Thousands killed, injured in Saudi attacks on Yemen’s Sa'ada

TEHRAN, Dec. 28 (MNA) – A Yemeni health official says nearly 3,000 civilians, including African refugees, lost their lives or sustained injuries this year as a result of artillery and missile strikes by Saudi military forces in Yemen’s Sa'ada.

Director of Razih Rural Hospital, Abdullah Musreeh, told Yemen’s official Saba news agency on Wednesday that the number of civilian casualties in the Yemeni regions stands at 2,909, and that the figure covers the period between early January and late December this year.

He added that at least 907 people were killed or wounded during the UN-brokered truce that lasted six months and expired on October 2, when gunshots, artillery rounds and missiles by Saudi border guards targeted the Shada'a district, Press TV reported.

Musreeh said his hospital received 111 dead bodies and 796 injured people, including African asylum seekers, throughout the mentioned period, stressing that Saudi Arabia never committed itself to the truce and its criminal acts continue unabated.

The Yemeni health official noted that most of those critically wounded were transferred to medical centers in the capital Sana’a, as Razih hospital was short of medical equipment to provide necessary services.

Separately, the Director of Monabbih Rural Hospital Ali al-Ayashi stated that the hospital has received 169 bodies and 1,833 injured people since January.

He pointed out that the Riyadh regime presses ahead with its horrendous crimes against the Yemeni nation and African asylum seekers.

Ayashi also made a reference to the brutal methods of torture by Saudi border authorities against Yemenis citizens and African refugees, arguing that such practices repudiate the kingdom’s claims of respect for international humanitarian principles and conventions.

Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and other Western states.

MNA 

Mexico Draws More Asylum-Seekers Despite Grisly Violence

December 28, 2022 
Associated Press

Single mothers and their children crowd into a room with bunk beds at a shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, Dec. 21, 2022.

TIJUANA, MEXICO —

Albert Rivera knows well how dangerous Mexico can be: He sometimes wears a bulletproof vest around the compound of bright yellow buildings that he built into one of the nation's largest migrant shelters.

His phone stores more evidence in the form of stomach-churning videos that gangs sent migrants to warn of consequences for disobeying demands. The images include severed limbs being thrown in a pile, a decapitated head getting tossed in a barrel of steaming liquid and a woman squirming while her head is sawed off.

But across town from the Agape Mision Mundial shelter, many migrants are grateful for a chance to settle here. That's where Mexico's asylum office greets foreigners who consider the border city of Tijuana a relatively safe place to live with an abundance of jobs.

The jarring contrast speaks to Mexico's conflicted status. It is a country where violence and inequality chase many people to seek a better life in the United States. For others it offers a measure of peace and prosperity beyond what's available in their homelands.

Migrant volunteers build a soccer field at Templo Embajadores de Jesus, Tijuana's largest migrant shelter, in Tijuana, Mexico, Oct. 13, 2022.

A safe, robust asylum system in Mexico eases pressure on the United States, which is looking more to other governments to manage migration. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued Tuesday kept pandemic-era limits on asylum in place for now.

Mexico was the world's third most popular destination for asylum-seekers in 2021 after the United States and Germany, according to the United Nations. It is on pace to end the year just below an all-time high of 131,400 asylum claims in 2021, led by Hondurans, Cubans and Haitians.

Juan Pablo Sanchez, 24, followed others who left Colombia in the last two years after struggling financially as an organizer of cultural events.

For him, Tijuana is a better option than the United States. He pays $250 a month in rent, far less than a friend who pays $1,800 for a similar place in Illinois. Pay is lower in Mexico, but jobs are plentiful, including at export-driven manufacturing plants.

Migrant children hold a box filled with food and clothes outside a shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, Dec. 21, 2022.

Lower expenses mean more money to send his wife and stepson in Pereira, a city in a coffee-growing region of the Andean foothills.

