More than 60 rescue teams using search dogs and drones were sent to the mountainous protected forest area of Dizmar near the town of Varzaghan, the IRNA news agency reported.
International
Istraeli strike kills seven food aid workers in Gaza
Istraeli strike kills seven food aid workers in Gaza
Seven people working for food aid charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) have been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza.
The US-based aid group confirmed the killing in a “targeted attack” by the Israeli military and called on it to stop “this indiscriminate killing” in Gaza.
BBC News reports that those who died were Australian, Polish, British, Palestinian, along with a dual US-Canadian citizen.
Australian worker Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom is among the dead – Australia’s PM has said he expects “full accountability”.
Israel’s military says it is conducting a “thorough review” into the incident
A Palestinian medical source told the BBC the workers had been wearing bullet-proof vests bearing the charity’s logo.
The WCK says it is pausing its operations and will make a decision about the future of its work soon
The CEO of World Central Kitchen says it was an “unforgiveable attack”.
Doctors Without Borders says Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital is “in ruins” a day after Israeli troops withdrew from the complex following a two-week raid.
International
Updated: Iran President Raisi confirmed dead in helicopter crash
Updated: Iran President Raisi confirmed dead in helicopter crash
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has been confirmed dead in a helicopter crash that occurred on Sunday.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was also among those killed, along with seven others.
Iran’s Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Koolivand said rescue teams headed towards the site of the crash after locating the aircraft.
He said, “The helicopter has been found. Now, we are moving toward the helicopter,” said Koolivand. “We are seeing the helicopter. The situation is not good.”
“Upon finding the helicopter, there was no sign of the helicopter passengers being alive as of yet,” state TV reported about 15 hours after the aircraft went missing.
Iranian media including Fars news agency also shared drone images of what appeared to be the wreckage of the helicopter.
Raisi’s death comes at a moment in the Middle East, with war raging in Gaza.
The helicopter crashed weeks after Iran launched a drone-and-missile attack on Israel in response to a deadly strike on its diplomatic compound in Damascus.
Raisi became president in a historically uncompetitive election in 2021. Previously the chief justice, he oversaw a period of intensified repression of dissent in a nation convulsed by youth-led protests against clerical rule.
He was the second-most powerful person in the Islamic Republic’s political structure after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini.
The Iranian Constitution mandates that, in the case of the president’s death, the first vice president assumes office with the approval of the Supreme Leader.
Iran was thrown into uncertainty Sunday as search and rescue teams scoured a fog-shrouded mountain area after President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter went missing in what state media described as an “accident”.
Fears grew for the 63-year-old ultraconservative after contact was lost in East Azerbaijan province, reports said.
The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urged Iranians to “not worry” about the leadership of the Islamic republic, saying “there will be no disruption in the country’s work”.
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“We hope that Almighty God will bring our dear president and his companions back in full health into the arms of the nation,” he said in a nationally televised address as Muslim faithful prayed for Raisi’s safe return.
Expressions of concern and offers to help came from abroad, including Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Russia, and Turkey, as well as from the European Union which activated its rapid response mapping service to aid in the search effort.
International
JUST IN: Helicopter carrying Iran’s president crash-lands
JUST IN: Helicopter carrying Iran’s president crash-lands
A helicopter carrying Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, has been involved in an plane crash on Sunday.
The incident happened while he was visiting neighbouring Azerbaijan, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on X on Sunday according to CNN.
“Some of the president’s companions on this helicopter were able to communicate with Central Headquarters, raising hopes that the incident could have ended without casualties,” it added.
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It is unclear what the exact status is of Raisi’s helicopter.
The helicopter was part of a convoy of three helicopters. Two of those helicopters were carrying ministers and officials who arrived at their destination safely, according to Tasnim.
“Seyyed Mohammad-Ali Al-Hashem, Tabriz’s Friday Prayer Imam, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian were also reportedly on the helicopter with the president,” Tasnim said on X.
JUST IN: Helicopter carrying Iran’s president crash-lands
International
Biden may face pro-Palestine protests during address of US black voters
Biden may face pro-Palestine protests during address of US black voters
Joe Biden is likely to be greeted by protesters calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during his speech at the former university of Martin Luther King Jr in the United States president’s latest bid to attract Black voters.
Biden’s graduation speech on Sunday at Morehouse College in Atlanta in the election battleground state of Georgia is aimed at encouraging Black and young voters to help him win later this year against former President Donald Trump.
Those were two groups that helped him win the presidency in 2020, but have been increasingly dissatisfied with him due to the handling of the war on Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians so far, mostly women and children.
The protests at Morehouse, a historically Black college, come after students called on the school to cancel Biden’s speech over his support for Israel despite the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The White House last week sent a senior official to meet students and faculty members at Morehouse to discuss the objections to Biden’s speech, according to US broadcaster NBC News.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday said Biden sought to use the speech as “an opportunity to lift up and to give an important message to our future leaders”.
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Bernice King, the civil icon’s daughter, told Bloomberg in an interview last week that Black voters are “very disgruntled right now with the president” and that Biden risks losing a considerable share of their votes.
The civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) had said Biden should not speak at Morehouse.
“His team should have made the decision that this is not the right time to take the spotlight from Morehouse students to the president and his bad policy on Gaza,” CAIR’s Edward Ahmed Mitchell said.
The controversy over the Morehouse speech is coming after weeks of major protests at US universities, including the Atlanta college, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from Israel.
Biden said “order must prevail” on campuses, and police have made thousands of arrests across the US while attacking student encampments.
Protesters were arrested during a violent police crackdown in New York’s Brooklyn on Saturday, while hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Washington, DC to demand an end to bloodshed in Gaza and the arming of Israel by the US.
The protests, which have spread globally, are continuing amid the Israeli ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, along with a deadly incursion into Jabalia in the north.
Meanwhile, Israel is allowing very little aid into the enclave, and the US is proceeding with a much-criticised plan to deliver humanitarian assistance via a temporary floating pier.
Biden may face pro-Palestine protests during address of US black voters
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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