Severe thunderstorms and torrential rain have once again battered coastal Spain, causing thousands of people to be evacuated just two weeks after the country experienced deadly flooding in Valencia and other nearby communities.

Almost 3,000 people and a thousand homes have been evacuated in the Malaga area, Antonio Sanz, the director of the Emergency Plan for the Risk of Flooding in Andalucia, said Wednesday.

Five areas near the Guadalhorce riverbank were preemptively evacuated due to the risk of overflowing.

In just one hour, nearly a month’s worth of rainfall inundated Malaga, in Spain’s Andalusia region, according to the country’s meteorological agency AEMet. The southern Spanish province picked up roughly 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rain so far on Wednesday, 78 millimeters (3 inches) of which fell within an hour. Malaga normally averages 100.5 millimeters in the month of November.

The Spanish meteorological agency has issued red warnings in the Andalusia and Catalonia regions for extreme rainfall with reports of impassable roads and flooded basements in several towns.

Video from the scene shows streets in Malaga submerged in water.

The Malaga City Council issued evacuation orders Wednesday near the Campanillas River due to the risk of overflowing.

The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has also announced they have suspended the Málaga-Madrid rail service due to the accumulation of water on the tracks.

The severe weather alert in Malaga led to the postponement of the opening round tie of the Billie Jean King Cup, which was due to take place Wednesday evening between Spain and Poland.

More rain on the way

Heavy rain is set to continue through the evening from the provinces of Malaga and Granada up to Valencia and Tarragona where up to 180 millimeters (7 inches) is possible.

The coastal area of Valencia province has now been issued a red weather warning for Thursday. Spain’s Minister for Transport Óscar Puente announced the closure of all non-essential movement on Valencia’s roads at 6 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET) on Wednesday.

The City Council of Valencia announced that school activities are suspended throughout the Valencia city and its districts this Wednesday and Thursday to avoid risks.

The country is still reeling from historic floods that killed more than 220 people just two weeks ago, its worst deluge in decades.

Last weekend, protesters marched in Valencia demanding the regional president Carlos Mazón’s resignation for the slow response to the deadly natural disaster.

The United Nations has accused Israel of “severe violations” of a 50-year-old agreement with Syria, saying it has engaged in “engineering groundwork activities” that encroach on a key buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

“Violations of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement have occurred where engineering works have encroached into the AoS (the area of separation),” the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has maintained the ceasefire between Israel and Syria since 1974, said in a statement Tuesday.

Satellite imagery from Planet Labs and the European Space Agency shows that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been conducting excavation activity near Jubata Al Khashab, Syria since mid-August. A large earthen berm, roughly 40 feet (12 meters) wide, is being dug.

The trench now stretches almost five miles (eight kilometers).

Work on extending the trench even further is continuing, according to recent satellite imagery. In a Planet Labs image taken on November 5, an excavator and other vehicles can be seen working.

The “extensive engineering groundwork activities” run along the so-called Alpha Line that separates Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, UNDOF said, adding that the construction began in July and includes the use of “excavators and other earth-moving equipment with protection from armored vehicles and soldiers.” Main battle tanks of the IDF were also occasionally present in the demilitarized zone, violating the 1974 agreement.

The UN peacekeeping mission said it has “repeatedly engaged with the IDF to protest the construction” work, which has worried Syrian authorities, who have also “strongly protested.”

Breaching the buffer zone

UNDOF warned on Tuesday that Israel’s “severe violations” at the buffer zone “have the potential to increase tensions in the area.”

The peacekeeping force and its mandate were born out of a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Syria in May 1974, following months of fighting in a war launched by Egyptian and Syrian forces against Israel in October 1973.

The agreement created a buffer zone, as well as two equal zones of limited forces and armaments on both sides of the area. While Israel and Syria remain formally at war, this agreement has largely maintained peace with the help of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Golan.

