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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro walks through the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia after losing his re-election bid

Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro maintained an increasingly loud silence Monday after his election defeat, failing to acknowledge his loss to veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — who faces a tough to-do list.

Twenty-four hours after the close of voting in Sunday’s deeply polarizing runoff election, Bolsonaro had still not recognized the outcome — raising fears he could try to challenge it, with potentially turbulent results for the country.

Charismatic but tarnished ex-president Lula defeated Bolsonaro by the narrowest margin in Brazil’s modern history — 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent — to return for an unprecedented third term at the helm of Latin America’s biggest economy from January 1.

After a dirty, divisive campaign that left the country of 215 million people split in two, the 77-year-old leftist icon now faces a laundry list of challenges, including a struggling economy, rampant destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and a powerful and angry far-right.

But first, there is the giant question mark over whether Bolsonaro will accept defeat.

The far-right president has not spoken publicly or on his beloved social media accounts since the result was announced, after months of alleging fraud in the electoral system and a conspiracy against him.

The transition period got off to a tense start as pro-Bolsonaro truckers and protesters blocked highways in at least 11 states across the country Monday, burning tires and parking vehicles in the middle of the road to halt traffic.

Wearing the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag — which the outgoing president has adopted as his own — the protesters wielded pro-Bolsonaro signs and sang the national anthem, before gradually being broken up by the authorities in some areas.

On Monday night Judge Alexander de Moraes of the Supreme Court ordered police to disperse the blockades immediately. He was acting in response to a request by a transport federation that complained it was losing business.

Markets were volatile, but reacted favorably overall to the election: after dipping slightly, stocks were up 1.3 percent in afternoon trading in Sao Paulo, and the Brazilian real gained more than two percent against the dollar.

– Hope for climate fight –

Lula, who vowed in his victory speech to restore Brazil’s damaged image on the international stage, started with phone calls with US President Joe Biden, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and others, plus a meeting with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez in Sao Paulo, advisers said.

Biden and Lula “committed to continue working as partners to address common challenges, including combatting climate change, safeguarding food security, promoting inclusion and democracy, and managing regional migration,” the White House said.

There was meanwhile radio silence from Bolsonaro, whose absence sparked jokes online.

One meme that went viral earlier Monday featured a picture of a vaguely disoriented-looking Bolsonaro, with the caption, “Missing: elderly man, very talkative, has not been heard from in 12 hours.”

First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro meanwhile denied swirling rumors of a post-election marital crisis, after she and her husband reportedly stopped following each other on social media.

AFP journalists said Bolsonaro left his official residence without comment Monday morning for the presidential offices, where he was photographed walking down a corridor with a grim face.

Officials there said the former army captain was meeting with cabinet ministers.

There are fears Bolsonaro, 67, could attempt a Brazilian version of the US Capitol riots which rocked that country after his political role model, former US president Donald Trump, refused to accept his election defeat in 2020.

But the Brazilian leader may find himself isolated.

Some key Bolsonaro allies have publicly recognized his loss, including the powerful speaker of the lower house of Congress, Arthur Lira.

And international congratulations for Lula poured in from the US, China, India, France, Britain, South Africa and numerous others.

The European Union’s leadership voiced hope the result would lead to ratification of a trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur, long stalled over concerns about rampant deforestation in the Amazon under Bolsonaro.

Norway announced it would resume paying nearly $500 million in aid for protecting the world’s biggest rainforest, which it halted in 2019 over Bolsonaro’s policies.

“We had a head-on collision with Bolsonaro, whose approach was diametrically opposed (to Lula’s) when it came to deforestation,” Norwegian Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide told AFP.

– Deep divisions –

Lula, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, criticized his nemesis Sunday night for not acknowledging the result.

“Anyplace else in the world, the defeated president would have called me to recognize his defeat,” he said in his victory speech to a euphoric sea of red-clad supporters in Sao Paulo.

The ex-metalworker, making his return from controversial, since-quashed corruption charges that sent him to prison for 18 months, vowed to work for “peace and unity” in the divided nation.

Easier said than done, according to political analysts.

