At least 12 people have died and about 90 others have been injured in a crowd crush at a soccer game in El Salvador. The chaos broke out on Saturday night at the match between Alianza F.C. and FAS at Cuscatlán Stadium in the country’s capital, San Salvador. The quarterfinal match, part of the top Salvadoran league’s championship, was suspended after 16 minutes. The initial report suggests the crush was sparked by fans storming a gate inside the stadium. The Salvadoran Football Federation has announced a national suspension of soccer matches.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will call for South American countries to have a larger say at multilateral organisations like the UN during a visit to the region. Delivering a keynote speech in Santiago celebrating 200 years of UK-South American relations, Cleverly will tell audiences that the “tectonic plates of world politics are shifting once again” and argue that South America should have a permanent seat on the UN’s Security Council. Cleverly will visit Chile, Colombia and Brazil as part of his diplomatic mission.
A new report published in the journal Science reveals that El Niño, the natural climate pattern that sees ocean water temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean heat up every three to five years, could cost the global economy trillions of dollars as its effects linger over years. Some of the most intense past El Niño events reportedly cost the global economy more than $4tn over the years that followed. As climate change could increase the frequency and strength of future El Niño events, the report estimates that global economic losses could amount to $84tn by the end of the 21st century, even if carbon emissions pledges to reduce carbon emissions are met. The report found that lower income nations will bear the greatest burden of the costs. This month, forecaster the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revealed strong evidence indicating that intense El Niño activity is expected to occur later in 2023 following record-high ocean temperatures earlier this year.
