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Rescuers searching for people unaccounted for after blaze hits row of nightclubs popular for birthday celebrations.

US president reassures allies and Kyiv after last-minute budget deal in Congress axes funding for the war-torn country.

A fire broke out at a nightclub in the southeastern Spanish city of Murcia early on Sunday morning, killing at least 13 people and injuring four others, authorities said.

The fire started around 6 a.m. local time (4 a.m. GMT) at the Teatre nightclub, also known as Fonda Milagros, which was hosting a birthday party, according to local media reports.

Firefighters arrived at the scene and managed to extinguish the blaze by 8 a.m., but faced difficulties in accessing the building due to the risk of collapse and the presence of smoke, Murcia’s mayor José Ballesta said.

The mayor said that there were still bodies to be pulled out from the rubble and that he could not rule out the possibility of finding more victims

The injured were two women aged 22 and 25 and two men aged 41 and 45, who were all taken to the hospital due to smoke inhalation, the Murcia emergency services website said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation by forensic and judicial police experts, the national police service said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his solidarity with the victims and relatives of the tragedy and thanked the emergency services for their work.

The city’s town hall declared three days of mourning and set up a reception base for the relatives of victims, where a team of psychologists will provide assistance.

This is one of the deadliest nightclub fires in Spain’s history. In 1990, 43 people died in a fire at a nightclub in Zaragoza, and in 2017, 40 people were injured when a floor collapsed at a nightclub in Tenerife.

US is facing a precarious situation as the US budget crisis puts its vital military and humanitarian aid at risk. The war-torn country, which has been fighting against Russian relies heavily on the US support.

The US has been the largest donor to Ukraine, providing more than $113 billion in assistance since the war began. However, the domestic political fight in Washington has jeopardized the continuation of this support, as Congress failed to approve a new funding package that included $24 billion for Ukraine.

President Joe Biden has reassured Kyiv and its allies that the US will not walk away from Ukraine, and urged Congress to stop playing games and get the aid done as soon as possible. He said there is an overwhelming sense of urgency, as the funding bill lasts only until mid-November.

However, some Republicans have expressed doubts about the accountability and effectiveness of the US aid to Ukraine, and questioned whether it is in the national interest.

The uncertainty over the US aid comes at a critical time for Ukraine, which is trying to make progress in its counteroffensive against Russia before winter sets in. The country also faces challenges from its neighbors, such as Poland, which announced this week that it would no longer arm Ukraine due to its own political and economic issues.

Ukraine has appealed to the international community for more support and solidarity, as it fears that losing the US backing could embolden Russia and other adversaries in the future. Zelensky said that Ukraine is not only fighting for its own freedom, but also for the values and security of the democratic world.

A United Nations mission arrived in Nagorno-Karabakh on Sunday, October 1, 2023, to assess the humanitarian situation in the disputed region, which was recaptured by Azerbaijan last week after a one-day offensive that ended decades of Armenian separatist control.

The visit marks the first time in about 30 years that the international body has gained access to the region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but had been under the de facto rule of ethnic Armenians since a war in the early 1990s.