Footage shows rescue dogs and workers combing through debris after a building collapse in central Madrid killed four people, including three construction workers and an architect. The six-story building was being converted into a hotel. Several people were also injured.
Published On 8 Oct 20258 Oct 2025
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US President Donald Trump blames Democrats for looming federal layoffs as shutdown enters fifth day.
Published On 5 Oct 20255 Oct 2025
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The White House has warned that mass layoffs of federal workers could begin if US President Donald Trump concludes that negotiations with congressional Democrats to end a partial government shutdown have reached a dead end.
As the shutdown entered its fifth day on Sunday, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNN’s programme State of the Union that he believed there was still a chance Democrats would yield and avoid what could become a costly political and economic crisis.
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“President Trump and Russ Vought are lining things up and getting ready to act if they have to, but hoping that they don’t,” Hassett said, referring to the White House budget director. “If the president decides that the negotiations are absolutely going nowhere, then there will start to be layoffs.”
Trump, speaking to reporters on Sunday, described the potential job cuts as “Democrat layoffs”, saying, “Anybody laid off, that’s because of the Democrats.”
There have been no meaningful negotiations since Trump last met congressional leaders, with the impasse beginning on October 1 — the start of the federal fiscal year — after Senate Democrats rejected a short-term funding bill to keep government agencies open through November 21.
“They’ve refused to talk with us,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told the CBS programme Face the Nation, insisting that only renewed talks between Trump and congressional leaders could end the standoff.
Democrats are demanding a permanent extension of enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and assurances that the White House will not unilaterally cut spending agreed to in any deal.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was open to addressing the Democrats’ concerns, but urged them to first back reopening the government. “It’s open up the government or else,” Thune told Fox News. “That’s really the choice that’s in front of them right now.”
Trump said Republicans were also willing to discuss healthcare reform. “We want to fix it so it works. Obamacare has been a disaster for the people, so we want to have it fixed so it works,” Trump said.
Rank-and-file senators from both parties have held informal talks on healthcare and spending to break the deadlock, but progress has been minimal. “At this point, no,” Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego told CNN when asked if lawmakers were closer to a deal.
The Senate is set to vote again on Monday on competing funding bills — one backed by the Republican-controlled House and one proposed by Democrats — though neither is expected to win the 60 votes required to advance.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly 750,000 federal employees face being furloughed as long as the shutdown continues, with total lost compensation estimated at $400m per day. While federal workers are guaranteed back pay under the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act, payments will only resume once the shutdown ends.
Nasscom says the one-day deadline could have ‘ripple effects’ on the US innovation ecosystem, and global job markets.
India’s leading trade body says the one-day timeline for implementing a new $100,000 annual fee on H-1B worker visas in the United States was a matter of “concern”.
Nasscom, representing India’s $283bn IT and business process outsourcing industry, on Saturday said the policy’s abrupt rollout would affect Indian nationals and disrupt continuity of ongoing onshore projects for the country’s technology services firms.
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“A one-day deadline creates considerable uncertainty for businesses, professionals, and students across the world,” Nasscom said in a statement, a day after US President Donald Trump announced the fee, which comes into force from Sunday.
H-1B visas allow companies to sponsor foreign workers with specialised skills – such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers – to work in the US, initially for three years, but extendable to six years.
India was the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas last year, accounting for 71 percent of approved beneficiaries.
.@RNamb @sangeetagupta29 @doshikavita @shivendra_1969 @nasscomgtd pic.twitter.com/bSfCjDutjs
— nasscom (@nasscom) September 20, 2025
The new H-1B measure, which will likely face legal challenges, was announced alongside the introduction of a $1m “gold card” US residency programme.
Nasscom said the new policy could have “ripple effects” on the US innovation ecosystem and global job markets, pointing out that for companies, “additional cost will require adjustments”.
Nasscom added that policy changes of this scale were best “introduced with adequate transition periods, allowing organisations and individuals to plan effectively and minimize disruption”.
US officials on Friday said the change to the H-1B programme would ensure that companies would only sponsor workers with the most rarefied skill sets. However, such a prohibitive fee will likely vastly transform the H-1B system, which was created in 1990 and awards 85,000 visas per year on a lottery system.
Supporters of the H-1B programme say it brings the best and brightest to work in the US, creating an edge against foreign competitors. Critics have long charged that companies have abused the programme, using it to pay lower wages and to impose fewer labour protections.
Tech entrepreneurs – including Trump’s former ally Elon Musk – have warned against targeting H-1B visas, saying that the US does not have enough homegrown talent to fill important tech sector job vacancies.
However, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said: “All the big companies are on board.”
Geographically, California has the highest number of H-1B workers, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Some analysts suggested the fee may force companies to move some high-value work overseas, hampering the US’s position in the high-stakes artificial intelligence race with China, which at 11.7 percent of total H-1B visas ranks a distant second, according to government data.
