Hurricane Ida devastates El Salvador

In El Salvador, 124 people are dead and at least 60 are missing after days of raining and flooding as Hurricane Ida passes through the region.

Officials have declared a state of emergency in five regions of the country, with Interior Minister Humberto Centeno remarking that San Salvador and San Vicente were the regions most affected. San Vicente has been cut off from the outside world almost entirely, as landslides and collapsed bridges block paths leading to and from the town.

On Sunday, Hurricane Ida strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane, causing incessant rain and gusts of over 100 mph.

“The weather continues to be bad, and we already have a river flowing through the village due to a landslide,” a police officer from Verapaz, in the San Vicente department said. “We are worried things will get worse if the rains continue.”

While the flooding in El Salvador was not necessarily caused by Hurricane Ida, news of the wanton destruction and death in the country came right as Ida began its move for the Gulf of Mexico. Oil companies in the gulf have begun shutting down refineries and pulling out workers in preparation.

Suicide bomb in Pakistan kills mayor

A suicide attack in Peshawar has killed at least 12 people, including an anti-militant mayor from the Adazai district, Abdul Malik. “It’s a big loss,” said a Peshawar police official. “He was really a linchpin in resisting the spread of Taliban in the area; he was a very important figure.”

The attack came as the bomber, described as a young, 20-something male, casually strolled up to Malik in a crowded market. The market was packed due to an upcoming Muslim holiday, prompting officials to remark that the death toll could have been much higher; Taliban attacks in Pakistan have killed 300 in the past few weeks.

Peshawar is in the tumultuous Northwest portion of the country, where Taliban militants have experienced a government push-back for the past few months. Government officials believe the recent rash of Taliban attacks — this is Peshawar’s second in two months — is the Taliban trying to reclaim ground.

Thousands flock to Germany for anniversary of Berlin Wall’s fall

Giant dominoes are set up in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Near midnight on Nov. 9, they will be toppled to re-mark the unification of Berlin and an event that marked the end of the Soviet Union.

Thousands upon thousands are making the pilgrimage to the town for a giant celebration, put on by the German government and attended by a swath of world leaders — including Mikhael Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union at the time of the Wall’s collapse.

“History is palpable and alive here,” Klaus Wowereit, mayor of Berlin said. “The peaceful revolution of the fall of the Wall 20 years ago paved the way to an unprecedented transformation of Berlin.”

Reach columnist Morgan Gard at news@dailyuw.com.