World

US investigators believe someone on board deliberately crashed a China Eastern flight in March, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, in what was China’s deadliest air disaster in decades.

China Eastern flight MU5375 was travelling from Kunming to Guangzhou on March 21 when it inexplicably plunged from an altitude of 29,000 feet into a mountainside, killing all 132 people on board.

So-called black box flight data recorders recovered from the site were sent to the United States for analysis. 

That data shows that someone — possibly a pilot or someone who had forced their way into the cockpit — input orders to send the Boeing 737-800 into a nosedive, according to Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the probe. 

“The plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit,” the Journal quoted “a person who is familiar with American officials’ preliminary assessment” as saying. 

US officials believe their conclusion is backed up by the fact that Chinese investigators have so far not indicated any problems with the aircraft or flight controls that could have caused the crash and would need to be addressed in future flights, the newspaper said. 

Both the US National Transportation Safety Board and Boeing declined to comment on the investigation to AFP Tuesday. 

According to a report from Boeing, investigators found no evidence of “anything abnormal,” China’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) said in April.

In a statement, the CAAC said staff had met safety requirements before takeoff, the plane was not carrying dangerous goods and did not appear to have run into inclement weather, though the agency said a full investigation could take years.

In the immediate aftermath of the crash, China’s ruling Communist Party moved quickly to control information, revving up its censorship machine as media outlets and local residents raced to the crash site.

It has maintained its tight grip over the narrative, with the preliminary probe leaving key questions unanswered.

After the fatal descent near the southern city of Wuzhou, authorities swiftly cordoned off a huge area and China’s internet regulator announced it had scrubbed vast amounts of “illegal information” on the crash from China’s tightly controlled web.

A social media hashtag bearing the plane’s flight number appeared to be censored.

The crash was China’s deadliest in around 30 years and dented the country’s otherwise enviable flight safety record.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday called out what he branded the “poison” of white supremacist ideology behind a deadly mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, and said that racism is being stoked for political gain.

Speaking in the city where a white teen is accused of murdering 10 African Americans in a neighborhood supermarket, Biden said: “What happened here is simple and straightforward terrorism. Domestic terrorism.”

“White supremacy is a poison running through our body politic and it’s been allowed to fester right in front of our eyes,” Biden said, condemning “those who spread the lie for power, for political gain and for profit.”

In a searing speech that also called for restrictions on ownership of assault-style rifles, Biden listed the victims, fighting tears as he recounted how one of the dead, named as 53-year-old Andre Mackniel, had been buying a birthday cake for his three-year-old son when the gunman entered the store.

Biden’s harshest comments were directed at what he described as the “perverse ideology” of white supremacists that police say inspired the shooter.

In a manifesto, the alleged mass killer referred to the so-called “replacement theory” which claims the existence of a leftist plot to overwhelm the white population with non-white immigrants.

Biden described “a hate that through the media and politics (and) the internet has radicalized angry, alienated, lost and isolated individuals into falsely believing that they will be replaced — that’s the word, replaced — by ‘the other.'”

“No more. I mean no more. We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America,” he said to applause.

– ‘Soul of the nation’ –

Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old murder suspect, planned the shooting for months — and scoped out the location ahead of time, according to a stream of posts attributed to him on social media sites.

Gendron first wrote about killing Black people in December and decided to target the Buffalo store based on its large surrounding African American population, according to US media analysis of hundreds of pages of messages.

Earlier Tuesday, Biden and his wife Jill Biden laid a bouquet at a makeshift memorial outside the supermarket where the slaughter took place.

A strong breeze tugged at balloons and flowers piled under a tree while the Bidens paid their respects, the president making the sign of the cross before giving way to a delegation of elected officials laying their own bouquets.

Biden then went into private meetings with relatives of the victims and first responders, where the White House said he was offering “condolences and comfort.”

The replacement narrative is a conspiracy theory that, like bizarre QAnon beliefs, has spread from the furthest fringes of society to surprisingly mainstream areas — most notably Tucker Carlson’s enormously influential nightly talk show on Fox News.

The White House has steadfastly refused to join some who directly blame Carlson and several prominent Republicans for promoting the theory and, by extension, bearing responsibility for violent white supremacist attacks.

However, Biden’s strong comments in Buffalo left little doubt that he was referring not just to the actual shooter but the powerful voices spreading the ideology.

“Democracy is in a danger like it hasn’t been in my lifetime,” he said. “Hate and fear have been given too much oxygen by those who pretend to love America. They don’t understand America.”

“Now’s the time for people of all races, of every background, to speak up as a majority of America and reject white supremacy,” he said. “We can’t allow them to destroy the soul of the nation.”

Members of American band Eagles of Death Metal testified Tuesday at the trial for the November 2015 attacks on Paris which saw gunmen attack the Bataclan concert hall while the rockers were playing.

Frontman Jesse Hughes and guitarist Eden Galindo arrived at the court complex in central Paris dressed in black suits before going on to describe how their gig six and half years ago changed their lives forever. 

