Spain Searches for Bodies after Flooding Claims at Least 158 Lives

People work on a mud-covered street with damaged cars in the aftermath of torrential rains that caused flooding, in Paiporta, Spain, October 31, 2024. REUTERS/Eva Manez
People work on a mud-covered street with damaged cars in the aftermath of torrential rains that caused flooding, in Paiporta, Spain, October 31, 2024. REUTERS/Eva Manez
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Spain Searches for Bodies after Flooding Claims at Least 158 Lives

People work on a mud-covered street with damaged cars in the aftermath of torrential rains that caused flooding, in Paiporta, Spain, October 31, 2024. REUTERS/Eva Manez
People work on a mud-covered street with damaged cars in the aftermath of torrential rains that caused flooding, in Paiporta, Spain, October 31, 2024. REUTERS/Eva Manez

Crews searched for bodies in stranded cars and sodden buildings Thursday following monstrous flash floods in Spain that claimed at least 158 lives, with 155 deaths confirmed in one region alone.

More horrors emerged from the debris and ubiquitous layers of mud left by the walls of water that produced Spain's deadliest natural disaster in living memory, The Associated Press reported. Officials said Thursday that 155 people were killed by the floods in the hardest-hit region of Valencia.

The widespread damage recalled the aftermath of a hurricane or tsunami.
Cars were piled on one another like fallen dominoes, uprooted trees, downed power lines and household items all mired in mud that covered streets in dozens of communities in Valencia.

An unknown number of people are still missing and more victims could be found.

“Unfortunately, there are dead people inside some vehicles,” said Spain’s Transport Minister Óscar Puente.
Rushing water turned narrow streets into death traps and spawned rivers that tore through homes and businesses, sweeping away cars, people and everything else in its path. The floods demolished bridges and left roads unrecognizable.

Regional authorities said late Wednesday it seemed no one was left stranded on rooftops or in cars in need of rescue after helicopters had saved some 70 people.
“Our priority is to find the victims and the missing so we can help end the suffering of their families,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said after meeting with regional officials and emergency services in Valencia on Thursday, the first of three official days of mourning.

While the most suffering was inflicted on municipalities near the city of Valencia, the storms unleashed their fury over huge swaths of the south and eastern coast of the Iberian peninsula. Two fatalities were reported in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region and one in southern Andalusia.

The regional president for Castilla La Mancha, Emilion García-Page, said that at least one Guardia Civil police officer was among several missing people in the town of Letur.

Homes were left without water as far southwest as Malaga in Andalusia, where a high-speed train derailed on Tuesday night although none of the nearly 300 passengers were hurt.

Greenhouses and farms across southern Spain, known as Europe’s garden for its exported produce, were also ruined by heavy rains and flooding. The storms spawned a freak tornado in Valencia and a hail storm that punched holes in cars in Andalusia.

Heavy rains continued Thursday farther north as the Spanish weather agency issued a red alert for several counties in Castellón, in the eastern Valencia region, and for Tarragona in Catalonia. An orange alert was issued for southwest Cadiz.
“This storm front is still with us,” the prime minister said. “Stay home and heed the official recommendation and you will help save lives.”



Ukraine Rolls Out Dozens of AI Systems to Help its Drones Hit Targets

A child films with her mobile phone near the site of a Russian drone strike in Kyiv on October 29, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP)
A child films with her mobile phone near the site of a Russian drone strike in Kyiv on October 29, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP)
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Ukraine Rolls Out Dozens of AI Systems to Help its Drones Hit Targets

A child films with her mobile phone near the site of a Russian drone strike in Kyiv on October 29, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP)
A child films with her mobile phone near the site of a Russian drone strike in Kyiv on October 29, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP)

Ukraine is using dozens of domestically made AI-augmented systems for its drones to reach targets on the battlefield without being piloted, a senior official said, disclosing new details about the race against Russia to harness automation.
Systems that use artificial intelligence allow cheap drones carrying explosives to spot or fly to their targets in areas protected by extensive signal jamming, which has reduced the effectiveness of manually piloted drones, Reuters reported.
The shift towards the use of AI, particularly in drone target finding and flight control, is an important emerging front in the technology race that has unfolded since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
"There are currently several dozen solutions on the market from Ukrainian manufacturers ... they are being purchased and delivered into the armed forces and other defense forces," Ukraine's deputy defense minister Kateryna Chernohorenko said of drone AI systems.
She said they were currently being used in a targeted way in special operations.
Automated drone systems are in high demand among soldiers searching for ways to beat the rapidly increasing use of electronic warfare on the battlefield.
Electronic warfare systems create a protective dome around their location by sending out powerful signals that disrupt communication between drones and their pilots, causing them to lose control of the craft and miss their target.
These systems, once only used to protect the highest-value pieces of equipment, have become a common feature in trenches and on regular vehicles used by soldiers as they seek to protect themselves from the threat of first person view (FPV) drones.
These small and cheap drones, originally built for civilian enthusiasts to race, have since become the most commonly used strike drone on the battlefield, with both countries ramping up their production into the millions per year.
'NEXT PHASE OF THE WAR' A Ukrainian official told Reuters in July that most first person view units' target strike rate had fallen to 30%-50%, while for new pilots that can be as low as 10%, and that signal jamming was the main problem.
The official predicted that AI-operated first person view drones could achieve hit rates of around 80%.
Samuel Bendett, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think-tank, said statements from officials on both sides showed automation would likely play an important role in the next phase of the war, but that it was currently not widespread.
"At this point in the conflict, we're seeing small scale application of these technologies as multiple developers are trying to position themselves and their drones as the go to solution," he said.
"Right now, the solutions are relatively simple and often based on commercial technologies that have been available even before the war, but more complicated features can also become available."
Ukraine is also using interceptor drones to down the vast numbers of Russian camera reconnaissance drones helping target artillery and missile strikes on Ukrainian targets behind the lines.
Chernohorenko, the defense official, said that these also needed to be equipped with AI targeting.
"Russian reconnaissance drones are causing huge problems on the frontlines (but) they are now being shot down rather effectively by our interceptors."
COMPUTER VISION
Dmytro Vovchuk, the chief operating officer of NORDA Dynamics, a Ukrainian company which makes software for drones, told Reuters they had been making a product which used computer vision, a type of AI technology, to guide strike drones towards their target.
The software allows a pilot to select a target via the drone's camera, at which point the craft completes the rest of the flight into it autonomously.
The company has sold over 15,000 units of its automated targeting software to drone manufacturers, with over 10,000 of those already delivered. Although in raw terms that is a large number, it is still a tiny proportion of the 4 million drones Ukraine says it is now capable of producing annually.
Vovchuk said strikes could not always be visually confirmed due to the heavy presence of electronic warfare systems around high-value targets.
"From what we have seen, three tanks were definitely destroyed with our systems, as well as a lot (of strikes) on logistics targets," he said, adding that it had also been used to hit field headquarters.
"Those things which are defended by electronic warfare ... this system has enabled strikes on targets which previously it was not cost-effective to hit."