Pakistan records ‘wettest April’ in more than 60 years | Climate News

At least 144 people died due to the heavy rainfall in April.

Pakistan has experienced its “wettest April since 1961”, receiving more than twice as much rain as usual for the month, the country’s weather agency has said.

April rainfall was recorded at 59.3mm (2.3 inches), “excessively above” the normal average of 22.5mm (0.9 inches), the metrology department said in its monthly climate report released late on Friday.

The highest rainfall was recorded in the southwestern province of Balochistan with 437 percent more than average.

At least 144 people also died in the thunderstorms and house collapses due to heavy rains in April.

The largest death toll was reported in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 84 people died, including 38 children, and more than 3,500 homes were damaged.

While much of Asia is sweltering due to heatwaves, Pakistan’s national monthly temperature for April was 23.67 degrees Celsius (74.6 degrees Fahrenheit), 0.87C lower than the average of 24.54C, the report added.

“Climate change is a major factor that is influencing the erratic weather patterns in our region,” Zaheer Ahmad Babar, spokesman for the Pakistan Meteorological Department, said of the report.

In 2022, downpours swelled rivers and at one point flooded a third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people. The floods caused $30bn in damages, from which Pakistan is still trying to rebuild. Balochistan saw rainfall at 590 percent above average that year, while Karachi saw 726 percent more rainfall than usual.

“The flash floods caused extensive damage to vast area of crops, particularly the wheat crop, which was ready for harvest,” the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a recent report.

“This has resulted in significant economic losses for local farmers and communities, compounding the losses from the rain-related incidents,” it said.

Meanwhile, parts of Pakistan have also been hit by heatwaves and severe air pollution, which experts say are exacerbated by inadequate infrastructure and ineffective governance.

“We are witnessing climate change-related incidents nearly every year now. Yet we are not prepared for it,” environment lawyer and activist Ahmad Rafay Alam told the AFP news agency.

“It is the responsibility of our provincial and federal governments to prioritise climate relief and mitigation measures. However, their focus appears to be primarily on political matters,” Alam added.

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Invisible plastic: Why banning plastic bags will never be enough | Environment News

This week, the fourth round of treaty talks by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution concluded in Ottawa, Canada. A major bone of contention between negotiators from 175 countries is whether or not to limit the production of plastic, most of which is made from fossil fuels and chemicals and which causes pollution after use, as it does not fully or easily biodegrade.

Despite several rounds of talks, the pervasive plastic problem remains unresolved. A final round of talks is scheduled to be held in South Korea at the end of this year.

Amid global struggles to curb plastic pollution, the United Kingdom said last month that it would introduce legislation to ban wet wipes which contain plastic. Wet wipes made with plastic have been shown to leach harmful microplastics into the environment after they have been disposed of.

Everyone knows that plastic bags are a blight on the environment, but what other everyday items – also known as “invisible plastics – unexpectedly contain plastic or harmful “microplastics” and is there a solution?

What are invisible plastics and ‘microplastics’?

These are items which are seemingly not made of plastic – such as wet wipes – but which, once disposed of, release plastic into the environment.

“Invisible plastics are everywhere,” Tony Walker, a professor at the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University in Canada who also belongs to the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, said.

“In terms of global plastic production, which includes things like the table I’m sat at, the chair I’m sat on, my computer – you name it, it probably contains a plastic of some kind.”

Not all plastic needs to be eliminated, he said, particularly if it is used to make furniture which could last for several decades.

Single-use items containing plastic should be the focus, he added. These are adding to the “tonnes of plastic that are sitting in our landfills”, he said, often leaching harmful microplastics into the environment.

Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic which can even make their way into our food – for example by first being broken down and ingested by fish when they get into the sea. Walker added that even so-called “biodegradable plastic”, which is advertised as being able to break down naturally once disposed of, can contain microplastics.

Plastic can break down into microplastics in the sea, and enter the food chain [Shutterstock]

Which unexpected items could contain plastic?

