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‘The current could kill an elephant’: Asia flood survivors describe escaping with their lives

Aminah Ali, 63, was at home in the Pidie Jaya district of Indonesia’s Aceh province when the rains started at midnight on Wednesday. The waters rose gradually. It seemed like the usual flooding that happens during monsoon season, but then came a loud roar of water: her village was suddenly inundated. With help from her son, she managed to clamber on to her rooftop, where she waited for 24 hours. Flood waters, 3 metres high, stretched into the distance. “I saw many houses being swept away,” she said. “Now my house is ruined, full of mud. I never imagined a situation like this. Now I only have one shirt left, I don’t even have any underwear, all my possessions are gone.” The monsoon season often brings heavy rains that can cause flooding or trigger landslides, but the levels witnessed over recent days are far more devastating. More than 1,100 people have now been killed across the region after seasonal rains combined with tropical cyclones to inundate Indonesia’s Sumatra island – where more than 600 people were killed – Sri Lanka, southern Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. Busra Ishak, 60, also from Pidie Jaya, lost his house, which was swept away without a trace by the force of the waters. “There were hundreds of tons of logs [in the water], and even an elephant could be killed by the incredibly strong current,” he said. He survived by swimming and grabbing on to a coconut tree, where he stayed for more than 12 hours. One of his older sisters was killed. He still hasn’t been able to tell relatives outside Aceh province because electricity and phone lines are down. Natchanun Insuwano was among those stranded in Hat Yai, one of the hardest hit areas in Southern Thailand, a region where at least 176 have been killed. He waited, waist deep in water, on the first floor of his flooded home, while his parents balanced precariously through a window, leaning on metal roofing. He was too afraid to perch alongside them, nervous the roof panels below might collapse. “I could see the current in the water was so strong,” he said. Sofas, TV and home appliances rushed past in the muddy waters. From Sunday 23 November to Tuesday 25, Natchanun and his parents had just one bottle of water to share. “I looked in the sky to see if a helicopter or drone might drop some food,” he said. Nothing came. “It rained all night so we were so cold with the rain and wind.” He messaged every hotline he could see and posted on social media to ask for help. The family had listened to the advice of the local authority, which had suggested the water levels would be manageable. When a national disaster agency told residents to evacuate, it was too late – waters had already rapidly reached chest-level. The failure of Thai authorities to give adequate warning has been strongly criticised. On Tuesday morning, Natchanun was able to flag down a nearby volunteer rescue boat after shouting at the top of his lungs. “My mom was very weak and unconscious. I just knew we needed to get out of this place so I shouted and shouted,” said Natchanun. His mother, who was carried out on a stretcher and given first aid, has recovered. They still haven’t returned home, he said. Water has not been restored, and everything is caked in mud. Chutikan Panpit, 32, who also lives in Hat Yai, believes it is a miracle she is alive. She had walked on to her terrace to check water levels when she was bitten by a Malayan pit viper. Waters were so high that she could not reach a hospital for 32 hours. The pain was worse than childbirth, she said. “I was scared of dying. My son just turned one. He just learned how to say ‘mummy’ a few days earlier. In the [rescue] boat I was so scared but I just thought of my son’s face,” she said. The current was so strong that rescuers told her to hold on tightly as they accelerated rapidly to move through the surges of water. “With this snake (a Malayan pit viper) and 32 hours, people say either you die or have to amputate the leg,” she said. “My parents were so scared, they prayed and prayed and tried everything to wish for me to be safe.” Waters have now receded in Hat Yai, though the scale of the recovery and clean-up work needed is immense. Tens of thousands of homes are damaged. Debris – broken, muddied furniture, strips of wood and rubbish – is strewn in the streets. Many residents have lost almost all their belongings. Today, just the sound of rain is enough to induce panic. On Sumatra, the largest Indonesian island, at least 11 bridges connecting different regions and sections of the national highway have been cut off. Some villages are still completely inaccessible by road. Even in areas that have been reached by recovery teams, local people say they do not have enough food or clean water. Many flood victims remain at rescue shelters, relying mostly on donors in the community for food and drinks. Others are trying to salvage what remains. Busra has gone to his brother’s home to try to clean and protect his valuables. The disaster is far worse than any flooding in previous years, he said: “This year’s flood is the worst tragedy in history.”

