Aeroflot plane crash: 41 killed on Russian jet

 Passengers used emergency exit slides to escape

6 May 2019

Forty-one people died after a Russian plane made an emergency landing and burst into flames just after takeoff from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.

Dramatic video shows passengers using emergency exit slides to escape the burning Aeroflot aircraft.

Survivors suggest the plane was struck by lightning, but Russia's national carrier said only that it returned to the airport for technical reasons.

Two children are among the dead. The jet had 73 passengers and five crew.

Initial reports suggested the plane had landed on fire, but sources quoted by Russian news agency Interfax said the jet caught fire after a very bumpy landing.

The aircraft landed with full fuel tanks because the crew lost contact with air traffic controllers and decided it was too dangerous to dump fuel over Moscow, Interfax added.

"There are 37 survivors - 33 passengers and four members of the crew," said Yelena Markovskaya, an official involved in the investigation of the crash.

A flight attendant was also reportedly killed in the incident. Five people are in hospital. One witness said it was a "miracle" anyone escaped.

Black smoke billows from the burning plane on the tarmac at Sheremetyevo airport

The plane had just taken off from Sheremetyevo airport when it caught fire

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a special committee to investigate the disaster.

What happened to the plane?

The aircraft, a Sukhoi Superjet-100, left the airport at 18:02 local time (15:02 GMT), bound for Murmansk.

Its crew sent a distress signal when "malfunctions" occurred in bad weather shortly after take-off.

After making an emergency landing at the airport, the plane's engines caught fire on the runway, Aeroflot said, adding that the crew "did everything to save the passengers".

The rear of the Aeroflot plane was completely burnt out

One passenger who survived the crash, Petr Egorov, was quoted by the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily newspaper as saying that the flight "had just taken off and the aircraft was hit by lightning", adding: "The landing was rough - I almost passed out from fear."

The jet returned to the airport within 30 minutes of departing

Ambulances wait in front of the terminal building at Sheremetyevo airport

How did the survivors escape?

Mikhail Savchenko claims he was on the plane when it exploded into a fireball on the tarmac but "managed to jump out".

He shared a video of passengers running away from the burning plane, posting: "'Guys I am all right, I am alive and in one piece."

View this post on Instagram

Ребят, со мной все хорошо, жив и цел. Успел выскочить. Это рейс Москва-Мурманск 17.50. Остальное смотрите в новостях. Огромные соболезнования семьям погибших. Upd - моя фамилия в списке раненых фейк. Либо ошибка. Я здоров. Спасибо вам всем за тёплые слова и за поддержку

A post shared by Mikhail Savchenko (@mikkentosh) on May 5, 2019 at 8:51am PDT

Passengers on board a separate plane awaiting takeoff at the airport posted footage on social media showing fire crews attending the plane on the tarmac.

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‼️Экстренное сообщение‼️ В Шереметьево горит самолёт. По словам очевидцев самолёт только что приземлился и загорелся. Подробности уточняются #шереметьево #горитсамолет #пожар #экстреннаяновость #молния #thebayany #theбаяны Подписывайся на наш телеграм канал 👉 @thebayany

A post shared by The Баяны (@thebayany) on May 5, 2019 at 9:15am PDT

One of the surviving passengers, Dmitry Khlebushkin, said that he was very grateful to the flight attendants. "Only thanks to the flight attendants, I survived," he told reporters.

Kristian Kostov, a former Bulgarian Eurovision contestant, has posted on social media about witnessing the incident.

He said people at the airport were left "shaking" after seeing the aircraft engulfed by fire.

Another eyewitness, Patrick Horlacher, told the BBC it was "shocking to see" the plane being ravaged by flames just minutes before he was due to board another flight.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly been briefed and expressed condolences to the families of victims.

The region of Murmansk has announced a three-day mourning period.

Can lightning bring down a plane?

With millions of commercial flights taking place every year, lightning strikes in the air are relatively common.

Traditional planes, built using aluminium, are usually able to withstand such strikes as the shell or "skin" of the aircraft acts as a cage, distributing the electricity without causing damage and allowing them to continue their journey safely.

