Jan 23 (Reuters) – Spotify Technology SA (SPOT.N) said on Monday it plans to cut 6% of its workforce and would take a related charge of up to nearly $50 million, adding to the massive layoffs in the technology sector in preparation for a possible recession.
The tech industry is facing a demand downturn after two years of pandemic-powered growth during which it had hired aggressively. That has led firms from Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) to shed thousands of jobs.
“Over the last few months we’ve made a considerable effort to rein in costs, but it simply hasn’t been enough,” Chief Executive Daniel Elk said in a blog post announcing the roughly 600 job cuts.
“I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth,” he added, echoing a sentiment voiced by other tech bosses in recent months.
Spotify’s operating expenditure grew at twice the speed of its revenue last year as the audio-streaming company aggressively poured money into its podcast business, which is more attractive for advertisers due to higher engagement levels.
Reuters Graphics
At the same time, businesses pulled back on ad spending on the platform, mirroring a trend seen at Meta and Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), as rapid interest rate hikes and the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war pressured the economy.
The company, whose shares rose 5.8% to $103.55, is now restructuring itself in a bid to cut costs and adjust to the deteriorating economic picture.
It said Dawn Ostroff, the head of content and advertising, was leaving after an over four-year stint at the company. Ostroff helped shape Spotify’s podcast business and guided it through backlash around Joe Rogan’s show for allegedly spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
The company said it is appointing Alex Norström, head of the freemium business, and research and development boss Gustav Söderström as co-presidents.
Spotify had about 9,800 full-time employees as of Sept. 30.
($1 = 0.9196 euros)
Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Shailesh Kuber
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Jan 8 (Reuters) – A mobile air-launched rocket system to be used in Britain’s first domestic satellite launch could sow the seeds for a globally dispersed rapid-response capability to put extra eyes in space in times of war, executives and analysts said.
Virgin Orbit (VORB.O), part-owned by billionaire Richard Branson, plans to launch nine satellites from a LauncherOne rocket attached under the wing of a modified Boeing 747, to be flown from a new spaceport in Cornwall on Monday.
Barring delays, it will be the first time a satellite has departed from western European soil.
For now the focus is on commercial payloads from companies such as Space Forge, which is developing in-orbit manufacturing.
But the launch is also seen by many as a blueprint for quicker launches of limited satellite capacity for tactical military purposes, in what planners call “Responsive Launch”.
“Ukraine woke up the world in a lot of ways,” Virgin Orbit Chief Executive Dan Hart told a news conference in southwest England on Sunday.
“Clearly there is a hope of a pan-European, as well as a U.S. collaboration … and that we have responsiveness so that if something happens in the world, we can get assets there right away,” he told the pre-launch briefing, monitored online.
Virgin Orbit said last year Britain’s Royal Air Force was doing exercises to demonstrate the value of “Responsive Launch”.
Britain had a brief foray into space launch activities in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when its Black Arrow rocket was cancelled after just one successful mission.
The rocket’s four launches took place in Australia in an era when commercial satellites barely existed.
Now, constellations of miniaturised satellites are heading an explosion of commercial activity in low Earth orbit.
‘FLEXIBLE AND AGILE’
Lobbing small satellites into low orbit at short notice would do little more than fill temporary gaps in coverage from large spy satellites, but experts say the technology has some dual civil and military potential and could spread costs.
“It gives you greater resilience or redundancy or duality of systems, whether that’s for position, navigation and timing or quicker access … as we’ve seen in Ukraine,” Ian Annett, deputy chief executive of the UK Space Agency, told Sunday’s briefing.
“It’s a natural transition that helps us develop security capabilities, but also, for government, keeps costs down whilst providing commercial opportunities as well.”
Elon Musk’s SpaceX activated its Starlink constellation over Ukraine after Russia’s invasion last February. Its communication links have been used by civilians and by Ukraine’s military.
Luxembourg said in October it had signed a letter of intent with Virgin Orbit to develop a “rapid and flexible response to different threats”, for NATO and other allies.
Its defence ministry has called for “new, more flexible and agile satellite launch procedures and techniques from Europe”.
Britain’s own 2022-25 space roadmap calls for dual-use capabilities in Earth Observation and Space Domain Awareness.
Virgin Orbit is also talking to Japan and Australia.
