In China, a coal mine collapse kills at least five people

A coal mine collapse in Inner Mongolia resulted in at least five deaths and 48 disappearances. The initial cave-in of one of the pit’s walls buried workers beneath rocks and sand, prompting a rescue operation. Five hours after the rescue operation began, there was another more severe collapse, which postponed the rescue until the next day.

The collapse of the mine is currently under police investigation, according to Chang Zhigang, the head of the rescue operation. Chinese President Xi Jinping assembled a group of 900 government-approved rescue workers for “all-out efforts in search and rescue.” Drone footage suggests the debris left by the disaster stretched around 500 meters.

Inner Mongolia Xinjing Coal Industry, the company operating the mine during the collapse, was fined last year for multiple safety violations, including unsafe storage of volatile materials, insecure exit routes and lack of training for its safety overseers. In June 2022, investigative agencies found two employees working without proper certification. The company, which has also been involved in hundreds of lawsuits concerning unpaid debts between 2014 and 2022, has not yet commented on the collapse. 

Despite the disaster, the Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management said that during its 2022 zero-COVID policy — which implemented lockdowns and established government quarantine facilities  — industrial accidents fell by 27% and the number of deaths fell by 23.6%.

In occupied Palestine, a military raid followed by rocket strikes

The Israeli military killed 11 Palestinians during a raid in Nablus, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The military said the four-hour operation targeted three wanted Palestinian militants, all of whom were killed alongside seven civilians, including a 16-year-old boy, Mohammad Farid Shaban, and a 72-year-old man, Adnan Sabe Baara. More than 100 others were wounded in the attack, according to Palestinian officials.

Last month, the military conducted a similar operation on a West Bank refugee camp. The raid was followed by a Palestinian militant attack near a synagogue in East Jerusalem, which killed seven Israelis. 

Military operations have risen since far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was re-elected in November, pushed for Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. The Israeli government recently approved the establishment of 2,000 new homes in the West Bank, according to The Guardian.

Hours after the Nablus raid, Palestinian militants launched six rockets from the Gaza Strip, five of which were directed at the Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Sderot in the south. The Israeli military said their air defenses intercepted five rockets, with the sixth landing in an open field. They reported that no one was injured. 

The next day, on Thursday, Feb. 23, Israeli fighter jets fired several rocket strikes in Gaza targeting a weapons manufacturing site and a military compound belonging to Hamas — the Islamic militant group that controls the region. No injuries were reported. 

In response, Netanyahu said that the Israeli government “will settle accounts with whoever harms Israeli citizens” in a cabinet meeting, according to the Associated Press. Tor Wennesland, the U.N. Middle East envoy, arrived in Gaza to meet with Hamas leaders and mediate the conflict, according to Reuters.

“I am continuing my engagement with all concerned parties to de-escalate the situation. I urge all sides to refrain from steps that could further enflame an already volatile situation,” Wennesland said in a statement issued before his visit.

In the UK, supermarkets face fruit and vegetable shortages 

Fluctuating temperatures in Europe and Africa are causing shortages of fresh fruits and vegetables in British supermarkets. Two major supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, Tesco and Aldi, recently announced that they will be limiting the amount of peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes available for purchase to three packs per person. 

On Tuesday, Feb. 21, two other supermarkets, Asda and Morrisons, announced similar limits on produce due to shortages caused by cold weather in producing countries such as Spain and Morocco, two of the U.K.’s main suppliers of fresh produce during winter months.

Coexphal — an association of 101 fruit and vegetable companies in the Spanish town of Almería, a major exporter of produce in Europe — blamed shortages on high temperatures in the region during the fall and winter. The group, which produces 70% of Almería’s fruit and vegetable exports, said that tomato production decreased by 22% and cucumber production declined by 21%. Coexphal’s manager, Luis Miguel Fernández, said that higher production costs and fruit viruses also contributed to lower yields.

Cold weather in Morocco, which slowed ferries transporting goods and reduced crop yield, is also contributing to low produce availability. The shortage is affecting Ireland as well as England, though to a lesser extent. 

Alfonso Gálvez, a general secretary for Asaja, Spain’s largest farming association, said the weather alone could not have caused declining produce supply, and blamed the U.K.’s shortages on post-Brexit trade regulations, which came into effect in May 2021. Experts, however, say that Brexit policies are having a minimal impact on the shortage.

“I’ve seen these articles but I don’t understand why they’re talking about shortages here,” Gálvez said to The Guardian. “Things are normal so far this season so I don’t know if it’s more a problem of U.K. logistics since the Brexit regulations came into effect. There’s enough produce to supply the market and the vegetable season is happening pretty normally.”

Contact Yezen Saadah at [email protected].