Following the White House’s announcement, major US tech firms Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon advised employees holding H-1B visas to remain in the US, according to internal emails reviewed by the Reuters news agency.
The new fee marks the Trump administration’s most high-profile attempt to overhaul the country’s temporary employment visa system. Since taking office in January, he has launched a broad crackdown on immigration, including efforts to limit certain forms of undocumented immigration.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s foreign ministry on Saturday said its officials would “comprehensively assess the impact of these measures on the advancement of [South Korean] companies and professional talents into the US market and engage in necessary communication with the US”.
Hundreds of South Koreans were detained during a US immigration raid on a Hyundai-LG battery factory site in the state of Georgia this month.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun says he is ‘deeply concerned’ over detention of 300 South Koreans, while opposition calls it a ‘grave matter’.
Published On 6 Sep 20256 Sep 2025
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has ordered all-out efforts to respond to the arrests of hundreds of the country’s citizens in an immigration raid on a Hyundai Motor-LG car battery factory in the United States.
Thursday’s arrest of some 475 workers – more than 300 of them South Korean nationals – at the plant near Savannah in the southern US state of Georgia was the largest single-site enforcement operation carried out by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an arm of the US Department of Homeland Security.
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South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on Saturday said President Lee has instructed officials to swiftly resolve the matter, stressing that the rights and interests of South Korean nationals and the business operations of South Korean companies investing in the US “must not be infringed upon”, South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency said in a report.
Cho said the government has set up a team to respond to the arrest of more than 300 Koreans at the facility, under construction in the southern state of Georgia, and that he may go to Washington, DC, to meet with officials if needed.
“We are deeply concerned and feel a heavy sense of responsibility over the arrests of our nationals,” Cho was quoted by Yonhap before an emergency meeting on Saturday to tackle the incident.
“We will discuss sending a senior Foreign Ministry official to the site without delay, and, if necessary, I will personally travel to Washington to hold consultations with the US administration,” he said.
The plant where the raid took place – part of US President Donald Trump’s escalating immigration crackdown – is intended to supply batteries for electric vehicles.
Responding to a reporter’s question about the immigration raid, Trump on Friday remarked during an event at the White House, “I would say that they were illegal aliens, and ICE was just doing its job.”
Steven Schrank, an ICE official, justified the detentions, saying some of those detained had illegally crossed the US border, others arrived with visas that prohibited them from working, and some overstayed their work visas.
South Korea’s opposition People Power Party (PPP) reacted angrily to the detentions, warning they “could pose a serious risk” to the country.
“This is a grave matter that could lead to broader repercussions for Korean companies and communities across the United States,” PPP chairman Jang Dong-hyeok said in a statement.
Senior PPP spokesperson Park Sung-hoon blamed Lee for the incident, saying his “pragmatic diplomacy” towards the US “failed to ensure both the safety of citizens and the competitiveness” of South Korean businesses.
He said Lee’s government even promised at least $50bn of investments during his recent meeting with Trump, a gesture that only resulted in a “crackdown” against South Korean citizens.
In a statement, Hyundai said it was “closely monitoring” the situation, adding that none of those detained “is directly employed” with the company.
LG Energy Solution said it was “gathering all relevant details”, adding it “will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities”.
South Korea, Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, is a key automaker and electronics producer with multiple plants in the US. Its companies have invested billions of dollars to build factories in the US, in a bid to access the US market and avoid tariff threats from Trump.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) has said Air Canada’s ongoing strike, in which 10,000 cabin crew members have walked off their jobs, is illegal after strikers ignored orders to return to work.
The regulatory board made the call on Monday after it previously declared that workers must return to the job as of 2pm ET (18:00 GMT) on Sunday.
The cabin crew for the Montreal-based carrier had pushed for a negotiated solution, saying binding arbitration would take pressure off the airline. Workers have said that the proposed wage hikes are insufficient to keep up with inflation and match the federal minimum wage.
The attendants are also calling to be paid for work performed on the ground, such as helping passengers to board. They are now only paid when planes are moving, sparking some vocal support from Canadians on social media.
A leader of the union on strike against Air Canada said on Monday that he would risk jail time rather than allow cabin crews to be forced back to work.
“If it means folks like me going to jail, then so be it. If it means our union being fined, then so be it. We’re looking for a solution here,” said Mark Hancock, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) national president, at a press conference after a deadline by the board to return to work expired with no union action to end the strike.
Air Canada’s CEO Michael Rousseau told the news agency Reuters that he was “amazed” that the union was not following the law, adding, “At this point in time, the union’s proposals are much higher than the 40 percent [hike we have offered]. And so we need to find a path to bridge that gap,” he said, without suggesting what that process would be. “We’re always open to listen, and have a conversation,” he said.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney voiced his support for the cabin crews, saying that they should be “compensated equitably at all times”.
