Grand Prix in Italy called off amid deadly flooding
This weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix has been called off amid deadly flooding in the northeast of Italy.
It comes after Italy’s transport minister called for this Sunday’s race at Imola to be postponed to allow focus on rescue efforts in the region.
Officials say five people have died and as many as 5,000 people have been evacuated after rivers swollen by days of flooding burst their banks, flooding nearby towns and cities.
An F1 statement read: “The Formula 1 community wants to send its thoughts to the people and communities affected by the recent events in the Emilia-Romagna region.
“We also want to pay tribute to the work of the emergency services who are doing everything they can to help those in need.
“Following discussions between Formula 1, the President of the FIA, the competent authorities including the relevant ministers, the President of the Automobile Club of Italy, the President of Emilia-Romagna Region, the Mayor of the City and the promoter the decision has been taken not to proceed with the Grand Prix weekend in Imola.
“The decision has been taken because it is not possible to safely hold the event for our fans, the teams and our personnel and it is the right and responsible thing to do given the situation faced by the towns and cities in the region.
“It would not be right to put further pressure on the local authorities and emergency services at this difficult time.”
Meanwhile, officials in Venice have activated a mobile sea barrier in the lagoon, in a bid to spare the city, a popular tourist destination, from a rare May high-tide flooding.
It is the first time the barrier system, known by its acronym MOSES, has been lifted in May.
Pic: Vigili del Fuoco/AP
Pic: Vigili del Fuoco/AP
Pic: Vigili del Fuoco/AP
With rescue operations and evacuations in full swing – and with warnings of the potential of more bad weather on the way – Italy’s deputy minister has called for this weekend’s race to be postponed.
Matteo Salvini said it was “imperative to concentrate all efforts on coping with the emergency”, including avoiding a traffic overload in the area.
Italian F1 team, Scuderia Ferrari, commented on the flooding.
The team, based in Modena, a city which has also been hit by the flooding, wrote in a Tweet: “Our thoughts and sympathies are with the people of Emilia-Romagna and Marche as they deal with the destruction caused by the heavy rain and flooding currently affecting the area.”
The AlphaTauri team, which is based in nearby Faenza and is the closest team to the circuit, issued an appeal for donations to help local people Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, our town of Faenza has once again experienced significant rainfall and subsequent flooding,” the team said on Twitter.
It is the second race on the 2023 F1 calendar to be called off, after the Chinese Grand Prix, which was due to take place in April but was cancelled amid concerns about the country’s continued Covid restrictions.
Cesena, in the heart of the Emilia-Romagna region, has been one of the worst-hit areas, with pictures showing homes flooded along the banks of the River Savio.
One elderly man living in the countryside outside the city died after his home was flooded, according to local radio reports.
Cesena’s mayor Enzo Lattuca also warned of further flooding with forecasters suggesting the country’s spell of bad weather could last “until the end of May”.
“The situation could again become critical. We cannot in any way lower our guard,” he said.
Library pic of Venice’s Experimental Electromechanical Module (MOSES) water barrier. Pictured in June 2020
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In one rescue in the city, neighbours swam across the fast-moving waters of a flooded street to take a young girl from her mother’s arms.
One rescuer held the child above the floodwaters until she could be passed into the arms of other rescuers. Other residents helped the mother to safety.
Mayor Lattuca urged caution from residents. He told state television: “Use prudence, don’t be curious, so disaster doesn’t turn into tragedy.”
In the Pesaro-Urbino region, firefighters rescued a family with a four-month-old baby and a disabled man from flooding, while authorities in Ravenna, a popular tourist town, urged residents in low-lying areas to move to higher ground.
Firefighters rescue a person from a flooded house in Riccione.
Pic:Vigili del Fuoco/AP
Sandbags are lined up along a flooded street in Bologna, Italy,
Pic:LaPresse /AP
Pic:AP
Flooding in Cesena Pic:AP
Firefighters in Rimini, a city and province on the Adriatic coast, carried out 40 rescues, while in the nearby beach town of Riccione, residents took to the streets in rubber dinghies.
In the city of Modena, authorities closed local bridges to traffic on Tuesday evening as a precaution against rising river levels.
Italy’s civil protection minister Nello Musumeci said as many as 5,000 people had been evacuated as a result of the floods.