Zelenskyy sets out Ukraine’s red lines in press conference with Macron – as it happened

… and on that note, it’s a wrap! The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said she fears talks between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will pile pressure on Ukraine to make concessions with the two men expected to meet on Tuesday (14:47, 14:52). Her comments came as Emmanuel Macron’s held talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris (11:05, 16:33, 17:22), with the pair insisting that no decisions about Ukraine can be made without Ukraine and Europe at the table, and calls to put more pressure on Moscow instead (16:41, 16:45, 16:55, 17:07). The talks were followed by a series of phone calls with European leaders and Witkoff to coordinate before tomorrow’s talks (15:14, 15:16, 15:26). The Netherlands has announced plans to make an additional contribution of €250m to the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, programme of Nato purchases of US weapons for Ukraine (18:45). These developments come as the Russian army made its biggest advance in Ukraine for a year in November, an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed (14:20). In other news, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk and German chancellor Friedrich Merz sought to stress the close relationship between the two countries despite their difficult past (15:24, 15:51), but the unresolved questions around the memory and the compensation for the second world war still dominated their press conference after high-level talks in Berlin (15:55, 16:13, 16:27, 16:36). Lithuania has complained of “unacceptable” disruptions in it airspace after Vilnius airport once again had to temporarily close down due to smugglers balloons from Belarus, causing widespread travel disruption (10:43), with calls to impose further sanctions on Minsk in retaliation (17:57). And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Mexican authorities kill one of country’s top fentanyl traffickers

Mexican authorities have killed one of the country’s top fentanyl traffickers, accused of importing tens of thousands of kilos of the drug into the US and wanted by the US authorities on narco-terrorism charges. Pedro Inzunza Coronel, alias “El Pichón”, (The Pigeon) was killed on Sunday during an anti-drug operation by the Mexican navy in the north-western state of Sinaloa. “Two operators of this criminal cell were detained and upon attacking the naval personnel, Pedro ‘N’ Pichón lost his life,” said Omar García Harfuch, Mexico’s security secretary on X. Along with his father, Pedro Inzunza Noriega, Coronel was one of Mexico’s top fentanyl traffickers. Last year, Mexican authorities raided multiple locations controlled by the duo and seized more than 1.65 tons of the drug – the largest seizure of fentanyl in the world. In May, the US Department of Justice charged the father and son with narco-terrorism in connection with trafficking “massive” amounts of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin into the US. They were also charged with money laundering. The indictment for narco-terrorism was “the first in the nation,” according to the US attorney’s office for the southern district of California. US authorities claimed that “together the father and son lead one of the largest and most sophisticated fentanyl production networks in the world,” and had “trafficked tens of thousands of kilograms of fentanyl into the United States.” Coronel and Noriega were key leaders of the Beltran Leyva Organization, a once powerful and violent faction of the Sinaloa Cartel that is now believed defunct, although its splinter groups continue to operate across Mexico. According to Mexican media, Coronel was the righthand man of Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, alias “El Chapo Isidro”, leader of the Guasave Cartel, a splinter group of the Beltrán Leyva Organization. In February, Meza-Flores was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List. During the operation on Sunday, Mexican authorities located several drug laboratories where they seized weapons, vehicles, drugs, and chemical precursors. Ronald Johnson, the US ambassador to Mexico, celebrated the operation and said in a post on X that Coronel was accused of multiple crimes, including “murders, kidnappings, torture, and violent debt collection for drug trafficking.” “These results reflect what our nations can achieve when they work together against those who pose a threat to our citizens,” Johnson wrote.