"The fruit [of my work] is seen in Colombia," he said after riding a motorcycle he uses for a messenger job to the Tijuana asylum office. "Making a living in the United States is precarious."

Mexico granted 61% of asylum requests from January through November, including at least 90% approvals for Hondurans and Venezuelans. Cubans and Haitians are far less successful.

The U.S. grant rate was 46% in the fiscal year that ended September 30. That figure is below Mexico's rate but up from 27% two years ago, when the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump sharply limited relief for victims of gang and domestic violence, according to data from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

Mexico abides by the Cartagena Declaration, which promises a safe haven to anyone threatened by "generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order." The U.S. observes a narrower definition that requires a person to have been individually targeted for limited reasons, as spelled out in the U.N. Refugee Convention.

Mexico's relatively generous criteria carry little weight in Rivera's shelter, where roughly 500 guests seldom venture far beyond a neighborhood store. The Puerto Rican pastor grew up in Los Angeles and ran a home in Tijuana for recovering drug addicts before converting it to a migrant shelter in 2018. He says gunmen once burst inside looking for a woman who was hiding elsewhere.

Migrants are seen shortly before lights-out at Juventud 2000 shelter in Tijuana, Oct. 13, 2022.

Maria Rosario Blanco, 41, came with her sister and 8-year-old grandnephew, who was riding on the back of his father's motorcycle in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa in 2019 when an assailant fatally shot his father. Blanco's nephew was killed a year later while working at his barber shop. The family finally left when a flood destroyed their home.

Blanco said gangs regularly threatened to kill or kidnap her even after she moved to another part of Honduras and to Palenque in southern Mexico, a town known for Mayan ruins. She says she won't feel safe until reaching the United States, where she hopes to settle in a Chicago suburb with a man she met through church.

"The gangs are everywhere," she said, describing fears about Mexico. She said Hondurans are easy targets for assailants for how they speak.

A Mexican woman who spoke on condition of anonymity for safety reasons said her troubles began when a brother joined a gang under threats to his family, but they killed him anyway. Then her 15-year-old son joined the gang to save his family. They don't know where he is but received a photo of him with an assault rifle.

"The new rule is that people are obligated to join" the gang, she said. "If you refuse, it doesn't matter. They kill you either way."

The gang burned their house in a small village in Michoacán state, stole their farmland and threatened to kill the entire family if her husband and 12-year-old son didn't join. They hope for an exemption to the U.S. asylum ban, which was kept alive at least a few months under Tuesday's 5-4 Supreme Court ruling. Justices will hear arguments in February on so-called Title 42 authority, which will remain in force until they decide the case.

Under Title 42, migrants have been denied a chance at asylum 2.5 million times since March 2020 on grounds of preventing spread of COVID-19. Some exceptions are made those deemed particularly vulnerable in Mexico.

Amid anticipation that Title 42 was about to end, some advocates expected the Biden administration to revive a Trump policy — temporarily blocked in court — that denied asylum to non-Mexicans if they did not first apply in a country they traveled through, like Mexico.

Maureen Meyer, the Washington Office for Latin America's vice president for programs, said Mexico might agree to lesser steps, like more enforcement within its own borders or admitting some migrants who are ordered to leave the United States. Under Title 42, Mexico has taken back migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and, more recently, Venezuela, as well people from Mexico.

While some asylum-seekers in Mexico get permits to travel within the country, they generally must stay in the state where they apply, Meyer said. Seven of every 10 apply in Chiapas state, bordering Guatemala, where jobs are scarce.

Jobs are abundant in Tijuana, but the city's Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid office is relatively small. One Venezuelan who visited the office after being expelled from the United States under Title 42 said Mexico was "10 times better" than home.

Migrants arrive fatigued, said Efrén González, director of the commission's Tijuana office. "They stop and plan their next steps, and I think Tijuana is a good place to do that."

Hope Probe monitors thick veil of water-ice clouds on Mars

• 17 hours ago

A image shows the bright and dark ‘stripes’ on Mars’ North Polar Hood.