Northeast Italy has suffered a shortfall of rain in recent weeks. However, meteorologists have warned of several days of heavy rain still to come.
Weather experts say the rain is due to the disappearance of a weather system known as an anticyclone – a large wind system that rotates anticlockwise around a centre of high atmospheric pressure.
One meteorologist, Mattia Gussoni from the weather site Ilmeteo, said the weather pattern could persist “at least until the end of the month”.
Spain is to legalise about 300,000 undocumented migrants a year – at a time that many European countries are seeking to limit or deter migration.
The policy, approved on Tuesday by Spain’s left-wing minority coalition government, aims to tackle the country’s ageing workforce and low birthrate.
Around 250,000 registered foreign workers a year are needed to maintain the country’s welfare state, according to migration minister Elma Saiz.
The scheme, due to run from May next year until 2027, will allow foreigners living in Spain without proper documentation to obtain work permits and residency.
The exact number of foreigners living in Spain without documentation is unclear.
However, around 54,000 undocumented migrants reached Spain so far this year by sea or land, according to government figures.
Many arrive via the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago located off the coast of northwestern Africa.
Spain’s minister of inclusion, social security and migration, Elma Saiz. Pic: AP
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The figure compares to the 30,000 people who have arrived in the UK via small boats across the Channel so far in 2024.
The UK, as well as other European nations, including Germany, France, and the Netherlands, have in recent years taken tougher stances on migration.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
However, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has often described his government’s migration policies as a way to combat the country’s low birthrate.
The government’s new policy simplifies the administrative processes for short and long-term visas and provides migrants with additional workplace protections.
It also extends a visa offered previously to job-seekers for three months to one year.
Many migrants make a living in Spain’s underground economy as fruit pickers, caretakers, delivery drivers, or other low-paid jobs.
Migration minister Ms Saiz said the government’s new policy would help prevent abuse and “serve to combat mafias, fraud and the violation of rights”.
World
Alec Baldwin’s Rust premieres three years after fatal shooting – but cinematographer’s mother refuses to attend
Alec Baldwin’s Western film Rust has premiered at a festival in Poland, three years after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set.
The movie debuted at the Camerimage Festival in Poland, an event focusing on achievements in cinematography, to an audience of a few hundred – a more low-key affair than the typical fanfare of Hollywood releases.
Director Joel Souza, who was wounded in the shooting, said he hoped the completed film would now be a tribute to Ms Hutchins – who died after a prop gun held by Baldwin went off during filming in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October 2021.
Rust director Joel Souza attended the film’s premiere in Poland. Pic: Reuters
Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter and went on trial in July – but the case was dismissed in dramatic fashion during the hearing after the prosecution was accused of concealing ammunition evidence.
The star did not attend the premiere in Poland.
Speaking beforehand, Souza said it “wasn’t an easy decision by any means” to continue the film after Hutchins’s death, “but it became important to me and important to her husband that people see her final work”.
The church scene they were working on when Hutchins was shot has gone from the film, he said.
“It doesn’t exist anymore. We were never going to finish that… I changed the script and so I wiped that out of it.”
Cinematographer’s mother criticises Baldwin
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Pic: Swen Studios/Handout via Reuters
Bianca Cline, the cinematographer who completed the film, also attended the event.
Ms Hutchins’s mother Olga Solovey, who has filed a lawsuit against Baldwin, did not attend and criticised the star for allegedly “unjustly” profiting from the tragedy.
In a statement issued by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, she said she had always hoped to watch her daughter’s “work come alive on screen” alongside her.
However, this opportunity was “ripped away”, she said.
Ms Solovey said Baldwin had not apologised to her and that her pain was increased by his “refusal to take responsibility”. She said there had been “no justice” for her daughter.
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Rust’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez, who was in charge of weapons on the set, was jailed for 18 months earlier this year, after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter during a trial separate to Baldwin’s. She is appealing the sentence.
Rust is billed as the story of a 13-year-old boy who, left to fend for himself and his younger brother following their parents’ deaths in 1880s Wyoming, goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather after being sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.
The Polish festival’s ticketing website reportedly crashed on Tuesday morning due to high demand for tickets to the world premiere.
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