MAE SAI, Thailand: It’s a simple melody sung to the plucking of acoustic guitars by schoolchildren sitting around candles: “I beg the skies to show mercy and empathy/ My brothers are in Tham Luang Khun Nang Non/ Let them pass this danger, I beg.”
The song is dedicated to events unfolding in a flooded mountain cave in northern Thailand, where 12 boys aged 11-16 and their football coach disappeared a week ago. It was written and performed by students at Lek Nai Tung Kwang school across the kingdom in Buriram province.
The music video has played on national newscasts during round-the-clock coverage of the search and rescue operation at the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in far northern Chiang Rai province. It is part of an outpouring of hope, empathy and concern across the Southeast Asian nation for the boys, their families and the army of people working to bring them home.
“We’re worried. Everybody wants to hear good news,” said Keeta Wariburee, a teacher at the school that produced the video. “We want to help them, but if we went up there we’d probably just get in the way. So we’re doing what we can by sending encouragement.”
Rescuers including elite Thai navy divers, a US military team and British cave experts have been frustrated by incessant rain that has flooded the cave and made locating the boys more difficult. Despite efforts to drain the water, muddy floodwaters reached near the entrance of the cave while rescuers kept trying to find hidden shafts in the green mountainside to access the cavern. In a desperate move, officials dropped into the shafts care packages stuffed with food, beverages, a phone, a flashlight, candles, a lighter and a map of the cave.
For a country that has been deeply divided by political strife and remains under military rule following a coup four years ago, the sight of mud-caked soldiers and volunteers working in pouring rain has filled Thais with both pride and a sense of common cause.
Lamduan Mayula traveled to the cave from Payao province, where she owns a gift shop and also volunteers as a rescue worker. She and her friends have set up a kitchen and are handing out food to hungry workers.
“I just feel like I have to do something. I can’t be sitting at home and watching the news,” she said. “And I will stay here until we and the boys and their coach can all go home together.”
In signs of solidarity with the missing, students around Thailand have been organizing mass prayers and other events. They showed solidarity by sitting in rows to form the number 13 — the number of the missing. Some folded origami paper cranes marked with messages of support.
Muangthong United, one of the largest and most popular teams in Thailand’s top football league, made a similar gesture, releasing a video in which players and staff stand in the middle of their stadium, holding hands in a circle around football balls forming the number 13.
In a post on his Facebook page this April, Eakapol Chantawong, the missing coach of the boys’ Wild Boars football team, checked in at the stadium and wrote: “One day I have to bring my young players here.”
A number of hashtags have taken off on social media, including ones that translate as “13 lives must survive,” “Sending encouragement to Tham Luang” and “Strangers whose faces we most want to see.”
Emotional drawings and pictures have been making the rounds as well. One shows rescuers in a dark cave with “13 Hope Don’t Give Up” written on their oxygen tanks. Another displays the silhouettes of 12 boys and a man against the stalactites of a cave with the words: “Stay strong. We are coming.” Another features the team riding on a large wild boar and says: “Wild Boars keep fighting.”
Keeta, the teacher, said the popularity of his students’ song was a sign of the nation’s common purpose.
“It reveals one thing, which is Thai society, in tough times, we never abandon each other,” he said. “But it would be even better if the kids are found.”
Or as his students’ song ends: “Let the skies show us the path and clear up/ Let this group of friends pass this danger/ To quickly go home for safety to all.”
Stay strong, we are coming: Thais rally behind cave rescue
Stay strong, we are coming: Thais rally behind cave rescue
- Rescuers including elite Thai navy divers, a US military team and British cave experts have been frustrated by incessant rain that has flooded the cave and made locating the boys more difficult
- In signs of solidarity with the missing, students around Thailand have been organizing mass prayers and other events
A gunman kills 6 worshippers inside a Shiite mosque in western Afghanistan, the Taliban say
ISLAMABAD: A gunman stormed a mosque in western Afghanistan, opening fire and killing six people as they were praying, a Taliban official said Tuesday.
Local media reports and a former president of Afghanistan said the mosque was targeted because it was a place of worship for the country’s Shiite Muslim minority.
The attack happened on Monday night in the district of Guzara in Herat province, said Abdul Mateen Qani, a spokesman for the Taliban Interior Ministry. He said in a post on the social media platform X that an investigation was underway.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which also wounded another worshipper while the attacker fled. Local media reported that the mosque's imam was among those killed.
“I strongly condemn the attack on the Imam Zaman Mosque,” former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on X. “I consider this terrorist act against all religious and human standards.”
The United Nation Assistance Mission in Afghanistan also condemned the attack, which it said killed and wounded at least seven people, including a child. It called for urgent accountability for perpetrators and protection measures for Shitte communities.
The Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan is a major Taliban rival and frequently targets schools, hospitals, mosques and Shiite areas throughout the country.
The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, during the last weeks of the chaotic departure of U.S. and NATO troops from the country after 20 years of war.
Despite initial promises of a more moderate stance, the Taliban gradually reimposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, as they did during their previous rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Russia says United States is being hypocritical over ICC and Israel
- US President Joe Biden said last year that the ICC decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin was justified
MOSCOW: Russia said on Tuesday that the United States was being hypocritical by opposing the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investigation of Israel but supporting the court’s warrant for the arrest of President Vladimir Putin.
The ICC — which can charge individuals with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — is investigating Hamas’ Oct. 7 cross-border attack and Israel’s devastating military assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza, now in its seventh month.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday the United States did not support the ICC’s investigation of Israel and did not believe that the court had jurisdiction.
