CNN
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The leader is a former supermarket manager who founded his party on YouTube during the depths of the coronavirus pandemic and campaigned for Trump’s message “Japanese First.”

Sansate, Japan’s fast-growing right-wing populist party, has now become an unlikely winner of this weekend’s parliamentary election.

According to public broadcaster NHK, Sansate was inspired by other populist right-wing groups that have surged in recent years, and bagged 14 seats for Japanese senators.

That may not sound much in the 248-seat room, but it shows that the party’s message resonates with some of the Japanese people.

The surprising success has put pressure on Prime Minister Isba and his ruling Liberal Democrats, losing a majority in both the House and upper houses after Sunday’s election.

Isba faces a call to resign, and he has resisted so far.

Sanseito’s rise is particularly noteworthy given its unusual origins. Party leader Sohei Kamiya founded the group in 2020 by “gathering people on the internet” and then gradually began to gain seats at local rallies, he said in a speech earlier this month. As of Monday, its YouTube channel has over 460,000 subscribers.

It gained traction during the symbiotic pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and global elite conspiracy, Reuters reported.

However, in the preliminary stages of the Senate election, it became well known for its “Japan’s first” campaign. This focuses on overtourism complaints and influx of foreign residents.

It was an increasingly sensitive issue. The world’s fourth largest economy has traditionally been strict with immigration, but in recent years it has been rapidly aging and working hard to combat the fertility rate to attract more international tourists and foreign workers.

And it worked.

Japan’s foreign population has jumped from 2.23 million to 3.77 million over the past decade, but still accounts for only 3% of the total population of over 120 million.

The number of tourists continues to break new records. However, it caused a town problem that was overwhelming by visitors. Visitors behave badly and drain water-like resources from the country’s famous hot springs.

Some people believe that there are too many foreigners in Japan today. The government recently formed a new task force to address this issue.

Sanseito exploited these frustrations on its “Japan’s first” platform, along with other complaints about stagnant wages, high inflation and cost of living.

“Living for Japanese people is becoming more and more difficult now,” said Kamiya, a former supermarket manager and English teacher, in a speech in July. He cited the lack of economic growth and the widening gap between wealth.

“A growing number of foreigners are coming (to Japan),” he warned. He added that he doesn’t care about tourists, but he argued that relying on cheap foreign labor would harm Japanese wages, and that foreign workers who can’t find good jobs would increase crime.

The party supports the upper limit of foreigners in each town or city, supports more restrictions on immigration and benefits available to foreigners, making it difficult to naturalize as citizens.

Sanseito also drives a health system that comes from stronger security and prevention laws, greater tax cuts, renewable energy and vaccines.

It encourages greater defensive capabilities and warns that Japan needs “deterrent” while pursuing long-term denuclearization, as it is “surrounded” by nuclear-armed states.

Kamiya also has the US Donald Trump Magazine movement and AFD (German Alternative) Party and Reformed Britain.

According to Reuters, Joshua Walker, head of the US-based nonprofit Japan Association, said:

“That’s the weakness of LDP and Isba more than anything,” he added.

Many criticize Sansate’s platform as xenophobic and discriminatory. Prior to the election, he attempted to soften some of the party’s more controversial ideas and attract more female voters, according to Reuters.

However, he won the winning tone after the election results, Reuters reported. “The public has come to understand that the media is wrong and that Sansate was right,” Kamiya said.

As a result, the Isba Union remains on a very unstable ground.

He has already lost strong control of the House in October, and the LDP has lost a majority for the first time in 15 years. This is an exciting responsibilities from Japanese voters to the ruling party for many years.

At a press conference on Monday, Isbah called the Senate, causing a harsh judgment against the LDP and apologised to his party. He said the party will continue to control alongside its coalition partners and will work with other political parties on important issues.

Earlier on Sunday, Isba told NHK he intends to remain as prime minister and party leader, citing a tariff talk with the US.

Japan is one of many countries facing 25% tariffs since August 1 under Trump’s latest measures. At a press conference Monday, Isba said he wanted to talk to Trump as soon as possible to find a solution.

CNN’s Asada Yumi Yumi contributed the report.

CNN
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Ecuador’s most infamous drug Kingpin was handed over to the United States a month after being recaptured after a prison escape that caused a wave of violence across the country.

