Attack on aid convoy that killed 7 was due to Israel military failings
The Israeli military’s attack on an aid convoy in Gaza in April that killed seven people was the result of serious failures of defense procedures, mistaken identification and errors in decision-making, according to an Australian investigation that was made public Friday.
Australia initiated the investigation to examine Tel Aviv’s response to the widely condemned Israeli Defense Forces’ drone strikes on three World Central Kitchen vehicles on 1 April. Australian Zomi Frankcom, three of her aid worker colleagues, and three British personal security staff died in the attack.
Former Australian Defense Force chief Mark Binskin was appointed the government’s special adviser on the matter and visited Israel in May. He also engaged with World Central Kitchen and Solace Global, the company that provided the convoy’s security team.
Mr Binskin blamed the fatal strikes on “serious failures to follow IDF procedures, mistaken identification and errors in decision-making”, a statement said.
The armed security guards were likely mistaken for Hamas operatives, Mr Binskin said. This was the primary factor behind a “significant break down in situational awareness.”
He found the strikes were not deliberately directed against World Central Kitchen.
But Mr Binskin wrote: “It is important to all the families that an appropriate apology be provided to them by the government of Israel.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she had told Israel that the families deserved an apology.
While Mr Binskin’s report outlined steps Israeli had taken to avoid a repeat tragedy, “stronger protocols” were needed to protect aid workers in Gaza, Wong said.
“Gaza remains the deadliest place on earth to be an aid worker. This was not a one-off incident,” Wong told reporters.
“The UN reports that more than 250 aid workers have been killed since the start of this conflict and in recent weeks, a number of UN vehicles have come under attack. This is not acceptable,” Wong added.
Mr Binskin said his conclusions were “fairly consistent” with an Israeli military investigation in April that led to two officers being dismissed and three being reprimanded within a week of the bungled attack.
Military Advocate General Brig Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, Israel’s top miliary lawyer, is considering further potential action against those responsible.
Wong said the Frankcom family felt that disciplinary action to date had been insufficient.
“The Australian government will continue to press for full accountability, including any appropriate criminal charges, and we will continue to advocate the views of the Frankcom family and the Australian government to Israel,” Wong said.
A family representative issued a statement Friday welcoming Mr Binskin’s report as an “important first step”.
“We hope it will be followed by further investigations in Israel regarding those responsible for this tragic event, followed by appropriate action,” the family statement said.
Mr Binskin said the Israeli Defense Forces had been “very forthcoming” toward his investigation. But the level of detail the Israelis provided on specific operational improvements they had made since the convoy blunder made it difficult for him to assess how effective the changes were.
The other World Central Kitchen staff killed were American-Canadian dual national Jacob Flickinger, Palestinian Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha and Polish citizen Damian Sobol. On the British security team were John Chapman, James Kirby and Jim Henderson.
Top Chinese commentator goes absent online after questioning policy
A prominent Chinese commentator, Hu Xijin, has suddenly gone silent on social media, prompting detractors of the Communist Party to speculate about ongoing attempts to censor discussion around the country’s reported economic slowdown.
Mr Hu, former Global Times editor and outspoken supporter of the Communist Party, has been incognito since he shared a controversial assessment of Beijing’s economic strategy discussed at a conclave led by president Xi Jinping last month.
Mr Hu’s silence online has caused speculation that his accounts on microblogging site Weibo and other social media platforms have been suspended, Hong Kong’s Sing Tao newspaper reported.
Mr Hu hasn’t posted since Saturday. This is unusual for a prolific commentator who would post several times a day on Weibo, where he has 25 million followers, as well as on X.
“I personally don’t want to say anything. You can just read what’s online. Please understand,” Mr Hu said in an interview with the newspaper last week.
China maintains strict censorship of the web, blocking western platforms like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In their stead, Chinese developers have launched a plethora of platforms though they continue to run under a censorship regime.
According to the South China Morning Post, Mr Hu argued in a Weibo post that the conclave resolution omitting the pledge to keep “public ownership as the mainstay” of the economy was a “historic change”.
The absence of the slogan, used in the readout of a similar gathering in 2013 and echoed in many significant Communist Party documents since, indicated that the private sector would now be considered on a par with public companies, Mr Hu argued.