Some newer aircraft are constructed using lighter materials that have lower electrical conductivity, such as carbon fibre, which need to be protected - often using wire mesh or foil.

A plane takes to the air as lightning strikes (stock photo)

In addition, the electronics and connections to an aircraft's fuel tanks are heavily shielded to protect them from external electrical bursts.

Lightning strikes can cause technical malfunctions, causing planes to divert or make emergency landings for precautionary reasons. But crashes following such incidents are rare.

A strike is still likely to be noticed by people on board, though. Passengers may hear loud bangs or experience the cabin lighting up with a bright flash.

Government admits UK must take part in European elections

Gary Gibbon-7 May 2019Political Editor

The government has finally confirmed that the European elections cannot be avoided. The UK will vote to send 73 MEPs back to the European Parliament in just over two weeks’ time.

The government now hopes those MEPs will be out of a job after just a couple of months if a Brexit deal can be done before parliament breaks for the summer.

Labour’s Brexit team were back in Whitehall today for more talks on reaching a cross-party deal. But those talks infuriate some Conservative backbenchers and the person they want out of a job by the summer is Theresa May.

The EU’s destructive “peace” partner

A view of the “peace process” from the ground in the occupied West Bank.

 Anne PaqActiveStills


Maureen Clare Murphy -7 May 2019

While the defenseless population of Gaza was being pummeled by the Israeli military on Saturday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief condemned the firing of rockets from the territory in a nakedly one-sided statement.

“These attacks provoke unspeakable suffering to the Israelis and serve only the cause of endless violence and of an endless conflict,” Federica Mogherini admonished, making no mention of the Palestinian victims of massive Israeli bombing.

“Together with the international community, we will keep working to bring relief to all those suffering from this conflict and cooperating with those who serve the cause of peace,” she added.

Days earlier, Mogherini entertained a proposal from COGAT, the bureaucratic arm of Israel’s military occupation, that international donors give hundreds of millions of dollars for a sewage treatment plant in Gaza.

The plant is critically needed in Gaza, the type of civilian infrastructure that Israel as the occupying power is obliged by international humanitarian law to provide.

Cynical scheme

But Israel knows that it can destroy Palestinian infrastructure in Gaza, and third states will pay for its reconstruction, with no cost to Israel.

Israel in fact benefits economically from reconstruction in Gaza, as it controls the import of all raw materials to the Strip, privileging Israeli vendors such as cement companies and trucking and storage firms that profit from the inevitable delays to the delivery of goods.

It’s a cynical scheme resulting from a myopic and dogmatic commitment to a so-called peace process that has completely lost touch with the reality on the ground.

In the West Bank, Israel’s euphemistically named Civil Administration, a unit of COGAT, implements a policy that incrementally dispossesses Palestinians from their land.

That scheme, implemented in the “seam zone” between Israel’s wall and the Israel-West Bank boundary, sees the coercive division of land collectively maintained by Palestinian communities into smaller parcels owned by individuals.

If the parcel of land is smaller than 330 square meters, as the journalist Amira Hass points out, it is declared by the Civil Administration to have “no agricultural necessity” and so access permits are not issued to its Palestinian owners.

“Unfortunately until now, I haven’t yet been able to fully convey to my readers or editors the enormous scope of the danger and depth of the deceptiveness embodied in these regulations,” Hass states.

And yet the body tasked with carrying out this incremental de facto annexation of Palestinian land is treated as a partner for peace by the European Union.

“Our economic assistance to the Palestinians cannot be separated from this political objective of the two-state solution,” Mogherini stated at the annual gathering of international donors to the Palestinians that convened in Brussels last week.

“I want to be clear about this: a political two-state solution cannot be substituted by endless technical and financial assistance and capacity building. It would simply not work,” she added.

Reality

Yet that is exactly what the Oslo paradigm – which treats Palestinian rights as negotiable, thus ensuring Israeli impunity for violations of international law – has delivered.

With more than half a million Israeli settlers illegally transferred to the West Bank in the 25 years since the Oslo accords were signed, even those most tied to the peace process paradigm have to occasionally acknowledge reality.