Questions remain, however, over how quickly the mobile launch concept could work its way into actual budgets, which are dwarfed by U.S. spending on space.
“Everyone is playing up military space as the next big thing,” said UK-based defence analyst Francis Tusa. “But ministries of defence have eyes larger than their stomachs.”
The system’s liquid propellant and final rocket assembly also require some local infrastructure, and Europe’s crowded airspace has thrown up significant regulatory obstacles.
“At the moment, it’s a bit bigger on the commercial side, but we see the defence and national security side growing so I think in this steady state, it’ll probably end up being 50/50,” Hart told Reuters.
Reporting by Tim Hepher; Additional reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by David Holmes
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WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) – A deadly explosion occurred in NATO member Poland’s territory near its border with Ukraine on Tuesday, and the United States and its allies said they were investigating unconfirmed reports the blast had been caused by stray Russian missiles.
The explosion, which firefighters said killed two people, raised concerns of Russia’s war in Ukraine becoming a wider conflict. Polish authorities said it was caused by a Russian-made rocket, but Russia’s defense ministry denied involvement.
If it is determined that Moscow was to blame for the blast, it could trigger NATO’s principle of collective defense known as Article 5, in which an attack on one of the Western alliance’s members is deemed an attack on all, starting deliberations on a potential military response.
As a possible prelude to such a decision, however, Poland has first requested a NATO meeting on Wednesday under the treaty’s Article 4, European diplomats said. That is a call for consultations among the allies in the face of a security threat, allowing for more time to determine what steps to take.
The following is an explanation of Article 5 and what might occur if it is activated:
WHAT IS ARTICLE 5?
Article 5 is the cornerstone of the founding treaty of NATO, which was created in 1949 with the U.S. military as its powerful mainstay essentially to counter the Soviet Union and its Eastern bloc satellites during the Cold War.
The charter stipulates that “the Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.”
“They agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area,” it says.
AND WHAT IS ARTICLE 4?
Article 4 states that NATO members “will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”
Within hours of the blast in Poland on Tuesday, two European diplomats said that Poland requested a NATO meeting under Article 4 for consultations.
[1/4] Zuzana 155 mm gun howitzer of NATO Enhanced Forward Presence battle group takes position before live fire exercise, during Iron Spear 2022 military drill in Adazi, Latvia November 15, 2022. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
HOW COULD THE UKRAINE WAR TRIGGER ARTICLE 5?
Since Ukraine is not part of NATO, Russia’s invasion in February did not trigger Article 5, though the United States and other member states rushed to provide military and diplomatic assistance to Kyiv.
However, experts have long warned of the potential for a spillover to neighboring countries on NATO’s eastern flank that could force the alliance to respond militarily.
Such action by Russia, either intentional or accidental, has raised the risk of widening the war by drawing other countries directly into the conflict.
IS INVOKING ARTICLE 5 AUTOMATIC?
No. Following an attack on a member state, the others come together to determine whether they agree to regard it as an Article 5 situation.
There is no time limit on how long such consultations could take, and experts say the language is flexible enough to allow each member to decide how far to go in responding to armed aggression against another.
HAS ARTICLE 5 BEEN INVOKED BEFORE?
Yes. Article 5 has been activated once before – on behalf of the United States, in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked-plane attacks on New York and Washington.
WHAT HAS BIDEN SAID ABOUT ARTICLE 5 COMMITMENTS?
While insisting that the United States has no interest in going to war against Russia, President Joe Biden has said from the start of Moscow’s invasion that Washington would meet its Article 5 commitments to defend NATO partners.
“America’s fully prepared with our NATO allies to defend every single inch of NATO territory. Every single inch,” Biden said at the White House in September.
He had declared earlier that there was “no doubt” that his administration would uphold Article 5.
Reporting by Matt Spetalnick;
Editing by Kieran Murray, Grant McCool and Bradley Perrett
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George Degiorgio confesses to crime in interview from jail
Says he will implicate others in assassination plot
Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered in 2017
VALLETTA, July 5 (Reuters) – The man accused of detonating a car bomb that killed a prominent Maltese journalist has confessed to the crime in an interview with a Reuters reporter and says he will soon implicate others in plotting to assassinate her.
