(LONDON) — Two adults and six children were rescued Tuesday after they were left dangling hundreds of feet above the ground in Pakistan when a cable car used to get kids to school broke, sparking a dramatic hourslong rescue operation.
The six children ranged in age from 10 to 15 years old. Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar said he was “relieved” that everyone was “successfully and safely rescued.”
“Great team work by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people,” Kakar said in a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Our nation’s spirit shines brightest today. Proud of our heroes!”
A helicopter was dispatched to the site of the rescue operation in Battagram, approximately 120 miles north of the country’s capital city of Islamabad. Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority worked with the Pakistan Army to rescue the stranded passengers.
The complex and difficult rescue mission took about 16 hours to complete, a Pakistani military spokesman told ABC News.
The Special Services Group, also known as the Commandos, sling team rescued the eight people from a height of 600 feet, the spokesman said, adding that the passengers had been moved to a safe place.
Following their rescue, several of the children said they were scared in the moment, and are grateful to have been rescued.
“We were very scared. First, the car was shaking; then helicopters came and we gained some confidence and were saved by the grace of Allah,” one of the children told ABC News, as translated by a reporter.
“We were shaken but later it was fine,” another child said.
The broken-down cable car is reportedly used daily to take students to school in the remote region of Pakistan.
Kakar — who has only been in office for eight days — issued a statement earlier on social media about the chairlift.
“The chairlift accident in Battagram, KP is really alarming. I have directed the NDMA, PDMA and district authorities to urgently ensure safe rescue and evacuation of the 8 people stuck in the chairlift,” he said. “I have also directed the authorities to conduct safety inspections of all such private chairlifts and ensure that they are safe to operate and use.”
ABC News’ Ellie Kauffman and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Two adults and six children were rescued Tuesday after they were left dangling hundreds of feet above the ground in Pakistan when a cable car used to get kids to school broke, sparking a dramatic hourslong rescue operation.
The six children ranged in age from 10 to 15 years old. Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar tweeted about the rescue, saying, “Relieved to know that Alhamdolillah all the kids have been successfully and safely rescued. Great team work by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people.”
A helicopter was dispatched to the site of the rescue operation in Battagram, approximately 120 miles north of the country’s capital city of Islamabad. Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority worked with the Pakistan Army to rescue the stranded passengers.
The complex and difficult rescue mission took about 16 hours to complete, a Pakistani military spokesman told ABC News.
The Special Services Group, also known as the Commandos, sling team rescued the eight people from a height of 600 feet, the spokesman said, adding that the passengers have been moved to a safe place.
The broken down cable car is reportedly used daily to take students to school in the remote region of Pakistan.
Kakar — who has only been in office for eight days — issued a statement earlier on social media about the chairlift.
“The chairlift accident in Battagram, KP is really alarming. I have directed the NDMA, PDMA and district authorities to urgently ensure safe rescue and evacuation of the 8 people stuck in the chairlift,” he said. “I have also directed the authorities to conduct safety inspections of all such private chairlifts and ensure that they are safe to operate and use.”
The chairlift accident in Battagram, KP is really alarming. I have directed the NDMA, PDMA and district authorities to urgently ensure safe rescue and evacuation of the 8 people stuck in the chairlift.
I have also directed the authorities to conduct safety inspections of all such…
(NEW YORK) — The historic wildfire season currently plaguing Canada is expected to persist, perhaps becoming even worse in the coming weeks – a potentially devastating forecast made more likely due to human-caused climate change, according to new research.
Drought and hot conditions contributed to an unprecedented start to the fire season in Canada and has kept the fires burning all over the country since late April says Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. By June, the smoke emitted from the wildfires reached the highest amount ever recorded in the country.
The hot and dry conditions are expected to persist in the coming weeks, with forecasts in many regions calling for an above-average fire risk for the rest of August and through September, presenting the opportunity for the wildfires to continue at the current pace or even worsen, Dahl told ABC News.
As of Tuesday, more than 37.8 million total acres have been burned, an area nearly as large as the state of Georgia, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC). There are more than 1,000 active wildfires burning in Canada, with more than 650 of them deemed “out of control,” according to the agency.
“We’re not anticipating this to ease up any time soon,” Dahl said, describing the amount of inland area burned by wildfires this year as “off the charts.”
The total acres burned so far this year in Canada is more than the total amount of land burned by wildfires in the U.S. since 2019, according to ABC News calculations, based on data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. The acreage burned in Canada this year so far doubles the previous record there for an entire season
The fire season would not have gotten this bad were it not for anthropogenic, or human-caused, climate change, according to a new study released Tuesday by World Weather Attribution, an international group of academics and officials that evaluate the influence of climate change on extreme weather events.