“The changes are undoubtedly historic,” he said in the now-deleted post shared on 22 July. “Non-public ownership and public ownership have become truly equal in their status.”
He instantly drew criticism from conservative Chinese bloggers who accused him of “blatantly violating the political discipline of the party”. Some accused him of intentionally misleading the public.
The world’s second largest economy has reportedly slowed down since the beginning of this year and Beijing has struggled to improve consumer confidence in the face of rising inflation, international trade frictions and geopolitical conflicts.
The party has allegedly pressured policymakers and analysts to avoid criticism of the economic strategy and refrain from using terms like deflation.
“It looks like the Weibo account of the former editor-in-chief of Global Times, Mr Hu Xijin, has been blocked by the Chinese internet tsar,” an international arbitrator named Tao Jingzhou said.
“If it turns out to be true, this definitely means that the Chinese government censorship has reached another plateau.”
Mr Hu retired from editing the Global Times in late 2021 after almost 17 years. He has been one of the loudest pro-China voices on X, lashing out at adversaries like the US, the UK and India and defending the government’s controversial policies during Covid pandemic.
In 2022, Mr Hu commented on then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, saying China’s military should shoot down her plane if she was escorted by American fighter jets upon arrival.
Taiwan police bust largest child sexual abuse images ring
Police in Taiwan have busted a major child sex abuse ring involving hundreds of people, making it the largest raid on an illegal pornography racket in the island’s history.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau announced on Thursday that they have arrested 449 people suspected of possessing child sexual abuse images and videos of women filmed in restrooms without their knowledge. They said that nearly 180 subscribers paid in cryptocurrency and network tokens for the illegal material, with transactions managed through overseas accounts and domains, complicating efforts to shut them down.
The accused face charges of violating Taiwan’s Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act, money laundering, and engaging in organised crime, the bureau’s chief, Lin Chien-lung, said at a press conference.
They include teachers, civil servants, police officers, IT workers, and military personnel, according to local media reports. One of them, a man surnamed Chang, allegedly operated Chuangyi Sifang, Taiwan’s largest illegal pornography platform with thousands of subscribers, on behalf of its reported owner, Lao Ma, a Chinese citizen, according to the Taipei Times.
The racket also operated through another online platform and two Telegram groups. The material shared included sexual images of minors and teenagers and videos of women filmed in restrooms of public places.
The investigation into the racket began in May and raids were conducted in June and July across Taiwan.
Mr Chang and three of his assistants were “strongly suspected of committing crimes”, prosecutors said.
“A special task team was formed by the National Criminal Police Department and 350 police officers were mobilised to carry out two waves of synchronous sweep operations in 17 counties and cities across the country,” the bureau said on Facebook.
Investigators said that 16 people were charged in the case but released on bail.
Police seized computers, cellphones, financial records, and cash worth £23,500 in currencies from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.
Rufus Lin, director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s high-tech crime centre, said that they faced difficulty shutting down the networks as they operated through overseas accounts and domains, despite being run from within Taiwan.
In the past, Taiwan’s government has faced criticism from women’s and children’s rights groups over lenient laws for possession of images showing child sex abuse.
There were calls to enforce tougher penalties when Taiwanese celebrity Mickey Huang Tzu-chiao was ordered to pay a fine of NT$1.2m (£30,000) and write an apology after seven videos featuring minors were found on his hard drive. In the aftermath, in 2023, the maximum prison sentence was increased from two years to three and the maximum fine doubled to NT$1m (£23,970).
Additionally, victims were allowed up to seven years to file a complaint instead of three.
Indian court tells Yemeni Muslim refugee to ‘go to Pakistan’
A court in India reportedly told a Muslim refugee from Yemen to “go to Pakistan” after he overstayed his visa, echoing a crass Islamophobic dog whistle that is more commonly deployed in online debates by Hindu nationalists in the country.
A judge at the Bombay High Court made the remark while hearing a plea by Khaled Gomaeai Mohammad Hasan challenging a “Leave India Notice” issued to him by police in the western Maharashtra state, according to local media reports.
He pleaded for protection from forcible deportation to his home country of Yemen, which has been engaged in an active civil war since 2014, saying it would pose a “threat to his life” and the lives of his wife and children, Indian legal website Live Law reported.
