Hundreds of migrant children are stranded in Spain’s Ceuta after mass crossing
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CEUTA, Spain -- The teenage girl made it through the waves to Spanish territory. Her little brother did not, drowning in the Mediterranean, while their mother disappeared in the chaos when tens of thousands of people surged through the breakwater, trying to leave Morocco behind.
The tragic story of a 17-year-old from Tangier is representative of the plight of many of the more than 800 minors who four days after the collective push by migrants into Ceuta face a scary present and an uncertain future.
She told an Associated Press photojournalist how she and her family joined the massive crowd that tried to swim around a border fence to reach the Spanish territory on Thursday. Like many, she said they did so seeking better opportunities. The AP is withholding her identity because she is a minor in a vulnerable situation.
She described how she saw Spanish police pull the body of her 8-year-old brother from the water.
She made it to the shore but became separated from her mother, and has spent the last four days on her own. She said some locals gave her food and some clothing, with one woman taking her into her home so she could bathe. She then went to a center for youths run by the government for some help, but found it was full.
"I saw people stepping on the dead," she said through a translator since she doesn't speak Spanish. "Now we are children begging on the street."
She is one of some 860 minors who remained in Ceuta on Monday after crossing over, according to local officials. AP journalists saw other minors asking for food.
Those minors now make up a large part of the 3,000-5,000 migrants who have avoided expulsion from Ceuta of the original 60,000 who came across. Spanish authorities confirmed 72 people died, mostly in the water, during the crossing. Morocco reported 11 deaths which are not included in the Spanish total, the Spanish interior ministry said.
Minors must be cared for under Spanish law
Spanish law says that adult migrants can apply for asylum. If rejected, they will face expulsion procedures. The bar is normally very high for Moroccans to be granted humanitarian protection.
Migrant minors who are unaccompanied by adults, however, are supposed to be granted protection and taken care of by Spanish authorities.
An AP journalist witnessed Spanish soldiers escorting an unaccompanied Moroccan boy who was crying and begging not to be sent back to Morocco. A few meters before reaching the border, and due to pressure from local residents who insisted he was a minor, as well as the presence of the media, a lieutenant colonel in the Spanish Army stopped the repatriation and transferred the boy to the Spanish Civil Guard.
Most of the Moroccan adults have either voluntarily gone home or were pushed back by Spanish police. Among those who remain in Ceuta are significant numbers of people from other countries, including Sudanese fleeing their war-torn country, Palestinians from Gaza and Afghans, as well as people from several African nations.
The city's migrant center with a capacity for 600 people is completely full. Food is scarce among the migrants, according to reporting by AP journalists.
"The strategy is that hunger, thirst and exhaustion forces these people to finally decide to voluntarily return to Morocco," said local migration activist Ramsés Mohamed Azumik of Asociación Elín.
Many migrants sleep or rest on the beach or hills surrounding the speck of Spain. In the hazy distance, mainland Europe, their ultimate goal, lies across the sea.
Prime minister visits quake-hit southern Japan as cleanup begins in intense heat
TOKYO -- Residents in Japan's quake-hit southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto put out heaps of debris for collection as the region baked under intense heat.
The heat and a lack of water supplies have added to the challenges in the severely damaged areas where Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi briefly visited for the first time since a magnitude 7.1 quake hit Kumamoto Prefecture on Japan's southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday.
Thirty-eight people died during the quake, including one who died of apparent heat stroke while taking shelter in a car in hot weather and one other whose cause of death is still being investigated, prefectural officials said Monday.
Residents put out heaps of debris, broken furniture and damaged appliances for collection, while in the towns of Uki and Hikawa, construction of temporary housing began. Some hotels and inns are offering their rooms for evacuees.
More than 46,000 households remained without water and many also faced fuel shortages as the region suffers sweltering heat, stoking fears of heat-related illness. Japan Meteorological Agency predicted that temperatures would rise close to 40 C (104 F) Monday.
More than 8,500 people remain at crowded emergency shelters, such as converted community centers, school gyms and classrooms, many of which lack air-conditioning. Others are sleeping in cars at town hall parking lots and parks, or outside of their homes.
Experts have long warned that inadequate shelter provision leads to crowded conditions and a lack of sanitation and privacy for people forced to leave their homes following disasters.
Takaichi on Monday flew over the affected areas from an army helicopter and visited one of the area's best-equipped shelters, with cardboard beds, partitions and air-conditioning, triggering criticisms on social media that her visit distorted reality.
