Category: 2. World

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a chaotic ICE raid this week at a California cannabis facility died Saturday of his injuries.

Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first known person to die during one of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations. Yesenia Duran, Alanis’ niece, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.

Duran posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe that her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to a wife and daughter in Mexico. Alanis worked at the farm for 10 years, his family said.

The United Farm Workers reported Alanis’ death prematurely late Friday. The Ventura County Medical Center later issued a statement authorized by the family saying he was still on life support.

“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the UFW said recently in a statement on the social platform X. The union does not represent workers at the raided farm.

The Department of Homeland Security said it executed criminal search warrants Thursday at Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria. Glass House is a licensed cannabis grower. The farm in Camarillo also grows tomatoes and cucumbers.

Garcia called family to say he was hiding and possibly was fleeing agents before he fell about 30 feet (9 meters) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.

Agents arrested some 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, DHS said in a statement. Alanis was not among them, the agency said.

“This man was not in and has not been in CBP or ICE custody,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30 feet. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”

Four U.S. citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers,” according to DHS, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.

During the raid crowds of people gathered outside the facility in Camarillo to seek information about their relatives and protest immigration enforcement. Authorities clad in military-style helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators, and people ultimately retreated amid acrid green and white billowing smoke.

Glass House said in a statement that immigration agents had valid warrants. The company said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.

“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it said.

The business was co-founded by Graham Farrar and Kyle Kazan. Farrar has donated to California Democrats including Gov. Gavin Newsom, a vocal critic of Republican President Donald Trump, according to campaign finance records. Kazan has donated to both Democrats and Republicans.

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This story has been updated with to correct the full name of the UFW. It is United Farm Workers, not United Food Workers.

TEHRAN: Iran said on Saturday its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency “will take on a new form”, expressing a desire for a diplomatic solution to resolve concerns over its nuclear programme.

Iran’s 12-day war with Israel last month, sparked by an Israeli bombing campaign that hit military and nuclear sites as well as residential areas, rattled its already shaky relationship with the UN nuclear watchdog.

The attacks began days before a planned meeting between Tehran and Washington aimed at reviving nuclear negotiations, which have since stalled.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA “has not stopped, but will take on a new form”, after the Islamic republic formally ended cooperation with the UN watchdog in early July.

Iran has blamed the IAEA in part for the June attacks on its nuclear facilities, which Israel says it launched to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Tehran has repeatedly denied.

The United States, which had been in talks with Iran since April 12, joined Israel in carrying out its own strikes on June 22, targeting Iran­ian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.

Araghchi said requests to monitor nuclear sites “will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis… taking into account safety and security issues”, and be managed by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

‘Assurances’

In early July, a team of IAEA inspectors left Iran to return to the organisation’s headquarters in Vienna after Tehran suspended cooperation.

The talks were aimed at regulating Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Before agreeing to any new meeting, “we are examining its timing, its location, its form, its ingredients, the assurances it requires”, said Araghchi, who also serves as Iran’s lead negotiator.

He said that any talks would focus only on Iran’s nuclear activities, not its military capabilities.

“If negotiations are held… the subject of the negotiations will be only nuclear and creating confidence in Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions,” he told diplomats in Teh­ran. “No other issues will be subject to negotiation.”

Araghchi also warned that re-imposing UN sanctions could eliminate Europe’s role in the process.

Enrichment

“Such measures would signify the end of Europe’s role in the Iranian nuclear dossier,” Araghchi said.

A clause in the 2015 nuclear agreement, which US President Donald Trump withdrew from during his first term, allows for UN sanctions to be re-imposed if Iran is found to be in breach of the deal.

Araghchi stressed that any new nuclear deal must uphold Iran’s right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

“I would like to emphasise that in any negotiated solution, the rights of the Iranian people on the nuclear issue, including the right to enrichment, must be respected,” he said.

