A strong earthquake has hit the crowded New York City area on Friday morning, according to the US Geological Survey. People in the Northeast said they felt the ground shaking.
The agency said there was a 4. 7 earthquake near Lebanon, New Jersey. It was about 45 miles from New York City and 50 miles from Philadelphia.
The New York Fire Department said they didn’t hear about any damage at first. New York Mayor Eric Adams was told about the earthquake. His spokesperson Fabien Levy said that they don’t have any reports of big problems yet, but they are still checking to see what the impact was.
In the middle of Manhattan, the usual noisy traffic got louder as drivers honked their horns on shaky streets. Some people in Brooklyn heard a loud noise and felt their building shake. A person from California who is used to earthquakes helped calm their worried neighbors in a Manhattan apartment building.
People living in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Connecticut, and other parts of the East Coast who are not used to earthquakes said they also felt the ground shaking.
The governor of New York. Kathy Hochul wrote on X that the earthquake was felt all over the state. “My team is checking to see what kind of damage has happened, and we will keep telling people about it during the day,” Hochul said.
The shaking reminded me of the August. On August 23, 2011, an earthquake shook many people in the area from Georgia to Canada. A 58 magnitude earthquake was recorded, and it was the strongest one to hit the East Coast since World War II. The middle of the earthquake was in Virginia.
The earthquake made the Washington Monument cracked, and made people leave the White House and Capitol. It also scared New Yorkers, and this happened three weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attack11 violent attacks with the intention to cause fear and harm.
Author: Chris Kodo
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Earthquake hits New York City
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Top British politician arrested over sexting scam
British politicians who might have been tricked into sending sexual messages were told on Friday to report it to the police. This came after a senior Conservative member admitted giving some colleagues’ phone numbers to someone who had embarrassing information about him.
William Wragg, who leads a government committee, gave his phone numbers to a man he met on a dating app for gay people. This happened after he sent private pictures of himself.
Wragg, 36, said to The Times that the man had bad stuff on him and he was frightened and tricked into giving his colleagues’ numbers to the person he met on Grindr.
“I gave them a few numbers, but not all of them,” he said. “I talked to a guy on an app and we shared photos. ” We were supposed to meet for drinks, but we didn’t. Then he began asking how many people there were. I was scared because he had information about me. He gave me a WhatsApp number, but it doesn’t work anymore. I have made people sad because I was not strong. I was very afraid. I am very embarrassed.
Treasury minister Gareth Davies advised people who were affected to report to the police.
“Will Wragg apologized for what he did, and I think it’s clear that people react differently in different situations,” he told Sky News.
The honeytrap sexting scam is a type of cyber-attack that targets specific groups, and it’s called “spear phishing. ” Scammers pretend to be someone you trust in order to steal important information.
Wragg’s big discovery came after people had been wondering for days, sparked by an article in Politico. It said that some current and former members of parliament had been messaged on WhatsApp by an unknown number. The messages talked about past meetings with politicians and asked for personal or secret information. The report said that some people were sent pictures of naked bodies. At least two of them then sent pictures of themselves back.
“If you ever feel like you’re in a bad situation or being threatened, go to the police right away. It’s very serious,” Davies said.
Police in Leicestershire, England are looking into messages sent to a local politician that were mean and unwanted. -
Ukraine and Russia exchange drone claims over Black Sea
Russia and Ukraine argued on Monday about shooting down drones over the Black Sea. Both countries seem to be focusing more on using drones in their military activities.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on the Telegram app that its air defense units stopped six Ukrainian drones from carrying out a “terrorist attack. ” It also said that two more drones were taken down near the border region of Belgorod.
A person from Ukraine’s Air Force named Illya Yevlash said on TV that Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian drone called “Forpost. ” He said it was a very advanced and expensive drone in Russia’s weapons.
Yevlash said he was surprised to find such an expensive Forpost attack drone, worth $8 million. It’s rare to find a target like that.
The Forpost drone is described as a Russian version of a spy plane used by Israel for many years. It can fly up to 3 miles high and do surveillance for 16 hours without stopping.
Natalia Humeniuk, who speaks for the Ukrainian forces in the south, said that Russian forces are using drones more often now because the Ukrainian air defense has been able to shoot down at least two A-50 surveillance planes.
She said on national TV that we saw over 200 spying drones in our area from Odesa to Zaporizhzhia in the last day.
“Today there were less of them, but the enemy is still trying to gather information. ” They definitely have to make up for the A-50.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it’s important to make more drones in Ukraine. He wants to reach a goal of making one million drones by 2024.
“The war requires our defense factories to make as many weapons as needed, as quickly as needed,” Zelenskyy said in his video.
“Drones will play a big role in winning this war and it needs to be a word from Ukraine.
He said that Ukrainian drones helped Ukraine win. We need more flying robots and better flying robots from Ukraine. -
Two Israeli military officers fired for using drones to kill relief workers in Gaza
The Israeli military has fired two officers and gave warnings to three others for their part in drone attacks in Gaza that killed seven aid workers. The military said they mishandled important information and broke the rules.
The investigation by a retired general found that Israel was embarrassed to admit that it is not doing enough to protect civilians in Gaza from its conflict with Hamas. The US and other important allies are accusing Israel of not taking proper steps to safeguard the people in Gaza.
The results will probably make people doubt the choices made by the Israeli military. Palestinians, aid groups, and human rights organizations keep saying that Israeli forces shoot at civilians without being careful, but Israel says this is not true.
“It’s a very sad event,” said the military’s spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari spoke to the reporters. “We are responsible for a serious event that should not have happened, and we will make sure it doesn’t happen again. ”
Israel is being told to take responsibility for what it did. Hagari and other officials told reporters the results of the military’s investigation on Thursday night.
It’s not certain if the punishments and apology will make people feel better about the workers who died, or make aid groups feel safe to come back to Gaza, where many people don’t have enough to eat.
According to what the people who speak for the Israeli army said, targets have to be seen as dangers for many reasons before they can be attacked. But the investigation found out that a colonel gave permission for several drone attacks on the group of vehicles because a major saw, in blurry footage from a drone camera, that someone in the group had a weapon. The military officials said that the observation was not true.
The army said the colonel and the major were fired, and three other officers were told they did something wrong. It said the investigation results were given to the military’s advocate general. The advocate general will decide if the officers and others involved in the killings should get more punishment or be prosecuted.
Israel’s friends were very upset about the killings and they criticized Israel for how they have been acting in the war with Hamas, which has been going on for almost six months.
The aid workers were five people from different countries who worked for a charity called World Central Kitchen, which was started by a famous chef named José Andrés. The driver from Palestine was also killed. -
B.C Amber Alert issued following reported kidnapping of baby
An Amber Alert has been issued by Langley, BC police after receiving a report of a possible abduction of a three-month-old child without parental consent.
Tyler DuRocher, the baby, is thought to have been taken by his mom, Brianne Ford. She reportedly ran away from a house in the area of 72 Avenue and 208 Street at some time in the afternoon.
The police have found that they need to issue an alert because they are very worried about the safety of a three-month-old baby.
The police in Langley have shown pictures and given details about the child and his mother. Durocher was wearing a blue short-sleeved outfit with matching blue pants when he was last seen. The police said that Ford was wearing all black clothes. She is 35 years old, 5 feet 2 inches tall, and weighs 154 pounds. Her hair is brown with shaved sides and pink highlights.
The police are looking around the area and have asked for more help. A person from the police department told the media that officers are searching the area with help from search and rescue teams on the ground and a RCMP helicopter in the air.
If you see either of them, please call 911 right away. -
Israel supporters petition court to stop Canada’s funding of UNRWA
Those in favor of Israel are pushing for the Federal court to nullify the government’s decision to persist in funding the principal UN agency aiding Palestinians.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is asking the Canadian government to stop giving money to UNRWA, as it is what people whose family members were killed in the Hamas attack want.
A document says that if UNRWA workers were involved in the Hamas attack, it goes against Canada’s law on giving aid to other countries. This law says aid should be given in a way that follows Canadian beliefs.
Canada stopped giving money to UNRWA in January because the agency is looking into whether some of its employees were involved in an attack. The United States is investigating 12 staff members.
The Liberals gave back the money in March because they said the situation in the Gaza Strip was really bad and all the workers were being looked into.
CIJA thinks it’s not fair to give back the money until the investigation is finished.
The application also mentions that Israel says UNRWA has worked together with Hamas lately. But UNRWA denies this, and it says Canadian money is illegally helping a terrorist group.
Lawrence Greenspon filed a request and believes that the government can give money to help Palestinians in need through different organizations.
“He said to turn on the tap again, but use a different water fountain,” in an interview.
The UNRWA helps Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, but it’s not the same as the UN agency that helps refugees around the world. Some Jewish groups and Conservatives have criticized UNRWA for a long time.
They are saying that the agency’s staff’s social media posts are not neutral. Israel says that many workers are part of Hamas, but they have not shown the evidence to the public.
The Canadian government stopped giving money to UNRWA in 2010 because they thought it was too connected to Hamas.
Supporters of UNRWA believe it is the best organization for giving out help in Gaza and for keeping the refugee status for Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes when Israel was created and their children and grandchildren.
Last November, Melanie Joly, who is a Minister for Foreign Affairs, said good things about UNRWA for helping the people in Gaza by giving them the things they need to live. She said UNRWA is the only group that can actually do this.
The United Nations says that the recent fighting in Gaza has caused the deaths of over 175 of its aid workers. This is the highest number of aid workers killed in any conflict in the history of the UN. -
European police seize Lamborghinis over alleged US$650 million COVID-19 fraud
22 people have been apprehended by the European police and assets worth over 600 million euros were seized in connection with a fraud case involving the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery fund.
The EU prosecutor looked into things and then caught eight people, put 14 others on house arrest, and stopped two others from working. People were arrested in Italy, Austria, Romania, and Slovakia.
The Italian financial police took Lamborghinis, Porsches, Rolexes, Cartier jewelry, cryptocurrencies, luxury villas and other things during many searches of homes and offices.
The possible fraud might make people worry about the EU’s €800-billion recovery fund being used in the wrong way to boost the economy of the bloc again. Italy received the most money from the fund, getting over 194 billion in grants.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) believes that a criminal group is suspected of carrying out a scam from 2021 to 2023 to cheat Italy’s recovery funds.
In 2021, the group asked for grants that they didn’t have to pay back. They said it was to help small and medium-sized companies. But they lied and made fake documents to make it look like the companies were doing well when they weren’t real.
After receiving about 600 million from the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), the group moved the money to their bank accounts in Austria, Romania, and Slovakia, according to the EPPO.
The prosecutor’s office said the group used digital money, computer programs that act like human intelligence, and servers located in other countries to commit and hide the fraud.
The United States has tried to stop people from cheating to get money meant to help with Covid-19. In June, a government agency said the Small Business Administration gave out over US$200 billion in fake pandemic relief money. -
Judge rejects Trump’s request to drop prosecution over sensitive documents
The judge denied the motion to drop the case against Donald Trump for concealing confidential government papers.Trump’s defense said the case should be dropped because he was a former president and should be allowed to keep the records. But the judge said no.
Donald Trump’s lawyers said that a law from 1978 called the Presidential Records Act allowed him to take his records from his time as President with him when he left the White House.
Lawyers working for special counsel Jack Smith strongly disagreed with that idea, saying that the law didn’t apply to a case about secret documents.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon agreed with the government in a short order, saying that the indictment does not mention the Presidential Records Act, and does not use it to describe a crime.This news story is still being updated. Come back later for more information.
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Macron asserts he is certain Russia will attack Olympics in Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that he is sure Russia will try to cause trouble at the Paris Olympics this summer. This shows that the games are taking place in a tense global situation.
Macron said he has no doubt, even about information, when asked if he thinks Russia will try to target the Olympics.
The Russian embassy in Paris didn’t reply right away to a request for comment.
Macron spoke at an event in Paris for the opening of the new Olympics swimming center and said that he is now more aware of foreign dangers that could affect the security and organization of the games.
The big event is happening while there are many problems in the world, like Russia fighting in Ukraine and Israel having a conflict with Hamas in Gaza. This makes it hard to keep the Olympics safe.
A person who works for Macron said they can’t say if the President was talking about specific information that shows Russia might try to interfere in the future.
Instead, she said: “Russia has been getting tougher, and we’ve been noticing it for a few months. ”
Macron is now being more firm with Russia and said that he is determined to beat them. He also mentioned that European soldiers might go to Ukraine in the future. But he made it clear that France does not want to start a fight with Russia.
His government has also started to take a harder stance against what they believe are false information campaigns from Russia in Europe.
Earlier this week, the Foreign Minister of France, Stephane Sejourne, said that France will suggest that all countries in the European Union should put sanctions on people who are spreading false information. This is because France thinks that Russia is trying to make the European Union weaker.
Russia and the International Olympic Committee
Russia and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are not getting along well before the Paris Olympics. Russian and Belarusian athletes will compete without their flags and anthems, and they won’t be in the opening parade.
At first, they were not allowed to compete in other countries because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia announced last year that it wants to bring back the ‘Friendship Games’ in 2024. The International Olympic Committee is not happy about it and sees it as a political move.
Dmitry Peskov, who speaks for the Kremlin, said this week that the IOC’s treatment of Russia’s plans to host sports events for the world was not okay. He also said that the IOC is harming the Olympics by not staying away from politics. -
80-year-old American visitor dies in Zambian elephant attack
A big elephant attacked a truck with an 80-year-old American and other sightseers inside at a national park in Zambia. The truck flipped over and the American lady died, according to a safari company.