Hughes told reporters outside that he had finally forgiven the Islamic State extremists who killed 90 people at the concert during the worst terror attack on France in modern history.

“I’m a Christian and everyone can be lost and everyone needs to find the way and most of the gentlemen in there do, so I forgive them and I hope that they find the peace of God themselves,” the 49-year-old told reporters.

France’s biggest-ever criminal trial is hearing evidence against the only surviving member of the suicide team that targeted restaurants, bars, the national sports stadium and the Bataclan, leaving 130 people dead in total. 

Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested in Belgium after five months on the run, has explained how he abandoned plans to blow himself up and has apologised to victims.

His tearful appeal for forgiveness last month contrasted with his defiance at the start of the trial when he refused to acknowledge the authority of the judge or answer questions.

Nearly 20 others are answering charges ranging from providing logistical support to planning the attacks, as well as supplying weapons.

Verdicts are expected on June 29.

– ‘Worked through it’ –

Hughes told the court that he recognised the sound of gunfire instantly when the three gunmen with suicide vests burst in mid-show and said he “knew death was upon us”.

“Nearly 90 of my friends were murdered in front of us,” he said, referring to the fans killed.

He fled the scene in a taxi with his girlfriend to the local police station, only later learning that the band’s merchandising manager, Nick Alexander, was among the deceased. 

But he said the attackers had not succeeded in their goal of depriving people of the joy they feel from listening to music.

“You can’t kill rock’n’roll,” he said, quoting fellow rocker Ozzy Osbourne.

After his brief appearance in the witness box, he embraced emotional witnesses and victims who were following proceedings during the packed hearing, ending up in tears himself.

“I have a great family of friends as the result of this. Quite possibly some of the most beautiful things I have ever seen has been the result of this,” he told reporters after the hearing.

Galindo, 52, told the court the hard-rockers were enjoying a “great show” and he at first thought the gunfire was a sound system malfunction.

After describing his personal struggles since the attacks, he said he thought about the victims and their families every day.

“I’ll never be the same,” he said.

Hughes, who was a supporter of former US president Donald Trump, is a controversial figure in France after suggesting in the aftermath of the attacks that Muslim security staff were involved and that Muslims were celebrating outside the venue.

He was barred from the Bataclan re-opening concert in 2016 as a result.

He later apologised for his remarks and withdrew them, saying he had been struggling from nightmares and mental health problems at the time.

“Of course, I was waiting for this testimony and I was happy to see someone who is finally trying to find a certain form of inner peace, and it was a dignified testimony today,” Olivier Laplaud, a survivor of the attack, told AFP. 

Asked why he was now ready to forgive the attackers, Hughes told reporters: “I was never out of the mood of forgiveness. But I’ve just worked through it.”

The UK government on Tuesday unveiled a plan to drastically overhaul post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, arguing the changes are needed to end political paralysis in the divided territory.

But the European Union, defending the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol and the integrity of its vast single market, vowed reprisals if Britain pushes ahead with its unilateral plans.

London said it would introduce legislation reforming the protocol “in the coming weeks” — unless Brussels caves on its refusal to renegotiate the pact.

The protocol was agreed as part of Britain’s Brexit divorce deal with the European Union, recognising Northern Ireland’s status as a fragile, post-conflict territory that shares the UK’s new land border with the European Union.

Its requirement for checks on goods arriving from England, Scotland and Wales has infuriated pro-UK unionists in Northern Ireland. 

They claim the protocol is undermining their place within the UK, and are refusing to join a new power-sharing government in Belfast following elections this month.

The UK plan would scrap most of the checks, but the government denied it was trashing international law by abrogating a key element of the Brexit deal agreed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2019.

“I think the higher duty of the UK government in international law is to the (1998) Good Friday Agreement and the peace process,” Johnson told reporters.

“We don’t want to nix it (the protocol), we want to fix it, and we will work with our EU partners to do it,” he said.

– ‘Rogue state’ –

But the EU issued no hint of compromise, after warning that any UK violation of the Brexit pact could see it hit back with swingeing tariffs.

“Unilateral actions contradicting an international agreement are not acceptable,” European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said.

The UK plan “raises significant concerns”, he added, warning that the EU “will need to respond with all measures at its disposal” if London goes ahead.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney called the UK step “damaging to trust”.

Johnson, however, said a trade war was unlikely — and the UK can ill-afford one, at a time when its people are grappling with the worst inflationary crisis in a generation.

“But what we have to fix is the problems with the Northern Ireland political situation, where you can’t get the executive up and running,” he said, a day after visiting Belfast for talks with Northern Ireland’s main parties.

The largest pro-British party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), says it will not share power with pro-Irish rivals Sinn Fein until the protocol is reworked.

Its line has hardened since Sinn Fein won a historic victory in elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly two weeks ago, which entitled the party to the role of first minister in a joint regional government with the DUP. 