For Israel, the Golan Heights is a strategic plateau seized from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967, and formally annexed in 1981. The hilly landscape, which spans some 500 square miles, is home to some 20,000 Arab Druze and about 25,000 Jewish Israelis spread across more than 30 settlements.

It also shares a border with Jordan and Lebanon, where Israel has been waging a war against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

Israel sees the Golan Heights as key to its national security interests and says it needs to control the region to fend off threats from Syria and Iranian proxy groups there.

On Tuesday, UNDOF said that upon engaging Israel about the violations, the Israeli side said the construction is “being carried out for defensive purpose to prevent unauthorized crossing and violations by civilians” along the Alpha Line on the Israeli side.

Navvar Saban, a researcher at the Harmoon Center for Contemporary Studies who specializes in Iranian influence in Syria and Iraq, said Israeli activities in the Golan are likely for defensive purposes, as the IDF seeks to enhance its existing structures.

Israel has for months been conducting strikes inside Syria, saying it is targeting Iranian or Hezbollah interests. In April, following an Israeli strike on what Tehran said was a diplomatic building in Damascus, Iran responded by launching a barrage of missiles and drones directly at Israel.

In July, tensions between Israel and Hezbollah spiked after a deadly rocket attack hit a soccer field in the Arab town of Majdal Shams in the Golan, killing at least 12 children. Israel blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which the Lebanese group denied.

Saban said that Hezbollah is unlikely to try and trigger an Israeli military offensive from the Golan, however.

Israel has in recent months accused Syria of violating the 1974 agreement. In July, the IDF said it struck Syrian military infrastructure in retaliation for alleged breaches. “The IDF holds the Syrian military responsible for all activities occurring within its territory and will not allow any attempts to violate Israeli sovereignty,” the Israeli military said.

A US deadline for Israel to improve getting humanitarian aid into Gaza has expired, with the Biden administration assessing that Israel is not blocking aid and so is not violating US law governing foreign military assistance.

The State Department said that while changes were needed, progress had been made – so there would be no disruption to US arms supplies.

But the US view is a stark contrast with the bleak picture on the ground, where much of the aid that reaches Gaza is not being distributed.

Civilians fleeing northern Gaza after weeks of intense Israeli military operations tell of a chronic lack of food and people dying of hunger, as aid agencies warn that the area is on the brink of famine.

The accounts of desperate civilians echo the the World Health Organization’s warning last Friday of “a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip.”

Multiple factors have contributed to what aid agencies are calling the worst point for the humanitarian situation in Gaza since the war began in October 2023.

They include ongoing Israeli military operations, evacuation orders affecting hundreds of thousands of people, a breakdown in law and order that has led to looting of aid convoys, a lack of truck drivers and the frequent denial of passage for aid by Israeli authorities.

Last month, the Biden administration gave Israel a 30-day deadline to take specific steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including boosting commercial traffic and ending the isolation of the north.

As the deadline expired, the US State Department said it had “not made an assessment that the Israelis are in violation of US law” and that they would face no penalties.

Much of the aid community disagrees.

On Tuesday, eight humanitarian organizations said the Israeli government “not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza.”

“We really are at a tipping point in terms of this turning into a catastrophic food insecurity situation,” Phillips-Barrasso said.

According to the World Food Programme, the average number of trucks entering Gaza fell to just 58 per day in the second half of October, the lowest level since November last year.

Before the war began, around 500 commercial and aid trucks were entering each day.

COGAT, the Israeli agency that approves aid shipments into Gaza, said Saturday that 713 aid trucks had arrived in northern Gaza through the Erez West crossing since the beginning of October. But much of this aid remains at the crossing point.

Aid organizations have often said that distribution of food and water amid Israeli strikes, evacuation orders and the absence of secure corridors is almost impossible.

Last week, it said, an approved convoy of ten food trucks was held for two hours in Jabalya, “where some of the food was offloaded by people who surrounded the trucks.”