“We will not have any agreement in which enrich­ment is not included.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the BRICS summit in Rio on Monday that Moscow would remain a committed ally of Iran and support its nuclear programme. “Russia has technological solutions for uranium depletion and is ready to work with Iran in this field,” Lavrov said, as reported by Russian state news outlet TASS.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2025

CAIRO: Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in Gaza are stalling over the extent of Israeli forces’ withdrawal from the Pale­s­tinian enclave, Pales­tinian and Israeli sources familiar with the negotiations in Doha said on Saturday.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are nonetheless expected to continue, the sources told Reuters.

According to AFP, which cited two Pales­tinian sour­ces with knowledge of the discussions, indirect talks are being held up by Israel’s proposals to keep troops in the territory.

Israel has meanwhile kept up its strikes on Gaza and the territory’s civil defence agency said more than 20 people were killed on Saturday, including in an air strike on an area sheltering the displaced.

“We all generally came here because we were told it was a safe area,” Bassam Hamdan told AFP after the overnight attack in an area of Gaza City. “While we were sleeping, there was an explosion… where two boys, a girl and their mother were staying. We found them torn to pieces, their remains scattered,” he added.

Medics said 17 people trying to get food aid were killed on Saturday when Israeli troops opened fire, the latest mass shooting around a US-backed aid distribution system that the UN says has resulted in 800 people killed in six weeks.

Witnesses who spoke to Reuters described people being shot in the head and torso. The news agency reported seeing several bodies of victims wrapped in white shrouds as family members wept at Nasser Hospital. The Israeli military claimed its troops had fired warning shots, but that its review of the incident had found no evidence of anyone hurt by its soldiers’ fire.

Seven UN agencies warned in a joint statement on Saturday that if fuel runs out in Gaza, it would be “an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation”.

Delegations from Israel and Hamas have been in Qatar for a week in a renewed push for an agreement which envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals and discussions on ending the war.

US President Donald Trump, who hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the past week, had said he hoped for a deal soon. But the Israeli and Palestinian sources described longstanding issues that remain unresolved.

A Palestinian source said that Hamas had rejected withdrawal maps which Israel had proposed that would leave around 40 per cent of Gaza under Israeli control, including all of the southern area of Rafah and further territories in northern and eastern Gaza.

Two Israeli sources said Hamas wanted Israel to retreat to lines it held in a previous ceasefire before it renewed its offensive in March.

The Palestinian source said matters regarding aid and guarantees on an end to the war were also presenting a challenge. The crisis could be resolved with more US intervention, the source said.

Hamas has long demanded an agreement to end the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would end the fighting only when all prisoners are released and Hamas is dismantled as a fighting force and administration in Gaza.

Shooting

Saturday’s reported mass shooting near an aid distribution point in Rafah was the latest in a series of such incidents that the United Nations rights office said on Friday had seen at least 798 people killed trying to get food in six weeks.

“We were sitting there, and suddenly there was shooting towards us. For five minutes we were trapped under fire. The shooting was targeted. It was not random. Some people were shot in the head, some in the torso, one guy next to me was shot directly in the heart,” eyewitness Mahmoud Makram told Reuters. “There is no mercy there, no mercy. People go because they are hungry, but they die and come back in body bags.”

After partially lifting a total blockade of all goods into Gaza in late May, Israel launched a new aid distribution system, relying on a group backed by the United States to distribute food under the protection of Israeli troops.

The United Nations has rejected the system as inherently dangerous and a violation of humanitarian neutrality principles. Israel says it is necessary to keep “militants” from diverting aid.

Since Oct 7, 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, displaced almost the entire population of more than two million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis and left much of the territory in ruins.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2025

NEW DELHI: A preliminary report depicted confusion in the cockpit shortly before an Air India jetliner crashed and killed 260 people last month, after the plane’s engine fuel cutoff switches flipped almost simultaneously and starved the engines of fuel.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner bound for London from the Indian city of Ahmedabad began to lose thrust and sink shortly after takeoff, according to the report on the world’s deadliest aviation accident in a decade released on Saturday by Indian accident investigators.

