Ratcliffe will also provide $300m for future investment into the struggling football club’s Old Trafford stadium.
INEOS Chief Executive Jim Ratcliffe has become a minority shareholder in Manchester United, buying a 25 percent stake at a price of $33 per share, says the Premier League club.
INEOS, which will assume delegated responsibility for the club’s football operations, and United entered an agreement on Sunday under which Ratcliffe will acquire 25 percent of the Class B shares held by the Glazer family and up to 25 percent of the Class A shares.
Ratcliffe will also provide $300m for future investment into the club’s Old Trafford stadium.
“As part of the transaction, INEOS has accepted a request by the board to be delegated responsibility for the management of the club’s football operations. This will include all aspects of the men’s and women’s football operations and academies, alongside two seats on the Manchester United PLC board and the Manchester United Football Club boards,” said a club statement.
Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani was also looking to buy the club but dropped out of the bidding process, saying he would not be raising his $6bn offer, leaving the British billionaire to strike a deal with the Glazer family.
Ratcliffe, 71, said he wanted to see struggling United “back where we belong, at the very top of English, European and world football”.
Ratcliffe’s INEOS also owns French Ligue 1 club Nice, Swiss Super League side FC Lausanne-Sport, and works with Racing Club Abidjan of Ivory Coast Ligue One.
It is also behind the Grenadiers, one of the world’s most successful cycling teams.
Ten of the passengers apply for French asylum, as judges probe whether a criminal group is linked to trafficking.
Hundreds of Indian nationals sequestered in a French airport are being questioned by authorities over concerns they could be victims of human trafficking.
Four French judges are rushing to speak to the group of over 300 Indians who have been grounded at the Vatry airport, 150km (93 miles) east of Paris, since Thursday.
Their charter plane, destined for the Central American nation of Nicaragua, was stopped at Vatry airport where it had landed to refuel after authorities received an anonymous tip that trafficking victims may be aboard. It had taken off from the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah airport and was run by the Romania-based Legend Airlines.
‘Situation is urgent’
The sequestered passengers are to appear on Sunday before French judges, who will decide whether to keep them in the airport longer or send them on their way, according to the administration for the Marne region.
“I don’t know if this has ever been done before in France,” Francois Procureur, lawyer and head of the Chalons-en-Champagne Bar Association, told local media on Saturday. The situation is urgent because “we cannot keep foreigners in a waiting area for more than 96 hours. Beyond that, it is the liberty and custody judge who must rule on their fate,” he said.
If necessary, a specialised judge could prolong the passengers’ detention to eight days, followed by another eight days in exceptional circumstances.
After initially being kept on the airport’s tarmac, passengers were moved into an airport waiting area terminal, where beds were installed for them to sleep in, France’s BFM TV broadcaster reported. Staff were also available to provide medical assistance to those in need, the media reported.
Among the group are many children and 11 unaccompanied minors. Ten of the passengers have requested asylum, news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, quoting a source close to the case.
Patrick Jaloux, the head of civil protection in the Marne region, said the passengers were understandably “frustrated” after spending three nights in the airport.
The Indian embassy in Paris said on Saturday that it was working for “a rapid resolution of the situation”, posting on X that “consular officials are on site”.
Airline denies trafficking role
Several of the detained travellers are suspected of having a different “role” in the journey than the other passengers.
Two in particular are being looked into as part of a special investigation into suspected human trafficking by a criminal group, said the Paris prosecutor’s office
The 15 crew members of the Legend Airlines charter flight were questioned and released, according to the airline lawyer, who denied the company had any possible role in trafficking.
The airline has “has not committed any infraction”, said lawyer Liliana Bakayoko.
Bakayoko added a “partner” company, which she did not name, was responsible for verifying the identification documents of each passenger.
Nicaragua, where the flight was headed, has been designated by the US government as one of several countries deemed as failing to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking.
Nicaragua has also been used as a base by people fleeing poverty or conflict in the Caribbean as well as far-flung countries in Africa or Asia, because of relaxed or visa-free entry requirements for some countries. From there, the migrants travel north by bus with the help of smugglers.