US President Joe Biden said last year that the ICC decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin was justified. The United States has shared details of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine with the ICC.
Russia says the warrant against Putin is a meaningless attempt by the West to soil Russia’s reputation and denies war crimes in Ukraine. Ukraine says Russia committed war crimes. Russia says the West has ignored Ukraine’s crimes, a charge denied by Kyiv.
“Washington fully supported, if not stimulated, the issuance of ICC warrants against the Russian leadership,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a post on Telegram.
But “the American political system does not recognize the legitimacy of this structure in relation to itself and its satellites,” Zakharova said, adding that such a position was intellectually “absurd.”
The Kremlin has called the issuing of the warrant against Putin outrageous and legally void, as Russia is not a signatory to the treaty that created the ICC.
Israel is not a member of the ICC, while the Palestinian territories were admitted as a member state in 2015.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that any ICC decisions would not affect Israel’s actions but would set a dangerous precedent.
Israeli officials are worried that the court could issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and other top officials for alleged violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza, Israeli media have reported.
They said the ICC is also considering arrest warrants for leaders from Hamas.
London police arrest sword-wielding man after reports of stabbing
- Police said the suspect had attacked members of the public and two officers
LONDON: British police have arrested a man armed with a sword following reports of people having been stabbed during a serious incident in northeast London although it was not thought to be terrorism-related, the capital’s police force said on Tuesday.
The 36-year old man was arrested after police were called to reports of a vehicle being driven into a house in the area close to Hainault train station, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Police said the suspect had attacked members of the public and two officers.
“This must have been a terrifying incident for those concerned. I know the wider community will be feeling shock and alarm,” Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said. “We do not believe there is any ongoing threat to the wider community.”
The force said the incident did not appear to be terror-related and they were not looking for further suspects.
“I am being regularly updated about the incident at Hainault Station this morning,” Britain’s interior minister James Cleverly said on X. “My thoughts are with those who have been affected.”
Gunman kills six in attack on Afghan mosque – Taliban spokesman
- Locals say the mosque served the minority Shiite community just south of the Afghan city of Herat
- While no group has claimed the attack, the regional chapter of Daesh is viewed as threat in Afghanistan
HERAT: A gunman stormed a mosque in western Afghanistan and killed six people, a government spokesman said Tuesday, with local residents claiming the minority Shiite community had been targeted.
Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said that “an unknown armed person shot at civilian worshippers in a mosque” in Herat province’s Guzara district on Monday at around 9:00 p.m. (1630 GMT).
“Six civilians were martyred and one civilian was injured,” he wrote on social media platform X early Tuesday morning.
Locals said the mosque served the minority Shiite community in a district just south of the provincial capital of Herat city, and the imam and a three-year-old child were among those killed.
They also said a team of three gunmen staged the attack, contradicting the official account.
“One of them was outside and two of them came inside the mosque, shooting the worshippers,” said 60-year-old Ibrahim Akhlaqi, the brother of the slain imam. “It was in the middle of the prayers.”
“Whoever was in the mosque has either been martyred or wounded,” added 23-year-old Sayed Murtaza Hussaini.
While no group has claimed the attack, the regional chapter of Daesh is the largest security threat in Afghanistan and has frequently targeted Shiite communities.
The Taliban government has pledged to protect religious and ethnic minorities since returning to power in August 2021, but rights monitors say they’ve done little to make good on that promise.
The most notorious attack linked to Daesh since the Taliban takeover was in 2022, when at least 53 people — including 46 girls and young women — were slain in the suicide bombing of an education center.
Taliban officials blamed Daesh for the attack, which happened in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital Kabul.
Afghanistan’s new rulers claim to have ousted Daesh from the country and are highly sensitive to suggestions the group has found safe haven there since the withdrawal of foreign forces.
Taliban authorities have frequently given death tolls lower than other sources after bombings and gun attacks, or otherwise downplayed them, in an apparent attempt to minimize security threats.
A United Nations Security Council report released in January said there had been a decrease in Daesh attacks in Afghanistan because of “counter-terrorism efforts by the Taliban.”
But the report said Daesh still had “substantial” recruitment in the country and that the militant group had “the ability to project a threat into the region and beyond.”
Daesh chapter spanning Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia claimed responsibility for the March attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Moscow, killing more than 140 people.
It was the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades.
China says Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah met for talks in Beijing
BEIJING: China said Tuesday that rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah met in Beijing recently for “in-depth and candid talks on promoting intra-Palestinian reconciliation.”
“Representatives of the Palestine National Liberation Movement and the Islamic Resistance Movement recently came to Beijing,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, referring to the groups by their formal names.
“The two sides fully expressed their political will to achieve reconciliation through dialogue and consultation, discussed many specific issues and made positive progress,” he added, without specifying when the sides had met.
Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 after ferocious fighting with its rivals in Fatah, which maintains partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank through the Palestinian Authority.
China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Beijing has been calling for an immediate ceasefire since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war in October last year, when attacks by the militant group resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 34,535 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said on Tuesday.
Beijing said on Tuesday the two factions had “agreed to continue this process of dialogue with a view to achieving Palestinian unity at an early date.”
“The two sides highly appreciated China’s firm support for the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights,” Lin said.
He did not identify the representatives from Hamas and Fatah who met in Beijing.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for an “international peace conference” to resolve the fighting.
In November, Beijing hosted a delegation of diplomats from Arab and Muslim-majority nations, in which Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned a “humanitarian disaster” was unfolding in Gaza.