The report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) about the June 12 crash raises fresh questions over the position of the critical engine fuel cutoff switches.

Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines.

Reveals one pilot questioned the other about fuel cut before the crash as the second denied it

In the flight’s final moments, one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel.

“The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report said.

The fuel switches had almost simultaneously flipped from run to cutoff just after takeoff.

The preliminary report did not say how the switches could have flipped to the cutoff position during the flight.

“We care for the welfare and the well-being of pilots so let’s not jump to any conclusions at this stage, let us wait for the final report,” Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu told local news channels.

Fuel switches

Experts have said a pilot would not be able to accidentally move the fuel switches. “If they were moved because of a pilot, why?” asked US aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse.

The switches flipped a second apart, the report said, roughly the time it would take to shift one and then the other, according to US aviation expert John Nance.

He added that a pilot would normally never turn the switches off in flight, especially as the plane is starting to climb.

Flipping to cutoff almost immediately cuts the engines. It is most often used to turn engines off once a plane has arrived at its airport gate and in certain emergency situations, such as an engine fire.

At the crash site, both fuel switches were found in the run position and there had been indications of both engines relighting before the low-altitude crash, said the report, which was released around 2000 GMT on Friday

Asked about the report, the father of first officer Kunder told reporters “I am not from the airline”, declining to comment further during a prayer meeting held in the memory of the airline’s crew on Saturday in Mumbai, where emotional scenes played out among grieving relatives.

Crash probe

The AAIB, an office under India’s civil aviation ministry, is leading the probe into the crash, which killed all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground.

Most air crashes are caused by multiple factors, with a preliminary report due 30 days after the accident, according to international rules, and a final report expected within a year.

The plane’s black boxes, combined cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders, were recovered in the days following the crash and later downloaded in India.

The report said “all applicable airworthiness directives and alert service bulletins were complied (with) on the aircraft as well as engines”.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2025

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 30 per cent tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union starting on August 1, after weeks of negotiations with the key US allies and top trading partners failed to reach a trade deal.

In an escalation of the trade war that has angered US allies and rattled investors, Mr Trump announced the latest tariffs in separate letters to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum posted on Truth Social.

Both the EU and Mexico responded by calling the tariffs unfair and disruptive while pledging to continue to negotiate with the US for a broader trade deal before the August deadline.

The European Union and Mexico are among the largest US trading partners.

European leaders warn of global supply chain disruption, pledge to continue talks with US

Trump said the 30pc tariff rate was separate from all sectoral tariffs, which means 50pc levies on steel and aluminium imports and a 25pc tariff on auto imports would remain at those levels.

The August 1 deadline gives countries targeted by Trump’s letters time to negotiate a trade deal that could lower the threatened tariff levels.

The spate of letters shows Trump has returned to the aggressive trade posture that he took in early April when he announced a slew of reciprocal tariffs against trading partners that sent markets tumbling before the White House delayed implementation.

Trump promised to use the 90-day pause in April to strike dozens of new trade deals with trading partners, but has only secured framework agreements with Britain, China and Vietnam. The EU had hoped to reach a comprehensive trade agreement with the US.

Trump’s letter to the EU included a demand that Europe drop its own tariffs, an apparent condition of any future deal.

“The European Union will allow complete, open Market Access to the United States, with no Tariff being charged to us, in an attempt to reduce the large Trade Deficit,” Mr Trump wrote.

EU President von der Leyen said the 30pc tariffs would disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains, to the detriment of businesses, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic.

She also said while the EU will continue to work towards a trade agreement, they will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required.

Reactions to Trump threats

Mexico slammed latest threat of 30pc tariffs as an “unfair deal,” according to a government statement.

“We mentioned at the table that it was an unfair deal and that we did not agree,” the Mexican economy and foreign ministries said in a joint statement, adding that they hoped to avoid the duties.