The influx of Indian migrants through Mexico has increased from fewer than 3,000 in 2022 to more than 11,000 from January to November this year, according to the Mexican immigration agency.
Indian citizens were arrested 41,770 times entering the US illegally from Mexico in the US government’s budget year that ended September 30, more than double from 18,308 the previous year.
The deaths of three Kashmir civilians after they were picked up by the Indian army in the wake of a deadly rebel attack in the disputed Himalayan region have caused anger among people and led to calls for an investigation into alleged custodial killings.
According to the families, the three men – Mohammad Showkat, 22, Safeer Hussain, 45, and Shabir Ahmad, 32 – were detained by the army at the hilly Topa Pir village in Poonch district on Friday morning, a day after suspected rebels ambushed military vehicles and killed four Indian army soldiers near the village.
The families say they were shocked after the police called them on Friday to take back the bodies of their relatives.
“There were torture marks on his body. What kind of justice is this? He died of excessive torture,” Noor Ahmad, brother of Safer Hussain, told Al Jazeera.
Ahmad says the army took his brother Safeer away in front of his wife and parents.
“The government has announced jobs and compensation for us. But we want justice, those who killed these innocent people should be punished. My brother has four children.
“I cannot express in words how much grief we feel, no money in the world can fill that. The government will give us everything but our wounds will not heal,” he said by phone.
“I have served in the Indian army for 32 years, is this what we get in return,” Ahmad, who works with Border Security Forces (BSF) in the northern state of Rajasthan, said in a broken voice.
All three victims belong to a tribal community known as Gujjar, who traditionally lead a pastoral life in the mountain areas of Kashmir.
Activists of right-wing Hindu groups burn portraits of Pakistan’s prime minster Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar during a protest against the killings of Indian army soldiers, in Jammu, Friday [Channi Anand/AP Photo]
‘Investigation under way’
The Indian army on Saturday said an investigation was under way into the incident. It did not give any details about the detention and death.
“Reports have been received regarding three civilian deaths in the area. The matter is under investigation. Indian Army stands committed to extending full support and cooperation in the conduct of investigations,” the Indian army said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Information and Public Relations Department of the regional authority, which is directly run from New Delhi, said that legal action had been initiated in the matter. It, however, did not specify what action was taken and against whom. It also did not make public what were the outcomes of the medical and legal formalities.
“The death of three civilians was reported yesterday in Bafliaz of Poonch district. The medical legal formalities were conducted and legal action in this matter has been initiated by the appropriate authority. The government has announced compensation for each of the deceased. Further, the government has also announced compassionate appointments to the next of kin of each deceased,” it posted on X on Saturday.
The families of the victims have told Al Jazeera that the government’s offer of jobs and compensation points to the potential role of the army in the killing of the three Kashmiri men.
“Had they not died in army custody, the government would not have announced compensation and jobs. They want to cover it up,” another relative of the deceased civilian said on the conditions of anonymity.
Kashmir has been without an elected local government since 2019 when India stripped the Muslim-majority region of its special status and bifurcated the region into two centrally-administered regions – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Since then hundreds of rights activists, politicians and journalists have been detained, many of them freed after months-long incarceration as the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed curbs on free speech, civil liberties and media freedoms.
Earlier this month, India’s Supreme Court upheld the government’s decision to revoke Article 370 of India’s constitution that granted limited autonomy to the region.
India has justified the hardline measures saying it was fighting an armed rebellion backed by its Western neighbour Pakistan – a charge Islamabad has denied, though Pakistan backs Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination. More than 60,000 people have been killed since the armed rebellion erupted in the late 1980s.
India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in its entirety but control only parts of it. They have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region, where anti-India sentiment runs high.
There’s been an uptick in rebel attacks in the southern districts of Poonch and Rajouri this year. At least 34 soldiers have been killed in suspected rebel attacks since 2021.
‘Tortured in custody’
The villagers said that eight civilians were detained for questioning by the army, while three are dead, five are admitted to a hospital in Rajouri where they are being treated for physical injuries.