Some other everyday items which surprisingly contain plastic are:

  • Chewing gum: A key ingredient used in making chewing gum – “gum base” – actually contains polyvinyl acetate, a plastic which does not biodegrade once the gum is disposed of.
  • Tea bags: To retain their shape while they are in hot water, most tea bags are lined with a plastic called polypropylene. The same applies to many coffee filters.
  • Sunscreen: Several brands of sunscreen use microplastics as an ingredient in their formula.
  • Aluminium cans: Many aluminium cans that contain soda have a lining of plastic to prevent the acid from the soda from reacting with the metal of the can.
  • Receipts: Many receipts are printed on thermal paper, which is coated with a layer of plastic to give it a shiny finish, making most paper receipts non-recyclable.
  • Toiletries and laundry products: Some toothpaste brands contain tiny beads or micro-beads of plastic which act as exfoliants. These do not degrade or dissolve in water. Micro-beads can also be found in facial scrubs, makeup products and laundry detergent powders.

What are countries doing about this problem?

During a session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022, a landmark resolution was adopted to draft an international legally binding treaty on plastic pollution.

Under the resolution, an intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) including representatives from 175 countries, has been holding talks with the aim of drafting a treaty by the end of this year. Previous sessions have convened in Uruguay, France and Kenya. The fourth session wrapped up this week in Canada and the last one will be held between November and December in South Korea.

This time, major disagreements about limiting the amount of plastic manufactured globally arose.

Environmental experts say it is crucial that they reach an agreement on this issue. Plastic production continues to rise around the world and the annual production of fossil fuel-based plastic is projected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to triple by 2060 if nothing changes.

The head of Greenpeace in Ottawa, Graham Forbes, said that it will be impossible to end plastic pollution without massively reducing plastic production.

“Current global production [of plastic] is over 400 million metric tons [tonnes] annually,” said Walker. “However, we’re recycling on average as a planet, only 9 percent. That leaves 91 percent of 400 million metric tons as waste.”

Why don’t some countries want to reduce plastic production?

This is mainly down to economic factors, experts say.

Some “have vested interest in producing plastic products or petroleum products”, Walker explained. These countries believe that stopping the production of plastic would hurt their economies, he added.

Will governments find a solution?

Experts are calling on countries represented at the INC to work much harder to reach a consensus on the production of plastic before the end of this year.

Walker pointed out that plastic is a transboundary pollutant, crossing rivers and borders, meaning countries should have a vested interest in tackling this issue. “Plastics are now in the atmosphere, in the air we breathe, so they’re actually travelling between continents on air currents,” said Walker.

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Why has the flooding in Kenya been so devastating? | Weather News

Torrential rains have caused devastating floods in Kenya, where more than 200 people have died, thousands have been displaced and nearly 2,000 schools have been destroyed. All remaining schools have been shut down until further notice.

Rains have been ravaging Kenya since March during some of the most catastrophic weather events in the country for years. Now, Cyclone Hidaya is expected to hit Kenya and neighbouring Tanzania late on Friday, which could further worsen the flooding. This comes amid recent heavy rainfall across East Africa.

Here is more about the floods in Kenya so far:

How many people have been killed and injured in Kenya’s floods?

The flooding has wreaked havoc in Kenya, causing death and destruction. Here are the latest figures from Kenya’s Ministry of Interior on Friday:

  • At least 210 people have been killed, including 20 in a recent 24-hour period, and 125 have been injured.
  • Ninety people have been reported missing with dozens believed to be lost under the debris.
  • About 3,100 households have been displaced.
  • The schools that have been destroyed number 1,967.

“There are many people who cannot be found. Many of my neighbours cannot be found,” Jane Wambui, a flood survivor, told Al Jazeera.

Many of those who have been worst affected by the flooding live in informal settlements, such as Nairobi’s Mathare, where residents have accused the government of neglecting them.

