Air India Flight Crashes in Ahmedabad: 242+ Feared Dead
Good evening! It's Thursday 12 June. This is The Foreign Page, your daily portal into Mencari News's universe as well as our interpretation of the global scene.
We are providing live coverage of the Air India flight to London, which has a crew of more than 240 passengers and has crashed after take-off from Ahmedabad, India.
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Air India Flight Crashes in Ahmedabad: 242+ Feared Dead
An Air India passenger flight bound for London crashed Thursday in Ahmedabad, India, shortly after takeoff, with local police reporting no apparent survivors among the 242 passengers and crew aboard.
The Boeing 787-8 aircraft went down in the residential Meghani Nagar area approximately five minutes after departing at 1:38 p.m. local time, also causing casualties among local residents. The flight manifest included 169 Indians, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese citizens, and one Canadian, according to airline officials
This marks the first recorded crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner since the aircraft's introduction in 2009, sending shockwaves through the aviation industry just days before the Paris Air Show.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the scenes "devastating," while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the tragedy as "heartbreaking beyond words." Air India has established an emergency response center for families, and both Indian and British authorities have pledged full support for affected families as investigation teams work to determine the cause of this unprecedented aviation disaster.
US Orders Embassy Staff Evacuations from Middle East Amid Iran Nuclear Crisis
The US State Department has ordered the departure of non-essential embassy personnel and their families from Baghdad, Bahrain, and Kuwait amid escalating tensions with Iran and stalled nuclear negotiations. The partial evacuation affects US diplomatic missions across the Middle East, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorizing voluntary departure of military dependents from the region as Central Command monitors "developing tension."
President Trump acknowledged the evacuations Wednesday, stating staff were being "moved out, because it could be a dangerous place," while expressing diminished confidence in reaching a nuclear agreement with Tehran.
The diplomatic crisis centers on deadlocked negotiations over Iran's advancing nuclear program, with the sixth round of talks tentatively scheduled for this weekend in Oman now likely cancelled.
Trump told the "Pod Force One" podcast he was "getting more and more less confident" about a deal, suggesting Iran appeared to be delaying progress. Iran's UN mission responded that "threats of overwhelming force won't change the facts," while Iranian Defense Minister General Aziz Nasirzadeh warned that Tehran would target all US bases in the region if conflict escalated, stating "America must leave the region, because all its bases are within our reach."
Nationwide Protests Against ICE Raids Spread as 700 Marines Deploy to LA
Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and Trump administration policies have spread across major US cities, with Los Angeles entering its second night under curfew as authorities prepare to deploy 700 Marines within 48 hours.
The demonstrations, which began Friday in LA following ICE workplace raids, have now reached Seattle, New York, Chicago, San Antonio, Las Vegas, and Washington DC, with varying degrees of civil unrest and police response. Spokane, Washington declared a state of emergency and imposed its own curfew after protesters blocked roads, while authorities in multiple cities made arrests and worked to disperse crowds using crowd control measures.
The military response represents an escalation in federal intervention, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defending the deployment as establishing precedent for similar responses in other states. Attorney General Pam Bondi indicated the administration is prepared to expand legal authorities further, potentially invoking the Insurrection Act if necessary. The situation is expected to intensify Saturday with over 1,800 planned "No Kings" protests coinciding with Trump's 79th birthday and a military parade in Washington DC, as organizers from the 50501 movement call for nationwide rejection of what they characterize as authoritarian policies.
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