“This week the storms return to many areas of Spain and could be locally intense in some communities. Also pending the distant tropical storm Margot, which will become a hurricane as it moves towards the North Atlantic,” meteorology expert Mario Picazo detailed this Monday about the weather forecasts for the coming days.

Tropical Storm Margot has already become a hurricane. “It circulates through the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, ascending latitudes while it strengthens,” they indicate on the weather portal Eltiempo.es.. Its trajectory indicates that at the end of this week or beginning of next, it could be located west of the Azores Islands. Will it affect Spain? What is the risk?

What is the current situation

Right now, the newly formed hurricane is moving north at 19 kilometers per hour. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) of the United States expects it to continue moving north-northwest in the coming days.

Can it reach Spain?

In this sense, experts add, hurricane-force winds extend up to 200 kilometers from its center, but for now there is no danger that it could affect land.. Margot will advance towards the Azores Islands and “when a hurricane approaches the polar circulation, it can be pushed by it and drift towards Europe.”

For now, the hurricane does not pose any risk to Spain. Weather predictions indicate that new high-altitude cold Atlantic storms will arrive by the end of this week, which will cause intense rain events and storms.

Cyclone Daniel that crossed northeastern Libya this Sunday has cost the lives of 2,356 people and could have already left up to 10,000 missing, of which 7,000 would be only in the city of Derna, the most affected according to provisional figures from the authorities that control the east of the country.

It was Tamer Ramadan, the representative of the Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), who reported that the number of fatalities could grow in the coming hours since some 10,000 missing people have been registered.. The delegate wanted to emphasize that Cyclone Daniel has been as devastating in Libya as the great earthquake that hit Morocco, leaving more than 2,800 dead.

Likewise, the spokesperson for the Red Crescent, Tawfiq Al Shukri, has advanced that the number of missing people is around that figure but that it is not entirely accurate since it is still difficult to determine the records of emergency calls received in the last 24 hours due to to communications outages.

Humanitarian aid

The lack of resources and difficult access to these mountainous areas has forced rescue teams and citizens to extract hundreds of victims from the rubble with household utensils and bury them in mass graves in the Martouba cemetery, about twenty kilometers from distance.

That is why the Libyan authorities have demanded the delivery of humanitarian aid “as quickly as possible” by the international community in the face of the devastating floods recorded in the east of the country.

Musa al Koni, one of the vice presidents of the Libyan Presidential Council, based in the capital, Tripoli, has stressed that the authorities “want the aid to reach the maximum and as quickly as possible,” according to the Libyan state news agency. news, LANA. “We have asked for help from all the countries that we know we need and that have experience in rescue tasks,” he said, before revealing that Spain, Italy and Canada “have expressed their availability when it comes to supporting rescue tasks” in the east of the African country.

The teams sent by Turkey, which supports the government of Benghazi (a city in eastern Libya), were one of the first to arrive by air to offer underwater search and rescue personnel as well as logistical assistance.. The International Health Organization (WHO) has also sent a first shipment with forty tons of aid that should arrive throughout Tuesday to the affected area.

For its part, the medical evacuation service Libyan Air Ambulance has announced the opening of an air bridge between Tripoli and the eastern region to transport critically injured people, amid the chaos in some eastern cities due to serious flooding, which in The Derna case caused the destruction of two dams.

Although there are areas that already have professionals and resources for their recovery, there are some towns like Susa, just 80 kilometers away from Derna, that are submerged under water and help has not yet arrived while the corpses crowd the coasts, said the director of the local Ambulance and Emergency Service, Hamdi Al Hassi.

Reconstruction of material damage

The crisis committee formed by the Government of National Unity (GNU) – based in Tripoli and recognized by the international community – has explained in a conference that its work is divided into three axes: the rescue of citizens, assistance to displaced people to that they can return to their homes and the registration of material damage and its reconstruction.

