At least six people have died after some of the heaviest rain in years hit central and eastern Europe, causing flooding and widespread disruption.

A slow-moving low pressure system dubbed Storm Boris dumped a month’s worth of rain onto several of Europe’s historic capitals, including Vienna, Bratislava and Prague. The heavy rainfall continued to pummel the region into Sunday.

It comes after four people died in Romania, where the rainfall left hundreds stranded in flooded areas.

Rescue services have been launched in hard-hit counties as authorities warn that they have recorded the heaviest rainfall in 100 years over the past 24 hours.

Rivers have burst their banks in Poland and the Czech Republic. In southwest Poland, 1,600 people were evacuated in Klodzko county as local rivers reached record high water levels and broke their banks. Klodzko, a town of 25,000, was left partially submerged in water on Sunday.

Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk told reporters Sunday: “We have the first confirmed death by drowning, here in the Klodzko County.”

“The situation is still very dramatic in many place,” he added. “Unfortunately, these situations are repeating themselves in many places… but some residents sometimes underestimate the level of threat and refuse to evacuate.”

Significant flooding is expected to continue in the Czech Republic, where authorities have ordered mandatory evacuations for some areas. Footage released by the Czech Republic Fire and Rescue Service showed flooded streets in the southern Benešově nad Černou municipality, where two women who didn’t follow evacuation orders had to be rescued by boat.

In Germany, southern and eastern states in particular are preparing for flooding. Flood warnings have been issued for rivers in the state of Saxony.

In neighboring Austria, heavy rainfall has caused water levels to rise in several rivers and rescue services have been called out to parts of the country. Many municipalities in Lower Austria have declared a state of emergency as heavy rainfall continued into Sunday.

Red alerts, the highest level of warning, have been issued for portions of Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia. This level of alert is associated with “intense meteorological phenomena” and “major damage is likely,” according to Meteoalarm.

Britain’s royal family has publicly wished Prince Harry a happy birthday, their first such message since 2021 to mark the milestone of him turning 40.

A post was shared on X and Instagram with the message: “Wishing The Duke of Sussex a very happy 40th birthday today!”

It was accompanied by an image of Harry smiling, and a birthday cake emoji.

An hour later, the post was shared by Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, who added their own message: “Wishing a Happy 40th Birthday to The Duke of Sussex!”

The public well-wishes could come as a surprise with Harry known to be estranged from his brother and having difficult ties with his father, King Charles III.

Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, have been living in California since 2020 after stepping down as working members of the British monarchy.

Since then relations have been strained, in particular over the release of Harry’s memoir ‘Spare’ which among other bombshells saw Harry call William his “arch-nemesis” and allege he was attacked by him.

Interactions between Harry and other senior royals have been scant: Harry visited Charles following the King’s cancer diagnosis earlier this year but spent just 45 minutes in his company. He also briefly returned to London to mark the 10th anniversary of his Invictus Games but did not see any of the Windsors during the whistle-stop visit.

Harry is thought to be spending his 40th with the Duchess of Sussex and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. He is then understood to be taking a trip with close friends.

This week Harry told the BBC in a statement he was “excited” about the milestone, in contrast to turning 30 when he felt “anxious.” He continued: “Whatever the age, my mission is to continue showing up and doing good in the world.”

The duke also touched upon how fatherhood has changed him, saying: “Being a dad is one of life’s greatest joys and has only made me more driven and more committed to making this world a better place.”

A Russian strike on an apartment block in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has injured at least 41 people, with fears others are trapped under the rubble, Ukrainian officials said Sunday.

Three of those who were injured when a guided aerial bomb hit the 12-story building were children, the head of the Kharkiv city military administration Oleh Syniehubov said.

At least 14 people have been hospitalized as a result of the strike and one person has been reported missing.

“There may be people under the rubble,” Syniehubov said. “The search and rescue operation continues.”