Mogherini admitted that “the very possibility of two states is being dismantled.”

And those doing the dismantling are still invited to the table in Brussels, and the so-called international community keeps footing the bill.

Trust – or lack of – is the underlying reason global trade is falling apart

 

Traders and financial professionals work at the opening bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), May 6, 2019 in New York City. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 360 points at the open on Monday morning after U.S. President Donald Trump said that the U.S. will raise tariffs on goods imported from China. Source: Drew Angerer /Getty Images/North America/AFP

7 May 2019

THE global trade system is under greater stress than at any other time since its inception. The most significant trade war in almost a century lumbers on, tit-for-tat trade restrictions are becoming increasingly commonplace, and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) appears incapable of restoring order.

Discussion on how things have gone so far off-track has focused on a number of factors, including the frequent violation of trade rules, and the unilateral approach to trade actions taken by the current US administration. While these factors are undoubtedly playing a prominent role, there is another issue — one that does not appear in the text of any trade agreement or on the negotiating agenda of any set of trade talks — arguably of equal if not greater importance.

The issue is trust.

SEE ALSO: US-China trade talks: Will the Chinese keep promises to stop bad behaviour?

For most of the post-war era, there has been a strong sense of trust among trade partners that they shared a deep philosophical commitment to free trade and a rules-based trade system. The nations that came together in Bretton Woods in 1948 to lay the foundation for an open trade system believed that their individual national interests would be best served by a cooperative trade system. This would be held together not just by rules but also by a commitment to the ‘spirit’ and intent that underpinned the rules.

The expectation was that countries would not merely fulfil their specifically enumerated obligations but would also endeavour to go above and beyond, reflecting a belief in the collective benefits of free trade.

These pioneering nations felt they were bound together in a collegial and mutually-beneficial endeavour. That sense of commonality and trust probably shone brightest in the earlier years, when painful memories of the disastrous results of 1930s protectionism were still fresh and the countries involved were more homogeneous.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (R), US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (C) and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer pose before they proceed to their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on May 1, 2019. Source: Andy Wong/Pool/AFP

This sentiment proved remarkably resilient and endured over subsequent decades as dozens of additional countries opted to join the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) and its successor, the WTO.

All of this might seem a bit sentimental or perhaps even naïve. But it is a big part of the invisible glue that has held the trade system together for seven decades.

But today, trust and long-term commitment to the collective benefit of a rules-based system are breaking down. Countries are taking more of a short-term transactional approach to their trade relationships, rules are seemingly malleable, and the underlying ‘spirit’ of free trade is rapidly dissipating. The resulting erosion of trust is one of the reasons that the trade system appears to be in danger of fracturing.

The trust that previously existed meant that trade rules could be considerably looser and less comprehensive. Coverage of ‘behind the border’ regulatory regimes in trade agreements was unnecessary when there was trust that trade-related regulations would develop and be implemented in a spirit of non-discrimination and openness.

SEE ALSO: The US-China trade war is hurting tech companies on both sides

Dispute settlement mechanisms did not need to be stringent when parties trusted their counterpart’s commitment to follow the rules. Trade concepts — such as special and differential treatment or exemptions from the rules for national security considerations — could be left vague due to the trust that such provisions would not be abused.

One need not be a cynic to recognise that those levels of trust simply no longer exist today. And rebuilding the trust that traditionally existed in the trade system might — unfortunately — be impossible. If that is the case, trade relationships and agreements will have to be formulated accordingly in order to shore-up the widening fissures.

Although trust is impossible to legislate or quantify, the dissolution of trust currently underway is self-evident and profound. Nothing will sabotage support for open trade faster than a sense that, as trust fades, trade rules can be evaded and gaps in trade rules can be used as a pretext for discrimination or restrictions.

Stephen Olson is a Research Fellow at the Hinrich Foundation, Hong Kong. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

This article is republished from East Asia Forum under a Creative Commons licence. 

