Category: 2. World

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Hundreds of students protested Tuesday near the site of the crash of a Bangladesh air force training jet into a school in the nation’s capital, demanding accountability, compensation for victims’ families and the halt of training flights.

The ongoing unrest over Monday’s crash shut down traffic in parts of Dhaka, a city still recovering from last year’s student uprising that ousted the prime minister as the interim government seeks to restore order and organize elections next year. Some students entered the country’s administrative headquarters and were dispersed with tear gas and stun grenades.

The death toll from the crash rose to 31, including at least 25 students, a teacher who died from burns she sustained while helping others escape the two-story building, and the pilot on his first solo flight. Officials said 171 people, mostly students at Milestone School and College and many with burns, were rescued.

As Bangladesh declared Tuesday a day of national mourning, the military launched an investigation into the crash in Dhaka’s densely populated Uttara neighborhood. The civil aviation authority was not directly involved.

High Court judges asked the government to form a technical committee to investigate as well.

The protesting students demanded “accurate” publication of identities of the dead and injured, compensation for families and an immediate halt to the use of “outdated and unsafe” training aircraft by the Bangladesh air force. They accused security officials of beating them and manhandling teachers on Monday.

“The exact number of people killed and injured must be made public,” an ex-student of the school, who refused to provide his name, told The Associated Press at the scene.

The military and the office of Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus said there was nothing to hide regarding casualties and they were coordinating with all concerned. There was no response to the other allegations.

The students became furious after two senior government officials — Law Adviser Asif Nazrul and Education Adviser C.R. Abrar — arrived at the scene, forcing them to take cover for several hours inside the campus before security forces escorted them out. Other groups of students forced them to go back. In the evening, after nine hours, most students and the confined advisers left campus amid heavy security.

Elsewhere in Dhaka, students broke through security barricades and entered the Bangladesh Secretariat complex, the country’s administrative headquarters. Security officials used stun grenades and tear gas to disperse them.

Jamuna TV said about 80 students were injured after security officials charged them with batons. The students demanded the resignation of Abrar, who they said delayed announcing that public exams were being canceled during Tuesday’s mourning. Abrar didn’t publicly address the allegation.

The chaos spread in nearby areas.

“Yesterday, when the plane was approaching, the sound was so loud you can’t even imagine — it felt like eardrums were about to burst. Within five seconds, the plane crashed right in front of me here,” said Smriti, a student who only gave one name.

“Suddenly, I saw flames rising fiercely upward from the building,” the 11th grader said. “When I got here, I saw some children lying with their limbs spread out, some of their lifeless bodies scattered around. Can you save them? Tell me, will they ever be able to return to their parents’ arms again?” she asked.

On Tuesday, 78 people, mostly students, remained hospitalized, said Sayeedur Rahman, a special assistant to Yunus. Twenty deaths were reported initially, and seven people died of injuries overnight, authorities said. Another four deaths were reported later Monday, the military said.

Maherin Chowdhury, the teacher who rescued more than 20 students from the burning school, died from severe burns, her colleague Tanzina Tanu said.

Doctors said late Monday that the condition of about two dozen injured remained critical. A blood donation camp was opened at a specialized burn hospital where most were being treated.

Twenty bodies have been handed over to their families, with some possibly needing DNA matching after they were charred beyond recognition.

India was working to send a team of medical experts, including burn specialists and nurses, to Dhaka, Indian officials aware of the plan said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak to the media. India has had chilly relations with Bangladesh since last year’s student uprising.

The Chinese-made F-7 BGI training aircraft experienced a “technical malfunction” moments after takeoff from the A.K. Khandaker air force base at 1:06 p.m. Monday, according to a military statement.

The pilot, Flight Lt. Mohammed Toukir Islam, made “every effort to divert the aircraft away from densely populated areas toward a more sparsely inhabited location,” the military said.

It was the pilot’s first solo flight as he was completing his training. It was unclear if he managed to eject before the jet hit the building.

The school, about an 11-kilometer (7-mile) drive from the air force base, is in a densely populated area near a metro station with numerous shops and homes.

It is the deadliest plane crash in the Bangladeshi capital in recent memory. In 2008, another F-7 training jet crashed outside Dhaka, killing its pilot, who had ejected after he discovered a technical problem.

Chinese AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group Co. Ltd, manufactured the F-7 BGI and it is the final and most advanced variant in the Chengdu J-7/F-7 aircraft family, according to the company website. Media reports say Bangladesh ordered 16 aircraft in 2011, and they were delivered by 2013. It is the license-built version of the Soviet MiG-21.

