Category World News

According to state news agency IRNA, a powerful explosion and fire at Iran’s largest commercial left at least 14 people dead and 750 others injured.

More than 1, 000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Tehran’s capital, the Shahid Rajaei port, where helicopters dumped water on the raging fire on Saturday.

According to Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran’s crisis management organization, the explosion was brought on by the lack of proper chemical storage at Shahid Rajaei.

He claimed to Iran’s ILNA news agency that the chemicals inside the containers were the cause of the explosion.

Zafari said the director general of crisis management had previously warned this port during their travels and pointed out the possibility of danger.

However, an Iranian government spokesman claimed that the blast was likely caused by chemicals, but it was still difficult to pinpoint the exact cause.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sent his interior minister, who claimed the fire was still being worked out to stop it from spreading to other areas, to launch an investigation into the incident.

According to Press TV, the fire at Shahid Rajaei Port in southern Iran increased about 10 hours after the explosion.

Schools and offices in Bandar Abbas, the provincial capital of Hormozgan, have been ordered to close on Sunday because choking smoke is spreading throughout the area, according to Press TV, to allow authorities to concentrate on the need. They are located 14 kilometers away.

According to a statement from the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company, the blast did not affect the nearby oil facilities.

The company claimed that Shahid Rajaei Port’s explosion and fire have no connection to any refineries, storage facilities, distribution centers, or oil pipelines connected to this business.

Esmaeil Malekizadeh, a representative for the Hormozgan Ports and Maritime Administration, claimed the explosion occurred close to the Shahid Rajaei port dock earlier.

A ball of fire was visible rising from the explosion site in a large plume of black smoke from a social media video.

Buildings and vehicles were also damaged in other videos. In addition to checking the damage to the properties, several people were seen in the area looking after the injured.

The Shahid Rajaei port, which primarily handles container traffic, also has petrochemical facilities like oil tanks.

Israel is accused of carrying out a significant cyberattack on the same port in May 2020, which halted travel for days after the facility’s computer system was destroyed.

As Iranian officials continue to discuss a potential new nuclear deal with American officials, the explosion occurs at a sensitive time.

At least 11 people have died at a displacement camp in River Nile state as a result of a suspected drone attack by Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary, according to authorities.

The local governor claimed in a statement released late on Friday that the attack had caused a nearby power station for the fourth time in the two years that the RSF and the Sudanese army had been fighting.

A medical official reported that the attack was a deadly escalation of the conflict, leaving 23 others injured. At least nine children were reportedly among the injured, according to witnesses.

“My son, my cousin, the husband of my daughter, and the children of my cousin are all deceased. According to witness Haleema, the boy is ten years old, while the girl is reportedly two.

In central and northern Sudan, the RSF has been accused of attacking power infrastructure in Sudanese army-controlled areas.

Hemedti, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo’s RSF, denies carrying out drone attacks.

A makeshift camp was hit by the attack on Friday, which happened close to the Atbara power station in al-Damer, which was about 3 km (2 miles) away.

With little to no humanitarian assistance, about 180 families who had fled the capital’s capital, Khartoum, were residing in abandoned structures and tents.

Another victim of the attack, Mawaheb Mohamed, claimed that “the first drone attack came and landed right behind us.”

“Four more came fifteen minutes later, totaling four.” Because the scene was so challenging, there were corpses, dismembered bodies, and hospital personnel, he made the decision to leave.

As residents boarded buses heading for an unknown location, authorities were seen hosing down the smoldering remains of tents and belongings following the attack.

As drone and missile attacks plunged millions into weeks-long blackouts, further aggravated the humanitarian crisis in a nation that had been devastated by the civil war, the situation worsened as a result of the wider collapse of Sudan’s power grid.

In April 2023, the Sudanese army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF rekindled their hostility in an open conflict.

Al-Burhan has been ecstatic about recent victories made by the military, including those in Khartoum, but ground fighting is currently rifling in the Darfur region, where hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing.

One of the largest displacement crises in history has been caused by the conflict. More than 12.4 million people have been displaced from their homes, including 3.3 million who have emigrated to neighboring nations, according to the UN.