“The government says they deployed the military and the national youth service and they are stepping up search and rescue missions, but where are they? It has been a week, and where are they? I have not seen anyone here in Mathare. Not one person from the government has come to help us,” Mathare resident Collins Obondo said.

Where in Kenya is the flooding the worst?

In the town of Mai Mahiu in southern Kenya, a dam burst on Monday, killing at least 48 people.

(Al Jazeera)

Mai Mahiu in Nakuru County is west of the capital, Nairobi, which is expected to be hit by more heavy rains, according to a warning issued on X on Friday by Kenya’s Meteorological Department.

What has caused the flooding in Kenya?

While climate events such as El Nino – the warming of the surface water of the Pacific Ocean, which causes heavy rainfall in some parts of the world – have been linked to the increase in rain, many Kenyans believe the flooding has been exacerbated by lack of investment by the government.

In Mathare, locals blamed the flooding on poorly maintained, frequently blocked drains that have caused water to accumulate.

Flood survivor Nahason Igeria told Al Jazeera: “This was caused by the state national Railways Corporation. They are the ones who built the culvert downstream and the tunnel upstream. It should be their responsibility to maintain the system.”

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch published findings that low-income neighbourhoods, such as Mathare, had been severely impacted by the floods due to “less solid structures, congestion and poor sanitation infrastructure”.

In a statement, Greenpeace Africa Executive Director Oulie Keita said the floods are a “stark reminder of the human cost of the climate crisis”, adding, “Some of the damage was further worsened by misinformed development.”

How has the Kenyan government responded to the floods?

In anticipation of Cyclone Hidaya, President William Ruto’s government has ordered mandatory evacuations for residents living close to 178 dams and water reservoirs in 33 counties.

During his national address to the nation on Friday, Ruto said he had directed the Ministry of Education to postpone the reopening of schools for their second term until further notice. Besides the schools destroyed since March, many other schools are being used to shelter those who have been displaced by the floods.

Ruto’s approach to managing the floods has been criticised by residents of Mai Mahiu and of several informal settlements that have been devastated by floodwaters.

Human Rights Watch said the government failed to act following the Meteorological Department’s warnings in May last year that Kenya would experience enhanced rainfall due to El Nino and it would continue into 2024.

While the government set aside at least 10 billion Kenyan shillings ($80m) in preparation for a nationwide response, it did not outline a plan of action. In October, Ruto mistakenly said Kenya would not experience El Nino rainfall as had been predicted.

The Meteorological Department now expects the rainfall to continue until June.

What impact is Cyclone Hidaya expected to have?

Cyclone Hidaya is likely to result in “heavy rainfall, large waves and strong winds that could affect marine activities in the Indian Ocean”, the presidential office said.

The cyclone is also expected to make the search for the bodies of those missing and feared dead even more difficult, experts said.



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Rains, mudslides kill 29 in southern Brazil’s ‘worst disaster’ | Floods News

The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil’s southern Rio Grande do Sul state has climbed to 29, with at least 60 people missing, according to the state’s civil defence agency.

The authorities in Rio Grande do Sul have declared a state of emergency as rescuers continue to search for dozens of people reported missing among the ruins of collapsed homes, bridges and roads.

Rescuers and soldiers have been scrambling to free families trapped in their homes, many stranded on rooftops to escape rising waters.

Storm damage has affected nearly 150 municipalities in the state, also injuring 36 people and displacing more than 10,000.

Governor Eduardo Leite said Rio Grande do Sul was dealing with “the worst disaster in [its] history”, adding that the number of dead was expected to rise.

On Thursday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promised “there will be no lack of human or material resources” to “minimize the suffering this extreme event … is causing in the state”.

Federal authorities have already made available 12 aircraft, 45 vehicles and 12 boats as well as 626 soldiers to help clear roads, distribute food, water and mattresses, and set up shelters.

Forecasts warned that the state’s main Guaiba river, which has already overflowed its banks in some areas, could rise to four metres (13 feet) on Friday.