Speaking from jail in his first comment on the case, George Degiorgio said if he had known more about Daphne Caruana Galizia – the journalist he and two others are accused of killing in 2017 – then he would have asked for more money to carry out the hit.
“If I knew, I would have gone for 10 million. Not 150,000,” he said, referring to the sum in euros that he said he was paid for killing the journalist.
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“For me it was just business. Yeah. Business as usual!” he told a Reuters reporter. He later added, “Of course I feel sorry.”
The interview with Degiorgio was conducted during research for a podcast into the Caruana Galizia case, entitled “Who Killed Daphne?”
His admission came after several attempts by Degiorgio’s lawyers since 2021 to secure a pardon in return for testimony about Degiorgio’s role in Caruana Galizia’s murder and other alleged crimes involving prominent figures on the island.
On June 22, Malta’s Appeal Court rejected remaining legal challenges by Degiorgio to the murder charges against him and his brother Alfred, who is co-accused. The judgement clears the way for trial to go ahead.
The car-bomb assassination of the investigative journalist and blogger caused shock across Europe. Maltese authorities charged Degiorgio and two other men – his brother Alfred and an associate, Vince Muscat – with murdering Caruana Galizia in October 2017 at the behest of a top island businessman.
Degiorgio told Reuters he would plead guilty ahead of any jury trial. “I’m going to speak to the magistrate,” he said. He indicated he would provide testimony to implicate others in the murder and in a previous unrealised plot to kill the journalist. His motive, he said, was to seek a sentence reduction for himself and Alfred and to ensure that “we’re not going down alone!”
Until now, both of the Degiorgio brothers had denied involvement in the killing. Muscat pleaded guilty to the murder charges in 2020 and was sentenced to a reduced term of 15 years in jail in return for testifying about this case and some other crimes.
One of the island’s richest businessmen, Yorgen Fenech, was also charged in November 2019 with commissioning Degiorgio and his two accomplices to carry out the hit. Fenech has denied the charge but has not yet presented his defence. In a statement, his lawyer, Gianluca Caruana Curran, said Fenech planned to prove in court “he at no point wanted, actively searched for or sponsored” Caruana Galizia’s assassination.
“While strongly protesting his innocence, Mr Fenech maintains that with the evidence available, independent and serious investigations are capable of leading to the arrest and arraignment of the true perpetrators behind the assassination.”
Fenech was identified as the mastermind by an alleged middleman, taxi driver Melvin Theuma, who escaped prosecution for his role in the case in return for testifying. Theuma said he arranged the murder with the Degiorgio brothers on Fenech’s behalf. He testified that he never told the Degiorgio gang Fenech’s identity.
In the interview, Degiorgio said he was willing to testify that a top Maltese political figure had tried to arrange a hit on Caruana Galizia in a separate plot two years earlier. Degiorgio also said he would offer to testify about the involvement of two senior former ministers in an armed robbery.
Reuters is not at this stage publishing further details of those allegations or naming the individuals accused by Degiorgio, all of whom deny any involvement in any crime.
Malta Police Force and the prosecutors handling the murder case did not respond to requests for an official comment on Degiorgio’s remarks.
In a further statement to Reuters via their lawyer, George and Alfred Degiorgio said they are seeking a judgment “in line with that already handed down to Vincent Muscat. We are willing to divulge everything we know about other murders, bombs and crimes provided we receive a pardon. We emphasize that the families of other victims should be served justice too.”
Caruana Galizia was killed after she levelled a series of corruption allegations against prominent people, including ministers in the island’s Labour Party government. Her murder raised suspicions that some of the people she was investigating could be involved in plotting her death.
Fenech, who stands accused of ordering up the successful 2017 hit, was first identified in connection with Caruana Galizia in November 2018 articles by Reuters and the Times of Malta. The report named him as the owner of a company known as 17 Black that Caruana Galizia alleged, without citing evidence, was being used to bribe politicians. Fenech was also the head of a controversial power station project in Malta.
According to prosecution evidence presented in court in multiple preliminary hearings since 2018, George Degiorgio and his gang had tracked the journalist throughout the summer of 2017. In the early hours of October 16, 2017, prosecutors allege, the gang planted a bomb under a seat in her car.