One of the residents refused to evacuate without his dog, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. “Every life is important to our rescuers, so they rescued both the man and his pet from the smoke-filled apartment on the 12th floor,” he added.

Video shared online by the minister showed the dog being lifted in the air by one of the emergency cranes before reaching the roof of the building and being received by one of the rescuers.

The strike sparked a fire on the ninth floor. Three apartments were completely destroyed. Dozens of cars have been damaged from the strike, which also left hundreds of windows shattered.

“Residents are being evacuated. Specialized, humanitarian, international and Ukrainian organizations are responding to the scene,” Syniehubov said.

“This is civil infrastructure,” the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said. “Russia massively violates human rights and international humanitarian law. The reaction must be here and now.”

Kharkiv lies near the border with Russia and has seen frequent attacks since the full-scale Russian invasion began in 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky repeated his call for more military support from allies following the attack.

“The world must help us defend ourselves against Russian military aircraft and the dozens of guided aerial bombs that claim Ukrainian lives every day,” Zelensky said in a social media post on Sunday.

“This terror can be stopped. But to stop it, the fear of making strong, objectively necessary decisions must be overcome. Only decisiveness can bring a just end to this war. It is decisiveness that most effectively protects against terror,” he said.

Ukrainian authorities earlier put the toll from Russian strikes over a 24-hour period at nine, including a man and a woman in their 60s killed in Odesa.

Zelensky said that over the past week “the Russians have launched around 30 missiles of various types, more than 800 guided aerial bombs, and nearly 300 strike drones against Ukraine.”

The Israeli military says that three Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza in December were “most likely” killed as a result of an Israeli airstrike.

The hostages were two soldiers – Corporal Nick Beiser and Sergeant Ron Sherman – and and civilian man, Eliya Toledano.

Recovering the hostages captured by Hamas on October 7 is one of the main goals of Israel’s campaign in Gaza and the government is under intense domestic pressure to secure their release.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the families of all three were informed Sunday after the conclusion of the investigation, which involved intelligence and operational research efforts and considerations of the security of the hostages.

“It is estimated that the three were most likely killed as a by-product of an IDF airstrike, during the assassination of the commander of the northern division of Hamas, Ahmed Andor, on November 10, 2023.”

“This is an estimate with a high probability in view of all the data, but it is not possible to determine with certainty the circumstances of their death,” the IDF said. “This determination is based on the location where their bodies were found in relation to the impact of the attack,” as well as intelligence findings and pathological reports.

“The investigation shows that the three hostages were held in the tunnel complex where Andor operated. At the time of the attack, the IDF did not have information about the presence of hostages in the compound that was attacked, and moreover, there was information that indicated their location elsewhere.”

The IDF said that throughout the war, it has not attacked in areas where there are indications or suspicions about the presence of hostages.

The bodies of the three hostages were retrieved from the tunnel where Andor had been staying on December 14. Later that month Hamas claimed that the three hostages were “killed by IDF weapons.”

A total of 101 hostages are still being held in Gaza, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). 35 of those are believed to be dead.

Hostage release efforts are ongoing and gained new urgency earlier this month with the discovery of the bodies of six hostages in a tunnel beneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah, including the Israeli-American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

US officials are trying to get both sides to agree to a deal first laid out by US President Joe Biden in May. The three-phase proposal pairs the release of hostages with a “full and complete ceasefire.”

Since then talks have stuttered and both sides have pointed to what they see as glaring holes in the framework, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting that Israel’s forces will never leave the stretch along the Egypt-Gaza border known as the Philadelphi Corridor.

At least eight people died during a failed attempt to cross the English Channel from northern France, French maritime authorities said Sunday.

The tragedy occurred Saturday just before midnight when authorities spotted a boat, carrying dozens, in distress near a beach in the northern town of Ambleteuse.

A French rescue ship was deployed to the area and rescue services offered medical assistance to 53 migrants on the beach, a statement from the French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea said.

“Despite the emergency care provided, eight people have died,” the statement said.