Entire communities in Rio Grande do Sul have been completely cut off as the persistent rains have destroyed bridges and blocked roads, and left towns without telephone and internet services.

The authorities have told people to avoid areas along state highways due to the risk of mudslides, and urged those who live near rivers or on hillsides to evacuate.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without access to drinking water, while classes have been suspended statewide.

South America’s largest country has suffered a string of recent extreme weather events, which experts say are made more likely by climate change. The floods came amid a cold front battering the south and southeast, following a wave of extreme heat.

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Kenya searches for missing people amid deadly floods | Floods News

Rescuers are searching for many people missing amid devastating flooding across Kenya.

The Ministry of Interior and National Administration said on Tuesday that a search operation had been launched following the bursting of a dam in Mai Mahiu in the centre of the country the previous day. Hundreds of people are reported to have died as heavy rains have lashed East Africa in recent weeks.

At least 46 people were reported killed on Monday morning after the bursting of the dam led to mudslides and flash floods in Mai Mahiu, the ministry said in a situation report. Survivors described an onslaught of water that carried away houses, cars and railway tracks.

“When I opened the door, the water gushed in and made its way through the kitchen,” said resident Anne Gachie. “My husband managed to quickly manoeuvre and get out. My daughters, who were in the next room, were swept out of the house.”

Fifty-three people in Mai Mahiu were reported missing, the Interior Ministry said. Meanwhile, the Kenya Red Cross said its tracing desk had reports of 76 people missing.

The eastern county of Garissa, where four people were killed when their boat capsized over the weekend and 23 others were rescued from the floodwaters, has reported 16 people missing.

At least 169 people have died across Kenya as heavy rains have buffeted Eastern Africa since mid-March, causing flooding and other catastrophes.

More than 185,000 Kenyans have been forced from their homes. Hundreds have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in neighbouring Tanzania and Burundi.

Scientists say climate change is causing more intense and frequent extreme weather events.

At least 120 people were killed in Kenya late last year in floods caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon. Those rains followed the worst drought large parts of East Africa had experienced in decades.

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Asia bears biggest climate-change brunt amid extreme weather: WMO | Climate News

World Meteorological Organization says floods and storms were leading cause of casualties and economic losses as impact of heatwaves becomes more severe.

Asia was the region most affected by climate change, weather and water-related hazards globally last year, the United Nations weather agency has said.

In a report published on Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said floods and storms were the main cause of casualties and economic damage in 2023, while the impact of heatwaves became more severe.

It found that Asia has been warming faster than the global average, with temperature rises in 2023 averaging nearly 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1961-90 average.

“Many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement.

She added that climate change “exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events”, calling the report’s conclusions “sobering”.

The agency said 79 disasters associated with water-related weather hazards were reported in Asia last year. Of those, some 80 percent were floods and storms, with more than 2,000 deaths and nine million people directly affected.

The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report also found that floods were the leading cause of death in reported events in 2023 “by a substantial margin”.

Hong Kong recorded 158.1mm (6.2 inches) of rainfall in one hour on September 7 – the highest since records began in 1884 – as a result of a typhoon.

The report also highlighted that most glaciers in the high mountain region in Asia had lost significant mass because of record-breaking high temperatures and dry conditions.

Precipitation was below normal in the Himalayas and in the Hindu Kush mountain ranges in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2023, while southwest China suffered from a drought, with below-normal precipitation levels in nearly every month of the year.

Particularly high average temperatures were recorded from western Siberia to Central Asia, and from eastern China to Japan, the report said, with Japan having its hottest summer on record.

‘Urgency’ for action

The report comes as a number of Asian countries have been hit by severe floods in recent weeks.

In southern China, more than 100,000 people were evacuated on Tuesday due to heavy rain and floods that have killed at least four people. Meanwhile, authorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan last week declared a state of emergency in some regions after heavy rains and flash floods killed at least 100 people.

The WMO said there was an urgent need for national weather services across Asia to improve tailored information to officials working on reducing disaster risks.