Kumamoto Gov. Takashi Kimura, in his meeting with Takaichi, stressed the "abnormal heat" has been pounding on the already difficult lives of the residents. He sought further government support to improve the living conditions at evacuation centers, saying many of them lack clean water and medical care.
"While taking into consideration the governor's requests, we will quickly examine what the government can do for the disaster-hit region and affected people and move proactively," Takaichi said.
Meanwhile, a company that owned a general store in a collapsed shopping mall acknowledged that it had instructed two employees who were killed in a later explosion to return to the building to put sales proceeds into a safe.
Two executives of Habita, a local general store operator that had a shop inside the collapsed Aeon Mall in the town of Kashima, attended the wake Sunday of one of the two victims, 22-year-old Kurumi Otake, and apologized to her parents for the death.
Company sales manager Goji Yuse acknowledged that the company instructed the two to put sales proceeds into the safe if it was possible.
"I wish someone had stopped her," Otake's tearful mother told them. "My daughter is not coming back."
The mall's operator said it believes the explosion was due to a gas leak and occurred after about 3,000 shoppers had been evacuated to a parking lot following the quake, but some employees remained inside. Rescuers recovered five people and the bodies of seven others from the mall.
The earthquake has left 114 people injured across Kumamoto, authorities said.
Some 700 homes were destroyed, and more than 11,300 buildings were damaged, according to Kumamoto prefecture.
Russian Embassy in Rome blames Ukraine for deadly Italian restaurant bombing in Moscow
MOSCOW -- The Russian Embassy in Rome on Monday blamed Ukraine for a deadly weekend bombing at a Moscow restaurant, describing it as an attempt to intimidate the Italian community in Russia.
The embassy said "Kyiv terrorists" wanted to "scare the Italians working in Russia and to show them that they too are in the crosshairs and could become the scoundrels' next victims."
It said the Saturday night attack on the Balzi Rossi restaurant killed five and injured 19, adding that its Italian chef and his staff were unhurt only thanks to a Russian security guard's "vigilance and selfless dedication to his professional duty."
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities.
The National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which coordinates various security agencies, initially reported a lower death toll in a statement issued shortly after the attack. It said the bomb killed three people, including a woman who carried the explosive device into the restaurant, a guard who stopped her, and a guest inside. It said 21 others were injured when the bomb detonated near the restaurant's entrance.
The committee didn't say who was the target or name the mastermind.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Sunday described the bombing as a "brutal terrorist act," but did not say who was responsible for the blast at the upscale restaurant, which is located on the ground floor of a high-rise apartment building that is one of seven skyscrapers in the city that date to the era of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reposted the embassy statement without comment. It did not respond to a request for comment or explain the higher death toll.
Several Russian media outlets claimed the bombing targeted a Russian general who was celebrating his birthday at the restaurant. Some claimed that the general was Col.-Gen. Alexander Chaiko, who led the troops that made a botched attempt to storm the Ukrainian capital in 2022 and recently was appointed the chief of Russia's aerospace forces. The claims could not be independently verified.
The business daily Kommersant reported that the bomb, hidden in a gift box, was probably detonated remotely and the woman carrying it could have been unaware of the content. Kommersant said the bomb contained about 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) of explosives and contained metal balls for lethality.
Russia blamed Ukraine for past attacks on military officials
Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for a series of bombings and other attacks against senior military officials after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Earlier this year, Russia's Federal Security Service said authorities would tighten security around senior military and government officials following the attacks.
In February, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alexeyev, the deputy head of the GRU military intelligence service, was shot three times at a Moscow apartment building, but survived. Ukraine denied its involvement.
In December, a car bomb killed Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff, in southern Moscow. Ukraine refrained from comment.
In April 2025, another car bomb that Moscow blamed on Kyiv killed Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in Russia's General Staff. Ukraine didn't claim the attack but hinted at its involvement.
And in December 2024, a bomb hidden in a scooter killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, who headed the Russian military's nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, one of the few attacks Ukraine openly acknowledged.
Among other prominent victims of bombing attacks in Russia were Daria Dugina, the daughter of influential nationalist thinker Aleksandr Dugin, and Vladlen Tatarsky, a well-known pro-Kremlin military blogger. Kyiv denied involvement in the attack on Dugina, and remained coy about the attack on Tatarsky.