In the London parliament, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said the UK government’s announcement was a “good start” that could help restore the Belfast executive. But he insisted progress on an actual bill was needed in “days, not weeks”.

For her part, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald accused Britain of acting like a “rogue state”.

– US ire – 

Keeping the border open with neighbouring Ireland, an EU member, was mandated in the Good Friday Agreement, given the frontier was a frequent flashpoint during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland until 1998.

But it means checks have to be done elsewhere, to prevent goods getting into the EU single market and customs union by the back door via Northern Ireland.

Under the new plan, the UK intends unilaterally to create a “green channel” for British traders to send goods to Northern Ireland without making any customs declaration to the EU.

The EU would have access to more real-time UK data on the flow of goods, and only businesses intending to trade into the single market via Ireland would be required to make declarations.

The EU would need to trust the UK to monitor the flow, and UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss vowed “robust penalties” for any companies seeking to abuse the new system. 

The plan would also seek to end oversight of the protocol by the European Court of Justice — another red line for Brussels.

Britain also risks antagonising the United States, which helped broker the Good Friday Agreement.

Democratic Congressman Bill Keating, speaking on Britain’s Times Radio from Washington, said any UK action on the protocol should not resort to “breaking international law”. 

If the bill goes ahead, British hopes for a post-Brexit trade deal with the US “will be scuttled in the process”, he added.

Gunfire rocked Libya’s capital for several hours on Tuesday as a rival prime minister attempted to oust interim premier Abdulhamid Dbeibah, threatening another escalation in the war-torn country.

Fathi Bashagha landed in Tripoli in the early hours of Tuesday and tried to take it by force, sparking pre-dawn clashes between armed groups supporting him and those backing Dbeibah.

Libya has had two opposing adminstrations and prime ministers since February, the latest trouble in the oil-rich North African nation since the chaos that followed a 2011 revolt that toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Hours after landing, Bashagha left citing the “security and safety of citizens”, as the United Nations, European Union and United States appealed for calm.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the fighting, but AFP correspondents saw burned-out cars and military convoys later on Tuesday morning.

Dbeibah, based in Tripoli in the west, was appointed under a troubled UN-led peace process early last year to lead a transition to elections set for December, but the vote was indefinitely postponed.

In February, parliament based in Tobruk in the east appointed rival premier and former interior ministry Fathi Bashagha to take his place, arguing that Dbeibah’s mandate had ended.

Dbeibah has refused to hand over power except to an elected administration.

Both men come from the western city of Misrata and are backed by different armed groups in the capital.

– ‘Only the first act’? –

Bashagha’s press service had announced overnight “the arrival of the prime minister of the Libyan government, Mr Fathi Bashagha, accompanied by several ministers, in the capital Tripoli to begin his work there”.

But his arrival sparked a battle that raised fears of a return to the all-out conflict that gripped the capital when forces aligned with eastern military chief Khalifa Haftar attacked in 2019-20.

Several hours later, Bashagha’s camp announced that he and his ministers had “left Tripoli to preserve the security and safety of citizens”.

Dbeibah’s defence ministry said it would respond “with an iron fist” to anyone “attacking security and the safety of citizens”.

Dbeibah was later seen meeting the public in the streets of the capital.

Libya expert Emadeddin Badi said Bashagha’s move had been “a failed attempt at a fait accompli”.

Bashagha had “lost a large proportion of his constituency in his hometown of Misrata, tarnished his anti-crime brand and now tanked his popular support”, he added. 

“It will be difficult to pick up the pieces after this,” Badi said.

But Anas El Gomati, of Libyan think tank the Sadeq Institute, said it was “likely that this is only the first act”.

On the international stage, “there is no bandwidth to deal with Libya in light of the conflict in Ukraine,” he said.

The UN’s top in-country official, Stephanie Williams, urged all sides to maintain calm and avoid “inflammatory rhetoric”.

– ‘Very grave’ –

Pro-Bashagha armed groups had already deployed in March on the edges of the capital, raising fears that a fragile ceasefire in place since October 2020 could collapse.

The creation of two governments echoes Libya’s troubled period of rival administrations between 2014 and 2021, when the nation was ripped apart by civil war.

The revolt that toppled Kadhafi plunged the vast but sparsely populated country into violence as armed groups vied for control and a string of interim governments came and went.

Many militia forces have been integrated into the state, partly to access a share in the country’s vast oil wealth, and rights groups have accused all sides of abuses.

Bashagha is backed by Haftar, who led a failed bid to seize Tripoli in 2019-20 and is widely hated in the capital.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday the situation was “very grave”. 

“We were expecting something like this to happen, because in Libya we had not elections but we have two governments,” he said. “And sooner or later, when there are two governments, they clash.”

The US embassy urged “all armed groups to refrain from violence and for political leaders to recognise that seizing or retaining power through violence will only hurt the people of Libya”.