• Governor Durazo orders probe; children among the dead.
• President Sheinbaum sends aid teams, offers condolences.
• Cause of the fire, now doused, still unclear.

MEXICO CITY:  A festive holiday weekend turned tragic for families in northwestern Mexico on Saturday when a deadly blaze engulfed a discount store in the city centre of Hermosillo, killing at least 23 people and injuring a dozen.

Mexico is celebrating the Day of the Dead this weekend with colourful festivities in which families honour and remember deceased loved ones.

“I have ordered a thorough and transparent investigation to clarify the causes of the accident,” Alfonso Durazo, governor of the state of Sonora, home to the city, said in a video on social media, adding that children were among the victims.

Most of the deaths appeared to have been from inhalation of toxic gases, said Gustavo Salas, the state’s attorney general, citing its forensic medical service.

“My heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a post on X, adding that she had directed support teams to be sent to help victims’ families and the injured.

Sonora’s Red Cross said its 40 staff and 10 ambulances joined in the effort, making six trips to the hospital.

The cause of the fire, now doused, was still unclear, though some media blamed an electrical failure. City officials said the store, part of the popular discount chain Waldo’s, was not the target of an attack.

The chief of the city’s firefighters said it was still being investigated whether there was an explosion.

US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned that he could send the military into Nigeria if the killings of Christians by Islamist groups are not stopped.

In a social media post, Trump said he asked the Pentagon to map out a potential plan of attack and warned that any action would be “fast, vicious, and immediate.”

He stated, “If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S. will immediately halt all aid and may take direct military action against the Islamic terrorists committing these atrocities.”

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth confirmed Trump’s statement, saying, “The Department of War is preparing for action. Either Nigeria protects Christians, or we will target the perpetrators.”

Trump had claimed on Friday, without evidence, that “thousands of Christians are being killed” and blamed “radical Islamists” for the attacks.

US politicians have also criticized the Nigerian government. In March, Congressman Chris Smith called for Nigeria to be designated a “Country of Particular Concern,” a move Trump announced Friday, citing an “existential threat” to Nigerian Christians.

Earlier in October, Senator Ted Cruz and Republican Riley Moore accused the Nigerian government of ignoring the “mass murder” of Christians.

Tolerance

Claims of Christian persecution have also been pushed by some in Nigeria, where ethnic, religious and regional divisions have flared with deadly consequences in the past and still shape the country’s modern politics.

Some US officials argue Christians in Nigeria are facing a “genocide” — a claim that Abuja denies.

“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality,” Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said on social media Saturday after Trump made his CPC announcement.

“Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so,” Tinubu added.

Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and a largely Christian south.

The country is consumed by security issues. Its northeastern region is at the epicenter of a Boko Haram jihadist insurgency, which has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced more than two million since 2009, according to the United Nations.

In central Nigeria, majority-Muslim herders have repeatedly clashed with majority-Christian farmers. The conflict is frequently portrayed as inter-religious but generally stems from competition over land access.

India’s attempt to tackle New Delhi’s toxic air by using cloud seeding appears to have produced disappointing results, with scientists and activists questioning whether the costly experiment was worth it.

Cloud seeding — a process in which aircraft spray particles such as silver iodide or salt into clouds to induce rainfall is intended to help wash pollutants out of the atmosphere.

Authorities in Delhi, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, began the trials last week using a Cessna aircraft over parts of the capital.

However, officials said the initial tests yielded minimal rainfall due to limited cloud cover.

“This will never do the job it’s an illusion,” said environmental activist Bhavreen Kandhari. “We can only control air pollution by addressing its sources, not by chasing clouds.”

Local media reported that the government has spent around $364,000 on the project so far.

Each winter, a thick blanket of smog envelops Delhi and its 30 million residents, as cold air traps emissions from vehicle exhaust, factory smoke, and crop burning in nearby states.

Despite various government efforts including vehicle restrictions, anti-smog towers, and mist-spraying trucks Delhi consistently ranks among the world’s most polluted capitals.

Following the latest cloud seeding attempt, levels of PM2.5 the fine particles linked to heart and lung disease reached 323 micrograms per cubic meter, over 20 times the World Health Organization’s safe daily limit.

A study published in The Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were associated with air pollution exposure.

Questions also remain about the environmental impact of cloud seeding chemicals.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says limited research suggests silver iodide poses little risk to human health or the environment, but acknowledges that the long-term effects of widespread use remain unclear.

Research process

Environmental activists say even if cloud seeding produces rain, the benefits are short-lived.

Climate scientist Daniele Visioni at Cornell University said it was unclear how efficient it was in heavy polluted conditions.

“It can’t create rain where there is no moisture in the air, but it just ‘forces’ some of the water to condense in one location rather than another,” he told AFP.

“There is only one thing that can sensibly reduce pollution: avoiding the burning of fossil fuels.”

Virendra Sachdeva, from Delhi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said it was too early to dismiss the cloud seeding experiment as a “scientific failure”.

“It is a part of the research process, and success is not always achieved in the first attempt,” he told reporters.

However, two atmospheric scientists at IIT Delhi called the cloud seeding plan “another gimmick”.

“It is a textbook case of science misapplied and ethics ignored,” Shahzad Gani and Krishna Achutarao wrote in The Hindu newspaper.

Mohan George, from the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, said artificial rain was not the answer.

“The levels of pollution will come back almost immediately as rain stops,” the scientist told AFP.

When it does work, it will increase precipitation in one area — while potentially decreasing it for another.

Costly spectacle

Cloud seeding, first developed in the 1940s, has been used in various countries to induce rain, clear fog, and reduce drought, but with mixed results.

China used it during the 2008 Beijing Olympics in an attempt to control the weather.

Gani and Achutarao said Delhi’s pollution causes — unchecked emissions and seasonal crop burning — are well known.

So too are the solutions cleaner fuel, better waste management and stricter enforcement of rules.

“Instead of reinforcing these priorities, parts of the scientific ecosystem researchers, advisors, and institutions — are lending credibility to a costly spectacle that will do little to address the sources of the crisis,” they said.