“It was a very narrow victory (that left) half the population unhappy,” said political scientist Leandro Consentino of Insper university in Sao Paulo.

“Lula will have to show a lot of political skill to pacify the country.”

China successfully launched the final module of its Tiangong space station

The final module of China’s Tiangong space station successfully docked with the core structure on Tuesday, state media said — a key step in its completion by year’s end and a landmark moment in the country’s space ambitions.

Tiangong is one of the crown jewels in Beijing’s well-funded programme — which has landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon, and made the country only the third to put humans in orbit — as it looks to catch up with major spacefaring powers like the United States and Russia.

China has been excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) since 2011, when Washington banned NASA from engaging with Beijing.

Tiangong’s completion would signal “China is now an equal player in space with the United States, Russia and Europe”, analyst Chen Lan told AFP.

“In terms of scientific and commercial aspects, it is always good to see new players coming…. Competition will always speed up innovation,” he added. 

The lab module, named Mengtian — or “dreaming of the heavens” — was launched on a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang launch centre on China’s tropical island Hainan, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Amateur photographers and space enthusiasts watched the launch, which took place at 3:27 pm local time (0727 GMT), from a nearby beach.

About 10 minutes in, the event was declared a “complete success” by launch site commander Deng Hongqin.

Approximately 13 hours later, in the early hours of Tuesday Beijing time, Mengtian docked with the Tianhe core module, Xinhua news agency said, citing the China Manned Space Agency.

– Cold atomic clocks –

Over the past two years, China has successfully sent up the core module, three manned spacecraft, the Wentian lab module and several cargo spacecraft to build Tiangong.

Mengtian is the third and final major component of the T-shaped space station, and is almost 18 metres (60 feet) long, weighing 23 metric tonnes (50,700 pounds).

It carries scientific equipment that will be used to study microgravity and carry out experiments in fluid physics, materials science, combustion science and fundamental physics, the space agency said.

It is also carrying “the world’s first space-based cold atomic clock system”, Xinhua reported.

“If successful, the cold atomic clocks will form the most precise time and frequency system in space, which should not lose one second in hundreds of millions of years,” said Zhang Wei, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The three-member crew of the Shenzhou-14 mission, who are currently living in the space station, will be joined by three more astronauts to complete construction of Tiangong by the end of this year, according to the space agency.

Once completed, the Tiangong space station is expected to have a mass of 90 tonnes — around a quarter of the ISS — or similar in size to the Soviet-built Mir station that orbited Earth from the 1980s until 2001.

Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace”, will operate for around a decade and host a variety of experiments in near-zero gravity.

Next year, Beijing plans to launch the Xuntian space telescope with a field of view 350 times that of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro walks through the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia after losing his re-election bid

Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro maintained an increasingly loud silence Monday after his election defeat, failing to acknowledge his loss to veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — who faces a tough to-do list.

Twenty-four hours after the close of voting in Sunday’s deeply polarizing runoff election, Bolsonaro had still not recognized the outcome — raising fears he could try to challenge it, with potentially turbulent results for the country.

Charismatic but tarnished ex-president Lula defeated Bolsonaro by the narrowest margin in Brazil’s modern history — 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent — to return for an unprecedented third term at the helm of Latin America’s biggest economy from January 1.

After a dirty, divisive campaign that left the country of 215 million people split in two, the 77-year-old leftist icon now faces a laundry list of challenges, including a struggling economy, rampant destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and a powerful and angry far-right.

But first, there is the giant question mark over whether Bolsonaro will accept defeat.

The far-right president has not spoken publicly or on his beloved social media accounts since the result was announced, after months of alleging fraud in the electoral system and a conspiracy against him.

The transition period got off to a tense start as pro-Bolsonaro truckers and protesters blocked highways in at least 11 states across the country Monday, burning tires and parking vehicles in the middle of the road to halt traffic.

Wearing the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag — which the outgoing president has adopted as his own — the protesters wielded pro-Bolsonaro signs and sang the national anthem, before gradually being broken up by the authorities.

Markets were volatile, but reacted favorably overall to the election: after dipping slightly, stocks were up 1.3 percent in afternoon trading in Sao Paulo, and the Brazilian real gained more than two percent against the dollar.