The food never reached locations where displaced Palestinians were sheltering, it said.

Joyce Msuya, acting UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told the UN Security Council Tuesday that Israeli authorities were “blocking humanitarian assistance from entering North Gaza, where fighting continues, and around 75,000 people remain with dwindling water and food supplies.”

A planned 14-truck WFP aid convoy had intended to deliver supplies to Beit Hanoun and the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalya, but only two trucks reached their destination due to “delays in movement authorization and crowded routes,” OCHA said on Tuesday.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that “hundreds of food packages and thousands of liters of water were delivered to distribution centers for the civilian population remaining in the Beit Hanoun area” on Monday.

But shipments of such size only scratch the surface of the immense need.

In addition to the lack of aid, 13 months of constant air strikes have left agriculture and industry in Gaza in ruins. Most of the enclave’s agricultural land is in the north and along the eastern border with Israel, areas from which hundreds of thousands of people have fled.

The vast majority of Gazans have little or no work and can’t afford to buy food at inflated prices.

Communal soup kitchens and bakeries are also closing or short of supplies.

There is also the issue of profiteering. On Sunday, dozens of people marched through a market in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, chanting: “We are the people, you merchants are thieves!”

But much of the looting is by organized gangs.

The president of Gaza’s Transportation Association, Nahd Shuheiber, said this week there has been “an increase in the theft of trucks loaded with humanitarian aid,” because of a lack of police.

Police in Gaza have often been targeted by Israeli strikes as they are seen as being associated with Hamas.

Shuheiber said that “bandits” near the Kerem Shalom crossing had been stealing from the trucks, “creating a state of chaos under which we are unable to operate effectively.”

“And as a result, we are likely to have people starving to death literally miles away from where food is available.”

Khader Al-Za’anoun of Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, contributed reporting.

Deception, disguise and finally a disappearance. This might sound like the premise of a magic trick, but it’s actually the story of a woman who managed to fool a male-only, world-famous magic society into admitting her, before being unceremoniously kicked out when she revealed her true identity. Now, they want her back.

The women trained for 18 months in magic as well as how to act, dress and sound like a man, London said, adding that the “orchestrated deception” was “so brilliantly put together, almost like a heist.”

The Magic Circle’s purpose is to “promote and advance the art of magic,” according to its website. Magicians have to prove their skill to be admitted, and must promise to abide by the society’s Latin motto, “Indocilis private loqui” (“not apt to disclose secrets”).

Lloyd, who was in her 20s at the time, managed to fool the organization into accepting her in 1990, when she disguised herself as a man named Raymond Lloyd, London said.

Lloyd passed the entrance exam, which required her to perform tricks in front of members of the society, and started as an apprentice before becoming a full member of in March 1991.

A campaign to admit women into the all-male society became successful in October that year, and it was after this vote that Lloyd revealed her true self. “She thought (the society) would find it funny, I suppose, (but they) actually were really angry,” London said, adding that the Magic Circle kicked her out.

Lloyd continued to do magic, using it in a show to educate young people about bullying, London said. However, it has been “difficult to find her” since.

“I’d like to sit down and have a chat with her and see what happened to her,” London said. “I have a feeling she was very hurt by this and I really hope that it didn’t affect her ability to continue in the entertainment industry. I hope that it didn’t dishearten her.”

London added that she would like to “say thank you” to Lloyd, adding that the Magic Circle “would all like to apologize. But what we would love to do is invite her back.”

A lead in the search

London said it has come to light that Sophie was not the magician’s birth name, but a professional or stage name.

While they do not yet know her true surname, London said they believe her real first name was Sue, which she said has been confirmed by Winstanley’s son and a friend of the family. London told the BBC that Winstanley had sadly died.

“She’s just the most extraordinary woman to be so brave to do that, and I and many of us women in the industry are just finding this so courageous for these two to go about deliberately proving that women can do it as good as men,” London said.