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Associated Press video journalists Al-emrun Garjon in Dhaka, Rajesh Roy in New Delhi and Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to this report.

GENEVA: The UN on Tuesday said Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations.

An officially private effort, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking famine warnings.

GHF operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations in the Palestinian territory, where the Israeli military is seeking to destroy Hamas.

“Over 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in Gaza since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating,” UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told AFP.

“As of July 21, we have recorded 1,054 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food; 766 of them were killed in the vicinity of GHF sites and 288 near UN and other humanitarian organizations’ aid convoys.”

Kheetan added: “Our data is based on information from multiple reliable sources on the ground, including medical teams, humanitarian and human rights organizations.”

The war in Gaza, sparked by militant group Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people who live in the coastal territory.

Gaza’s population faces severe shortages of food and other essentials.

GHF says it has distributed more than 1.4 million boxes of foodstuffs to date.

“We’re adjusting our operations in real time to keep people safe and informed, and we stand ready to partner with other organizations to scale up and deliver more meals to the people of Gaza,” GHF interim director John Acree said Monday.

The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives and violates basic humanitarian principles.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations are due to meet on July 23 for peace talks, the third round in a series of negotiations that began on May 16 — and the first since US President Donald Trump threatened to impose new sanctions on Moscow if it doesn’t reach a deal with Kyiv by early September.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that the negotiations would be held in Istanbul on July 23. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov eventually confirmed that, telling journalists on July 23 that the talks would take place in the evening.

The first two meetings, which lasted no more than an hour or two, produced agreements on sizable prisoner swaps and the exchange of the remains of some of the soldiers killed in the biggest war in Europe since 1945. But there was no sign of progress toward a cease-fire, which Russia has resisted for months, let alone a comprehensive peace deal.

On the contrary, the sides have exchanged memorandums laying out their positions, which are separated by a huge gap on key issues from territory to security and more. On July 21, Peskov said they were “diametrically opposed so far.”

Expectations for the talks are low.

Aside from potential further prisoner exchanges, “my instinct is to say I expect nothing,” Kadri Liik, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said in an e-mailed comment. “I do not see either Kyiv or Moscow modifying their basic positions.”

At the same time, analysts say, both sides may feel that given Trump’s continued efforts to push them towards peace, they cannot afford to abandon the process at this point – and that they, in addition to reuniting prisoners with their families, may have something to gain.

‘A Political Game’

“I suspect both Kyiv and Moscow are looking to show the US, with its 50-day deadline and newfound willingness to sell, if not give, weapons to Ukraine, that they are…eager and willing to negotiate (and that any lags are therefore the fault of the other side),” Olga Oliker, program director for Europe and Central Asia at the International Crisis Group, told RFE/RL.

Sam Greene, a professor at the Kings Russia Institute in London and director for democratic resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis, offered a similar view.

“I think that there is a political game going on, which revolves, frankly, around the commitment of the Trump administration to some version of this process, and a sense that neither side really is willing to lose what they take to be the goodwill of the Trump administration.”

After several months in which he repeatedly criticized Zelenskyy and cast blame on Kyiv for the lack of progress toward peace, which he had said he could achieve in a day or two after taking office in January, Trump has taken aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks.

In particular, he has expressed mounting anger over Russia’s massive air attacks on Ukrainian cities and has described Moscow as an obstacle to peace.

“I think the Ukrainians will want to make sure that that continues,” Greene said.

“And they think that one way to help that continue is to project goodwill — to say, ‘Look, we are willing to talk with the Russians, the problem is the Russians. And so, you know, President Trump, you are right to be frustrated with them.’”

Zelenskyy, Oliker said, “may be trying to raise that bar by saying these talks should lay groundwork for a meeting between him and his Russian counterpart, something Moscow has rejected since negotiations resumed in May and Zelenskyy famously showed up for a first meeting and Putin did not.”

Seeking to blunt such efforts by Kyiv, Peskov said on July 22 that there is “a lot of work to be done before we can talk about the possibility of some top-level meetings.”

He also suggested the chances of substantial progress are almost nonexistent, saying, “There is no reason to expect any breakthroughs in the category of miracles — it is hardly possible in the current situation.”

‘A Closing Window’

But Putin may believe Moscow has far more to gain — or less to lose — by continuing negotiations rather than by rejecting them.

“From the Russian side, there does not appear to be any indication that they’re interested in a peace deal or even a cease-fire. But they’re not interested in seeing the Trump administration walk away from the table entirely,” Greene said.

“And so they have to make at least a show of some kind of willingness to engage. Otherwise, they do risk a more significant pivot [against Moscow and in favor of Kyiv] in US policy.”