“It is imperative that our actions and strategies mirror the urgency of these times,” said Saulo.

“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the evolving climate is not merely an option, but a fundamental necessity.”

Peter Newman, professor of sustainability at Curtin University, told Al Jazeera that climate change is a “war that we are inducing onto ourselves,” adding that the world is in the middle of climate crisis that is expected to get worse until net zero emissions are implemented thoroughly.

“If we can do that by 2040, for example, then immediately, we would start to get on top of it all, but until then we are going to have to expect more damage from floods, fires, and all kinds of weather changes,” he said.

He referred to the recent floods across Asia as a “terrific wake-up call”, adding that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of which he’s a co-ordinating lead author, has been predicting changes for some time, but that they have “come quicker than we thought.”

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Highest-level rainstorm warning issued in south China’s Guangdong | Floods News

The Chinese government has issued its highest-level rainstorm warning and evacuated more than 100,000 people as rain continues to lash the south of the country.

Beijing raised the alert on Tuesday as ongoing storms threatened to worsen already massive flooding in Guangdong province. Four people were reported killed over the weekend, while 10 others are missing.

Torrential rains have been swelling rivers in Guangdong, prompting state media to warn of the risk of floods at a level “seen around once a century”.

State news agency Xinhua said 110,000 residents across the province had been relocated since the downpours started. Guangdong is China’s manufacturing heartland, home to about 127 million people.

“Please quickly take precautions and stay away from dangerous areas such as low-lying areas prone to flooding,” authorities in the coastal city of Shenzhen – China’s third largest – said as the red alert was issued.

“Pay attention to heavy rains and resulting disasters such as water logging, flash floods, landslides, mudslides, and ground caving in,” they warned.

Climate change driven by human-emitted greenhouse gases makes extreme weather events more frequent and intense. China is the world’s biggest emitter.

In recent years China has been hit by severe floods, grinding droughts and record heat.

That has helped make the authorities swift to respond, lowering the number of casualties compared with previous decades.

Shenzhen experienced in September its heaviest rains since records began in 1952. The nearby semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong saw its heaviest rainfall in nearly 140 years.

Asia was the world’s most disaster-hit region from climate and weather hazards in 2023, according to a report issued by the United Nations on Tuesday, with floods and storms a major cause of casualties and economic loss.

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Europe endured record number of ‘extreme heat stress’ days in 2023 | Climate Crisis News

New report warns people are increasingly at risk in a continent warming twice as fast as the global average.

Europe is increasingly facing bouts of heat so intense that the human body cannot cope, climate monitors have warned.

The continent endured a record number of “extreme heat stress” days in 2023, the European Union’s Copernicus climate monitoring service and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday.

In writing its latest report, Copernicus and the WMO noted last year’s extreme conditions, including a July heatwave that pushed 41 percent of southern Europe into strong, very strong or extreme heat stress – the biggest area of Europe under such conditions in any day on record.

The continent also suffered catastrophic flooding, severe droughts, violent storms and its largest ever forest fires.

“We’re seeing an increasing trend in the number of days with heat stress across Europe and 2023 was no exception, with Europe seeing a record number of days with extreme heat stress,” said Rebecca Emerton, a climate scientist at Copernicus.

For its latest study, Copernicus and WMO used the Universal Thermal Climate Index, which measures the effect of the environment on the human body.

It takes into account not just high temperatures but also humidity, wind speed, sunshine and heat emitted by the surroundings.

The index has 10 different categories of heat and cold stress, with units of degrees Celsius representing a “feels-like” temperature.

Parts of Spain, France, Italy and Greece experienced as many as 10 days of extreme heat stress in 2023, defined as a “feels like” temperature of more than 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Farenheit), at which point immediate action must be taken to avoid conditions such as heat stroke.

Extreme heat poses particular risks to people who work outdoors, the elderly, and those with health conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

Parts of Italy recorded 7 percent more deaths than normal last July. A 44-year-old man painting road markings in the northern town of Lodi was among those who died after he collapsed at work.

