Category: 2. World

A tourist boat capsized during a sudden thunderstorm in Vietnam on Saturday afternoon, killing 34 people and leaving seven others missing.

The Wonder Sea boat was carrying 48 passengers and five crew members on a sightseeing the tour of Ha Long Bay, a popular destination for visitors, state media reported.

Rescue workers saved 12 people and recovered 34 bodies near the site of the incident, the VNExpress newspaper said. Seven people remain missing.

The boat overturned as a result of strong winds, the newspaper said. A 14-year-old boy was among the survivors. He was rescued after four hours trapped in the overturned hull.

The newspaper said most of the passengers were tourists, including about 20 children from Hanoi, the country’s capital.

A tropical storm is also moving toward the area. A national weather forecast said Storm Wipha was expected to hit northern Vietnam, including the coast of Ha Long Bay next week.

At least 32 people were killed and more than 100 injured on Saturday morning when Israeli troops opened fire on crowds of Palestinians seeking food from two aid distribution hubs in southern Gaza, according to witnesses and hospital officials.

People on the scene described it as “a massacre”, and claimed Israel Defense Forces fired “indiscriminately” at the groups of Palestinians – reported to be mostly young men – who were making their way towards the hubs run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Most of the deaths, which civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal attributed to “Israeli gunfire”, occurred in the Teina area, about two miles from a GHF aid distribution centre east of Khan Younis.

Medical sources told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that many of the wounded are in a serious condition, while witnesses at the scene said many of the dead and injured were children and teenagers.

The Nasser hospital in Khan Younis received 25 bodies, as well as dozens of wounded people, while nine others were killed near a centre north-west of Rafah, the civil defence agency said.

Dr Atef al-Hout, director of Nasser hospital, described the situation as “an unprecedented number of casualties in a very short time”, warning that the actual death toll could be higher.

“We’re unable to provide adequate medical treatment as we lack equipment, medicine and personnel,” he told Haaretz.

In a statement, GHF, which was set up to replace the traditional UN-led aid distribution system in Gaza, said there were no incidents at or near its sites. It said the reported Israeli shootings occurred far from its sites and hours before they opened. “We have repeatedly warned aid seekers not to travel to our sites overnight and early morning hours,” the group said.

The Israeli military said it had fired “warning shots” near Rafah after a group of suspects approached troops and ignored calls to keep their distance. It said it was investigating reports of casualties, but noted the incident occurred overnight when the distribution centre was closed.

Mahmoud Mokeimar told Associated Press reporters he was walking with masses of people – mostly young men – towards the food hub. Troops fired warning shots as the crowds advanced, before opening fire on the marching people.

“It was a massacre,” he said. “The occupation opened fire at us indiscriminately.” He said he managed to escape but saw at least three motionless bodies lying on the ground, and many other wounded people fleeing.

Akram Aker said troops fired machine guns mounted on tanks and drones. He said the shooting happened between 5am and 6am.

“They encircled us and started firing directly at us,” he told AP. He said he saw many casualties lying on the ground.

Sana’a al-Jaberi, a 55-year-old woman, said she saw many dead and wounded as she fled the area.

“We shouted: ‘food, food’, but they didn’t talk to us. They just opened fire,” she said.

Four other witnesses also accused Israeli troops of opening fire, according to news agency AFP.

“They started shooting at us and we lay down on the ground. Tanks and Jeeps came, soldiers got out of them and started shooting,” said Tamer Abu Akar, 24.

More than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are living through a catastrophic humanitarian crisis and the entire population is at risk of famine, according to food security experts, while distribution at the GHF sites has been described as “lethal chaos”.

Last Wednesday, 19 people were killed in a crush in a stampede near a GHF hub and one person was stabbed. GHF blamed the incident on Hamas, describing it as “a calculated provocation, part of a pattern of targeted efforts by Hamas and its allies to dismantle our life-saving operations”.

Dr Mohamed Saker, the head of Nasser’s nursing department, told AP that most of the people who died on Saturday were shot in the head and chest, and that some were placed in the already overwhelmed intensive care unit.

“The situation is difficult and tragic,” he said, adding that the hospital desperately needs medical supplies to treat the daily flow of casualties.

Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been discussing an interim truce in the Gaza war, which would see 10 surviving hostages and the bodies of 18 others returned to Israel in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinians.

On Friday, President Donald Trump said at a dinner that 10 hostages would “very shortly” be released from Gaza, but provided no further details.

Speaking to lawmakers at the White House, Trump – who has been predicting for weeks that a US-led ceasefire and hostage-release deal was imminent – said: “We got most of the hostages back. We’re going to have another 10 coming very shortly, and we hope to have that finished quickly.”

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Saturday announced the launch of a mega dam project on the Tibetan Plateau, in what is expected to be the world’s largest hydroelectric facility.

Li attended the dam’s groundbreaking ceremony in Nyingchi, a southeastern city in the Tibet autonomous region, state news agency Xinhua reported on Saturday.

The Yarlung Tsangpo becomes the Brahmaputra River as it leaves Tibet and flows south into India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states, and finally into Bangladesh.

Beijing first announced plans for the dam in 2020 under its five-year plan, as part of a broader strategy to exploit the hydropower potential of the Tibetan Plateau. The plan was approved last December.

