Brazil environmental disaster victims take case against mining giant BHP to UK court

LONDON (AP) — Victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster took their case for compensation to a UK court Monday, almost nine years after tons of toxic mining waste poured into a major waterway, killing 19 people and devastating local communities.

The class action lawsuit at the High Court in London seeks an estimated 36 billion pounds ($47 billion) in damages from the global mining giant BHP. That would make it the largest environmental payout ever, according to Pogust Goodhead, the law firm representing the plaintiffs.

BHP owns 50% of Samarco, the Brazilian company that operates the iron ore mine where a tailings dam ruptured on Nov. 5, 2015, releasing enough mine waste to fill 13,000 Olympic-size swimming pools into the Doce River in southeastern Brazil. The case was filed in Britain because one of BHP’s two main legal entities was based in London at the time.

“BHP is a polluter and must therefore pay,” attorney Alain Choo Choy said in written submissions.

BHP attorney Shaheed Fatima said in written submissions the claim has “no basis," adding that BHP did not own or operate the dam and “had limited knowledge of the dam and no knowledge that its stability was compromised.”

The river, which the Krenak Indigenous people revere as a deity, was polluted so badly that it has yet to recover. The disaster killed 14 tons of freshwater fish and damaged 660 kilometers (410 miles) of the Doce River, according to a study by the University of Ulster.

When the dam known as Fundao broke, sludge washed over Bento Rodrigues, once a bustling village in Minas Gerais state. Now it resembles a ghost town.

A few white tiles are the only remnants of the house where Mônica dos Santos, 39, lived with her parents near the Catholic church that also was destroyed. She has become one of the principal activists seeking full reparations.

“It’s not just the destruction of Nov. 5. The destruction since, I often say, has been worse,” she said. Some survivors turned to alcohol, others to drugs. Personal relations were strained, sometimes to breaking point.

The trial comes days after BHP announced that the company and its partner in Samarco, Vale SA, were negotiating a settlement with public authorities in Brazil that could provide $31.7 billion for people, communities and the environment damaged.

Vale on Friday said the sum included $7.9 billion already paid, $18 billion to be paid in installments over 20 years to Brazil's federal government, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo states and municipalities, and $5.8 billion in “performance obligations” by Samarco, including individual compensation.

Last month, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told Radio Vitoriosa, a local station in Minas Gerais, that his administration aims to reach an agreement with the mining companies by the end of October. Claims were filed by Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecution Office and public authorities.

Melbourne, Australia-based BHP said it believes the UK action is unnecessary because it duplicates matters covered by reparation efforts and legal proceedings in Brazil, but said it would continue to defend it.

Pogust Goodhead said the potential settlement shouldn't have any impact on the case.

“Such timing only proves that the companies responsible for Brazil’s biggest environmental disaster are determined to do everything they can to prevent the victims from seeking justice,” the firm said in a statement.

Survivors from Bento Rodrigues have moved to a new village of the same name a half-hour drive away. Colorful, multi-story houses line freshly paved streets.

Priscila Monteiro, 36, moved in three months ago but said she doesn’t feel at home.

“It feels like I’m just passing through and I’m going to go back home any minute,” she said.

Monteiro was pregnant when the dam broke on her birthday. She and her 2-year-old were pulled from the toxic slime and survived, but she had a miscarriage. Her 5-year-old niece, Emanuelle, died.

“For me, the day that was supposed to be a celebration has become a day of mourning, forever,” she said, crying.

Monteiro says she hopes the trial in London will lead to recognition of the damage.

“God put the people from London on our path because there is no justice in Brazil. Now our last hope is them,” she said.

Hughes reported from Bento Rodrigues, Brazil.

A home that was destroyed by a dam break stands in ruins in Bento Rodrigues, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, Oct. 19, 2024. Victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, on Nov. 5, 2015, took their case for compensation to a UK court on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, almost nine years after tons of toxic mining waste poured into a major waterway, killing 19 people and devastating local communities. (AP Photo/Eleonore Hughes)

Monica dos Santos, 39, walks past her former village's bar that was destroyed when a dam broke in Bento Rodrigues, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, Oct. 19, 2024. Victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, on Nov. 5, 2015, took their case for compensation to a UK court on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, almost nine years after tons of toxic mining waste poured into a major waterway, killing 19 people and devastating local communities. (AP Photo/Eleonore Hughes)