“We see that there is excess mortality when we see such extreme heatwaves like was the case in 2023,” said Alvaro Silva, a climatologist from WMO.

“This increase in mortality… is affecting [the] big majority of European regions. This is a big concern.”

Red Cross workers check on the welfare of a homeless man during a heatwave in Rome last July [Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]

Heat-related deaths in Europe have soared by about 30 percent in the past 20 years, the report said.

For the world as a whole, last month was the warmest March ever, marking the 10th straight month of historic heat as greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from fossil fuels, continued to push temperatures higher.

The surface temperature of the world’s oceans, which absorb 90 percent of excess heat produced by emissions, also hit a new high, according to Europe’s climate monitoring agency.

In their latest report, scientists warned Europe was warming twice as fast as the global average and that heatwaves were likely to become longer and more powerful in future.

“Current heatwave interventions will soon be insufficient to deal with the expected heat-related health burden,” the report said, noting that Europe’s population was ageing while also becoming increasingly urban.

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Thousands protest against over-tourism in Spain’s Canary Islands | Tourism News

Demonstrators say mass tourism is overwhelming the Atlantic archipelago.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have hit the streets of Spain’s Canary Islands to demand changes to the model of mass tourism they say is overwhelming the Atlantic archipelago.

An estimated 57,000 people joined the protests, which began at midday (11:00 GMT) on Saturday, Spanish media reports said, citing the central government’s representative in the islands.

Flag-waving crowds packed the streets of the main towns across all of the archipelago’s seven islands, chanting and whistling, and holding placards with slogans like: “The Canary Islands are not up for sale!”; “A moratorium on tourism”; and “Respect my home”.

“It’s not a message against the tourist, but against a tourism model that doesn’t benefit this land and needs to be changed,” one of the protesters told the Reuters news agency during the march in Tenerife’s capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Smaller marches were held elsewhere in the island group and other Spanish cities, all of them organised by about two dozen environmental organisations ahead of the peak summer holiday season.

The protests were called by some 20 social and environmental groups who say tourist overcrowding perpetuates an economic model that harms local residents and damages the environment.

They want the authorities to limit the number of visitors and have proposed introducing an eco-tax to protect the environment, a moratorium on tourism and a clampdown on the sale of properties to non-residents.

“The authorities must immediately stop this corrupt and destructive model that depletes the resources and makes the economy more precarious. The Canary Islands have limits and people’s patience [does], too,” Antonio Bullon, one of the protest leaders, told Reuters.

A woman shouts next to a banner with the word “tourism” during a demonstration in the Canary Islands [Borja Suarez/Reuters]

‘We can’t keep looking away’

The archipelago of 2.2 million people was visited by nearly 14 million foreign tourists in 2023, up 13 percent from the previous year, according to official data.

Authorities in the islands are concerned about the impact on locals. A draft law expected to pass this year – one that toughens the rules on short lets – follows complaints from residents priced out of the housing market.

Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo said on Friday that he felt “proud” that the region was a leading Spanish tourist destination, but acknowledged that more controls were needed as the sector continues to grow.

“We can’t keep looking away. Otherwise, hotels will continue to open without any control,” he told a press conference.

Anti-tourism protests have multiplied in recent months across Spain, the world’s second-most visited country, prompting authorities to try to reconcile the interests of locals and a lucrative sector that accounts for 12.8 percent of Spain’s economy.

The Canary Islands, which lie off the northwestern coast of Africa, are known for their volcanic landscapes and year-round sunshine attracting millions of visitors every year, with four in 10 residents working in tourism – a sector that accounts for 36 percent of the islands’ gross domestic product (GDP).

Before the coronavirus pandemic brought the global travel industry to its knees in 2020, over-tourism protest movements were already active in Spain, notably in Barcelona.

After travel restrictions were lifted, tourism surged, with Spain welcoming a record 85.1 million visitors last year.

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