Connect with us

Published

on

KATHMANDU – At least 68 people were killed on Sunday when a domestic flight crashed in Pokhara in Nepal, a Nepal aviation authority official said, in the worst air crash in three decades in the small Himalayan nation.

Hundreds of rescue workers were scouring the hillside where the Yeti Airlines flight, carrying 72 people from the capital Kathmandu, went down. The weather was clear, said Mr Jagannath Niroula, spokesman for Nepals Civil Aviation Authority.

As night fell, Mr Niroula said the search for four more still missing would resume on Monday.

Local TV showed rescue workers scrambling around broken sections of the aircraft. Some of the ground near the crash site was scorched, with licks of flames visible.

The crash is Nepals deadliest since 1992, the Aviation Safety Network database showed, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A300 crashed into a hillside upon approach to Kathmandu, killing all 167 people on board.

The aircraft made contact with the airport from Seti Gorge at 0505 GMT (1.05pm in Singapore), the aviation authority said. Then it crashed.

Half of the plane is on the hillside, said Mr Arun Tamu, a local resident, who said he reached the site minutes after the plane went down. The other half has fallen into the gorge of the Seti river.

Mr Khum Bahadur Chhetri said he watched from the roof of his house as the flight approached.

I saw the plane trembling, moving left and right, and then suddenly its nose dived and it went into the gorge, Mr Chhetri told Reuters, adding that local residents took two passengers to a hospital.

The government has set up a panel to investigate the cause of the crash, and it is expected to report within 45 days, Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel told reporters.

Among the 72 passengers were two infants, four crew members and 15 foreign nationals, said airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula.

The plane had five Indians, four Russians, one Irish, two South Koreans, one Australian, one French and one Argentinian onboard, a Nepal airport official said. Remote video URL The plane was 15 years old, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

The ATR72 is a widely used twin engine turboprop plane manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus and Italys Leonardo. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, according to its website.

ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer, the company said on Twitter, adding that its first thoughts were for those affected, after having been informed of the accident.

Local television showed thick black smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage of the aircraft. Embed Twitter Tweet URL Air accidents are not uncommon in Nepal, home to eight of the worlds 14 highest mountains, including Everest, as the weather can change suddenly and make for hazardous conditions.

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called an emergency Cabinet meeting after the plane crash, a government statement said.

Nepals air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers. But it has been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance. The ATR 72 aircraft was flying to Pokhara from Kathmandu when it crashed in the Pokhara city of Kaski district. PHOTOS: PARAS156/TWITTER The European Union has banned all Nepali carriers from its airspace over safety concerns.

The Himalayan country also has some of the worlds most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge even for accomplished pilots.

Aircraft operators say Nepal lacks infrastructure for accurate weather forecasts, especially in remote areas with challenging mountainous terrain, where deadly crashes have taken place in the past. In May 2022, all 22 people on board a plane operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air 16 Nepalis, four Indians and two Germans died when it crashed.

Air traffic control lost contact with the twin-propeller Twin Otter shortly after it took off from Pokhara and headed for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination.

Its wreckage was found a day later, strewn across a mountainside at an altitude of around 4,400m.

About 60 people were involved in the search mission, most of whom trekked uphill for miles to get there.

After that crash, the authorities tightened regulations, including that planes would only be cleared to fly only if there was favourable weather forecast throughout the route.

In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines plane crash-landed near Kathmandus notoriously difficult international airport, killing 51 people.

That accident was Nepals deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu.

Just two months earlier, a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people. REUTERS, AFP More On This Topic Deadly aircraft crashes common in mountainous Nepal Small plane crashes into residential area of Colombian city: Mayor

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Molly-Mae Hague: New documentary will ‘answer a lot of questions’ about Tommy Fury split

Published

on

By

Molly-Mae Hague: New documentary will 'answer a lot of questions' about Tommy Fury split

Molly-Mae Hague has said her new fly-on-the-wall documentary will “answer a lot of questions” surrounding her recent break-up with Tommy Fury.

The couple, who met during the 2019 series of ITV2 reality show Love Island, announced they were going separate ways in August last year.

The split sparked rumours that Fury, 25, had cheated on Hague, also 25, which he later denied.

Speaking at the launch of the first three episodes of a new Amazon Prime documentary Molly-Mae: Behind It All, the influencer said she is “very honest” about the breakdown of her relationship with the boxer, which she said has been “incredibly hard”.

“It is real life,” Hague said. “Tommy and I have a baby together, and it’s a really hard thing that we have both gone through.”

Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury. Pic: Hannah Young/Shutterstock
Image:
Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury. Pic: Hannah Young/Shutterstock

The couple have faced scrutiny that the break-up may have been a publicity stunt, as it coincided with the launch of Hague’s clothing line, Maebe and Fury’s book, Lightning Can Strike Twice: My Life as a Fury.

They were then pictured celebrating New Year’s Eve together, leading to fans speculating if they had got back together.