ABC News, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center, Inc.
For example, the weather conditions that led to the wildfires in Quebec earlier this summer were twice as likely to occur because of human-induced warming than without it, the researchers found. Additionally, those conditions were about 20% to 50% more intense due to climate change, according to the study, which analyzed data from Canada’s Fire Weather Index. High-temperature records broken in Canada in May and June, combined with low humidity and rapid snow melt, further contributed to the risky conditions.
Although the conditions that led to the extreme wildfire season were unprecedented, they are no longer “extremely unusual,” World Weather Attribution said in a statement.
In today’s climate, similar weather conditions can be expected to occur once every 25 years, meaning that they have about a 4% chance of occurring each year, the analysis found.
Also contributing to the current wildfires is that Canada did not experience a typical spring season this year, David Phillips, senior climatologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada, told ABC News last week. Instead, many regions went straight from winter to summer, with overall temperatures warmer than average. Also, 50% to 60% of the country was abnormally dry during the spring months, including many agricultural regions in addition to forests. The dry spring conditions followed what was an abnormally dry winter for much of Canada as well.
It has been “too hot and too dry for too long,” in the country, Phillips said.
“It’s almost impossible for nature alone to do these things,” Phillips declared. “This wildfire season has been ramped up. These fires are bigger and badder.”
Should the planet continue to warm, the risk of even greater wildfires will further increase, the World Weather Attribution study found.
The unique characteristics of fire weather in different regions of the world makes wildfires more complicated to study, Clair Barnes, a research associate at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London, said in a statement. But it is becoming more evident that dry and warm conditions are conducive to wildfires becoming more common, and more intense, around the world due to climate change, Barnes said.
The CIFFC National Preparedness Level in Canada has been at its highest level – 5 out of 5, for “extreme” – since May 11. What is making this season so devastating and difficult to manage is that the fires are erupting across the country all at once, Phillips said.
There may be some relief in sight, however, fire risks should decrease in October when temperatures are cooler, preventing additional fires from sparking and the further spread of existing ones, Dahl said.
(LONDON) — Two adults and six children who rescued Tuesday after they were left dangling 900 feet above the ground in Pakistan when a cable car used to get kids to school broke, sparking a dramatic hourslong rescue operation.
The six children ranged in age from 10 to 15 years old. Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar tweeted about the rescue, saying, “Relieved to know that Alhamdolillah all the kids have been successfully and safely rescued. Great team work by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people.”
A helicopter was dispatched to the site of the rescue operation in Battagram, approximately 120 miles north of the country’s capital city of Islamabad. Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority worked with the Pakistan Army to rescue the stranded passengers.
The broken down cable car is reportedly used daily to take students to school in the remote region of Pakistan.
Kakar — who has only been in office for eight days — issued a statement earlier on social media about the chairlift.
“The chairlift accident in Battagram, KP is really alarming. I have directed the NDMA, PDMA and district authorities to urgently ensure safe rescue and evacuation of the 8 people stuck in the chairlift,” he said. “I have also directed the authorities to conduct safety inspections of all such private chairlifts and ensure that they are safe to operate and use.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Secretary of Commerce is set to visit China at the end of August, according to the Commerce Department, making Gina Raimondo the second high-ranking member of the Biden administration to visit China this year.
Secretary Raimondo will visit Shanghai and Beijing from August 27-30, according to the Department of Commerce, and will meet with business and senior political leaders as tensions between the two countries are rising.
“While in the PRC, Secretary Raimondo looks forward to constructive discussions on issues relating to the U.S.- China commercial relationship, challenges faced by U.S. businesses, and areas for potential cooperation,” the Commerce Department said in a statement.
Raimondo’s upcoming visit comes on the heels of China increasingly going on the offensive in cyberspace, according to an assessment by the office of the director of national intelligence — including hacking Raimondo’s emails in May, sources told ABC News.
“China probably currently represents the broadest, most active, and persistent cyber espionage threat to U.S. Government and private-sector networks. China’s cyber pursuits and its industry’s export of related technologies increase the threats of aggressive cyber operations against the U.S. homeland,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence assessment says. “China almost certainly is capable of launching cyber attacks that could disrupt critical infrastructure services within the United States, including against oil and gas pipelines, and rail systems.”
Shortly after the e-mail hack, Raimondo met with her Chinese counterpart in Washington.
The two, according to the Commerce Department had a “candid and substantive” discussion “on issues relating to the U.S.-China commercial relationship, including the overall environment in both countries for trade and investment and areas for potential cooperation.”
The Secretary of Commerce is the third high-level Biden administration official to visit China this year. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited China in June and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen followed Blinken.