“The government wants us to compromise but we will not compromise,” a teenage daughter of one of the injured civilians told Al Jazeera.
“They were given electric shocks and chilli powder was inserted in their private parts, no questions were asked to them” she claimed.
A video of army men sprinkling chilli powder on the private parts of civilians lying on the floor has surfaced on social media. They were identified by the villagers as the men who were detained by the army. Al Jazeera, however, could not independently confirm the veracity of the video.
Al Jazeera reached out to the concerned officials in Jammu, southern Kashmir’s main city, for comment but received no response until the time of publication.
But nearly 200km (120 miles) to the north, the mainstream Kashmiri political parties and their workers staged protests and demanded justice for the victims in the main city of Srinagar.
In 2020, the Indian army extrajudicially killed three civilians from Rajouri. They were portrayed as rebels but investigations revealed that the army was behind the killing.
The Indian army’s internal court admitted wrongdoing and sentenced an officer to life imprisonment for the killings. But last month, the military tribunal suspended the officer’s sentence, which shattered hopes of justice for the families.
Widespread impunity
Indian armed forces enjoy widespread impunity in Indian-administered Kashmir under the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), a “counterterror” law.
The AFSPA gives protection to Indian soldiers against human rights violations and makes it mandatory for the state government to seek sanction for prosecution from the federal defence ministry, which data shows has not been granted in any previous cases.
International rights groups have accused the Indian army of human rights abuses in Kashmir and demanded the repeal of AFSPA, but the government justifies it as necessary for fighting armed rebellion.
The tribal community has asked the government tough questions.
“The tribal community has never been involved in any anti-national activity. The government must clarify what happened to these men, is there no law in place?” Guftar Ahmad Choudhary, a tribal activist from Rajouri said.
This is the second time the Russian envoy to Tehran is being summoned over the same issue.
Tehran, Iran – Iran has once more summoned the Russian envoy to Tehran after Moscow signed another joint statement with Arab nations calling for negotiations over three disputed islands that the United Arab Emirates claims as its own.
The Russian envoy was summoned to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive Tehran’s “strong protest” over the statement, the state-run IRNA news website said late on Saturday.
At the Foreign Ministry, the Russian envoy was reportedly told that respect for the territorial integrity of nations is a fundamental tenet in relations between any two countries. IRNA also said the official was told the three disputed islands “forever belong to Iran” which renders any outside claims unacceptable.
The islands in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, namely the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, have been governed by Iran since 1971 when its navy took control of them after British troops withdrew from what is today the UAE.
The UAE claims them as part of its territory as well and has recently received increasing support on them from Russia and China, which Tehran also counts among its allies.
Iran had summoned the Chinese envoy to Tehran over a similar joint statement with Arab nations of the region in December 2022 and had also summoned the Russian ambassador in July over an almost identical joint statement.
Russia’s joint statement this week, signed during the sixth edition of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Morocco, supported “peaceful solutions and initiatives aiming to resolve the conflict through bilateral negotiations or the International Court of Justice, according to international law and the UN Charter”.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, had condemned it earlier this week, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian raised the issue with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, who had led the delegation to Morocco.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov told Amirabdollahian that Russia has always respected Iran’s territorial integrity and “this official policy by Moscow must never be doubted”.
Maybe Russia should talk to Japan?
The joint statement also irked some Iranian lawmakers, who took to social media to try to make it clear that the issue is non-negotiable.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that increasingly warming ties with Russia are based on mutual respect and any claims that threaten Iran’s territorial integrity will be met with a “serious response”.
“Russia must be careful about the West taking advantage of its mistakes,” he wrote.
Ghalibaf also pointed out that Iran has not remained idle on the islands, and has been undertaking a variety of efforts to populate and develop them. He promised that the parliament would legally back efforts to develop the islands.
Other lawmakers had harsher words for both Moscow and Abu Dhabi.
“It looks like the language of kindness must change, at least with the UAE,” Hadi Beiginejad wrote on X.
