Category: Global

Investigators looking into the recent Air India crash are now reviewing the pilots’ medical records following reports that the captain may have been struggling with depression and mental health issues.

According to media reports, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was under the control of Captain Sumit Sabharwal at the time of the incident, who had logged over 8,200 flight hours in his career.

A leading aviation safety expert in India, however, revealed that several Air India pilots have confirmed Captain Sabharwal had been dealing with mental health problems. They claimed he had taken medical leave and a break from flying over the past three to four years, but was cleared to fly again by Air India before the crash.

The tragic accident occurred on June 12, when Air India Flight 171 crashed just moments after take-off. Reports state that two fuel switches in the cockpit were turned off shortly after departure, causing both engines to shut down and the aircraft to plummet to the ground.

Experts note that these fuel switches have a locking mechanism and need to be lifted before they can be turned off, making it unlikely they were accidentally switched off.

The investigation is now focusing on the pilot’s behaviour and mental state. 

The Air India plane crashed into a residential area, killing 241 passengers on board as well as 19 people on the ground. The probe is ongoing as investigators look deeper into potential lapses in medical clearance and cockpit procedures.

James Gunn’s new Superman movie has sparked discussions on its political implications, particularly a scene featuring a military assault across borders that some viewers have likened to the Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

One user wrote on X, “Y’all were not kidding about how anti-Israel and pro-Palestine that Superman movie was, and they were not slick with it AT ALL.”

In the scene, an armed force enters a neighbouring territory and targets civilians, including children.

While the film does not specify any actual countries, numerous individuals on X have asserted that the scene mirrors occurrences in Gaza. Certain posts indicated that the message was quite clear, with one user labeling it “blatantly anti-Israel.”

Another comment read, “Superman was so openly anti-Israel and god it was so good.”
A third added, “Not going to lie I really like the anti-Israel sentiment from Superman and now I know James Gunn is always standing on business.”

The movie sets its conflict in two made-up nations Boravia and Jarhanpur. Although this approach is common in superhero movies, audiences have perceived the scenario as a reflection of actual global issues.

The director has not confirmed any direct inspiration from current events.

James Gunn has said in interviews that the film includes themes about power, ethics, and the idea of Superman as an outsider.

He has described Superman’s identity as an immigrant story, shaped by the experience of arriving in a world where he doesn’t fully belong. This framing has led to mixed responses. Some U.S. commentators have described the approach as political.

Gunn, when asked about the criticism, dismissed it, saying he would not change his approach to please audiences who disagree with the message.

Superman marks the beginning of a new storyline under DC Studios, with David Corenswet in the lead role. The cast includes Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Isabela Merced and Nathan Fillion. The film earned $217 million globally in its opening weekend. Domestic sales reached $122 million in the U.S. and Canada, while international markets added $95 million.

Fuel control switches to the engines of an Air India flight that crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 260 people, were moved from the “run” to the “cutoff” position moments before impact, a preliminary investigation report said early Saturday.

The report, issued by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), did not offer any conclusions or apportion blame for the June 12 disaster, but indicated that one pilot asked the other why he cut off fuel, and the second pilot responded that he had not.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was headed from Ahmedabad in western India to London when it crashed, killing all but one of the 242 people on board as well as 19 people on the ground.

In its 15-page report, the investigation bureau said that once the aircraft achieved its top recorded speed, “the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec”.

“In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so,” it said.

The aircraft quickly began to lose altitude.

The switches then returned to the “RUN” position and the engines appeared to be gathering power, but “one of the pilots transmitted ‘MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY’”, the report said.

Air traffic controllers asked the pilots what was wrong, but then saw the plane crashing and called emergency personnel to the scene.

– Investigation ongoing –

Earlier this week, specialist website The Air Current, citing multiple sources familiar with the probe, reported it had “narrowed its focus to the movement of the engine fuel switches”, while noting that full analysis will “take months — if not longer”.

It added that “the focus of the investigators could change during that time”.