No people were discovered during the search at sea, it added.

Six people were taken to hospital “in relative emergency,” including a 10-month-old baby with hypothermia, Jacques Billant, the Pas-de-Calais prefect, told French media on Sunday. He said that survivors came from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Iran.

The inflatable boat, carrying 59 people, set sail from the beach near the town of Vimont and ran aground soon after, the prefect said. “The boat was clearly torn apart on the rocks,” he added.

Fifty-one survivors have been taken to a reception center in the city of Toulouse, according to local authorities. The prosecutor’s office in Boulogne-sur-mer has opened an investigation.

The deaths on Saturday occurred nearly two weeks after a boat carrying migrants ripped apart in the English Channel as they attempted to reach Britain from northern France, plunging dozens into the treacherous waterway and leaving 12 dead, officials said.

British officials were quick to express sadness over another English Channel tragedy.

“It’s awful,’’ Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the BBC. “It’s a further loss of life.”

The new Labour Party government has pledged to crack down on criminal gangs and had discussed with European partners “how we go after those gangs, in cooperation upstream.’’

Europe’s increasingly strict asylum rules, growing xenophobia and hostile treatment of migrants have been pushing them north. At least 46 migrants had died while trying to cross to the UK this year, said Billant, the Pas-de-Calais prefect.

At least 137,563 people have reached the United Kingdom after crossing the Channel from France since 2018, according to UK Home Office figures. On Saturday alone, 14 boats carrying 801 migrants reached Britain.

French coast guard and navy vessels on Saturday rescued 200 people from the treacherous waters in the Pas-de-Calais area, according to a report sent by French maritime authorities in charge of the Channel and the North Sea.

They said they observed 18 attempts of boat departures from France to Britain on Saturday.

Other surveillance and rescue operations are underway Sunday along the entire Pas-de-Calais coast amid stormy weather conditions and agitated sea, French maritime authorities said. They warned anyone who tries to cross the Channel on flimsy and overloaded boats and in often difficult weather conditions of “significant risks.”

In July, four migrants died while attempting the crossing on an inflatable boat that capsized and punctured. Five others, including a child, died in another attempt in April. Five dead were recovered from the sea or found washed up along a beach after a migrant boat ran into difficulties in the dark and winter cold of January.

At least 274 inmates have escaped from a prison in Nigeria’s Borno state following heavy flooding, the Nigerian Correctional Service said Sunday.

“The flood brought down the walls of the correctional facilities, including the medium security custodial center Maiduguri (MSCC) as well as the staff quarters in the city,” the service spokesman Abubakar Umar said in a statement.

According to Umar, at least 281 inmates managed to escape while they were being transferred to “a safe and secure facility” and seven of them were recaptured later.

Umar said that the service is aware of escapees’ identities, including their biometrics and made this information “available to the public.”

The search for the inmates is ongoing, he said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

An environmental activist who protested mining and hydro-electric projects in northern Honduras in an effort to preserve tropical forests and rivers has been killed, police said on Sunday.

Juan Lopez was shot dead on Saturday night by several men as he headed home in his car from church, an official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Lopez belonged to the Municipal Committee for the Defense of Common and Public Goods, an environmental organization in the city of Tocoa on the country’s Atlantic coast.

Three other members of the group were killed last year in what the organization saw as retaliation, in a country that is one of the world’s most dangerous for activists.

The group had suffered threats and harassment for years amid efforts to preserve the Guapinol and San Pedro rivers, and the Carlos Escaleras nature reserve, amid the growing presence of mining and hydro-electric companies.

“We demand clear and conclusive answers, this government must answer for the killing of our colleague Juan Lopez,” the group said in a post on social media.

Last October, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights granted precautionary measures in favor of 30 members of the group and their legal representatives, including Lopez. It urged the Honduras government to strengthen its protection mechanisms.

According to the commission, Lopez reported numerous threats, including from a gang member, a local businessperson, and a mining company representative. Since June, two men on motorcycles began appearing around his home, the commission said.

