Foreign

Man ‘intentionally’ Rams Car Into Migrants In Texas, 7 Dead, 6 Injured

Published

7 months ago

May 8, 2023

The Land Rover SUV is believed to have ‘intentionally’ plowed into pedestrians outside the Ozanam Center at 8.20am on Saturday. Multiple victims were seen on the ground following the incident

Seven people were killed and up to six were injured Sunday after they were struck by a vehicle while waiting at a city bus stop outside of a migrant shelter in the border city of Brownsville, Texas, police said.

Brownsville police investigator Martin Sandoval said the crash happened about 8:30 a.m.

Shelter director Victor Maldonado of the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center said he reviewed the shelter’s surveillance video on Sunday morning after receiving a call about the crash.

The city bus stop is across the street from the shelter and is not marked. There was no bench, and people waiting there were sitting along the curb, Maldonado said. He said most of the victims were Venezuelan men.

“What we see in the video is that this SUV, a Range Rover, just ran the light that was about a 100 feet away and just went through the people who were sitting there in the bus stop,” Maldonado said.

He said the SUV flipped after running up on the curb and continued moving for about 200 feet (about 60 meters). Some people who were walking on the sidewalk about 30 feet away from the main group were also hit, Maldonado said.

The Ozanam shelter is the only overnight shelter in the city of Brownsville and manages the release of thousands of migrants from federal custody. Brownsville has long been an epicenter for migration across the U.S.-Mexico border, and it has become a key location for next week’s ending of the pandemic-era border restrictions known as Title 42.

Sandoval told KRGV-TV that authorities are investigating whether the crash was intentional or an accident. They are also testing the driver, who was held at the scene by witnesses, for intoxication.

Maldonado said the center had not received any threats before the crash, but they did afterwards.

“I’ve had a couple of people come by the gate and tell the security guard that the reason this happened was because of us,” Maldonado said.

The shelter can hold 250, but many who arrive leave the same day. In the last several weeks, an uptick in border crossings prompted the city to declare an emergency as local, state and federal resources coordinated the enforcement and humanitarian response.

“In the last two months, we’ve been getting 250 to 380 a day,” Maldonado said.

While the shelter offers migrants transportation during the week, they are also free to use the city’s public transportation.

“Some of them were on the way to the bus station, because they were on their way to their destination,” the director said.

Foreign

Israel Has No Right To Defend Itself – Russia

Published

4 weeks ago

November 3, 2023

Alero Danjuma

Israel has no right to defend itself as it is an occupying power, Russia’s representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, said yesterday.

Nebenzya pointed out, during his speech before the emergency special session of the UN General Assembly, that the United Nations does not have the right to give Israel an absolute mandate to carry out a ground operation in Gaza.

“The only thing they can muster is continued pronouncements about Israel’s supposed right to self defence, although as an occupying power, it does not have that power as confirmed by the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice handed down in 2004,” he explained.

He stressed his country’s call to stop the bloodshed in the Middle East, to avoid expanding the scope of the crisis to the entire region, and to work on a diplomatic solution to it.

“As for Israel’s security – and we recognise its rights to ensure its security – this security can only be fully guaranteed if we resolve the Palestinian issue on the basis of relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”

He added that sooner or later, a diplomatic solution will have to be taken, but the question is how many innocent people will die during this time.

Nebenzya noted that Russia cannot turn a blind eye to the flagrant violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, pointing out that entire neighbourhoods have been flattened.

He also accused the US and its allies of “hypocrisy,” saying that “in other completely different situations are issuing appeals for the respect of humanitarian law, establishing investigation committees, imposing sanctions on those who are actually genuinely only resorting to force as a last resort to put an end to years of violence,” in an apparent reference to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Foreign

Indonesia Conducts First Commercial Flight Using Palm Oil-blended Jet Fuel

Published

1 month ago

October 30, 2023

Ifunaya Emeka

Indonesia conducts first commercial flight using palm oil-blended jet fuel

Indonesia on Friday flew its first commercial flight using palm oil-blended jet fuel, as the world’s biggest producer of the commodity pushes for wider use of biofuels to cut fuel imports.

Operated by flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, the Boeing 737-800NG aircraft carried more than 100 passengers from the capital Jakarta to Surakarta city about 550 kilometres (342 miles) away, Garuda Indonesia CEO Irfan Setiaputra said.

“We will discuss further with Pertamina, Energy Ministry and other parties to ensure this fuel is commercially reasonable,” Irfan said during a ceremony, adding the plane was set to return to Jakarta later on Friday.

Garuda conducted several tests including a flight test on the new fuel earlier this month and an engine ground test in August.

According to Reuters, the palm-oil blended jet fuel is produced by Indonesian state energy firm PT Pertamina (PERTM.UL) at its Cilacap refinery, using hydroprocessed esters and fatty acid (HEFA) technology and is made of refined bleached deodorized palm kernel oil.

Pertamina has said the palm-based fuel emits less atmosphere warming greenhouse gases compared with fossil fuels, and palm oil producing countries have called for the edible oil to be included in feedstock for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Reuters reports.

“In 2021, Pertamina successfully produced 2.0 SAF in its Cilacap unit using co-processing technology and was made of refined bleached deodorized palm kernel oil with production capacity 1,350 kilolitres per day,” said Alfian Nasution, a director at Pertamina.

Meanwhile, Harris Yahya, a director at the Energy Ministry, said the use of biofuel would lower the greenhouse effect.

The aviation industry, a major emitter of greenhouse gases, is looking for ways to cut its carbon footprint by using alternative fuels.

Experts say the industry will need 450 billion litres of SAF a year by 2050, if the fuel is to account for around 65% of the mitigation needed to achieve net-zero targets.