Category World News

Five people were saved from the rubble of an Islamic school in Indonesia after it collapsed during prayer. At the East Javan school Al Khoziny, at least six people have died, 60 are still missing, and dozens more have been hurt.

As authorities shift their focus from rescuing to recovery, dozens of students feared trapped in rubble at a collapsed boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, are now in agony.

At the Al-Khoziny Islamic Boarding School, thermal drones and other equipment found “no additional signs of life,” according to Suharyanto, the head of Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, at a press conference on Thursday.

When they learned the news, their relatives fell to the ground in the nearby streets and cried in agony.

To aid in recovery efforts, authorities promised to use powerful machinery.

They had previously opposed hiring excavators to remove the debris out of fear of harming those still trapped inside.

As rescuers continue to painstakingly sort through the debris for the 59 people who are believed missing, authorities have sealed off the school, which officials claim fell as construction workers were laying concrete on the fourth floor of the building.

However, the smell of decomposing bodies was pervasive even hundreds of meters away.

A junior police officer who was present at the scene, who declined to be identified, said that the missing were “all dead.”

He claimed that the majority of the school’s students had perished for a long time.

On Thursday, family members who have been sleeping at the scene since Monday, when the building collapsed, gathered at a tent on the site to give DNA samples in the hopes of identifying their loved ones.

As Surabaya doctors prepared to take a buccal swab, Ahmad Ichsan, whose 14-year-old son Arif Affandi is thought to be trapped, wipes away tears and murmurs a prayer.

According to Ichsan, who is from Madura, an island located 33 kilometers northeast of Sidoarjo, “he has been at the boarding school for two years and four months.”

“I sent him to school here so that he would learn how to be a good son, follow his parents, and serve his country,” he said.

Ichsan claimed to have learned of the child’s collapse from the parent of his son’s class.

“I left the school right away. He continued, “I’ve been here ever since.”

“I still have hope that he is still alive,” he said. “They haven’t found him yet.

Five students were discovered alive in the collapsed building late on Wednesday night, raising hopes that more could be saved.

As the “golden window,” the crucial 72-hour period cited by experts as crucial for keeping disaster victims alive, expired on Thursday, those hopes seemed to grow more fragile.

More than 100 people have been injured and five students have already been confirmed dead.

Muhammad Sobir expressed hope that Nurdin, his 13-year-old son, would be found alive.

He will be found alive, according to God willing. He declared to Al Jazeera, “I’ll stay here until they find him.”

Nurdin, who is close to Madura, &nbsp, had only been a four-month student there, according to Sobir.

Because it offers a high-quality education, we chose this boarding school. He said that Nurun is a good boy, a good boy, and he is very diligent with his studies.

Sobir claimed that his main concern was not the collapse of the school, but that he did not know what had caused it.

He said, “I don’t know what happened, but I can’t at this time think about that.”

“I watched what occurred on television,” he said. No one has seen my boy despite the fact that I was watching it on the news at the time.

Nur Fatria, Sobir’s wife, also gave the forensic team a buccal swab.

She told Al Jazeera, “I can’t even tell you how I feel about taking this test.”

“I’m still perplexed and shocked.” I’m no longer sure how I feel. I’ve been staying here for four days.

According to Deris, a forensic police officer, DNA samples are being requested from both the missing’ parents so that they can be cross-referenced.

Deris, who goes by one name like many Indonesians, told Al Jazeera, “We take buccal swabs and then send them to the lab to be tested against the DNA of the corpses that are found at the site.”

Then, to see if DNA samples from the victim’s bones or another body part match, we will take them.

Hayyi, a 23-year-old student, said he was anticipating the arrival of his younger brother, 15-year-old Ahmad Suhavi, who he last saw during the summer holidays, several months ago.

Hayyi told Al Jazeera, “He just said he was returning to the classroom, and I wish him well.”

We haven’t received any updates about his status and we don’t know where he’s located in the classroom.

As tensions between Russia and Europe continue to grow, Moscow has tried to present its ground war in Ukraine as unstoppable.

The Kremlin claimed last week to be in control of two-thirds of the buildings in Kupiansk, a city in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region.

“Russian troops have blocked a large group of the enemy from the northern and western sides, taking it in a half-ring,” said the Ministry of Defence in Moscow.

Russia has been trying to capture Kupiansk for most of this year, believing it will unlock a northern gateway for its forces to descend to the eastern region of Donetsk, whose complete capture Moscow has prioritised.

“Taking control over Kupiansk will allow the Russian troops to advance towards the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration,” said the Defence Ministry, referring to Ukraine’s best-fortified towns in Donetsk.

Russian officials have been saying they are on the cusp of seizing Kupiansk since March. Ukrainian military observer Konstantyn Mashovets estimated Russia needed another one to two more divisions to do so.

On September 25, Russia’s Defence Ministry also claimed to have seized 4,714 square kilometres (1,820 square miles) of Ukrainian territory this year. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, independently assessed the real figure to be closer to 3,434sq km (1,325sq miles).