5G: Stupidest Idea In The History Of The World

According to Washington State University Biochemistry, Medical Science Professor Martin L. Pall

by Arjun Walia-2019-05-07

We are in the midst of a 5G wireless technology rollout, and politicians have yet to address safety concerns. I recently used Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an example, but it’s happening worldwide. It’s one of many examples that illustrates how large corporations completely control politics. I also recently wrote about Robert F. Kennedy explaining how this came to be, and how they’ve been able to completely compromise government, big media, and our federal regulatory agencies that are supposed to be protecting and informing us.

In the video, he uses Big Pharma as an example, as they provide the most money to congress; even more so than big oil and gas. In that article I also outline multiple examples of fraud so readers can get a clearer picture of what’s going on and see some actual evidence of it.

It’s clear that we are not being protected, and politicians are simply abiding to the the will of their masters, the big corporations, who in turn act as slaves to their ‘financial overlords,’ the big banks. We continue to see products and services being approved and implemented without ever going through any safety testing. This is a big problem, and one of the main reasons why we could be seeing a drastic rise in multiple diseases and ailments, especially when it comes to neuropsychiatric disorders. A study titled “Microwave frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produce widespread neuropsychiatric effects including depression” published in the Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy outlines this quite clearly, and it’s only one of thousands of peer-reviewed studies raising multiple concerns in regards to this type of technology.

 

Read more: International Appeal: Stop 5G on Earth and in Space

Is there really any concern for the well being of humanity within these institutions? If not, why do we continue to support them? Is it because we’re under the illusion that there is actual concern? And why do we continue to take power away from ourselves by electing corrupt politicians?

Anyways, in this article, I’d like to draw your attention to Dr. Martin L. Pall, PhD and Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Basic Medical Sciences at Washington State University. Taken from his report titled “5G: Great risk for EU, U.S. and International Health! Compelling Evidence for Eight Distinct Types of Great Harm Caused by Electromagnetic Field(EMF) Exposures and the Mechanism that Causes Them,” he states that:

“Putting in tens of millions of 5G antennae without a single biological test of safety has got to be about the stupidest idea anyone has had in the history of the world.”

That report goes through a lot of science, which only adds to all of the science that’s already available regarding the harmful effects of 5G technology. If you’re looking for more information, I often point people toward the Environmental Health Trust because it’s a great resource that gives you access to more science.

This is not new information. For years, numerous studies have been published proving the health concerns regarding 5G technology and hundreds of scientists have petitioned the United Nations about them. These initiatives started as a result of the work done by Dr. Marin Blank from Columbia University’s Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics.

According to him, with regards to wireless radiation in general:

“We have created something that is harming us, and it is getting out of control. Before Edison’s light bulb there was very little electromagnetic radiation in our environment. The levels today are very many times higher than natural background levels, and are growing rapidly because of all the new devices that emit this radiation. Putting it bluntly they are damaging the living cells in our bodies and killing many of us prematurely.”

Again, it’s unbelievable that these technologies are being rolled out without any safety testing done. How is this even allowed to happen? The thing is, if there was safety testing done, there would likely be no changes made anyways, and these corporations would be allowed to rollout and utilize these technologies.

Seeing how this article is about the work of Dr. Pall, below is a lecture that goes into detail about his research and why we should be concerned with 5G technology.

It’s alarming that some people have been made to believe that this is “pseudoscience.” Not only is this surprising, but it’s also very concerning.

During the “Health in Buildings Roundtable” sponsored by the NIH and co-organized by the US CDC and several other organizations, Dr. Martin Pall from Washington State University (WSU) concluded that the “5G rollout is absolutely insane.” In this short presentation, Dr. Pall confirmed that the current 2G/3G/4G radiation the population is exposed to has been scientifically linked to: lowered fertility, insomnia, fatigue, depression, anxiety, major changes in brain structure in animals, cellular DNA damage, oxidative stress, hormonal disruption, cancer, and much more. Dr. Pall briefly explained the mechanisms of how the electro-smog emitted by our cell phones, wifi routers, cell phone antennas, and other wireless technologies affect human cells.

We’ve written about this topic in depth, and below are some recent articles we’ve published that go into more detail if you’re looking for more information.