The society now has more than 80 female members, according to its website. Although, this makes up about 5% of its cohort of more than 1,700 members.

“Over 30 years ago, our predecessors made in my opinion a faux pas when they ejected her for deception – and the irony is not lost on us about a magician deceiving someone,” he continued.

“We welcome all good magicians whatever the gender and have been delighted to notice more and more women magicians join us,” he added.

Founded in 1905 in London’s Soho district, the society’s most famous members include magician Dynamo, actor Stephen Fry and even King Charles III, who joined when he was still a prince in 1975, after performing a cups and balls trick, according to the Magic Circle.

South Korean actor Song Jae-lim, a former model who rose to prominence in K-dramas, was found dead in Seoul on Tuesday. He was 39.

Born in 1985, Song began his entertainment career with the 2009 film “Actresses.”

He gained widespread recognition for his portrayal of a royal guard in the 2012 historical drama “Moon Embracing the Sun,” and reached further fame through an appearance on the reality show “We Got Married.” His final performance was in the musical “La Rose De Versailles,” which ended in October.

The final posts on Song’s Instagram account, two selfies shared in January, have accumulated more than 61,000 likes. Comments are disabled on the account.

South Korean stars paid tribute to Song following the news of his death.

“This is mad… Jae-lim… you were such a cheerful guy… I can’t believe this. I’m so sorry for not contacting you or caring for you enough,” actor Park Ho-san said alongside a photo taken with Song posted on Instagram.

In another Instagram post, actor Hong Seok-cheon said: “I’m sad that I can’t see your wonderful smile again… I’m so sorry, rest in peace.”

The recent deaths of K-pop idols and K-drama stars have highlighted ongoing concerns about mental health and industry pressures in South Korea’s entertainment industry.

ASTRO boy band member Moon bin died last year at age 25. K-pop singer and actress Sulli was also 25 when she died in 2019. And two years earlier, boyband SHINee’s Kim Jong-hyun was found dead at his home at age 27.

Entertainment agencies have implemented various mental health support systems, including counseling services and more flexible schedules, but observers say the highly competitive nature of K-entertainment, combined with intense public scrutiny, and expectations of perfection in appearance and behavior, are affecting stars.

The Princess of Wales will host her annual Christmas carol concert on December 6, with a focus on “how much we need each other, especially in the most difficult times of our lives,” Kensington Palace has announced.

It will be the princess’ fourth “Together at Christmas” carol service at Westminster Abbey and it will broadcast in the United Kingdom on Christmas Eve.

Catherine began the festive tradition in 2021, surprising British television viewers with a piano performance of “For Those Who Can’t Be Here” with Scottish singer-songwriter Tom Walker, recognizing the impact of the pandemic.

Linked to the prince and princess’s Royal Foundation charity, this year’s concert will “shine a light on individuals from all over the UK who have shown love, kindness and empathy towards others in their communities,” a statement from Kensington Palace said.

Some 1,600 people, nominated for their commitment to helping people in need, will be joined at Westminster Abbey by members of the royal family and other well-known faces.

Carols will be sung by the Westminster Abbey choir alongside performances from musicians including Paloma Faith, Olivia Dean, Gregory Porter and young performers from Restore the Music.

Fifteen “Together at Christmas” community carol services will also take place across the UK.

Last year’s concert saw the prince and princess accompanied by their three children and other members of the royal family.

The news comes after Kate’s back-to back appearances at Remembrance Day events in London at the weekend.

In September, the princess announced she was cancer-free and would be taking a phased approach to resuming public royal duties. Last month, she accompanied William on visit to Southport in northwest England, where the couple met with the bereaved families of three children killed in a knife attack in July.

At least 15 people have been killed and 14 injured in clashes between inmates at one of Ecuador’s largest and most notorious prisons, local authorities say.

The violence broke out early Tuesday in one of the pavilions at Litoral Penitentiary in the coastal city of Guayaquil, according to national prison agency SNAI.