When questioned on it, Hague said accusations their break-up was planned is the most “frustrating thing”.

“I wish it could have been a publicity stunt because it would have been a lot easier,” she said.

“Going through all of this with the turmoil of a break-up has been incredibly hard, to have those comments, and I do see the comments, I see all of them.”

Molly-Mae

She added: “Our relationship has always been in the public eye but to deal with this break-up with millions of eyes watching it is hard and it is complicated.

“The reason why I don’t comment on it or speak about it on my YouTube publicly is simply because we are both navigating it ourselves, we both are figuring it out as adults and parents.

“I really do think the documentary is going to answer a lot of questions and we do touch on [the New Year’s] situation. The last thing I want is any confusion, and I don’t want people to feel confused by things that are going on.

Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury split after five years together
Image:
The couple share one-year-old daughter Bambi

“When I agreed to do this documentary I agreed to do it fully, the highs, lows, good days and bad days it has all got to be in there.”

It comes as Fury told Men’s Health that the reason behind their break-up was because he had a “problem with alcohol”.

“I couldn’t be the partner that I wanted to be anymore,” he told the magazine, adding: “Cheating was never a thing. You can ask Molly this yourself. It was the drink, and the drink is not a good thing.”

‘I did struggle with motherhood’

The new documentary also gives viewers behind-the-scenes access to Hague figuring out how to juggle being a mother to one-year-old Bambi, who she shares with Fury, and launching a new business.

“It’s not a secret that I did struggle at the start of my motherhood journey,” Hague said.

“It’s been an ongoing struggle for me, but right now I am in such an incredible place with being a mum and motherhood is all I could have dreamed of.

Molly-Mae documentary
Image:
Cameras followed the influencer for five months for the documentary

“I really want to work on my fashion brand this year and focus on being a mum. I want to leave a lot of the things that happened last year in last year and focus on the positives.”

She added that ahead of the documentary coming out, she feels like she needs to get her “thick skin into play”.

Read more from Sky News:
Tommy Fury reveals real reason for split
Singer Linda Nolan dies
Trainee gas engineer, 20, wins £7.5m

“These three episodes are what they are, and I hope [the public] enjoy them. The reason we did the series in two drops was because a lot of the things we touch on in the first three episodes are very current and ongoing, and it is real life and I really wanted to share the honesty with my audience and explain things to them.

“It just felt like the right thing to do.”

Molly-Mae: Behind It All episodes 1-3 launch exclusively on Prime Video on 17 January. The latter three episodes will drop in spring 2025.

Continue Reading

Politics

Sir Keir Starmer to sign 100-year ‘friendship’ deal with Ukraine in first Kyiv visit since becoming PM

Published

on

By

Sir Keir Starmer to sign 100-year 'friendship' deal with Ukraine in first Kyiv visit since becoming PM

Keir Starmer will sign a century-long partnership with Ukraine today, as the prime minister makes his first visit to the war-torn country in an effort to shore up support for Kyiv – just days ahead of the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House.

Sir Keir said the 100-year agreement underpinned Britain’s “steadfast support” for Ukraine as he reiterated European unity in the face of Russian aggression. The treaty and political declaration will be laid in parliament in the coming weeks.

“Putin’s ambition to wrench Ukraine away for its closest partners has been a monumental strategic failure. Instead, we are closer than ever and this partnership will take that friendship to the next level,” said the prime minister.

“The power of our long-term friendships cannot be underestimated. Supporting Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s barbaric invasion and rebuild a prosperous, sovereign future, is vital to the government’s security and Plan for Change.”

War latest: Moscow ‘planned terror attacks’ on airlines across world

The PM’s visit is part of a wider effort on the part of European leaders to shore up support for Kyiv as they ramp up discussions over regional security ahead of the handover of power in Washington. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland on Wednesday.

The flurry of diplomatic activity comes as the conflict between Ukraine and Russia has intensified ahead of the inauguration of president-elect Trump, with Vladimir Putin trying to take as much territory as possible ahead of expected peace talks.

More from Politics

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s state energy company was forced into emergency cuts after a massive Russian military attack.

Russia controls around a fifth of Ukraine after nearly three years of war and says any deal to end the conflict must take that into account.

In September 2022, it proclaimed four regions that it only partly controls as part of its own territory, which was condemned by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) as an “attempted illegal annexation”.

While President Joe Biden was steadfast in the US’s continuing support of Ukraine’s military effort, Trump has made it clear he wants to end the conflict quickly, hastening discussions about what a settlement might look like between Kyiv and Moscow.

In November, President Zelenskyy said for the first time in an interview with Sky News that Ukraine was prepared to temporarily cede territory to Russia to end the war if the conflict was frozen along current lines.

He added after a ceasefire was agreed, Kyiv could negotiate for the return of seized territory.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to Sky’s Stuart Ramsay in Kyiv back in November about how a ceasefire could work.