“On the face of it Kyiv would look to be in the weaker position, with Russia’s slow advances continuing, US support uncertain, and other backers scrambling to assure continued assistance,” Oliker said. But “the Kremlin surely knows Russia’s own economic and political fault lines better than anyone else does, and Ukraine’s European backers have ably demonstrated their intent to keep Kyiv in the fight.”

“Moscow may read American willingness to keep weapons coming, albeit for a price, as an indicator that the Trump administration is becoming more favorable to Ukraine,” she said. “This would both imply more wherewithal for Kyiv and, whether or not the Kremlin truly fears American sanctions threats, a closing window for Moscow to cut deals with Washington.”

So, Moscow may be hoping for a US pivot back in the other direction, with Trump placing at least partial blame on Kyiv, reconsidering plans for putting more weapons in Ukraine’s hands, and, come September, holding back on the threatened sanctions.

On July 8, Trump said “we get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin.”

A week later, in comments where he issued the 50-day ultimatum and announced plans to get more Patriot air defense batteries and other weapons to Ukraine by funneling them through Europe, Trump further focused on Moscow as an obstacle to peace, saying he was “very unhappy…with Russia.”

But he also stressed that he hoped the push for a deal within 50 days would “have an impact on Ukraine” as well, saying, “All of a sudden, they may feel emboldened and maybe they don’t want [a deal] — this is a very difficult situation.”

Still, it could be hard for Russia to dispel Trump’s concerns about its commitment to seeking peace.

On July 21, Peskov stressed that while Moscow welcomes new talks, the “most important thing for us is to achieve our goals,” which he said “have not changed” since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow’s Maximalism

He did not enumerate the goals, but Russia has put forth several conditions for peace that Kyiv says are unacceptable.

Among them: Ukraine ceding five regions that Moscow claims as its own, including the parts that its forces do not occupy; permanent neutrality for Ukraine; and strict limits on the size of its military.

While the prospects for progress toward peace may be dim, exchanges of prisoners and the remains of the dead are a meaningful outcome, “particularly to the families involved and prisoners involved,” Greene said.

“Even if there is no real progress, but the two sides agree to new humanitarian measures, building on the prisoner exchanges arranged in their previous talks and returning more Ukrainian citizens, including children, home, that is also valuable,” Oliker said.

Beyond that, Greene said that despite the wide divide between the firmly stated stances of the two sides, “at some point there will be a breakthrough in negotiations, and nobody’s going to telegraph that beforehand. The only way you’re going to find out when that happens is if you continue to meet.”

Today, the United States informed Director-General Audrey Azoulay of the United States’ decision to withdraw from UNESCO. Continued involvement in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States.

UNESCO works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy. UNESCO’s decision to admit the “State of Palestine” as a Member State is highly problematic, contrary to U.S. policy, and contributed to the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization.

Continued U.S. participation in international organizations will focus on advancing American interests with clarity and conviction.

Pursuant to Article II(6) of the UNESCO Constitution, U.S. withdrawal will take effect on December 31, 2026. The United States will remain a full member of UNESCO until that time.

GENEVA: The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday that its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said it had received dozens of emergency messages from its staff describing grave conditions and exhaustion in the enclave, where Israel has been fighting a war against Hamas since October 2023.

“No one is spared: caretakers in Gaza are also in need of care. Doctors, nurses, journalists and humanitarians are hungry,” UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement, shared by his spokesperson at a press briefing in Geneva.

“Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties: reporting atrocities or alleviating some of the suffering.”

Lazzarini also criticized a US-backed aid distribution scheme run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that has been supplying aid since late May, when Israel, which controls supplies into Gaza, lifted an 11-week blockade.

“The so-called ‘GHF’ distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap. Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a license to kill,” Lazzarini said.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies and largely bypasses a UN-led system, that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

More than 1,000 people have been reported killed while trying to receive food aid since the end of May, according to UNRWA estimates, Lazzarini said.

“UN has enough aid sitting in Gaza that they refuse to deliver and that could help end the desperation and help reduce or eliminate the violence around all aid distribution efforts if they would collaborate with us,” the GHF told Reuters in a statement.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office OCHA, told reporters on Tuesday that claims that the UN has stopped working are “manifestly incorrect.”

The GHF also claimed that the “deadliest attacks” on aid distribution in Gaza have been linked to

UN convoys.

At least 67 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for UN aid trucks in northern Gaza on Sunday, the Gaza health ministry said, as Israel issued new evacuation orders for areas packed with displaced people.

The UN said on July 15 it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the GHF and convoys run by other relief groups. The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, were not immediately available for comment.