The Times - UK (2020-10-20)

36 1GM Tuesday October 20 2020 | the times

Wo r l d

Arsonists have burnt two churches in

Santiago on the first anniversary of

protests against the government.

The Church of the Assumption, a

landmark completed in 1876, was de-

stroyed. Another church, the San Fran-

cisco de Borja, was looted and suffered

significant fire damage.

A fringe group of protesters has pre-

viously targeted religious buildings in

the city, accusing the Catholic Church

of covering up sex abuse scandals and

imposing conservative views on all

Chileans.

Víctor Pérez, minister of the interior,

said that the attacks were offensive to

the entire country. “Burning churches

is an expression of brutality,” he said.

The vandalism followed a largely

peaceful demonstration in the city

centre in which a crowd of about

25,000 vowed to continue speaking out

against the centre-right government of

President Piñera. Many held banners

expressing grievances over a range of

issues from inequality to the price of

public transport.

The scale of the country’s protests,

which started last October after the

about 90 per cent of the buildings in

Cedar Rapids, a city of 133,000, were

damaged or destroyed, along with at

least half the city’s trees.

Unlike a tornado, the winds of which

spiral upwards, a derecho’s winds des-

cend and then spread outwards, usually

pushed by a powerful jet stream feeding

into the back of a storm complex.

Gusts typically last up to 20 minutes

in any one spot but those caught in the

August derecho in the Midwest exper-

ienced severe winds that lasted up to an

hour, making the impact comparable to

that of a big hurricane.

The damage inflicted by the derecho

exceeded nine of this year’s record ten

hurricanes and tropical storms to make

landfall in the US. Only Hurricane

Laura, which smashed into Louisiana

in late August and delivered an estim-

ated $14 billion in damage, proved more

destructive.

World’s most expensive

thunderstorm cost $7.5bn

United States

Ben Hoyle Los Angeles

Protesters set fire to Chilean churches

price of a metro ticket was put up by less

than 2 per cent, have seemed incon-

gruous to many observers, given that

Chile is one of the most politically

stable and prosperous countries in

South America, with relatively low

rates of poverty. However, the cost of

living has risen sharply in recent years

as income from benefits such as pen-

sions has fallen.

In a concession to the protesters

President Piñera has agreed to hold a

referendum on whether to rewrite the

country’s constitution, which dates

from 1980 and the military dictatorship

of General Pinochet.

Critics of the constitution say that it

is an illegitimate document because it

was imposed by a dictator and that it

gives private property priority over the

fundamental rights to social security.

The referendum will be held on

Sunday. If it passes, the process of

drafting and approving a new con-

stitution is expected to take at least two

years.

Chile

Stephen Gibbs Sao Paulo

A violent thunderstorm that deva-

stated the American Corn Belt just

before the harvest began has proved to

be the most costly in US history.

In 14 hours on August 10 the storm

complex, known as a derecho, raced

770 miles through South Dakota, Iowa,

Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, killing four

people and leaving wreckage in its wake

that the National Oceanic and Atmos-

pheric Administration has costed at

$7.5 billion so far.

About one fifth of Iowa’s farmland

was affected, including 3.5 million acres

of corn and 2.5 million acres of soya

beans. Crops were caught by the winds

and bombarded by hail that Justin Glis-

an, the state climatologist, compared to

machinegun fire.

Half a million people lost power and

The Church of the Assumption, built

in the 19th century, was destroyed

As his people eke out a living on less

than £2 a day and fall ill from drinking

unsafe water, Africa’s most boastful

playboy politician has shared footage

from his £38,000-a-night stay on a pri-

vate island in the Maldives.

After an enforced lull in his jet-set-

ting routine, Teodorin Obiang, 50, the

vice-president of Equatorial Guinea,

has returned to extravagant form by

sharing images from his idyllic break

with his 99,000 followers on Instagram.

Drone shots edited to a musical

soundtrack show Mr Obiang making

the most of the turquoise waters and

powdery beaches of Voavah, which,

according to its website, promises “lux-

ury at every turn”. He checked into the

Unesco world heritage site resort this

month, leaving the west African state to

weather the double economic shock

from the coronavirus and a plunge in

the price of crude oil, which provides

about three quarters of state revenue.

Images show him taking advantage

of the resort’s perks, although he is

unlikely to have use for its 19m yacht

since he had evidently brought his own.

An aerial shot of the five-acre island in

the Baa Atoll shows Mr Obiang’s 76m

Ebony Shine, which has a private cin-

ema and a staff of 22, moored near by

among the reefs. He was reunited with

Last year 25 of his supercars, includ-

ing five Bentleys, seven Ferraris, three

Lamborghinis and a Bugatti Veyron

were auctioned off by the authorities in

Switzerland.

As the most favoured of his father’s

42 recognised children, Mr Obiang is

understood to be being groomed for his

country’s top job. There has been grow-

ing speculation over the health of the

president, who has ruled the former

Spanish colony since overthrowing his

uncle in a 1979 coup. Transparency

International rated Equatorial Guinea

173rd out of 180 countries on its 2019

corruption perceptions index.

Maintenance work at an

archaeological site in Peru

has uncovered a huge im-

age of a lounging cat, drawn

on a hillside more than

2,000 years ago.

Experts say the etching, in

the desert between the towns

of Nazca and Palpa, can be dated

Vast cat etched 2,000 years ago discovered in the Peruvian desert

to between 500 and 100BC.

It is the latest discovery

in an area known as the

Nazca lines, a series of

man-made patterns,

which came to global

attention in the

1920s. How the

designs were carved,

and their purpose, has

fascinated archaeolo-

gists for much of the past

100 years. The ancient cat etching,

known as a geoglyph, is 121ft (37m) long.

It has distinctive pointy ears, big eyes

and a long striped tail.

“It’s quite striking that we’re still

finding new figures, but we also know

that there are more to be found,” Johny

Isla, the chief archaeologist for the Nazca

lines, told the EFE news agency.

Other geoglyphs in the area are a

hummingbird, a monkey and a pelican.

They were created by carving a darker

crust of rock to reveal a lighter layer.

The cat discovery was made on a hill

that is usually used as a visitor vantage

point. The area was being cleaned and

maintained during lockdown, an

opportune moment for repairs given

that there are few tourists visiting.

Workers found evidence of a line,

concealed by centuries of dust and rock.

“The figure was barely visible and was

about to disappear as a result of its

location on a fairly steep slope and the

effects of natural erosion,” the culture

ministry said. Closer inspection uncov-

ered a series of lines up to 40cm wide,

which eventually formed the image.

The Nazca lines cover about 174 square

miles and are described by Unesco as

one of “archaeology’s greatest enigmas”.

One theory is that they were astronom-

ical markers to show where the sun and

planets were positioned on the horizon

on significant dates; another is that

they were irrigation tracts.

Peru

Stephen Gibbs

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Catch some of Teodorin Obiang’s luxury

stay in the Maldives

On mobile, tablet and at thetimes.co.uk

bought for €107 mil-

lion, a fleet of supercars,

rare paintings, a €3.5 mil-

lion antique clock and fine

wines worth thousands of pounds a

bottle. His assets have also been target-

ed in America where investigators

identified $300 million (£231 million) in

effects including sports cars, property

and nearly $2 million of Michael Jack-

son memorabilia.

Playboy son of

despot flaunts

paradise jaunt

Maldives

Jane Flanagan

the $115 million boat last September

after it was held for three years by the

Swiss authorities while they invest-

igated allegations of money laundering.

It was eventually released when Mr

Obiang’s government paid $1.3 millon

in fees after successfully arguing that it

actually belonged to its Ministry of

National Defence and that its dive

facilities were used for training people

in the navy.

His father, President Obiang, 78, is

the world’s longest-serving president

and Equatorial Guinea’s first

family have never been shy

about their extravagance

even as they were invest-

igated for plundering

their oil-rich state

where 1.3 million live

in wretched poverty.

President Obiang

once paid $55 million

for a Boeing 737 jet

with gold-plated lava-

tory fittings.

In February judges in

France handed the younger

Mr Obiang a £25 million fine for

embezzlement as well as a suspended

three-year jail term in absentia after

finding that he had pillaged his state

coffers. Prosecutors estimated that he

had amassed assets worth €150 million

(£126 million) in France alone, among

them a six-floor mansion in Paris

Teodorin Obiang, vice-president of Equatorial Guinea, is staying in a £38,000-a-night luxury resort on

the private island of Voavah in the Maldives. His 76m superyacht Ebony Shine is moored near by

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