Category: Uncategorized

Firefighters have extinguished a massive blaze that was burning in the historic mosque-turned-cathedral in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba.

The “rapid and magnificent intervention” of firefighters “averted a catastrophe,” Cordoba Mayor Jose Mara Bellido posted on X.

The fire is out, he said, adding that firefighters and police would remain on site overnight.

A spokesman for the cathedral confirmed to AFP news agency that the site had reopened to the public on Saturday morning.

Widely shared videos had shown flames and smoke billowing from inside the monument, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 and is a major tourist attraction.

The blaze broke out around 9 p.m. local time (19:00 GMT) in one of the chapels in the Almanzor naves, according to Spain‘s El Mundo newspaper.

It may have been caused by a short circuit in an electric sweeper, El Mundo and local media reported without elaborating on why.

Three fire teams managed to control the fire and extinguished it within a short period.

After putting the fire out, firefighters continued to cool the monument’s walls and roofs to prevent the fire from reigniting, El Mundo said.

Now a cathedral, the building was originally a mosque between the 8th and 10th centuries that is considered a jewel of Islamic architecture.

After Christians reconquered Spain in the 13th century under King Ferdinand III of Castile, the building was converted into a cathedral and architectural alterations were made over following centuries.

The blaze evoked memories of the 2019 fire that ravaged Notre Dame in Paris, which formally reopenedin late 2024.

Edited by: Sean Sinico

Firefighters have extinguished a massive blaze that was burning in the historic mosque-turned-cathedral in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba.

The “rapid and magnificent intervention” of firefighters “averted a catastrophe,” Cordoba Mayor Jose Mara Bellido posted on X.

The fire is out, he said, adding that firefighters and police would remain on site overnight.

A spokesman for the cathedral confirmed to AFP news agency that the site had reopened to the public on Saturday morning.

Widely shared videos had shown flames and smoke billowing from inside the monument, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 and is a major tourist attraction.

The blaze broke out around 9 p.m. local time (19:00 GMT) in one of the chapels in the Almanzor naves, according to Spain‘s El Mundo newspaper.

It may have been caused by a short circuit in an electric sweeper, El Mundo and local media reported without elaborating on why.

Three fire teams managed to control the fire and extinguished it within a short period.

After putting the fire out, firefighters continued to cool the monument’s walls and roofs to prevent the fire from reigniting, El Mundo said.

Now a cathedral, the building was originally a mosque between the 8th and 10th centuries that is considered a jewel of Islamic architecture.

After Christians reconquered Spain in the 13th century under King Ferdinand III of Castile, the building was converted into a cathedral and architectural alterations were made over following centuries.

The blaze evoked memories of the 2019 fire that ravaged Notre Dame in Paris, which formally reopenedin late 2024.

Edited by: Sean Sinico

The southern Japanese city of Nagasaki on Saturday marked 80 years since the US atomic attack that killed tens of thousands and left survivors who hope their harrowing memories can help make their hometown the last place on Earth to be hit by a nuclear bomb.

The United States launched the Nagasaki attack on August 9, 1945, killing 70,000 by the end of that year, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima that killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, ending World War II and the country’s nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.

About 2,600 people, including representatives from more than 90 countries, attended a memorial event at Nagasaki Peace Park, where Mayor Shiro Suzuki and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba spoke, among other guests. At 11:02 a.m., the exact time when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki, participants observed a moment of silence as a bell rang.

Israeli Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen participated in the commemorations a year after he was snubbed over the war in Gaza.

Dozens of doves, a symbol of peace, were released after a speech by Suzuki. He said the city’s memories of the bombing are “a common heritage and should be passed down for generations” in and outside Japan.

“The existential crisis of humanity has become imminent to each and every one of us living on Earth,” Suzuki said. “In order to make Nagasaki the last atomic bombing site now and forever, we will go hand-in-hand with global citizens and devote our utmost efforts toward the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of everlasting world peace.”

Praying for nuclear abolition and no war

Survivors and their families gathered Saturday in rainy weather at Peace Park and nearby Hypocenter Park, located below the bomb’s exact detonation spot, hours before the official ceremony.

“I simply seek a world without war,” said Koichi Kawano, an 85-year-old survivor who laid flowers at the Hypocenter monument decorated with colorful paper cranes and other offerings.

Some others prayed at churches in Nagasaki, home to Catholic converts who went deep underground during centuries of violent persecution in Japan’s feudal era.

The twin bells at Urakami Cathedral, which was destroyed in the bombing, also rang together again after one of the bells that had gone missing following the attack was restored by volunteers.