– Hope for climate fight –

Lula, who vowed in his victory speech to restore Brazil’s damaged image on the international stage, started with phone calls with US President Joe Biden, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and others, plus a meeting with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez in Sao Paulo, advisers said.

Biden and Lula “committed to continue working as partners to address common challenges, including combatting climate change, safeguarding food security, promoting inclusion and democracy, and managing regional migration,” the White House said.

There was meanwhile radio silence from Bolsonaro, whose absence sparked jokes online.

One meme that went viral earlier Monday featured a picture of a vaguely disoriented-looking Bolsonaro, with the caption, “Missing: elderly man, very talkative, has not been heard from in 12 hours.”

First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro meanwhile denied swirling rumors of a post-election marital crisis, after she and her husband reportedly stopped following each other on social media.

AFP journalists said Bolsonaro left his official residence without comment Monday morning for the presidential offices, where he was photographed walking down a corridor with a grim face.

Officials there said the former army captain was meeting with cabinet ministers.

There are fears Bolsonaro, 67, could attempt a Brazilian version of the US Capitol riots which rocked that country after his political role model, former US president Donald Trump, refused to accept his election defeat in 2020.

But the Brazilian leader may find himself isolated.

Some key Bolsonaro allies have publicly recognized his loss, including the powerful speaker of the lower house of Congress, Arthur Lira.

And international congratulations for Lula poured in from the US, China, India, France, Britain, South Africa and numerous others.

The European Union’s leadership voiced hope the result would lead to ratification of a trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur, long stalled over concerns about rampant deforestation in the Amazon under Bolsonaro.

Norway announced it would resume paying nearly $500 million in aid for protecting the world’s biggest rainforest, which it halted in 2019 over Bolsonaro’s policies.

“We had a head-on collision with Bolsonaro, whose approach was diametrically opposed (to Lula’s) when it came to deforestation,” Norwegian Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide told AFP.

– Deep divisions –

Lula, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, criticized his nemesis Sunday night for not acknowledging the result.

“Anyplace else in the world, the defeated president would have called me to recognize his defeat,” he said in his victory speech to a euphoric sea of red-clad supporters in Sao Paulo.

The ex-metalworker, making his return from controversial, since-quashed corruption charges that sent him to prison for 18 months, vowed to work for “peace and unity” in the divided nation.

Easier said than done, according to political analysts.

“It was a very narrow victory (that left) half the population unhappy,” said political scientist Leandro Consentino of Insper university in Sao Paulo.

“Lula will have to show a lot of political skill to pacify the country.”

Protesters install fences and barricades in Sainte-Soline, western France

French protesters on Monday defied a massive police presence to try to stop an agriculture water storage project, as the government vowed to prevent any encampment while denouncing vandalism and “eco-terrorism”.

Clashes with security forces marked the launch of the protest Saturday near Sainte-Soline in the western Deux-Sevres department, where officials said 4,000 people had turned out and six were arrested.

A group of 400 farmers is hoping to build a network of 16 giant retention basins for groundwater pumped out during the winter, which can then be used for irrigation in summers that have experienced severe drought in recent years.

But climate activists and local opponents see a “water grab” by intensive farmers that will deprive smaller producers of access by disrupting natural groundwater recharge.

One farmer has allowed the protesters to set up camp on his land adjacent one of the basins, where watchtowers and fences are being built to create a “village of Gauls”, a reference to the popular “Asterix” comic books.

“We fully intend to use them, it will be a base for all types of harassment operations we’re going to carry out if the construction continues,” said Julien Le Guet, a spokesman for the protest collective.

Masked protesters also tore out a water pipe thought to be used to fill the basin, with video of the vandalism circulating widely on social media.

– Officials wary –

France has seen the emergence of several such camps in recent years — called Zones to Defend, or ZADs — by left-wing or anti-capitalist opponents of new airports, dams, nuclear power plants and other projects.

Efforts by security forces to dislodge them have at times degenerated into weeks-long clashes, with demonstrators often accusing police of using excessive force.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Sunday 1,000 police would remain on site so that “no ZAD is installed in the Deux-Sevres department nor anywhere else in France.”