(LONDON) — An urgent rescue operation is underway to save two adults and six children who were left dangling 900 feet above the ground in a chairlift when a cable broke in a mountainous region in Pakistan, authorities say.
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority said that they were working with the Pakistan Army and that a helicopter has been dispatched to the site of the rescue operation in Battagram, approximately 120 miles north of the country’s capital city of Islamabad.
Officials confirmed that two of the children have been rescued so far as of Tuesday evening local time.
The condition of the remaining four children and two adults inside the chairlift is currently unknown.
The helicopter has has been flying over the cable car and it appears someone was lowered down from the helicopter to reach the stranded passengers.
The broken down cable car is reportedly used daily and takes students to school in the remote region of Pakistan.
The caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar — who has only been in office for eight days — issued a statement on social media regarding the situation unfolding in the north of the country.
“The chairlift accident in Battagram, KP is really alarming. I have directed the NDMA, PDMA and district authorities to urgently ensure safe rescue and evacuation of the 8 people stuck in the chairlift,” he said. “I have also directed the authorities to conduct safety inspections of all such private chairlifts and ensure that they are safe to operate and use.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — Former British nurse Lucy Letby was sentenced on Monday to spend the rest of her life in prison after being found guilty in the worst child serial killer case in the modern history of the U.K.
She was convicted in Manchester Crown Court of murdering seven babies and trying to kill six others while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital between June 2015 and June 2016. She was first arrested in 2018.
Some infants were killed by injecting them with air, others were force-fed milk and two were poisoned with insulin, court documents said.
In a televised sentencing, Judge James Goss addressed the murder of each baby and said that there was “a deep malevolence bordering on sadism” in Letby’s actions.
“This was a cruel, calculated, and cynical campaign of child murder involving the smallest and most vulnerable of children,” he added.
Letby refused to attend the sentencing to listen to the judge and the families’ testimonies.
Earlier on Monday Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it is “cowardly that people who commit such horrendous crimes do not face their victims.”
Goss stated that the court had no power to force the defendant to attend a sentencing session.
Robert Buckland, a former justice secretary. called for proceedings to be broadcast into Letby’s cell, despite her wishes, so she had to listen to the victim impact statements, according to GB News. There should be “nowhere to hide” for her, Buckland said.
The prime minister said the government is looking at changing the law so criminals are compelled to attend their sentencing hearings.
Parents’ testimonies have been extremely emotional, as reported by the BBC. Some were holding toys while admitting they contemplated suicide.
“The trauma will live with us forever … something out of a horror story,” said the mother of baby C. The victims’ parents cannot be identified under U.K. law, so each baby is referred to by a letter.
Mother of twins E and F said that Letby is “evil disguised as a caring nurse” and that she condemned their family to “living a life sentence.”
During the 10-month-long process, Letby insisted she did not harm any of the babies and pointed to issues of poor hygiene and staffing levels in the hospital.
As the U.K. Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said, a government-commissioned inquiry will examine why the children’s nurse was allowed to continue on the unit despite senior doctors raising concerns about her for months.
(LONDON) — An uncrewed Russian spacecraft spun out of control during orbit and crashed into the moon, according to the country’s space agency.
The Luna-25 craft lost contact with officials in Russia following an “abnormal situation” and crashed on Saturday, Roscosmos said in a statement to Interfax, a Russian news agency.
Moscow’s lunar lander had been launched on a rocket earlier this month from the Vostochny Cosmodrome, according to the agency, which published photos of the launch. It had been expected to enter lunar orbit last week, marking the first time since 1976 that a Russian-made spacecraft would approach the moon.
The craft on Saturday afternoon entered an elliptical orbit in anticipation of landing on the moon’s surface, which had been part of the flight plan, Roscosmos said.
Agency staff in Russia lost contact during or after that planned maneuver at about 2:57 p.m. Moscow time, they told Interfax, saying the details were part of a preliminary analysis.
Shortly after their last contact the “spacecraft entered an unplanned orbit and ceased to exist after colliding with the surface of the Moon,” Roscosmos said in a statement.
“Measures to find the spacecraft and make contact with it taken on August 19 and 20 yielded no results,” the agency said.
The lunar lander had been expected to attempt a landing near the moon’s south pole early this week, Russian media reported.
ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova contributed to this story.
(LONDON) — At least 11 women’s rights activists were arrested by security forces in Iran in the northern province of Gilan Wednesday, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
However, Iranian officials say the number of people arrested in Gilan is 12, according to the Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard. It quotes the “Intelligence Office of Gilan Province” as saying those arrested are an “organizational team of 12 members, which has a history of numerous anti-security activities over the last year’s riots.”