Despite their pain from wounds, discrimination and illnesses from radiation, survivors have publicly committed to a shared goal of abolishing nuclear weapons. But they worry about the world moving in the opposite direction.

Survivors put their hopes in younger hands

Aging survivors and their supporters in Nagasaki now put their hopes of achieving nuclear weapons abolition in the hands of younger people, telling them the attack is not distant history, but an issue that remains relevant to their future.

“There are only two things I long for: the abolition of nuclear weapons and the prohibition of war,” survivor Fumi Takeshita said. “I only see a world where nuclear weapons are never used and everyone can live in peace.”

In hopes of passing on the lessons of history, Takeshita visits schools to share her experience with children.

“When you grow up and remember what you learned today, please think about what each of you can do to prevent war,” Takeshita, 83, told students during a school visit earlier this week.

Teruko Yokoyama, an 83-year-old member of a Nagasaki organization supporting survivors, said she feels the absence of those she has worked with, which fuels her strong desire to document the lives of remaining survivors.

The number of survivors has fallen to 99,130, about a quarter of the original number, with their average age exceeding 86. Survivors worry about fading memories, as the youngest of the survivors were too young to recall the attack clearly.

“We must keep records of the atomic bombing damages of the survivors and their lifetime story,” said Yokoyama, whose two sisters died after suffering illnesses linked to radiation.

Her organization has started to digitalize the narratives of survivors for viewing on YouTube and other social media platforms with the help of a new generation.

“There are younger people who are beginning to take action,” Yokoyama told The Associated Press on Friday. “So I think we don’t have to get depressed yet.”

Nagasaki hosted a “peace forum” on Friday where survivors shared their stories with more than 300 young people from around the country. Seiichiro Mise, a 90-year-old survivor, said he is handing seeds of “flowers of peace” to the younger generation in hopes of seeing them bloom.

Survivors are frustrated by a growing nuclear threat and support among international leaders for developing or possessing nuclear weapons for deterrence. They criticize the Japanese government’s refusal to sign or even participate in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons because Japan, as an American ally, needs US nuclear possession as deterrence.

In Ishiba’s speech, the Japanese prime minister reiterated his country’s pursuit of a nuclear-free world and pledged to promote dialogue and cooperation between countries with nuclear weapons and non-nuclear states at the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons review conference scheduled for April and May 2026 in New York City. Ishiba, however, did not mention the nuclear weapons ban treaty.

Israeli envoy attends a year after controversy

The ceremony in Nagasaki last year stirred controversy due to the absence of the US ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city’s refusal to invite Cohen.

Suzuki, the mayor of Nagasaki said at the time that Cohen was not invited due to the fear of protests against the Israel-Hamas war. Cohen, for his part, said the snub “sends a wrong message” and accused Suzuki of “hijacking this ceremony for his political motivations.”

On Friday, Cohen shared on X a photo of himself laying a wreath in Nagasaki “to mourn the dead and honor their memory.”

“On behalf of the State of Israel, I express heartfelt solidarity with the people of Nagasaki,” he wrote. “We join Japan and the international community in remembrance and in our shared pursuit of peace.”

Today I laid a wreath in Nagasaki to mourn the dead and honor their memory.
On behalf of the State of Israel, I express heartfelt solidarity with the people of Nagasaki.
We join Japan and the international community in remembrance and in our shared pursuit of peace. pic.twitter.com/gdVzpOx3NT

— Gilad Cohen ????????????️ (@GiladCohen_) August 8, 2025

This year, Nagasaki invited representatives from all countries to attend the ceremony.

Nearly 100 countries were set to participate, including Russia, which had not been invited since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

China notably notified the city it would not be present, without providing a reason.

The southern Japanese city of Nagasaki on Saturday marked 80 years since the US atomic attack that killed tens of thousands and left survivors who hope their harrowing memories can help make their hometown the last place on Earth to be hit by a nuclear bomb.

The United States launched the Nagasaki attack on August 9, 1945, killing 70,000 by the end of that year, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima that killed 140,000. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, ending World War II and the country’s nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.

About 2,600 people, including representatives from more than 90 countries, attended a memorial event at Nagasaki Peace Park, where Mayor Shiro Suzuki and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba spoke, among other guests. At 11:02 a.m., the exact time when the plutonium bomb exploded above Nagasaki, participants observed a moment of silence as a bell rang.

Israeli Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen participated in the commemorations a year after he was snubbed over the war in Gaza.

Dozens of doves, a symbol of peace, were released after a speech by Suzuki. He said the city’s memories of the bombing are “a common heritage and should be passed down for generations” in and outside Japan.

