Flood Gates in Venice Work in First Test
After decades of bureaucratic delays, corruption and resistance from environmental groups, sea walls designed to defend Venice from high water, went up Saturday, testing their ability to battle the city’s increasingly menacing floods.
By 10 a. m., all 78 floodgates barricading three inlets to the Venetian lagoon had been raised, and even when the tide reached as high as 4 feet, water levels inside the lagoon remained steady, officials said.
“There wasn’t even a puddle in St. Mark’s Square,” said Alvise Papa, the director of the Venice department that monitors high tides.
Had the flood barriers not been raised, about half the city’s streets would have been under water and visitors to St. Mark’s Square — which floods when the tide nears 3 feet — would have been wading in a foot and a half of water, he said.
“Everything dry here. Pride and joy,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro tweeted.
India’s COVID- 19 death toll passes 100,000.
SRINAGAR, KASHMIR » More than 100,000 people in India have died from the coronavirus, the government said Saturday, even as officials plan to lift more restrictions in hopes of reviving the crippled economy.
India’s health ministry reported 1,069 new COVID- 19 deaths, bringing the official total to 100,842, although experts say the true toll is probably much higher. Until Saturday, only the United States and Brazil had reported more than 100,000 deaths from the virus.
At 6.4 million, India’s official caseload is the secondhighest in the world, surpassed only by the United States, which has more than 7.3 million cases. India’s death and infection rates have climbed in recent months, with September alone accounting for more than 40% of its cases and about a third of its deaths.
Land mines complicate wildfire response in Ukraine.
VINNYTSIA, UKRAINE » A wildfire burning out of control in the war zone in eastern Ukraine is setting off land mines in a buffer area between government forces and Russian- backed separatists, complicating the dangerous work of fire crews.
The fire is burning through an area of grassy hills and pine forests, all tinder dry, in the Luhansk region, near the border with Russia and divided by the front line in the war, which began in 2014 and has settled into a long stalemate.
“We cannot reach it because of the mines, and we cannot use aviation because of the war,” said Mykhailo Shevchenko, a member of the City Council in Stanytsia Luhanska.
Britain, E. U. enter makeorbreak phase for Brexit deal.
LONDON » Britain’s lengthy divorce proceedings with the European Union entered a make- orbreak phase Saturday as Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the European Commission president agreed that the two sides shared enough common ground to aim for a final settlement.
The announcement, after a video call between Johnson and the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, fell well short of a breakthrough, but neither was it a breakdown. Negotiations for a long- term trade agreement, which have ground on inconclusively for months, will now intensify as the sides scramble to meet a deadline that would allow a deal to be in place Dec. 31.
Britain formally left the EU at the end of January. But under the terms of its withdrawal agreement, it remains part of the bloc’s customs union and single market until the end of the year while the two sides hammer out permanent arrangements on issues like fishing quotas and state aid to industries.
Tahoe ski resort reverses parking policy after legal fights.
RENO, NEV. » Free parking has returned to one Lake Tahoe resort but not before its corporate owner waged an expensive year- long legal battle with two season- pass holders.
An 80- year- old attorney and another man whose first job out of college was parking cars at the mountain now owned by Vail Resorts filed separate lawsuits when Northstar California replaced traditional free parking with $ 20 daily fees ($ 40 weekends) — after they’d purchased their passes.
Attorney Steven Kroll eventually won a judgment for $ 692 plus $ 135 in costs.
Robert Grossman came away with nothing after he was buried in opposition filings and agreed to dismiss his federal lawsuit for fear of being ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and expenses.