HRANA says in most cases, the arrests occurred by raiding activists’ homes.
In addition to the arrests in Gilan, HRANA also reports at least one and possibly two other arrests in Tehran on Wednesday.
“Families of these citizens are highly worried as there is no news of their fates,” HRANA adds.
An increasing number of detentions and raids by the Islamic Republic have been happening over the past few weeks ahead of the first-year anniversary of the start of the nationwide ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement in the country.
The movement started with the September 16, 2022 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in a Tehran hospital after she was arrested by the government’s morality police for allegedly not covering her hair in full compliance with the Islamic Republic’s mandatory hijab rule. Though the government claimed Amini had a heart attack while in police custody, it is widely believed that she died as a result of being beaten by police.
Amini’s death led to widespread protests across Iran, which activists have described to ABC News as “the most serious challenge” the government regime has faced in over four decades.
Iran Human Rights reported in April that at least 537 people had been killed since the start of the protests and at least 22,000 people arrested. The latter number was later confirmed by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
As the first anniversary of Amini’s death approaches, activists, filmmakers and former protestors in Iran are being summoned, arrested or otherwise targeted with strict court sentences by the Islamic Republic’s security, intelligence and judicial bodies.
“Some artists and filmmakers feel extremely scared even to leave their homes these days. Some studios have been raided and people who were there were arrested,” an Iranian activist who did not want their name to be disclosed for security reasons told ABC News.
“It is paralyzing. But we keep doing what we can,” the activist added.
In one of the latest attacks on filmmakers, the regime this month sentenced noted Iranian filmmaker Saeed Roustayi to six months in prison on charges of alleged “anti-regime propaganda activity.”
Roustayi traveled to the Cannes Film Festival in France last year to screen his latest film, “Leila’s Brothers,” which depicts a family’s struggle to make the ends meet amid the severe economic sanctions imposed against Iran. The film includes scenes that show street protests, and security forces confronting demonstrators protesting economic hardships.
Roustayi was also ordered to refrain from “association with active filmmaking professionals,” and from “conducting activities related to the charges.” He additionally must pass a state-mandated university course on “filmmaking while preserving national and ethical interests.”
The Iranian House of Cinema, the professional organization for Iranian filmmakers, addressed the Islamic Republic judiciary in a statement Wednesday, saying such sentences are “humiliating” and “will not bring hearts closer.”
Many people are also using social media to express their concerns about the apparent government crackdown ahead of the anniversary of Amini’s death.
“The wave of arrests has become very strange,” one person posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It is like, if you want to leave the country, they arrest you. If you want to enter, they arrest you. You talk about your daily life on social media, they arrest you. Take a picture, they arrest you. Write, they arrest you. Make a movie with their own permission, it is not enough, they arrest you. You walking on the street? You shouldn’t have, they arrest you.”
(BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada) — Fire officials in British Columbia warned they would be facing “the most challenging 24 to 48 hours of the summer,” as wildfires that have been ravaging western Canada all week are expected to increase and impact more areas.
Over 370 wildfires have been raging since the beginning of the week throughout the territory, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).
Two wildfires of note, the Stein Mountain wildfire, which was discovered on July 12, and the McDougall Creek Wildfire, which was discovered on Tuesday, are classified as “out of control” and have burned through a combined 790 hectares as of Thursday evening, according to the British Columbia Wildfire Service.
Cliff Chapman, the British Columbia director of wildfire operations, said in a statement that he is expecting more wildfires to erupt.
“We are expecting significant growth and we are expecting our resources to be challenged from north to south in the province over the next 48 hours,” he said in a statement. “Those fires will challenge even our air tanker and helicopter resources and our ground resources as we are likely to see a number of new fires happening across the province.”
High winds in western Canada have been contributing to the spread of the flames, officials said. Several B.C. towns and cities have issued evacuation orders and alerts over the wildfires.
A local state of emergency was issued for the city of West Kelowna, a portion of Westbank First Nation and the Central Okanagan West Electoral Thursday. Sixty-eight properties located off Bear Creek Road were ordered to evacuate.
Residents of Yellowknife, Hay River and Fort Smith were also ordered to evacuate this week because of the fires.
Chapman warned that 28 of B.C.’s 34 water basins continue to be operating at worst or second-worst drought levels while fighting the blazes.
“So the drought situation is serious in British Columbia…and the impacts of drought conditions in certain B.C. watersheds will be serious as well,” he said.
Canada has seen a rise in wildfires on both coasts this summer, causing black smoke to spread for miles and into the United States.
As of Thursday, the fires have burned through 13.9 million hectares this season, marking the worst wildfire season on record, according to the CIFFC.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