According to Ecuadorian prison authorities, Jose Adolfo Macias, known as “Fito,” was transferred from the largest prison in the port city of Guayaquil to the city’s airport and handed over to the US authorities who arrived early to carry out the replacement process.

According to the city’s aviation agency, a US Department of Justice plane arrived in Guayaquil around 12:45pm local time and departed with the gang leader after 2pm. National Media Outlet TC Television reported that the plane arrived at the plane at 12:30pm and left at 2:12pm.

Photos released Sunday by Ecuadorian prison authorities showed Macias wearing a bullet vest as he was escorted by shorts, a T-shirt, helmet and several heavily armed national police agents.

Since at least 2020, Macias has led a powerful Los Coneros criminal organization. This accused the US of delivering and distributing multiple tons of cocaine from Ecuador to other countries.

Macias was charged in Brooklyn Federal Court in April with seven counts of drug trafficking and gun smuggling.

In January 2024, Macias escaped from the Guayaquil prison, where he was sentenced to 34 years in prison for murder and drug trafficking.

His escape unleashed a wave of violence in Ecuador. This included no live acquisition from a gang that raided popular television stations and took their crew hostage while they were airing. Shortly afterwards, President Daniel Novore declared an internal armed conflict, designating Los Ceneros and 21 other criminal groups as terrorist groups.

He was captured last month by Ecuadorian authorities in hiding for over a year. Authorities found him in a basement bunker by a mansion in Manavi. The villa was equipped with a home gym, marble walls, and a game room.

In court documents filed Sunday in the Eastern District of New York, prosecutors demanded that he be held custody until his trial.

The same document said Macias was handed over to the United States “for the sole purpose facing prosecution.”

Alexei Schacht, a lawyer for the US Macias, told CNN that his client will be in Brooklyn Federal Court on Monday without specifying a time for the hearing.

If convicted, Macias faces living behind bars, sentenced to a 10-year minimum sentence in prison.

CNN
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China Brain Tech rivals Musk’s Neuralink

China Brain Tech rivals Musk’s Neuralink

01:35

“I want to eat” appeared in Kanji on a computer at a public hospital in Central Beijing. The term was formed from the idea of a 67-year-old woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The video demonstration shot by Beijing Radio and TV stations in March was part of a clinical trial that included five patients, including five patients implanted with a coin-sized chip called Beinao-1, a wireless so-called brain computer interface (BCI), but the technology led by US scientists says experts are catching up quickly.

Luo Minmin, director of China’s Brain Institute (CIBR) and the lead scientist behind the trial, said there was a “very powerful” need for BCI technology, and was “overwhelmed” in response to requests from potential patients.

“The patient said this feels very pleasant so that he could gain or recover control of his (his) muscles,” he told CNN in May in a rare interview in his lab, an hour’s drive from Beijing Xuanwu Hospital, where the trial took place.

Luo said the technology shows “high accuracy” in deciphering signals from a patient’s brain and converting the signals into text-voice or machine movements. His team plans to speed up human trials by implanting chips in another 50-100 patients over the next year.

“We hope to be able to move through this process faster,” he said. “If it has proven safe and effective, it can be used clinically worldwide.”

As of May, Beinao-1 says that five patients, the same number of patients, have implants, as Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Syncron, another US company whose investors include Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, has been tested with 10 patients, six in the US and four in Australia.

Maximilian Liesenharbor, a professor of neuroscience at Georgetown University, told CNN that China is progressing despite not being involved in Beinao’s trial, but began later than the US.

“China has certainly shown the ability to not only catch up, but also be competitive and actually start, driving the field in some regions,” he said. “Excitingly, there is a lot of research activities in both countries because they recognize the potential of BCI.”

The brain technology market is worth around $2.6 billion last year and is expected to increase to $12.4 billion by 2034, according to a market research firm Priority Survey. However, in both China and the US, the technology is far more than cash.

China’s leader Xi Jinping has been hoping to transform his country into a scientific economic powerhouse. In March, he wrote in state-owned media that the tech industry has become the “frontline” and “major battlefield” of global competition. His ambitions sparked concern in the United States, leading to an ongoing technological warfare, especially in the semiconductor industry.