“We will begin to limit the damage and repair it in the municipalities where weather conditions have stabilized starting this Tuesday,” said Local Government Minister Badr Al Din Al Toumi, who assured that mobile stations were installed to quickly restore telecommunications. and numerous sports and educational centers were made available to accommodate citizens who have lost their homes.

The GUN promised that the State will compensate all those affected by the floods and decreed three days of mourning for the victims in addition to ordering that flags throughout the country be lowered to half-mast.

The small town of Anadia, in the Aveiro region (Portugal), has experienced an unusual incident in the last few hours.

The explosion, for unknown reasons, of two tanks in a winery, has caused more than two million liters of red wine to flow through the streets of the municipality like a flood.

Thanks to the firefighters, the liquid did not reach the river, thus avoiding an environmental catastrophe.

Air quality has been affected, so classes have been suspended for three days.

The Moroccan authorities raise the death toll to more than 2,500 from the earthquake that shook the central area of the country on Friday night. Meanwhile, assistance work in the affected areas continues, although for now the Moroccan Government has only accepted help from Spain, the United Kingdom, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Friday's earthquake was the strongest recorded in Morocco in more than a century, with a magnitude of 6.8, followed by 25 aftershocks greater than magnitude 3. As a result of the collision of the African and Eurasian plates, the earthquake has been devastating. At about 20 kilometers, a relatively shallow depth according to experts, “strong” ground shaking was recorded around the epicenter of the earthquake.

A chain of 31 earthquakes

The earthquake had a length of about 30 kilometers, ten times less than the Turkey-Syria earthquake (last February), which was 300 kilometers.. In this way, the energy released to the subsoil is much lower and the earthquake is more localized.. “If an equivalent earthquake had occurred in Morocco, a large part of Marrakech would have been destroyed,” says seismologist Florent Brenguier, from the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Grenoble .

According to data from the National Seismic Network of the Spanish National Geological Institute, between 11:11 p.m. on Friday, local time, and 2:58 p.m. on Saturday, 31 earthquakes with a magnitude between 3.4 and 6.8 occurred.. The first, of 6.8 and the second, of magnitude 5.1 just 20 minutes later, were the strongest. These two were followed by a series of aftershocks that moved towards the north of the country and with their epicenter approaching Marrakech.

The precedents

Although such powerful tremors are rare, the current one is not the deadliest that Morocco has suffered.. Just over 60 years ago, the country was shaken by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 12,000 people on its western coast, where the city of Agadir, southwest of Marrakech, collapsed.

In February 2004, what until now was the largest earthquake in Morocco occurred.. It was in Al Hoceima and the magnitude reached 6.4. However, the number of fatalities barely exceeded 600.

What caused the earthquake

From what geologists and seismologists have known so far, the earthquake occurred when a reverse fault occurred – in which the edge of the rock on one side of a fault slides under the other – between the Moroccan and Iberian microplates, which are part of the larger African plate. During the earthquake, the edge facing the mountains slid over the other, pushing the slope upward, a consequence of tension built up between the African and Eurasian plates over time.

According to Paula Marques Figueiredo, a geologist at the University of North Carolina, the reverse tectonic faults were located north of the Atlas Mountains and tilted toward it at one point.. “Faults cannot withstand stress to a certain extent and, from time to time [thousands of years], an earthquake occurs as a mechanism to release the built-up stress,” he told Al Jazeera.

Earthquake zone, but further north

Earthquakes in this part of the world are not frequent, but they are not unexpected. We have already seen that in 1960 there was one of magnitude 5.8 that caused the city of Agadir to collapse.. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), an earthquake of magnitude greater than six had not been recorded within a 500 kilometer radius since records began in 1900.

Since that date, at least nine magnitude 5 earthquakes have occurred within a 500-kilometer radius around this latest earthquake.. “There is no doubt that n earthquakes occur in that region,” says Hadi Ghasemi of Geoscience Australia.. However, earthquakes had never reached the magnitude of the current one. “An earthquake could be expected there, but not so strong, at most magnitude 5,” seismologist from the National Geological Institute, Carlos González, told the Efe agency.