What remains of a home that was destroyed when a dam broke carries signs that read in Portuguese "That marked our lives" and "So that it is never forgotten" in Bento Rodrigues, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, Oct. 19, 2024. Victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, on Nov. 5, 2015, took their case for compensation to a UK court on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, almost nine years after tons of toxic mining waste poured into a major waterway, killing 19 people and devastating local communities. (AP Photo/Eleonore Hughes)

Monica dos Santos, 39, wears a T-shirt with the photos of victims of a dam break in Bento Rodrigues, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, Oct. 19, 2024. Victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, on Nov. 5, 2015, took their case for compensation to a UK court on Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, almost nine years after tons of toxic mining waste poured into a major waterway, killing 19 people and devastating local communities. (AP Photo/Eleonore Hughes)

FILE - A car and two dogs are on the roof of destroyed houses at the small town of Bento Rodrigues after a dam burst in Minas Gerais state, Brazil, Nov. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

FILE - Rescue workers search for victims in Bento Rodrigues, Brazil, two days after a tsunami of mud, caused by a dam break, engulfed the town in the state of Minas Gerais, Nov. 8, 2015. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)

Protesters stand outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, as lawyers representing around 620,000 Brazilians as well as businesses, municipal governments, members of the Krenak indigenous tribe are bringing a multibillion-pound legal action against BHP Group following the collapse of the Fundao dam in November 2015. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Gelvana Rodrigues, right, who lost her son Thiago, in the Fundao dam disaster, stands with other protesters outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, as lawyers representing around 620,000 Brazilians as well as businesses, municipal governments, members of the Krenak indigenous tribe are bringing a multibillion-pound legal action against BHP Group following the collapse of the Fundao dam in November 2015. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Protesters stand outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, as lawyers representing around 620,000 Brazilians as well as businesses, municipal governments, members of the Krenak indigenous tribe are bringing a multibillion-pound legal action against BHP Group following the collapse of the Fundao dam in November 2015. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Protesters stand outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, as lawyers representing around 620,000 Brazilians as well as businesses, municipal governments, members of the Krenak indigenous tribe are bringing a multibillion-pound legal action against BHP Group following the collapse of the Fundao dam in November 2015. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Wakrewa Krenak, from Brazil, stands outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, as lawyers representing around 620,000 Brazilians as well as businesses, municipal governments, and members of the Krenak indigenous tribe are bringing a multibillion-pound legal action against BHP Group following the collapse of the Fundao dam in November 2015. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

The Israeli military apologized Monday for a strike that killed three Lebanese soldiers in southern Lebanon, saying it is not battling the country's military and its troops believed they were targeting a vehicle belonging to the Hezbollah militant group.

Israeli strikes meanwhile hit nearly a dozen branches of a Hezbollah-run financial institution that Israel says is used to fund attacks but where many ordinary people keep their savings.

Last week, Hezbollah said it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, as the region reckoned with the killing of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza. Sinwar was a chief architect of the attack on southern Israel that precipitated the latest escalating conflicts in the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to annihilate Hamas and recover dozens of hostages held by the group. Hamas says it will only release the captives in return for a lasting cease-fire, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

Here's the latest:

BEIRUT — A hospital director in Lebanon has denied accusations by the Israeli army that Hezbollah is storing money and gold under the hospital.

Fadi Alameh, a member of parliament who is also the director of Sahel General Hospital, denied there are tunnels under the hospital and said that the medical center south of Beirut is now being evacuated.

Alameh who as a legislator is representing the area where Sahel General Hospital is located in a southern suburb of Beirut, called on the Lebanese army and other institutions to visit the area and inspect whether there is indeed a tunnel under the hospital.

Alameh told the local Al-Jadeed TV that the Sahel General Hospital is a private medical center that has underground rooms for surgery. He said the hospital has been in the area for 42 years and it is not linked to any political group.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah is storing hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold under the hospital.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said late Monday that Iran funds Hezbollah by sending cash and gold to the Iranian embassy in Beirut, though he did not provide any evidence.

Hagari said Israeli strikes had also killed the main Hezbollah leaders responsible for transferring money between Iran and Hezbollah in Beirut in early October and a strike in Syria earlier on Monday.

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations chief has condemned the widespread and ongoing loss of life in Gaza, including Israeli airstrikes on hospitals and homes that result in the deaths of civilians.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres singled out Israeli airstrikes on homes Saturday night into Sunday morning in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. The airstrikes left at least 87 people dead or missing, according to the Gaza health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas target.