Five people were hurt in an attack on March 30 in Kafue National Park. The park is very big and covers 22,400 square kilometres. It’s one of the largest animal reserves in Africa.
According to the safari company Wilderness, a very angry male elephant suddenly ran towards the truck that had six guests and a guide on a morning trip through the wild areas.
It wasn’t easy to figure out why the bull was upset. However, in a video that many people have seen online, the elephant is seen aggressively running through the bushy land towards the tourists’ car. A man is yelling “hey hey hey” trying to scare something away, but it doesn’t work. It gets to the truck and turns it over with its trunk.
Another woman who was visiting as a tourist got very hurt and had to be taken to South Africa by helicopter for treatment. The other tourists had smaller injuries and were treated by the company.
“This is a very sad event for everyone involved, and we are doing our best to help the family and everyone affected,” said Tarryn Gibson, who handles communications for the safari company, in a statement to The Associated Press on Thursday. Gibson didn’t say the name of the tourist who died, and mentioned that her family wants to keep things private. The company also told people not to spread the video of the attack on the internet.
Even though there are dangerous animals like elephants and lions in many wildlife parks in southern Africa, it is rare for incidents to happen. Sometimes, these incidents can be deadly because wild animals can be unpredictable.
Keith Vincent, the boss of the safari company, said it would be hard to escape because of the rough ground.
“Our guides are very skilled and have lots of experience, but in this situation, the terrain and plants made it hard for the guide to find a way out quickly,” he said. -
Netanyahu faces threats from Biden to change US policy
President Joe Biden said he might only help Israel with its attack on Gaza if they do more to protect aid workers and civilians. This is the first time the US has tried to use its help to make Israel change how its military acts.
Biden told Prime Minister Netanyahu that there could be consequences for US aid to Israel after a deadly attack on aid workers. This made other Democrats want to put conditions on the aid. Israel admitted that the attack was a mistake.
The United States The president, who has always supported Israel, has refused to stop giving them help or to stop sending them weapons, even when people tried to make him. This was the first time he warned that he might make aid depend on certain conditions. This could change how the nearly six-month-old war is going.
Biden told Israel to take specific steps to help civilians and aid workers, the White House said about their phone call. The phone call lasted for 30 minutes.
The president said that the US will decide how to deal with Gaza based on what Israel does next.
Washington gives Israel lots of weapons and the Biden administration has mostly protected it from criticism at the United Nations.
At a meeting after the phone call, White House spokesperson John Kirby said he would not give more details about any specific changes the US might make in its policy toward Israel and Gaza.
He said Washington wants to see Israel make an announcement about what it will do soon.
Biden said the US might change its policy towards Gaza if Israel doesn’t improve the living conditions there. He felt frustrated and was under pressure from his fellow Democrats to stop the violence and help the people who are hungry and suffering in Gaza.
When asked about possible changes in US policy, Netanyahu’s spokesperson Tal Heinrich said, “I think it’s something that Washington will have to clarify. ”
Later, the White House said it was good that Israel opened the Ashdod port and Erez crossing to send more humanitarian aid and to bring deliveries from Jordan straight to Gaza.
But Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House, says that these steps need to be put into action quickly and completely.
On Monday, Israel attacked and killed seven workers from the World Central Kitchen group, which was started by famous chef Jose Andres. Andres said in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday that the Israeli attack had aimed at his aid workers one by one, destroying their vehicles.
Israel announced on Thursday that it will change its strategies in the Gaza war after saying the attack was a mistake. They also said they will share the investigation results soon.
The White House said that Biden was very upset and saddened by the attack. But before Thursday, the president didn’t change his strong support for Israel in its fight against Palestinian Hamas militants.
During the call, Biden emphasized the need for a quick ceasefire to help the humanitarian situation and keep innocent people safe. This is according to the White House. Biden asked Netanyahu to let his negotiators make a deal to bring back the hostages taken by Hamas in October. 7 attacks caused the Israeli army to start fighting.
In Brussels, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said Israel needs to help more by giving humanitarian aid and making sure aid workers are safe.
“If we don’t see the changes we need, we will change our policy,” Blinken told the media.
A person from the US government said that any changes in policy only affect the US government’s request for Israel to protect and help civilians, not the urgency for a ceasefire from Biden.
‘The final limit’
Hamas fighters from Palestine attacked Israel on Oct. 7 people were killed, 1,200 people died and 253 hostages were taken, as reported by Israel.
Israel fought back by cutting off all supplies to Gaza and then attacking from the air and on the ground. This has resulted in the deaths of over 33,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza. Biden, who says he strongly supports Israel, gave a lot of support to Israel when it first started fighting back.
However, as more people died in Gaza and the war expanded to other places like Lebanon and Yemen, his government started to work towards stopping the fighting and giving people access to help. In the previous month, the US chose not to vote in a United Nations Security Council meeting that asked for a ceasefire. This made Israel very upset.
Biden is also dealing with strong feelings from Democrats about how he handled the Gaza war. This might make people less likely to support him in the November election against Trump.
Laura Blumenfeld, who knows a lot about the Middle East, said the attack on WCK aid workers was the final thing that made her very upset.
“This was the conversation that Biden promised to have with Netanyahu last month,” Blumenfeld said. -
One Canadian missing following earthquake in Taiwan – Global Affairs
Global Affairs Canada and Taiwan‘s top representative in Ottawa say a Canadian person is missing in Taiwan after the strong earthquake there this week.
Global Affairs spokesperson Pierre Cuguen said that consular officials are helping the family and talking to local authorities.
He can’t give more information because of privacy reasons.
Harry Tseng, who is Taiwan’s spokesperson in Canada, said that one person from Canada is missing after a big earthquake on Wednesday. But two Canadian tourists were saved and are now safe from a national park.
Tseng said he doesn’t know much about the person who is missing. The Canadians who were found were supposed to be hiking in Taroko Gorge and they are not badly hurt.
He said they are hoping that the rescue teams can find the missing person by Thursday.
Taiwan’s news agency reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says three Canadians were saved from the earthquake area, but one person is still not found.
Taiwan’s fire department said on Facebook that two Canadians were stuck with others because of falling rocks at Taroko National Park. It’s a popular place for hiking.
Taiwan’s emergency center said a big earthquake happened on Wednesday near Hualien County, 150 kilometers south of Taipei. 10 people died, 705 are stuck, 11 are missing, and 1,099 are hurt.
It happened in the middle of Hualien County, which is 150 kilometers south of Taipei.
The Central News Agency said that one person from India and two people from Australia are missing after the earthquake, and 71 people from other countries have been saved.
Report in Chinese says that people from other countries in Taiwan said thank you to the rescue teams and Taiwan officials for their great help.
Tseng said that Canadian officials have sent him many kind messages, which shows the strong friendship between Canada and Taiwan.
He said, “the bad times are finished now. ”
“People in Taiwan showed how strong and tough we are, and we hope that everyone who was affected can go back to their normal lives soon,” he said. -
Haitians run from chaos caused by gangs as their neighbours boost military power
Many Haitians are trying to leave the country because there is still no plan for a new government or international troops to help restore order.
Dangerous gangs now control most of the city, causing a lot of deaths and leaving many people without enough food to eat.
“Pierre Joseph, a 34-year-old Save the Children worker, said that every day is very important and can be life or death,” the charity stated. It said he had to leave two different homes with his wife and six-month-old baby, and was having a hard time finding things they needed.
“He said that the government is not working for the first time and things like food and power are no longer available. ” “Everyone is scared and going to another country. ”
The airport and seaports in Port-au-Prince have been closed for a month because of gangs, but the airport in Cap-Haitien started flights to Miami last week. This has made many people want to leave if they can.
Other countries near Haiti are making their borders stronger. The Dominican Republic, the only country that shares a land border with Haiti, is not allowing refugee camps and has sent many people back to Haiti.
The Dominican government said that the Foreign Minister, Roberto Alvarez, told the media that they had sent 10,000 soldiers to their 250-mile border. This is costing a lot of money and causing problems for trade between the two countries.
Haiti doesn’t have any leaders that were chosen by the people, and the capital city is controlled mostly by gangs, leading to chaos and lawlessness.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he’s quitting on March 11 because of the growing violence and he can’t come back from another country. A new group of leaders from the region will choose the next prime minister.
In 2022, Henry asked for help from other countries to make the police keep things calm, but it’s taking a long time and is being stopped until a new group takes over.
Soldiers from the Bahamas and Belize went to Jamaica last month for training by a Canadian group to help Caribbean troops go to Haiti.
Jamaican Defense Force Lieutenant Colonel Kevron Henry said in an interview that this is another step to make sure that regional forces are well-trained, work together, and prepared for any unexpected situations in the area.
Alvarez said that the military intelligence showed that a lot of people join gangs because they feel like they have no other choice due to their financial situation and because they are scared of violence.
The new temporary council will need to find actual money to pay for police intelligence and equipment in Haiti, he said.
“I didn’t say it would be easy, but I think it can still be done. The national police is still around,” he said.
Even though many countries promised to give a lot of money to the U.N, only a little has actually been given. The security mission trust fund is committed to keeping things safe. Gangs make money by threatening people and getting paid to release them. They also get support from powerful people, which helps them collect weapons. -
106 people killed in Israeli attack on building in Gaza – Human rights group
A recent report found that an Israeli attack in Gaza in October killed 106 civilians, including 54 children. The investigation did not find any evidence that the building targeted was used by militants, making the attack seem like a war crime.
International rules say that it’s not allowed to attack military places if it will probably hurt a lot of innocent people. The 31 attack was one of the worst since the war began about six months ago.
Human Rights Watch reported that four different airstrikes destroyed a building in central Gaza where about 350 people were living. Around one-third of these people had left their homes in other parts of the territory.
The people who died were children playing soccer outside and others were charging their phones in the grocery store on the first floor.
The group says that 34 women, 18 men, and 54 children were killed in the attack. They checked their list with a group in London to make sure it was correct. The people who died were from 22 different families. The Abu Said family lost 23 of their family members in the attack.
The news reported that four brothers and sisters, including 18-month-old twins, were killed in the attack in October.
“They didn’t have enough time here,” said Sami Abu Sultan, their uncle, one day after the building was destroyed. “It was what God wanted. ”
Human Rights Watch collected information for the report by talking to 16 people, including family members of those who died in the attack. They also looked at satellite pictures, 35 photos and 45 videos of what happened afterwards. I couldn’t go to the site because Israel doesn’t allow people to easily enter Gaza.
People who saw the attack told the organization that there was no warning before it happened. Human Rights Watch says Israel has not given any information about the supposed target and did not answer their requests for information.
The Israeli military did not reply right away when the Associated Press asked for a comment on Thursday.
Israel says it tries not to hurt innocent people and says it’s Hamas’ fault that civilians are dying because Hamas operates in crowded neighborhoods. The military doesn’t often talk about specific attacks that kill many people, including women and children, every day.
Israel is getting more and more criticism from other countries because it killed seven aid workers in recent attacks. Israel has been attacking Gaza very strongly and has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, says the Gaza Health Ministry. This has been happening since Hamas attacked in October. Seven attackers caused the death of 1,200 people and held about 250 people as hostages. The attack on the strip is one of the most serious air attacks of the 21st century. -
Photos and videos of Serwaa Amihere at Henry Fitz’s wedding alongside his beautiful wife pop up
New details are still emerging about Henry Fitz, the big man at the centre of the saga that has engulfed GhOne TV presenter, Serwaa Amihere.
Fitz reportedly got married to a beautiful Ghanaian lady at Royal Senchi in 2019.
Guests at the wedding included a couple of big names – Serwaa Amihere and Nana Aba Anamoah!
Videos from the wedding day has been making waves online including videos of Amihere dancing at the event.
Meanwhile, photos of Henry and his wife have also surfaced online.
According to recent reports, their marriage has already crashed!
Check out the wedding photos of Henry Fitz below…
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British Conservatives expected to lose next election handily to Labour – Survey
The Conservative Party, led by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is likely to lose by a lot in the upcoming national election. A new prediction says the Labour Party could win over 400 seats.
The YouGov model predicts which party will win in different areas based on how many people they think will vote for them. It says that the Conservatives will win 155 seats and Labour will win 403 seats. Britain’s parliament has 650 places for politicians to sit.
Surveys have shown that Labour is ahead of the Conservatives by a lot of points. Sunak has said that he plans to hold an election in the second half of the year.
The Conservatives have been in charge since 2010, but there have been five different prime ministers during that time because of the Brexit vote and the COVID crisis.
The poll showed that Sunak is having a hard time getting support after cutting taxes last month. This is happening before the local elections in May. The prediction showed that the Conservatives are not doing as well, and Labour is doing better compared to when YouGov last made a similar prediction in January.
YouGov predicts that the Conservative Party will win less seats than they did in 1997 when they lost to the Labour Party led by Tony Blair.
According to YouGov, some well-known Conservative politicians like finance minister Jeremy Hunt and former leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt might not win their seats in the election.
The model predicted that Labour would not win as many seats as it did when Blair was in charge. It also predicted that the majority of seats they would win would be less than what they won in 1997.
YouGov talked to 18,761 adults in the UK from March 7-27 for the survey. The number is a lot bigger than typical surveys, and YouGov said the way they did it correctly guessed the results of the last two elections.