Enver Solomon restores our faith in Britain | Letters

A brilliant interview as always from Zoe Williams (‘We thought the Rwanda scheme was the worst of it’: Enver Solomon on leading – and leaving – the Refugee Council, 24 November). I only wish this wonderful man had the fortitude to continue in this role, but I can understand why he would feel the need to move on after five years working within the confines of the political arena of “modern” Britain. It exhausts and depresses me just reading about the lack of compassion and basic humanity shown by recent governments. I lost faith in and left the Labour party after decades as a believer that “things could only get better”. Now, as a 75-year-old retiree, I am beginning to realise that politicians cannot make things better, but the Enver Solomons of this world can. He restores my faith in the fact that the country is not all bad when we have such amazing people carrying out such extraordinary roles. I am fortunate enough to have seven beautiful grandchildren, four of whom are the offspring of my son and a wonderful Punjabi girl who we welcomed into our family 17 years ago. I cannot possibly comprehend the thought that they could feel at all threatened. What sort of country am I living in? I naively thought that this horrific attitude to anyone who is seen as having a different culture was a product of an ignorant dying breed. I now know that’s not true when a government I had so much faith in includes a speech about an “island of strangers” and now talks of vulnerable refugees and immigrants as if they are nothing. It’s only by reading about people such as Solomon – and I have faith that there are many more – that I don’t spend my time in despair about where Britain is heading. Linda Payne Leatherhead, Surrey • Enver Solomon’s mother’s South African background, which I share as a former exile, reflects our current first world’s not-so-hidden aims. The primary task of apartheid South Africa was, though, the use of its infamous pass laws system, enabling a world of privilege to keep out, but also use, a poor population to bolster its lifestyle and maintain wealth. This is now the case for the global first world too. In an excellent Guardian article several weeks ago about how Spain is progressively going about managing this dilemma in a far more humane way than apartheid South Africa did, it pays seasonal and other essential workers reasonably on the condition that they return to their country of origin when their tasks are completed, with the proviso that they can return. While nowhere near what I would wish for in sharing the world’s wealth and resources equitably, it at least offers some direction apart from the punitive politicising of refugees who understandably wish to better their lives and that of their families. The poverty of most refugees’ lives back home is beyond the imagination of most of us in our privileged societies that are still reaping rewards from our countries’ exploitative pasts. Peter Speyer London • Thank God there are still people like Enver Solomon in the world. The narrative around asylum seekers is chilling. I have totally lost support of Labour – I don’t even recognise it as the party I have supported all my life. It’s hard to feel positive about the future of the people who have left desperate situations to gain hope for themselves and their children. My heart sinks. Jo Davis Brighton, East Sussex

A ‘feminised workplace’ doesn’t mean what you think it means | Letter

As researchers working on the topic of feminised work, it is dismaying to see the anti-feminist definition of that term – advanced by conservative thinkers like Helen Andrews – gaining traction (Horror stories of a “feminised workplace” mask the real crisis in male identity, 24 November). If we understand “feminisation” to mean that contemporary workplaces are overwhelmed by women and their allegedly excessive emotions and touchy-feely refusal to compete, then it is easy to see why it might not seem to merit much thought. But there is an alternative, critical and feminist definition of the term. “Feminisation” in this sense describes the central role played by gender in the transformations of work over the past decades, from the decline of conventionally masculine forms of work in heavy industry to the rise of the service economy and the problematic idea that women’s participation in paid labour is a measure of gender equality. This critical use of “feminisation” makes visible the ways that contemporary capitalism exploits our ideas about gender. The point is not to reiterate gender stereotypes (the fallacy that women are more naturally caring than men, for example), or to suggest that feminisation is something to be either entirely celebrated or entirely critiqued. It is certainly not to suggest that any field in which women predominate is likely to be weakened (an assumption behind much of the rightwing use of the term). In critiquing the “great feminisation” thesis, we should be careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater: a feminist approach to the topic reveals that pay, working hours and working conditions are inseparably connected with the ways we define femininity and masculinity. Accurately describing gendered working conditions is the first step in making them more equitable for all. Dr Emily J Hogg, Dr Charlotte J Fabricius (editors of Feminized Work and the Labor of Literature) and Dr Ida Aaskov Dolmer University of Southern Denmark, Odense

US-Russia talks may pile pressure on Kyiv to make concessions, says EU foreign policy chief