“The existential crisis of humanity has become imminent to each and every one of us living on Earth,” Suzuki said. “In order to make Nagasaki the last atomic bombing site now and forever, we will go hand-in-hand with global citizens and devote our utmost efforts toward the abolition of nuclear weapons and the realization of everlasting world peace.”

Praying for nuclear abolition and no war

Survivors and their families gathered Saturday in rainy weather at Peace Park and nearby Hypocenter Park, located below the bomb’s exact detonation spot, hours before the official ceremony.

“I simply seek a world without war,” said Koichi Kawano, an 85-year-old survivor who laid flowers at the Hypocenter monument decorated with colorful paper cranes and other offerings.

Some others prayed at churches in Nagasaki, home to Catholic converts who went deep underground during centuries of violent persecution in Japan’s feudal era.

The twin bells at Urakami Cathedral, which was destroyed in the bombing, also rang together again after one of the bells that had gone missing following the attack was restored by volunteers.

Despite their pain from wounds, discrimination and illnesses from radiation, survivors have publicly committed to a shared goal of abolishing nuclear weapons. But they worry about the world moving in the opposite direction.

Survivors put their hopes in younger hands

Aging survivors and their supporters in Nagasaki now put their hopes of achieving nuclear weapons abolition in the hands of younger people, telling them the attack is not distant history, but an issue that remains relevant to their future.

“There are only two things I long for: the abolition of nuclear weapons and the prohibition of war,” survivor Fumi Takeshita said. “I only see a world where nuclear weapons are never used and everyone can live in peace.”

In hopes of passing on the lessons of history, Takeshita visits schools to share her experience with children.

“When you grow up and remember what you learned today, please think about what each of you can do to prevent war,” Takeshita, 83, told students during a school visit earlier this week.

Teruko Yokoyama, an 83-year-old member of a Nagasaki organization supporting survivors, said she feels the absence of those she has worked with, which fuels her strong desire to document the lives of remaining survivors.

The number of survivors has fallen to 99,130, about a quarter of the original number, with their average age exceeding 86. Survivors worry about fading memories, as the youngest of the survivors were too young to recall the attack clearly.

“We must keep records of the atomic bombing damages of the survivors and their lifetime story,” said Yokoyama, whose two sisters died after suffering illnesses linked to radiation.

Her organization has started to digitalize the narratives of survivors for viewing on YouTube and other social media platforms with the help of a new generation.

“There are younger people who are beginning to take action,” Yokoyama told The Associated Press on Friday. “So I think we don’t have to get depressed yet.”

Nagasaki hosted a “peace forum” on Friday where survivors shared their stories with more than 300 young people from around the country. Seiichiro Mise, a 90-year-old survivor, said he is handing seeds of “flowers of peace” to the younger generation in hopes of seeing them bloom.

Survivors are frustrated by a growing nuclear threat and support among international leaders for developing or possessing nuclear weapons for deterrence. They criticize the Japanese government’s refusal to sign or even participate in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons because Japan, as an American ally, needs US nuclear possession as deterrence.

In Ishiba’s speech, the Japanese prime minister reiterated his country’s pursuit of a nuclear-free world and pledged to promote dialogue and cooperation between countries with nuclear weapons and non-nuclear states at the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons review conference scheduled for April and May 2026 in New York City. Ishiba, however, did not mention the nuclear weapons ban treaty.

Israeli envoy attends a year after controversy

The ceremony in Nagasaki last year stirred controversy due to the absence of the US ambassador and other Western envoys in response to the Japanese city’s refusal to invite Cohen.

Suzuki, the mayor of Nagasaki said at the time that Cohen was not invited due to the fear of protests against the Israel-Hamas war. Cohen, for his part, said the snub “sends a wrong message” and accused Suzuki of “hijacking this ceremony for his political motivations.”

On Friday, Cohen shared on X a photo of himself laying a wreath in Nagasaki “to mourn the dead and honor their memory.”

“On behalf of the State of Israel, I express heartfelt solidarity with the people of Nagasaki,” he wrote. “We join Japan and the international community in remembrance and in our shared pursuit of peace.”

Today I laid a wreath in Nagasaki to mourn the dead and honor their memory.
On behalf of the State of Israel, I express heartfelt solidarity with the people of Nagasaki.
We join Japan and the international community in remembrance and in our shared pursuit of peace. pic.twitter.com/gdVzpOx3NT

— Gilad Cohen ????????????️ (@GiladCohen_) August 8, 2025

This year, Nagasaki invited representatives from all countries to attend the ceremony.

