Girl, 5, and parents among dead in car attack at Filipino festival in Vancouver

Girl, 5, and parents among dead in car attack at Filipino festival in Vancouver
Mourners including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney remembered the dead at vigils before Monday’s national election. (REUTERS)
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Updated 29 April 2025
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Girl, 5, and parents among dead in car attack at Filipino festival in Vancouver

Girl, 5, and parents among dead in car attack at Filipino festival in Vancouver
  • The family left behind a 16-year-old son who stayed home to finish his homework
  • Mourners including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney remembered the dead at vigils before Monday’s national election

VANCOUVER: As members of the Le family headed out the door to enjoy music, food and camaraderie at a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, their 16-year-old son decided to instead stay home to finish homework.
Then news began arriving of a car plowing through the crowd.
The teen’s father, Richard Le, his stepmother Linh Hoang and his 5-year-old sister Katie Le, were among 11 people killed, said Richard Le’s brother, Toan Le, in the world’s latest vehicle ramming attack.
The teenage boy is in a state of shock, Le said. His sister Katie Le was nearing graduation from kindergarten and was described as a vibrant and joyful child in a GoFundMe page posted by Toan Le.
The black Audi SUV sped down a closed, food-truck-lined street Saturday evening and struck people attending the Lapu Lapu Day festival, which celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood up to Spanish explorers in the 16th century.
Thirty-two people were hurt. Seven were in critical condition and three were in serious condition at hospitals Monday, Vancouver police spokesperson Steve Addison said.
Those killed include nine females and two males ranging in age from 5 to 65, according to Addison. All of them lived in the Vancouver metropolitan area, he said.
Mourners including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney remembered the dead at vigils before Monday’s national election.
The crash came just two days before another vehicle smashed through a building in a town outside of Springfield, Illinois, during an after-school program, killing four children and injuring several others, police said.
A ‘significant history’ of interactions with police
Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, was charged with eight counts of second-degree murder in a video appearance before a judge Sunday, said Damienne Darby, spokeswoman for British Columbia prosecutors. Lo has not yet entered a plea.
A woman who answered the phone Monday at the home of Lo’s mother, Lisa Lo, said that the mother was too distraught to speak to a reporter.
Investigators said more charges were possible. They said Lo had a history of mental health issues. Interim Police Chief Steve Rai said there was no indication of a motive but that the suspect has “a significant history of interactions with police and health care professionals related to mental health.”
Lo had contact with police the day before the vehicle attack in a neighboring jurisdiction, Addison said Monday.
“That contact was not criminal in nature and it did not rise to the level where a mental health intervention was required,” Addison said.
The Associated Press could not immediately reach an attorney representing Lo. Online records showed that Vancouver Provincial Court issued a publication ban barring the release of details about the legal case against Lo. Such bans are common in Canada to protect the rights of the accused to a fair trial as well as the privacy of crime victims.
Lo’s brother, 31-year-old Alexander Lo, was the victim of a homicide at his home last year. Kai-ji Lo started an online fundraising effort, since deleted, seeking donations to bury his brother.
He said he was “burdened with remorse for not spending more time with him,” according to an archived version of the webpage. Their mother had taken out significant loans to build Alexander a home, leaving her financially strained.
Screaming and bodies hitting a vehicle
Noel Johansen was searching for dessert at the festival with his wife Jenifer Darbellay, an artist, and their two children, ages 7 and 15, when the attack happened. They lived only about a block and a half away and were visiting for the third time.
“It hit us before we knew. I was falling in slow motion trying to save my head from smashing in the pavement,” Johansen said. “It’s like a giant tidal wave.”
Darbellay, 50, was killed, while the rest of the family survived. Johansen described her as selfless, creative and empathetic.
Johansen said the day before she was killed, the couple was talking about politics and the many situations in which people seek revenge toward the person who hurt them.
He said she told him: “That’s the whole problem. We need to forgive the perpetrators of the crimes that are committed against us.”
Johansen said that he’s trying to honor that philosophy.
Hours before the attack, Makayla Bailey saw her friend Kira Salim, a teacher and school counselor, for the first time in a while and Salim had apologized for not being out and about more.
“I told them, ‘It’s OK it’s been crappy out, the weather sucks, summer’s coming so I’m sure we’ll see each other a lot more,’” Bailey said, recalling in an interview Salim’s drag king performances that audiences loved.
“I didn’t think it would be the last conversation we would ever have,” said Bailey.
Salim was among those killed in the attack, according to the New Westminster School District, where Salim worked.
Investigators were collecting evidence at the scene Monday and had executed a search warrant at a Vancouver property, Addison said. Investigators were also going through bystander video from the scene.
Officials will review the situation, and it may change how they approach such events, Addison said.
“This was intended to be a safe, fun, family-friendly community block party for people to celebrate their community and culture,” Addison said. “The actions of one person stole that away from them.”


European leaders in Kyiv for show of solidarity against Russia

European leaders in Kyiv for show of solidarity against Russia
Updated 10 May 2025
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European leaders in Kyiv for show of solidarity against Russia

European leaders in Kyiv for show of solidarity against Russia

KYIV: The leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Poland were in Ukraine on Saturday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, vowing to ratchet up pressure on Russia until it agreed a ceasefire in the three-year war.
The four countries, part of an alliance Britain and France have called “the coalition of the willing,” said in a joint statement they were “ready to support peace talks as soon as possible.”
The Kremlin has shown no signs of halting its invasion of Ukraine, despite US President Donald Trump pushing for a ceasefire, and warned earlier there could be no truce unless the West halted arms deliveries to Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a 30-day truce proposed by Washington and Kyiv in March, instead declaring two brief pauses in fighting that Ukraine has accused Moscow of violating.
On his way to Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron said that once a 30-day ceasefire was in place, there could be “direct talks between Ukraine and Russia.”
Both Moscow and Kyiv have hinted they are open to negotiating with each other but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says this would only be possible once a ceasefire takes effect.
Russia has occupied about a fifth of Ukrainian territory since February 2022 and intensified deadly attacks on the country this spring.
The US embassy in Kyiv said on Friday that a “significant air attack” could occur at some point within the next several days.
Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived together by train from neighboring Poland, where they joined Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
It is the first time the leaders of the four European nations have made a joint visit to Ukraine.
They were seen embracing Zelensky and joined him in placing lanterns at a memorial for fallen soldiers in central Kyiv.
For Merz, who took office only this week, it will be his first visit to Ukraine as chancellor.
Macron had not been to Kyiv since June 2022, when he went with the Italian and German leaders of the time.
“We are clear the bloodshed must end. Russia must stop its illegal invasion,” the leaders said in a joint statement.
“Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace.”
They warned: “We will continue to increase our support for Ukraine. Until Russia agrees to an enduring ceasefire, we will ratchet up pressure on Russia’s war machine.”
They are later scheduled to host a virtual meeting to update other European leaders on moves to create a European force that could provide Ukraine with security after the war.
Such a force “would help regenerate Ukraine’s armed forces after any peace deal and strengthen confidence in any future peace,” the leaders’ statement said.
Russia has said it will not tolerate any Western military presence in Ukraine once the fighting ends and has warned the proposal could spark war between Moscow and NATO.

PUTIN VICTORY PARADE
The symbolic show of European unity comes a day after Putin struck a defiant tone at a Moscow parade marking 80 years since victory in World War II.
In an interview with the ABC news channel on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said arms deliveries from Ukraine’s allies would have to stop before Russia would agree to a ceasefire.
A truce would otherwise be an “advantage for Ukraine” at a time when “Russian troops are advancing... in quite a confident way” on the front, Peskov said, adding that Ukraine was “not ready for immediate negotiations.”
Europe and Ukraine argue more pressure is needed on Russia to respond.
After meeting Tusk in France on Friday, Macron called for the speedy drafting of a US-Europe plan for the 30-day truce that would be backed by “massive economic sanctions” if one side “betrays it.”
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said at a meeting on Ukraine in Norway on Friday that the “United States has two sanctions packages on the table” and that countries were discussing action in the “banking and the energy sector.”
A French presidential official, who asked not to be named, said the visit just four days after Merz took office “demonstrates Europe’s unity, strength, and responsiveness. And it mirrors Putin’s celebrations.”


China ‘strongly’ urges India, Pakistan to avoid escalation

China ‘strongly’ urges India, Pakistan to avoid escalation
Updated 10 May 2025
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China ‘strongly’ urges India, Pakistan to avoid escalation

China ‘strongly’ urges India, Pakistan to avoid escalation

BEIJING: China on Saturday urged India and Pakistan to avoid an escalation in fighting, Beijing’s foreign ministry said, as the conflict between its two nuclear-armed neighbors spiralled toward full-blown war.
“We strongly call on both India and Pakistan to give priority to peace and stability, remain calm and restrained, return to the track of political settlement through peaceful means and avoid taking actions that further escalate tensions,” a statement by a foreign ministry spokesperson said.


Brazil’s Lula to visit China ahead of regional summit

Brazil’s Lula to visit China ahead of regional summit
Updated 10 May 2025
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Brazil’s Lula to visit China ahead of regional summit

Brazil’s Lula to visit China ahead of regional summit
  • Beijing is Brazil’s biggest trading partner. Its exports to China reached more than $94 billion last year

BEIJING: Brazil’s president will begin a five-day trip to China on Saturday, Beijing announced, ahead of a gathering of Latin American leaders in the country next week.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s state visit comes at the invitation of counterpart President Xi Jinping and will last until Wednesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.
Since returning to power in early 2023, Lula has sought to improve ties with both China and the United States.
Beijing is Brazil’s biggest trading partner. Its exports to China reached more than $94 billion last year, according to the United Nations Comtrade Database.
The South American agricultural power sends mainly soybeans and other primary commodities to China, while the Asian giant sells semiconductors, telephones, vehicles and medicines to Brazil.
The two presidents are expected to attend next week’s summit between China and the 33-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
China is seeking to replace the United States as the main political and economic external influence in Latin America, where leaders have urged a united front against President Donald Trump’s global tariff blitz.
Two-thirds of Latin American countries have joined Beijing’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure program, and China has surpassed the United States as the biggest trading partner of Brazil, Peru and Chile, among others.


South Korean conservative party moves to switch presidential candidates as election turmoil deepens

South Korean conservative party moves to switch presidential candidates as election turmoil deepens
Updated 10 May 2025
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South Korean conservative party moves to switch presidential candidates as election turmoil deepens

South Korean conservative party moves to switch presidential candidates as election turmoil deepens
  • The replacement still requires confirmation through an all-party vote Saturday and approval by the party’s national committee Sunday
  • Han and Kim have lagged well behind Lee in recent opinion polls. Lee, who spearheaded the Democrats’ efforts to oust Yoon

SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea’s embattled conservative party has taken the unprecedented step of nullifying its primary and replacing presidential candidate Kim Moon Soo with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo just one week after Kim’s selection, deepening internal turmoil ahead of the June 3 presidential by-election.
Saturday’s move by the People Power Party’s leadership, which Kim denounced as an “overnight political coup,” underscores the desperation and disarray within the party following the ouster of former President Yoon Suk Yeol over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law in December.
Kim, a staunch conservative and former labor minister under Yoon, was named the PPP’s presidential candidate on May 3 after winning 56.3 percent of the primary vote, defeating a reformist rival who had criticized Yoon’s martial law. But the PPP’s leadership, dominated by Yoon loyalists, has spent the past week pressuring Kim to step aside and back Han, whom they believe stands a stronger chance against liberal Democratic Party frontrunner Lee Jae-myung.
Han served as acting president after Yoon was impeached by the legislature in December and officially removed by the Constitutional Court in April. He resigned from office May 2 to pursue a presidential bid, arguing his long public service career qualifies him to lead the country amid growing geopolitical uncertainty and trade challenges intensified by the policies of US President Donald Trump.
After failed talks between Han and Kim to unify their candidacies, the PPP’s emergency committee canceled Kim’s nomination in the early hours of Saturday and officially registered Han as a party member and its new presidential candidate.
The replacement still requires confirmation through an all-party vote Saturday and approval by the party’s national committee Sunday, which is the deadline for candidates to register with the election authorities.
Han in a message issued through the party claimed “if we unite, we can surely win.”
Speaking at a news conference, Kim lamented “democracy in our party died” and vowed to take unspecified legal and political steps, but it remained unclear whether any realistic path existed to restore his candidacy without the party’s cooperation.
Kim had opposed the legislature’s impeachment of Yoon on Dec. 14, though he said he disagreed with Yoon’s decision to declare martial law on Dec. 3. Kim had gained popularity among hard-line PPP supporters after he solely defied a Dec. 11 demand by an opposition lawmaker that all Cabinet members stand and bow in a gesture of apology for Yoon’s martial law enactment at the Assembly.
Han and Kim have lagged well behind Lee in recent opinion polls. Lee, who spearheaded the Democrats’ efforts to oust Yoon, ridiculed the PPP efforts to switch candidacies, telling reporters Thursday, “I have heard of forced marriages but never heard of forced unity.”
Lee has long cultivated an image as an anti-establishment figure capable of tackling South Korea’s entrenched inequality and corruption. However, critics view him as a populist who fuels division and vilifies opponents, warning that his leadership could further polarize the country.
He currently faces five trials for corruption and other criminal charges. If he becomes president, those trials likely will stop because of special presidential immunity from most criminal charges.


Judge pauses much of Trump administration’s massive downsizing of federal agencies

Judge pauses much of Trump administration’s massive downsizing of federal agencies
Updated 10 May 2025
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Judge pauses much of Trump administration’s massive downsizing of federal agencies

Judge pauses much of Trump administration’s massive downsizing of federal agencies
  • The order, which expires in 14 days, does not require departments to rehire people

SAN FRANCISCO: The Republican administration must halt much of its dramatic downsizing of the federal workforce, a California judge ordered Friday.
Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco issued the emergency order in a lawsuit filed by labor unions and cities last week, one of multiple legal challenges to Republican President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of a federal government he calls bloated and expensive.
The temporary restraining order directs numerous federal agencies to halt acting on the president’s workforce executive order signed in February and a subsequent memo issued by the Department of Government Efficiency and the Office of Personnel Management.
The order, which expires in 14 days, does not require departments to rehire people. Plaintiffs asked that the effective date of any agency action be postponed and that departments stop implementing or enforcing the executive order, including taking any further action.
They limited their request to departments where dismantlement is already underway or poised to be underway, including at the the US Department of Health and Human Services, which announced in March it will lay off 10,000 workers and centralize divisions.
Illston, who was nominated to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, said at a hearing Friday the president has authority to seek changes in the executive branch departments and agencies created by Congress.
“But he must do so in lawful ways,” she said. “He must do so with the cooperation of Congress, the Constitution is structured that way.”
Trump has repeatedly said voters gave him a mandate to remake the federal government, and he tapped billionaire Elon Musk to lead the charge through DOGE.
Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, left their jobs via deferred resignation programs or have been placed on leave as a result of Trump’s government-shrinking efforts. There is no official figure for the job cuts, but at least 75,000 federal employees took deferred resignation, and thousands of probationary workers have already been let go.
Lawyers for the government argued Friday that the executive order and memo calling for large-scale personnel reductions and reorganization plans provided only general principles that agencies should follow in exercising their own decision-making process.
“It expressly invites comments and proposals for legislative engagement as part of policies that those agencies wish to implement,” Eric Hamilton, a deputy assistant attorney general, said of the memo. “It is setting out guidance.”
But Danielle Leonard, an attorney for plaintiffs, said it was clear that the president, DOGE and OPM were making decisions outside of their authority and not inviting dialogue from agencies.
“They are not waiting for these planning documents” to go through long processes, she said. “They’re not asking for approval, and they’re not waiting for it.”
The temporary restraining order applies to departments including the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Labor, Interior, State, Treasury and Veteran Affairs.
It also applies to the National Science Foundation, Small Business Association, Social Security Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.
Some of the labor unions and nonprofit groups are also plaintiffs in another lawsuit before a San Francisco judge challenging the mass firings of probationary workers. In that case, Judge William Alsup ordered the government in March to reinstate those workers, but the US Supreme Court later blocked his order.
Plaintiffs include the cities of San Francisco, Chicago and Baltimore; labor group American Federation of Government Employees; and nonprofit groups Alliance for Retired Americans, Center for Taxpayer Rights and Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.