Pushing for a resolution, Carney said, “We are in a situation where literally hundreds of thousands of Canadians and visitors to our countries are being disrupted by this action.”
The airline normally carries 130,000 people daily during the ongoing peak summer travel season and is part of the global Star Alliance of airlines.
On Monday, Air Canada suspended its third-quarter and annual profit forecasts as its planes remained grounded.
The union said it would continue its strike and invited Air Canada back to the table to “negotiate a fair deal”.
The government’s options to end the strike now include asking courts to enforce the order to return to work and seeking an expedited hearing.
The minority government could also try to pass legislation that would need the support of political rivals and approval in both houses of the Parliament of Canada, which are on break until September 15.
“The government will be very reticent to be too heavy-handed because in Canada, the Supreme Court has ruled that governments have to be very careful when they take away the right to strike, even for public sector-workers who may be deemed essential,” said Dionne Pohler, professor of dispute resolution at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations School.
Another option is to encourage bargaining, Pohler said.
The government did not respond to requests for comment.
On Saturday, Carney’s Liberal government moved to end the strike by asking the CIRB to order binding arbitration. The CIRB, an independent administrative tribunal that interprets and applies Canada’s labour laws, issued the order, which Air Canada had sought, and unionised flight attendants opposed.
The previous government, under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, intervened last year to head off rail and dock strikes that threatened to cripple the economy, but it is highly unusual for a union to defy a CIRB order.
Travellers at Toronto Pearson International Airport over the weekend said they were confused and frustrated about when they would be able to fly.
Italian Francesca Tondini, 50, sitting at the Toronto airport, said she supported the union even though she had no idea when she would be able to return home.
“They are right,” she said with a smile, pointing at the striking attendants.
The dispute between cabin crews and Air Canada hinges on the way airlines compensate flight attendants. Most, including Air Canada, pay them only when planes are in motion.
In their latest contract negotiations, flight attendants in both Canada and the United States have sought compensation for hours worked, including for tasks such as boarding passengers.
New labour agreements at American Airlines and Alaska Airlines legally require carriers to start the clock for paying flight attendants when passengers are boarding.
American flight attendants are now also compensated for some hours between flights. United Airlines’ cabin crews, who voted down a tentative contract deal last month, also want a similar provision.
On the markets, Air Canada’s stock is down 1.6 percent as of 12pm in Toronto (16:00 GMT). US carrier United Airlines – another Star Alliance member, which does not have a striking cabin crew and which serves several major Canadian cities – is up 1.4 percent.
Air Canada, the country’s largest airline, started suspending flights on Thursday morning ahead of a potential strike by its flight attendants.
Hundreds of flights are expected to be cancelled by the end of the week if the flight attendants walk off their jobs as expected.
Air Canada and the flight attendants’ union have struggled to agree upon a deal that would increase compensation for the airline workers.
Here is what we know about the labour dispute and its potential consequences:
The Montreal-based airline has reached an impasse with the union representing more than 10,500 flight attendants in a dispute over compensation, despite eight months of negotiations. Both the company and the union have issued notices that disruptions to the airline’s services will begin on Saturday.
Air Canada said it will reduce flights gradually over three days, starting with dozens of cancellations on Thursday and about 500 more by Friday evening. By 1am Toronto time (05:00 GMT) on Saturday, all flights will be halted.
Cargo services will also be affected, but Air Canada Express regional flights will operate as usual, as they rely on contracts with other airlines.
However, these partners handle only about 20 percent of Air Canada’s daily passengers. Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, a subsidiary that offers low-cost flights, carry roughly 130,000 passengers a day.
In response to the walkout anticipated for early Saturday, Air Canada has announced its own “lockout”, a strategy that prevents employees from coming into work in order to force them to the negotiating table.
The airline has warned that once the lockout begins, about 1:30am Toronto time (05:30 GMT), it may not be able to quickly restore flights.
Mark Nasr, the chief operations officer for Air Canada, explained that a restart, “under the best circumstances, will take a full week to complete”.
Wages are the main sticking point in the negotiations.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said its negotiators are unhappy with Air Canada’s proposed wage hikes and other compensation terms, and they have therefore turned down an offer to move the contract discussions into arbitration.
“For the past nine months, we have put forward solid, data-driven proposals on wages and unpaid work, all rooted in fairness and industry standards,” said Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of CUPE, in a statement. “Air Canada’s response to our proposals makes one thing clear: they are not interested in resolving these critical issues.”
According to the union, the airline declined to raise flight attendant pay to meet industry standards, keep pace with inflation or match the federal minimum wage.
Since 2000, starting wages for flight attendants with Air Canada have risen only $3 per hour, while inflation has climbed 69 percent over the same period, the union explained.