Yemen was plunged into conflict a decade ago when Houthi rebels descended from their northern stronghold and seized the capital Sanaa as well as much of the north of the country, forcing the government into exile.
A Gulf coalition led by Saudi Arabia and supported by Western nations intervened in 2015 to restore the previous administration, leading to a war that has so far left over 150,000 people dead and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
Mr Hasan arrived in India in March 2014 on a student visa and his wife followed in 2015. After their visas expired, the couple were issued refugee cards by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
Yet in February this year, they received a police notice ordering them to leave the country.
Mr Hasan said he is applying to move to Australia. Seeking permission to stay in India until his visa for Australia came through, he told the high court that his “proposed deportation was contrary to the international customary laws and the Indian constitution as it violated basic human rights”, Live Law reported.
The judges responded by telling Mr Hasan to go and seek refuge in Pakistan, India’s Muslim majority neighbour with which it shares frosty ties. Mr Hasan is not understood to have any connection to that country.
“Go to Pakistan” is an Islamophobic dog whistle frequently used by India’s Hindu nationalists against Muslims and critics of the Narendra Modi government.
“You can go to Pakistan, which is in the neighbourhood. Or you can go to any Gulf country. Do not take undue advantage of India’s liberal attitude,” Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan told him according to Live Law.
The judges concluded the hearing by granting Mr Hasan and his family a 15-day temporary protection against forcible deportation while they sought clarity about the nationality of their daughter born in India.
Ten dead as freak torrential rains flood Indian capital region
At least 10 people died in India’s national capital region after heavy rainfall led to water logging and closure of schools and offices.
The Meteorological Department issued an alert as Delhi recorded over 100mm rain in a span of an hour yesterday while the government announced the closure of schools.
Residents were advised to stay indoors after waterlogging in several areas choked traffic.
A woman and her son drowned on Wednesday in a drain in East Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, as the city received its highest rain in 14 years.According to the police, the boy, Priyansh, slipped into an open drain which was not visible due to heavy flooding. The mother, identified as Tanuja, also fell inside while trying to rescue her son.
Two more people died on Wednesday, including one in a house collapse, reported India Today. A 12-year-old boy died from electrocution while he was returning home from tuition. Police have registered a case and are investigating the matter.
In the neighbouring satellite township of Gurugram, at least three people were electrocuted to death by a live wire submerged in a waterlogged area.
In Greater Noida, two people died due to a wall collapse.
Flight operations have also been hit, with diversion of at least 10 flights heading to the national capital, reported CNN-IBN. The national capital region encompasses Delhi and several districts surrounding it from the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
Visuals from ANI news agency showed flooding in the northern part of the city where three students drowned in a flooded basement last week.
Prime minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party found itself in the line of fire, after opposition parliamentarians raised concerns about a section of a leaking roof in the newly inaugurated parliament building.
The building, constructed as part of the government’s larger Central Vista redevelopment project, was inaugurated by Mr Modi on 28 May last year with both the Houses shifted to the new premises on 19 September.
Congress parliamentarian Manickam Tagore submitted an adjournment motion of the ongoing parliamentary session, seeking formation of special committee to inspect the “causes of the leaks, evaluate the design and materials, and recommend necessary repairs”.
Meanwhile, at least 11 people died after heavy rain lashed various parts of northern India and more than 250 people were missing after downpours in the Himalayas, including people stranded on a famous pilgrimage route.
IMD recorded 183mm (seven inches) of rain in the past 24 hours in the famous tourist destination of Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.
More than 50 people were missing after heavy rain over state capital Shimla and surrounding regions, chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said in a post on X, adding that rescue operations were ongoing.
Two people died after a barrage in a power project was breached, obstructing connectivity in the region, state revenue minister Jagat Singh Negi told news agency ANI.
Indian Express newspaper reported that four people were killed after a cloudburst in the state of Uttarakhand and 200 pilgrims were stranded after rain washed away a part of their walking path.
Torrential rains, which, along with unabated construction have frequently triggered deadly flash floods and landslides in the mountains of India and neighbouring Pakistan and Nepal over the past few years, have been attributed to climate change.
In the south, hopes of finding survivors began to fade as hundreds of rescuers worked through slush and rocks and pulled out bodies from debris in the hills of Kerala state, a day after 167 people were killed in monsoon landslides.