The United Nations resident coordinator in Honduras, Alice Shackelford, said Lopez had been threatened for his activism, and she praised his efforts to stand up to powerful interests.

“We condemn the terrible murder of Juan Lopez, a human rights defender threatened for his work,” she said in a post on social media.

Latin America accounted for 85% of the world’s environmentalists who were killed last year, according to UK advocacy group Global Witness, with 18 deaths registered in Honduras.

Shanghai was brought to a standstill on Monday morning by what authorities say was the strongest typhoon to directly hit the Chinese financial hub in more than seven decades, with flights, trains and highways suspended during a national holiday.

Typhoon Bebinca made landfall in an industrial suburb southeast of the metropolis of 25 million people around 7:30 a.m. local time. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) said it packed top wind speeds of 130 kilometers per hour (80 mph), the equivalent of a Category 1 Atlantic hurricane.

The storm is the strongest to make landfall in Shanghai since 1949, according to Chinese state media.

The China Meteorological Administration on Monday issued a red typhoon warning, its most severe alert, warning of gale force winds and heavy rainfall in large swathes of eastern China.

The powerful storm has disrupted travel plans for holidaymakers during the Mid-Autumn festival, or Moon Festival, a three-day national holiday that started on Sunday.

All flights at Shanghai’s two international airports have been canceled since 8 p.m. Sunday. Most train and ferry services were suspended, while some highways and bridges in the city were closed.

Many tourist destinations in the city, including Shanghai Disney Resort, were also shut on Monday.

Germany has begun new controls at all of its land borders as part of a crackdown on migration, placing restrictions on a wide area of free movement known as the Schengen Zone and stirring anger among its European neighbors.

From Monday, as well as existing border controls with Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland, Germany will now also have internal border controls with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

Berlin will have the power to reject people at all land borders, a statement from the Interior Ministry said. The new rules will last for six months initially.

The move marks how far Germany has shifted in recent years on the flashpoint issue of migration.

The German government under Angela Merkel welcomed more than one million new arrivals during the migrant crisis of 2015-2016 but is now following other European countries in toughening up rules as it faces a surging far-right opposition.

It comes after Germany on Friday struck a controlled migration deal with Kenya, which will see Berlin open its doors to skilled and semi-skilled Kenyan workers.

Announcing the changes, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that Germany was “strengthening internal security through concrete action” and continuing its “tough stance against irregular migration.”

She signaled the move was aimed at protecting German citizens from the dangers posed by Islamist terrorism as well as serious cross-border crime.

The move has put the unity of the European bloc to the test and attracted criticism from Germany’s neighbors.

Germany is part of the Schengen border-free area. Under European Union rules, member states have the ability to temporarily reintroduce border control at internal borders in the event of a serious threat to public policy or internal security. However, this must be applied as a last resort.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that the introduction of tighter controls at land borders was unacceptable for Poland, adding that Warsaw would request urgent talks with all countries affected. Both Greece and Austria have warned that they would not accept migrants rejected by Germany.

Closer to home, Germany’s Council for Migration warned that the plan risks violating EU law.

“The current policy goal of turning back (migrants) seeking protection at Germany’s borders represents a dangerous form of populism in the migration policy debate,” a statement said, which called for an “evidence-based debate on migration policy in Europe.”

Germany’s government, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has been spurred into action to tackle uncontrolled immigration after receiving criticism for not doing enough to tackle the issue.

The country’s approach to migration has toughened in recent years, in light of a surge in arrivals – particularly from the Middle East and Ukraine – as well as terror attacks motivated by Islamic terror.

The coalition government seeking to counter the country’s burgeoning far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is known for its explicitly anti-immigrant and anti-Islam agenda.

The new security package came in the wake of a fatal attack in the western city of Solingen, in which three people were stabbed to death on August 23.

The suspect was identified as a 26-year-old Syrian man with alleged links to ISIS, who had previously been due for deportation.