We stand in solidarity with Air Canada flight attendants who are done with unpaid work and poverty wages!
📢 Fair pay. Dignity on the job. No more excuses!
Read more → https://t.co/YqVQEwTbpC#aircanadastrike— CUPE Ontario (@CUPEOntario) August 12, 2025
Air Canada, however, said the union turned down a proposal sent on Monday that included a 38-percent pay increase over four years, along with other benefits and protections.
But the union disputed the benefits of that deal. Instead, it explained that the flight attendants suffered a 9-percent cut in their last contract, meaning that an 8-percent increase over the first year of the new deal is inadequate to recoup the costs.
“It is, in effect, a pay cut,” CUPE said in its statement.
The union also argues that Air Canada does not currently offer “ground pay”, an industry term that describes compensation given for all the services provided before a plane’s doors close.
That work can include assistance given to travellers in the airport, baggage handling and helping travellers get settled in their seats as the plane prepares to push back from the airport gate.
“[For] any of our federally regulated safety checks, which we do an hour before boarding, we are not compensated. We are not compensated for boarding and deplaning,” Shanyn Elliott, the chair of the CUPE strike committee, told the news outlet Global National.
“It averages about 35 hours a month that we are at work not paid.”
The union said that it is seeking full pay for all hours worked, along with cost-of-living increases.
Ground pay, also called “boarding pay”, has been a key issue in negotiations at US airlines as well, since many carriers do not compensate flight attendants at their hourly rate during crucial periods before or after the flight.
The airline, which serves 64 countries with a fleet of 259 aircraft, said the shutdown poses “a major risk” to both the company and its employees. The disruption could impact 130,000 passengers each day, including 25,000 Canadians, during the height of the summer travel season.
Air Canada has nearly 430 daily flights between Canada and the US, reaching more than 50 US airports. It also provides domestic service to 50 Canadian airports and averages more than 500 daily flights.
The airlines said that passengers whose flights are cancelled will be notified and can receive a full refund online.
The airline has also arranged with other Canadian and international carriers to offer alternative travel options where possible. But it emphasised that some flight alternatives may not be feasible.
“Given other carriers are already very full due to the summer travel peak, securing such capacity will take time and, in many cases, will not be immediately possible,” the airline explained.
Air Canada has said it has sought government-directed arbitration to resolve the situation.
Under Canada’s Labour Code, the government’s labour minister has the power to intervene and trigger the imposition of a deal through the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
That, in turn, could force flight attendants back to work. The union has asked Canada’s PM Mark Carney “to refrain from intervening”. It argued that government action would tip the negotiations in Air Canada’s favour.
“Why would any employer bother negotiating if they know the government is going to bail them out when negotiations get tough?” the union wrote in a letter posted to social media.
Canada’s Labour Minister Patty Hajdu urged both sides to return to the bargaining table. “To be clear: deals that are made at the bargaining table are the best ones,” Hajdu said.
“I urge both parties to put their differences aside, come back to the bargaining table and get this done now for the many travellers who are counting on you,” she added.
Please see my statement on the latest development between CUPE Flight Attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada: pic.twitter.com/hqQJ5JDYkN
— Patty Hajdu (@PattyHajdu) August 14, 2025
Attendants union says there is still time to reach an agreement, as airline warns 100,000 passengers affected by Friday.
Air Canada says it is at an impasse with its negotiations with the union representing its flight attendants and has announced that it will be pausing all its flights on Saturday morning.
Air Canada said on Thursday it expects to cancel several dozen flights by day’s end and approximately 500 flights by the end of Friday, affecting 100,0000 passengers, in advance of a planned Saturday strike by its unionised flight attendants.
The Air Canada executives were speaking at a news conference that ended abruptly due to protests by union members donning placards.
Mark Nasr, chief operations officer at Air Canada, said the complexity of the carrier’s network, which operates more than 250 aircraft on flights to more than 65 countries, requires it to start winding down service now.
A strike would hit the country’s tourism sector during the height of summer travel and poses a new test for the governing Liberal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney, which has been asked by the carrier to intervene and impose arbitration.
Air Canada and low-cost carrier Air Canada Rouge carry about 130,000 customers a day. Air Canada is also the foreign carrier with the largest number of flights to the US.
US carrier United Airlines, a code-share partner of Air Canada, said it has issued a travel waiver to help customers manage their travel plans.
The dispute hinges on the way airlines compensate flight attendants. Most airlines have traditionally paid attendants only when planes are in motion.
But in their latest contract negotiations, flight attendants in North America have sought compensation for hours worked, including for tasks like boarding passengers and waiting around the airport before and between flights.
The union said Air Canada had offered to begin compensating flight attendants for some unpaid work, but only at 50 percent of their hourly rate.
The airline said it had offered a 38 percent increase in total compensation for flight attendants over four years, with a 25 percent raise in the first year.