He also condemned “eco-terrorism” by some of the protesters who used high-power fireworks and “blunt objects” to attack security forces on Saturday, leaving 61 officers injured.

His comments drew criticism from left-wing opposition groups, with lawmaker Clementine Autain of the France Unbowed party denouncing “a smokescreen”.

“Eco-terrorism is an insult to ecology activists, and it’s an insult to the victims of terrorism to associate the word with ecology,” she told BFM television.

“By conflating everything you end up making the debate hysterical,” Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure responded on Twitter.

Regional authorities in Bordeaux said Monday around 300 demonstrators were still at the camp near the basin, and extended a ban on protests to Wednesday, when construction work is set to resume.

“The goal is not to organise a ZAD but to be here on the ground to keep an eye on the site,” Jean-Jacques Guillet, another spokesman for the protesters, told AFP.

The farmers’ cooperative behind the basins project, Coop de l’Eau 79, condemned “unacceptably intense violence”.

“We had to call farmers to tell them to stay home, and to stay calm,” its president Thierry Boudaud said.

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The EU wants motorbikes to undergo mandatory safety inspections just like cars

France’s top administrative court on Monday ordered the introduction of safety inspections for motorcycles, overturning the government’s decision to drop the measure.

The court ruling comes after a standoff lasting over a year between motorbike owners and associations who have protested against any requirement for periodical safety tests, and NGOs fighting against air pollution and traffic noise.

The State Council, France’s supreme court for administrative matters, ordered the government last year to comply with a 2014 EU directive calling for regular safety checks for motorbikes with engines of more than 125 cubic centimetres, starting this year.

In response the government issued a decree announcing checks on some motorcycles, starting only in 2023.

However, faced with protests from bike owners and associations, the government made a U-turn, with President Emmanuel Macron being quoted by an advisor as saying that he didn’t want to “bother French people” with the measure which he vowed would never be applied.

But the same NGOs that had launched the original case mounted a fresh challenge against the government and, again, the State Council ruled in their favour.

The Council said in a statement Monday that the government had “overstepped its powers” by cancelling the EU directive which it said was aimed at the protection of the environment as well as at the safety of motorcyclists.

It also threw out the government’s claim that the EU directive allowed for “alternative measures” to replace mandatory safety inspections.

Given its “direct and significant environmental impact”, the decision to scrap the inspections should have been subject of a public debate, it said.

Even the alternative measures proposed by the government failed to satisfy the EU’s requirements, either because they were still only at the project stage, or did not improve motorbike safety “in a sufficiently efficient and significant way”, the Council said.

NGOs were delighted, with the head of the “Respire” (“Breathe”) association Tony Renucci calling the ruling a “victory for the environment and for public health”.

Gael David, president of “Ras Le Scoot” (“Enough with scooters”), said the government would now no longer be able to “use health and road safety as elements in its electoral calculations”.

The setback for the motorcycle lobby comes only two months after the city of Paris introduced fees for parking motorbikes and motorised scooters in the capital, sparking outrage and defiance among bikers.

Since September 1, bikers parking their ride in the historic centre of the capital have to pay three euros (dollars) per hour — two in surrounding neighbourhoods — for a maximum stay of six hours.

While on the ISS, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet watched the "sinister spectacle" of hurricanes, tornadoes and fires storm across Earth

From his unique viewpoint hundreds of kilometres above Earth, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet told AFP he felt helpless watching fires rage across the planet below, calling for more to be done to protect this fragile “island of life”.

Pesquet said his two tours onboard the International Space Station convinced him more than ever that the world is failing to address the threat posed by climate change.

He also witnessed moments of astonishing beauty while in space, some of which are captured in 300 photos published in his new book “La Terre entre nos mains” (Earth is in our Hands), released this week in France, the profits of which will go to charity.

Pesquet wrote that he initially “caught the photo bug” during his first tour on the ISS in 2016-2017. 

But it was during his last mission, from April to November 2021, that he fully embraced the endeavour, taking constant photos and sharing his passion with his colleagues in space.

