Israeli soldiers have used commercial drones to drop grenades on civilians in Gaza, according to an investigation by Israeli outlets +972 Magazine and Local Call. Soldiers admitted targeting unarmed people, even children, as part of a broader effort to forcibly displace Palestinians from areas in Gaza.
Excavation has begun in Ireland at an unmarked mass burial site to identify the remains of about 800 infants and toddlers who died at a church-run home for unmarried mothers.
The digging of the site on Monday marked the beginning of a two-year investigation planned by Irish and foreign forensic archaeologists and crime scene experts in the western city of Tuam.
The probe comes more than a decade after Catherine Corless, an amateur historian, first uncovered evidence of a mass grave there, forcing the government to form a commission to investigate the matter.
The commission found that the remains of 802 children from newborns to three-year-olds were buried in Tuam from 1925 to 1961 as it discovered an “appalling” mortality rate of about 15 percent among children born at all of the so-called Mother and Baby Homes, which operated across Ireland.
Subsequent test excavations from 2016 and 2017 found significant quantities of baby remains in a disused septic tank at the location, which now sits within a housing complex.
Ireland’s Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (ODAIT) will undertake the excavation with experts from Colombia, Spain, Britain, Canada and the United States.
It will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible and reinterment of the remains found, Director Daniel MacSweeney said at a recent news conference in Tuam.
“These children were denied every human right in their lifetime as were their mothers,” Anna Corrigan, whose two siblings may have been buried at the Tuam site, told reporters this month, the AFP news agency reported.
“And they were denied dignity and respect in death.”
The Tuam home, run by nuns from the Bon Secours Order, was demolished in the 1970s and replaced by a housing estate.
Significant quantities of human skeletal remains were found in chambers along with babies’ shoes and nappy pins underneath a patch of grass near a playground during the test excavations.
Corless found records that show as many as 796 babies and children died at the Tuam home over the decades that it operated. State-issued death certificates compiled show that various ailments, from tuberculosis and convulsions to measles and whooping cough, were listed as the causes of death.
“It’s been a fierce battle. When I started this, nobody wanted to listen. At last we are righting the wrongs,” Corless, 71, told AFP in May. “I was just begging: Take the babies out of this sewage system and give them the decent Christian burial that they were denied.”
A six-year inquiry sparked by the initial discoveries in Tuam found 56,000 unmarried women and 57,000 children passed through 18 such homes over a 76-year period. It also concluded that 9,000 children had died in the various state- and Catholic Church-run homes nationwide.
Two groups of commercial pilots have rejected claims that human error caused an Air India plane crash that killed 260 people after a preliminary investigation found the aircraft’s engine fuel switches had been turned off.
The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and the Airline Pilots’ Association of India (ALPA India) issued statements on Sunday after the release of the initial findings, which showed that fuel control switches to the engines of Flight AI171 were moved from the “run” to the “cutoff” position moments before last month’s deadly impact.
The report sparked speculation by several independent aviation experts that deliberate or inadvertent pilot action may have caused the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to crash soon after takeoff from Ahmedabad in western India.
Flight AI171 was headed to London’s Gatwick Airport when it crashed on June 12.
The report on the crash, issued on Saturday by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), did not offer any conclusions or apportion blame for the disaster but indicated that one pilot asked the other why he cut off the fuel and the second pilot responded that he had not.
After the switches flipped, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner immediately began to lose thrust and altitude, according to the report.
One pilot can be heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he had cut off the fuel. “The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” the report said.
It did not identify which remarks were made by the flight’s captain and which by the first officer or which pilot transmitted “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” just before the crash.
No more details about the cockpit dialogue between the pilots were revealed.
The ICPA said it was “deeply disturbed by speculative narratives, … particularly the reckless and unfounded insinuation of pilot suicide”.
“There is absolutely no basis for such a claim at this stage,” it said in a statement. “It is deeply insensitive to the individuals and families involved.
“To casually suggest pilot suicide without verified evidence is a gross violation of ethical reporting and a disservice to the dignity of the profession.”