A statement from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office struck a conciliatory tone, expressing trust “in the goodwill of all players” to find a solution, given that “it would make no sense to trigger a trade clash.”

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof called the US announcement “concerning and not the way forward,” offering his “full support” for the European Commission’s efforts.

Calling for de-escalation, Irish Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris said, “There is no necessity to escalate the situation… The EU will remain united and focused as negotiations continue.”

The economic stakes were underscored by Germany’s powerful Federation of German Industries, which described Trump’s threat as a “wake-up-call.”

“A trade conflict between two economic areas as closely linked as the EU and the United States harms economic recovery, innovation strength, and ultimately confidence in international cooperation,” said Wolfgang Niedermark, a senior BDI official.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2025

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered Moscow his “unconditional support” on the war in Ukraine, according to Pyongyang state media reports.

In talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in North Korea, Kim said that Pyongyang stood by “all the measures taken by the Russian leadership” to tackle the “root cause of the Ukrainian crisis”.

Western officials believe Pyongyang has sent an estimated 11,000 troops to Russia over the last year to fight against Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

According to North Korean state media KCNA news agency, Kim and Lavrov met on Saturday in “an atmosphere full of warm comradely trust”.

The North Korean leader also expressed a “firm belief that the Russian army and people would surely win victory in accomplishing the sacred cause of defending the dignity and basic interests of the country”.

On Telegram, Russia’s foreign ministry posted a video showing the two men shaking hands and greeting each other with a hug.

Lavrov also met with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui and thanked the “heroic” North Korean soldiers deployed to aid Russia, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.

North Korea’s renewed military support for Russia comes as US President Donald Trump has resumed military supplies to Ukraine, after a brief hiatus.

Trump told NBC News on Thursday that he had made a deal with Nato for the US to send Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine via the alliance, after a surge of Russian aerial attacks.

Pyongyang first publicly acknowledged sending troops to Russia in April, months after Ukraine and the West revealed the large-scale troop movement from North Korea to the Russian-Ukrainian frontline.

Kim signed an accord with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in June last year, agreeing to support each other if either country was dealing with “aggression”.

Apart from soldiers, North Korea also promised to send thousands of workers to help rebuild Russia’s war-torn Kursk region, Moscow’s security chief said last month.

Commencement Speech by Under-Secretary-General Miguel Ángel Moratinos
the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations
at the University of Balamand (Balamand, Al Koura, Lebanon)

12 July 2025

Your Excellency, Dr. Elias Warrak,
President of the University of Balamand,

Esteemed Members of the Board of Trustees,

Distinguished Faculty and Staff,

Dear Graduates, Proud Families, and Honored Guests,

I am truly delighted to be back to your spectacular country, Lebanon.

It is a profound privilege to stand before you today — on this day of joy, reflection, and hope— at this distinguished institution that embodies the spirit of Lebanon: resilience, inclusivity, and forward-looking.

To the graduating class of 2025: Congratulations! You have earned this moment, not only through academic diligence, but through your ability to persist, to question, and to dream — even amidst uncertainty. In you, we see not only scholars, but change-makers of a new tomorrow.

As we gather here, I am deeply mindful of the significance of this moment — for you, and for Lebanon.

This country, small in size but huge in spirit, has long been a crossroads of civilizations, a land where mountains meet the sea, and where cultures, faiths, and languages intertwine and interact. Lebanon’s political history is complex—marked by both great tribulations and remarkable triumphs. Yet through every chapter, one truth has endured: the unshakable resilience of its people.

Their story is one for the books.

Over the years, Lebanon has suffered, but it has never surrendered.

It has faced storms, but never lost its soul.

It has carried the weight of conflict, but still dares to hope. That hope is what brings us here today—at the foot of Mount Balamand, under the banner of an institution born from faith, yet devoted to openness; rooted in tradition, yet fiercely committed to progress.

The University of Balamand reflects the very ideals the world so desperately needs today:

Dialogue over division.