Yamama Badwan, Staff Reporter

The UAE’s “Hope Probe” announced details of the observations on July 4, 2022, about the northern hemisphere of the red planet, specifically at 259 degrees solar longitude, from an altitude of about 39,800 kilometers, by means of the Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI).

It said regional winds may be interacting with the elevated topography of the huge shield volcano Alba Patera to create bright and dark “stripes” in the North Polar Hood.

The Hope Mars Mission said on its Twitter, “These Emirates Exploration Imager (EXI) observations were taken on July 4, 2022 from a spacecraft altitude of about 39,800 km. It was late-autumn in the northern hemisphere (Ls=259°).

“At this season (and throughout northern winter), the north polar region is obscured by a thick veil of water-ice clouds known as the North Polar Hood (NPH).

“In this imaging sequence, dramatic bright and dark "stripes" are observed in the NPH. One possible explanation is that regional winds interact with the elevated topography of the huge shield volcano Alba Patera (just south of the NPH near the upper left terminator), giving rise to atmospheric waves.

“These waves become visible as alternating bright and dark patterns in the NPH clouds. Below the image center, the Valles Marineris canyon system is seen to be partially obscured by dust hazes.”

PUTIN'S CURSE

Top former Russian commander dies ‘suddenly' day after Putin cancels trip to tank factory: Report

An ex-Russian commander with a Ukraine link died "suddenly" a day after President Vladimir Putin cancelled his visit to tank factory, a report said.

India Today Web Desk
New Delhi, Dec 29, 2022 

By India Today Web Desk: A former commander-in-chief of Russian ground forces with a close link to Ukraine died “suddenly” the day after Vladimir Putin unexpectedly cancelled a trip to the tank enterprise where he worked, reported The Mirror.

Uralvagonzavod plant announced that General Alexei Maslov, 69, passed away on December 25 in a Moscow military hospital.

General Alexei Maslov was commander-in-chief of Russian ground forces between 2004 and 2008 and later served as the country’s chief military representative to Nato in Brussels. Maslov’s death follows the “sudden death” of general director of Admiralty Shipyards in St Petersburg, Alexander Buzakov.

According to Telegram channel Redacted number 6, the FSB security service had formed an “investigative group” into the two deaths, reported The Mirror.

Also Read | Ukraine seeks 'peace summit' with Russia, Kremlin says 'never followed conditions set by others'

The channel reported that Buzakov had been healthy the day before he died, and “nothing had been heard about Maslov's health problems” before he died.



Blast at Russian base after apparent Ukrainian drone penetrates deep

The report said that the Russian president was due to visit the Uralvagonzavod plant in Nizhny Tagil - which has been criticised by the Kremlin for failing to produce sufficient new tanks for the war in Ukraine.

However, the Russian president aborted the Christmas eve trip “at the last minute” with no explanation, according to local reports.

Rogozin - recovering in hospital from an injury in a Ukrainian shell attack last week - praised Maslov as “a very experienced military man, a demanding commander, and a good person,” reported the Mirror.

Second sudden death of top official reported in Russia's military supply chain in less than a week

Top officials charged with arming Russia amid its war in Ukraine have unexpectedly died

By Caitlin McFall | Fox News

Another sudden death of a top official in Russia’s military supply chain has been reported following a series unexplained deaths in the past week.

Alexei Fedorovich Maslov, former commander in chief of Russia’s ground forces turned special representative for the military corporation Uralvagonzavod — which specializes in battle tanks — was reported to have unexpectantly died at a military hospital on Christmas Day at the age of 70.

The company took to Telegram to announce his death and said he "remained faithful" to Russia "until his last day."




An abandoned Russian military tank is seen after Russian Forces withdrew from Balakliia as Russia-Ukraine war continues on September 15, 2022 in Balakliia, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. (Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

SAUSAGE KING OF RUSSIA DEAD AFTER ALLEGEDLY FALLING OUT OF WINDOW AT INDIAN HOTEL

Maslov was reportedly born in the Kursk region, which neighbors northern Ukraine, and entered the Army before graduating from the Kharkiv Guards Higher Tank Command School in 1974 — nearly two decades before the fall of the Soviet Union, reported Euro Weekly.