On a side note, a lot of this information can spark a fearful reaction, and that’s normal. It could elicit the same fearful reaction you may have to other humanitarian issues including the massive amounts of pesticides being sprayed in our environment and on our food, the rising deforestation rates, and several other aspects of the human experience that need to be changed. As important as it is to not react with fear and panic, it’s even more important not to completely ignore these things and think everything will magically be okay.

Earth has become engulfed with this mess as a result of our ignorance, as a result of us ignoring important scientific findings such as these. If we continue along this path, disease rates will continue to rise. Awareness is key, and simply being informed about this issue is a huge step in the right direction.

So, what can you do? You could purchase some EMF protective clothing and bedding, or you could even paint your home with EMF protective paint. You can unplug your computer when not in use, turn off your cell phone, and unplug all your electronic devices before you go to sleep. You could have a wired internet connection, which is actually much faster than any wireless connection. You can live a healthy lifestyle, and you can use mind-body healing techniques to help you.

I write a lot about parapsychology, and it’s quite clear that our minds can have a significant impact on our biology. I know it sounds a little ‘new agey,’ but the truth is, if you don’t believe you are being harmed, odds are that the impact on your biology will be significantly different than someone who is fearful and stressed out about health concerns. Consciousness is huge, and it is one of the biggest factors in regards to preventative measures.

India election: Modi vs Gandhi in epic election – will nationalism triumph?

Krishnan Guru-Murthy-7 May 2019

Krishnan Guru-Murthy reports from the Indian city of Varanasi – what used to be called Benares. It is the constituency of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, so just the place to begin our journey from north to the south of the country, covering what’s become a bitter battle for the soul of India – the general election.

Why is peace failing in the Philippines?

 

A soldier from the the Philippines Army's 2nd Mechanized Infantry Division fires a rocket launcher towards the positions of members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) militants during clashes in Maguindanao, Philippines July 4, 2018. Source: Reuters

6 May 2019

WITH the defeat of the Islamic State in Syria, ISIS fighters are exporting their combat to other parts of the world. One of the places they’re eyeing with interest is the Mindanao region in the southern part of the Philippines.

This area is fertile soil for radicalisation. Different clans and extremist militants struggle for control of the shadow economy of drugs, extortion, kidnapping and other sources of illicit income.

In 2017, extremist groups linked to Islamic State and previously Al-Qaeda fought a six-month battle with the Philippines government over Marawi, a city of 200,000 people, leaving it in ruins and killing more than 1,000 people.

In my research, I study countries that have emerged from civil conflicts where the inspiration to fight came from a sense of grievance and discrimination arising from identity. I examine how identity matters in the transition to the post-conflict period.

The majority of modern peace agreements fail within five years. What is causing these negotiated peace settlements to collapse?

Two nations in one country

There are approximately 5 million Muslims in the Philippines, now concentrated into a corner of the Mindanao island, plus an archipelago of smaller islands, measuring only 13,000 square kilometres. They call themselves the Moro peopleand believe themselves to be a nation, the Bangsamoro, that is separate from the rest of the Philippines.

Mindano is located among the southern islands of the Philippines. Source: Google, 2019

Originally, the Moros spread over all of Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippines. When the Philippines were colonised first by Spain from 1565 and then by the United States in 1898, the Moros retained their culture and languages while the rest of the country adopted Spanish and Christianity.

However, the United States began a policy of encouraging Christian settlers from the rest of the Philippines to move into Mindanao and dispossess the local people of their land. This policy was continued by the central government after independence from the United States.

By 1982, the Moros owned only 18 percent of the land on which they lived. Today, their region is the poorest and least-developed area in the Philippines. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, GDP per capita is approximately US$650, about 20 percent of the average for the Philippines, and most people are subsistence farmers.

Since the 1970s, armed groups in the Bangsamoro area of Mindanao island have been fighting for independence, with an estimated 120,000 deaths from the conflict. Despite peace agreements with successive groups, parts of the area are still lawless and racked with violence.

Identity claims over unsatisfied grievances

Using identity markers as fuel for mobilisation and conflict onset is a well-known mechanism. A failure to deal with identity claims in peace settlements will often lead to failure. In the Philippines, the government has repeated failed to accommodate the Moros and accept that the Philippines is a multinational state where all groups have equal rights. The Moro are still a second-class minority within their own country, without their own government and without investment.