“At first I was a bit of a Sunday photographer, then I really got a taste for it,” Pesquet told AFP in an interview.

“When you to arrive at the station, you have that smartphone reflex: you see something great and want to immortalise it,” he said. 

“But quickly you are confronted with limitations, if you want to take photos at night, for example, or of precise targets with long lenses,” he added.

“It’s difficult because everything is manual”.

– 245,000 photos –

Around a dozen cameras are available to astronauts on the ISS, some permanently installed on the Cupula observation module, some in the US laboratory which has a porthole looking down on Earth.

Despite only having a few hours of leisure time a day, Pesquet took 245,000 photos during his last tour.

“Many are not very good, but in six months there is a real progression curve,” he said.

Throughout the photos of rivers, oceans, deserts, mountains, sunsets and sunrises, the astronaut’s amazement at the world shines through.

“The planet is so vast and diverse that you still don’t feel like you’ve seen everything. Even after 400 days in orbit, there are still some thing that surprise me, places I haven’t seen,” he said.

The speed of the station, which hurtles through space at 28,000 kilometres an hour, means that “we are never above the same area at the same time of day,” he said.

One day, he was surprised to find out that the northern lights appeared blue from space.

Pesquet only managed to get a photo of the phenomenon because his US colleague Shane Kimbrough told him it was taking place, after spotting it out of his bedroom window.

– ‘Sinister spectacle’ –

But Pesquet did not only witness Earth’s beauty.

He also captured images of a world in a state of degradation: the “sinister spectacle” of hurricanes, tornadoes and fires that stormed across the planet during his second stint of 200 days in space.

Pesquet described himself as a “helpless” witness to the carnage.

“What struck me the most were the fires. We could see the flames and smoke very clearly,” he said, which gave the impression of “the end of the world.”

“Like in the movies,” he watched as entire regions were engulfed. Parts of southern Europe, British Columbia and California were “consumed little by little by a blanket of smoke,” he added.

“I saw the difference just four years made,” he said.

“My first mission was in winter and the second in summer, so it was normal that there were more fires — but overall I saw more violent phenomenona.”

Watching these increasingly extreme weather events, “which we know are linked to climate change, has convinced me that we not doing enough to protect our planet,” Pesquet wrote in the book.

Without science “we would be lost in the face of the magnitude of the challenges” ahead, he said.

“It’s not too late, but the longer we wait…” he trailed off.

“Every year we say ‘now is the time act’ — and it’s the same the next year, we only make small changes without a strong global impact.”

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro walks through the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia after losing his re-election bid

After a stunning political comeback and massive victory party, Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva faced a tough to-do list Monday — complicated by incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who has not acknowledged defeat.

Elected Sunday by the narrowest margin in Brazil’s modern history — 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent — charismatic but tarnished ex-president Lula will now return for an unprecedented third term at the helm of Latin America’s biggest economy on January 1.

After a dirty, divisive campaign that left the country of 215 million people split in two, the 77-year-old leftist icon now faces a laundry list of challenges, including a struggling economy, rampant destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and an energized and angry far-right.

But first, there is the giant question mark over whether Bolsonaro will accept defeat.

The far-right president has not spoken publicly or on his beloved social media accounts since the result was announced, raising fears over how he will react, after months of alleging fraud in the electoral system and a conspiracy against him.

The transition period got off to a tense start as truckers and demonstrators blocked several highways across the country Monday in an apparent pro-Bolsonaro protest, burning tires and parking vehicles in the middle of the road to halt traffic.

Despite the rocky aftermath of the razor-thin runoff election, markets reacted favorably: after dipping slightly, stocks were up 1.2 percent in mid-morning trading in Sao Paulo, and the Brazilian real gained more than two percent against the dollar.

“Lula remains likely to begin his term on a moderate note on economic policy, but risks over economic management will grow over time given a short honeymoon and a tough public opinion environment,” the Eurasia Group consultancy said in a note.

It downplayed the risk of a major power grab by Bolsonaro.

“While the risk of near-term protests remains high, the risk of a serious institutional crisis remains very low,” it said.