Steady rain that intensified as the day progressed and the rising water level in a local river hampered the rescue, with a temporary bridge built to connect the worst affected area of Mundakkai being washed away.
The weather department has forecast more heavy rain over the next 24 hours, Kerala’s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said and urged people to be on “high alert”.
Heavy rain in Kerala, one of India’s most popular tourist destinations, led to the landslides in its Wayanad district early on Tuesday, sending torrents of mud, water and tumbling boulders downhill and burying or sweeping people to their deaths as they slept. Experts said the area had received heavy rain in the last two weeks that softened the soil.
Extremely heavy rainfall on Monday then triggered the landslides. Nearly 1,600 people have been rescued from the hillside villages and tea and cardamom estates, authorities said.
Additional reporting from agencies
India nears completion of its most advanced nuclear plant ever
India is close to completing its most advanced nuclear plant, marking a major step forward in the country’s nuclear energy programme.
The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam in the southern state of Tamil Nadu has received approval from the country’s atomic regulator to begin loading nuclear fuel.
The PFBR is a 500MW liquid sodium-cooled reactor which has been in development for the past 20 years. This approval marks the start of a controlled chain reaction in India’s most advanced and complex nuclear reactor.
While there have been concerns over the use of sodium, a hazardous material, as a coolant, the country’s atomic board said it has conducted safety reviews and assessments of the PFBR, complemented by periodic inspections.
Once operational, India will join Russia as the only two countries in the world with commercially operating fast breeder reactors.
“It is a huge milestone for India’s self-reliant atomic energy programme,” Dinesh Kumar Shukla, chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) said, according to NDTV.
Mr Shukla said the PFBR is an “inherently safe reactor”.
The PFBR has been entirely designed and constructed domestically, with contributions from over 200 Indian industries, keeping the Indian government’s push for self-reliance in mind.
Due to its complexity and the need for indigenous technology, the project has faced delays and cost overruns, now amounting to ₹68,400m (£651.43m).
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) states that the PFBR, a third-generation reactor with passive safety features, ensures safe shutdowns in emergencies. It utilises spent fuel from India’s nuclear programme, reducing nuclear waste, and the need for geological disposal.
Despite its advanced technology, the PFBR’s capital and electricity costs are comparable to other nuclear and conventional power plants.
The PFBR’s approval also signifies India’s use of plutonium as a nuclear fuel and paves the way for the future use of thorium, a resource in which India has abundant reserves.
Unlike uranium, which is limited in India, thorium presents an opportunity for long-term energy independence, potentially lasting over 300 years. Experts believe that mastering the technology to use thorium could secure India’s energy future.
Fast breeder reactors, like the PFBR, are unique because they generate more fuel than they consume, earning them the reputation of being an almost limitless energy source.
The term “fast” refers to the high-energy fast neutrons used in these reactors. India already operates a Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) at the same location, which has been functional for 39 years.
The board’s approval allows for the commencement of fuel loading and low-power physics experiments, with the reactor expected to become operational in the coming months.
The PFBR will initially use Uranium-Plutonium Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel. A uranium-238 “blanket” surrounding the core will produce more fuel through nuclear transmutation. This process, known as breeding, is what gives these reactors their name.
In the future, thorium-232 may also be used as a blanket, creating fissile uranium-233 through transmutation, which will be utilised in the third stage of India’s nuclear programme. This stage is crucial for harnessing India’s vast thorium reserves.
Nuclear energy is considered a reliable and low-carbon source of electricity, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate crisis and diversifying energy supply. However, there are concerns regarding safety and waste that researchers are trying to overcome with new technology.
Recently China unveiled the world’s first “meltdown-proof” nuclear power plant.
So far, nuclear energy only accounts for 3.11 per cent of the country’s total power generation. But India aims to have nuclear power account for nearly 9 per cent of its electricity by 2047 and it is rapidly investing in the technology.
While presenting India’s latest annual budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told parliament that nuclear energy would “form a very significant part of the energy mix” for India’s development.
The government plans to increase India’s nuclear power capacity from 6,780MW to 22,480MW by 2031. This will involve building 18 new reactors that can produce a total of 13.8GW of electricity. After PFBR, two more fast breeder reactors are in the pipeline.
