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Ukraine-Bound Plane Crashes in Iran, Leaves 176 Dead

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  • A Ukraine International Airlines flight crashed Wednesday morning shortly after departing from Tehran, Iran, killing all 176 people on board. 
  • Among the deceased are individuals from Ukraine, Iran, Canada, and other countries.
  • It is not yet clear what caused the crash. Some officials say it was likely technical issues, while others are not eliminating any possibilities. 
  • The plane was a Boeing model, marking the company’s third fatal aircraft crash in the past two years.

Fatal Crash

A plane that took off from Tehran, Iran crashed on Wednesday morning local time, killing all 176 people who were on board. 

The Ukraine International Airlines flight was bound for Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. The deceased passengers consist of Iranians, Ukrainians, Canadians, and Swedes, according to a tweet released by Vadym Prystaiko, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. People from Afghanistan, Germany, and the United Kingdom were also on board.

“We express our condolences,” Prystaiko added. “The Ukrainian authorities continue to investigate.”

Following the crash, Ukraine banned all flights from Iranian airspace. Several other countries had already taken this action in the midst of heightening tensions between Iran and the United States— just hours earlier, Iran had launched missiles targeting an Iraqi airbase with American troops.

Search for Answers

Qassem Biniaz, an official at the Iranian Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that the pilot could not regain control after an engine on the aircraft caught on fire.

The Iranian Students’ News Agency tweeted a video that it said depicts the crash, in which a bright spot in the air descends. At the end of the clip, the sky lights up upon apparent impact.

It is still unclear what caused the fatal crash. The plane, a Boeing 737-800, lost contact just a few minutes after takeoff, according to the air traffic tracker Flightradar24.

Iranian authorities said that technical defects were likely responsible for the crash.

Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Authority, told the Mehr news agency that they had no information about any technical issues and the pilot had not contacted the control tower about an emergency. He said the plane’s black boxes are to be analyzed for more information. 

According to The New York Times, Ukraine’s Embassy in Iran released a statement after the crash that eliminated terrorism or a rocket attack as a cause. However, the statement was later removed and replaced by a statement saying it was too early to conclude anything, the news outlet reported.

Abedzadeh noted that Ukrainian investigators would be a part of the investigation process.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated this message in a Facebook post, saying that a team of officials are heading to Iran to look into the situation. 

Abedzadeh added that the black boxes will not be given to the American manufacturer, Boeing, and the United States will not be involved in the investigation. 

This recent disaster could make matters worse for Boeing, as it marks the company’s third fatal aircraft crash in the last two years. According to the Flight Safety Foundation, Ukraine International Airlines has never suffered a fatal flight before this one.

See what others are saying: (Washington Post) (CNN) (NPR)

International

Dutch Man Who Fathered Over 500 Kids Is Being Sued to Stop Donating Sperm Over Incest Concerns

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Meijer is accused of having children in 13 different countries. 


550 Children 

Johnathon Jacob Meijer, a 41-year-old Dutch man, is currently facing a lawsuit that aims to forbid him from donating sperm after he allegedly fathered at least 550 children.

The lawsuit claims that Meijer’s prolific and obsessive donation habit heightens the risk of accidental incest for his children. 

Meijer has donated to at least 13 clinics, mostly located in the Netherlands. He also used websites and social media to reach out to women looking for donors. In 2017, after the Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology learned that Meijer had already fathered more than 100 children, he was blacklisted from all clinics in the Netherlands. However, he has reportedly continued his donations in Ukraine, Denmark, and other countries. 

One professional tracking Meijer’s movements told The New York Times in 2021 that she had found mothers of his children in Australia, Italy, Serbia, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland, Romania, Sweden, Mexico, and the United States.

The Lawsuit 

One mother from the Netherlands has partnered with Donorkind — a Dutch organization for children conceived via a sperm donor — to bring this lawsuit against Meijer. 

The mother claims that Meijer told her that he didn’t have more than 25 donor children.

 “When I think about the consequences this could have for my child, I get a bad gut feeling and I become uncertain about his future: how many more children will be added?” she said to Donorkind. 

Donorkind and the mother are looking for the court to order Meijer to stop donating and for any clinic that has his sperm to destroy it. 

See what others are saying: (The New York Times) (The Telegraph) (Insider)

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U.S. Intel Suggests Pro-Ukraine Group Sabotaged Nord Stream Pipeline

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There is no evidence that the culprits behind the attack were acting under the direction of the Ukrainian government.