– Hope for climate fight –

Lula, who vowed in his victory speech to restore Brazil’s damaged image on the international stage, will meet Monday with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez in Sao Paulo, officials said.

There was meanwhile radio silence from Bolsonaro.

AFP journalists said the former army captain left his official residence without comment Monday morning for the presidential offices, where he was photographed walking down a corridor with a grim face.

There are fears Bolsonaro, 67, could attempt a Brazilian version of the Capitol riots that rocked the United States after his political role model, former US president Donald Trump, refused to accept his election defeat in 2020.

But he may find himself isolated.

Some key Bolsonaro allies have publicly recognized his loss, including the powerful speaker of the lower house of Congress, Arthur Lira.

And international leaders’ congratulations for Lula poured in within hours, sometimes minutes.

The leaders of the US, China, India, France, Britain, South Africa and numerous others sent Lula their congrats.

US President Joe Biden reacted almost immediately, calling the elections “free, fair and credible.”

The European Union’s leadership voiced hope the result would lead to ratification of a trade deal with South American bloc Mercosur, long stalled over concerns about rampant deforestation in the Amazon under Bolsonaro.

Norway announced it would resume paying nearly $500 million in aid for protecting the world’s biggest rainforest, which it halted in 2019 over Bolsonaro’s policies.

“We had a head-on collision with Bolsonaro, whose approach was diametrically opposed (to Lula’s) when it came to deforestation,” Norwegian Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide told AFP.

– Deep divisions –

Lula criticized his nemesis Sunday night for not acknowledging the result.

“Anyplace else in the world, the defeated president would have called me to recognize his defeat,” he said in his victory speech to a euphoric sea of red-clad supporters in Sao Paulo.

The ex-metalworker vowed to work for “peace and unity” in the divided nation.

“The Brazilian people don’t want to fight anymore,” he said.

Easier said than done, according to political analysts.

“It was a very narrow victory… (that left) half the population unhappy,” said political scientist Leandro Consentino of Insper university in Sao Paulo.

“Lula will have to show a lot of political skill to pacify the country.”

Warm October weather has seen many flock to the beach — such as here at Hossegor, southwestern France — but environmentalists see more evidence of climate change

October morning temperatures topping 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in Spain may have brought cheer to the tourists, but they are provoking concern among environmentalists. 

The mercury has been rising well above the norm across vast swathes of Europe, from Spain to as far north as Sweden.

After a summer marked by repeated heatwaves across much of the continent, Europe is experiencing exceptional temperatures even as it heads into November — a sign of accelerating climate change.

“The month has not yet ended but we can already say practically without fear of contradiction that it will be the hottest (in Spain) since 1961,” when records began to be collated, said Ruben del Campo of Spain’s meteorological service Aemet.

If extrapolated data from historical reconstructions is taken into account, he added, this past month will have been Spain’s warmest October for fully a century.

“One, two days above 30 degrees is normal” for Spain, said del Campo. “But so many days, no. These are summer temperatures, whereas we are already heading into autumn.”

On Friday morning, the northern resort of San Sebastian saw the temperature hit 30.3 Celsius at 8:30  am (0630 GMT) — well above the seasonal average.

With forest fires declared in recent days in the Basque region, of which San Sebastian is a part, authorities have banned barbecues and fireworks to keep risks to a minimum.

The unseasonal warm spell has brought a new word into the Spanish lexicon — “verono” — an amalgam of verano (summer) and otono (autumn).

And it has left del Campo highlighting a “notable acceleration” in climate change over the past decade, exposing Spain to increasing creeping desertification.

According to the Climate Central think tank, the Spanish cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Zaragoza are all in the top 10 European cities most affected by global warming on the evidence of the past 12 months.

– Sizzling Spain to Sweden –

Neighbouring France has, like Spain, seen a hotter than normal October. 

Austria meanwhile experienced its warmest ever October, the country’s national weather service said Monday. 

Well to the north, Sweden has been sizzling too —  managing to see a record 19.5 degrees in the southern city of Kristianstad on Friday.

“This is the highest temperature ever recorded in Sweden this late in the year,” Erik Hojgard-Olsen, meteorologist at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), told AFP.