The ICPA was referring to a number of aviation experts suggesting engine fuel control switches can only be moved deliberately and manually.
United States-based aviation safety expert John Cox earlier said a pilot would not be able to accidentally move the fuel switches that feed the engines. “You can’t bump them and they move,” he told the Reuters news agency.
ALPA India, which has 800 members, also accused the investigative agency of “secrecy” surrounding the investigation, saying “suitably qualified personnel” were not involved in it.
“We feel that the investigation is being driven in a direction presuming the guilt of pilots and we strongly object to this line of thought,” ALPA India President Sam Thomas said in a statement issued on Saturday.
ALPA requested the AAIB be included as “observers so as to provide the requisite transparency in the investigations”.
Meanwhile, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the probe into last month’s crash is far from over and it is unwise to jump to any premature conclusions.
Wilson added: “The preliminary report identified no cause nor made any recommendations, so I urge everyone to avoid drawing premature conclusions as the investigation is far from over.”
Authorities in the US state of Massachusetts have said that at least nine people are dead and 30 injured after a fire churned through an assisted living facility.
Five firefighters were among those taken to the hospital and later released after responding to the blazes at Gabriel House, home to about 70 residents, on Sunday night in Fall River.
“This is an unfathomable tragedy for the families involved and the Fall River community,” Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said in a statement on Monday. “On behalf of the Fall River Fire Department, I want to express our heartfelt condolences to the loved ones who are grieving this morning.”
Firefighters met with heavy smoke and flames when they first arrived at the facility before entering to rescue trapped residents, one of whom remains in critical condition. The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services says the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Our hearts are with the City of Fall River and the families grieving after last night’s terrible fire in an assisted living facility. Thank you to Fall River FD, PD, EMS, EMA, and others who undertook heroic efforts to rescue and treat occupants: https://t.co/dSzWts0C2v pic.twitter.com/1BFFvnvsh7
“It’s kind of just a whirlwind of trying to figure out what’s happening, how this could happen in such a major way,” Jarren Oldrid, whose 67-year-old father Steven Oldrid was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, told the news agency Associated Press.
About 50 firefighters responded to the incident, 30 of whom were off duty.
Chief Bacon said that some people were hanging out of the facility’s windows looking to be rescued.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey offered condolences to the victims in a statement on Monday, and promised “the full assistance of the state”.
A rapidly moving wildfire has engulfed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge in Arizona in the United States.
The fire forced officials to close access to the Grand Canyon’s North Rim on Sunday, and residents and tourists were evacuated.
Here is what happened to the Grand Canyon Lodge and what is the latest:
Two wildfires, the White Sage Fire and the Dragon Bravo Fire, are currently burning at or near the Grand Canyon’s North Rim.
The Dragon Bravo Fire is the one that burned the Grand Canyon Lodge and nearby structures.
It was sparked by lightning on July 4 and expanded to 200 hectares (500 acres) in a little more than a week, according to the National Park Service (NPS).
Dragon Bravo was driven by sustained winds of 32 kilometres per hour (20 miles per hour) and gusts as strong as 64km/h (40mph).
The White Sage Fire was also started by lightning on July 9. By July 13, it had spread to 40,186 acres (16,263 hectares), according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
The NPS said no casualties have been reported and residents and tourists were safely evacuated.
The Grand Canyon Lodge was a seasonal hotel on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park in Coconino County in northern Arizona.
The lodge had stood on a North Rim elevation since 1928 and was designed by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood.
The original lodge burned down in a kitchen fire in 1932 and was rebuilt in 1937, based on the original plan and stonework.
However, it was scaled back and built without a second storey.
The main lodge and its 120 cabins were open seasonally. This year, the lodge opened on May 15 and was to have stayed open until October 15.
It has drawn people for decades with its breathtaking views of one of the natural wonders of the US.
The Grand Canyon was carved by the Colorado River and is about 446km (277 miles) long, up to 29km (18 miles) wide and more than 1.6km (1 mile) deep in spots.
