In a dramatic departure from its usual reliability it appears the media has got the ‘Russian spy whale’ story all wrong. Far from being a secret agent a new report suggests the whale may have actually provided therapy to children.

The, seemingly slandered, white beluga whale was the subject of countless newspaper articles and news packages last week as Western media outlets fell over themselves to engage in their latest round of Russia bashing.

Many of the breathless reports noted that the whale, who was dubbed “Hvaldimir” in Norwegian media, had a very playful disposition and was friendly towards humans. Now a fresh report from Norway’s Fiskeribladet newspaper suggests there’s a good reason for that: the whale was trained to entertain and offer comfort to children suffering from mental health problems.

Morten Vikeby, a former journalist at the newspaper, did a story on whales trained for therapy purposes near Russia’s border with Norway back in 2008. He said he believes the tame whale which appeared off the eastern coast of Norway is called Semion as he recognized it from his visit to the facility. The newspaper published archived video footage from the center on Tuesday.

Vikeby said the harnesses found on the whale were probably used to tow small boats with children on board. “That’s also the reason the whale is so social,” he said. “He thrives among people.” Several of the tricks performed by the whale in the video are similar to those performed by “Hvaldimir,” where it currently resides in Norway.

There is a notable problem with the theory that the whale is actually Semion: the friendly beluga has got distinctive scars which he got in a fight with a sea lion when he was only a calf. However, his “girlfriends” could have well learned the same tricks that he mastered. RT has requested comment from the northern Russian diving center where Semion reportedly lived.

The new theory about the whale’s origins was welcomed by Norway’s fisheries inspectorate, which currently has responsibility for the whale. “We had thought along the lines of espionage or war, but now it looks like this is a whale trained to do good,” spokesperson Jørgen Ree Wiig told Fiskeribladet. “That’s fantastic.”

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The US is running an unprecedented campaign to oust legitimate Venezuelan authorities, the Russian Foreign Minister said. He noted it’s typical of Washington to tell nations they are waging war against that US intentions are good.

“The attempts to force the change of government in Caracas have nothing in common with the democratic process and only undermine the prospects of a political solution,” Sergey Lavrov said, during a media conference with his Venezuelan counterpart Jorge Arreaza in Moscow. He explained that the “unprecedented Washington-led campaign to oust the legitimate government” is “in rude violation of the international law.”

“It’s a particular feature of the US that they have been projecting power for decades by explaining that they are bringing good, democracy and protection of human rights to nations they are waging the war against,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov insisted that the fate of Venezuela should only be decided and created by its people and that all political forces in the country should be included in the dialogue.
Arreaza in turn thanked Moscow for supporting Venezuela’s sovereignty and international law.

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Lavrov’s appeal to the US and their allies in respect of Caracas comes ahead of his meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Finland on Monday, at which they are expected to discuss the situation in Venezuela and other hotspots of the world.

“Cooperation between Russia and the US can play a very significant and positive role in solving most issues, if we are building this cooperation on the principle of finding common approaches,” Lavrov said, rebuking Washington for often offering one-sided solutions.
He noted that, despite disagreements on Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea and other flashpoints, Moscow and Washington hold consultations on these issues on a very professional level. “I hope that common sense will prevail,” Lavrov said.

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Passengers rushed to exit the ill-fated Superjet 100 while it was still speeding, and some reported that cabin windows were melting, a stewardess recalled after the fiery crash-landing claimed over 40 lives in Moscow.

Lightning struck the plane 10 minutes after take-off, Tatyana Kasatkina revealed in an interview to local media just hours after she survived the emergency landing. “There was strong hail, a noise was heard outside, then a bang occurred,” she said, adding that a flash and black smoke could be seen.

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The pilot announced that the plane was returning to the airport right away, she said, but indicated that communication was severely impaired. The plane’s light signaling was also out of order.

Kasatkina said passengers were gripped by panic as they began to jump off their seats while the plane was still traveling at high speed.

Panic intensified as the plane stopped, but there was no fire inside the cabin, the stewardess said. Some passengers noticed the cabin windows were melting, she recalled. 

As the evacuation started, she had to kick people off the plane in order to keep them moving.

A total of 41 people died in the tragedy including steward Maxim Moiseev, officials have confirmed. Moiseev died as he was trying to open the rear door of the aircraft to speed up the evacuation as fire engulfed the back of the plane, a source told TASS news agency.

The Aeroflot flight SU 1492, which was traveling from Moscow to the northern Russian city of Murmansk, suffered a crash-landing on Sunday evening shortly after take-off.

 Leaked CCTV footage suggests the aircraft bounced off the runway and then hit it at full force as its engines burst into flames.

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Hamas and Israel have reached a ceasefire agreement, according to Palestinian and other media, following two days of intense cross-border confrontation between Gaza and its neighbor, in which both sides suffered casualties.