Learning over ignorance.

And compassion over fear.

As the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, I have seen these values at work across continents. I invested endless time and effort to deliver these values. But here, in Lebanon, they shine with a special urgency and clarity.

Today, Lebanon stands at the threshold of a new political chapter.

I recall, H.E. President Joseph Aoun said his inaugural address on January 9, 2025:

“My pledge to the Lebanese, wherever they are… is that today, a new phase in Lebanon’s history has begun.”

These are not merely words — they are a challenge and an invitation. A challenge to reinvigorate institutions; an invitation for every citizen, every graduate in this hall, to participate in the renewal of our beloved country.

But political change must be matched by civic courage. That is where you, the graduates, come in.

You are the generation that must break with the notion of “fait accompli” and believe in rebuilding — brick by brick, law by law, idea by idea. You must be the stewards of unity in a world fractured by fear.

And above all, you must carry forward the dream of a Lebanon that thrives and stands tall not despite its diversity, but because of it.

As you step into your future—whether in Lebanon or beyond—never underestimate your power to influence, to inspire, and to ignite change.

Your education is not only a privilege. It is a responsibility—to build bridges where others build walls, to speak up when silence is easier, and to hold fast to hope, even when hope feels fragile.

Let me close with the words of Khalil Gibran, Lebanon’s beloved son of letters:

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

So go forth, not unscarred, but unshaken.

Go forth with humility, with courage, and with the conviction that your story—and the story of Lebanon—is still being written.

And it begins today.

Thank you for having me here — This a true honor.

Mabrouk to the Class of 2025!

The Nasser hospital in southern Gaza has said 24 people have been killed near an aid distribution site.

Palestinians who were present at the site said Israeli troops opened fire as people were trying to access food on Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said there were “no known injured individuals” from IDF fire near the site.

Separately, an Israeli military official said warning shots were fired to disperse people who the IDF believed were a threat.

The claims by both sides have not been independently verified. Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza.

Footage seen by the BBC later on Saturday showed what appeared to be a number of body bags at Nasser hospital’s courtyard surrounded by nurses and people in blood-stained clothes.

In another video, a man said people were waiting to get aid when they came under targeted fire for five minutes. A paramedic accused Israeli troops of killing in cold blood.

The videos have not been verified by the BBC.

Reuters said it had spoken to witnesses who described people being shot in the head and torso. The news agency also reported seeing bodies wrapped in white shrouds at Nasser hospital.

There have been almost daily reports of people being killed by Israeli fire while seeking food in Gaza.

Israel imposed a total blockade of aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip in March, and later resumed its military offensive against Hamas, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the Palestinian armed group to release Israeli hostages.

Although the blockade was partially eased in late May, amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, there are still severe shortages of food, as well as medicine and fuel.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, says there are thousands of malnourished children across the territory, with more cases detected every day.

In addition to allowing in some UN aid lorries, Israel and the US set up a new aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), saying they wanted to prevent Hamas from stealing aid.

On Friday, the UN human rights office said that it had so far recorded 798 aid-related killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the GHF’s sites, which are operated by US private security contractors and located inside military zones in southern and central Gaza.

The other 183 killings were recorded near UN and other aid convoys.

The Israeli military said it recognised there had been incidents in which civilians had been harmed and that it was working to minimise “possible friction between the population and the [Israeli] forces as much as possible”.

The GHF accused the UN of using “false and misleading” statistics from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Earlier this month, a former security contractor for the GHF told the BBC he witnessed colleagues opening fire several times on hungry Palestinians who had posed no threat. The GHF said the allegations were categorically false.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’ cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,823 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

CNN
 — 

An official report on the world’s deadliest aviation accident in a decade has answered one key question – but raised others.

Air India flight AI171 had barely left the runway last month when it lost momentum and crashed in a densely populated area of India’s western city of Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground.

Now, a preliminary report by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has revealed that fuel supply to both engines was cut in the crucial minutes as the aircraft was ascending.