That afternoon, Degiorgio was allegedly on a yacht in the island’s Grand Harbour when his brother Alfred, who was watching the house, called to say Caruana Galizia had entered her car and driven off. Degiorgio then sent a text message from the yacht to a mobile device that detonated the bomb, prosecutors told the court.
After the car exploded, Caruana Galizia’s son Matthew heard the blast, ran out from the family home and discovered his mother’s body. He has been campaigning for justice for his mother ever since. Asked about Degiorgio’s comments, he told Reuters: “George Degiorgio’s own words show he is a stone-cold killer undeserving of any reprieve.”
Arrested two months after the killing, George Degiorgio said nothing to police, declining even to give his name during interrogation. Until the Reuters interview, he had remained silent, and his lawyers have spent four years denying he was involved in the murder. He has also filed a series of legal challenges contesting the evidence against him.
But he is now seeking a deal with the prosecution, ahead of a trial, in return for admitting the charges and providing the new information.
Alfred Degiorgio, like his brother, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges but has not presented his case. He too has made several applications to be pardoned of the charges in return for testifying about what he knows.
George Degiorgio said that before taking the hit job, he hadn’t known much about Caruana Galizia or her family, including the fact that they were ordinary people, not criminals. “That’s it. Of course! I never met her in her life,” he said.
The Degiorgio brothers have made several bids since March 2021 for an official pardon for their crimes. The latest, filed on April 4 by their lawyer, William Cuschieri, said, without giving names or specifics, that the Degiorgios could testify to “Crimes of attempted violent robbery and attempted voluntary homicide in which one of the authors was a Minister and another author who is a Minister.” The request was rejected by Malta’s government on April 24, citing the national interest and the administration of justice, according to an official statement.
Malta’s prime minister, Robert Abela, previously condemned attempts by the Degiorgios to win a pardon, calling them “criminals” seeking to buy their freedom. Cuschieri, the lawyer for the Degiorgios, responded by saying the prime minister was breaching their rights to a fair trial and, without providing details, said the brothers had “direct information” about a minister’s involvement in crime.
FURTHER DETAILS OF THE PODCAST
“Who Killed Daphne?,” written and hosted by Reuters reporter Stephen Grey, is a six-part podcast that follows the struggle for justice by Daphne Caruana Galizia’s son Matthew after her death – and the project to continue Daphne’s work by a team of journalists. Produced by global podcast studio Wondery, it airs on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all other podcast platforms from July 11, or is available now on Wondery+.
((reporting by Stephen Grey; additional reporting by Jacob Borg of the Times of Malta; edited by Janet McBride))
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A Tencent logo is seen in Beijing, China September 4, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang
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Move comes as Beijing cracks down on technology firms
JD.com shares plunge as much as 11.2%, Tencent up 4%
Tencent has no plans to sell stakes in other firms-source
BEIJING/HONG KONG, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Chinese gaming and social media company Tencent (0700.HK) will pay out a $16.4 billion dividend by distributing most of its JD.com (9618.HK) stake, weakening its ties to the e-commerce firm and raising questions about its plans for other holdings.
The move comes as Beijing leads a broad regulatory crackdown on technology firms, taking aim at their overseas growth ambitions and domestic concentration of market power.
Tencent said on Thursday it will transfer HK$127.69 billion ($16.37 billion) worth of its JD.com stake to shareholders, slashing its holding in China’s second-biggest e-commerce company to 2.3% from around 17% now and losing its spot as JD.com’s biggest shareholder to Walmart (WMT.N).
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The owner of WeChat, which first invested in JD.com in 2014, said it was the right time for the divestment, given the e-commerce firm had reached a stage where it can self-finance its growth.
Chinese regulators have this year blocked Tencent’s proposed $5.3 billion merger of the country’s top two videogame streaming sites, ordered it to end exclusive music copyright agreements and found WeChat illegally transferred user data.
The company is one of a handful of technology giants that dominate China’s internet space and which have historically prevented rivals’ links and services from being shared on their platforms.
“This seems to be a continuation of the concept of bringing down the walled gardens and increasing competition among the tech giants by weakening partnerships, exclusivity and other arrangements which weaken competitive pressures,” Mio Kato, a LightStream Research analyst who publishes on Smartkarma said of the JD.com stake transfer.
“It could have implications for things like the payments market where Tencent’s relationships with Pinduoduo and JD have helped it maintain some competitiveness with Alipay,” he said.