Restarting Air Canada’s operations would take a week to complete, Nasr told reporters in Toronto.
“It’s simply not the kind of system that we can start or stop at the push of a button,” he said. “So in order to have a safe and orderly wind down, we need to begin down.”
FlightAware data shows Air Canada has, thus far, cancelled only four flights as of Thursday morning.
Earlier in the day, Canadian Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu urged the country’s largest carrier and union to return to the bargaining table to reach a deal that could avert disruptions.
“I understand this dispute is causing a great deal of frustration and anxiety to Canadians who are travelling or worrying about how they will get home,” she said in a statement posted on X. “I urge both parties to put their differences aside, come back to the bargaining table and get this done now for the many travelers who are counting on you.”
A spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the carrier’s 10,000 flight attendants, said Air Canada negotiators are not bargaining and have not responded to a proposal they made earlier this week.
“We believe the company wants the federal government to intervene and bail them out.”
CUPE has previously said it opposes binding arbitration.
Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, chief human resources officer at Air Canada, said the carrier never left the table.
“We are still available to bargain at any time on the condition that the negotiation has substance,” she said.
Union Pacific has announced its intentions to buy its smaller rival, Norfolk Southern, which would create the first coast-to-coast freight rail operator in the United States and reshape the movement of goods from grains to autos across the US.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based railroad giant announced the proposed $85bn deal on Tuesday.
If the merger is approved, the transaction would be the largest-ever buyout in the railroad sector.
Union Pacific has a stronghold in the western two-thirds of the US, with Norfolk’s 31,382 km (19,500-mile) network that primarily spans 22 eastern states.
The two railroads are expected to have a combined enterprise value of $250bn and would unlock about $2.75bn in annualised synergies, the companies said.
The $320 per share price implies a premium of 18.6 percent for Norfolk from its close on July 17, when reports of the merger first emerged.
The companies said last week on Thursday that they were in advanced discussions for a possible merger.
The deal will face lengthy regulatory scrutiny amid union concerns about potential rate increases, service disruptions and job losses. The 1996 merger of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific had temporarily led to severe congestion and delays across the Southwest.
The deal reflects a shift in antitrust enforcement under US President Donald Trump’s administration. Executive orders aimed at removing barriers to consolidation have opened the door to mergers that were previously considered unlikely.
Surface Transportation Board Chairman Patrick Fuchs, appointed in January, has advocated for faster preliminary reviews and a more flexible approach to merger conditions.
Even under an expedited process, the review could take from 19 to 22 months, according to a person involved in the discussions.
Major railroad unions have long opposed consolidation, arguing that such mergers threaten jobs and risk disrupting rail service.
“We will weigh in with the STB [regulator] and with the Trump administration in every way possible,” said Jeremy Ferguson, president of the SMART-TD union’s transport division, after the two companies said they were in advanced talks last week.
“This merger is not good for labour, the rail shipper/customer or the public at large,” he said.
The companies said they expect to file their application with the STB within six months.
The SMART-TD union’s transport division is North America’s largest railroad operating union with more than 1,800 railroad yardmasters.
The North American rail industry has been grappling with volatile freight volumes, rising labour and fuel costs and growing pressure from shippers over service reliability, factors that could further complicate the merger.
The proposed deal has also prompted competitors BNSF, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, and CSX, to explore merger options, people familiar with the matter said.
Agents at the STB are already conducting preparatory work, anticipating they could soon receive not just one, but two megamerger proposals, a person close to the discussions told Reuters on Thursday.
If both mergers are approved, the number of Class I railroads in North America would shrink to four from six, consolidating major freight routes and boosting pricing power for the industry.
The last major deal in the industry was the $31bn merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern that created the first and only single-line rail network connecting Canada, the US and Mexico.
That deal, finalised in 2023, faced heavy regulatory resistance over fears it would curb competition, cut jobs and disrupt service, but was ultimately approved.
Union Pacific is valued at nearly $136bn, while Norfolk Southern has a market capitalisation of about $65bn, according to data from LSEG.
As of 12:15pm in New York (16:15 GMT), Union Pacific’s stock is down 3.9 percent, and Norfolk Southern is down 3.2 percent. Competitor CSX is also trending down. The stock has fallen 1.6 percent since the market opened this morning.
Another 36 workers remain in hospital with burns and other injuries after the blast and fire at the Sigachi factory.
At least 36 people have been confirmed dead after a powerful explosion triggered a fire at a pharmaceutical factory in the southern Indian state of Telangana.
“The condition of the bodies is such that we’ve had to deploy a specialised medical team to carry out DNA tests,” said Health and Medical Cabinet Minister of Telangana Damodar Raja Narasimha on Tuesday.
A government panel has been formed to investigate the cause of the disaster.