CIBR was co-founded in 2018 by the Beijing Municipal Government and several local governments, about two years after Elon Musk established Neuralink near San Francisco.

In 2023, CIBR incubated a private company named Neucyber Neurotech to focus on brain technology products such as Beinao-1. Luo, also the startup’s chief scientist, gave CNN a rare access to the lab in May.

For years, ALS patients in their 60s were unable to express themselves.

“She’s awake, she knows what she wants, but she couldn’t speak up,” the scientist said. “Following the port, she can speak simple sentences very accurately through the system.”

All BCI researchers need to address a balance between risk and effectiveness.

Riensenhuber places the chips in Dura Mater, the outer layer of tissue that covers and protects the brain and spinal cord, in order to capture better signals, using more invasive methods. However, these methods require high-risk surgery.

“It’s interesting to see that Neucyber appears to be able to get enough information, even through Dura, to allow for the decoding of certain words,” he said.

The test of ALS patients, which began in March, marked the third trial of Beinao-1 tip in humans. These trials constituted what the developers described in a press release as “the first batch of semi-invasive implants of wireless BCI in the human brain.” As of May, a total of five tests and two more were being conducted.

Amidst growing geopolitical tensions, comparisons between the US and China’s technological breakthroughs are common. Brain Computer Interface technology first began in the United States in the 1970s.

Decades later, the Obama administration launched its “Brain Initiative” in 2013, investing more than $3 billion to fund more than 1,000 neuroscience and technology projects, according to the National Institutes of Health.

New York-based Synchron was the first company to begin human testing in July 2021. Three years later, the new BCI system developed at UC Davis Health translated brain signals from ALS patients into speech, achieving 97% accuracy. In the same year, the mask company completed its first human trial, allowing participants to control computer mice with brain implants.

China was launched with Brain Tech only in the 1990s, but is progressing rapidly. In 2014, Chinese scientists presented ideas for national projects on Brain Tech in line with similar efforts in the US and Europe, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Two years later, Brain Tech was mentioned in the country’s five-year plan. It outlines China’s national priorities and goals.

“Neuroscience is new in China,” said Lily Lin, a former research assistant at one of China’s top neuroscience research units from 2021 to 2023.

Last year, the government issued the first ethical guidelines for research in this field. At the local level, city governments in Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities provide support to brain technology companies, from research and clinical trials to commercialization.

Riesenhuber and other researchers from Georgetown University published a study on BCI development in China in 2024, saying that efforts from Chinese researchers are “compared to refinement” with US and UK researchers.

“We found that China’s non-invasive BCI research is comparable to studies in other scientifically developed countries, working to overcome obstacles to greater fidelity, throughput and wider use,” according to the issue’s explanation. “China’s invasive BCI research, historically behind its non-invasive efforts, has been increasing its pace and approaching global standards of refinement.”

Luo, who has worked in both countries, says the US is a “front runner” of both invasive and non-invasive brain technology. But comparing Beinao-1 with Neuralink is like seeing “apples and oranges.”

The two systems differ not only in the implant location, but also in the type of brain signals recorded and the way data is transmitted. Chinese chips record a wider range of brain regions and reduce the accuracy of each neuron.

“Overall, I don’t think these two products have a competitive or exclusive relationship,” Luo added. “The ju umpire hasn’t been out yet, so it’s still not clear which route will ultimately benefit patients.”

CNN
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On the morning of July 4th, an American marketing professor walked towards his ex-wife’s house in Athens to pick up two young children. If it was a nervous visit, it should have been inconspicuous. The couple apparently disputed the terms of custody.

However, Przemyslaw Jeziorski never reached the entrance.

Police say he was shot multiple times at close range in this typically quiet, suburban neighborhood in the Greek capital during the broad daylight. Zeziorsky died where he fell, police said his body was plagued by a gunshot wound seen in harsh photos taken shortly afterwards.

The masked gunman fled when an eyewitness rushed to his aid.

The suspected assailant was arrested 12 days later for a planned murder: his ex-wife’s new partner. The motive told the police – to prevent Jeziorsky from stealing her child.

“I did it all for (her) and our kids so we made sure we could live a normal life without any issues,” he said.

One of the most notable aspects of the incident is that statements made to police by suspected perpetrators have been leaked widely to Greek media, including CNN’s affiliate CNN Greece. The statement, authentically verified by senior police sources speaking to CNN, provides insight into how the alleged murder plot was put together, why it was carried out, and provides clues as to who knows what. However, there are also important questions that are open, especially if there are roles.

According to Greek police, she is facing a moral accomplice charge, but she denies it, according to a lawyer who spoke with CNN. Like all suspects in this case, her identity is known on CNN, but cannot be made public due to Greek legal restrictions.

The alleged confession of the perpetrator, as well as other contradictory explanations from the three accomplices who were also leaked to the press, set what is likely to be a long, prominent trial.

Meanwhile, the murder and the aftermath shocked the victims’ friends and family. He says that Zeziorsky is a kind and introverted scholar who loved his children.

Jeziorski, 43, who went under the nickname Przemek or “PJ,” was an economist at the HAAS School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and was a marketing professor, respectively. He was born in Poland and moved to the United States in 2004 to study economics and mathematics at the University of Arizona, continuing to earn his PhD from Stanford.

“He was one of the most keenest people I’ve ever met,” said Robert Kowalski, a friend of Stanford’s victims. “He was a great man and in many ways he was a genius.”

In a statement, UC Berkeley said that Zeziorsky was “passionate about education,” and taught data analytics skills to more than 1,500 alumni and doctoral students over 13 years at the University of California. His research work centered on emerging markets, which took him around the world for field research, and Berkeley described him as “a key expert in quantitative marketing, industrial organizations and economics of digital markets.”

Jenny Chatman, dean of the University of California Berkeley Business School, said he was “grief” with the death of Jeziorsky, who described him as a “loving member of the Faculty of Marketing.”

According to Kowalski, Jeziorski met his ex-wife (Greece national) in San Francisco in 2013. The couple’s twins were born soon.

In 2015, the couple co-founded a startup called Keybee, a short-term rental property management platform.

It is unclear what caused their relationship to fall apart, but Kowalski told CNN that the couple split up around 2020 after moving to Greece during the community pandemic.

According to a statement from the victim’s brother, their children are us and the double citizens of Poland. The children applied for Greek citizenship and were awaiting a decision on that, according to their ex-wife’s lawyer.

According to California court records, Jeziorsky filed for divorce in June 2021.

It is one element of the long-standing custody battle for children who ultimately lived with Greek mothers, and appears to have a provision that father Jeziorsky can take their children with him every summer.

According to Kowalski, Jeziorski asked during the fight for custody, if his children would attend American schools in Greece.

However, his ex-wife was afraid to lose his child sooner, according to a statement to police from her boyfriend, the chief suspect.

“I was worried that he (Jeziorsky) would be taking the kids completely, and that was completely over (my girlfriend). This summer, Plzemek wanted to take the kids to America.

On July 3, the custody ruling ruled that Zeziorsky was actually allowed to take the child with him for a month.

“A month and a half ago we decided to end this pain we’ve been experiencing,” the suspect told police, adding that it was a “good opportunity” given that Eziorsky was in Athens to attend a custody hearing.

The statement details the suspect bought a pistol over a month ago and asked a friend from Bulgaria to “find Przemek and scared him and not take our child away from us.”

He said it all began in Nafplio, a coastal city about two hours from Athens.

The suspect said he, his friends and two others — a man and a teenager from Albania — drove to Athens and waited on the same street as his ex-wife’s house. “I approached him and shot him a few times, but I don’t remember how many times,” he said.

The man had rented a grey Porsche Cayenne as a holiday car, but the murder suspect told police that his accomplice left him on the scene after seeing him shooting the victim.

Police said Zeziorsky died at the scene. There, seven bullet casings were found after a masked gunman fired him in the neck and chest.

Three unknown men, two Albanian and Bulgarians, reportedly face accusations of accomplices, reportedly faced. A Greek police source told CNN on Thursday. CNN was unable to reach those male lawyers.

“My client confessed his actions, but as you can see from the simplicity of what happened, this was not an organized plan. “(Ex-wife), his partner, knew nothing about this.”

“My client had come to me in the past to seek advice. He said he had serious alcoholism issues with his partner’s ex-husband and was worried that he and his mother would grant access to the child. “Now he’s completely devastated what happened. He’s had some issues in the past and I’m going to ask for a psychiatric test.”

A friend of Jeziorski denied allegations that he abused alcohol.

On Friday, CNN Greece obtained police testimony of suspected accomplices from Bulgaria. The statement claims that the suspected accomplice “organised the whole” by the victim’s ex-wife.

He was his friend, the perpetrator, and after obtaining the gun he asked him to “take him to Athens the next day and scare and threaten Paul to “return the children back.”

“In fact, from what he told me, (the ex-wife) didn’t want to give the children to Paul, so I let him do it,” the accomplice said in testimony, adding that the assailant “provided him thousands of euros after doing something we didn’t agree with.”

As for her ex-wife, there is no further information about her testimony, denying all knowledge beyond her attorney’s statement. For unclear reasons, nothing from her statement to the police was directed towards the Greek media.

All of these inconsistencies and other unanswered questions will be addressed in court.

Meanwhile, the victims’ families are dealing with the aftermath of an unimaginable tragedy. The victim’s brother said in a statement that “our family is heartbroken,” but thanked the Greek police and security experts for the arrest.

“We, Przemek’s 10-year-old child, who is a Polish citizen, is now paying attention according to the Greek child’s custody procedures,” the victim’s brother, lambman, said in a statement. “Our main concern is their safety and welfare, helping them reconnect with their families to minimize the trauma they have already endured.”

Jeziorski’s family has started an online fundraiser to repay his body to his hometown of Poland and pay for his legal representative in Greece.

A US State Department spokesman told CNN that the agency is providing consular support to families.

Five people charged on Monday will be sued in court directly, according to Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, a lawyer representing the victim’s family. The court will determine whether the suspect will be remanded in custody while the trial is pending. Dimitrakopoulos told CNN, the trial date will be set at a later stage.

“The victim’s mother and siblings will take the sole custody of the children,” Dimitrakopoulos told Greek media on Friday. The lawyer said, “We spoke with the prosecutors for the minors so that the victim’s mother and siblings have full custody of the children and can live with them in Poland where they are now.”

“They have the opportunity to raise them in a completely protective environment, in a loving environment,” Dimitracopoulos said.

Amy Croffy and Chris Dos Santos of CNN contributed to this report.

CNN
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4-year-old Razan Abu Zaher gave up on the fight for life on Sunday.

According to medical sources, she died in a hospital in central Gaza from complications caused by hunger and malnutrition. Her skeleton was placed on a stone slab.

Since the conflict began in October 2023, at least 76 children in Gaza have died of malnutrition, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says. Most of these have occurred since Israeli authorities imposed a lockdown in early March, according to the World Health Organization.

Razan was one of at least four children who succumbed in the past three days, the youngest being just three months old. Over the past 24 hours, 18 deaths have been recorded due to hunger in Gaza, the Ministry of Health says it reflects the territorial deepening crisis.

CNN first met Razan a month ago. She is already hungry, weak, and pathetic. Her mother, Tahrir Abu Dha, said she had no money to buy milk, but she was rarely available in any case.

“Her health was very good before the war, but after the war, her condition began to deteriorate due to malnutrition. There’s nothing to strengthen her.”

It was June 23rd. Razan was already in the hospital for 12 days. She was brought back to life for another 27 days.

Razan died amid the spread of starvation in Gaza, causing the flow of humanitarian aid to drop significantly since the beginning of March, when Israeli authorities banned them from entering Gaza.

The ban was partially lifted at the end of May, but aid agencies say how much they would reach territory that is too little to maintain their population.

Israel said it has stopped shipping aid to Gaza because Hamas had been stealing from it and profiting from it — Hamas denies it. Israeli agencies also say the UN has not picked up aid ready to move to Gaza. The UN says it frequently refuses Israeli forces to frequently deny permission to move aid within Gaza, and is waiting for further permission.

The Israeli agency (Cogat), which manages the flow of aid to the Gaza Strip, a coordinator of government activities on the territory, said in a statement that the IDF “works to allow and promote the relocation” of humanitarian assistance, including food.

“From the beginning of hostilities until today, around 67,000 food trucks have entered the Gaza Strip and have served around 1.5 million tonnes of food,” Cogat said.

“Israel will continue to promote food invasion,” Gaza said, “as taking all possible steps to prevent terrorist organization Hamas from seizing aid.”

Gaza has relied heavily on food aid and commercial shipping before the conflict began in October 2023, and since then the shortage of food, medical supplies, fuel and other essentials has been exacerbated.

The food rarity since March has sent hospitals that have already been overwhelmed by the rapidly increasing number of people.

“Gaza is witnessing the worst stages of hunger that have reached catastrophic levels amid unprecedented international silence,” said Dr. Khalil Al-Dakran, a spokesman for Al-Aqsa Marters Hospital, where Razan died.

Al Daklan said the now-dead toddler was taken away from his childhood twice.

“An unprecedented number of hungry citizens of all ages has arrived in the emergency department in severe fatigue and fatigue,” the Ministry of Health said on Saturday.

“The hundreds of people whose bodies are so weakened are at risk of imminent death because the hunger and their bodies can no longer bear it,” the ministry added.

Palestine Human Rights Centre – An NGO working in Gaza reported on Sunday that one of the Gaza teams had said: “Our faces have changed and our bodies have been wasted.

Dr Suhaib Al-Hams, director of Kuwait Field Hospital at Khan Younis, told CNN: “Their bodies reach a point beyond durability and are at risk of death, so they need to crave food before medicine.”

“Today, World Central Kitchen stopped sending food for medical staff. They only sent us rice. Doctors work 24 hours a day, both at home and at hospital, without food.

World Central Kitchen confirmed that the Gaza team has run out of ingredients to cook a hot meal.

“We have served 80,000 meals yesterday (Saturday) and empty the end of the restocked stock, and the aid truck remains stuck at the border.

“This is the second time we have suspended our kitchen operations due to the lack of access to aid,” he added.

In their hopelessness, thousands of people risk their lives to find something to eat every day. They were reportedly killed in northern Gaza on Sunday as they desperately sought food aid, according to the Health Ministry, which said they were shot dead by Israeli forces.

The Israeli Defense Force said troops in the area “firing warning shots to remove the immediate threat posed against them. The IDF is aware of allegations regarding casualties in the area, and details of the incident are still under consideration.”

“The initial review suggests that the number of reported casualties does not match the information held by the IDF,” he added.

Dr Mohammed Absalmiya, director of Arshifa Hospital, where many of the victims were filmed, said “a considerable number of civilians, and even medical staff, have arrived in a state of fainting or collapse due to severe malnutrition.”

About 800 Palestinians were killed while trying to access aid in Gaza between late May and July 7, according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

During that period, OHCHR recorded the killings of 798 people, of which 615 were killed near the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) site. He added that 183 people had been killed “on the route of the aid convoy.”

Dozens more have been killed, including more than 30 people in South Gaza on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Health.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher told the UN Security Council on Thursday that food is running out of stock in Gaza. “People seeking the risk of being shot and killed. People are almost dying trying to support their families.”

He said the hunger rate among children reached its highest level in June, with over 5,800 girls and boys diagnosed with acute malnutrition.

The United Nations Coordination Agency for Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday that “we are receiving deeply troubling reports of malnourished children and adults being admitted to hospitals with little resources to properly handle them.”

On Saturday, Salmad Tamimi, a plastic surgeon who received medical assistance for Palestinians, told CNN: “To be honest, I feel that lucky people will be killed soon.

Manado, Indonesia
AP
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Hundreds of people started a fire in the sea on Sunday off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, and the passenger ferry killed at least five people, officials said. More than 280 people were rescued and evacuation efforts were underway.

KM Barcelona 5 headed from Taro, the island district of the province to Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi, when it launched a fire in the waters near Talyze.

He said three naval vessels had been deployed and 284 passengers and crew had previously evacuated. The rescue efforts included assistance from local fishermen. Local fishermen have saved survivors wearing life jackets as they drift on an island near the choppy sea.

The rescuers recovered five bodies, including the pregnant woman.

There were no immediate reports of injuries and no exact figures for passengers and crew members aboard the ferry.

“We are still focusing on evacuation efforts,” Hendrata said, adding that the cause of the fire is being investigated.

Photos and videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed terrifying passengers jumping into the sea, mostly wearing life jackets. Orange flames and black smoke swirling from the burning container.