U.N. humanitarian officials also reported that Israeli authorities for the fourth day denied them access to the Falouja neighborhood of the sprawling Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said officials wanted access “to help those trapped under the rubble." Delays would cost lives, he added.

Haq also said U.N. humanitarian officials also reported that Israel denied a separate request Monday to distribute food, medicine and fuel to power water facilities and electricity in Jabaliya.

Israel also denied 28 U.N. requests to deliver humanitarian aid to Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in the north between Oct. 6-20, he said, adding that seven other requests “faced impediments.”

Israel reopened the Erez West crossing a week ago but Haq said collecting supplies “remains challenging due to insecurity and long delays.”

WASHINGTON — A spokesman for the U.S. State Department says reports about the shooting death of a Palestinian woman who was harvesting olives “are incredibly concerning.”

State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel said he believes the Israeli military has taken steps to investigate and that the officer involved was suspended.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Hanan Abu Salama, 59, was shot dead by Israeli fire near the Palestinian village of Faqoua on Thursday.

The Israeli army did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Patel says the U.S. expected Israel to complete an investigation swiftly and thoroughly.

He added that "it is not lost on us that the annual olive harvest is major economic activity to Palestinian people and to the Palestinian economy. And we believe that Palestinians need to have access to their land to conduct these kinds of harvests when appropriate.”

According to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, Abu Salama was fatally shot by Israeli troops while picking olives with her family near the separation barrier that segments Israel from the West Bank.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s Health Ministry says Israeli airstrikes on different parts of Lebanon have killed 17 people, including four first responders.

The ministry said six people, including a child, were killed Monday in an airstrike on a house in the northeastern city of Baalbek. Four others were killed in the southern village of Kharaeb and four, including a paramedic, were killed in the nearby village of Babilyeh.

Three other paramedics were killed in separate airstrikes on the villages of Khirbet Selem, Bir el-Sanasel and Deir Zahrani, the ministry said.

Since Hezbollah and Israeli forces began exchanging fire a year ago, 2,483 people have been killed in Lebanon and 11,628 have been wounded, the ministry said

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian state media say an Israeli airstrike hit a car in the Syrian capital of Damascus, killing two people and wounding three.

The airstrike on Monday occurred in the western neighborhood of Mazzeh, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. It was not immediately clear who the target was.

State media quoted an unnamed military official as saying the airstrike killed two civilians and wounded three others. The airstrike caused damage in the area, it said.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.

The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups. Israel has vowed to stop Iranian entrenchment in Syria, particularly since Syria is a key route for Iran to send weapons to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

TEL AVIV, Israel - The Israeli military says it has intercepted five drones off the coast of Israel.

The incident on Monday caused a brief interruption of flights at Israel’s main airport lasting less than ten minutes, Israeli media reported.

The military said Israel’s air force has intercepted more than 30 drones over the past week.

Israel’s military has at times struggled to intercept drones, which are smaller, fly more erratically and are harder to track and intercept.

Last week, a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in central Israel killed four soldiers and wounded 67 others, the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon three weeks ago.

In July, a drone launched from Yemen traveled some 270 kilometers (160 miles) from Israel’s southern tip, all the way to Tel Aviv, slamming into a downtown building and killing one person without it having been intercepted.

Overnight strikes by Israel hit at least 15 branches of a Hezbollah-run financial institution in Lebanon.

The strikes targeted Al-Qard Al-Hassan branches in the southern suburbs of Beirut, across southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

Israel says the bank is used to fund attacks. But it is also where many ordinary Lebanese keep their savings.

The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes. There were no reports of casualties.

One of the strikes in the Beirut suburbs was not far from the Lebanese General Security building. Another rocket landed on a road near Lebanon's only international airport.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Hundreds of right-wing and ultranationalist Israelis took part Monday in a conference about reestablishing Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

The conference, held close to the Gaza border, attracted numerous prominent parliamentarians, including from Netanyahu’s Likud party.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, the Gaza resettlement movement has crept from the extreme fringes of Israeli society into political discourse among Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition partners.

Netanyahu has publicly dismissed the idea or Jewish settlements in Gaza. The military forcibly evacuated Jewish settlements from Gaza in 2005, a move that bred resentment toward the state among many of the settlers who now seek to return.

TEHRAN — Iran says it has sent a note of protest to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency over the possibility of an Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities.

Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, said Monday that the protest note was sent to the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.

Baghaei said Iran would consider an attack on any such facilities "a threat against international peace and security.”

