Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time

A Toronto police vehicle is deployed at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 12, 2018. (REUTERS)
A Toronto police vehicle is deployed at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 12, 2018. (REUTERS)
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Updated 13 October 2024
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Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time

A Toronto police vehicle is deployed at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 12, 2018. (REUTERS)
  • The school in the North York area of Toronto was targeted in a similar incident in May, and police believe the two shootings are connected

MONTREAL: A Jewish school in Toronto was hit by gunfire Saturday for the second time this year, police said, as Canada sees a rise in anti-Semitic attacks since the start of the war in Gaza.
No one was injured after shots were fired from a vehicle at around 4 am (0800 GMT) at the Bais Chaya Mushka girls school, with the only damage being a broken window, according to authorities.
The school in the North York area of Toronto was targeted in a similar incident in May, and police believe the two shootings are connected.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “very disturbed” by the incident, which came as Jewish people celebrated Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism.
“As we wait for more details, my heart goes out to the students, staff and parents who must be terrified and hurting today,” Trudeau said in a post on X.
“Anti-Semitism is a disgusting and dangerous form of hate — and we won’t let it stand,” he added.
According to a report published in May by Jewish organization B’nai Brith Canada, anti-Semitic acts more than doubled in the country between 2022 and 2023.
In November 2023, a Jewish school in Montreal was shot at twice in a single week, with no one injured.
 

 


King Charles to resume foreign tours after cancer diagnosis

King Charles to resume foreign tours after cancer diagnosis
Updated 4 sec ago
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King Charles to resume foreign tours after cancer diagnosis

King Charles to resume foreign tours after cancer diagnosis
LONDON: King Charles III’s cancer diagnosis will not prevent him flying abroad next year for foreign visits, a Buckingham Palace official said, as the monarch wrapped up a tour of Australia and Samoa.
“We’re now working on a pretty normal looking full overseas tour program for next year, which is a high for us to end on, to know that we can be thinking in those terms,” the official said late Saturday.
Charles was diagnosed with an undisclosed cancer earlier this year but doctors agreed he could pause his treatment to allow him to travel to Australia and Samoa.
The palace announced in April that he would make a limited return to public duties, as doctors were “very encouraged” by his progress.
The official added that the king had “thrived” on the tour’s program which had lifted “his spirits, his mood and his recovery.”
“In that sense, the tour, despite its demands, has been the perfect tonic,” he added.
The tour was Charles’ first to Australia, where he is also head of state, since he became king following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.
Charles and Queen Camilla left Samoa Saturday after the marathon 11-day tour that saw the king carry out more than 30 engagements.
The royal couple visited Sydney, Canberra and the Samoan capital Apia, where Charles attended a meeting of Commonwealth nations.
The 56-nation bloc — made up mostly of British ex-colonies — had hoped to focus on a future threatened by climate change, but instead bickered over a troubled past marked by slavery and colonization.

Migrant dies attempting to cross Channel to UK: French authorities

Migrant dies attempting to cross Channel to UK: French authorities
Updated 52 min 35 sec ago
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Migrant dies attempting to cross Channel to UK: French authorities

Migrant dies attempting to cross Channel to UK: French authorities

LILLE: A migrant died Sunday in an attempt to cross the Channel to Britain, a death that comes on top of two deadly boat sinkings in the past 10 days, French officials said.
The man, an Indian citizen, had set off from the beach of Tardinghen in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.
“The vessel, which was in very poor condition, deflated immediately after leaving the beach” at around 5:30 am (0430 GMT) the local prefecture said in a statement.
Not all the passengers had life jackets, but most on board were able to swim back to shore.
One man “of Indian nationality, around 40 years old, was in cardio-respiratory arrest” and could not be revived by emergency services, the prefecture added.
Sunday’s death brings the total on the France-Britain route across the Channel to at least 56 in 2024, already more than any previous year with two months remaining.
Two men and a woman were killed on Wednesday when their boat was wrecked around two kilometers offshore near port city Calais.
The previous week, a four-month-old baby had died after a boat disintegrated.
And three migrants were hospitalized Friday after suffering injury or hypothermia in attempted crossings.
“We can’t bear any more of this migration policy. As far as we’re concerned, that’s what’s responsible” for the deaths, said Axel Gaudiant, coordinator of migrant aid association Utopia 46 in Calais.
Britain and France have worked together for years to prevent people departing northern France in small boats.
Over 29,000 migrants have made it across the Channel since the start of 2024, according to the British Home Office, the UK’s equivalent of an interior ministry.


Putin says Moscow will respond if West helps Ukraine to strike deep into Russia

Putin says Moscow will respond if West helps Ukraine to strike deep into Russia
Updated 27 October 2024
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Putin says Moscow will respond if West helps Ukraine to strike deep into Russia

Putin says Moscow will respond if West helps Ukraine to strike deep into Russia
  • Putin says defense ministry exploring responses
  • Russia has changed nuclear doctrine
  • Putin says NATO would have to help strikes by Ukraine

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia’s defense ministry was working on different ways to respond if the United States and its NATO allies help Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with long-range Western missiles.
The 2-1/2-year-old Ukraine war has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the depths of the Cold War, and Russian officials say the war is now entering its most dangerous phase.
Russia has been signalling to the United States and its allies for weeks that if they give permission to Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western-supplied missiles, then Moscow will consider it a major escalation.
Putin said on Sept. 12 that Western approval for such a step would mean “the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine” because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles.
Putin said that it was too early to say exactly how Russia would react to such a move but that Moscow would have to respond accordingly and different options were being examined.
“(The Russian defense ministry) is thinking about how to respond to the possible long-range strikes on Russian territory, it will offer a range of responses,” Putin told Russian state TV’s top Kremlin reporter, Pavel Zarubin.
With Russia advancing at the fastest rate in eastern Ukraine since the first months of the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pleading with the West to allow Kyiv to fire deep into Russia with Western missiles.
Hitting Russia
The United States has not said publicly if it will allow Ukraine to strike Russia, but some US officials are deeply skeptical that doing so would make a significant difference in the war.
Ukrainian forces already strike deep into Russia on a regular basis with long-range drones.
Putin, who ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, casts the war as a battle between Russia and the declining West, which he says ignored Russia’s interests after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Ukraine and its Western allies say Putin unleashed an imperial-style war against its smaller neighbor and have repeatedly said that if Russia wins the war then autocratic countries across the world will be emboldened.
Just weeks before the US presidential election, Putin changed Russia’s
nuclear doctrine
in what the Kremlin said was an attempt to signal Russia’s concern over Western discussions about missile strikes from Ukraine.
Asked if the West had heard Russia’s warnings, Putin told Zarubin: “I hope they have heard. Because, of course, we will have to make some decisions for ourselves, too.”
Putin said that only NATO officers would be able to fire such weapons into Russia and that they would need to use Western satellite data for targeting the weapons so the question is really “whether they will allow themselves to strike deep into Russian territory or not. That is the question.”
US officials say the United States is not seeking to escalate the conflict.
How a new US president will approach the war is unclear: former US president Donald Trump has said he will end the Ukraine war while Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris says she will continue to support Ukraine.


Taiwan reports Chinese ‘combat patrol’ after Beijing slams US arms deal

Taiwan reports Chinese ‘combat patrol’ after Beijing slams US arms deal
Updated 27 October 2024
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Taiwan reports Chinese ‘combat patrol’ after Beijing slams US arms deal

Taiwan reports Chinese ‘combat patrol’ after Beijing slams US arms deal
  • The United States is bound by law to provide Chinese-claimed Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties

TAIPEI/BEIJING: Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Sunday that Chinese warplanes and warships had carried out another “combat patrol” near the island, after Beijing threatened to take countermeasures in response to a $2 billion arms sale package by the United States.
The United States is bound by law to provide Chinese-claimed Taiwan with the means to defend itself despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties, to the constant anger of Beijing.
The Pentagon said on Friday the United States had approved a potential $2 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery for the first time to the island of an advanced air defense missile system battle-tested in Ukraine.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had detected 19 Chinese military aircraft, including Su-30 fighter jets, carrying out a “joint combat readiness patrol” around Taiwan in conjunction with Chinese warships starting on Sunday morning.
It said the Chinese aircraft flew in airspace to the north, center, southwest and east of Taiwan, and that Taiwanese forces were dispatched to keep watch.
China’s defense ministry did not answer calls seeking comment outside normal office hours.
China stages such patrols around Taiwan several times a month, but this was the first since Beijing held a new round of full-blown war games near the island this month.
In a statement late on Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said it strongly condemned and firmly opposed the latest US weapons sales and had lodged “solemn representations” with Washington.
China urges the United States to immediately stop arming Taiwan and stop its dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, it added.
“China will take resolute countermeasures and take all measures necessary to firmly defend national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” the ministry said, without elaborating.
China has over the past five years stepped up its military activities around democratically governed Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
Taiwan’s government has welcomed the new arms sale, the 17th to the island under US President Joe Biden’s administration.
“In the face of China’s threats, Taiwan is duty-bound to protect its homeland, and will continue to demonstrate its determination to defend itself,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said on Saturday, responding to the arms sale.


Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv for second night, Ukraine says

Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv for second night, Ukraine says
Updated 27 October 2024
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Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv for second night, Ukraine says

Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv for second night, Ukraine says

Russia launched a multi-wave drone attack on Kyiv for the second straight night, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said on Sunday.
“It seems that now every night, without long breaks, the Russian armed forces attack the peaceful city of Kyiv,” Serhiy Popko, head of the military administration said on Telegram messaging app.
“Last night, the enemy made another attack on the capital.”
He added that Russia launched around 10 drones in several waves, from different directions and at different heights, but Ukrainian air defense units destroyed all of the weapons on their approach to the city.
No injuries or major damage were reported, Popko added. He said that the Air Force will release data on the full-scale of the overnight attack on Ukraine later on Sunday. 
Meanwhile, Moscow's defence ministry said on Sunday that Russia shot down 51 Ukrainian drones from above several regions, including near the border.
Eighteen were intercepted in the Tambov region, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and 16 in the area of the border town Belgorod, the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.
The others were shot down in the regions of Oryol, Briansk, Lipetsk and Voronej.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia started with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But thousands of civilians have died, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.
Russia’s drone attack on Kyiv on Saturday killed one and damaged high-rise residential building.