By 2008 Maslov became Russia’s chief military representative to NATO.

No explanation surrounding his death has been provided, though he appeared to die in Moscow at the N.N. Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital — over 1,000 miles west of the Uralvagonzavod plant where he allegeldy worked in the city of Nizhny Tagil.

Some reports suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin was supposed to visit the tank manufacturing plant on Christmas Eve but unexpectedly canceled his plans, though Fox News Digital could not independently verify this.

Russian President Putin watches the launch of a missile during naval exercises in Russia's Arctic North on board the nuclear missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky. 

RUSSIAN BUSINESSMEN KEEP DYING UNDER MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES SINCE PUTIN INVADED UKRAINE: REPORT

Maslov’s death also followed the unexpected passing of 67-year-old Alexander Buzakov on Dec. 24, the General Director of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, Admiralty Shipyards, which produces carriers for Kalibr cruise missiles among others.

According to its website, Admiralty Shipyards has been described as the "foundation" of Russia’s navy and Buzakov reportedly attended the launch of the new submarine, Velikiye Luki, in St. Petersburg on Friday, Dec. 23.

Buzakov championed the submarine as an important step forward for Russia’s naval ability.

"It symbolizes the end of a certain major stage and, of course, promises us many successful final steps in the construction of the vessel and its handover to the Navy," he said according to Naval News.

Russian Navy ships are docked in the Sevastopol bay on March 4, 2014. Russian forces have surrounded Ukrainian military bases across Crimea as the Russian-speaking autonomous region has been thrown into turmoil following the ouster last month of Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych. (VIKTOR DRACHEV/AFP via Getty Images)

The submarine is reportedly a part of a fourth generation non-nuclear fleet that is considered the "most modern" submarine in terms of combat power.

Details around Buzakov’s death also remain unknown.

Buzakov and Maslov’s deaths are just the latest in string of unexpected deaths among Russia’s top ranks, businessmen and dissidents since the war in Ukraine began.

Caitlin McFall is a Reporter at Fox News Digital covering Politics, U.S. and World news.

LIKE FLORDIA IGUANA'S
Bats plunge to ground in cold, saved by incubators and fluids


Mary Warwick, wildlife director for the Houston Humane Society, holds a Mexican free-tailed bat as it recovers from last week’s freeze on Tuesday in Houston.
(Elizabeth Conley / Houston Chronicle via AP)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

DEC. 28, 2022 11:52 AM PT

HOUSTON —
Hundreds of bats lost their grip and plunged to the pavement underneath a bridge in Houston after going into hypothermic shock during the city’s recent cold snap, according to wildlife rescuers who saved them by administering fluids and keeping them warm in incubators.

The Mexican free-tailed bats that roost at Houston’s Waugh Bridge went into shock when temperatures plunged below freezing last week, the Houston Humane Society said in a Facebook video.

The society’s Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Center rescued hundreds of bats from beneath the bridge, along with another group of bats elsewhere in the Houston area that also went into hypothermic shock, said center director Mary Warwick. She said some were recuperating in dog kennels in the attic of her home. Nearly 700 of the estimated 1,500 rescued bats are set to be released back into the wild on Wednesday, she said.

The humane society is now working to raise money for facility upgrades that would include a bat room, Warwick added.

“That would really help in these situations where we continue to see these strange weather patterns come through,” she said. “We could really use more space to rehabilitate the bats.”

Turkey eliminates age requirement for retirement, allowing 2 million workers to retire immediately

Previously, the retirement age was set at 58 years for women and at 60 years for men. It was not yet clear how much the new system would cost

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s announcement came during a news conference on the popular policy move, fewer than six months before an election

Reuters
29 Dec, 2022

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkey on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eliminated the retirement age requirement on Wednesday in a move that allows more than 2 million workers to retire immediately, fewer than six months before an election.