An earthquake could be expected there, but not as strong, at most magnitude 5.”

In Morocco, seismic movements are much more frequent and of greater intensity in the north, near the Mediterranean. “It is an area that we know can produce earthquakes of this magnitude,” comments Mark Quigley, professor of Seismic Sciences at the University of Melbourne, to the Australian ABC News.

A surprising force

That's what another seismologist is referring to.. “It is important to remember that all of Morocco, and the entire Mediterranean region in general, is susceptible to large earthquakes. However, the majority of earthquakes are concentrated in the north of the country, where the African and European tectonic plates converge, especially around the Strait of Gibraltar,” explained seismologist Brenguier on France 24.

But all students of the phenomenon are surprised by the strength of this occasion. Yes, in this part of Morocco there are important and very old faults, “but it is not common for an earthquake of such magnitude to occur in an area that is not located on a plate boundary,” says Brenguier.. That is why, on the other hand, an earthquake like the one in February in Turkey was to be expected, because it occurred on the boundary of two large plates, those of Anatolia and Arabia.

“It is unusual for an earthquake of such magnitude to occur in an area that is not located on a plate boundary.”

Lahcen Mhanni, from the National Institute of Geophysics, agreed with this.. “In general, mountainous regions do not produce earthquakes of this magnitude,” he told Moroccan news channel 2M TV.

The possibility of another earthquake

Looking to the immediate future, caution. The initial shock of one earthquake can trigger another (no longer an aftershock). “For this reason, it is not impossible that we will see another large earthquake, but not necessarily on this same fault. Could happen further north or south. This usually occurs in the hours or days following an earthquake, but can also happen weeks or even months later,” says seismologist Florent Brenguier.

“It is not impossible that we will see another large earthquake, but not necessarily on this same fault.”

“The index decreases over time. That does not mean that the strongest aftershock cannot occur five or ten days later. We don't know, but the frequency decreases over time,” seismologist Remy Bossu told Al Jazeera.

The worst earthquakes of the last 25 years

The acting Spanish Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has explained that the car in which Emma Igual, the Spanish aid worker who died in Ukraine last Saturday, was traveling, disintegrated with the explosion of the Russian projectile that hit the vehicle.

When asked about the repatriation of the body of the aid worker who ran the NGO Road to Relief, Robles detailed that the car, after receiving the impact of the Russian attack, “exploded and disintegrated.”. “With that I am telling you enough,” Robles stressed this Monday at a press conference at the Ministry headquarters.

In this sense, she has indicated that both the Spanish embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are in contact with the volunteer's family and NGO and has indicated that she herself has provided them with her personal telephone number for whatever they need.

The acting Defense Minister did not want to give more details regarding this matter out of caution, since she is not sure that the family of the deceased knows all the exact information.

“No sign of Emma's body”

For its part, the NGO directed by Emma Igual has explained in a publication on Instagram that the Spanish Government has confirmed the death of the aid worker.. However, the two injured companions who were also traveling in the same car found “no clear signs of Emma's body at the scene during the accident or later when the military unit went out to recover Tonko's body” (the Canadian volunteer who also died). in the attack).

Likewise, the NGO has noted that it is in contact with military squads and their commanders regarding a second review and the possibility of recovery of the body and/or confirmation of DNA.

On the other hand, Road to relief has detailed that Emma Igual will posthumously receive the Grand Cross of the Order of Isabel la Católica and that Tonko's body is in the process of being transferred to the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in a refrigerated truck to a refrigerated facility in preparation for repatriation.

The streets of Anadia, a small Portuguese city located in the Aveiro district, were surprised on Saturday when, after a break occurred in the tanks of a local distillery, its streets were flooded with thousands of liters of red wine, according to reports DailyMail.

After learning of the facts, the firefighters and the Local Police responded urgently to prevent the wine from flowing into the Cértima River.. Otherwise, it would have become an environmental catastrophe.

