HONG KONG (AP) — China’s biggest state-owned air carriers have hit back at a U.S. proposal to bar them from flying over Russia when traveling to or from the U.S.
The U.S. side has said such flights give Chinese airlines an unfair cost advantage over American carriers, which cannot cross through Russian airspace. Moscow closed Russian airspace to U.S. air carriers and most European airlines in 2022 in response to Western sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Air China, China Eastern and China Southern are among six Chinese airlines filing complaints over the order proposed last week to prohibit such flights by Chinese carriers.
China Eastern said in its filing this week to the U.S. Department of Transport that the proposed ban would “harm the public interest" and "inconvenience travelers” from both China and the U.S. The additional flight time would result in higher costs and elevated air fares, which increases the burden on all travelers, it said.
China Southern warned that a Russian airspace ban would adversely affect thousands of travelers. Air China said it estimates at least 4,400 passengers would be affected if the ban takes effect during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
Last week, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun also hit back at the proposed ban, saying the move would be “punishing” passengers around the world.
David Yu, an aviation industry expert at New York University Shanghai, said that U.S. carriers' inability to fly over Russian airspace has increased flight paths for some U.S.-China routes by roughly two to three hours. Longer journeys require more fuel and pressure U.S. carriers’ profitability.
“The U.S.-China route historically has been a money-maker for airlines on both sides,” Yu said. “From the Chinese carriers’ perspective, if you can go through Russia, your costs go down.”
Despite that, Chinese carriers have struggled with losses, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said in its proposed order that Chinese carriers' ability to cross Russian airspace has caused “competitive imbalances” between American and Chinese airlines.
“Being able to use the most efficient route provides a competitive advantage because it usually results in the shortest flight time duration, thereby offering a more appealing option to travelers,” the department said last week.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said it would consider public comments before finalizing the plan.
European airlines including Air France-KLM have also complained.
In a filing to the Department of Transportation, United Airlines urged that Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific, which is not included in the list of Chinese airlines, also be subject to the ban.
FILE - Passengers walk past a couple browsing their smartphones near a China Southern Airlines, parked on the tarmac at the Beijing Capital International Airport Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016.(AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
SYDNEY (AP) — As the sounds of bullets rang out and the bodies fell, the young mother threw herself on top of her 5-year-old son and prayed.
“Please don’t let us die,” 33-year-old Rebecca begged God from her hiding place under a table in a park overlooking Bondi, Australia’s most iconic beach. Rebecca spoke on condition that her last name not be used for fear of retaliation. “Please just keep my son safe.”
It was faith that drew Rebecca and hundreds of other members of Sydney’s Jewish community to this picturesque spot to celebrate the start of Hannukah. And it was faith that authorities said made her and others attending the Channukah by the Sea gathering a target of two gunmen who began firing at revelers around 6:40 p.m. on Sunday. Authorities have called it an antisemitic act of terrorism.
In the minutes that followed, the assault would take the lives of at least 15 people, officials said, including a 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor and a beloved rabbi. It would also take away a sense of security in a country that, because of strict gun laws, has largely been insulated from the mass shootings so common in the United States and other Western nations.
This reconstruction is based on interviews with survivors and footage of the assault.
Under the table that held food for the partygoers, Rebecca pulled buckets of drinks on top of her body, to try and hide herself and her son. Suddenly, a man lying on his side just 10 centimeters (3 inches) from her was struck in the chest by a bullet.
“I’m dying,” he told Rebecca. “I can’t breathe.”
Under fire and separated from her husband and 7-year-old daughter, Rebecca could offer him nothing but words. “You’re going to be OK,” she told him desperately. “You’re going to be OK.”
She did not know if that was true.
It started out as a classic Sunday summer evening in Sydney. The sun had not yet set, and the temperature was still a balmy 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit). The Tasman Sea was speckled with swimmers and surfers.
In the park overlooking Bondi’s golden arc of sand, children giggled and cuddled animals at a petting zoo set up as part of the Hanukkah celebration. Rebecca’s son scampered up a rock-climbing wall. Music competed with the sound of crashing waves.
And then the bubbles floating through the air were replaced with bullets, the laughter replaced with screams. From their positions on one of the pedestrian bridges connecting the busy main road to the beach, two armed gunmen — a father and son, according to police — had begun firing into the crowd.
Young people began to run, but older people struggled to get up. From her perch on a bench, Rebecca watched in horror as a bullet struck an older woman sitting next to her. Rebecca grabbed her son and dove under the table.
On the beach and the boardwalk, it was bedlam.
Some surfers and swimmers frantically paddled ashore, while others sought safety in the sea. Eleanor, who also spoke on condition that her last name not be used for fear of retaliation, said she been walking down the boardwalk on her way to dinner when she heard the gunshots. Her mind went blank, apart from one command: “Run.” And so she did, fully clothed, into the ocean.
Crowds of people — gathered on a grassy slope overlooking the sea for a sunset viewing of the Christmas romcom, “The Holiday” — abandoned their blankets and beach chairs and fled.
From their hotel room overlooking the streets of Bondi, Joel Sargent, 30, and his partner, Grace, from Melbourne, heard the shots and began to film. Their footage, obtained by The Associated Press, shows the gunfire went on for at least seven minutes, with dozens of blasts. Grace spoke on condition her last name not be used because she didn't want people at work to know she had been involved.
"Baby, I’m scared," Grace can be heard saying as they watched throngs of screaming people stream past their building. She shouted down to them: “Get off the street!”
Phones across the city lit up with panicked calls and messages. Lawrence Stand was at home when his phone rang. It was his 12-year-old daughter, who had been attending a bar mitzvah inside the Bondi Pavilion, overlooking the beach.
Stand told his daughter to stay on the phone as he leaped into his car and raced toward the beach. He found her and pulled her and others into his car, speeding them away from the carnage.
Many did not know where to find sanctuary. Inside a Greek restaurant, 20-year-old American friends Shira Elisha and Lexi Haag first hid in the restaurant’s bathroom, and then ran back to Elisha’s home, where they hid under her bedding. The pair wondered how a situation so common to the U.S. but so alien to Australia was happening here.
Back in the park, the man next to Rebecca was bleeding out. Rebecca’s 65-year-old mother-in-law grabbed a piece of cardboard and pressed it against his wound.
The man did not survive.
The shots kept coming. Sirens wailed. Minutes passed. A bystander can be heard shouting in one video: “Where are the cops?”
That and other widely circulated videos of the attack chronicled what happened next.
Near one of the shooters, a passerby identified by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke as Ahmed al Ahmed crouched behind a parked car. Ahmed, a fruit shop owner and father of two, then rushed the shooter and wrestled away the gun, before pointing the weapon at the shooter, who fell to the ground. Ahmed was shot in the shoulder by the other gunman, but survived.
The man disarmed by Ahmed got up but, under fire from police, soon fell again. The other shooter traded fire with police for another minute before he, too, fell.
Police later confirmed the older of the two suspected gunmen, a 50-year-old, was fatally shot. His 24-year-old son, who was shot and wounded, is being treated at a hospital.
Back in the park, rescuers frantically pumped the chests of unmoving bodies on the grass, near a picnic table, an abandoned stroller and the petting zoo.
On Monday, Elisha, the American who hid in the restaurant bathroom, wandered down to the beach, where rows of shoes abandoned by fleeing beachgoers lined the sand.
“It just reminded me of the Holocaust — all these shoes lying here. This is like Oct. 7,” she said, referring to Hamas-led militants’ 2023 attack in Israel. “How many times do Jews need to be attacked before the world just wakes up and realizes that we have targets on our backs?”
After a sleepless night, Rebecca and her sister-in-law, draped in the flag of Israel, made their way to the beach to mourn before a memorial of flowers.
Rebecca’s children have asked her many questions since the attack, for which she has no answers, she said.
She has her own questions: for officials she said did little to address a surge in antisemitic crimes in Sydney and Melbourne over the past year. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended his government’s efforts to combat antisemitism and said it planned more.
“The world needs to wake up and see what’s happening,” she said. “They specifically targeted us, the Jewish people. ... No one did anything. They turned a blind eye.”
Police cordon off an area at Bondi Beach after a reported shooting in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
People offer hugs to each other at a flower memorial placed outside Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A woman places an Israeli flag over flowers outside Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
A couple embrace a day after a shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
Shoes sit lined up following a shooting the day prior at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