Both Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, and the prison itself are notorious for violent confrontations between rival gangs.

By Tuesday afternoon, authorities said they had managed to regain control of the prison and carried out a large-scale search.

Murder charges will be filed against at least nine inmates, the Attorney General’s Office said.

Ecuador’s prison system has long been the main theater of violence in the country, with hundreds of inmates killed in recent years as members of competing criminal organizations square off.

Security forces have often struggled to confront the gangs inside the overcrowded facilities, where inmates have been known to take control of branches of the penitentiaries and run criminal networks from behind bars, according to Ecuadorian authorities.

This is just the latest violent episode at Litoral Penitentiary, which has seen riots and massacres in recent years and is widely considered the country’s most dangerous prison.

Last year, more than 30 people were killed, some of them beheaded, during a multi-day uprising at the prison, while in September 2021, clashes between rival gangs left more than 100 people dead.

Two months ago, the penitentiary’s director María Daniela Icaza was killed in an armed attack while she was driving home.

Litoral Penitentiary is among five facilities that make up a major prison complex in Guayaquil.

In January, notorious gang leader José Adolfo “Fito” Macías escaped from one of those facilities, in a jailbreak that kicked off a wave of violence across the country.

Following the escape, President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency, deploying the armed forces across the country to crack down on gangs and criminal groups.

A doctor accused of criticizing the war in Ukraine in front of a patient was convicted Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian military and sentenced to 5 and a half years in prison, part of an unrelenting Kremlin crackdown on dissent.

Dr. Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was arrested in February after Anastasia Akinshina, the mother of one of her patients, reported the pediatrician to authorities. Akinshina alleged that Buyanova told her and her son that his father, a Russian soldier who apparently was killed in Ukraine, was a legitimate target for Kyiv’s troops and had blamed Moscow for the war.

A video of the outraged Akinshina complaining about Buyanova was widely publicized, and chief of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin personally demanded a criminal case be brought against the doctor.

Buyanova, who was born in western Ukraine, denied the accusation, insisting she never said what she was accused of saying. In a tearful closing statement to the court last week, she had urged it to acquit her.

Her defense argued the prosecution failed to present evidence that the purported conversation took place, including any recordings of it, and alleged that her accuser fabricated the story out of animosity toward Ukrainians, according to the independent news site Mediazona, which reported all of the hearings in the trial.

In her closing statement to the court, Buyanova said it was “painful” to read the accusations in the indictment, and broke down.

“A doctor, especially a pediatrician, is not capable of wishing harm to a child, his mother, or traumatizing the child’s psyche. Only a monster is capable of this – and of the words that I allegedly said to them,” Mediazona quoted her as saying.

Buyanova’s case drew national attention, with more than 6,500 people signing an online petition demanding her freedom and supporters regularly attending court hearings. As the judge read out the verdict, they shouted, “Disgrace!” before bailiffs escorted everyone from the courtroom.

Her lawyer, Oscar Cherdzhyev, told reporters afterward that the verdict was “unexpectedly harsh” and “monstrously cruel.”

“We didn’t expect this,” he said.

“Spreading false information” about the army has been a criminal offense since March 2022, when Russia adopted a series of laws prohibiting any public expression about the invasion that deviated from the official narrative. Authorities started actively using them against critics and protesters.

According to OVD-Info, one of Russia’s leading rights groups that tracks political arrests, more than 1,000 people have been implicated in criminal cases on charges related to speaking or acting out against the war.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the most senior leader in the Church of England, has resigned over his handling of a child abuse case, according to his official account.

“Having sought the gracious permission of His Majesty The King, I have decided to resign as Archbishop of Canterbury,” Welby said in a statement on Tuesday.

Pressure had been mounting on Welby in recent days, following an independent review into “sickening abuse” committed by John Smyth, a deceased British lawyer considered the worst serial abuser linked to the Church of England.