Dealing with identity claims is important. On the one hand, granting rights and autonomy to minority groups makes peace stronger because it reduces their grievances. On the other, granting autonomy helps to unite the minority group and reinforce its identity.

SEE ALSO: Building the Bangsamoro in the shadow of Marawi and Jolo

My research has shown that in the Philippines the grievances have not been satisfied through the peace agreements. In 1996, the government first signed a peace agreement with the Mindanao rebels. However, the expected autonomy did not take place, in part because Muslims felt that they had been subsumed into the Philippine culture.

For example, the former rebel leader ran for election but as a member of the party of the Philippine president. The region did not get the control it hoped for over its budgets, but rather was dependent on unpredictable handouts from the central government.

Nor were the Moros given political representation in the central government, where political appointments were optional. Furthermore, the former rebels have been accused of using their political position only for widespread personal enrichment, while the situation of the Mindanao people was not significantly affected by the changes.

A rich breeding ground for ISIS

This peace agreement failed because it did not reduce the grievances of the Moros, but neither did it serve to unite them and bring real political representation.

Other Islamic groups have continued fighting. A peace agreement was made with one of the groups in 2014, though it was only ratified in the Philippine Congress in 2018. It remains to be seen whether the concessions in the peace agreement can create a sense of Moro unity, can reduce their sense of grievances and can improve their governance.

In the meantime, hard-line Islamist groups and rival clans fester, a rich breeding ground for ISIS fighters looking for recruits.

However, this does not need to be the outcome of an identity conflict. To understand better the processes at work, I also look at a similar situation with a very different outcome.

Personal belongings are scattered inside a damaged room of an apartment house located in a residential area in Malutlut district, Marawi city, southern Philippines October 27, 2017, which was believed to have been rented by pro-Islamic State militant group leaders Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute before their battle in Marawi city. Source: Reuters/Romeo Ranoco

A better outcome in Indonesia

The westernmost tip of Indonesia is Aceh. The region is the most Islamic area of Indonesia and was the site of a long-running low-level fight for independence, which claimed up to 15,000 lives.

As in Mindanao, this is largely an identity conflict for an area that has a proud and independent history but that had become one of the poorest and most exploited areas of Indonesia. This sense of resentment was a powerful mobilising force for both fighters but also for supporters of the armed movement within the civilian population.

When peace was agreed between the government of Indonesia and the armed fighters (GAM) in 2005, the agreement granted significant autonomy to Aceh including control over revenue, local political representation, and recognition of the distinctive religious, language and cultural environment.

Aceh was given powers that no other area in Indonesia has and controls itself as a self-governing and distinct entity. Since the agreement, the area has been peaceful with large-scale reconstruction and investment.

So why has the peace agreement been successful in Aceh?

My research indicates that granting identity rights augments the sense of coherence of a sub-national state. Aceh controls its own budget, can determine its own development policy, can invest in its own education system, has its own legal system, and has its own symbolic head of state. These rights, powers and institutions work together to create a sense of unity within Aceh.

Recognition can help unifying groups of different people

The area is not without its disputes. Rival political factions attempt to win support by appealing to a narrow and hard-line view of Islamic law in order to mobilise people. Yet these disputes are contained within the political system, rather than preventing the creation of a political system, as in Mindanao. A return to violence seems inconceivable.

The peace agreement in Aceh worked because, on the one hand, it reduced the sense of grievance, reduced economic resentments and granted political power. On the other, it created a separate and unified Aceh identity. By giving wide-ranging recognition to Aceh, the government of Indonesia defused the resentment against the central government.

Identity is widely used as a way to mobilise fighters. Concessions over identity can also work to create peace, by tackling grievances, but also by creating a more coherent sense of identity. Governments are often scared to recognise minority groups, believing that giving them rights will create a desire for more autonomy.

However, recognition can also unify groups, creating a confident and coherent nation that can demand better internal governance, better political representation, and ultimately, a more durable peace.

Lesley Ann Daniels, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow AXA Research Fund, Institut Barcelona Estudis Internacionals

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.