The Indian agency’s report said that the US Federal Aviation Administration had issued an information bulletin in 2018 about “the potential disengagement of the fuel control switch locking feature”.

Though the concern was not considered an “unsafe condition” that would warrant a more serious directive, Air India told investigators it did not carry out suggested inspections as they were “advisory and not mandatory”.

Air India was compliant with all airworthiness directives and alert service bulletins on the aircraft, the report said.

The investigations bureau said there were “no recommended actions to B787-8 and/or GE GEnx-1B engine operators and manufacturers”, suggesting no technical issues with the engines (GE) or the aircraft (Boeing).

The bureau said the investigation was ongoing, and that additional evidence and information has been “sought from the stakeholders”.

Boeing said in a statement it will “continue to support the investigation and our customer”, adding “our thoughts remain” with those affected by the disaster.

Air India said it was “working closely with stakeholders, including regulators.”

“We continue to fully cooperate with the AAIB and other authorities as their investigation progresses,” it said in a statement on X.

The UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) stipulates that states heading an investigation must submit a preliminary report within 30 days of an accident.

US and British air accident investigators have taken part in the probe.

The plane was carrying 230 passengers — 169 Indians, 53 British, seven Portuguese and a Canadian — along with 12 crew members.

Dozens of people on the ground were injured.

One passenger miraculously survived, a British citizen who was seen walking out of the wreckage of the crash, and who has since been discharged from hospital.

Health officials in the Indian state of Gujarat initially said at least 279 people were killed, but forensic scientists reduced the figure after multiple scattered and badly burnt remains were identified.

A dog’s frantic barking in the middle of the night saved the lives of over 60 people in a remote Himalayan village before a massive landslide destroyed their homes on June 30, 2025.

Residents of Siyathi village in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district shared that their five-month-old dog began barking around 1am as heavy rainfall triggered a slope collapse that swept away at least a dozen houses.

“I woke up from the barking,” a villager named Narendra told an Indian media outlet. “As I went to him, I saw a big crack in the wall of the house, and water had started to enter. I ran downstairs with the dog and woke everyone up.”

Narendra ran door to door alerting neighbours, giving them just enough time to escape before their homes were buried under mud and debris. The landslide levelled the area, leaving only a few houses standing.

Villagers credited the dog, who was adopted just weeks ago, for warning them in time to flee to safety. The 67 people, belonging to about 20 families, are now staying at the Naina Devi temple, according to local reports. The Himachal Pradesh government has given each household ₹10,000 (£100) in immediate relief.

This tragedy is part of the widespread destruction caused by the intense monsoon across the region. Since June 20, at least 78 people have died in Himachal Pradesh in rain-related incidents such as cloudbursts, flash floods and landslides, according to the state disaster management authority. 

Mandi is among the worst-hit districts, recording 19 cloudbursts and 16 landslides in just over two weeks. More than 150 roads remain blocked and hundreds of homes have been damaged or destroyed.

Rescuers in Texas raced against time to find dozens of missing people, including children, swept away by flash floods that killed more than 80 people, with forecasters warning of new deluges.

US President Donald Trump said he would “probably” visit the southern state on Friday.

Trump brushed off concerns his administration’s wide-ranging cuts to weather forecasting and related federal agencies had left local warning systems worse off.

Instead, he described the flash floods as a “100-year catastrophe” that “nobody expected.”

At least 40 adults and 28 children were killed in the worst-hit Kerr County in central Texas, Sheriff Larry Leitha said Sunday, while nearby areas showed at least 13 more people were killed by flooding.

“Across the state, in all the areas affected by flooding, there are 41 known missing,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Sunday.

As questions grew about why warnings did not come sooner or people were not evacuated earlier in the area popular with campers, Trump said the situation was a “Biden setup.”

“That was not our setup,” Trump told reporters on Sunday, adding that he would “not” hire back meteorologists when probed about staff and budget cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS).

Asked about whether he would change his plans to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he responded: “FEMA is something we can talk about later.”

Trump, who previously said disaster relief should be handled at the state-level, also signed a major disaster declaration, activating FEMA and freeing up resources for Texas.