The ceasefire was expected to go into effect at 4:30 am on Monday (01:30 GMT), according to the Times of Israel, which noted there had been no rockets for two hours before the announcement. 

The deal, reportedly brokered by Egypt and the European Union, was also confirmed by a second Reuters source, as well as a TV station belonging to Hamas.

At least 25 Palestinians died and another 125 sustained injuries in some 320 air raids carried out by the IDF against militant targets in the enclave since Saturday, WAFA news reported, citing the Gazan Health Ministry.

Four people in Israel died as a result of the attacks, while at least 10 others were injured by shrapnel from rockets, missiles and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip, after militants launched over 600 missiles at southern Israel, local media reports. The IDF has yet to comment on the reports of a ceasefire.

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President Donald Trump has expressed his full support for Israel after another escalation in the conflict, when Gaza militants launched hundreds of rockets and IDF responded with massive air strikes.

“These terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery,” Trump tweeted, advising the Gazan people to “END the violence.”

Disregarding the Israeli use of force against residents of Gaza and the mounting casualties there, Trump stressed that the United States “support[s] Israel 100%” in its defense of its citizens’ against “a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.”

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At least 18 people were killed in Sunday’s Israeli assault on Gaza, WAFA reported, as the IDF take measures protect its civilians from hundreds of rocket launches by Hamas or Islamic Jihad militants that had escalated on Saturday.

Over 320 “terror sites” had been struck by Sunday evening, the IDF said, after militants from the enclave fired over 600 rockets. At least four people in Israel were killed and at least 10 injured by shrapnel from rockets, missiles and mortar shells from the Gaza Strip, Times of Israel reports.

As Egypt and the European Union reportedly continue to attempt brokering a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian groups, the cross-border battle continues. The IDF said it targeted “observation headquarters, underground bunkers, weapons caches, military facilities, launchpads, observation posts and more” in its most recent air raids.

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Two US warships have sailed through the South China Sea, a move that has angered Beijing. The naval maneuver comes a day after Donald Trump threatened China with more tariffs as part of an ongoing trade war.

The US military has confirmed that two of its warships sailed near islands claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea on Monday. China says the waterway is part of its territorial waters, while Washington insists that the sea is open to international transit under the principle of “freedom of navigation.”

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The US guided-missile destroyers ‘Preble’ and ‘Chung Hoon’ traveled within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson Reefs in the Spratly Islands, Reuters reported.

Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the Seventh Fleet, described the maneuver as “innocent,” arguing that it served to “challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law.”

The Chinese Navy reportedly asked the US vessels to leave.

“The relevant actions of the US warships violated China’s sovereignty and undermined peace, security and good order in the relevant sea areas,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a press briefing.

“The Chinese side expresses strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the operation, Geng added, noting that the ships had entered the area “without permission.”

The move comes hours after US President Donald Trump announced he would hike American tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods this week and target hundreds of billions more soon. The threat was made amid faltering negotiations between Washington and Beijing to end a months-long trade war.

The resource-rich South China Sea is the subject of conflicting claims by a number of countries, including China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The US has been regularly sending its warships to carry out patrol missions in the disputed area, a policy decried by Beijing.

The South China Sea isn’t the only waterway that has seen recent US activity. The White House announced on Sunday that it would deploy the USS ‘Abraham Lincoln’ Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Middle East, in an effort to “to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime.”

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People were scared to death on board the Sukhoi Superjet 100 during its emergency landing, one of the passengers who survived the tragedy said. Forty-one people died after the plane crash-landed and caught fire.

“The flight came back. We had a rough landing. We almost lost consciousness from fear. The plane was bouncing like a grasshopper and started burning already on the ground,” Petr Egorov told Komsomolskaya Pravda. 

Several videos that emerged from inside the plane show the plane’s wings engulfed in flames as it rolls fast on the runway. People heard on the video are shouting in panic.

“This plane was landing engulfed in a terrible fire. Firefighters were quickly on the scene but I couldn’t see it evacuated from where I was in the terminal,” a witness to the tragedy, observing the unfolding calamity from the ground, said.

Footage from the scene of the horrific accident showed the plane making an extremely hard landing, bouncing off the ground, before becoming engulfed in flames. Fire and rescue services immediately arrived at the scene to deal with the emergency.

People rushed to get off the plane via emergency slides as the rear of the plane was engulfed in flames and a thick plume of black smoke rose. It took people around 55 seconds to get off the aircraft, RT correspondent, Igor Zhdanov noted, reporting from the airport. He also managed to speak to one of the witnesses of the crash landing, who was observing the incident from another plane on the runway.

“We sat near the window. I just turned my head and all of a sudden I saw a burning flame with a huge plume of black smoke. Firefighters arrived at the scene within two minutes. They started fighting the fire,” the witness said.