Indonesia is an archipelago of over 17,000 islands where ferries are common ways to travel. Disasters occur regularly, and weak safety enforcement is often condemned.

Residents of the Mentawai Islands discovered that a speedboat carrying 18 people who had capsized during the storm the previous day was stuck on July 14, authorities said. Everything was in good condition.

A ferry sank near Bali, Indonesia’s resort island earlier this month, killing at least 19 people and 16 people missing. The two-week search operation included more than 1,000 rescuers, three naval ships, 15 boats, helicopters and divers.

CNN
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At least 73 people were killed and around 150 injured in Israeli shootings in Gaza while seeking assistance on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Sixteen people have been killed in northern Gaza, the ministry said, while six others were killed in Khan Yunis, south of the Strip. It is unclear whether all 67 people reportedly killed in northern Gaza were killed in the same location or in multiple incidents. It marks one of the highest reported deaths in recent repeated cases where people seeking assistance have been killed.

The Israeli Defense Secretary said after “a gathering of thousands of Gaza people have been identified in the Northern Gaza Strip,” the forces “fired warning shots to remove the immediate threat posed to them.”

“The IDF is aware of the claims regarding casualties in the area and details of the incident are still under consideration,” the Israeli military said without revealing the numbers of the victims.

Israeli forces have also issued warnings to residents of many areas of northern Gaza, including the cities of Beit Rahia, Jabaria and Beit Hanong.

“These areas are active combat zones and are extremely dangerous,” said Avichay Adraee, an IDF Arabic spokesman, on Sunday. “The Israeli Defense Forces operate in these areas with very intense forces. For your safety, travel to these areas is strictly prohibited. Those who hear them are warned.”

People were shot dead by Israeli forces on Sunday morning and attempted to receive assistance northwest of Gaza city, north of the enclave, according to Dr Mohamed Absalmiya, director of Alsifa Hospital in Gaza.

“The Alsifa Medical Facilities are in devastating condition due to an overwhelming number of martyrs, injuries and hungry civilians,” Abu Salmiyah told CNN in a statement.

“There have been many deaths and injuries among those seeking assistance, and ambulances and civilian vehicles have not stopped arriving and transported injuries and deaths from northwest of Gaza,” he continued.

“A significant number of civilians, and even medical staff, have arrived at a state of fainting and collapse due to severe malnutrition,” he said.

Palestine’s Red Crescent said Alsaraya Field Hospital in Gaza city received someone with 120 injured people on Sunday. He also said he received two bodies.

“The Israeli military targeted civilians waiting for assistance arriving from the Jikim area north of Beit Rahia in the North Gaza Strip. Due to the numerous casualties the hospital received, new beds were urgently opened to ensure proper care for the injured.”

Meanwhile, residents of Deial Al Bala in central Gaza said they were forced to be evacuated on Sunday after the IDF warned them to leave the area.

“The plane dropped many leaflets on top of us. The entire sky was covered in houses, streets and everywhere, and it said we had to evacuate certain areas.”

“We live on the edge. We don’t sleep, eat, drink. We don’t have flour or anything. We’re hungry,” she said. “We are dying, our children are dying from starvation.”

Another resident, Mohammad al-Nazirli, told CNN: “We were sitting here in the morning and they were suddenly sending us a message and warning telling us to leave. Where should we go? There’s no place to evacuate… We don’t know where to go.”

Medical Assistance for Palestinians (MAP) said in a statement on Sunday that Israel’s evacuation order “has put dangerous humanitarian and primary healthcare sites at risk, accelerating the systemic demolition of Gaza’s already estimated healthcare systems,” and that offices of several humanitarian organisations have been “ordered to evacuate immediately.”

At least 32 people were killed while seeking assistance near a distribution point run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and witnesses.

The Israeli military said the forces “identified suspects who approached them during operational activities in the Rafa area.”

The IDF said the troops called on the suspects to “steer themselves away and after they didn’t follow, the troops fired warning shots.” He said he was aware of the casualty reports and was under review.

About 995 people died while trying to get food near the aid forces between May 27th and Sunday, according to the Hamasran government’s media office in Gaza.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said earlier this month that nearly 800 Gazans were killed in attempts to access aid between late May and July 7th.

CNN’s Eugenia Yosef and Abeer Salman contributed to this report.