and it’s deeply concerning for the country’s future.
Alka Schumacher
Cologne, Germany
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