News of the World

[kyonides]

MPs Concerned Over UK Universities’ Alleged Role
in Developing Iranian ‘Suicide Drones’

According to a report published on Thursday by The Jewish Chronicle (The JC), a number of research projects were done in collaboration with Iranian universities that have been sanctioned by the UK, the EU, and the United States.

Alicia Kearns MP, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote on Twitter that she had written to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan to raise her “serious concerns about these unacceptable collaborations by British Universities with Iran, which risk breaching sanctions around sensitive and dual-use technologies.”

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy has also said the revelation is “deeply troubling,” calling on the government to “urgently investigate whether or not UK universities and academics have breached UK sanctions on Iran regarding collaboration on military technologies.”

Among thousands of scientific papers published since 2017, an analysis by The Jewish Chronicle identified “hundreds of projects” that involved collaborations between British researchers and institutions and Iranian universities that have been sanctions over their involvement with the Iranian regime’s nuclear programme, the report said.

While most of the papers are on subjects about civil technologies, at least 16 studies involving 11 British universities had “potential Iranian military applications,” it said.

One of the papers that was highlighted had investigated the effect of two-stroke engines using an electronic fuel injection system in drones.

It was published in 2019 by Ahmad Najjaran Kheirabadi, then a postgraduate researcher at the Imperial College London (ICL), and two scientists from Iran’s Shahrood University of Technology and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.

Philadelphia I-95 collapse: Gov Shapiro says
1 person possibly trapped in vehicle
Biden briefed on disaster

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said during a Sunday afternoon press conference that a vehicle is trapped in the rubble of the disastrous collapse that shut down Interstate 95 outside of Philadelphia on Sunday morning.

Shapiro said it is possible that at least one person is still in the vehicle, according to FOX 29 Philadelphia. Shapiro would not say if authorities believe it could be the driver of the commercial truck that sparked the massive fire that led to the collapse, but he noted that there were no injures or fatalities to drivers on I-95.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney reported that while there are no known fatalities, the situation is "still fluid."

As authorities continue to work the scene, President Joe Biden has been briefed on the collapse.
...
Chaos ensued when a tanker truck caught fire when reportedly traveling under an overpass, causing the elevated structure to collapse. Authorities believe the truck could have been carrying hundreds of gallons of gasoline.

The fire was extinguished by 7:30 a.m. Philadelphia's Office of Emergency Management reported that both sides of I-95 were closed while authorities and first responders responded to the situation.

Images from the scene show the elevated concrete structure collapsed on the road below. No injuries have been reported as of Sunday afternoon.