The presidential announcement came during a Wednesday news conference on the popular policy move.

Erdogan’s ruling AK Party delivered a hefty increase to the minimum wage last week as part of a campaign to win back support eroded by inflation, a fall in the lira, and a sharp drop in living standards.

Ukraine: Deadly shelling in Kherson, Putin and Erdogan discuss grain corridor and gas hub
12 Dec 2022



Previously, the retirement age was set at 58 years for women and at 60 years for men. It wasn’t yet clear how much the new system would cost, but Erdogan said 2.25 million people were eligible to retire immediately. There are currently 13.9 million pensioners in Turkey.

Labour groups had been protesting the minimum age requirement for several years, asking that instead workers should just be required to complete the mandatory number of work days to retire. The move is seen giving a boost to Erdogan before a critical election due in June.

In two decades in power, Erdogan has overseen a crackdown on dissent and in recent years adopted unorthodox economic policies that helped push the lira down to one tenth of its value against the dollar a decade ago.

VIDEO: Kuwait hit by hailstorm; residents celebrate rare winter weather

• an hour ago

Kuwaitis pose for photos with hail particles along the side of a road after a storm in the Umm Al Haiman district on Wednesda. AFP

Kuwait, one of the hottest countries on Earth, has been hit by a rare hailstorm that delighted children and their parents, with images of the winter white shared widely on social media on Wednesday.

"We have not seen so much hail during the winter season in 15 years," Muhammad Karam, a former director of Kuwait's meteorological department, said.

Pictures and videos of southern roads partially blanketed in hail and ice spread online to celebrate the rare weather event.

 A man and children toss handfuls of hail particles picked up off the side of a road in Umm Al Haiman. AFP

Children donned scarves and raincoats as they scooped up hail in the Umm Al Haiman district, about 50 kilometres south of Kuwait City.

Kuwait's meteorological department said precipitation since Tuesday had reached up to 63 millimetres but that the weather was clearing up.

Karam said he expects the phenomenon to reoccur as climate change disrupts weather patterns.

The Gulf nation endures blistering summer heat, and scientists predict it could become unlivable in future because of climate change.

In 2016, summer temperatures peaked at 54˚C. Parts of Kuwait could get 4.5 degrees Celsius hotter from 2071 to 2100 compared with the historical average, the Environment Public Authority has warned.

Agence France-Presse

Why Marcos’s Philippine Wealth Fund Plan Is Controversial: Q&A

Andreo Calonzo and Ditas Lopez, Bloomberg News

Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Philippines president, at a news conference following the EU-ASEAN Commemorative summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. The European Union will propose a €10 billion ($10.6 billion) investment package to countries in Southeast Asia as the European bloc seeks to strengthen ties with the region to diversify supply chains and rally support against Russia. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The Philippines is preparing to establish a sovereign wealth fund, a move that’s being pushed by Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the late dictator’s son who became president earlier this year, but is seen as controversial by some observers.

The proposal for the fund faced a backlash soon after Marcos’s allies filed it in Congress. Even the central bank chief, Felipe Medalla, initially expressed reservations, questioning how it would be governed and drawing a comparison to the scandal-tainted Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB.

The bill was revised after a public outcry: the fund will no longer dip into people’s pension savings and the central bank’s reserves. A new version that says it will get money from state-owned banks has won the support of lawmakers and is likely to be passed.

Here’s what you need to know about the proposed fund and its controversies.

What’s the plan?

The wealth fund’s stated objective is to get the most out of government assets by investing in stocks, corporate bonds, commodities, foreign currencies and infrastructure projects, among others. The money generated will then be used for social-welfare projects, paying dividends to contributors and so forth.