The canyon exposes layers of red sandstone and multicoloured bands of other rock, revealing almost 2 billion years of Earth’s geological history.
The Grand Canyon is one of the most visited US national parks with millions of visitors a year and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The NPS said that according to preliminary assessments, 50 to 80 structures have been lost in the wildfires, including NPS administrative buildings and visitor facilities.
The Grand Canyon National Park was evacuated on Thursday because of the wildfire and will remain closed for the rest of the season.
Five hundred personnel have been assigned to fight the White Sage Fire, according to the Forest Service.
On July 9, an update published on the Grand Canyon National Park’s Facebook page said authorities were using a “confine/contain” strategy to manage the Dragon Bravo Fire.
“This means the fire is being allowed to fulfil its natural role within a defined area, while firefighters take action to limit its spread where necessary,” the post said, adding that the fire did not pose threats to infrastructure or public safety at the time.
On Thursday, the park said the Dragon Bravo Fire was being managed with a “full suppression” strategy and by Friday, it posted another update on Facebook saying: “The fire is being managed with an aggressive full suppression strategy.”
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, thanked firefighters and first responders working to manage the fire while questioning the Republican-led federal government’s response.
“They must first take aggressive action to end the wildfire and prevent further damage,” Hobbs wrote in a post on X on Sunday.
She said in another post: “An incident of this magnitude demands intense oversight and scrutiny into the federal government’s emergency response.”
I am incredibly saddened by the destruction of the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, and my heart goes out to every person impacted by the Dragon Bravo Fire near the Grand Canyon’s North Rim.
Thank you to every firefighter and first responder taking action to combat the flames.
The fires are still burning.
While firefighting efforts are ongoing, authorities said they have been hindered by hot, dry winds.
“Crews encountered very extreme fire behavior due to the dry conditions [and] gusty and erratic winds inhibiting the ability for fire fighters to safely engage the fire,” the Bureau of Land Management said about the White Sage Fire.
The Forest Service also reported record-high energy release components (ERCs), which is a measure of how dry and flammable vegetation is,. This combination of factors is creating a volatile environment.
The Dragon Bravo Fire is also posing challenges to firefighters.
The NPS reported that aerial fire retardant was being deployed to slow the fire near the lodge, but a chlorine gas leak at the North Rim water treatment facility prompted the evacuation of firefighters from key areas nearby, halting operations.
The gas leak was a result of the water treatment plant being impacted by the fire.
Chlorine gas can irritate the eyes, nose and throat. It can also cause lung injuries and, in severe cases, sudden death, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The North Rim remains closed for firefighting operations.
The chlorine leak has also prompted closures of Phantom Ranch, which sits at the bottom of the Grand Canyon just north of the Colorado River; the North Kaibab Trail, which begins on the North Rim and descends to the river; and the South Kaibab Trail, which begins on the South Rim and descends to the Colorado.
France is celebrating Bastille Day with nationwide festivities commemorating the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison, a pivotal moment in the French Revolution.
In Paris, the celebration features 7,000 participants marching along the Champs-Elysees, including troops and armoured vehicles, followed by fighter jet flyovers and a spectacular drone light show at the Eiffel Tower.
The holiday showcases revolutionary spirit and military prowess. The parade beneath the Arc de Triomphe began with President Emmanuel Macron reviewing troops and relighting the eternal flame. Each uniform carries symbolic elements, particularly the distinctive French Foreign Legion contingent with their bearded troops wearing leather aprons and carrying axes.
In his Bastille Day speech, Macron highlighted growing global threats and announced increased military spending.
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto was the guest of honour this year as 200 Indonesian drummers joined the parade. The visit is expected to yield agreements on French military equipment purchases, including Rafale jets. Finnish, Belgian, and Luxembourg troops also participated, reflecting the event’s increasingly international character.
Special guests included Fousseynou Samba Cisse, a French man who received a personal invitation from Macron after rescuing two babies from a burning apartment. The holiday period also featured prestigious awards, with this year’s Legion of Honour recipients including Gisele Pelicot, who became a symbol for sexual violence victims during a high-profile trial.