Teenager among handful of people to survive brain-eating amoeba
A teenager from southern India is among a handful of people in the world to have survived a brain-eating amoeba that has already claimed three lives in the country.
Afnan Jasim, 14, from the coastal state of Kerala, was diagnosed with Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM), a disease caused by an amoeba that invades the brain.
The Naegleria fowleri amoeba, commonly known as the brain-eating amoeba, is found in warm waters and only enters the body through the nose. Such cases are rare but cause a disease with a fatality rate exceeding 97 per cent.
There have been six known cases, including three deaths, from the disease in Kerala alone this year.
Just eight other people are known to have survived the disease across four countries: Australia, the US, Mexico, and Pakistan, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The symptoms of PAM are headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, disorientation, a stiff neck, a loss of balance, seizures and/or hallucinations.
Afnan likely got infected in June after he went for a swim in a local pond with his friends in his hometown in Kozhikode district and began experiencing the symptoms five days later.
He began complaining of seizures and severe headaches before his parents took him to a doctor but his condition did not improve.
It was partly due to his father MK Siddiqui that his symptoms were linked to the disease after he chanced upon the information on PAM while reading about the Nipah virus that has caused a state-wide health alert.
Mr Siddiqui said he was reading about the Nipah virus that was behind the death of a teenager in the state when he read about the brain-eating amoeba.
“While scrolling through social media, I came across news about a brain-eating amoeba and how children swimming in ponds were getting infected. Also, no one in the family has any history of epilepsy. So I told the doctor that my son swam in a local pond four days ago, the doctor took note,” Mr Siddique told The Indian Express.
He took his son to Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode after the seizures didn’t stop and was treated by Dr Abdul Rauf.
Dr Raul told BBC that the disease was diagnosed within 24 hours after the symptoms began.
The deadly amoeba thrives in warm freshwater and infects humans through the nose. After reaching the brain the amoeba causes inflammation and destruction of the brain tissue, making it crucial to diagnose and treat it early.
Studies carried out by the CDC on brain-eating amoeba suggest climate change could be behind a number of cases in northern US states.
Julia Haston, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC, previously told NBC News that rising air and water temperatures may be having an impact.
Dr Rauf said they have informed the government to issue a public health advisory and launch awareness campaigns.
The surge in incidents has forced the state health minister Veena George to order the first batch of miltefosine – a medicine used to treat such cases and is not easily available in India.
“It is the first time that medicine for this disease has been sourced from abroad. Additional batches of Miltefosine will arrive in the coming days,” she said in a statement.
Australians dazzled by southern lights after powerful solar storm
Australians were treated to a dazzling display of southern lights on Tuesday following a powerful geomagnetic storm – and they may see more spectacular auroras tonight.
Auroras are caused when charged particles expelled from the Sun’s corona, known as coronal mass ejections, interact with the Earth’s magnetic field.
Since the Earth’s magnetic field is stronger near the poles, auroras are seen more distinctly in the skies above higher and lower latitudes.
The phenomenon is known as aurora australis in the southern hemisphere and aurora borealis in the northern hemisphere.
Australians took to social media to share pictures of the sky as pink, purple, yellow, and green lights sparkled in the dark.
Geomagnetic storms that cause auroras are denoted by the letter G and rated from 1 to 5, with 1 a minor event and 5 an extreme one.
G2 and G3 storms can interfere with power grids and lead to voltage fluctuations and solar storms of longer duration may even cause damage to transformers.
Tuesday’s aurora was the most vivid since May, when skygazers at even mid-latitudes could see the northern lights due to an intense solar storm.
Australian minister Julie Collins shared a photo of the aurora on X glowing in yellow and gold colour.
“Even the aurora australis last night turned out in green and gold for our Olympians!” Ms Collins said.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said geomagnetic activity could make auroras visible in the country’s southern states from 29 to 31 July.
“Several coronal mass ejections may impact Earth within the next 24 hours, possibly causing G1 and G2 geomagnetic storming with a slight chance for G3,” the agency said.
“If geomagnetic activity does eventuate, aurora may be visible during local nighttime hours in Tasmania and southern Victoria on 31 July.”
Auroras could also be seen in the skies above Australia on 1 August, the bureau said, but at a “reduced probability”.
People in New South Wales and Western Australia, however, may miss out on the spectacle due to cloudy conditions, the agency said.