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UK unveils budget plans as thousands of workers stage strikes

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UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt holds the budget box at Downing Street in London on March 15, 2023, the day he presented a new budget (pic Aljazeera)

The United Kingdom’s finance minister, Jeremy Hunt, has hailed his plan aimed at speeding up a stagnating economy as tens of thousands of workers who are furious with the government went on strike, calling for better working conditions and wages that would allow them to navigate a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

Hunt on Wednesday unveiled childcare and tax reforms to get more people into work and corporate tax breaks to boost low levels of business investment as he presented his budget in parliament to jeers from the opposition Labour Party, which is riding high in opinion polls ahead of an election expected next year.

(Aljazeera)



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Death toll in Sudan military plane crash rises to 46

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The death toll from a Sudanese military plane crash in the city of Omdurman on the outskirts of the capital Khartoum has increased to at least 46 people, officials said.

The Antonov aircraft crashed late on Tuesday during takeoff from the Wadi Seidna military airport in northern Omdurman, part of greater Khartoum.

17 military personnel, including high-ranking
officers, and 29 civilians are among the victims, according to the country’s Ministry of Information.

The Khartoum Media Office on Wednesday said the crash also injured 10 others.

Major-General Bahr Ahmed, a senior commander in Khartoum, was reportedly among the dead.

The Sudanese military, which has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023, released a statement confirming that military personnel and civilians had been killed and reporting that firefighting teams had managed to contain the blaze at the crash site.

The statement did not provide details on what had caused the crash, but military sources told Reuters news agency that it was most likely due to technical reasons.

[Aljazeera]

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Dead body placed beside Australian couple on flight

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Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin said Qatar Airways cabin crew sat the passenger's corpse beside them (file photo) [BBC]

An Australian couple have spoken of the “traumatic” moment the body of a dead passenger was placed next to them on a Qatar Airways flight.

Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin, who were travelling to Venice for a dream holiday, told Australia’s Channel 9 a woman died in the aisle beside them during the flight from Melbourne to Doha.

The couple say cabin crew sat her corpse, which was covered in blankets, next to Mr Ring for the remaining four hours of the flight and did not offer to move him, despite there being empty seats.

Qatar Airways said it apologised for “any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused”, adding that it was in the process of contacting passengers.

Mr Ring said staff responded “in no time” when the woman collapsed, but that “unfortunately the lady couldn’t be saved, which was pretty heart-breaking to watch,” he told the ‘A Current Affairs programme.

Cabin crew tried and failed to move her body away towards business class, he explained. “They tried to wheel her up towards business class, but she was quite a large lady and they couldn’t get her through the aisle.

“They looked a bit frustrated, then they just looked at me and saw seats were available beside me – my wife was on the other side, we were in a row of four.

“They said, ‘can you move over please?’ and I just said, ‘yes no problem’.

“Then they placed the lady in the chair I was in.”

Ms Colin said she was shocked when her husband said they were being asked to move up: “I said, ‘are they going to put her there?'”

While Ms Colin was able to move to an empty seat nearby, Mr Ring said he was not given the option to do so by cabin crew – even though there were vacant seats.

When the plane landed four hours later, he said passengers were asked to stay put while medical staff and police came on board.

“Ambulance officers started pulling the blankets off the lady,” Mr Ring said.

“I got to see her face.

“I can’t believe they told us to stay.”

The pair said they had not been contacted nor offered any support by Qatar Airways or Qantas, the airline through which they booked the flight.

“They have a duty of care towards their customers as well as their staff,” Mr Ring said.

“We should be contacted to make sure, do you need some support, do you need some counselling?

“I don’t really know how I feel and would like to speak to somebody to make sure I’m alright.”

Ms Colin called the experience “traumatic” and said: “We totally understand that we can’t hold the airline responsible for the poor lady’s death, but there has to be a protocol to look after the customers on board.”

In a statement, Qatar Airways said: “First and foremost our thoughts are with the family of the passenger who sadly passed away on board our flight.

“We apologise for any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused, and are in the process of contacting passengers in line with our policies and procedures.”

A Qantas spokesperson said: “The process for handling incidents onboard an aircraft like this is managed by the operating airline, which in this case is Qatar Airways.”

[BBC]

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Chile power outage leaves millions without electricity

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An officer directing traffic in Santiago, where the power outage has affected traffic signals and other transport, including the city's metro [BBC]

Millions of people are thought to be without electricity across Chile after a large nationwide power outage.

According to the national service for disaster prevention and response (SENAPRED), an area spanning most of the country is impacted, including the capital city, Santiago.

The exact scale of the outage, which began earlier on Tuesday, is not yet known but SENAPRED has said it covers the regions of Arica and Parinacota in the north to Los Lagos in the south.

Reuters news agency has also reported that the world’s largest copper mine, Escondida, is without power, citing a source close to the matter.

LATAM Airlines said that some of its flights may also be disrupted while power supplies were down, and urged passengers to check their journey status.

In a post on X, the Santiago Metro operator said its service had been temporarily suspended due to the ongoing power outage, with stations being evacuated and closed.

Footage from the city showed passengers evacuating stations by walking up switched-off escalators, while traffic signals were also shown not working.

There were also long queues for buses which were still running on the city’s roads.

Maria Angelica Roman, 45, told AFP news agency: “They let us leave work because of the power cut, but now I don’t know how we will get home because all the buses are full.”

Chile’s interior minister, Carolina Toha, also posted on X to say that a meeting would be called to discuss ongoing measures to restore services.

SENAPRED added that electricity companies across the impacted area were investigating the fault and attempting to restart services, and no emergency situations had been reported.

[BBC]

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