JD.com shares plunged 11.2% in early trade in Hong Kong on Thursday, the biggest daily percentage decline since its debut in the city in June 2020, before recovering partially to a 7% decline by 0450 GMT. Shares of Tencent, Asia’s most valuable listed company, rose 4%.
Shares of Tencent and JD on Dec 23
The companies said they would continue to have a business relationship, including an ongoing strategic partnership agreement, though Tencent Executive Director and President Martin Lau will step down from JD.com’s board immediately.
Eligible Tencent shareholders will be entitled to one share of JD.com for every 21 shares they hold.
PORTFOLIO DIVESTMENTS?
The JD.com stake is part of Tencent’s portfolio of listed investments valued at $185 billion as of Sept. 30, including stakes in e-commerce company Pinduoduo (PDD.O), food delivery firm Meituan (3690.HK), video platform Kuaishou (1024.HK), automaker Tesla (TSLA.O) and streaming service Spotify (SPOT.N).
Alex Au, managing director at Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager Alphalex Capital Management, said the JD.com sale made both business and political sense.
“There might be other divestments on their way as Tencent heed the antitrust call while shareholders ask to own those interests in minority stakes themselves,” he said.
A person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters Tencent has no plans to exit its other investments. When asked about Pinduoduo and Meituan, the person said they are not as well-developed as JD.com.
Tencent chose to distribute the shares as a dividend rather than sell them on the market in an attempt to avoid a steep fall in JD.com’s share price as well as a high tax bill, the person added.
Kenny Ng, an analyst at Everbright Sun Hung Kai, said the decision was “definitely negative” for JD.com.
“Although Tencent’s reduction of JD’s holdings may not have much impact on JD’s actual business, when the shares are transferred from Tencent to Tencent’s shareholders, the chances of Tencent’s shareholders selling JD’s shares as dividends will increase,” he said.
Technology investor Prosus (PRX.AS), which is Tencent’s largest shareholder with a 29% stake and is controlled by Naspers of South Africa, will receive the biggest portion of JD.com shares.
Walmart owns a 9.3% stake in JD.com, according to the Chinese company. Payments processor Alipay is part of Tencent rival Alibaba Group .
($1 = 7.7996 Hong Kong dollars)
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Reporting by Sophie Yu in Beijing and Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Xie Yu, Selena Li, Donny Kwok and Eduardo Baptista in Hong Kong and Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru; Writing by Jamie Freed; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Muralikumar Anantharaman
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Saudi Embassy says person arrested “has nothing to do with case”
Police source says extradition hearing due on Wednesday
PARIS, Dec 7 (Reuters) – French police on Tuesday arrested a suspected member of the hit squad that killed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi as the man was about to board a flight from Paris to Riyadh, French law enforcement sources said.
Khashoggi’s fiancee welcomed the detention of the suspect and said he should be prosecuted for his role in the 2018 killing. But the Saudi Embassy in Paris said the arrested person “has nothing to do with the case in question.”
“Therefore the Kingdom’s embassy expects his immediate release,” it said in a statement.
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A French police source and a judicial source named the man as Khaled Aedh Al-Otaibi – the same name as a former member of the Saudi Royal Guard who is identified in U.S. and British sanctions lists, and a U.N.-commissioned report, as having been involved in Khashoggi’s killing.
The police who detained him were acting on a 2019 arrest warrant issued by Turkey, the country where Khashoggi was killed, according to the police source.
Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist and critic of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018. Turkish officials believe his body was dismembered and removed. His remains have not been found.
A U.S. intelligence report released in Marchthis year said Prince Mohammed had approved the operation to kill or capture Khashoggi. The Saudi government has denied any involvement by the crown prince and rejected the report’s findings.
Last year, a Saudi court jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years over the killing, but none of the defendants was named. The trial was criticised by a U.N. official and human rights campaigners who said the masterminds of the murder remained free.
“This could be a major breakthrough in the quest for justice for Jamal Khashoggi,” former U.N. investigator Agnes Callamard said of the Paris detention.
In her 2019 report for the United Nations, Callamard named Al-Otaibi as being part of a Saudi team that killed Khashoggi and dismembered his body before flying back to Saudi Arabia.