Europe Braces for Shocking Revelations

A pro-Ukraine group blew up the Nord Stream pipelines last September, intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials suggests.

The New York Times reported the news Tuesday, citing officials who said there was no evidence of involvement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, any of his top lieutenants, or any government officials.

The strength of the evidence, however, is not clear, and U.S. officials declined to inform The Times on the nature of the intelligence or how it was obtained. They reportedly added that the intelligence indicates neither who the group’s members are nor who funded and directed the operation.

The Times’ sources said they believe the saboteurs were most likely Russian or Ukrainian nationals and that they possibly received specialized government training in the past.

It’s also possible that the group behind the attack was a proxy with covert ties to Kyiv, the report added.

When three of four Nord Stream pipelines were found to be severely damaged last year, the revelation shook markets and sent European gas prices soaring. Nord Stream 1, which was completed in 2011, and Nord Stream 2, which had been laid down but wasn’t yet operational, supplied Germany and by extension the rest of Western Europe with cheap Russian natural gas.

Following the explosions, Poland and Ukraine blamed Russia, and Russia blamed Britain. Other observers speculated that Ukraine might be behind it too.

More Ongoing Investigations

Last month, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claimed in a Substack article that the United States military carried out the attack and that President Biden authorized it himself. However, Hersh’s report cited only one anonymous source in support of its central claim, so it was largely dismissed as not credible.

Western governments expressed caution on Wednesday in response to The Times report.

“There are ongoing national investigations and I think it’s right to wait until those are finalized before we say anything more about who was behind it,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.

Russia, by contrast, pounced on the opportunity to renew its demand for inclusion in a proposed international probe into the pipeline explosion.

The Ukrainian government denied any involvement in the Nord Stream explosions.

On Wednesday, multiple German media outlets reported that investigators have largely reconstructed how the attack happened, pinning the blame on six people who allegedly used a yacht hired by a Ukrainian-owned company in Poland.

German officials reportedly searched a vessel suspected of carrying the explosives in January, but the investigation is ongoing.

The country’s defense minister suggested the explosions may have been a “false flag” attack to smear Ukraine.

See what others are saying: (The New York Times) (Associated Press) (Reuters)

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Turkey, Syria Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 41,000 as Survivors Pulled from Rubble

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A pair of brothers spent around 200 hours trapped under debris, living off of protein powder and their own urine.


A Humanitarian Crisis Explodes

The number of confirmed dead from the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria last week has surpassed 41,000.

Millions more people have been left stranded without adequate shelter, food, clean water, or medical supplies.

At night, the region has dropped to below-freezing temperatures.

Now health authorities are worried that the lack of sanitation infrastructure, which was damaged by the quakes, will lead to a disease outbreak.

“We haven’t been able to rinse off since the earthquake,” 21-year-old Mohammad Emin, whose home was destroyed, told Reuters.

He was helping out at a clinic serving displaced people in an open-air stadium, but with no showers and only six toilets, the resource shortage was poignant.

“They are offering tetanus shots to residents who request them, and distributing hygiene kits with shampoo, deodorant, pads and wipes,” added Akin Hacioglu, a doctor at the clinic.

The World Health Organization monitors the population for waterborne diseases like cholera and typhoid, as well as seasonal influenza and COVID-19.

Rescuers Race Against the Clock

After more than a week of searching, hopes that more living victims will be found amid the collapsed buildings are fading, but rescuers continue to pull out the final few survivors.

Abdulbaki Yeninar, 21, and his brother Muhammed Enes Yeninar, 17, spent about 200 hours under rubble in the city of Kahramanmaras before they were extracted Tuesday. They told reporters they held on by eating protein powder, drinking their own urine, and swallowing gulps of air.

In the same city, teams dug a 16-foot tunnel through debris to rescue a woman, and to the south, a volunteer mining crew joined the efforts to save another.

With no homes to go back to, some survivors have joined the ranks of volunteers themselves.

In the past week, more than 35,000 Turkish search-and-rescue teams worked alongside thousands of international workers in the effort, according to Turkey’s emergency management agency.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called the earthquakes the “disaster of the century” and said in a statement that at least 13,000 people were being treated in hospitals.

The death toll is expected to rise even further in the coming weeks.

See what others are saying: (The New York Times) (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)

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