In southwestern France, which also suffered widespread forest fire damage in the summer during repeated heatwaves, Meteo France said Friday temperatures closed in on 30 degrees. 

In Belgium, the capital Brussels saw a maximum forecast of 24 Celsius — fully 10 degrees higher than the norm for late October.

Britain’s Met Office noted Wednesday had seen Londoners enjoy a balmy 20.5 Celsius, “closer to what we would normally see at the end of August rather than the end of October”.

A warm front coming up from the southwest of the continent has also benefited Germany, which has been enjoying temperatures more in keeping with summertime than the onset of November.

“Hard to believe it’s late October as large parts of Europe (and North Africa) see unusual heat,” tweeted the World Meteorological Organization on Friday.

– ‘Not normal’ –

For Ruben del Campo, some people may see an upside in being able to keep the central heating off for now — or even manage an out-of-season trip to the beach.

“But in reality, the consequences are not good,” he said, noting low water levels in reservoirs — bad news for Spain, whose intensive agriculture provides Europe with a hefty proportion of its fruit and vegetables.

Spanish reservoir levels were last week down to 31.8 percent of capacity compared with their decade seasonal average of 49.3 percent.

Residents and tourists alike enjoying the upside of a trip to Barcelona’s beaches said they were aware there was a downside. 

“We are really happy to have this heat — we like it. But it’s not normal,” said Alicia Pesquera, a 43-year-old beauty therapist.

“Of course it concerns us. Right now it should be raining or at least be a bit cool,” said Fernando Raibas, a tourist visiting from the northern region of Galicia.

Rescuers in Mindanao search the deep mud for missing villagers after recovering 20 bodies in recent days

Philippine rescuers on Monday waded through thigh-deep mud using long pieces of wood to search for bodies buried by a landslide, as the death toll from a powerful storm rose to 101.

Just over half of the fatalities were from a series of flash floods and landslides unleashed by Tropical Storm Nalgae, which destroyed villages on the southern island of Mindanao on Friday.

Mindanao is rarely hit by the 20 or so typhoons that strike the Philippines each year, but storms that do reach the region tend to be deadlier than in Luzon and central parts of the country.

There is little hope of finding survivors in the worst-hit areas after the storm swept across the archipelago nation, inundating communities in and around the capital Manila over the weekend.

The national disaster agency has recorded 66 people still missing and scores of others injured.

Perfidia Seguendia, 71, and her family lost all their belongings except the clothes they were wearing when they fled to their neighbour’s two-storey house in Noveleta municipality, south of Manila.

“Everything was flooded — our fridge, washing machine, motorcycle, TV, everything,” Seguendia told AFP.

“All we managed to do was to cry because we can’t really do anything about it. We weren’t able to save anything, just our lives.”

The Philippine Coast Guard posted pictures on Facebook showing its personnel in devastated Kusiong village, in Maguindanao del Norte province of Mindanao, struggling through thick, thigh-deep mud and water as they searched for more bodies.

Kusiong was buried by a massive landslide, which created a huge mound of debris, just below several picturesque mountain peaks.

Rescuers poked long pieces of wood into the morass looking for five missing villagers, after recovering 20 bodies in recent days, the coast guard said.

Twelve of the dead, including seven from one family, were buried Monday in two mass graves dug by a backhoe. 

Mourners, who survived the landslide, laid flowers and candles at the site.  

“We have shifted our operation from search and rescue to retrieval because the chances of survival after two days are almost nil,” said Naguib Sinarimbo, civil defence chief of the Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.

Meanwhile, survivors faced the heartbreaking task of cleaning up their sodden homes.

Residents shovelled mud from their houses and shops after piling their furniture and other belongings in the streets of Noveleta.

“In my entire life living here, it’s the first time we experienced this kind of flooding,” said Joselito Ilano, 55, whose house was flooded by waist-high water.

“I am used to flooding here but this is just the worst, I was caught by surprise.”

– More rain on the way –

President Ferdinand Marcos began touring some of the hard-hit areas on Monday, including Noveleta, as aid agencies rushed food packs, drinking water and other relief to victims.

Marcos said preemptive evacuations in Noveleta had saved lives.