“They did not show signs of panic. As the plane was too close to the people waiting on the runway, we did not know it was landing. It looked like it was just 50 meters from the nearest aircraft,” he added.

At least 41 people out of 78 people onboard Aeroflot flight SU 1492 died in the tragedy, authorities confirmed, noting that six out of 37 survivors were rushed to a hospital. Officials have yet to confirm the cause of the incident. It’s been reported that the connection between the plane and ground control was lost. One of the theories about the accident is that lighting hit the plane.

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Leaked security camera footage shows the ill-fated landing attempt of Sukhoi Superjet-100 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. The jet bounces and then smacks into the tarmac, rupturing its undercarriage and bursting into a fireball.

The footage of the crash-landing was captured by an airport security video camera and uploaded to Telegram channel Baza. It shows the aircraft attempting to land at speed, but then bouncing off the runway. Another touchdown attempt is made seconds later, but the plane’s undercarriage apparently collapses, smashing its engines and triggering a massive fireball.

Aeroflot Flight SU1492 had declared an emergency shortly after takeoff on Sunday. The plane was bound for Murmansk before it returned to Sheremetyevo to crash-land. After the plane ground to a halt on the runway, passengers rushed to evacuate and fire teams extinguished the blaze. Investigators stated Sunday night that of the plane’s 78 passengers, only 37 survived. Another seven were reported injured earlier on Sunday.

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An Aeroflot captain who piloted the Superjet 100 in Moscow has revealed harrowing details of the accident, saying he had to crash-land with full tanks, which possibly led to the jet catching fire right after its bumpy touchdown.

There was “a bright flash and a bang” moments before the pilots began an immediate descent into Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, Denis Evdokimov, a captain on the ill-fated Aeroflot flight, told Telegram channel Baza. To make matters worse, communication with the ground failed “because of a lightning strike.”

The failure left the crew with no option but to perform a manual landing. They finally managed to establish radio contact and “could only say a couple of words” to the air traffic control, who guided them back to the runway, Edvokimov recalled.

READ MORE: Fiery Sukhoi Superjet-100 crash-landing: How it happened

While attempting to land, the jet struck the runway several times, probably damaging the fuel tanks and causing a fire to ignite in the rear of the fuselage. But the captain failed to explain why the touchdown was so hard, only saying that “we had caught fire upon landing.”

The crew didn’t seem to have any trouble during descent, he said. “The speed wasn’t high, it was normal. [We acted] according to the flight manual.” However, the jet’s weight was much greater than required because of its full tanks, making it extremely challenging to safely land a 45-ton airliner on a runway, the pilot said.

He and his first officer followed a protocol on landing an overweight plane, but it could be the bumpy touchdown that ignited fire on board, Evdokimov suggested.

The plane was flying to Murmansk, a city in the north of Russia, carrying 78 passengers and five crew members. Shortly after take-off, the pilots declared an emergency and turned back. The Flightradar24 tracking service showed that the jet circled twice around Moscow before it hit the runway after spending less than half an hour in the air.

The plane was evacuated immediately after coming to a complete stop, with surviving passengers having to escape on emergency exit slides as the engines were engulfed by flames. A total of 41 people on board died in the crash-landing. The 37 survivors comprised 33 passengers and four members of the crew.

Aeroflot, Russia’s flag carrier and one of the oldest airlines in the world, currently flies 50 Sukhoi-built Superjets. The planes usually service short- and medium-haul destinations within Russia and abroad.

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An Aeroflot passenger aircraft caught fire while crash-landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, after an onboard emergency. Forty-one people have died in the tragedy. RT recaps how the tragic events unfolded.

• The aircraft involved in the incident was built in 2017
• The plane underwent its most recent maintenance in April.

• Aeroflot flight SU1492 took off from the Sheremetyevo airport on schedule at 17:50 local time (14:50 GMT).
• The flight was bound for the northern Russian city of Murmansk.

• The aircraft had 78 people on board, 73 passengers and five crew members.
• The plane was in the air for some 28 minutes when there was an emergency alert.

• The pilots alerted the airport about their decision to turn back and land and then lost radio contact with air traffic control.
• The jet managed to land at the second attempt around 18:30 local time (15:30 GMT).

• The aircraft bounced off the runway and hit the ground hard; the tail of the plane burst into flames.
• While already on the runway, the plane made a sudden sharp turn and came to a stop not far from other planes waiting for takeoff.

•  Firefighters arrived at the crash scene in about two minutes.
• People were leaving the plane through emergency exits in its forward section, as the tail was burning. The evacuation took 55 seconds.
• The fire was extinguished within an hour.

• Forty passengers and a crew member died in the tragedy.
• Several people were hospitalized with smoke inhalation injuries and burns. Three were admitted to intensive care upon arriving in hospitals.
• An investigation led by the minister of transport has been launched.