The fund will secure capital from two state lenders: 50 billion pesos ($899 million) from Land Bank of the Philippines, and 25 billion pesos from the Development Bank of the Philippines. The central bank will also contribute all its dividends for the first two years of the fund’s operation. Other state-run companies and private-sector financial institutions, including foreign ones, can also chip in. Marcos has said that he hopes a wealth fund will help boost foreign investments in the Philippines.

In subsequent years, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will put in half its dividends and use the other half to increase its own capital. The fund will also receive annual contributions from gaming revenue, natural resource royalties and proceeds from government asset sales and public borrowing.

A board of directors led by the finance minister will manage the fund, which will be subject to internal and external audits. 

Why now?

This isn’t the first time setting up a sovereign wealth fund has been floated in the Philippines. A similar proposal was filed during the previous administration, but it didn’t advance in the legislature. 

What’s different now is that Marcos and his government are strongly backing the idea. They say it would help boost economic growth and give the government more fiscal leeway. Even Medalla, the central bank governor who initially aired concerns, is now supportive, seeing the revised proposal as a way to attract foreign investors.

What are the concerns?

The biggest worry is the potential for corruption. In Southeast Asia, the goings-on at 1Malaysia Development Berhad are never far from people’s minds. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak began a 12-year prison sentence this year for his involvement in the multibillion-dollar scandal linked to the troubled fund.

The Philippines has many cautionary tales of its own of giving those in power unhampered access to state resources. Marcos Jr.’s own father was ousted by a mass uprising in 1986 after some $10 billion was allegedly siphoned during his two-decade rule.

“This muddled, inconsistent and redundant bill is only setting” the planned wealth fund up for “failure and will only enable cronyism, rent-seeking and corruption,” economic think tank members, university professors and former senior government officials said in a statement.

Still, the Congress proposal mandates that international standards be followed to safeguard the wealth fund, and requires its board to create a risk-management unit.

Another concern is that wealth funds usually invest surplus funds but the Philippines has been running fiscal and trade deficits.

What’s next?

The bill will go to the Senate after it was quickly passed by the House of Representatives, winning approval in just 18 days while other bills take months to go through. Senators aligned with the president form a majority. Marcos has declared the bill urgent, allowing for faster approval. Once endorsed by both houses it will be signed into law by the president.

For some observers, this is far from good news.

“There is no urgency and necessity for the enactment” of this bill, said lawmaker Edcel Lagman, one of the six who rejected the proposal in the 312-member House. “We must bail out our people today from poverty, inflation and the dire prospects of recession, rather than investing in long-term ventures.”

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Iran must face arbitration to settle downing of Flight 752: response group

By Ismail Shakil Reuters
Posted December 28, 2022 


WATCH: $107M decision for Iran plane crash victim’s families 'precedent setting,’ lawyer says – Jan 4, 2022

Canada, Britain, Sweden and Ukraine on Wednesday called on Tehran to settle a dispute over accountability and reparations for the downing of an airliner by Iranian forces nearly three years ago through arbitration under the rules of the 1971 Montreal Convention.

All four countries as well as Iran are signatories of the convention, an international treaty which requires states to prevent and punish offenses against civil aviation. If the countries cannot settle their dispute within six months, Iran can be taken to the International Court of Justice.

Most of the 176 people killed when Iran shot down the Ukrainian jet near Tehran in January 2020 were citizens from those four countries, which created a co-ordination group that seeks to hold Iran to account.

“We … have taken concrete action today to ensure that our efforts to hold Iran to account for the unlawful downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 can progress to the dispute settlement phase,” the countries said in a joint statement.

READ MORE: Iran prepared to hold bilateral talks on downed jet, foreign ministry says

“In particular, we have requested that Iran submits to binding arbitration of the dispute … pursuant to Article 14 of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation of 1971,” they said.

Direct talks with Iran broke down earlier this year when the co-ordination group said its attempts to resolve the matter through negotiations had been “futile.”

Iran says Revolutionary Guards accidentally shot down the Boeing 737 jet and blamed a misaligned radar and an error by the air defense operator at a time when tensions were high between Tehran and Washington.