The incriminating report, commissioned by the church and released November 7, tracked a “worrying pattern of deference” to Smyth, concluding that “a serious crime was covered up.”

In Welby’s resignation statement, he said the review “has exposed the long-maintained conspiracy of silence about the heinous abuses of John Smyth.”

“When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow,” Welby added. “It is very clear that I must take personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period between 2013 and 2024.”

It is unclear when Welby will leave his post. In his resignation statement, he said: “exact timings will be decided once a review of necessary obligations has been completed, including those in England and in the Anglican Communion.”

Summer camps

Smyth perpetrated “traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks” on as many as 130 boys and young men, with abuse spanning from the 1970s up until his death, in 2018 – according to the Makin Review.

He was accused of abusing his own family members, as well as attendees of evangelical Christian summer camps he helped run for students from Britain’s prestigious private colleges in the 1970s and 1980s.

From 1984 to 2001, when Smyth relocated to Zimbabwe and then South Africa, church officers “knew of the abuse and failed to take the steps necessary to prevent further abuse occurring,” the report added. Welby worked at the summer camps that Smyth helped run. The pair exchanged Christmas cards and Welby donated small sums of money to his “missions” in Zimbabwe.

In 2017, Channel 4 News reported on Smyth’s abuse. After the publication of the independent review earlier this month, Welby told the network he “did not” ensure the allegations were pursued as “energetically” and “remorselessly” as they should have been, when he rose to the highest rank in the church, in 2013. He was first ordained as a priest in 1993.

The church’s review found that there was a “missed opportunity” in 2012 and 2013 by the highest levels of the church to “properly” report him to law enforcement.

The review said that “it is not possible to establish whether Justin Welby knew of the severity of the abuses in the UK prior to 2013,” adding: “It is most probable that he would have had at least a level of knowledge that John Smyth was of some concern.”

The Bishop of Newcastle was the most high-ranking church official to call for Welby’s resignation. On Monday, Helen-Ann Hartley told the BBC that it would be untenable for members of the clergy to “have a moral voice… when we cannot get our own house in order.”

Throughout his tenure, Welby has demanded accountability from those accused of mishandling abuse, including his predecessor, George Carey, and the former Bishop of Lincoln. Until now, there’s been no historical precedent for an Archbishop of Canterbury resigning over child abuse.

Germany is set to hold a snap election on February 23 after an agreement was reached among parties in the country’s fractured parliament on Tuesday, according to reports from public broadcaster ARD.

Last week, Germany’s governing coalition collapsed after disagreements over the country’s weak economy led Chancellor Olaf Scholz to sack his finance minister, leaving him in a minority government with the Green Party.

The exact date for an election needs to be confirmed by the president, but only following a vote of confidence that Scholz must call.

The confidence vote will be held on December 16 following an agreement from all parliamentary parties, according to ARD.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier needs to rubber-stamp the date of the election, but reports suggest this is a formality. Steinmeier said at an unrelated event in Berlin on Tuesday that “our country needs a government that is capable of taking action.”

“That is why we must not lose any time now. We must find answers to the question of how we can make our state better able to act,” Steinmeier added.

The greater clarity on a date for elections, originally due to be held in September 2025, comes just a week after Scholz’s government coalition fell apart as he fired his finance minister, Christian Lindner, following a major disagreement on Germany’s economic future.

Scholz initially announced that he planned to hold a confidence vote on January 15, but he came under immediate pressure from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) opposition party to hold them earlier.

Friedrich Merz, leader of the CDU, said last week, “there is absolutely no reason to wait until January” to call the confidence vote.

Scholz’s position on the date seemed to shift over the weekend. On Friday, he tweeted that he would “like to facilitate new elections as soon as possible.” Then, on Sunday evening, he told German TV that he would be willing to call the confidence vote before Christmas.

Scholz is currently leading a minority government with the Greens. His government has grown increasingly unpopular in Germany, with Scholz also one of the least popular chancellors ever, according to a September opinion poll.