“While the calamity was huge, the number of casualties was not that high, although there’s a lot of damage to infrastructure,” he said.

Nalgae inundated villages, destroyed crops and knocked out power in many regions as it swept across the country.

It struck on an extended weekend for All Saints’ Day, which is on Tuesday, when millions of Filipinos travel to visit the graves of loved ones.

Scientists have warned that deadly and destructive storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change.

The state weather forecaster warned that another tropical storm was heading towards the Philippines even as Nalgae moved across the South China Sea.

Starting Wednesday, the new weather system could bring more heavy rain and misery to southern and central regions badly affected by Nalgae.

Landslides and flash floods originating from largely deforested mountainsides have been among the deadliest hazards posed by storms in the Philippines in recent years. 

Rescuers in Mindanao search the deep mud for missing villagers after recovering 20 bodies in recent days

Philippine rescuers on Monday waded through thigh-deep mud using long pieces of wood to search for bodies buried by a landslide, as the death toll from a powerful storm rose to 98.

Just over half of the fatalities were from a series of flash floods and landslides unleashed by Tropical Storm Nalgae, which destroyed villages on the southern island of Mindanao on Friday.

Mindanao is rarely hit by the 20 or so typhoons that strike the Philippines each year, but storms that do reach the region tend to be deadlier than in Luzon and central parts of the country.

There is little hope of finding survivors in the worst-hit areas after the storm swept across the archipelago nation, inundating communities in and around the capital Manila over the weekend.

The national disaster agency has recorded 63 people still missing and scores of others injured.

Perfidia Seguendia, 71, and her family lost all their belongings except the clothes they were wearing when they fled to their neighbour’s two-storey house in Noveleta municipality, south of Manila.

“Everything was flooded — our fridge, washing machine, motorcycle, TV, everything,” Seguendia told AFP.

“All we managed to do was to cry because we can’t really do anything about it. We weren’t able to save anything, just our lives.”

The Philippine Coast Guard posted pictures on Facebook showing its personnel in devastated Kusiong village, in Maguindanao del Norte province of Mindanao, struggling through thick, thigh-deep mud and water as they searched for more bodies.

Kusiong was buried by a massive landslide, which created a huge mound of debris, just below several picturesque mountain peaks.

Rescuers poked long pieces of wood into the morass looking for five missing villagers, after recovering 20 bodies in recent days, the coast guard said.

Twelve of the dead, including seven from one family, were buried Monday in two mass graves dug by a backhoe. 

Mourners, who survived the landslide, laid flowers and candles at the site.  

“We have shifted our operation from search and rescue to retrieval because the chances of survival after two days are almost nil,” said Naguib Sinarimbo, civil defence chief of the Bangsamoro region in Mindanao.

Meanwhile, survivors faced the heartbreaking task of cleaning up their sodden homes.

Residents shovelled mud from their houses and shops after piling their furniture and other belongings in the streets of Noveleta.

“In my entire life living here, it’s the first time we experienced this kind of flooding,” said Joselito Ilano, 55, whose house was flooded by waist-high water.

“I am used to flooding here but this is just the worst, I was caught by surprise.”

– More rain on the way –

President Ferdinand Marcos began touring some of the hard-hit areas on Monday, including Noveleta, as aid agencies rushed food packs, drinking water and other relief to victims.

Marcos said preemptive evacuations in Noveleta had saved lives.

“While the calamity was huge, the number of casualties was not that high, although there’s a lot of damage to infrastructure,” he said.

Nalgae inundated villages, destroyed crops and knocked out power in many regions as it swept across the country.

It struck on an extended weekend for All Saints’ Day, which is on Tuesday, when millions of Filipinos travel to visit the graves of loved ones.

Scientists have warned that deadly and destructive storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer because of climate change.

The state weather forecaster warned that another tropical storm was heading towards the Philippines even as Nalgae moved across the South China Sea.

Starting Wednesday, the new weather system could bring more heavy rain and misery to southern and central regions badly affected by Nalgae.

Landslides and flash floods originating from largely deforested mountainsides have been among the deadliest hazards posed by storms in the Philippines in recent years.