Callamard, now head of rights group Amnesty International, said more confirmation was required to prove that the man held in France is the same person she identified in her report.
A demonstrator holds a poster with a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal
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The police source said the detained man was being held at a border police detention facility at Charles de Gaulle airport, near Paris, and would be taken to court in the centre of the city on Wednesday morning for a hearing on his extradition to Turkey.
Last weekend, French President EmmanuelMacron held face-to-face talks in Saudi Arabia with Prince Mohammed, becoming the first major Western leader to visit the kingdom since Khashoggi’s murder.
‘MISTAKEN IDENTITY’
It was unclear how or when Al-Otaibi arrived in France.
The French Interior Ministry declined to comment. Turkish officials said they were waiting for confirmation of the detained man’s identity.
A Saudi official told Reuters: “Media reports suggesting that a person who was implicated in the crime against Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi has been arrested in France are false.”
“This is a case of mistaken identity. Those convicted of the crime are currently serving their sentences in Saudi Arabia.”
Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said on Twitter: “I welcome the arrest today of one of Jamal’s killers today in France.”
“France should try him for his crime, or extradite him to a country able and willing to genuinely investigate and prosecute him as well as the person who gave the order to murder Jamal,” Cengiz said.
The2019 report compiled by Callamard said Al-Otaibi was a member of a 15-man Saudi team involved in killing Khashoggiafter the journalist went to the consulate to obtain a document to allow him to marry his fiancee.
That report said Al-Otaibi was one of five members of the team who were not in the consulate itself – where the report said the killing took place – but in the consul general’s residence.
A report by Britain’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said Al-Otaibi was “involved in the concealment of evidence at the Saudi General Consul’s residence following the killing.” A U.S. Treasury Departmentreport named Al-Otaibi as among those involved in Khashoggi’s killing.
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Reporting by Alain Acco and Tassilo Hummel; Additional reporting by Geert De Clercq, John Irish, Tangi Salaun, Ghaida Ghantous; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Christian Lowe; Editing by Peter Cooney
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TROOZ, Belgium, July 16 (Reuters) – Belgium declared a national day of mourning next week as the death toll from burst rivers and flash floods in the south and east of the country rose to 20 on Friday, with another 20 people missing.
“What should have been beautiful summer days suddenly turned into dark and extremely sad days for our fellow citizens,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told a news conference. “These are exceptional circumstances that our country has not seen before.”
A week of rain finally came to an end after reaching levels in some places normally expected once in 200 years. But several communities across parts of Belgium were nervously watching as the river Meuse, which flows through the city of Liege in eastern Belgium, continued to rise and threatened to overflow.
Others were trying come to terms with disaster.
“We did work, we renovated everything, we’re losing everything we’ve got. Now we have to start from zero and work at it little by little to put it back in order.” said Sylvia Calvo Lorente, 33, surveying damage in her home in the small town of Trooz near Liege.
In the eastern town of Verviers, the swollen river was still rushing through neighbouring streets, where people gingerly tried to salvage ruined shops, homes and cars.
“We made it through COVID, we were hoping we’d get back on our feet and now look!” a shopkeeper said through tears in a pause from his work.
A damaged vehicle is seen next to the river, following heavy rainfalls, in Pepinster, Belgium, July 16, 2021. REUTERS/Yves Herman
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Several towns and villages were submerged, including Pepinster near Liege, where around 10 houses collapsed. Belgium’s king and queen visited the town on Friday, wading through flooded streets.
The government set next Tuesday as a day of mourning and decided to tone down festivities for Belgian National Day the day after.
Interior minister Annelies Verlinden said 20 people had lost their lives, with a further 20 missing.
The crisis centre, which is coordinating rescue efforts, urged people in the affected areas to avoid all travel.
Belgium has called on the European Union’s civil protection mechanism, resulting in contributions from France, Austria and Italy, principally boats, helicopters and rescue personnel.
It also received help from Luxembourg and the Netherlands, despite these countries also suffering from flooding. More than 250 foreigners, including helicopter pilots and divers, have come to aid the search.
Over 20,000 people in the southern region Wallonia were without electricity. Others lacked clean water. Large parts of the rail network in southern Belgium were unusable, with certain sections of track swept away.
Additional reporting and writing by Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Philippa Fletcher
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