The factory issued a statement announcing its commitment to repair the damage caused.. “We assume all responsibility for the costs associated with cleaning and repairing the damage, having equipment available to do so immediately,” they detailed.

At the moment, no material damage has been reported to the residents' private property, nor to public furniture.

Inditex has donated three million euros to the Spanish Red Cross to support the Moroccan Red Crescent in the response to the humanitarian emergency caused by the earthquake that shook the country on the night of Friday to Saturday and left more than 2,600 dead. and 2,476 injured.

As reported by the textile manufacturing and distribution group, its contribution will serve to cover basic needs of the affected people, mainly in the areas of Al Hauz, Marrakech, Taroudant, Chichaua and Ouarzazat.

Inditex has also made itself available to humanitarian aid organizations deployed in the region to offer its potential contribution of clothing, footwear and household products.

The Minister of Maritime Affairs of Greece, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, submitted his resignation this Monday following a series of comments made days after a man died after being pushed into the sea by several crew members of a ferry in the port of the city of Piraeus. , in Athens.

The Government spokesperson, Pavlos Marinakis, has indicated that he will be replaced by Christos Stylianidis, who previously held the Climate Crisis and Civil Protection portfolio.

The incident has sparked national controversy after the passenger, who tried to board the Blue Horizon ferry when it was about to leave, was violently pushed into the water after a brief struggle.. The crew did nothing to help the 36-year-old man, according to the Kathimerini newspaper.

Varvitsiotis said he felt “horrified” after seeing the images of the incident and called his death “unjust”, although he defended that the relatives of the ferry workers “were also mourning those who came to earn their bread.”. These statements have sparked numerous criticisms, although the former minister assures that they have been “misinterpreted.”

“In recent days I have become the target of an attack that is acquiring increasingly toxic characteristics. An easily misinterpreted statement of mine caused outrage. I immediately apologized sincerely.. In no way will I equate the victim with the workers or eliminate the responsibilities of the shipping company, which still refuses to assume them,” he said.

Likewise, he has indicated that his “dignity” and his political career dictate that he “should not remain in office” and has thus justified his resignation, which has already been handed over to the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“I'll tell you what, I don't know about you, but I'm going to bed.”. This has been one of the phrases that the president of the United States (USA), Joe Biden, has pronounced in a speech in Hanoi (Vietnam). As a result of other babbling and moments of rambling, his team has decided to cut off his microphone and abruptly end his intervention.

The president was in the middle of his appearance, answering questions from journalists, when he was suddenly interrupted. “We talk about stability, we talk about the Third World, sorry, the southern hemisphere has access to change,” said the president.

Faced with this apparent lapse, his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, intervened to put an end to the speech: “Thank you all. With this the press conference ends,” he concluded.. However, the president continued speaking without realizing that his microphone had stopped working.

Even though he attempted to continue answering questions, the background music grew louder, 'forcing' Biden to put away his folder and leave the stage.

A “new stage”

In this way, this Monday the two-day official visit to the Asian country concluded in Hanoi, in which he insisted on “the new stage” of relations between both countries after the signing of a strategic partnership agreement on Sunday.

Biden, who met this Monday with his Vietnamese counterpart, Vo Van Thuong, the Prime Minister of the Asian country, Pham Minh Chinh, and the president of the National Assembly, Vuong Dinh Hue, stressed that it was “extraordinary how far and how “fast” relations between the two former enemies have progressed in recent years.

“It is extraordinary how far and how quickly relations have advanced”

According to the White House, Biden and Thuong discussed business and economic ties, in addition to aspirations for technological cooperation and the Vietnamese energy transition plan.

“This is just the beginning. “This is about creating a free and open Indo-Pacific for all of us,” stressed the US president at the end of his meeting with the Vietnamese president. Thuong, for his part, highlighted that this visit and the signing of the strategic partnership agreement between both countries mark “a momentous occasion” that opens “a new chapter” in their relationship.