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said she fears talks between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will pile pressure on Ukraine to make concessions with the two men expected to meet on Tuesday. Witkoff, the property developer turned envoy recently exposed for coaching Russian officials on how to win Trump’s favour, is arriving in Moscow after leading a US delegation in talks with Ukraine at the weekend, nearly four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. “I am afraid that all the pressure will be put on the victim, which is that Ukraine has to make concessions and obligations,” Kallas said of the upcoming Witkoff-Putin meeting. “Whereas in order to have peace, we shouldn’t lose focus that it’s actually Russia who has started this war and Russia that is continuing this war and Russia that is really targeting civilians, civilian infrastructure every single day to cause as much damage as possible.” European leaders have been alarmed by a US plan, heavily tilted in Russia’s favour, that emerged last month to end the war. It included granting Moscow territories in eastern Ukraine it did not yet control, while forcing Kyiv to cap the size of its army and abandon its ambition to join Nato. While the plan has since been changed, Ukraine’s European allies remain concerned about any plan that could enshrine the forced change of borders and fail to punish war crimes. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on a diplomatic push to rally support from European allies, on Monday said Russia must not be rewarded for its invasion. “We also need to ensure that Russia itself does not perceive anything it could consider as a reward for this war,” he said a joint press conference with the French president, Emmanuel Macron. The Ukrainian leader held calls with a dozen other leaders, including the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. Zelenskyy said talks with the French president had lasted several hours and the main focus was on negotiations to end the war and on security guarantees. “Peace must become truly durable. The war must end as soon as possible,” he wrote on X. From Paris the pair also spoke to Witkoff and Rustem Umerov, the head of the Ukrainian delegation during talks with the US. Macron said that only Ukraine could decide on its territories in peace negotiations with Russia and that Europeans must be at the negotiating table to ensure security guarantees for Ukraine. Merz, speaking alongside the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, after his call with Zelenskyy, said there must be “no dictated peace” in Ukraine and that Kyiv and its European allies must be involved in any deal to end the war. “We have a clear course of action: no decision on Ukraine and Europe without Ukrainians and without Europeans,” he said. Kallas, who said the push to end the war in Ukraine could be entering a “pivotal week” warned that allowing Russia to change borders by force would set a dangerous precedent for the whole world. Earlier in the day she had described weekend talks held in Florida between the US and Ukraine as “difficult but productive”. Asked whether she trusted the US to find a good solution for Ukraine, she said: “Ukrainians are there alone. If they would be together with the Europeans, they would definitely be much stronger but I trust that Ukrainians stand up for themselves.” Zelenskyiy suggested that Ukrainian and US negotiators had not yet fully hammered out revisions to the proposed US plan. He said on Monday there were “some tough issues that still have to be worked through”. Witkoff is expected to arrive in Russia with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, . Putin’s spokesperson did not specify whether Kushner, who played an active role in negotiations over the Gaza peace deal, would also attend the meeting with the Russian president. The two trusted Trump envoys participated in the weekend talks between senior Ukrainian and US officials that took place in Florida at a private golf club developed by Witkoff’s company. After the meeting, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, expressed optimism for an end to the war. “There’s more work to be done. This is delicate,” Rubio said. “There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there’s another party involved here … that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week, when Mr Witkoff travels to Moscow.” Ukraine’s president is under pressure after the sudden resignation of his head of cabinet and closest adviser, Andriy Yermak, in response to a widening anti-corruption investigation that has become the most serious scandal of Zelenskyy’s presidency. The Ukrainian leader is meanwhile expected to make his first official visit to Ireland on Tuesday, while his defence minister, Denys Shmyhal, was in Brussels on Monday for talks with his EU counterparts. Shmyhal said he had informed defence ministers about “the most urgent needs of our soldiers” primarily in air defences. He welcomed an announcement from the Netherlands that it would contribute another €250m to the Nato initiative to buy weapons and ammunition for Ukraine from the United States. The flurry of diplomatic activity came as a study showed that Russia made its biggest advances in Ukraine for a year in November. The Russian army captured 701 sq km (270 sq miles), the second-largest territorial advance of the war after November 2024 according to an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War. The study excluded the initial months of the war when the frontline was highly mobile.