Even a month after the US attacks on three major nuclear sites inside Iran, the effects of the airstrikes on June 22 remain unclear amid conflicting damage assessments. 

The strikes were a part of what US President Donald Trump called “Operation Midnight Hammer” and targeted the nuclear facilities in the cities of Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.

The operation involved 125 aircraft and specialty B-2 bombers carrying 30,000-pound bombs officially designated as Massive Ordinance Penetrators — and colloquially known as “bunker busters.”

Fordo heavily fortified

The strike in Fordo was the most significant. It is the country’s most heavily fortified nuclear facility buried deep inside a mountain to shield it from attacks.

It is unclear when Iran began building the plant in Fordo but its existence was revealed to the world in 2009. The facility was designed to house around 3,000 centrifuges, machines used to enrich uranium.

As part of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — with global powers, Tehran agreed to convert the site into a research facility and halt uranium enrichment there for 15 years.

But after US President Donald Trump, during his first term, unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, Iran resumed enrichment activity at Fordo.

Iran has been enriching uranium to 60% purity at the site, well beyond what is required for civilian nuclear power generation purposes. Tehran also announced plans to further expand enrichment capacity at the site.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA )also said it had found uranium particles at Fordo enriched to as high as 83.7% purity — significantly close to the 90% enrichment needed for weapons-grade uranium.

Targeting uranium enrichment facilities

Another target of the US operation was the nuclear facility in Natanz, Iran’s largest uranium enrichment hub, located around 140 miles (225 kilometers) south of Tehran. 

Like the one in Fordo, Natanz is also a subterranean nuclear site that can hold around 50,000 centrifuges.

Both the Fordo and Natanz facilities had previously been targeted multiple times in a series of sophisticated attacks.

Iranian officials said these attacks — ranging from the 2010 Stuxnet cyberattack to incidents disabling the Fordo power grid and a remote-controlled explosion in Natanz four years ago — had already caused extensive destruction and severely damaged their enrichment capabilities.

The third nuclear site targeted by the US was the one in Isfahan, which was suspected of hosting near weapons-grade nuclear fuel.

In simple terms, this facility was converting natural uranium into uranium hexafluoride gas, which goes into centrifuges at Natanz and Fordo for uranium enrichment.

Russia provides fuel for Iran’s sole nuclear power plant

The sites at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan are uranium enrichment facilities, and experts estimate that Iran already has more than 400 kilograms (880 pounds) of highly enriched uranium. 

Despite the damage US strikes caused to the three sites, the fate of this enriched uranium remains uncertain.

Iranian government sources mostly claim that the enriched uranium has been moved to “secure” locations.

However, several media outlets have quoted Israeli sources as saying that the uranium was distributed among the three sites and “was not relocated.”

A senior Israeli official, who did not want to be named, recently told the BBC that a portion of the enriched uranium was located deep within the Isfahan facility and that Iran could try to retrieve it.

The three targeted sites are believed not to have active nuclear reactors. However, Iran does have an operating nuclear power plant, in Bushehr, some 750 kilometer south of Tehran. The plant, which is monitored by the IAEA, is run by uranium supplied by Russia. Its spent fuel is also returned to Russia to prevent reprocessing into weapons-grade material.

The plant was not targeted in the US strikes.

Monitoring radiation levels in Iran

Following the US attacks, the IAEA said it didn’t notice any increase in radiation levels in the region.

As no active reactors were targeted, the potential risk of radiation is limited to leakage of the uranium hexafluoride gas from enriched uranium storage tanks, centrifuge cascades or pipelines.

If released, the gas would react with moisture in the air to form uranyl fluoride and hydrofluoric acid, the latter being a highly corrosive and dangerous acid.

Contact with this acid or inhalation of its vapors can destroy lung tissue, and cause severe and deadly respiratory problems, which could result in suffocation and death.

“There are indeed indications that uranium hexafluoride was released at the facility site. Both radiological hazards and elevated radiation levels, as well as chemical dangers, were mentioned. This can only refer to the release of hydrofluoric acid,” Clemens Walther, professor and nuclear expert at the Institute for Radioecology and Radiation Protection at the University of Hanover, told DW.

“However, it was clearly stated that the incident was confined to the site itself. No spread into residential areas has been reported.”

Roland Wolff, an expert in radiation protection, medical and radiation physics, said uranium, as a heavy metal, is chemically toxic.

“It can, for example, cause kidney damage. Incorporation increases the risk of cancer as well as the risk of genetic damage due to the short-range alpha radiation. Depending on the scenario, this presents a potential hazard for both workers and the general population,” he told DW.

Risk of a Chernobyl-style disaster?

The nuclear meltdowns in Chernobyl in 1986, and Fukushima in 2011, highlighted the radiation risks caused by reactor accidents.

The Fukushima disaster occurred when a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling systems of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, on Japan’s east coast.

Radioactive material was released from the site, leading to tens of thousands of people being evacuated.

But Wolff said the targeted sites don’t pose a Chernobyl-style danger.

“The radioactive inventory in enrichment facilities, unlike in nuclear reactors, does not contain fission products,” said the radiation expert. “Furthermore, it was not released into high altitudes by an explosion, as was the case in Chernobyl. Therefore, potential contamination is assumed to be local.”

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru