MONTREAL: The United Nations aviation agency said Monday that Russia was responsible for the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner over Ukraine in 2014, leading to the deaths of 298 people.
The International Civil Aviation Organization , based in Montreal, said claims brought by Australia and the Netherlands over the shooting down of Flight MH17 on July 17 of that year were “well founded in fact and in law.”
“The Russian Federation failed to uphold its obligations under international air law in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17,” the agency said in a statement issued Monday evening.
The OCAO said this was the first time in its history that its council has made a determination on the merits of a dispute between member states.
On July 17, 2014 the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 — en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur — crashed in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region where pro-Russian separatist rebels were battling Ukrainian forces.
The plane was hit by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile.
Dutch nationals accounted for two-thirds of the dead, along with 38 Australians and about 30 Malaysians, with many victims having dual nationalities.
Then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called it a “terrorist act.”
Pro-Russian rebels in the area claimed the airliner was shot down by a Ukrainian military jet. Russian President Vladimir Putin says Ukraine “bears responsibility.”
The following day, then US president Barack Obama said a missile fired from separatist-held territory was to blame and the rebels would not have been able to hit the airliner without Russian support.
In 2022 a Dutch court sentenced three men to life in prison over the downing, among them two Russians, but Russia refused to extradite them.
Russia has consistently denied any involvement in the tragedy.
The governments of Australia and the Netherlands welcomed the UN agency’s decision Monday night.
“This is a historic moment in the pursuit of truth, justice and accountability for the victims of the downing of Flight MH17, and their families and loved ones,” the Australian government said in a statement.
It called on the agency to “move swiftly to determine remedies” for Russia’s violation of international law.
“We call upon Russia to finally face up to its responsibility for this horrific act of violence and make reparations for its egregious conduct, as required under international law,” the statement added.
International investigators suspended their probe of the downing last year, saying there was not enough evidence to identify more suspects.
UN aviation agency finds Russia responsible for 2014 downing of airliner over Ukraine
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UN aviation agency finds Russia responsible for 2014 downing of airliner over Ukraine
Migration group head urges EU to bolster deportations
- The EU migration pact, adopted last year and set to come into force in June 2026, hardens procedures for asylum-seekers at its borders
The director general of the International Center for Migration Policy denied responsibility for what he called “individual cases” of human rights abuses by authorities in countries where his organization works.
Michael Spindelegger, a former vice chancellor from the conservative Austrian People’s Party, spoke in an interview with AFP as Brussels comes under pressure to keep out or deport migrants, with hard-right anti-immigration parties performing strongly across Europe.
The EU migration pact, adopted last year and set to come into force in June 2026, hardens procedures for asylum-seekers at its borders.
“It’s very important that a well-functioning return policy is established, also in the spirit of the pact,” Spindelegger told AFP.
“If someone comes, isn’t granted asylum, and then stays anyway, and nothing actually happens, that’s a very bad sign for the state of law,” said Spindelegger.
He added it was important to make sure those deported are re-integrated in their home countries so that they don’t leave again.
Currently fewer than 20 percent of people ordered to leave the bloc are returned to their country of origin, according to EU data.
In EU migration reforms, “the train is moving, that’s clear, but there are, of course, still various stations that need to be considered,” Spindelegger said.
“However, in my view, much has already been accomplished at the foundational level.”
The Vienna-based ICMPD advises the European Union authorities and others on migration policy and runs projects in Africa, Asia and Europe.
Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized it over overseas projects aimed at reducing the number of migrant arrivals in Europe.
It has worked with the Tunisian coast guards and Libyan authorities, which have been accused of mistreating migrants.
“I deeply regret whenever negative individual cases (of human rights abuse) persist. We cannot take responsibility for that,” Spindelegger said.
He insisted that training courses run by the ICMPD for border guards in migrant transit countries included training on human rights.
Lukas Gahleitner-Gertz, spokesman of rights group Asylkoordination Austria, dismissed that claim as “window dressing.”
“Cooperation is being advanced with regimes that have a highly doubtful human rights record,” Gahleitner-Gertz told AFP.
Spindelegger said an ICMPD-backed border guard training center built in Tunisia had been a “big success,” helping prepare hundreds of people for the job so far.
A similar training project has been launched in Jordan, while the ICMPD is looking to expand the scheme to Algeria.
Rights groups have also voiced concern at the European Commission’s plans, unveiled in May, to make it easier to send asylum seekers to certain third countries for their applications to be processed.
The proposal is seen as a step toward the creation of sites outside the bloc that would act as hubs for returning migrants.
It needs approval from the European Parliament and member states to become law.
The ICMPD counts 21 mostly EU countries as its members and has a staff of more than 500 people.
Founded by Austria and Switzerland in 1993, it works in more than 90 countries.
Among its members are EU countries such as Germany and Greece and non-EU members, including Turkiye. France, Italy and Spain are not members.
Since Spindelegger, 65, took over the center in 2016, the number of employees has grown four times bigger.
Its budget has increased by five times to more than 100 million euros ($120 million), he said.
Some 70 percent of the budget comes from the European Commission.
Spindelegger will retire at the end of the year. He is due to be replaced by another Austrian conservative politician, Susanne Raab.
State prosecution in firebombing attack on demonstration for Israeli hostages moves ahead
- Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, had been living in the US illegally with his family at the time
DENVER: A judge ruled Tuesday that Colorado prosecutors can move ahead with their case against a man accused of killing one person and injuring a dozen more in a firebomb attack on demonstrators showing support for Israeli hostages in Gaza.
A police detective had been set to testify at a hearing explaining the evidence gathered against Mohamed Sabry Soliman in the June 1 attack on the weekly event in Boulder. But Soliman’s lawyer, Kathryn Herold, told Judge Nancy W. Salomone that he gave up his right to hear the evidence.
Soliman, wearing an orange and white striped jail uniform, told Salomone that he understood he was waiving his right to a hearing following a discussion with his lawyers Monday.
Despite that, prosecutors and victims who sat across the courtroom from Soliman or watched the hearing online were caught off guard by the decision.
Salomone said the case would now move ahead to an arraignment and scheduled a Sept. 9 hearing for Soliman to enter a plea to murder, attempted murder and other charges over the defense’s objection.
Herold said Soliman would not be ready to enter a plea then because of the large amount of evidence in the case and the murder charges recently added against him following the death of Karen Diamond, an 82-year-old woman injured in the attack. Herold said she expected to ask for the arraignment hearing to be delayed and suggested that a plea deal was possible.
20th Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty objected to a delay, saying any discussions could happen before and after an arraignment. He declined to comment on the possibility of a deal after the hearing.
Investigators say Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly event on Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall. But he threw just two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had with him while yelling, “Free Palestine!” Police said he told them he got scared because he had never hurt anyone before.
Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, had been living in the US illegally with his family at the time.
Soliman has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges and is scheduled to go on trial in federal court in Denver in September. However, his lawyers told US District Judge John L. Kane last week that they expect to ask for a delay.
Additional charges related to Diamond’s death could also slow down the federal proceedings. Assistant US Attorney Laura Cramer-Babycz told Kane that prosecutors have not decided yet whether to file additional charges against Soliman.
Federal prosecutors allege the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual connection to Israel. But Soliman’s federal defense lawyers say he should not have been charged with hate crimes because the evidence shows he was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the political movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.
An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.
State prosecutors have identified 29 victims in the attack. Thirteen of them were physically injured, and the others were nearby and are considered victims because they could have been hurt. A dog was also injured in the attack, so Soliman has also been charged with animal cruelty.
Pentagon ends deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles
- A day later, police officers used flash bangs and shot projectiles as they pushed protesters through Little Tokyo, where bystanders and restaurant workers rushed to get out of their way
LOS ANGELES: The Pentagon said Tuesday it is ending the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, accounting for nearly half of the soldiers sent to the city to deal with protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines have been in the city since early June. It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the 60-day deployment to end suddenly, nor was it immediately clear how long the rest of the troops would stay in the region.
In late June, the top military commander in charge of troops deployed to LA had asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for 200 of them to be returned to wildfire fighting duty amid warnings from Newsom that the Guard was understaffed as California entered peak wildfire season.
The end of the deployment comes a week after federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived at MacArthur Park with guns and horses in an operation that ended abruptly. Although the US Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t explain the purpose of the operation or whether anyone had been arrested, local officials said it seemed designed to sow fear.
“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement in announcing the decision.
On June 8, thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to Trump’s deployment of the Guard, blocking off a major freeway as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd. Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire.
A day later, police officers used flash bangs and shot projectiles as they pushed protesters through Little Tokyo, where bystanders and restaurant workers rushed to get out of their way.
Mayor Karen Bass set a curfew in place for about a week that she said had successfully protected businesses and helped restore order. Demonstrations in the city and the region in recent weeks have been largely small impromptu protests around arrests.
Bass applauded the troops’ departure.
“This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today’s retreat,” she said in a statement, adding that “We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in LA, but throughout our country.”
On Tuesday afternoon, there was no visible military presence outside the federal complex downtown that had been the center of early protests and where National Guard troops first stood guard before the Marines were assigned to protect federal buildings. Hundreds of the soldiers have been accompanying agents on immigration operations.
President Donald Trump ordered the deployment against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sued to stop it.
Newsom sued to block Trump’s command of the California National Guard, arguing that Trump violated the law when he deployed the troops despite his opposition. He also argued that the National Guard troops were likely violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on US soil.
Newsom won an early victory in the case after a federal judge ruled the Guard deployment was illegal and exceeded Trump’s authority. But an appeals court tossed that order, and control of the troops remained with the federal government. The federal court is set to hear arguments next month on whether the troops are violating the Posse Comitatus Act.
The deployment of National Guard troops was for 60 days, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the discretion to shorten or extend it “to flexibly respond to the evolving situation on the ground,” the Trump administration’s lawyers wrote in a June 23 filing in the legal case.
Following the Pentagon’s decision Tuesday, Newsom said in a statement that the National Guard’s deployment to Los Angeles County has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work “to serve as political pawns for the President.”
He added that the remaining troops “continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities.”
“We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now,” he said.
Trump unveils investments to power AI boom
PITTSBURGH: US President Donald Trump went to Pennsylvania on Tuesday to announce $92 billion in energy and infrastructure deals intended to meet big tech’s soaring demand for electricity to fuel the AI boom.
Trump made the announcement at the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, with much of the talk about beating China in the global AI race.
“Today’s commitments are ensuring that the future is going to be designed, built and made right here in Pennsylvania and right here in Pittsburgh, and I have to say, right here in the United States of America,” Trump said at the event.
The tech world has fully embraced generative AI as the next wave of technology, but fears are growing that its massive electricity needs cannot be met by current infrastructure, particularly in the United States.
Generative AI requires enormous computing power, mainly to run the energy-hungry processors from Nvidia, the California-based company that has become the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization.
Officials expect that by 2028, tech companies will need as much as five gigawatts of power for AI — enough electricity to power roughly five million homes.
Top executives from Palantir, Anthropic, Exxon and Chevron attended the event.
The funding will cover new data centers, power generation, grid infrastructure, AI training, and apprenticeship programs.
Among investments, Google committed $25 billion to build AI-ready data centers in Pennsylvania and surrounding regions.
“We support President Trump’s clear and urgent direction that our nation invest in AI... so that America can continue to lead in AI,” said Ruth Porat, Google’s president and chief investment officer.
The search engine giant also announced a partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to modernize two hydropower facilities in Pennsylvania, representing 670 MW of capacity on the regional grid.
Investment group Blackstone pledged more than $25 billion to fund new data centers and energy infrastructure.
US Senator David McCormick, from Pennsylvania, said the investments “are of enormous consequence to Pennsylvania, but they are also crucial to the future of the nation.”
His comments reflect the growing sentiment in Washington that the United States must not lose ground to China in the race to develop AI.
“We are way ahead of China and the plants are starting up, the construction is starting up,” Trump said.
The US president launched the “Stargate” project in January, aimed at investing up to $500 billion in US AI infrastructure — primarily in response to growing competition with China.
Japanese tech investor SoftBank, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, and Oracle are investing $100 billion in the initial phase.
Trump has also reversed many policies adopted by the previous Biden administration that imposed checks on developing powerful AI algorithms and limits on exports of advanced technology to certain allied countries.
He is expected to outline his own blueprint for AI advancement later this month.
UK union leaders say Met police charges against Palestine activists an attack on right to protest
- In January, the Metropolitan Police arrested over 70 people in a pro-Palestine protest, including several prominent activists
- Union leaders called for the Met to drop charges against former NEU executive member, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
LONDON: Over 20 prominent union leaders in the UK have raised concerns about the erosion of the right to peaceful protest in the country and about the Metropolitan Police’s handling of pro-Palestinian marches.
The 22 trade union leaders criticized in a joint statement on Tuesday the Met’s decision to charge former union members who were arrested during a London protest in solidarity with Palestine.
The Met arrested over 70 people in a pro-Palestine protest on Jan. 18 in London. Among those detained were Alex Kenny, a former executive member of the National Education Union; Sophie Bolt, the general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign; and Chris Nineham, the vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition.
The union leaders referred to the arrests and charges against Kenny and Bolt as a threat to the right to protest.
“Alex Kenny is a long-standing, and widely respected, trade union activist who has organised peaceful demonstrations in London for decades,” they said in a statement.
“We believe these charges are an attack on our right to protest. The right to protest is fundamental to trade unions and the wider movement. The freedoms to organise, of assembly and of speech matter; we must defend them,” they added.
They called for the Met to drop charges against Kenny, Bolt, Nineham, and Jamal.
The signatories include Paul Nowak from the Trades Union Congress, Christina McAnea from Unison, Daniel Kebede from the NEU, Matt Wrack from the Teachers’ Union, Dave Ward of the Communication Workers Union, Mick Whelan of the train drivers’ union ASLEF, and Eddie Dempsey from the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.
They said the decision to charge Kenny and Bolt follows the prosecution of Nineham and Jamal.
Amnesty International, along with dozens of legal experts, expressed concerns over the Met’s handling of the pro-Palestine protest in January, with some describing the arrests as “a disproportionate, unwarranted and dangerous assault on the right to assembly and protest.”
At the protest, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell were interviewed under caution and released pending further investigations. MPs and peers have also called on Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to review protest legislation introduced by the former Conservative government.