Israeli settlers attack and rob Italian and Canadian volunteers in West Bank

Italy and Canada have raised concerns about the treatment of their citizens who were beaten and robbed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Three Italians and a Canadian were attacked early on Sunday morning in the village of Ein al-Duyuk, near Jericho, where they had volunteered to help protect the Palestinian population from intensifying settler violence. All four were hospitalised and one, an Italian man, was still receiving care in Ramallah on Monday for more substantial injuries. In a written account, the Canadian said: “At 4.30am on 30 November, 10 masked settlers, two carrying army-issued rifles, burst into the home where we were sleeping after night-watch. “They beat us for about 15 minutes. I was repeatedly kicked in the head, ribs, hips and thighs. They shouted insults at us in Arabic and told us we had no right to be there. They smashed the interior of the house and destroyed the solar batteries before leaving.” The woman, who did not want her name published for safety reasons, added: “This is not about us. We were beaten for 15 minutes. Palestinians here endure this violence every day, every hour, a thousand-fold.” The pace and intensity of attacks in Ein al-Duyuk have increased substantially over the past two months since the establishment of a settler outpost nearby and the arrival of young and aggressive settlers. Activists say that violent incidents have become an almost daily occurrence. Attacks have included settler mobs breaking into homes and beating villagers, stealing 200 sheep, two cars and destroying solar panels. While all settlements on occupied territory are illegal under international law, irregular outposts are illegal under Israeli law. Ein al-Duyuk is in Area A of the West Bank, which means it is meant to be administered by the Palestinian Authority and illegal for Israelis to enter. The Canadian foreign ministry said it “strongly condemns the violent acts committed by extremist settlers and opposes any actions or talk about annexation of the Palestinian territories”. The Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, told reporters: “We have had enough of this aggression. This is not the way [for the settlers] to assert their rights.” The Israeli authorities in the West Bank have been approached for comment. Villagers and activists say there has been no meaningful police intervention to stop the attacks or dismantle the outpost. Leading members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition actively support West Bank settlers. According to UN figures, Israeli settlers and security forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, including 233 children, in the West Bank over the past two years, in what many Israeli and Palestinian observers believe is a concerted campaign of violence aimed at seizing territory. Manal Tamimi, a Palestinian activist in the organisation Faz3a, which recruits foreign volunteers to help protect Palestinian villages in the West Bank, said: “In the two months since they built a new outpost near the village, they have brought in far-right wing settlers, who are very violent and seem to belong to an organised group, because they attacked the volunteers in a really organised way. “The people there are very resilient and they refuse to leave the area. That’s why it’s very important to put international volunteers with them.” The Canadian volunteer said that, despite the attack and her injury, she felt the presence of volunteers in Ein al-Duyuk had been valuable. “The villagers stood taller while we were present,” she said. “The children played freely. People slept through the night. That alone made our presence worthwhile.”

Frozen-in tenor: Italian mayor apologises over Pavarotti statue stuck in ice rink

An Italian mayor has apologised to the family of Luciano Pavarotti after a Christmas ice rink entrapped a statue of the legendary opera singer – and skaters were invited to “give [him] a high five”. The lifesize bronze, featuring Pavarotti wearing a tuxedo with his arms outstretched and holding a handkerchief in one hand, was unveiled to much fanfare last year in a square in the centre of Pesaro, a coastal city in the Marche region. The statue was intended as a tribute to the late tenor, who had a home and honorary citizenship in Pesaro, also the birthplace of the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. But instead, surrounding Pavarotti with “a very ugly” ice rink had “ridiculed” his memory, Nicoletta Mantovani, the tenor’s widow, said after images of the statue “trapped” up to its knees were circulated online. Mantovani told the local newspaper Il Resto del Carlino that she was “disappointed, angry and upset”. “It was like a bolt out of the blue,” she said after the newspaper sent her the images. “I’m sorry the city allowed something like this, because it affects Luciano’s image and the respect he deserves. It’s just not right.” Andrea Biancini, the mayor of Pesaro, appeared to aggravate the issue by sharing an image of the statue in the ice rink alongside a hashtag encouraging skaters to “give Pavarotti a high five”. He later apologised, admitting that the local council had “made a mistake”. “There was no intention of disrespect,” he told Il Resto del Carlino. “I was assured that Pavarotti wouldn’t be touched or incorporated into the ice rink floor.” But with the festive feature due to open in the city’s Piazzale Lazzarini this weekend, he said it was not possible for it to be dismantled, and that trying to move the statue would be costly and could cause damage. Describing the scene, Il Resto del Carlino said the tribute to Pavarotti, who died in 2007, aged 71, has “ended up stuck between the guardrails and Christmas lights, like a stage character who fell into the wrong place and now finds himself directing the traffic of skaters”.