Russia “continues to artificially inflate its claims of advance in Ukraine to support the Kremlin’s false narrative that a Russian victory in Ukraine is inevitable”, said the ISW.

Moscow’s forces, between September 25 and 29, claimed to have captured Kalinovskoye and Stepovoye in Dnipropetrovsk, and Derilovo, Mayskoye, Sandrigolovo and Kirovsk in Donetsk.

Trump’s pivot to Ukraine

On the diplomatic front, United States President Donald Trump’s remarks in New York were seen as a reversal of policy to which he has held fast during the first eight months of office.

During his first address to European allies on February 12, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told them that “returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective”.

Later that month, Trump gave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a bruising reception at the White House. Trump has also blamed Russia’s war on Ukraine.

But on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 22, he praised Ukraine’s stout defence as “pretty amazing”.

He later suggested Ukraine could win a military victory.

“With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

As recently as August 15, when he met with President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Trump appeared to gamble on his personal diplomacy with the Russian leader to end the war.

Trump’s apparent change of heart came as Ukraine struck Russian refineries, causing fuel shortages – a weakness in Russia’s economy to which Trump alluded.

On September 24, Ukrainian drones struck the Salavat refinery and petrochemical complex in the Bashkortostan region, 1,200km (745 miles) southeast of Moscow, for the second time in less than a week. The drones reportedly hit a distillation unit that accounts for 60 percent of the plant’s 10-million-tonne annual processing capacity.

Two days later, they struck the Afipsky refinery in the Russian border region of Krasnodar Krai. Russia said falling debris from a drone had started a fire that was put out, without specifying the damage done.

On Monday, Ukraine hit the Tuapse oil offloading terminal on the Black Sea with surface drones, causing several explosions and a massive fire.

On October 1, Ukraine struck one of Russia’s largest refineries at Yaroslavl, 250km (155 miles) northeast of Moscow.

Sergei Aksyonov, the governor of Russian-occupied Crimea, confirmed last week that Russians were seeing fuel shortages.

In his Truth Social post, Trump had written, “It’s almost impossible for them to get Gasoline”.

A weapons ‘mega-deal’

Trump may also have been swayed by a weapons deal, reported to be worth $90bn – another reversal of an initial policy to cut the flow of US weapons to Kyiv’s forces.

Zelenskyy says he is working towards a “mega-deal” that involves “an agreement on modern drones for the United States”.

Zelenskyy first publicly raised the idea of buying weapons the US used to give it on April 9, after it became clear that the Trump administration was not willing to continue supporting Ukraine’s war effort as the Biden administration had done. He then reportedly communicated Kyiv’s readiness to spend $30-$50bn for Patriots.

But the latest Ukrainian proposal also involves purchasing US Tomahawk missiles, with a 1,600km (995-mile) range, reported Axios.

Trump’s special Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, suggested on Sunday to Fox News that Trump was leaning towards providing them, after the Wall Street Journal reported Trump was also considering lifting restrictions on long-range strikes within Russia.

“Use the ability to hit deep. There are no such things as sanctuaries,” he told Fox News.

Ukraine’s longest-range weapon is currently the Flamingo cruise missile, with just over 1,000km (620-mile) range, but it has not yet entered active service at scale.

Russia reacted angrily to the reports.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would be analysing whether US targeting assistance was involved. Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian parliament’s defence committee, said Russia would personally target US officials who helped Ukraine in such a mission.

In one key respect, Trump’s stance towards Ukraine has not changed: He will not contribute financially to Ukraine’s defence, forcing Europe to foot the bill, and seeks to extract $500bn of rare metals from Ukraine as compensation for military aid under his predecessor.

Europe ‘no longer at peace’ with Russia

On Friday, NATO command said two Hungarian Gripen fighters took off from their base in Lithuania’s Siaulai to intercept a Su-30, Su-35 and MiG-31 “flying close to Latvian airspace”.

On Saturday, Denmark said drones had been spotted over several military facilities, including the Skrydstrup airbase and an army base in Holstebro. On the same day, Lithuania reported that drones disrupted traffic over the Vilnius airport, and Finland said it spotted drones over Valajaskoski power plant.

These were the latest suspected Russian incursions of NATO airspace since September 10, when two dozen Russian drones had to be shot down in Polish airspace.

Estonia said three Russian MiGs violated its airspace on September 19, and a Russian Ilyushin 20-M reconnaissance aircraft allegedly entered German airspace on September 21.

Poland said it will shoot down Russian aircraft violating its airspace in future.

Reporters asked Trump at the UNGA if he believed NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace.

“Yes, I do,” Trump replied.

Asked if the US would help NATO allies in such an event, he said: “Depends on the circumstance, but you know, we’re very strong toward NATO.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte last week said, “I totally agree here with President Trump: if so necessary.”

“Let me put it in a sentence that may be a little shocking at first glance,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at a Dusseldorf news conference on Sunday, when asked whether Europe was at war with Russia. “We are not at war, but we are no longer at peace either.”

Russia has dismissed Europe’s concerns as baseless.