Sir Keir has also changed his tone, from insisting allies must “double down” on support for Ukraine for “as long as it takes” at the November G20 summit, to saying British policy was now “to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position for negotiations”.

The prime minister will want to reiterate to President Zelenskyy that nothing is off the table, as the duo discuss the ongoing conflict, the impending Trump presidency and what a settlement could look like.

As part of the partnership deal, the UK will bolster military collaboration on maritime security through a new framework to strengthen the Baltic, Black and Azov seas.

President Zelenskyy has reportedly told journalists the two leaders will discuss the possibility of British troops joining a post-war peacekeeping force, as other European leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron – who visited the PM at his Chequers country residence last week – and Tusk have similar conversations.

Ukraine relies on US support to continue the conflict, given it provides the bulk of military aid. But Trump has made it clear he is reluctant to keep funding the war, saying during the election campaign he would end it “within 24 hours” of taking office.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is greeted by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as he arrives in Downing Street, London, ahead of meetings with the Prime Minister and Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, at number 10. Picture date: Thursday October 10, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story POLITICS Ukraine. Photo credit should read: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire
Image:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Downing Street back in October.

He has subsequently acknowledged that ending the conflict will be more difficult, but his administration is keen to press ahead: Trump has said he will arrange a call with Putin soon after his inauguration on 20 January, while the new US envoy to Ukraine, retired lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, said last week he wanted a solution to the war in the first 100 days of office.

The discussion around peacekeeping forces is part of a wider conversation among European allies about what security guarantees should be put in place for Ukraine, including buffer zones and the threat of more weapons for Ukraine in the absence of NATO membership.

Read more:
Starmer rules out emergency budget
PM says government will ‘look at way’ to stop Adams payout

President Zelenskyy has said any guarantees must be backed up by the US as the prospect of a NATO membership invitation fades from view.

Ukraine becoming a member of NATO is a clear red line for Moscow, with Putin describing Kyiv joining the security alliance as “an unacceptable threat”.

Last week, Trump acknowledged Moscow’s longstanding opposition to Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO, given it would mean “Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I can understand their feeling about that”.

European leaders are concerned Trump will force Ukraine into an unjust peace deal, and they will be shut out of the negotiations which will shape the security of the continent for many years.

NATO chief Mark Rutte last month cautioned Trump over his plans for a peace deal, warning it would lead to the West’s enemies “high fiving” and would only serve to embolden China, North Korea and Iran.

The PM has come under criticism from Conservative rivals for not visiting Ukraine sooner, with former defence secretary Grant Shapps saying he was “astonished” is has taken the PM six months in power to visit the country.

However, Sir Keir has met the Ukrainian leader six times, as well as hosting him twice at Number 10 since taking office in July.

Continue Reading

World

Biden warns of an ‘oligarchy’ of wealth and power threatening US democracy

Published

on

By

Biden warns of an 'oligarchy' of wealth and power threatening US democracy

President Joe Biden has warned of a “dangerous concentration of power” among a few wealthy people in the United States in his farewell address to the nation.

Without naming president-elect Donald Trump, Mr Biden said: “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that really threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

During his speech from the Oval Office in the White House, the president said there was “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy people” and warned of “dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked”.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Joe Biden’s farewell speech in full

Although he did not give names, some of the world’s richest individuals and tech titans have flocked to Mr Trump’s side, particularly since his election win in November.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, spent more than $100m helping Mr Trump get elected, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have also donated to Mr Trump’s inauguration.

Pic: AP
Image:
Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Pic: AP

While Mr Biden was giving his speech, Mr Trump, Mr Musk and vice president-elect JD Vance dined with Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella at Mar-a-Lago, according to news outlet Semafor.

During his address Mr Biden also warned of a “tech-industrial complex” he said was bringing an “avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power”, following social media company Meta scrapping its fact-checking programme in the US and loosening its hate speech guidelines.

The president said the US Constitution should be amended to say no president should have immunity for crimes committed in office, after the Supreme Court granted Mr Trump protection last year from criminal liability over his role in trying to undermine his loss to Mr Biden in 2020.

Analysis: Trump doing his best to undermine Biden as outgoing president tries to polish his legacy

Biden takes credit for Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal

Mr Biden also took credit for the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that will see the release of Israeli hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team, and it will be largely implemented by the incoming administration,” he said.

“That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be – working together as Americans.”

He made the remarks after Mr Trump claimed credit for the breakthrough in negotiations

During his farewell speech Mr Biden said: “It will take time to feel the impact of all we’ve done together, but the seeds are planted and they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come.”

President Joe Biden, left, and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speak about the administration's efforts to lower prescription drug costs during an event at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Md., Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Image:
Mr Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris. Pic: AP

Mr Biden beat Mr Trump to become president in 2020, but decided to run for re-election in 2024 at the unprecedented age of 80.

He was later forced out of the race following a disastrous debate with Mr Trump and his replacement, Vice President Kamala Harris, went on to lose every battleground state to Mr Trump.

Continue Reading

Trending