Another MP, Ebrahim Rezaei, said “if they suggest negotiations, then we also invite the Russians to negotiate with Japan over the Kuril Islands”, in reference to a dispute over four islands between Russia and Japan.
For the first time in a century, Ukraine will celebrate the holiday on December 25 rather than January 7.
Ukraine will formally mark Christmas Day on December 25 this year, in a symbolic shift away from Russia, which celebrates the holiday on January 7.
It will be the first time in more than a century that Ukraine observes the date in line with the Gregorian calendar, along with most of the world’s Christians.
Ukraine’s government passed legislation in July making the date change, in what was viewed as a snub to Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, which follows the Roman-era Julian calendar for religious occasions.
The law signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that Ukrainians wanted to “live their own life with their own traditions and holidays”.
It allows them to “abandon the Russian heritage of imposing Christmas celebrations on January 7”, it added.
Christianity is the largest religion in Ukraine, with the Russian Orthodox Church historically dominating religious life.
Battle over heritage
Ukraine’s date change is part of a series of moves since Russia’s invasion to dispel any traces of the Russian and Soviet empires, such as renaming streets and removing monuments.
A Christmas tree stands next to the grave of a Ukrainian soldier at Lychakiv cemetery, in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv [Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP]
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a newly created independent church that held its first service in 2019, has also changed its Christmas date to December 25.
It formally broke away from the Russian Orthodox Church over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The political rift has seen priests and even entire parishes swap from one church to another, with the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine growing fast and taking over several Russia-linked church buildings in moves supported by the government.
The historically Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, meanwhile, is keeping the January 7 Christmas date. This church claims to have cut ties with Russia because of the war but many Ukrainians view this with scepticism.
The country’s third Orthodox denomination, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, will also hold Christmas services on December 25.
Ukraine had been under Moscow’s spiritual leadership since the 17th century at the latest.
Under the Soviet Union and its profession of atheism, Christmas traditions such as trees and gifts were shifted to New Year’s Eve, which became the main holiday and still is for many families.
Ukrainian Christmas traditions include a dinner on Christmas Eve with 12 meatless dishes, including a sweet grain pudding called kutya, and people decorate homes with elaborate sheaves of wheat called didukhy.
In some areas, children go from house to house singing carols called kolyadky and performing nativity scenes.
Children sing carols during a Christmas Eve performance in Lviv, Ukraine [Gleb Garanich/Reuters]
A United Nations official has been killed along with more than 70 members of his extended family in an Israeli air strike near Gaza City, as hundreds of people have been killed in intensified bombardment since Friday’s UN Security Council resolution that has been criticised as “woefully insufficient”.
Issam Al Mughrabi, 56, who worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for three decades was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli air strike on Friday.
“For almost 30 years, Issam has worked with UNDP through our Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People,” UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said in a statement.
“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target.”
Offering his condolences to Issam’s family and colleagues the World Health Organization’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed in a post on X that “humanitarians should never be victims” and called for a ceasefire.
So saddened by this tragedy @ASteiner. My deepest condolences to all who knew and loved Issam and his family, you and everyone at @UNDP.
Since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, 136 staff members of the UN have been killed.
On Friday, the international agency’s secretary-general Antonio Guterres said that throughout the UN’s history, they had never witnessed the death of their staff in such large numbers.
“Most of our staff have been forced from their homes,” he added in a post on X, paying tribute to UN members working in Gaza.
Difficult weekend for Gaza and the Israeli army
The death of the veteran UN staff member and his family members comes as Israeli air strikes continue to kill hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that at least 201 Palestinians had been killed and nearly 370 wounded by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours in Gaza.
In the early hours of Sunday, a 13-year-old child was also killed by an Israeli drone near El Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
More than 8,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7.
Reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that Saturday overnight, more residential areas in Deir el-Balah city, where people from places such as the Bureij and Nuseirat refugee camps were ordered to evacuate, came under heavy bombardment, and homes were destroyed. He said the eastern side of the Gaza Strip was also experiencing fierce airstrikes.