Nearly 100 countries were set to participate, including Russia, which had not been invited since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

China notably notified the city it would not be present, without providing a reason.

As of August 8, 197 people, including 96 children, have died of famine in Gaza as a result of Israel’s blockade and military offensive, according to Gaza health authorities.

UN-backed health monitors have said some 100,000 Palestinian women and children are facing severe malnutrition, and a third of the population of 2.1 million hasn’t eaten in days. 

Gaza isn’t the only place where conflicts are driving catastrophic hunger. In Sudan, international agencies claim 3.2 million children under the age of 5 will suffer from acute malnutrition in the next year. People under siege in El Fasher, in North Dafur, have been starving for the past year.

In Nigeria, where funding from international donors has been cut, malnutrition has led to the deaths of 625 children in the first six months of 2025. Haiti, Mali and Yemen are among other countries experiencing catastrophic hunger.

But treating hunger crises can be more difficult than it seems, and requires more than just a regular supply of healthy food. Health experts have warned that refeeding programs for malnourished people can have fatal complications if done without proper care.

“If you reintroduce things quickly, you get a very rapid change of electrolytes and that can cause sudden death,” said Marko Kerac, a pediatrician and clinical researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK.

That’s why a return to proper nutrition needs to be carefully managed, Kerac told DW.

What is refeeding syndrome and why is it dangerous?

Refeeding syndrome can occur if some malnourished people resume normal eating too quickly.

People with kidney failure, eating disorders, depression and alcohol issues are most susceptible to refeeding syndrome.

The problem arises after the malnourished body has adapted to reduced nutrition. By slowing its metabolism and organ function to deal with catastrophic hunger, the body is ill equipped to deal with a sudden flood of nutrients.

“When you’re really [nutritionally] compromised … when you’re really sick, that’s when the risk of refeeding syndrome happens,” said Kerac.

The sudden arrival of vitamins and electrolytes like potassium, phosphorus and magnesium can disrupt critical organ processes and lead to arrhythmia — an irregular heartbeat — which can be fatal.

What happens to the body during starvation?

Starvation begins when people don’t get enough calories to keep up with the body’s energy demands.

The loss of adequate nutrition denies the body essential materials needed to produce hormones and enzymes that keep the body functioning. To compensate for the calorie deficit, the body slows down metabolic processes and organ activity.

In the first two days without food, the body’s carbohydrate stores are depleted. After three days, the body starts converting vital fats and proteins into emergency fuel. This is when people begin to experience muscle wasting, severe fatigue and a weakened immune system.

Death from starvation occurs most commonly due to an infection the body is too weak to fight, or from organ failure.

What do experts say needs to happen?  

The first step is to introduce food or nutrition slowly, what Kerac calls “stabilization feeds.” This can include things like special milk formulations and ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs).

Aid organizations supply RUTFs like Plumpy’Nut, a fortified peanut paste, to help prevent refeeding syndrome in famine regions.

“[RUTFs] are paradoxically quite light in nutrients, but are specially formulated. They have low sodium, higher potassium, higher phosphate,” said Kerac.

RUTFs are designed to deliver essential nutrition specifically for severely malnourished children at a dosage that doesn’t overload their bodies and risk refeeding syndrome. A child given three sachets of Plumpy’Nut a day could recover from severe acute malnutrition in eight weeks.

“RUTFs [can] prevent refeeding syndrome in settings where you cannot monitor for refeeding syndrome,” said Wieger Voskuijl and Hanaa Benjeddi, pediatricians at the Amsterdam University Medical Center who have delivered medical services in conflict zones and refugee camps.

Researchers have also looked to other RUTF products that can be prepared closer to African and Asian sites, where rates of food insecurity are highest.

These products include ones made from chickpeas, mung beans, maize and lentils, foods grown locally that could potentially help to reduce production costs and allergy risk.

Safe resumption of aid in famine regions ‘needs international pressure’

Food crisis experts have predicted “widespread death” if action is not taken to alleviate hunger in these regions. 

The crucial part of supplying food aid to regions of catastrophic hunger is delivering food and RUTFs in the right way by allowing aid services into regions like Gaza and Sudan, Voskuijl and Benjeddi told DW.

“The crux and the issue is that preventing refeeding syndrome is almost impossible in settings with high demand and a low amount of health care workers or aid workers,” they said.

Voskuijl and Benjeddi said governments in famine-hit regions need to prioritize safe conditions for aid agencies to resume their work and prevent a humanitarian crisis.

“And that needs international pressure. If we look at Gaza, but also Sudan, these are two governments that are denying such access to malnourished children and pregnant women.”

Edited by: Fred Schwaller