– Missing girls –

Around 17 helicopters joined the search in central Texas for missing people, including 10 girls and a counselor from a riverside Christian summer camp where about 750 people had been staying when disaster struck.

In a terrifying display of nature’s power, the rain-swollen waters of the Guadalupe River reached treetops and the roofs of cabins in Camp Mystic as girls slept overnight Friday, washing away some of them and leaving a scene of devastation.

Blankets, teddy bears and other belongings at the camp were caked in mud. Windows in the cabins were shattered, apparently by the force of the water.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned Sunday that slow-moving thunderstorms threatened more flash floods over the saturated ground of central Texas.

Governor Abbott warned that heavy rainfall could “lead to potential flash flooding” in Kerrville and surrounding areas, as officials cautioned people against going near the swollen river and its creeks.

The flooding began at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend as months’ worth of rain fell in a matter of hours, much of it coming overnight as people slept.

The Guadalupe surged around 26 feet (eight meters) — more than a two-story building — in just 45 minutes.

– ‘Washed away’ –

Flash floods, which occur when the ground is unable to absorb torrential rainfall, are not unusual in this region of south and central Texas, known colloquially as “Flash Flood Alley.”

Human-driven climate change has made extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and heat waves more frequent and more intense in recent years.

Officials said while rescue operations were ongoing, they were also starting the process of debris removal.

“There’s debris all over the place that makes roads impassable, that makes reconstruction projects unachievable,” Abbott said.

People from elsewhere in the state converged on Kerr County to help look for the missing.

Texans also started flying personal drones to help look but local officials urged them to stop, citing a danger for rescue aircraft.

One of the searches focused on four young women who were staying in a house that was washed away by the river. Adam Durda and his wife Amber, both 45, drove three hours to help.

“There was a group of 20-year-olds that were in a house that had gotten washed away,” Durda told AFP.

“That’s who the family requested help for, but of course, we’re looking for anybody.”

Justin Morales, 36, was part of a search team that found three bodies, including that of a Camp Mystic girl caught up in a tree.

“We’re happy to give a family closure and hopefully we can keep looking and find some of the… you know, whoever,” he told AFP.

“Help give some of those families closure. That’s why we’re out here.”

BRICS has declared Gaza, illegally controlled by Israel since 1967, an “inseparable part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The intergovernmental organisation, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as full members since 2009.

In a joint statement released on Sunday, the bloc stressed the need to unify the West Bank and Gaza under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

The declaration reaffirmed “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination”, including the right to their independent State of Palestine.

Expressing “grave concern” over Israel’s committing a genocide against Palestinians and the blocking of humanitarian aid in Gaza, the bloc condemned the use of starvation as a method of warfare.

The statement said, “We urge the parties to engage in good faith in further negotiations to achieve an immediate, permanent, and unconditional ceasefire, the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and all other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the release of all hostages and detainees held in violation of international law, and sustained and unhindered access and delivery of humanitarian aid.”

The BRICS countries emphasised that Palestinians must play a central role in the reconstruction of Palestine and expressed opposition to any policy that would lead to the forced displacement of Palestinians or any demographic changes in the region.

The bloc further expressed its support for the full membership of the State of Palestine in the United Nations and its “unwavering commitment” to a two-state solution.

Since October 2023, Israel has intensified its attacks on civilians in Gaza under a genocide against Palestinians, resulting in over 57,400 deaths, most of them women and children

BRICS condemns attacks on Iran

The bloc also condemned last month’s attacks on Iran, calling military strikes against Iran a violation of international law and the UN Charter.

“We condemn the military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran since June 13, 2025, which constitute a violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and express grave concern over the subsequent escalation of the security situation in the Middle East,” the joint declaration read.

On June 13, Israel carried out illegal strikes in Iran’s cities, killing its top commander, nuclear scientist and civilians.

Tehran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes, and the conflict ended with a US-brokered ceasefire that took effect on June 24.

BRICS held its first summit in 2009. The member states are reportedly responsible for 26 per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).