“As of now, the search for people under the rubble is ongoing,” Hani said.
An Israeli army tank moves near the Gaza Strip border, in southern Israel, Saturday [File: Tsafrir Abayov/AP]
Meanwhile, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher highlighted how it has also been a difficult weekend for the Israeli army in Gaza, with five soldiers killed on Friday and eight on Saturday, due to fierce fighting in the Strip.
“You’ve heard from the Israelis suggesting that in northern Gaza, they had military control. The fact that they are still losing soldiers, that rockets are still being fired from Gaza towards Israel, would suggest that they don’t have that control and that means that this phase of the war is likely to go on for longer,” Fisher said, reporting from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.
Difficulty in delivering aid
On Friday, the UN passed a resolution after days of delays that watered down the language. It called for aid delivery but could not agree on a ceasefire. Aid groups say the relentless bombardment and the fierce fighting between the Israeli army and Hamas have impeded aid delivery in the besieged enclave where people are facing hunger.
“The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza,” UN chief Guterres said.
“An effective aid operation in Gaza requires security, staff who can work in safety, logistical capacity, and the resumption of commercial activity. These four elements do not exist,” he added.
UNRWA director Thomas White shared similar concerns and highlighted that conditions on the ground for aid workers should be secure, for aid deliveries to be carried out.
“We need a ceasefire that will stop the killing of civilians and destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza,” he said.
The United States said Iran launched a drone from its soil that struck a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) also said it downed several drones launched at vessels from Yemen by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. The Houthis also fired two antiship ballistic missiles in the southern Red Sea, but no ships were hit.
Pro-Palestinian marches continued in cities across the world, with some of the latest protests in Australia, Germany and Turkey.
Heavy raids by the Israeli army continued in the occupied West Bank. A convoy led by bulldozers entered Tulkarem in the early hours of Sunday, and raids have also been reported in Bethlehem, the town of Beita just south of Nablus, and the towns of Sa’ir and Karma near Hebron.
The representative for Hamas in Beirut, Osama Hamdan, said Israel has failed in its stated goal of “destroying” the group, and that it will have to stop the war if it wants the captives released.
Human impact and fighting
Thousands of Palestinians were again forced to flee their homes, this time after the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in the central Gaza Strip. Since a United Nations Security Council resolution was passed on Friday without a clear call for a ceasefire, there has been a surge in aerial bombardments in central Gaza.
Israeli air raids killed more than 400 people in Gaza in the past 48 hours. Gaza’s Government Media Office said more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7. The death toll from Hamas’s attack on Israel stands at nearly 1,140, revised from 1,400.
At least 101 journalists have been killed since October 7, according to the Government Media Office, which also said more than 50 media offices have been completely or partially destroyed by Israeli attacks. Al Jazeera Arabic’s cameraman Samer Abudaqa was among those killed in Israeli strikes.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it continues to operate at its medical point in Jabalia, northern Gaza, despite incessant shelling of the area. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said on X: “As the conflict intensifies and the horror grows, we will continue to do our part. We will not give up.”
Diplomacy
Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, Israel’s current and former defence ministers, respectively, who, along with Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu make up the Israeli war cabinet, visited northern Gaza and promised that more attacks would be forthcoming despite international pressure for an immediate ceasefire.
US President Joe Biden had a “private” phone conversation with Netanyahu. He told reporters after that he “did not ask for a ceasefire”.
Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, said the UNSC resolution for humanitarian relief would only result in a “drop in the ocean of suffering” in Gaza. She said the White House “holds the key” for putting an end to the carnage.
During a meeting in Doha, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi discussed the war in Gaza and called for an end to Israeli attacks.
The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, is set to give his third speech since the start of the war in the coming days to mark the January 3 assassination of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, by the US.
At least one passenger on a boat carrying 185 refugees has died, with dozens more in ‘critical condition’, warns UNHCR.
Fears are growing for scores of Rohingya refugees believed to be stranded at sea in the Indian Ocean, after a boat they set off in from Bangladesh saw its engine fail.