By May 2, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have agreed to reach a peace agreement that will obligate them to respect one another’s sovereignty and refrain from providing military support to armed groups.

The two men, who did not shake hands during a tense meeting on Friday in Washington, DC, were DRC Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and her Rwandan counterpart Olivier Nduhungirehe, who did not physically shake hands.

Two days after Qatar brokered an unexpected truce between the African countries, the deal, which is part of diplomatic efforts to put an end to the violence in eastern DRC, was reached.

The United States gathered the two nations’ foreign ministers to discuss investment opportunities in the troubled but mineral-rich east, where fighting between DRC forces and M23 rebels has gotten worse since January. In a deadly attack that has resulted in thousands of fatalities, the M23 has taken control of important eastern cities.

Rwanda, which has repeatedly refuted the accusations, claims that M23 is supported by the US and the UN, and that it is defending its security against hostile militias operating in the DRC, including remnants of the Hutu-led organization responsible for the genocide in 1994.

The two countries agreed to end military support for non-state armed groups in Friday’s joint declaration, which avoided naming M23 directly.

According to Wagner, the agreement amounted to a demand that Rwandan forces withdraw, as stated in a UN Security Council resolution.

There is hope for peace, the good news. The real news is that peace needs to be earned, and it will require sincerity, honesty, and transparency, she said.

Nduhungirehe claimed that US President Donald Trump had “really changed the conversation” about the DRC, including by referencing efforts to boost private sector investment in the US.

Rubio called the agreement a “win-win” and claimed that it could spur significant US-backed investment in mining and energy fields, which China already has a significant influence on. Massad Boulos, the new US envoy to Africa, recently traveled to both countries and pleaded with Kigali to stop supporting M23 and halt troop deployments.

At least six truces between the two parties that ended up being broken have been reached since 2021. The most recent incident of violence since January has resulted in the deaths of many people.

According to Martin Ziakwau Lembisa, the US pressure led to diplomacy between the two governments.

One of Epstein’s and his ex-partner Ghislaine Maxwell’s most well-known victims was Giuffre, one of whom was most well known. Prince Andrew has consistently refuted Prince Andrew’s claim that she was trafficked to the Duke of York when she was 17 years old.

She had been residing in Western Australia for a number of years before her death, according to her family, who said she passed away on Friday.

Virginia fought ferociously against sex trafficking and sexual abuse. She provided so many survivors with the light that was needed, the family said in a statement. She “shaoned so brightly despite the hardships she endured throughout her life.” She will be greatly missed.

Late on Friday, police in Western Australia reported being called to a home in Neergabby, a rural area on the outskirts of Perth. Unnamed woman, 41, passed away, and attempts to revive her were unsuccessful, they said. No suspicious activity is suspected.

Giuffre, a woman who was born in North Perth, had been living in the area with her husband Robert and their two children. However, recent reports suggested the couple had split after 22 years of marriage.

Giuffre claimed she had sustained serious injuries in a car accident three weeks ago on Instagram. Later, her family claimed that she had no intention of making the post public, and that the severity of the incident was disputed by local police.

In accordance with court records released in 2019, Giuffre and Maxwell allegedly met while working as a spa attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in the early 2000s.

She spent time with Epstein and Maxwell, traveling between his Palm Beach and Manhattan between his homes, and visiting his private island, Little Saint James, his ranch in New Mexico, and between 2000 and 2002.

Giuffre allegedly met Prince Andrew at this time. In Maxwell’s London townhouse, in a notorious photo taken in March 2001, she was standing next to Andrew and holding his arm around her bare midriff.

Giuffre was one of the first voices to call for the prosecution of Epstein. Authorities claim he committed suicide in his New York prison cell a few weeks after being charged with sex trafficking in July 2019.

Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Florida after being found guilty of assisting Epstein’s abuse of teenage girls.

Giuffre settled a lawsuit against Prince Andrew in 2022, which is reportedly worth $12 million, without the prince releasing any evidence of his guilt. The prince has consistently refuted the allegations.

Donald Trump, the president of the US, promised to make all of the details of the case known, including the names of prominent associates. No significant revelations were made during the release of the first batch of files in February. Trump has been designated as an Epstein associate.