The plane’s “black box,” its flight data recorder, showed that the aircraft had reached an airspeed of 180 knots when both engines’ fuel switches were “transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one,” the report says. The switches were flipped within a second of each other, halting the flow of fuel.

On an audio recording from the black box, mentioned in the report, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he flipped the switches. The other pilot responds that he did not do so. The report does not specify who was the pilot and who was the co-pilot in the dialogue.

Seconds later, the switches on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner were flipped the other way to turn the fuel supply back on. Both engines were able to relight, and one began to “progress to recovery,” the report said, but it was too late to stop the plane’s gut-wrenching descent.

The report reveals the fundamental reason why the jet crashed, but much remains unexplained.

The findings do not make clear how the fuel switches were flipped to the cutoff position during the flight, whether it was deliberate, accidental or if a technical fault was responsible.

On Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, the fuel switches are between the two pilots’ seats, immediately behind the plane’s throttle levers. They are protected on the sides by a metal bar.

The switches require an operator to physically lift the switch handle up and over a detent – a catch – as they are deliberately designed so they can’t be knocked accidentally.

Geoffrey Dell, an air safety specialist who has conducted numerous aircraft accident investigations, finds it hard to see how both switches could have been flipped in error.

“It’s at least a two-action process for each one,” he told CNN. “You’ve got to pull the switch out towards you and then push it down. It’s not the sort of thing you can do inadvertently.”

According to Dell, it would be “bizarre” for a pilot to deliberately cut fuel to both engines immediately after take-off.

There is “no scenario on the planet where you’d do that immediately after lift-off,” he said.

Pointing to the fact that both engine switches were flipped within a second of each other, Dell noted: “That’s the sort of thing you do when you park the airplane at the end of the flight… You plug into the terminal and shut the engines down.”

One possibility the report raises relates to an information bulletin issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration in 2018 about “the potential disengagement of the fuel control switch locking feature.” But, given that this was not considered an unsafe condition, Air India did not carry out inspections.

Dell said an aircraft’s flight data recorder should help explain how the fuel switches were flipped in each case. However, India’s AAIB has not released a full transcript of the conversation between the two pilots. Without it, Dell says it’s difficult to understand what happened.

Former pilot Ehsan Khalid also believes that the report’s findings raised questions over the position of the vital engine fuel switches, which, he said, should be clarified by the investigators.

Speaking to Reuters, Khalid warned against pinning the blame on the pilots. “The AAIB report to me is only conclusive to say that the accident happened because both engines lost power.”

He added: “The pilots were aware that the aircraft engine power has been lost, and pilots also were aware that they did not do any action to cause this.”

A full report is not due for months and India’s Civil Aviation Minister, Ram Mohan Naidu, said: “Let’s not jump to any conclusions at this stage.”

The Air India jet took off from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in India’s western state of Gujarat on June 12, bound for London Gatwick.

Air India had said 242 passengers and crew members were on board. That included 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian. Everyone on board was killed, except for one passenger.

The 19 people on the ground were killed when the plane crashed into the BJ Medical College and Hospital hostel.

Air India has acknowledged that it has received the report and said it will continue cooperating with authorities in the investigation.

The United Nations warned Saturday that dire fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip had reached “critical levels,” threatening to dramatically increase the suffering in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Read More: 52 more killed in Gaza as genocide goes unabated

“After almost two years of war, people in Gaza are facing extreme hardships, including widespread food insecurity. When fuel runs out, it places an unbearable new burden on a population teetering on the edge of starvation,” seven UN agencies cautioned in a joint statement.

Also Read: Netanyahu demands Hamas disarm before Gaza peace deal

Doctors Without Borders warned Friday that its teams on the ground in Gaza were witnessing surging levels of acute malnutrition in the besieged and war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The medical charity, known by its French acronym MSF, said levels of acute malnutrition had reached an “all-time high” at two of its facilities in the Gaza Strip.