The group of some 185 Rohingya, mostly women and children, are in desperate need of rescue after falling into distress near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Saturday.
The Rohingya were fleeing overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh, where they had taken shelter after escaping their homeland in Myanmar. More than 750,000 Rohingya were forced to flee Myanmar in 2017 after the military launched a crackdown on the Muslim minority, torching their homes and properties. The United States accused the military of committing genocide against the Rohingya people, while a genocide case against Myanmar is under way at the UN’s top court.
The UN agency said at least one of the boat’s passengers had already died, with a dozen more in “critical condition”.
“Many more could die under the watch of numerous coastal states without timely rescue and disembarkation to the nearest place of safety,” the UNHCR warned. “It is really a desperate situation.”
Thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya, heavily persecuted in Myanmar, undertake risky sea journeys from their country and refugee camps in Bangladesh every year trying to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
More than 2,000 Rohingya are believed to have attempted the risky journey to Southeast Asian countries in 2022, according to UNHCR.
Since last year, more than 570 people, including Rohingya refugees, have been reported dead or missing at sea in the region, it said.
When it comes to the people currently adrift, the agency emphasised that “a bigger tragedy is preventable with timely efforts to save lives”.
“This situation once again underlines the importance of all states in the region deploying their full search and rescue capacities to avoid human disasters happening at this scale.”
Esraa Kamal al-Jamalan was nearly eight months pregnant when she, her husband and their five-year-old son were forced to flee their northern Gaza neighbourhood of Sheikh Radwan after it was bombed by Israel in late October. They walked more than three kilometres (1.86 miles) to al-Shifa Hospital, where many people were sheltering, taking with them only a few lightweight T-shirts and trousers as they expected to soon return home.
Two months later, 28-year-old Esraa and her family are living in one of the hundreds of makeshift tents in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza with no means of protecting her newborn from the harsh winter — cold temperatures combined with rains. “When it first started raining here, I hadn’t given birth yet. Me and my husband were trying to find shelter from the rain, as the water kept seeping through here and there in the tent,” Esraa said, sitting with her daughter in her lap, her skin pale and yellow. “We’ve been through rough days. We have never seen something like this before.”
Esraa al-Jamalan gave birth to her daughter on November 24 and now lives in a makeshift tent in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza [AbdelHakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Being unhoused in rough weather conditions and without warm clothing and blankets, the couple are struggling to keep their newborn daughter warm inside their tent. They cannot take her outside either, close to the fires that people are burning for warmth as the smoke gives her breathing difficulties.
“The other day, she kept coughing [from wood smoke] until she turned blue. We were terrified she could have died,” Esraa explained, her voice shaking. “I am worried the most about my daughter. She hasn’t even gotten vaccinated yet.”
As Israel’s assault on Gaza enters its 12th week, Al Jazeera spoke to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip about the challenges brought on by the arrival of winter for the nearly two million people internally displaced in the enclave.
At least 12 dead and 39 injured in the blast at the nickel processing facility, highlighting dangerous working conditions.
An explosion at a nickel processing plant in eastern Indonesia has killed at least 12 people and injured 39, according to the facility.
The blast at the Chinese-funded Morowali Industrial Park on Sulawesi Island took place at 5:30am on Sunday while workers were conducting furnace repairs.
A spokesperson for the complex said those killed include seven Indonesians and five foreign workers, without stating their nationalities.
An initial investigation showed the explosion occurred when a flammable liquid ignited and the subsequent blast caused nearby oxygen tanks to explode as well, spokesperson Dedy Kurniawan said on Sunday.
The fire was successfully extinguished, according to the official.
The firm that runs the industrial park said it was “deeply saddened” by the disaster and said the remains of several identified victims had been flown home.
The island is a hub for the mineral-rich country’s production of nickel, a base metal used for electric vehicle batteries and stainless steel, and Beijing’s growing investment has stoked unrest over working conditions at its facilities.
In January, two workers, including a Chinese national, were killed at a nickel smelting plant in the same industrial park after a riot broke out during a protest over safety conditions and pay.
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