The blast, which erupted on Monday afternoon at a facility run by Sigachi Industries, took place in the plant’s spray dryer unit – a section used to convert raw materials into powder for drug manufacturing. The factory is located roughly 50km (31 miles) from Hyderabad, the state capital.
Authorities recovered 34 bodies from the debris, while two more workers succumbed to injuries in hospital, according to Telangana’s fire services director, GV Narayana Rao.
“The entire structure has collapsed. The fire is under control and we’re continuing to clear the rubble in case more people are trapped,” he told the Associated Press news agency.
Twenty-five of the deceased are yet to be identified, a district administrative official, P Pravinya, said.
About 36 workers remain in hospital with burns and other injuries. Police officials said that more than 140 people were working in the plant when the incident occurred.
Local residents reported hearing the blast from several kilometres away.
The incident has raised new concerns about industrial safety in India’s booming pharmaceutical sector. Despite the country’s reputation as a global supplier of low-cost medicines and vaccines, fatal accidents at drug manufacturing units are not rare, particularly in facilities handling chemicals or solvents.
Sigachi Industries, which has its headquarters in India, produces active pharmaceutical ingredients and nutrient blends, and operates manufacturing plants across the country. It also runs subsidiaries in the United Arab Emirates and the United States, according to its website.
Officials say rescue and recovery efforts will continue until the entire site has been cleared. The factory’s operations have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.
A new report accuses fashion giants of not considering the welfare of workers affected by climate change in garment factories in Southeast Asia.
Fashion brands including luxury label Hermes, sportswear giant Nike, and fast fashion chain H&M are in the hot seat amid new allegations of climate greenwashing after making commitments to slash carbon emissions in Asia, which is home to more than 50 percent of global garment production.
A report released this morning by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), titled, The Missing Thread, analysed 65 global fashion brands. It found that while 44 of them had made public commitments to reduce carbon emissions, none had adopted what is known as a “Just Transition” policy, a concept first introduced during COP27 in Egypt in 2022.
A Just Transition ensures that workers are not left behind as industries shift towards a low-carbon economy.
Only 11 companies in the study acknowledged the climate-related impact on workers in their social and human rights policies. Just four provided any guidance on managing heat-related stress.
Only two companies among those deemed the most ambitious by the report mentioned the welfare of workers. These included Inditex, the Spanish retail giant that owns the fast fashion company Zara, and Kering, the parent company of Gucci.
“Decarbonisation done without workers as critical and creative partners is not a just transition, it’s a dangerous shortcut,” said Natalie Swan, labour rights programme manager at BHRRC, in a news release.
Currently, the global textile industry relies on 98 million tonnes of non-renewable resources per year, such as oil and fertiliser. At current trends, the fashion industry is on track to be responsible for more than 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“The fashion industry’s climate targets mean little if the people who make its products are not taken into consideration,” Swan said. “It’s not enough to go green. It has to be clean and fair.”
“Brands must stop hiding behind greenwashing slogans and start seriously engaging workers and their trade unions, whose rights, livelihoods and safety are under threat from both climate change and the industry’s response to it. A just transition is not just a responsibility, it’s a critical opportunity to build a fairer, more resilient fashion industry that works for people and the planet.”
Al Jazeera reached out to Nike, Hermes, H&M, Inditex and Kering. None of them responded to a request for comment.
The effects of climate change have already hit much of Southeast Asia hard. Garment workers in countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam have experienced extreme weather events such as surging temperatures and severe flooding.
In Bangladesh, workers reported fainting from heat-related illnesses. According to the report, factories allegedly failed to provide fans or drinking water. Similar challenges were noted in Cambodia, where temperatures regularly exceeded 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) during a 2022 heatwave.
A third of workers said they had already lost work due to automation. In Bangladesh’s garment sector, 30 percent reported job losses stemming from technological changes. These shifts have disproportionately affected female workers, who are less likely to receive training on new technologies and are often excluded from on-the-job learning opportunities that could help them adapt to evolving industry demands.
The protests come as the country reels from bombing attacks in the southwest and attempted assassination of a senator.
Protests have been held in Colombia as supporters of left-wing President Gustavo Petro express their support for his proposed labour reform, with the country rattled by an eruption of violence in the last week amid fears of a return to darker days of assassinations and bombings.
Large numbers of people took to the streets of the capital, Bogota, and other cities across the country on Wednesday to express continued support for a referendum on the reform proposed by the president, even as the Senate debates an alternative bill.
The protests come as Colombia is still reeling from bombing attacks in the southwest of the country that left seven dead and an attempted assassination on conservative opposition senator, and presidential hopeful, Miguel Uribe Turbay at a campaign rally in Bogota.
In the city of Cali, Colombia’s third largest and the centre of Tuesday’s bombing attacks, “there were calls to suspend these rallies” due to the recent bout of violence in the country, said Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Bogota.
“However, people decided to come out in the streets again in support of the government, rejecting the violence of the past days,” said Rampietti.
Petro was in Cali on Wednesday morning to lead a security meeting with local authorities and the military following Tuesday’s attacks. The president also said they would be investigating possible connections between the bombing attacks and the attempt on Uribe’s life.
The 15-year-old boy, who police believe was a “sicario” or hitman working for money, is accused of trying to assassinate Uribe and was also charged with carrying a firearm. He was formally charged on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty, the prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
The hospital treating the senator said Wednesday that “after four days, they are finally seeing some neurological improvement, that he is now more stable but remains in critical condition,” said Rampietti. “This has been the most optimistic report that we’ve seen since he’s been brought to the hospital.”
President Petro has expressed gratitude about Uribe’s improving condition, Rampietti added.
The bombing attack was likely caused by an armed group that splintered from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, according to the army and police.
Petro also participated in the rallies in Cali, where he is expected to sign a presidential decree ordering the referendum vote.
In the meantime, the country’s Senate was debating a different text of the labour reform that Petro has criticised and labour unions say does not sufficiently advance workers’ rights.
Following the attack on Uribe, the Senate initially decided to suspend this week’s sessions in his honour. However, it reversed that decision 24 hours later.
The Senate is “trying to bring it [the labour reform] to a vote” by Thursday, Rampietti added.
PM Meloni said she would not vote, and opposition accuses government of dampening interest in immigrant, worker issues.
An Italian referendum on easing citizenship rules and strengthening labour protections has failed after hard-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni encouraged voters to boycott the vote.
As polls closed on Monday, it emerged that many citizens had heeded Meloni’s call as only 30 percent of the electorate cast their ballots over two days of voting, far short of the 50 percent plus one needed to make the result legally binding.
The outcome was a clear defeat for the centre-left opposition, which had proposed to halve the period of residence required to apply for Italian citizenship from 10 to five years and to reverse labour market liberalisations introduced a decade ago.
The prime minister said she was “absolutely against” the citizenship proposals, announcing she would turn up at the polls but not cast a vote.
A stated goal of Meloni’s government is to cut irregular immigration, but it has increased the number of immigrant work visas.
The general secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labour union, Maurizio Landini, slammed the low turnout as a sign of a “clear democratic crisis” in Italy.
“We knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park,” he said, stressing that millions of Italians had turned up to fight for change.
Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party posted on social media that the “only real goal” of the referendum was to bring down the Meloni government, and it added, alongside pictures of opposition leaders: “In the end, it was the Italians who brought you down.”
Opinion polls published in mid-May showed that 46 percent of Italians were aware of the issues driving the referendums.
Activists and opposition parties accused the governing coalition of deliberately dampening interest in sensitive issues that directly affect immigrants and workers.
Campaigners for the change in the citizenship law said it would help the children of non-European Union parents better integrate into a culture they already see as theirs.
Changes to the laws would have affected about 2.5 million foreign nationals.
Other questions in the referendum dealt with labour-related issues like better protections against dismissal, higher severance payments and the conversion of fixed-term contracts into permanent ones.
Opposition forces had hoped that promoting these causes would help them woo working class voters and challenge Meloni, something they have struggled to do since she came to power in 2022.
Many of the 78 referendums held in Italy in the past have failed due to low turnout.
Public spending cuts across six African countries have resulted in the incomes of health and education workers falling by up to 50 percent in five years, leaving them struggling to make ends meet, according to international NGO ActionAid.
The Human Cost of Public Sector Cuts in Africa report published on Tuesday found that 97 percent of the healthcare workers it surveyed in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi and Nigeria could not cover their basic needs like food and rent with their wages.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to blame for these countries’ failing public systems, the report said, as the agency advises governments to significantly cut public spending to pay back foreign debt. As the debt crisis rapidly worsens across the Global South, more than three-quarters of all low-income countries in the world are spending more on debt servicing than healthcare.
“The debt crisis and the IMF’s insistence on cuts to public services in favour of foreign debt repayments have severely hindered investments in healthcare and education across Africa. For example, in 2024, Nigeria allocated only 4% of its national revenue to health, while a staggering 20.1% went toward repaying foreign debt,” said ActionAid Nigeria’s Country Director Andrew Mamedu.
The report highlighted how insufficient budgets in the healthcare system had resulted in chronic shortages and a decline in the quality of service.
Women also appear to be disproportionally affected.
“In the past month, I have witnessed four women giving birth at home due to unaffordable hospital fees. The community is forced to seek vaccines and immunisation in private hospitals since they are not available in public hospitals. Our [local] health services are limited in terms of catering for pregnant and lactating women,” said a healthcare worker from Kenya, who ActionAid identified only as Maria.
Medicines for malaria – which remains a leading cause of death across the African continent, especially in young children and pregnant women – are now 10 times more expensive at private facilities, the NGO said. Millions don’t have access to lifesaving healthcare due to long travel distances, rising fees and a medical workforce shortage.
“Malaria is an epidemic in our area [because medication is now beyond the reach of many]. Five years ago, we could buy [antimalarial medication] for 50 birrs ($0.4), but now it costs more than 500 birr ($4) in private health centres,” a community member from Muyakela Kebele in Ethiopia, identified only as Marym, told ActionAid.
The situation is equally dire in education, as budget cuts have led to failing public education systems crippled by rising costs, a shortage of learning materials and overcrowded classrooms.
Teachers report being overwhelmed by overcrowded classrooms, with some having to manage more than 200 students. In addition, about 87 percent of teachers said they lacked basic classroom materials, with 73 percent saying they paid for the materials themselves.
Meanwhile, teachers’ wages have been gradually falling, with 84 percent reporting a 10-15 percent drop in their income over the past five years.
“I often struggle to put enough food on the table,” said a teacher from Liberia, identified as Kasor.
Four of the six countries included in the report are spending less than the recommended one-fifth of their national budget on education, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
“I now believe teaching is the least valued profession. With over 200 students in my class and inadequate teaching and learning materials, delivering quality education is nearly impossible,” said a primary school teacher in Malawi’s Rumphi District, identified as Maluwa.
Action Aid said its report shows that the consequences of IMF-endorsed policies are far-reaching. Healthcare workers and educators are severely limited in the work they can do, which has direct consequences on the quality of services they can provide, it said.
“The debt crisis and drive for austerity is amplified for countries in the Global South and low-income countries, especially due to an unfair global economic system held in place by outdated institutions, such as the IMF,” said Roos Saalbrink, the global economic justice lead at ActionAid International. “This means the burden of debt falls on those most marginalised – once again. This must end.”
The strike leaves hundreds of thousands of commuters in New Jersey and New York without rail access.
New Jersey’s commuter rail engineers are on strike after negotiations for higher wages failed to materialise, leaving trains idle for commuters in the third-largest transit system in the United States for the first time in more than 40 years.
The strike began on Friday after The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represents 450 NJ Transit engineers who drive the agency’s commuter trains and agency management, broke off talks late Thursday after an unsuccessful 15-hour bargaining session.
The labour clash came weeks after negotiators had agreed on a potential deal in March, but the union’s members voted overwhelmingly to reject it.
NJ Transit has said it cannot afford the pay rises that the engineers are seeking because 14 other unions that negotiate separate labour contracts with the agency would demand the same, higher wage rates for their members.
The union pushed back on the gripe and has said that “NJT claims it doesn’t have the money to pay engineers a salary in line with industry standards, but somehow found a half-billion dollars for a new and unnecessary headquarters.”
New Jersey Transit opened a new headquarters earlier this year.
The union has said it is simply aiming to raise the engineers’ salaries to match those at other commuter railroads in the region.
“They [rail engineers] have gone without a raise for six years and have been seeking a new contract since October 2019,” the union said in a statement.
NJ Transit says the engineers currently make $135,000 on average and that management had offered a deal that would yield an average salary of $172,000. But the union has disputed those figures, saying the current average salary is actually $113,000.
The parties have exchanged accusations of bad-faith bargaining.
The strike means that hundreds of thousands of daily passengers in New Jersey and New York are without service. NJ Transit said its rail system began its shutdown at 12:01am local time Friday.
In a news conference, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and NJ Transit’s Chief Executive Officer Kris Kolluri told reporters talks had paused but that management remained willing to resume negotiations at any time.
“We must reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and affordable,” Murphy, a Democrat, told reporters. “Let’s get back to the table and seal a deal.”
Murphy and Kolluri said the US National Mediation Board had reached out to both sides to propose reopening talks on Sunday morning, or sooner if the parties wished.
The union statement made no mention of when talks might be restarted. Protests began at several locations across the rail system, including NJ Transit’s headquarters in Newark, Penn Station in New York City, and the Atlantic City rail terminal.
The governor and the NJ Transit CEO also outlined contingency plans for dealing with the work stoppage, the first transit strike to hit New Jersey since a three-week walkout in 1983.
The looming strike had already prompted the agency to cancel trains and buses to MetLife Stadium for pop star Shakira’s concert last night and again for this evening.
In an advisory, NJ Transit encouraged commuters to work from home starting on Friday if possible.
The agency said it would increase bus services on existing lines and charter private buses to operate from several satellite lots in the event of a rail strike but warned buses would only be able to handle about 20 percent of rail customers.
Kolluri said last week that the union was “playing a game of chicken with the lives of 350,000 riders”.
“We have sought nothing more than equal pay for equal work, only to be continually rebuffed by New Jersey Transit,” Tom Haas, the union’s general chairman, said earlier this week.