The model predicted that in the election, Labour would get 41 percent of the votes and Conservatives would get 24 percent. However, it mentioned that the results might be different from the usual polls because it included people who are not planning to vote. -
Deadly nightclub fire in Istanbul probably started by sparks from welding – Report
A fire broke out in a nightclub in Istanbul while it was being renovated. The fire killed 29 people. It was probably started by sparks from welding equipment setting fire to flammable materials, according to the fire department.
The Masquerade nightclub caught on fire on Tuesday, and people couldn’t get out. 29 people died and another person was seriously injured.
Authorities have arrested nine people to ask them questions. This includes the people who manage the club and those who were in charge of fixing it up.
The club was closed for repairs during Ramadan. It was in a building in Besiktas, on the ground and basement floors. The building is 16 stories tall and is in the European part of the city, with the Bosphorus Strait running through it. It was going to open again on April 10th.
The governorDavut Gul said they are looking into what caused the fire. The government chose people to investigate the incident and bring charges if necessary.
The newspaper Yeni Safak, which supports President Erdogan, said the fire was caused by sparks from a welding machine used to install sound insulation and decoration material. It caused an explosion that made other building materials catch on fire.
The newspaper mentioned that it got the information from firefighters who did not want to be named. The Sabah newspaper printed a report that was the same. Public officials have not said anything about what caused the fire.
HaberTurk TV said that the place where the renovation was happening was like a maze, making it hard for the people to escape.
According to news in Turkey, Gokhan Tevlek, a DJ, Atanur Aladag, a cook, and Akin and Yilmaz Kihri, a father and son who worked as welders, were among the victims.
Firefighters are helping after a fire started at a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey on Tuesday, April 2, 2024. IHA via AP is giving this information.
A video showed a fire coming out of the building and firefighters spraying water on the club entrance. People were carrying a hurt person on a stretcher towards an ambulance.
“The fire brigade came and then people started coming out of the nightclub,” said witness Sema Soganci according to state-run Anadolu. “Everyone was yelling and everything happened really fast. ” The fire was out of control.
“I started to cry because I was feeling nervous,” she said.
Another person, Mehmet Cengiz, told Anadolu, “We saw firefighters going in and out all covered in black. ”
The club could hold up to 4,000 people, as stated on its website. The building manager said on Wednesday that the place was first planned to be a movie theater.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said the club didn’t get permission to do renovations. -
Homicide investigation launched after the discovery of missing man’s body
The police Provincial has found David Robson‘s body on Monday in a place called Chinguacousy Road and King Street. He had been missing from Melancthon Township for a week.Local police believe that the man who went missing in Caledon was killed. A medical exam was done on Tuesday to find out why the 65-year-old man died, but the police have not said how he died.
Police are trying to find Robson’s black Kia Sportage from 2017. It has an Ontario licence plate with the letters DAMZ252.
The police don’t think people are in danger, but they say this was not a random event. They want people to be careful and pay attention to their surroundings.
The police want anyone who saw a suspicious car or something strange happening on Chinguacousy Road from Saturday to Monday to call Dufferin OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers. You don’t have to give your name if you call Crime Stoppers. -
Almost 600 stolen cars valued $34.5 million found at Port of Montreal
Nearly 600 stolen cars were found in Montreal after police and the Canada Border Services Agency worked together.
Officials from CBSA, Ontario and Quebec police said that they have made big progress in stopping stolen cars. They said this at a press conference in Montreal on Wednesday.
Authorities found 598 vehicles meant for illegal exportation as part of Project Vector.
“These vehicles were supposed to be sent to other countries like Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and South America,” said Marty Kearns, who is a Deputy Commissioner for the Ontario Provincial Police.
The CBSA and police from Quebec and Ontario worked together for the operation.
The CBSA said that around 75% of vehicles found in sea containers in Montreal were reported as stolen in Ontario. “The vehicles that were found in Ontario and were reported stolen have a total value of about $34. 5”
The stolen cars, usually expensive new trucks and SUVs, have been linked to different crimes like stealing cars and breaking into homes.
Since December 2023, the CBSA has checked 390 shipping containers as part of Project Vector.
The agency is still investigating the issue.
In February, the government promised $28 million to help stop stolen cars from being exported. This will help the CBSA find and check containers for stolen vehicles.
The government says that about 90,000 cars are stolen in Canada every year.
In 2023, the Montreal police said more than 1,100 cars were stolen, which is less than the 9,000 stolen in 2022.
The police have noticed that more cars have been getting stolen since 2019. -
Ukraine reduces age of conscription to 25 in order to make up for military shortage
Ukraine made it so that people as young as 25 can now join the military. They did this because they need more soldiers after fighting with Russia for over two years.
The new mobilization law started the day after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy approved it. Last year, Ukraine’s government approved it.
It was not clear why Zelenskyy took a long time to sign the law. He didn’t say anything about it publicly, and officials didn’t mention how many new soldiers the country would get or which units they would join.
Compulsory military service has been a big issue in Ukraine for a long time because they don’t have enough soldiers or ammunition, which gives Russia an advantage in battle. Russia has not been able to fully use its advantages because it has problems with having enough workers and planning effectively.
The Russian military said that more people have joined recently because they are angry about the terror attack at a concert hall in Moscow last month that killed over 140 people.
Around 16,000 people have joined in the past 10 days, according to Russia’s Defence Ministry. Its statement could not be checked by someone else to make sure it is true.
A group connected to Islamic State said they were responsible for the attack. The Kremlin says Ukraine and the West were involved in the killings, but they haven’t shown any proof. Ukraine and the West say they had nothing to do with it.
Zelenskyy signed a law to allow younger people to be drafted into the military. This law is different from another law being discussed in parliament that would require more people to join the military. The bill 10449 wants to lower the age when people are drafted into the military and also decide who can be excused from serving. It covers many other areas too. This law, which many people don’t like, is having a tough time getting approved by parliament. Lawmakers have submitted over 1,000 changes to it.
Zelenskyy also approved two other laws about mobilization. One of the laws makes an online list for people who want to join the military.
“These laws only make some parts of the mobilization process different. ” “But there are still many problems that need to be fixed,” said Oksana Zabolotna, an analyst at the Centre for United Actions, a government watchdog in Kyiv.
She said that lowering the age for military service probably won’t help the military reach its goal of 500,000 new recruits.
Around 500,000 men are between 25 and 27 years old. She said that some people are not able to work, some have left, and some are not working right now but can work later. She thinks the new law might reach around 10% of the target.
That is a little progress. Military experts say that the average age of Ukrainian soldiers is about 40, which is similar to Russian soldiers. Some people in Ukraine are concerned that removing young adults from their jobs will make the already struggling economy worse. This is a big problem as Kyiv prepares for a possible attack by the Russian military in the summer.
People were very excited to fight against the Kremlin’s forces at first, but now they are not as interested. However, the majority of people still support the war.
Ukraine doesn’t allow men under 60 to travel to other countries right now. Many Ukrainian men are avoiding military service by staying at home or trying to pay money to not have to go to war. The leaders are saying they don’t have enough soldiers to start attacks, and just enough to defend against strong Russian attacks.
Russia has more people than Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin is willing to make men go to war even if they don’t want to.
Zelenskyy has hardly talked about mobilizing people. In December, he said Ukraine’s army wanted to call up 500,000 more soldiers. But he said he had requested the top leaders to explain the specific information about what is “a very delicate issue” before making a decision on whether to fulfill their request.
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy said that a big mobilization would cost Ukraine about US$13. 4 billionOther things to think about are whether soldiers at the front will come back home for a break or if they will be replaced by other troops.
Zelenskyy and Gen disagreed about whether to get more troops for Ukraine. Valerii Zaluzhnyi was a well-liked leader of Ukraine’s military, but the president replaced him in February.
The Ukrainian Defence Ministry says that in October, the military had almost 800,000 soldiers. That does not involve the National Guard or other groups. In all, 1 million people from Ukraine are wearing uniforms.
At the same time, Ukraine’s air force reported that it destroyed four drones launched by Russia in central provinces during the night.
An 11-year-old boy was hurt in Russia’s attack in Kupiansk and died in the hospital, the Kharkiv regional Governor said. -
Judge in Trump classified materials case chastised by prosecutors for her “fundamentally flawed”
Federal prosecutors scolded the judge in charge of former President Trump‘s case in Florida. They told her not to use jury instructions that are based on a bad legal idea.
In an unusual way, Judge Aileen Cannon told the prosecutors and defense lawyers to submit suggestions for jury instructions for most of the charges, even though it’s not clear when the trial will happen. She asked the lawyers to give their opinions on different explanations of the law. These explanations seem to support the argument of the former Republican president that he was allowed to keep the important documents that he has been accused of having.
Legal experts were surprised by the decision and Jack Smith’s team was worried. They said on Tuesday that a law from 1978 doesn’t apply in this case about very secret documents. This law says presidents have to give back official records when they leave office, but they can keep personal ones.
Prosecutors said that those documents were not personal and there is no evidence that Trump ever marked them as his own. They said he only made up the suggestion after people found out he took boxes of records from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago estate. And the people they talked to didn’t support his argument.
“No one heard Trump say he was making records personal or that when he moved the boxes to Mar-a-Lago, he thought he was making them personal under the PRA,” prosecutors stated. “Actually, none of the witnesses knew anything about it when asked. ”
The team of Smith said that if the judge keeps on mentioning the law about presidential records in her instructions to the jury, she should tell the lawyers right away so they can ask for a review.
The documents show that the prosecutors are still frustrated with how Cannon is dealing with the case.
The judge chosen by Trump has not made a decision on several requests to end the case. There are also other arguments between the two sides, and the date for the trial is still not decided. This means that the case, which Smith’s team says has a lot of evidence, might not be finished by the time of the November election.
Cannon was criticized for allowing an independent person to review documents from an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago after Trump requested it. Last month, Cannon listened to arguments about two of Trump’s requests to dismiss the case: one that said the Presidential Records Act allowed him to call the documents personal, and another that said he was allowed to keep them because of that.
The judge seemed unsure about that argument but didn’t make a decision right away. Days after, she told both sides to create jury instructions that answered this question: “Can a president decide by himself which records are personal or presidential during his time in office. ” Neither a judge nor a group of people in a court can decide or look at that type of decision.
The former president’s choice to keep personal records instead of giving them back to the government, means that the president sees those records as personal under the PRA.
Prosecutors said that the way they understood the law is incorrect. They also told Cannon to quickly reject the defence motion to dismiss.
They said that the difference between personal and presidential records doesn’t matter when it comes to a former President having documents with national defense information. The law that makes it a crime to keep national defense information illegally should not consider the Presidential Records Act when giving instructions to the jury.
“They said that according to the information we have now, the PRA should not be involved in the trial. ”
Trump, who is expected to be the Republican candidate for the 2024 election, is accused of breaking the law by sharing secret documents. He could be charged with many serious crimes related to this. The former president is facing four criminal cases in Florida. He says he didn’t do anything wrong in any of them. -
Russian billionaires’ combined wealth close to US$600 billion – Forbes
The richest people in Russia made US$72 billion more money in the last year, making their total wealth US$577 billion, according to Forbes. Vagit Alekperov, the former president of the oil company Lukoil, is the richest person in Russia.
In 2021, before Russia attacked Ukraine, Forbes said that Russian billionaires had about $606 billion altogether. Expensive things and Russia’s focus on war instead of its economy have helped the economy to improve.
Many rich Russian people were put under punishment by Western countries because they wanted to punish President Vladimir Putin and his friends for starting a war in Ukraine. Their overall money reduced to $353 billion in 2022.
Alekperov’s money went up to $28. 6 billion from US$20. 5 billion in the last year, according to Forbes. He is now in first place in Russia, taking over from Andrei Melnichenko who is now in seventh place. Andrei made his money in fertilizers and his wealth dropped from $25. 2 billion to $21. 1
Leonid Mikhelson is the boss of a Russian gas company called Novatek. Forbes said he is the second richest person, and his money went up by $5. 8 billion to $27. 4
Forbes said there are now more super rich people in the world than ever before, with a total of 2,781 billionaires. The top 20 of them have gained the most wealth. Alekperov was ranked 59th in the world.
Forbes said that they are richer than ever, worth a total of US$14. 2 trillion, which is an increase of US$2 trillion from 2023.
Putin has said many times that the sanctions from Western countries did not hurt Russia’s economy. He also said that Russia’s economy grew faster last year than the economies of the Group of Seven countries, which are the ones who put the sanctions on Russia.
Russia has a lot of natural resources and its economy got much better after a bad time in 2022. But most of the growth comes from making weapons and bullets for the war in Ukraine, so it’s not really improving the lives of the people in Russia.
This year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) thinks that the Russian economy will grow by 2. 6But they also believe that the economy will face difficult times because many people are leaving the country and there is not enough technology.
Russian business people are getting a lot of help from Western companies leaving. Many companies are selling their stuff for cheap, or having their Russian business taken over and run by local managers. -
Stranded cruise guests in Africa scramble to get back on board
Eight people who were on a cruise were left behind on an island called São Tomé and Príncipe in Africa. They have been trying really hard for many days to catch up with their cruise ship called Norwegian Cruise Line as it travels up the west coast of Africa.
According to Norwegian Cruise Line, the passengers didn’t return to the ship on time on March 27th.
“Eight people who were on a private tour on the island missed the last boat back to the ship at 3 p.m” The statement said the time in the area.
“Even though it’s a really bad situation, guests need to make sure they come back to the ship on time. The time is announced on the ship’s loudspeaker, in the daily schedule, and right before people leave the ship. ”
Norwegian Cruise Line said that they gave the passengers’ passports to local port agents for the guests to pick up. The cruise company said that if the guests were late for their private tour and missed the ship, they have to pay for their own way to the next stop to catch up with the ship. The cruise company said it was working with the local police and talking to the passengers who are stuck.
A couple from South Carolina, Jill and Jay Campbell, got stuck in Gambia. They said a group of eight people had to travel through six countries for 15 hours to get back to their ship.
But the ship couldn’t park that day because the weather was bad and the tides needed to be just right for it to be safe.
The Campbells said to WPDE that the group will try to get to Senegal next, where the ship is supposed to stop on Tuesday.
The cruise line talked to the group and gave them permission to join the ship in Senegal. They will also pay them back for their travel costs from Gambia to Senegal.
The Campbells got on the ship on March 20th. According to CruiseMapper. com, the cruise ship Norwegian Dawn got to Dakar, Senegal on Tuesday.
The Campbells said that some people in the group are old, one person cannot use their legs, and a woman is expecting a baby. They said one person in the group hasn’t had his heart medicine for five days and has gotten sick.
The time for everyone to get on was missed.
The group rushed after their tour in São Tomé and Príncipe took longer than expected on March 27th.
“We thought we were running out of time, but the tour organizers said they could get us back in an hour,” Jay Campbell said. Campbell told WPDE that the company running the tour called the captain and said the passengers were coming but would be late. The ship was still at the port when they returned, but Campbell said that the captain did not allow them to get on the ship.
“The person in charge of the harbor tried to contact the ship, but the captain didn’t answer,” Campbell told WPDE at the end of last week. “We tried to contact NCL customer service for help with an emergency, but they told us that the only way to reach the ship is through email, and they haven’t been responding to our emails. ”
The Campbells said to WPDE that they didn’t have their medicine and most people in the group couldn’t use their credit cards in São Tomé and Príncipe. So the Campbells used their Visa card to pay for hotels and things the group needed, spending a lot of money.
The Campbells told us that another person who wasn’t part of their group got sick while they were on the tour and had to go to the hospital in São Tomé. Now she’s stuck there too. The Campbells said they were able to contact the daughter of that passenger in California to help her come back to North America.
The cruise company later told CNN that the passenger was taken off the ship for medical reasons. They were checked by the ship’s doctors and then sent to a hospital for more treatment if needed.
“We tried to call the guest many times but couldn’t reach her, so we got help from our port agent in an African island country called São Tomé and Príncipe to get updates about the guest,” Norwegian Cruise Line explained.
The guest has returned to the United States safely, the cruise line said. -
NATO considering strategy to offer Ukraine long-term military support
NATO is discussing a plan to give more steady military help to Ukraine in the next few years, as Russian troops with better weapons are gaining control in the war.
“We believe that Ukraine should receive more long-term help from NATO instead of relying on short-term, voluntary offers,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg before a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers in Brussels.
On Wednesday, Ukraine made the military conscription age lower from 27 to 25 to bring in more soldiers after being at war for over two years. A lack of soldiers and not enough ammunition has helped Russian troops take control.
“We do this because of what’s happening on the battlefield in Ukraine. ” “It’s important,” Stoltenberg told the reporters. “We can see that Russia is trying to win the war by being patient and waiting for us to give up. ”
The idea is for NATO to organize the work of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, which is a group of about 50 countries that have been meeting during the war to provide weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. This would be instead of the US European Command.
The general in the United States. Christopher Cavoli is the top military leader for NATO and the head of US European Command. This means that he is the person in charge and will not change. However, Stoltenberg said that there is a need for an official “institutional framework” as the war continues, and NATO can provide it.
NATO is not giving weapons to Ukraine directly, but they will send non-lethal aid like tools to remove explosives, fuel, and medical supplies. This shows a new level of NATO’s involvement in the war.
NATO wants to help Ukraine more, especially because Russia has a strong military, but its members are not willing to promise Ukraine membership in the organization for ultimate security. They also don’t want to get involved in a big war with a country like Russia, which has nuclear weapons.
The new plan is for NATO to work together to help Ukraine and figure out what they need, get promises of help, and have meetings to discuss how to support them. The plan should be approved by US President Joe Biden and other leaders in July.
The Financial Times newspaper said that the plan could cost up to $100 billion over several years, but Stoltenberg did not give any more information.
Western countries said they would help Ukraine, but they did not keep their promises. Europe promised to give 1 million rounds of ammunition, but they didn’t give enough. They also had a fight about money for Ukraine’s struggling economy, and now the help is still stopped in the US.
“It’s not safe to promise things we can’t do,” said Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib when asked how much her country might give to a $100 billion fund. She said we need to talk more about the plan.
Stoltenberg asked Congress to work together and pass a bill that gives $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine. He said that the delay is causing problems on the battlefield.
“He said this is why Ukrainians have to limit the number of artillery shells and are struggling to defend themselves against the powerful Russian military force. ” The Russian soldiers have more bullets and bigger guns than the other soldiers. -
Zelenskyy modifies his command and dismisses more assistants as Russia strikes hard
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired a trusted assistant and some advisors on Saturday. This is part of a larger staff change. Meanwhile, Russia launched new attacks overnight.
Zelenskyy fired his top aide Serhiy Shefir from his job as first assistant, which he had been doing since 2019. The Ukrainian president fired three advisers and two officials who were in charge of helping volunteers and soldiers.
No one explained right away why there were big changes in the staff recently. On Tuesday, Oleksii Danilov and Valerii Zaluzhnyi were fired from their jobs. Oleksii Danilov was the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi was in charge of the armed forces. This happened on February. Write this text in simpler words: “8. ” Earlier this month, he was chosen to be Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Ukraine’s air force said that Russia sent 12 drones and shot 9 down, and also fired 4 missiles into eastern Ukraine.
Russia fired 38 missiles, carried out 75 airstrikes, and launched 98 attacks using rocket launchers in the past day, according to Ukraine’s military.
Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo said on Saturday that the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, one of the biggest power plants in eastern Kharkiv region, was destroyed by Russian shelling last week. Despite efforts, approximately 120,000 people in the area were still experiencing power outages. A total of 700,000 people initially lost electricity after the plant was damaged on March 22nd.
Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s energy stuff more and more, and it has caused a lot of damage in different places.
Authorities in the Poltava region said on Saturday that a facility, like a power plant, had been hit several times. But they didn’t say exactly what kind of facility it was.
At the same time, we found out on Saturday that 99 drones and missiles hit different areas of Ukraine on Friday. Local officials in the Kherson region also said one civilian died on Saturday morning. A person from the Dnipropetrovsk region passed away in a hospital because of injuries from a shell, as reported by the regional Governor. -
9 people killed and buildings damaged in Taiwan’s largest earthquake
Taiwan had a really big earthquake for the first time in 25 years. It happened during the morning rush hour on Wednesday. The earthquake caused a lot of damage to buildings and roads and nine people died.
During the earthquake in Taipei, old buildings lost their tiles and schools moved students to sports fields with yellow safety helmets. Some kids used textbooks to protect themselves from things that might fall on them while the aftershocks kept happening. Later, a tall building in Hualien County was left leaning at a 45-degree angle and its first floor had collapsed.
Taiwan’s fire department said nine people died in the earthquake, which happened just before 8 am. The newspaper said that three people who were hiking in Taroko National Park were killed in rockslides, and the driver of a van also died when big rocks hit the vehicle.
The agency said that 50 people in minibuses are missing because the earthquake damaged the phone networks and the authorities can’t reach them. More than 70 people are stuck, but they are thought to be okay. Some of them are in a coal mine. Another 882 people got hurt.
Taiwan’s earthquake agency said the earthquake was a 7. 2 magnitude, while the US Geological Survey said it was a 7. It hit about 18 kilometers (11. 1 miles) south-southwest of Hualien and was about 35 kilometers (21 miles) deep. Several smaller earthquakes happened after the main one, and the USGS said one of them was a 6. 5 magnitude earthquake and was 11. 8 kilometers (7 miles) deep. Smaller earthquakes usually cause more damage on the ground. The earthquake made a big wave warning, but it was cancelled later.
Officials had thought there would be a small earthquake of a magnitude 4, so they didn’t warn anyone. Yet, the earthquake was powerful enough to frighten people who are accustomed to such movement.
“Earthquakes happen a lot, and I’m used to them. ” Today was the first time a resident in Taipei, Hsien-hsuen Keng, was very scared and cried because of an earthquake. Keng lives on the fifth floor of an apartment. “The earthquake woke me up. ” I had never felt shaking so strong before.
People and rescue workers helped residents, including a small child, get out of their homes through the windows and onto the street. Everyone on the mobile was surprised but luckily no one was seriously hurt. The doors were stuck closed because of the tilt.
The old school that turned into a national building and parts of the main airport near Taipei got a little damaged.
The earthquake caused traffic to come to a stop on the east coast. Landslides and debris falling from the mountains hit the tunnels and highways, making it hard for cars to move. Train and subway services were stopped all over the island with 23 million people. In the capital city of Taipei, a new above-ground train line was also affected.
The Japan Meteorological Agency found a small tsunami of 30 centimeters (about 1 foot) on the coast of Yonaguni island about 15 minutes after the earthquake. The waves were smaller in Ishigaki and Miyako islands.
The earthquake was noticed in Shanghai and in many provinces along the southeastern coast of China, as reported by Chinese media. China and Taiwan are around 160 kilometers (100 miles) away from each other. China did not warn people in the mainland about a tsunami, and all tsunami alerts in the area were removed by Wednesday afternoon.
The island is used to earthquakes, so people quickly stopped panicking after the earthquake. They have drills at schools and get notices on their phones to prepare for earthquakes.
By lunchtime, lots of people were at the metro station in Beitou, Taipei. Some were going to work and others, mostly older people, were going to the hot springs or hiking in the mountains nearby.
Stephen Gao, a scientist who studies earthquakes at Missouri University of Science and Technology, said Taiwan is very well-prepared for earthquakes. They have strong rules for building buildings, a great system for tracking earthquakes, and they teach a lot of people how to stay safe during earthquakes.
Hualien was hit by a powerful earthquake in 2018 that caused a historic hotel and other buildings to collapse. Taiwan had a very strong earthquake in September. On September 21, 1999, a very strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7. 7 happenedIt caused 2,400 people to die, around 100,000 people got hurt, and many buildings were destroyed.
Taiwan is located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” which is where a lot of earthquakes happen around the Pacific Ocean.
The earthquake caused damage to Taiwan’s economy, but the exact cost is still unknown. Taiwan makes the best computer chips and other high-tech items in the world, and these products can be easily damaged by earthquakes. Some parts of the electricity system were turned off, which might cause problems with getting goods and money lost.
TSMC, a company in Taiwan that makes computer chips, had to move its workers out of some factories in Hsinchu, which is in the southwest of Taipei. TSMC makes chips for companies like Apple. Hsinchu officials said that factories in the city’s science park have normal water and electricity supplies.
The Taiwan stock market opened as normal on Wednesday. The index went up and down, sometimes losing and sometimes gaining. -
$6 billion housing infrastructure fund to be launched in Canada
The Canadian government is launching a new $6 billion fund to finance the construction of homes.It will help make construction faster and improve things like water and waste systems.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that the government will provide money for housing. He made the announcement in Dartmouth with Housing Minister Sean Fraser. Protesters were chanting in the background while the Liberals are traveling to talk about their spending plans before the budget.
The Prime Minister’s Office plans to set aside $1 billion for important improvements to things like sewage, stormwater, and garbage systems.
$5 billion will be saved for agreements with provinces and territories that have not been discussed yet.
The national government needs provinces and territories to promise to do certain things to make more houses in Canada in order to get this money.
Some of the things needed:
Town and city governments have to permit more small homes like duplexes, triplexes, and townhouses.Municipalities with more than 300,000 people have to stop increasing development charges for three years.
New rules are coming to the National Building Code to make it easier for people to find homes that are affordable, easy to access, and good for the environment. These new rules will have to be followed.
Allowing construction that meets existing building and zoning rules for the federal housing design catalogue without needing special approval.
The new funding deadline is January, so provinces have until then to apply for it. The federal government deal deadline is January 1, 2025, and for territories, it’s April 1, 2025.
“If a province or territory doesn’t make a deal by their deadline, their money will go to the cities instead,” says the PMO’s statement with Trudeau’s announcement.
In addition to the new fund, Trudeau is also promising to add $400 million to the current $4 billion “Housing Accelerator Fund. ” This will help more cities join the initiative to make it easier and faster to build new homes.
So far, almost 180 agreements have been signed in Canada to quickly build over 750,000 new homes. The Liberals think that giving more money will help build 12,000 new homes faster in the next three years.
“We will find a solution to the problem of not enough homes for Canadians. ” This is how we will make things more fair for young people who feel like they are struggling because houses are too expensive, Trudeau said. “We have been working hard to reduce the amount of paperwork and speed up the building of many homes. We want to keep making more progress. ”
Trudeau told cities that they will need to build more houses in order to get money for public transportation in the future.This news story is still being updated. Come back later for more information.
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Sudan stops Al Arabiya from operating after failing to renew their license
Sudan has stopped the Saudi and UAE-owned TV channels from working because they didn’t follow the rules and didn’t renew their licenses.
The Sudanese Journalists Syndicate criticized the information ministry’s decision, saying it goes against freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
The syndicate said on Tuesday that if satellite channels are closed and people in the media profession are restricted, it would stop professional media from speaking up. It would also allow rumors and hate speech to spread.
The decision is a result of scaring journalists who have been working in very hard conditions since the war started in April.
Al Hadath said that it has not been told about the decision to stop its channel and Al Arabiya in Sudan, in a post on X.
“We were shocked to find out that they decided to take Al Hadath and Al Arabiya channel off of state TV,” they wrote in another message on X.
The fighting in Sudan started almost a year ago because of disagreements about the army and a group called the Rapid Support Forces. This happened as Sudan was trying to transition to civilian rule and hold fair elections with backing from other countries. -
Mexican government holds contractor accountable for Maya Train catastrophe
The Mexican government has blamed a contractor for an error that caused a train to derail on the Maya Train, a scenic tourist route.
The train accident on March 25 made President Andrés Manuel López Obrador feel bad because the $20 billion railway is one of the projects he is most proud of. No one got hurt in the accident.
Critics say that the project, which goes in a circle around the Yucatan peninsula, is a waste and has harmed the environment. But some people are worried that it is being built too quickly. Lopez Obrador wants to complete it before he finishes his time as the president in September. “Rewrite this text in simple words. ”
Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval showed the problem by saying that the rail switch involved in the accident is supposed to work by itself eventually.
Because the automatic system is not ready yet, the president wanted some of the train line to be working. But this means the switch that moves train cars onto another track has to be moved by hand instead of automatically.
In one of the tasks, it seems like someone forgot to tighten the fitting properly.
Sandoval said “They found that this clamp wasn’t fastened tightly. ”
He said that Alstom, the company that made the trains, and Azvindi, the company that built the rail line, are looking at how much damage was done in the accident.
López Obrador told the builders to make the project through a jungle, even though activists said it would harm the caves in the Yucatan peninsula.
The president said he would build a raised platform for the train tracks to avoid damaging the caves, but they put the support beams right into the caves.
In March, people who care about the environment shared pictures of steel and cement posts being put through the roofs of the caves.
The caves, lakes, and rivers in Mexico’s Caribbean coast are important for the environment and have old human remains inside them.
They are the only source of clean water in the area because there are no rivers on the flat limestone peninsula.
The caves were dry a long time ago, so people and animals used them. Then, the caves got flooded and the things inside them were protected from being disturbed.
In December, López Obrador opened a new part of the train that goes to the north and east. It goes between Cancun and the colonial city of Campeche, but it is not finished yet.
The 950-mile line makes a big circle around the Yucatan peninsula. It is supposed to connect beach resorts and old places where people used to live.
The Mexican army helped build the train, and the armed forces will run it. President López Obrador has given the armed forces more projects than any other president in the last 100 years. -
Man admits to stealing US$1.8m worth of items from Beverly Hills hotel in Los Angeles
A man from Southern California admitted to stealing jewelry, clothes, and other things worth almost US$2 million from people staying at a hotel in Beverly Hills. He then went to Florida to sell the stolen stuff. Federal prosecutors shared this information on Tuesday.
Jobson Marangoni De Castro, 38, admitted to taking and moving stolen things across state lines. This is a serious crime that could send him to federal prison for up to 10 years, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
De Castro went after two people from Brazil who came to Beverly Hills for a fashion event. According to court papers, they had six suitcases full of expensive jewelry and items worth around $1.8m.
He lied to a hotel worker to get a key to the victims’ room and took all their suitcases while they were eating dinner, according to prosecutors.
De Castro went to Miami and messaged someone on social media to sell a diamond necklace and luxury watch. He said he didn’t have papers for them because he found them in a box that belonged to his mom. The next day, the buyer sent $50,000 for the jewelry, and De Castro brought it to the buyer’s store in Miami, as said by investigators.
The jewelry that De Castro had matched the description of the stolen items from Beverly Hills, so he was arrested, court papers show.
Mr Castro has been in jail since August 2023. He has to appear in court on April 30 to find out how much money was lost. A court date for the sentencing will be set in the coming months.
The FBI and the Beverly Hills Police Department looked into the case together. -
North Korea claims to have tested new hypersonic missile using solid fuel
North Korea shot a big missile into the sea on Tuesday. It might be a test of a new rocket that uses solid fuel. South Korea, Japan, and the United States are not happy about it.
Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, looked at the launch and praised it as a powerful weapon that shows the high level of North Korea’s defense technology.
According to Rodong Sinmun, Kim said that North Korea has changed all its missiles to use solid fuel, and they can now be controlled with warheads and made into nuclear weapons.This news story is still being updated. Come back later for more information.
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53,000 people have left capital of Haiti due to increase in gang violence
Over 53,000 people left the capital of Haiti in less than three weeks to get away from continuous gang violence, as stated in a United Nations report on Tuesday.
Over 60 percent of people are going to the countryside in southern Haiti, and this is causing concern for UN officials.
“Our friends who help people in need said that these places don’t have enough buildings and the people who live there don’t have enough money to help all the people leaving Port-au-Prince,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
The lower part of the country now has more than 116,000 Haitians who left the capital city, Port-au-Prince, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration report.
A lot of people started leaving the capital city, which has about 3 million people, after dangerous gangs attacked government buildings in late February. Criminals set fire to police stations and shot at the main airport in Haiti. They also broke into the largest prisons and let over 4,000 prisoners out.
The UN says more than 1,500 people have died and 17,000 are homeless by March 22.
Marjorie Michelle-Jean, a 42-year-old street seller, and her two children, ages 4 and 7, were some of the few people traveling north from the capital instead of south.
“I want them to stay alive,” she said, because bullets from the street keep hitting our home’s roof. They tried two times last week to go to her hometown in Mirebalais, Haiti, but they couldn’t because of roadblocks.
She said she will try again for sure. “Port-au-Prince is not safe at all. ”
The UN found that 70% of the 53,125 people who left Port-au-Prince from March 8-27 had already been forced to leave their homes and were living with family or in crowded and dirty makeshift shelters in the city.
Over 90% of people leaving the capital of Haiti are taking crowded buses, even though it is dangerous because gangs control the areas they have to travel through. There have been reports of gang rapes and shootings on public transport.
The fighting made Prime Minister Ariel Henry say last month that he will quit when a new temporary president council is made. Henry went to Kenya to try to get the UN to send East African police to Haiti. But then the attacks started, and now he can’t go to Haiti.
The group that will pick a new leader and government hasn’t been officially set up yet.
At the same time, many people are expected to keep leaving Port-au-Prince and moving to other places.
Gary Dorval, 29, is at a protest and wants to stay until a new government is in charge because he wants to help make things better. -
Biden and Trump to face off in primaries in Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Rhode Island
On Tuesday, people in four states voted for who they want to be their party’s presidential nominee. This vote doesn’t have much of an effect now that Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the official candidate for the Democratic and Republican parties.
Biden and Trump won the primary elections in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Wisconsin. This will help them get more delegates for their party conventions in the summer.
Their wins, though expected, give hints about how excited base voters are for the upcoming 2020 election. This has not excited most Americans. Some people are telling Democrats not to vote for Biden because they don’t like how he dealt with the war between Israel and Hamas. Also, some Republicans who don’t like Trump are voting for other candidates who are no longer in the race.
“Uncommitted” in Rhode Island and Connecticut was getting about the same number of Democratic votes as protest campaigns in Minnesota and Michigan, which got 19% and 13% of the votes.
Specifically, the results in Wisconsin, an important state for the November election, will show how many Republicans are not supporting Trump and how many Democrats are not happy with Biden. Trump went to Wisconsin and Michigan to talk to people before the election.
Scott Lindemann, a 62-year-old contractor in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who voted for Donald Trump in the GOP primary, said that Trump is the first person he can remember who actually tried to keep all of the promises that he made during the campaign. “I really liked that a lot. ”
In New York, a 70-year-old man named Steve Wheatley, who is a registered Republican, said he wants to have more options when choosing a candidate. He voted for Nikki Haley even though he didn’t think she could win because there weren’t many other choices.
Wheatley, who lives in a small town called Athens, in the Hudson Valley, said that we should have younger people with new ideas running for president. “I want a Democrat to win, but there aren’t many options. ” Check out what Biden has accomplished with the economy.
Theresa Laabs, a 55-year-old cashier in Kenosha, said her family is feeling the pressure from higher food and gasoline prices, but she voted for Biden in the Democratic primary because she thinks he is trying to help with the rising cost of living.
“I know the economy is tough right now, and I hope that Joe will continue to work even harder in the next four years to lower costs and make life easier for working families,” Laabs commented.
Trump and Biden started focusing on the main election a few weeks ago when Haley left the GOP competition. Biden went to all the important places where it’s hard to win in the election last month after his big speech.
Biden and the Democratic Party have raised more money than Trump and the Republican Party. Biden raised US$26 million at a big event in New York with famous people from entertainment and former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. It was the most money raised at one event.
Trump wants to have a big fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, this weekend to raise $33 million and show he is better than his rival.
With the presidential candidates chosen for their parties, not many people in Rhode Island have voted. Only four percent of eligible voters had voted by 5 pm, including in-person and mail-in votes.
Voting started early in Connecticut for the first time ever and it was slow at the border. Stephanie Thomas, the Secretary of the State, said that only a few people, about one to two percent, had voted in some areas by 11 am. In Stamford, which is one of the bigger cities in the state, four percent of people had voted by that time. “She said that people have been telling us that this primary election is not competitive. “ -
Taiwan shaken by powerful earthquake, causes building damage and tsunami
A big earthquake shook Taiwan on Wednesday and caused buildings to fall down in a city in the south. It also made a big wave that hit islands in southern Japan.
A tall building in a not very crowded area called Hualien was badly broken. The first floor fell down and the rest of the building is leaning to one side at a 45-degree angle. In Taipei, tiles fell from old and new buildings.
Train service and subway service in Taipei were stopped for the 23 million people on the island. However, everything went back to normal in the city. Kids went to school and the morning traffic was like usual.
The Japan Meteorological Agency found a 30 centimeter (about one foot) tsunami wave on the coast of Yonaguni island 15 minutes after the earthquake. The JAMA said that waves will likely also hit the coast of Miyako and Yaeyama islands. Japan’s Self Defense Force sent planes to find out about the damage from the tsunami in the Okinawa area. They were also getting shelters ready in case people needed to be evacuated.
Taiwan’s earthquake agency said the earthquake was a 7.2, but the US Geological Survey said it was a 7. 4It happened at 7:58 in the morning. Around 18 kilometers to the south-southwest of Hualien and about 35 kilometers (or 21 miles) deep.
Wu Chien-fu, the leader of Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring group, said they noticed the earthquake effects all the way to Kinmen, an island controlled by Taiwan near China. Several smaller earthquakes were felt in Taipei within an hour after the first big one.
The USGS said that one of the smaller earthquakes measured 6.5 magnitude and was 11. 8 kilometers (seven miles) deep.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said Hawaii and Guam are not in danger of a tsunami.
The earthquake was thought to be the largest in Taiwan since a big quake in 1999 that caused a lot of damage. Taiwan is located in a place where a lot of earthquakes happen, called the “Ring of Fire. ” This area has many faults in the ground that can cause earthquakes. -
Archbishop of Peru leaves office after filing lawsuits against two journalists over financial corruption
A bishop from Peru who took legal action against two journalists for writing about sexual abuse and financial wrongdoing in his religious group, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, has quit while the Vatican looks into the matter.
Pope Francis agreed to let Piura Archbishop Jose Eguren step down from his position. He is 67 years old, which is younger than the usual retirement age of 75 for bishops.
The Vatican did not say why Eguren was retiring early in its short announcement, and there was no immediate statement posted on the Piura archdiocesan website.
The Vatican started a thorough investigation into abuse and financial wrongdoing within the Sodalitium organization in Peru, to which Eguren is a part of.
For more than ten years, the Vatican has been paying attention to Sodalitium, a group with branches in South America and the US. In 2017, a study paid for by the group’s new leaders found that its founder, Luis Fernando Figari, sexually abused his recruits and treated them in a very bad way.
The abuses were first made public in 2015 because of the work of Peruvian journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz. Aside from Figari’s own wrongdoings, their reporting also uncovered that a real estate developer associated with Sodalitium allegedly forced peasants off lands in Eguren’s diocese.
In 2018, Eguren took legal action against them because he said they hurt his reputation. He wanted $100,000 and for them to go to jail. He decided to stop the lawsuit for defamation in 2019 because people in the Peruvian church were criticizing him.
Last year, the Vatican sent two of their best investigators to Peru to look into claims of sexual and psychological abuse in the Sodalitium. They also looked into claims of money corruption.
The report’s information has not been shared, but Salinas hinted that Eguren’s removal was connected to the Vatican investigation. This could mean that more action might be taken in the future. Salinas was hurt by Figari and has been working hard to make Sodalitium take responsibility. Ugaz also talked to Francis in 2022.
“This has never happened before and could be a sign that something even bigger is coming: the Sodalitium might be stopped,” Salinas said in a message to The Associated Press.
Figari started the SCV in 1971, which is also called the Sodalitium. It was made for people to join and serve God. There were many Catholic groups that started as a response to the left-leaning liberation theology movement in Latin America in the 1960s.
The victims told the Lima archdiocese about Figari’s bad actions in May 2011. The church said they told the Vatican about the case right away, but they didn’t do anything until Salinas’ book came out in 2015.
Sodalitium previously said it was helping with the Vatican’s investigation. It has said that Figari claims he didn’t do anything wrong, but it thinks the allegations in “Half Monks, Half Soldiers” could be true. -
Two people and American teenager killed in avalanche close to Zermatt resort in Switzerland
An avalanche near the Swiss resort of Zermatt claimed the lives of an American teenager and two others, according to police on Tuesday.One person was taken to the hospital with bad injuries by helicopter.
The big snowslide happened around 2 in the afternoon. On Monday, in a place called Riffelberg, off the main skiing routes, above the town and below the famous Matterhorn mountain. Rescuers found three dead people and a 20-year-old Swiss man who was hurt while skiing.
Police in Valais canton said a 15-year-old American boy and two other people were victims, but they haven’t been identified yet. They did not share any more information, but they do not know who the woman is right now.
The police are looking into what happened.
Five people from a Swiss family were found dead last month after they went missing while skiing near the Matterhorn in bad weather. The search for the sixth missing person was stopped by the authorities after a few days. -
First ship takes diversion to escape debris in vicinity of Baltimore bridge collapse
A small boat pulled a fuel barge through a different path to avoid the broken bridge in Baltimore. The bridge had blocked the main route for ships in the important port.
The boat bringing fuel to the Department of Defense left on Monday and is heading to Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base. The temporary channel is mostly for boats helping with the cleanup. Some ships that have been stuck in the Port of Baltimore since the collapse are also set to go through the channel.
Authorities are making a new channel on the southwest side of the main channel. It will be deeper to allow bigger boats to pass through. But they haven’t said when it will be ready.
The leader of the state. On Tuesday, Wes Moore will visit a center the Small Business Administration opened to help businesses get loans after the bridge collapse. This will assist businesses with their losses.
In Annapolis, there will be a meeting on Tuesday to talk about a new law that will use state money to help port workers who lost their jobs because of the bridge collapse. Politicians are trying to make the bill into a law before their session ends next Monday.
Workers are removing metal and concrete from the bridge that collapsed after a ship crashed into it. On Sunday, people who can swim went underwater to look at parts of the bridge and the ship, and workers in tall machines used lights to cut the twisted steel above the water.
Experts think that six workers fell to their deaths when the building collapsed. They found the bodies of two workers last week. Two more workers lived.
Moore, who is a Democrat, said at a news conference on Monday afternoon that his main focus is finding the four bodies that are still missing, and then making the shipping channels open again. He said he knows it’s important but there are big risks. The workers said the broken steel beams from the collapsed bridge look like a mess.
“Things are turning out to be more difficult than we expected at first,” said Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath of the US Coast Guard.
At the moment, the ship is not moving, and its 21 crew members are still on board, according to officials.
President Joe Biden will go to the place where the bridge collapsed on Friday. He will meet with local leaders and government officials to see how the government is helping.
The bridge collapsed when the cargo ship Dali lost power on March 26, soon after leaving Baltimore on its way to Sri Lanka. The ship sent out a distress signal, and the police stopped traffic, but they couldn’t save the roadwork crew working on the bridge.
The Dali is run by Synergy Marine Group and owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. , both from Singapore. Maersk, a big shipping company from Denmark, rented the Dali.
Synergy and Grace Ocean asked a court on Monday to protect them from being responsible for legal issues related to US maritime law. It’s a normal thing to do, but it’s important for their case. A court in Maryland will make the final decision on who is responsible and how much they have to pay.
The document wants to limit the amount of money the companies can be held responsible for to around US$43. 6It is believed that the ship is worth as much as $90 million, and it was supposed to receive more than $1. 1 million for carrying cargo. The estimate takes away two big expenses: at least $28 million for repairs and at least $19. 5 million for salvaging.
Officials are figuring out how to fix the big bridge, which was finished in 1977. It went around part of Baltimore and showed the city’s strong working-class and maritime traditions.
Congress will think about giving money to help people who lose their jobs or businesses because the Port of Baltimore is closed for a long time. The port deals with more cars and farming tools than any other place in the US. -
Ukraine attacks oil refinery and drone manufacturing in Russia
Ukrainian drones attacked a big oil refinery and a drone factory in Russia‘s Tatarstan province on Tuesday. This is the farthest strike into Russia by Kyiv since the war started over two years ago.
A recent attack happened near the cities of Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk in Russia. 12 people were hurt in the attack, which took place about 745 miles east of Ukraine.
Lately, Ukrainian drones have been launching more frequent attacks on Russian refineries and oil terminals, in an effort to cause more damage on Russian land.
Ukrainian experts have been making their drones able to fly farther and carry more weapons, because Ukraine needs more powerful weapons and troops on the battlefield. Drones are a cheaper choice for Ukraine until they get more military help from the US.
Neither side can make a big impact on the 1,000-kilometer front line right now.
Security and intelligence officials from Ukraine said they attacked a place in Yelabuga, Tatarstan where drones are made. They used long-range drones produced in Ukraine. Tatarstan is well-known for having a lot of factories, and one factory near Yelabuga has made drones that explode, which are designed by people from Iran.
Ukrainian officials said that spies were part of an attack on the Nizhnekamsk oil refinery.
The officials talked to The Associated Press but didn’t want their names to be known because they weren’t allowed to talk to the public. It was unusual for officials in Kyiv to admit they were responsible for an attack on Russia, because they usually don’t talk about attacks on Russian soil. Sometimes they might mention them indirectly.
The Associated Press could not check if the claims were true.
Russia often uses Shahed drones to launch air attacks on Ukraine. They send a lot of them at once to try and overcome Ukraine’s air defenses.
Tatarstan officials said the attack didn’t stop factories from working, while Nizhnekamsk’s mayor said the attempt to attack the refinery was stopped by air defenses.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that Kyiv is trying to distract people from their losses by trying to attack Russia, in order to show their supporters that they can still fight against Russia.
During a meeting with top military leaders, Shoigu said that Russian soldiers have taken control of over 400 square kilometers (about 155 square miles) since the beginning of the year.
Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov from the Kremlin said that the Russian army is doing things to make their defenses stronger against these attacks.
“The army is trying to make this danger smaller and eventually get rid of it completely,” he said during a phone call with journalists.
Ukraine has used drones to attack St. and nearby areas before. Petersburg is about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) north of the border. The facilities in Tatarstan, a province on the Volga River, seem to be the farthest target Ukraine has tried to attack.
Last year, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that his country made a weapon that can reach a target 700 kilometers away. It seems like he was talking about a drone attack on Russia.
Last year, Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, said the government wanted to create a high-tech army of drones. He said that their importance in the war will be clear by the end of this year. Last year, Ukraine taught over 10,000 new people how to fly drones.
Ukraine made dangerous sea drones that hit Russian navy ships in the Black Sea. The attacks that worked well made the Kremlin feel bad. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to choose Adm. The Russian Defense Ministry announced that Alexander Moiseyev is the new leader of the navy.
Putin also chose Vice Admiral as a name. Sergei Pinchuk is now the leader of the navy’s Black Sea Fleet after the previous leader, Adm. , was let go. -
Wooden boat carrying 74 migrants discovered in Mediterranean Sea – Greece coast guard
Many migrants were found on a wooden boat in the Mediterranean Sea between Africa and Europe. They were taken to the Greek island of Crete by the coast guard of Greece.
Recently, more people have been coming to Crete from Libya. The government of Greece said they will give more money and hire more coast guard workers to deal with this.
On Sunday night, a boat with 74 people was found 25 nautical miles south of a small Greek island called Gavdos. The coast guard brought the 73 men and one woman to Crete on a patrol boat.
It wasn’t clear right away where or when the boat started or where the passengers were from. No one got hurt or sick. They were brought to a temporary place to stay.
Greece is a main way for people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia to come into the European Union when they are running away from fighting and not having enough money.
In the last few months, more migrants have been arriving on Gavdos, an island 27 nautical miles south of Crete, and the southern coast of Crete. The coast guard said that in many instances, they had traveled across the Mediterranean Sea from the eastern Libyan port of Tobruk. They had to give money to smuggling gangs, sometimes as much as $5,000 each.
The increase in visitors to Gavdos, a small island with only a few residents, has made it difficult for the authorities to manage.
The person in charge of migration in Greece, Dimitris Kairidis, went to Crete and Gavdos on Monday. He promised to give more money to the area and said the government would also send more coast guard workers there.
“We have the money and the resources,” Kairidis said. Crete and Gavdos will not be left by themselves. Gavdos is a very tiny island with only a few people living there. -
Nationwide protests over carbon tax draw demonstrators to Parliament Hill in Canada
People in Canada on Monday morning gathered to protest in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The protesters were upset about the government raising the carbon tax, and similar protests are expected to happen in other parts of the country too.
A few people protested near the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge that connects Ottawa and Gatineau on Monday morning. The protest did not cause any big traffic problems.
The group called Nationwide Protest Against Carbon Tax planned to have a protest at the bridge at 8 a.m to 11 a.m in front of Parliament Hill.
The Ontario police told people on social media to stay calm during protests and reminded protesters to follow the law, be peaceful, and stay safe.
The OPP understands and agrees with the right to peacefully and safely share opinions, but there is no right to block or disrupt transportation. All people in Ontario have the right to move around freely in the province without any restrictions, the OPP said on X, previously known as Twitter.
The Ottawa Police Service also warned people about traffic problems in downtown Ottawa because of the planned protests.
Metcalfe Street going north is closed from Queen Street to Wellington Street because of protests, as shown on the City of Ottawa’s traffic map.
The police are helping cars move in the right direction. We don’t know how long the road will be closed.
The group picked the bridge as one of 17 places for their protests at the borders between Canadian provinces.
The group wants to keep one lane open for traffic and keep the event going until they reach their goals, no matter how long it takes.
The protests happened because the government increased the cost of carbon from $65 to $80 per tonne on April 1st.
Conservatives and some premiers want Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to cancel the tax increase because they think it is a big problem. -
Aid workers killed in Gaza included Canadian-American citizen – Hospital records
A bombing by Israel killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen, causing the charity to stop giving food to the people in Gaza who really need it. This is happening because Israel is attacking Gaza, and many Palestinians don’t have enough food to eat.
There was no way to verify where the fire started on Monday. The Israeli military said it was very sorry for the deaths, but did not admit that it was their fault.
The video showed dead people, some wearing protective clothing with the charity’s symbol, at a hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. Hospital records show that three people from Britain, one from Australia, one from Poland, one from the United States and Canada, and one from Palestine were killed.
The charity, started by famous chef José Andrés, helped open a new way to bring much-needed help to northern Gaza. The UN says many people there are close to starving because they are cut off from the rest of the area by Israeli forces.
Andrés’ charity helps people in many countries that have had wars or natural disasters, like Israel after the Oct. The person who caused the conflict with the attack feels very sad about the deaths of his friends.
The Israeli government must stop killing people without choosing who they are. He said on X, which used to be called Twitter, that they should stop blocking humanitarian help, stop hurting innocent people and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon.
The charity said the team was traveling in three cars, with two of them being armored vehicles, and they had planned their movements with the Israeli army.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the top military spokesperson, said that they are looking into the incident very seriously. He also mentioned that they will begin an investigation to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
Erin Gore, the head of the charity, said, “This is not just an attack on our organization, but on all groups trying to help in dangerous situations where food is being used as a weapon. ” “This is really wrong and can’t be forgiven. “
UNRWA, the main UN agency in Gaza, reported that 173 of its workers have been killed in the area since the war started. This happened when militants led by Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. Israel fought back with one of their most deadly and damaging attacks in a longtime.
Several countries wanted to help the people in northern Gaza, where there is a big problem. They tried to open a new way to bring in more aid by using the sea. Right now, not enough supplies are getting in because Israel controls the land routes. The United States and other countries have dropped supplies from airplanes to help, but experts say it’s not enough to meet the growing needs.
Israel stopped UNRWA from sending aid to the north, and other aid groups are saying it’s too risky to send truck convoys north because the military hasn’t made sure it’s safe.
Three ships from Cyprus brought 400 tons of food and supplies to help people. The ships were organized by World Central Kitchen and the United Arab Emirates after a test run last month.
The US has given important help to Israel’s attack. They are talking about using the sea to deliver aid and are going to build a floating dock. It will take a few weeks to build.
Adrienne Watson, who speaks for the National Security Council, said that the US is very upset and worried about the strike. “Weask Israel to quickly look into what happened,” she wrote on X.
Nael Eliyan, a Palestinian who had to leave his home, was in his tent about 100 meters away when he heard a big blast on Monday night. He quickly went to the place where it happened. “Their injuries were very bad, and they died fast,” he said, calling them “heroes, martyrs, and brave people. “
The aid workers’ bodies were brought to a hospital in the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border, as reported by an Associated Press reporter at the hospital.
The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said that a person named Zomi Frankcom from Melbourne, who was 44yearsold, was killed. He also said that the Australian government has asked Israel for an explanation.
“This person volunteered in another country to help people in need through a charity organization in Gaza who are going through a lot of hardship. ” “This is not okay at all,” Albanese told reporters.
DavidCameron, the top official in charge of UK relations with other countries, said they are checking to see if reports about British people dying in the attack are true. He said it was very upsetting news.
“It is important to keep humanitarian workers safe while they do their job,” he wrote on X, and also asked for an investigation.
Poland’s Foreign Ministry expressed their deepest sympathy to the family of a volunteer who had been helping Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. They did not say how the volunteer had died. The Foreign Ministry wants to know why Israel did something and is asking them to explain.
The mayor of Przemysl, Wojciech Bakun, said on Facebook that the victim’s name was Damian Soból and he was from the city in southeastern Poland.
Over 32,916 people in Gaza have died in the war, and most of them were women and children. The Health Ministry in Gaza counts all the deaths, not just civilians. Israel says that the deaths of civilians are caused by Palestinian militants who fight in crowded neighborhoods. The army doesn’t usually talk about specific attacks.
Late on Monday, it seems like Israel attacked Rafah and 12 Palestinians, including 5 children, were killed. Israel said they would keep fighting in that area even though there are a lot of Palestinians there who have run away from the fighting in other places. -
12-year-old student kills one person in Finland after shooting at a school
A 12-year-old student shot and hurt two students at a school in southern Finland, killing one of the students at the end. The police said the shooting happened on Tuesday morning after arresting the person they thought was the suspect.
The police used a lot of weapons to make a circle around the middle school with about 800 kids in Vantaa, near Helsinki. They got a call about a shooting at 09:08 a. m
The police said that the suspect and the victims were both 12 years old. The police said that they arrested the suspect on Tuesday in Helsinki. They found a handgun with him.
Police said in a press conference that one of the injured students had passed away. Two other people were very hurt, according to Chief of Police Ilka Koskimaki from the Eastern Uusima Police Department.
Petteri Orpo, the leader of Finland, wrote on social media that he was very surprised and upset about the shooting.
In the last few years, Finland has seen two big and deadly shootings at schools.
In November 2007, a student who was 18 years old used a semi-automatic pistol to shoot and kill nine people at Jokela high school in Tuusula, southern Finland. He died from hurting himself on purpose.
In September 2008, a 22-year-old student used a gun to kill 10 people at a college in Finland. Then, he killed himself.
In the country of Finland, there are over 1. 5 million guns and about 430,000 people with gun licenses. In the quiet northern European country, people have been hunting and owning guns for a long time.
Local police departments are in charge of giving out permits for regular guns.
After the school shootings in 2007 and 2008, Finland made its gun laws stricter. They raised the minimum age for owning a gun and gave police more power to check the background of people applying for a gun license. -
Netanyahu promises to shut down Al Jazeera
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu said he will close Al Jazeera in Israel because he believes it spreads dangerous ideas. The parliament passed a law to make this possible.
Netanyahu promised to increase Israel’s conflict with Al Jazeera. This may also make tensions with Qatar, which owns the channel, worse. This comes at a time when Qatar is trying to help stop the fighting in Gaza. Neither Qatar nor the broadcaster said anything right away.
Israel and Al Jazeera have not gotten along for a while. Israel says Al Jazeera is not fair to them. Relationships between two parties became very bad almost two years ago when a journalist from Al Jazeera, Shireen Abu Akleh, was killed during a military operation by Israel in the West Bank.
The journalist was famous in the Arab world for talking about Israel, and the channel said Israel purposely killed her. Israel said they didn’t do it and that the Palestinian woman was probably accidentally shot by Israeli soldiers.
The relations got even worse after Israel started a war against Hamas in October. In 2007, a militant group attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others.
In December, an Israeli attack killed a cameraman from Al Jazeera while he was covering the war in southern Gaza. The leader of the news team in Gaza, Wael Dahdouh, got hurt in the attack too.
The network said Israel is responsible for killing Dahdouh’s son in an attack in January. Hamza Dahdouh was working for Al Jazeera when a car he was in got hit by a strike. The army said that Hamza Dahdouh was in Islamic Jihad, a militant group in October. 7 attacks by Hamas.
Last October, Wael Dahdouh lost his wife, daughter, another son, and his grandson in an Israeli attack. The TV showed Dahdouh going into the hospital and looking very sad as he looked at his dead son. Israel has not told us who they were aiming to hit with that attack.
Al Jazeera is one of the few news outlets from other countries that stayed in Gaza during the war. They showed videos of airstrikes, crowded hospitals, and said that Israel was killing a lot of people. Israel says that Al Jazeera is working with Hamas.
Al Jazeera caused damage to Israel’s security and was involved in the October incident. 7 attacks where a lot of people were killed and angry fighting started against Israeli soldiers. “It’s time to get rid of Hamas in our country,” Netanyahu said on X, which used to be called Twitter.
He said he was going to start following the new law right away. “He said Al Jazeera won’t show news from Israel anymore. ”
Al Jazeera cannot be watched in some countries in the Middle East because their governments have stopped it.
Egypt stopped Al Jazeera from operating in their country in 2013. It started taking strong action after the military took control in 2013 and removed a government led by the Muslim Brotherhood group. Egypt thinks the Brotherhood is a bad group and said Qatar and Al Jazeera help them.
In Washington, a person from the State Department called Matthew Miller said the US may not always like what Al Jazeera reports, but still thinks their work is important.
“We help the independent news organizations all over the world,” he said. “We know about what’s happening in Gaza because there are reporters there, including ones from Al Jazeera, telling us what’s going on. ”
Israel has said it might close Al Jazeera before, but it hasn’t actually done it. Monday’s law did not close the station right away, but it allows officials to do it later after getting permission from legal and security officials. Any order will only be valid until July 31 or the end of the war in Gaza.
Israel’s Minister of Communications, Shlomo Karhi, said he plans to go ahead with the closure. He said Al Jazeera has been working as a tool for spreading biased information for Hamas, by promoting using weapons against Israel.
“He said it’s impossible for a media outlet, which has press credentials from the Government Press Office and offices in Israel, to act against us from within, especially during wartime. ”
His office announced that they want to stop the channel from being shown in Israel and stop it from working in the country. The rule will not affect the West Bank or Gaza.
Walid Al-Omari, who is in charge of the Al Jazeera office in the area, said on Monday night that they have not received any communication from the Israeli authorities. “But it’s obvious that they will make the decision in a few days,” he told The Associated Press.
However, penalizing the channel might be dangerous. Qatar has been helping to make peace between Israel and Hamas. It helped arrange and support a week-long break from fighting in November, and has been holding discussions on and off for weeks to try to arrange another break from fighting.
Israel may be trying to push Qatar to make Hamas agree to something by focusing on Al Jazeera. In the past, Netanyahu said Qatar is not doing enough. However, this could also make Qatar unhappy. Qatar is a rich country in the Gulf with a lot of oil and gas. It is one of the only countries that has power over Hamas.
During the war, press freedom groups have criticized Israel a lot. The Committee to Protect Journalists says that 90 Palestinian journalists and two Israeli journalists have died in the war. Israel has not allowed foreign journalists to go to Gaza on their own to report on the war. The army let a few journalists go into Gaza for short visits with strict control and protection from the military.
people with disabilities to live in dignity and equality. ” Shechter believes the law is unfair and does not treat people with disabilities fairly. -
North Korea fires intermediate-range missile into eastern waters – South Korea
North Korea launched a missile towards the ocean on Tuesday, aiming to improve its weapons that could reach faraway places like the United States.
The military in South Korea said a missile was launched from near North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang. It flew 600 kilometers before landing in the sea between Korea and Japan. The South Korean military didn’t right away give more information about the flight of the missile. They didn’t say if North Korea tested the missile with less power or with new technology.
Japan’s Defense Ministry explained that the missile traveled 650 kilometers and reached a maximum height of 100 kilometers before landing in water outside of Japan’s area. The Japanese military did not say right away if they thought the missile was medium-range or not.
Last month, the North tested a new type of engine for a fast missile that could reach Guam and the US Pacific military base if it works well.
This was the first known launch by North Korea since March 18th when their leader oversaw a practice of firing artillery. The artillery was meant to target the capital of South Korea.
Japan’s coast guard said that the Defence Ministry believes the missile has landed, but they still advised caution for ships traveling through the area.
The Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, said that there have been no reports of damage from the missile. He said North Korea’s often launching missiles “puts Japan and the whole region at risk and threatens global security as well. ”
There has been more fighting in the area since 2022 because Kim used Russia’s attack on Ukraine to speed up his testing of missiles and other weapons. The US and South Korea are doing more training together, along with Japan, to make their defense stronger. They are also working on new plans to prevent threats, using important US military equipment.
Some people are worried that North Korea might cause more problems during elections in the United States and South Korea.
After testing the solid-fuel IRBM engine on March 19, Kim said that these weapons are just as important as his missiles that can reach the US.
Recently, North Korea has been working on making more weapons with solid fuel. These weapons are easier to move and hide and can be made to launch faster than liquid-propellant missiles. Liquid-propellant missiles need to be fueled before launch and cannot stay fueled for long periods of time.
Kim has promised to get very fast missiles that can beat the defenses of its enemies. This year, North Korea has tested other weapons like cruise missiles and very big multiple rocket launchers targeting the Seoul capital area.
Two days after North Korea said they would launch some spy satellites this year, they launched another one. The military of South Korea said on Monday that they don’t see any signs of a satellite being launched soon at North Korea’s main launch site in the northwest.
Kim said that satellites are very important for watching US and South Korean military activities, and for making his nuclear missiles more dangerous. In November last year, North Korea sent a spy satellite into space for the first time. -
Texas lady sues prosecutors who accused her of murder after having abortion on her own
A woman in Texas is taking legal action against prosecutors and Starr County for over US$1 million. She was arrested and wrongly accused of murder for having an abortion in 2022.
Lizelle Gonzalez was arrested and accused of murder in Starr County, Texas in 2022 for using abortion medicine to end her pregnancy 19 weeks in. She was 26 years old at the time and spent two nights in jail. Her name, photo, and private medical information were shown on national news. The charges were dropped a few days after.
Wade, the court case that made abortion legal in the United States. The US Supreme Court overturned Wade’s decision at a time when abortions after six weeks were not allowed in Texas. Pregnant people cannot be charged with a crime for getting an abortion according to state law, both now and at the time of Gonzalez’s 2022 arrest.
“Gonzalez is taking legal action against the prosecutors. She says they lied and didn’t respect her rights when they had her arrested and charged. This drastically changed her life. ”
Last week, someone made a complaint against Gocha Allen Ramirez, the district attorney of Starr County, and Alexandria Lynn Barrera, the assistant district attorney, and the county.
“We are sure that the Starr County District Attorney knew that Texas law says a woman who gets an abortion cannot be charged with murder. But they still decided to unfairly charge Gonzalez. ” Gonzalez’s lawyers, Cecilia Garza and Veronica S. Martinez said to CNN in a message. MsAn action that clearly breaks the rules. Gonzalez’s rights cannot be seen as just a small error.
Ramirez is facing trouble with his job because of the lawsuit.
A Texas State Bar investigation found that Ramirez did something wrong in his work and was fined $1,250. His license is suspended for one year, starting Monday.
Lawyers in Ramirez’s office tried to bring charges of criminal homicide against someone for actions that are not considered criminal under the Texas Penal Code. Ramirez did not stop the prosecution of a charge even though it was clear that there was not enough evidence to support it, according to a report from the state bar’s investigative panel that Ramirez acknowledged and signed.
The panel found that Ramirez said he didn’t know about the case before it was prosecuted. But investigators found out that he was actually asked about it by a prosecutor in his office, and he said it was okay to go ahead with it.
Barrera became a lawyer in Texas five years ago and has not been publicly disciplined for her part in prosecuting Herrera, according to state bar records.
The complaint says that Gonzalez had an abortion in January 2022 by taking a pill called misoprostol. This pill can be used alone or with another pill called mifepristone to have an abortion.
After the hospital checked Gonzalez, the staff told the Starr County District Attorney’s Office about the abortion, which is against the privacy laws. CNN has asked the hospital for a comment, even though they are not being sued.
The complaint says Ramirez and Barrera lied to the grand jury and didn’t care about the plaintiff’s rights, which led to a harmful legal case against her.
Some time after Gonzalez was accused, Ramirez said she would not continue the case because she believed Gonzalez didn’t do anything wrong.
“When we looked at this case, it was obvious that the Starr County Sheriff’s Department did the job of looking into the incident that the hospital reported to them. ” He wrote in a news release on April 10, 2022 that it would have been a failure of their duty to ignore the incident.
However, the complaint claims that neither the Starr County Sheriff’s Office nor the Rio Grande City Police Department looked into the case. Instead, the district attorney’s office started and carried out its own investigation using information from hospital staff.
After Gonzalez was forced into the public spotlight against his will, the attention on him increased even more when the charges were dropped, according to the complaint.
Supporters of women and their rights to make decisions about their bodies say this is an obvious try to limit women’s access to healthcare.
Rachel O’Leary Carmona, the executive director of Women’s March, said that the Starr County District Attorney and Assistant District Attorney did not have the right to charge someone with murder because it was a personal decision about abortion. She said that most Americans support access to abortion pills.
Months after Gonzalez was arrested, Texas made a law that almost completely stops abortion, with unclear rules for when it’s allowed for medical emergencies. State law says that patients who get an abortion cannot be charged with a crime, but doctors who do the procedure can be prosecuted.
“In Texas, we are seeing extreme abortion laws that punish and control women who really need to have an abortion. It’s unfair and radical. ” Carmona explained -
Colombia outlaws prostitution in tourist-friendly neighbourhoods
The mayor of Colombia‘s second biggest city banned prostitution in some popular areas for six months to stop children from being sexually exploited.
The Mayor of Medellín, Federico Gutiérrez, said in a meeting with reporters that a rule will be put into action in the Provenza and El Poblado neighborhoods. These areas have a lot of popular bars and clubs and are visited by many tourists.
The area is now popular with sex workers who are looking for clients from other countries. They walk around the streets to find them. The mayor said that bad people are taking young people to these neighborhoods and making them do sex work.
“We need to take back control of this place,” Gutiérrez said. “We must also make sure to keep the community safe. ”
In Colombia, it’s okay for adults to do sex work if they agree to it. Colombian laws allow city governments to temporarily stop this activity in certain parts of the city if it is considered dangerous for public safety.
The Medellin prostitution ban was put in place because an American man was found with two local girls who were 12 and 13 years old in a hotel room. This was a big story in the local news.
The 36-year-old was kept by the police for 12 hours, then let go while officials looked into the situation. The local newspapers said that he left Colombia and went to Florida.
Gutiérrez asked Colombian authorities to investigate faster at Monday’s news conference.
“He said it’s disappointing that so many people think they can do whatever they want in MedellÃn. ”
Prostitution has increased in Medellín because more and more tourists are visiting the city for its nice weather, cheap prices, and fun parties.
Some visitors are finding sex workers in the city’s streets or on dating apps, and some of these meetings have been dangerous.
In January, the government warned people about the dangers of using dating apps in Medellin. This was because eight Americans had been killed there in the past two months.
The warning said that bad people were using dating apps to trick people into going to hotels, restaurants, and bars where they were given drugs, taken away, or stolen from. -
Congo elects its first female prime minister
President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo has elected the country’s first female prime minister on Monday. This fulfills a promise he made during his campaign and is an important step towards forming a new government after being reelected at the end of last year.
Judith Suminwa Tuluka, who used to work as a planning minister, will take on the new job when there is more and more violence happening in the east of the country, which has a lot of minerals and is next to Rwanda. According to the United Nations, more than seven million people have been forced to leave their homes because of the ongoing conflict. This makes it one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
Tuluka said she would try to make peace and improve things in her first speech on TV after getting her new job. It might take a long time before a new government is formed because they need to talk a lot with different political groups.
“I’m thinking about the people in the east and all over the country who are in conflict with enemies, some of whom are not easy to see,” she said. The conflict involves many armed groups, some of which are thought to be supported by the military of Rwanda. “I’m thinking about all these people, and my heart feels sad for them. ”
In a place far from the main city Kinshasa, many armed groups have taken over the eastern Congo. They are fighting to get control of the gold and other valuable things there, and they are also killing a lot of people.
The Congo government told both regional and UN peacekeepers to go away because they couldn’t fix the conflict. Violence has gotten worse as more people have left, and Congolese authorities have taken over.
Bintou Keita, UN’s top representative in Congo, said last week to the UN Security Council that the rebel group known as M23 had taken over a lot of land in the east. This has led to more violence and a lot of people having to leave their homes.
Tshisekedi was chosen for a second five-year term in December. He says Rwanda is helping the rebels with military support. Rwanda says it is not true, but experts from the UN say there is a lot of evidence that their soldiers are in Congo.
Last month, the United States asked Congo and Rwanda to try to avoid starting a war.
The United States The State Department said that Rwanda should remove its soldiers and weapons from eastern Congo. They also criticized M23, saying it is a group supported by Rwanda.
Last month, the Rwandan Foreign Ministry said that the country’s troops are protecting their land because Congo is increasing its military forces near the border. -
Driver rams car into FBI’s Atlanta office
The FBI has reported that an individual drove a car into their Atlanta office’s front gate on Monday, but they are currently unaware of the motive behind the act.
The crash happened just after lunchtime. Pete Ellis, a manager at the FBI’s office in Atlanta, said that a man tried to get onto the FBI campus in Chamblee by following another vehicle through the gate, but security stopped him from entering. Some police officers arrested the man as they were nearby, and nobody got hurt, Ellis said.
Ellis said a man, who was not part of the FBI place, was taken to a hospital in Atlanta to be checked.
The police are investigating crimes at both the state and federal level.
Agents and bomb experts looked at the vehicle to make sure it was safe, as required by the agency’s rules.
A video showed a red-orange SUV with a smashed hood against a gate in the front. The tow truck took the car at almost 4 p. m
Ellis said they are still looking into the case and don’t have any more details to share yet. -
Israeli strike kills four foreign relief workers and driver after delivering food – Gaza medical team
Medical officials in Gaza say that it seems like an Israeli bombing killed four aid workers from the World Central Kitchen charity and their Palestinian driver. They had just delivered food and supplies to northern Gaza that had come in by ship earlier than expected.
Video showed the bodies of five people who had died at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the middle of Gaza in Deir al-Balah. Many of them wore safety gear with the charity’s symbol. Staff displayed the passports of three people who died- one was from Britain, one was from Australia, and one was from Poland. We didn’t know what country the fourth aid worker was from right away.
The workers’ car got hit by an Israeli attack after leaving northern Gaza. They had just delivered aid from a ship that came from Cyprus. Mahmoud Thabet, a paramedic from the Palestinian Red Crescent, was in the team that brought the bodies to the hospital and told The Associated Press. It’s not clear where the fire started, and the Israeli military did not say anything about it when asked.
On Monday, ships brought 400 tons of food and supplies as part of a donation from the United Arab Emirates and the World Central Kitchen, led by chef José Andrés. Last month, a boat brought 200 tons of help in a test delivery. The Israeli military helped to send both deliveries.
The United States sea route has been promoted as a new way to bring much-needed help to northern Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians there are in urgent need of food, but can’t get enough because Israeli forces have blocked off the area from the rest of the territory. organization responsible for Palestinian refugees, from operating in Jerusalem. Israel has accused UNRWA of promoting anti-Israeli propaganda and incitement. This decision has been criticized by the international community and human rights organizations. A group in Gaza that delivers supplies is having trouble sending trucks to the north because it’s not safe. Other aid groups also say it’s too dangerous because the military isn’t making sure the trucks can go safely.
The Israeli army left Gaza’s biggest hospital on Monday after being there for two weeks and fighting in the area. Video showed a lot of damage, with the main buildings completely destroyed by fire.
The army said the attack on Shifa Hospital was a big win in the war. They said they killed 200 fighters, but it’s not confirmed if all of them were fighters.
The attack happened when many people in Israel were getting more and more frustrated. Thousands of people were protesting on Sunday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They wanted him to work harder to bring back the many people who were being held captive in Gaza. It was the biggest protest against the government since the war began.
In another place, Syrian officials and state media said an Israeli attack destroyed Iran’s consulate in Syria, causing the deaths of two Iranian generals and five officers.
The attack shows that Israel is stepping up its efforts to attack Iranian military officials and their friends in Syria. The focus on attacking has increased since Hamas fighters, who are backed by Iran, attacked Israel on October. Rewrite this text using simpler words:
The attack destroyed Iran’s consular building, but its main embassy building in Syria was not damaged.
Israel did not say anything about the strikes. Iran’s ambassador, Hossein Akbari, promised to take revenge for the attack with the same severity.
In other news, Netanyahu said he would close down the TV channel Al Jazeera right away. Netanyahu promised to shut down the “terror channel” after the parliament passed a law on Monday allowing the country to stop the Qatari-owned channel from broadcasting in Israel.
Netanyahu said that Al Jazeera is hurting Israel’s security and was involved in the October incident. 7 Hamas carries out attacks and encourages violence against Israel.
Al Jazeera criticized what he said and called it a dangerous and ridiculous lie. They said it was Netanyahu’s way of justifying the ongoing attack on the media and press freedom. In a statement, the network promised to continue reporting with confidence and skill.
The hospital was badly damaged during a raid and it used to be very important for Gaza’s healthcare. Even though doctors and staff tried to get it working again after an attack in November, it was still not working well.Israel said it attacked Shifa because they believed top Hamas leaders were there getting ready to launch more attacks. Israeli officials found and confirmed that six members of Hamas’ military group were killed in the hospital during the attack. Israel also said it took weapons and important information.
Altogether, the military claimed to have killed 200 fighters in and around Shifa, but they didn’t show proof that all of them were fighters.
The attack caused a lot of fighting near Shifa for several days. People saw bombs being dropped and houses being shot at. Soldiers went from house to house making people leave.
After the soldiers left, many Palestinians came back to look for their family members who were missing or to see the destruction.
Ahmed Maqadma and his mother were both doctors at Shifa hospital. They were among the people who died. Dr(someone’s name) said Ahmed’s cousin also died in the attack. Ghassan Abu Sitta is a doctor from Palestine and Britain. He helped at Shifa and other hospitals during the beginning of the war. Later, he went back to Britain.
The three people had not been heard from since they spoke on the phone with their family while trying to leave Shifa almost a week ago, and then the call suddenly ended. On Monday, family members found their bodies with gunshot wounds near the hospital, said Abu Sitta, who is in contact with the family.
Mohammed Mahdi said everything was destroyed. He saw many buildings burned and found six dead bodies, two of which were in the hospital yard. It’s unclear when they died.
Videos on the internet showed Shifa’s main buildings burned and badly damaged. Many people saw military bulldozers digging up a grave in Shifa’s courtyard. This uncovered a lot of bodies that had been buried there in November.
At least 21 people died during the attack, according to the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter.
He said more than 100 patients were still in the compound during the operation. This included four children, 28 very sick patients, and many others who had infections and were very thirsty.
The army said its soldiers did not hurt any people inside the area. Israel says that Hamas is using hospitals for military reasons and has attacked many hospitals in the area.
Critics say the army is putting civilians in danger and making it harder for the already-busy health sector to help people who are hurt.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the head military spokesman, said that Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group have set up their main headquarters in the hospital in the north. He talked about fighting in close quarters for many days. He said that Hamas caused a lot of damage. Some fighters hid inside hospital rooms and others shot mortar rounds at the area.
Hagari said that the soldiers caught around 900 people they thought were militants during the attack. This included over 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters. They also took over $3 million in different types of money and weapons.
He said the army helped more than 200 out of 300 to 350 sick people leave and gave food, water, and medicine to the others. Two Israeli soldiers died in the attack, according to the military.
The war started on October. In 2007, militants from Hamas attacked southern Israel and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They also held about 250 people as hostages.
Israel attacked by air, land, and sea, and it has killed at least 32,845 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them were women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry counts everyone the same, whether they are regular people or fighters. The Israeli military says that civilian people are being hurt because Palestinian fighters are hiding in neighborhoods where many people live.
The war made most people leave their homes and a third of them are close to starving. Northern Gaza, where Shifa is, has been very damaged and cut off from the rest of the world for a long time. This has caused a lot of people to go without food.
At the same time, more food arrived by a boat from Cyprus using a new route across the sea. One of the three boats was visible from the shore, and the foreign minister of Cyprus said they were allowed to unload. We didn’t know exactly how the delivery works yet.
Netanyahu promised to continue attacking until Hamas is defeated and all hostages are released. He says Israel will soon send more soldiers into the southern city of Rafah, where over half of Gaza’s population have gone for safety.
However, many Israelis are putting more and more pressure on him because they think he is responsible for the security mistakes in October. Some families of the hostages are mad at him because they think he is the reason a deal was not reached, even though the United States, Qatar, and Egypt tried to help with the talks for weeks. Other countries, like the United States, have told him not to invade Rafah.
Hamas and other fighters still have about 100 people captive and the bodies of 30 others. They let most of the other captives go last November when there was a break in the fighting, in exchange for Palestinians who were in prison in Israel. -
Italy scrambles to save teetering tower from crumbling
People were worried it might fall down, but now they have a plan to save it using the same equipment used for the Tower of Pisa. The Torre Garisenda in Bologna is leaning like the Tower of Pisa.
The Garisenda tower was built 800 years ago in the city’s busy period, but it started leaning two hundred years later. Today, it is leaning at a 4-degree angle, slightly more than the Pisa tower’s 3. 9-degree slant
A few months ago, the streets near Garisenda were closed for a while so that scientists could watch and check for any signs of the building starting to move or break. They found that it was likely to collapse soon.
The mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore, said on Wednesday that they will use pylons, cables, and steel scaffolding to keep the tower in Pisa from falling apart. “We will be able to make sure the tower is safe,” Lepore said at a press conference. He said that it could allow the Asinelli Tower, a taller building next to the Garisenda Tower, to open again for people to visit.
“In 2025 and 2026, more work will be done to fix and restore things, but the details are not yet decided,” Lepori said.
Fame for writing.
The mayor said it will take “about six months” to adjust the equipment from the Tower of Pisa to Garisenda. The whole safety operation will cost around 19 million euros (about US$20 million).
Once the two steel support structures in Pisa are set up and adjusted to fit Garisenda, the tower’s bricks will be strengthened. This includes adding a special kind of mortar that matches the original construction. This information comes from a press release from the city.
First, the cables that connect the big poles to the scaffolding on the tower will be pulled tight. This will help lower the amount of stress at the bottom of the tower.
The Torre Garisenda in Bologna is not as famous as the one in Pisa, but it’s still a popular spot for tourists to visit. It was mentioned in a famous poem from the 14th century. The taller Torre degli Asinelli is also a popular attraction for tourists, but it leans less than the other tower.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is a famous building in a special place that UNESCO says is important, leaned at an angle of 4. 5 degrees in the early 1990s. People were worried the structure might fall down, so people from different countries worked together for eight years starting in 1993 to make sure it stayed standing.
Today the bell tower is a strong landmark because of the steel pylons. This will hopefully help the Garisenda tower last longer.