Israel has vowed to respond to an Iranian ballistic missile attack earlier this month, raising fears of strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Israel has a broad range of choices of targets – from Iranian government buildings and military bases to sensitive oil installations to heavily fortified nuclear facilities hidden deep below ground.

Iran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

BEIRUT — Lebanese police stormed an abandoned building in Beirut’s commercial district, Hamra, to evict hundreds of displaced by Israel’s war on Hezbollah, who have been squatting there for weeks.

Lebanese authorities have prepared hundreds of shelters to accommodate the displaced. But as their numbers climbed to nearly 20% of the population, or an estimated 1.2 million people, official shelters have not been able to cope.

Tens of thousands had fled their homes since last year. An Israeli escalation last month has driven out an additional hundreds of thousands of people from the south, Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, many of them often fleeing with nothing more than the clothes they are wearing.

Most of the formal shelters prepared by the government are at full capacity, housing nearly 200,000 people.

It was not clear what prompted the sudden eviction. Lebanon’s Interior Ministry said it will not allow trespassing on private property despite the displacement crisis.

CAIRO — Palestinian medical officials say they have collected over a dozen bodies of people killed in Israel’s ongoing air and ground operation in northern Gaza.

The Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service said they included six men killed early Monday when they were trying to get drinking water in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, the main focus of the operation.

Four others, including two women, were killed in a strike on an area sheltering displaced people in Jabaliya, it said. Another three people were killed in a strike on a school-turned-shelter in the border town of Beit Hanoun.

Dr. Hossam Abu Safiyya, the director of the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital, said it was overwhelmed with wounded people and patients.

Israel launched the operation more than two weeks ago, saying Hamas militants had regrouped in Jabaliya after several previous military operations there. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians.

Israeli authorities have dramatically reduced the amount of aid allowed into Gaza, raising fears among Palestinians that they are implementing a surrender-or-starve plan advocated by retired Israeli generals.

Israel ordered the entire population of the northern third of Gaza, including Gaza City, to evacuate to the south in the war’s opening weeks and reiterated those instructions this month. Around 400,000 people are believed to have remained in the north, which is encircled by Israeli forces and off limits to Palestinians who fled their homes there.

JERUSALEM — Israeli police have arrested seven citizens who they say were paid by Iran to collect intelligence for over two years.

In a statement released Monday, Israel’s internal security agency and police said that the seven collected information about other Israelis and photographed Israeli military installations, including missile defense systems, air force and naval sites, and power plants.

Iran paid them paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, often in cryptocurrency, the statement said. It did not provide evidence for the alleged plot.

Israeli authorities say they have foiled several recent plots by Iran that involved recruiting Israelis for espionage or assassinations.

Israel has vowed to retaliate for Iran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack. Israeli air defenses shot down most of the missiles, but some hit Israeli military installations.

Israel and Iran have waged a shadow war for years that burst to the surface after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack triggered the war in Gaza. Israel and Iran exchanged fire directly for the first time in April.

Iran supports armed groups across the region, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military has apologized for a strike in southern Lebanon that killed three Lebanese soldiers.

The military said it struck a truck on Sunday that had entered an area where it had previously targeted a Hezbollah truck transporting a launcher and missiles.

The military said soldiers were not aware that the second truck belonged to the Lebanese army.

The military said it is “not operating against the Lebanese Army and apologizes for these unwanted circumstances.”

Lebanon’s army is a respected institution within the country, but it is not powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or defend Lebanon from Israel’s invasion. The army has largely kept to the sidelines as Israel and Hezbollah have traded blows over the past year.

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Documents of Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan are scattered at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh in the southern suburb of Beirut, as Beirut city seen in the background, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Flame rise from a building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A man checks his destroyed car at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove rubble of destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Residents check destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A worker cleans a street as smoke rises from a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Smoke rises to the sky as fire burns in a site next to houses after a rocket, fired from Lebanon, hit a location near the town of Rosh Pinna, northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A firefighter works to extinguish a fire after a rocket, fired from Lebanon, hit an area near the town of Rosh Pinna, northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli police officers stand next to a site of a fire after a rocket, fired from Lebanon, hit an area near the town of Rosh Pinna, northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A Israeli police officer walks past site of a fire after a rocket, fired from Lebanon, hit an area near the town of Rosh Pinna, northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Smoke rises following an explosion in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Flames and smoke rise form an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A destroyed apartment at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Documents of Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan are scattered at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)