Death toll in Uganda rubbish heap collapse reaches 24 as rescue teams find more victims

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The death toll from a mountain of rubbish that collapsed in the Ugandan capital rose to 24 on Monday as rescuers with excavators continued searching for victims, according to the city authority.

At least four children are among those killed by the collapse at the Kiteezi landfill Friday, police told reporters.

The collapse is believed to have been triggered by heavy rainfall. The precise details of what happened were unclear, but the city authority said there was a “structural failure in waste mass.”

Irene Nakasiita, a spokeswoman for the Uganda Red Cross, said there was no hope of rescuing more people alive.

It was not clear how many people were unaccounted for. The Kiteezi landfill is a vast rubbish dumpsite in an impoverished hillside area that receives hundreds of garbage trucks daily. The city authority has been aiming to decommission it since declaring it full years ago.

It's also a kind of no-man's land in the city of 3 million, attractive to women and children who scavenge plastic waste they aim to sell. Others have built permanent homes nearby.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ordered an investigation into the disaster, asking in a series of posts on the social platform X why people were living in close proximity to an unstable heap of garbage.

“Who allowed people to live near such a potentially hazardous and dangerous heap?” Museveni said, adding that effluent from the site is hazardous enough that people should not be living there.

Onlookers watch as workers search for survivors at the site of a collapsed landfill in Kampala, Uganda, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Onlookers watch as workers search for survivors at the site of a collapsed landfill in Kampala, Uganda, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Onlookers watch as workers search for survivors at the site of a collapsed landfill in Kampala, Uganda, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Onlookers watch as workers search for survivors at the site of a collapsed landfill in Kampala, Uganda, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Onlookers watch as workers search for survivors at the site of a collapsed landfill in Kampala, Uganda, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda )

Onlookers watch as workers search for survivors at the site of a collapsed landfill in Kampala, Uganda, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Red Cross personnel carry the body of a victim at the site of a collapsed landfill in Kampala, Uganda, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

LONDON (AP) — The European Union’s top court on Tuesday rejected Apple’s final legal challenge against an order from the bloc’s executive commission to repay 13 billion euros in back taxes to Ireland, bringing an end to the long-running dispute.

The European Court of Justice overruled a lower court’s earlier decision in the case, saying it “confirms the European Commission’s 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is required to recover.”

The case drew outrage from Apple when it was opened in 2016, with CEO Tim Cook calling it “total political crap.” Then-U.S. President Donald Trump slammed European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who spearheaded the campaign to root out special tax deals and crack down on big U.S. tech companies, as the “tax lady” who “really hates the U.S.”

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, had accused Apple of striking an illegal tax deal with Irish authorities so that it could pay extremely low rates. The European Union’s General Court disagreed with that in its 2020 ruling, which has now been overturned.

"We are disappointed with today’s decision as previously the General Court reviewed the facts and categorically annulled this case,” Apple said in a statement.

“There has never been a special deal," the company said.

Eight years ago, the ruling that found Ireland had granted a sweetheart deal that let Apple pay almost no taxes across the European bloc for 11 years dramatically escalated the fight over whether America’s biggest corporations are paying their fair share around the world.

The EU head office said that Ireland granted such lavish tax breaks to Apple that the company’s effective corporate tax rate on its European profits dropped from 1 percent in 2003 to a mere 0.005 percent in 2014. Apple has disputed such figures.

The ruling that has now been upheld was one of a number of aggressive moves by European officials to hold U.S. businesses, particularly big tech companies, accountable under the EU’s rules on taxation, competition and privacy.

FILE - People wait in front of the Apple store in Munich, Germany, on Sept. 25, 2015. The European Union’s top court has rejected Apple’s final legal challenge against an order from the bloc’s executive commission to repay 13 billion euros in back taxes to Ireland, bringing an end to the long-running dispute (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)