At the time, Iran was on edge about possible attacks after it fired missiles at Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces in retaliation for the killing days before of its most powerful military commander, Qassem Soleimani, in a U.S. missile strike at Baghdad airport.

Ottawa has said a special Canadian forensic team charged with examining all available information about the incident found no evidence that the downing of the plane had been premeditated.

 

‘System failure’: US blames Southwest Airlines for meltdown

US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigeig says mass flight cancellations are not merely a ‘weather-driven issue’.

Published On 28 Dec 202228 Dec 2022

The administration of US President Joe Biden has called the meltdown that led to the cancellation of thousands of flights at Southwest Airlines a “system failure”, blaming the company itself for the crisis.

A historic winter storm, dubbed the “blizzard of the century“, had blanketed the country around the holiday weekend, but Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said on Wednesday that the level of cancellations at Southwest cannot be justified by the extreme weather.

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US probes ‘unacceptable’ Southwest Airlines storm cancellations

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Deadly US storm disrupts Christmas plans, downs power lines

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Photos: Wild winter storm in US disrupts Christmas travel

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“We are past the point where they could say this is a weather-driven issue,” Buttigieg said in an interview with ABC News. “Don’t get me wrong, all of this began with that severe storm. We saw winter weather affecting the country and severely disrupting all airlines.”

But he noted that other airlines were able to mostly recover from the storm while Southwest was still struggling.

Southwest has cancelled more than 14,500 flights since Friday, the Reuters news agency reported. On Wednesday, it cancelled 2,500 flights as of early afternoon, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

“So what this indicates is a system failure, and they need to make sure that these stranded passengers get to where they need to go and that they are provided adequate compensation, not just for the flights itself … but also things like hotels, like ground transportation, like meals because this is the airlines’ responsibility,” Buttigieg said.

On Tuesday, the airline’s CEO, Bob Jordan, apologised to customers and employees for the mass cancellations.

“The tools we use to recover from disruption serve us well 99 percent of the time,” he said in a video message. “But clearly, we need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what’s happening right now.”

The Department of Transportation (DOT) had said that Buttigieg spoke with Jordan on Tuesday, telling him that he “expects the airline to live up to the commitments it has made to passengers, including providing meal vouchers, refunds, and hotel accommodations for those experiencing significant delays or cancellations that came about as a result of Southwest’s decisions and actions”.

Southwest created a web portal this week to help affected customers request refunds and additional expenses.

In a separate interview with ABC News late on Tuesday, Buttigieg said possible over-scheduling of flights at Southwest may have contributed to the crisis. He also cited “what appears to be a lack of investment in the software systems that make it possible for [the airline] to assign crews and flights to where they need to be”.

But some critics pointed the finger at Buttigieg, a former Democratic presidential candidate and small town mayor, accusing him of shortcomings in his role as the head of the Department of Transportation.

Last year, holiday travel was also disrupted by mass flight cancellations after the outbreak of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, and regular flight delays persisted well into 2022.

“Where’s [Buttigieg]? #SouthwestAirlines,” Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee wrote in a tweet on Wednesday.

Buttigieg responded that he was on Capitol Hill working “getting results for passengers” using his department’s resources and authorities.

Some progressives, who have been calling for stricter regulations on the airline industry, also criticised the secretary of transportation.

“The lack of oversight and accountability from Secretary Buttigieg’s DOT led to Southwest’s cavalier attitude towards consumers,” progressive activist Nina Turner wrote on Twitter. “This isn’t a new issue, people have been calling out the DOT for MONTHS.”

Earlier this year, left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders called on the Biden administration to increase oversight on airlines by imposing fines on them for delayed flights and over-scheduling.

“All over this country, airline passengers are growing increasingly frustrated by the massive increase in flight delays, cancellations, and outrageously high prices they are forced to pay for tickets, checked bags and other fees,” Sanders wrote in a letter to Buttigieg in June.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES