King Charles visits Southport to pay tribute to stabbing victims

Britain’s King Charles views tributes outside Southport Town Hall, during his visit following the July 29 attack at a childrens’ dance party, in Southport, Britain. (Reuters)
Britain’s King Charles views tributes outside Southport Town Hall, during his visit following the July 29 attack at a childrens’ dance party, in Southport, Britain. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 20 August 2024
Follow

King Charles visits Southport to pay tribute to stabbing victims

King Charles III meets representatives from Merseyside’s emergency services and local community groups in Southport, England.AP
  • On a visit to Southport, the town where the attack took place, Charles met some of the surviving children and their families
  • He also looked at flowers and toys that had been left in memory of the victims of the attack, to cheers and applause from the gathered crowds

LONDON: King Charles traveled to northern England on Tuesday to pay tribute to victims and families of those affected by a mass stabbing last month which sparked riots and racist attacks targeting Muslims and migrants.

On a visit to Southport, the town where the attack took place, Charles met some of the surviving children and their families, before later meeting representatives from local emergency services and community groups.

He also looked at flowers and toys that had been left in memory of the victims of the attack, to cheers and applause from the gathered crowds.

Three young girls were killed and others were wounded in the July 29 attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, which sparked the riots after online misinformation wrongly said it had been committed by an Islamist migrant.

A 17-year-old male, who the police said was born in Britain, was charged with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and one of possession of a bladed article.

Charles has praised the community spirit, compassion and resilience that countered aggression and criminality from the rioters, and said he hoped mutual respect and understanding would continue to unite the nation.

Charles has taken a keen interest in helping young people, setting up the Princes Trust charity in the 1970s. It has helped a million young people to find work or create community projects and has worked in areas impacted by riots and unrest over the years. It has continued to operate, including in locations hit by the riots, since his coronation.


Greece gets EU help to battle disastrous wildfires

Greece gets EU help to battle disastrous wildfires
Updated 7 sec ago
Follow

Greece gets EU help to battle disastrous wildfires

Greece gets EU help to battle disastrous wildfires
  • Five fires are still raging Sunday morning in the Peloponnese area west of the capital
  • There also also active fires on the islands of Evia, Kythera and Crete
ATHENS: Greece battled wildfires that have ravaged homes and sparked evacuations for a second day on Sunday, with the help of Czech firefighters and Italian aircraft expected to arrive later.
Five fires were still raging Sunday morning in the Peloponnese area west of the capital, as well as on the islands of Evia, Kythera and Crete, with aircraft and helicopters resuming their work in several parts of the country at dawn.
“Today is expected to be a difficult day with a very high risk of fire, almost throughout the territory,” fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said Sunday, though he added that the situation was improving.
Forecasters predicted the strong winds that have fanned the flames would die down on Sunday in most areas but warned that Kythera, a popular tourist island with 3,600 inhabitants, continued to face “worrying” windy conditions.
Evacuation messages were sent to people on the island, which lies off the south-eastern tip of the Peloponnese, early on Sunday as the fire raged unabated.
“Houses, beehives, olive trees have been burnt,” Giorgos Komninos, deputy mayor of Kythera, told state-run ERT News channel.
“A monastery is in direct danger right now,” he said, adding that half of the island had been burnt.
Dozens of firefighters supported by three helicopters and two aircraft were battling the Kythera blaze, which erupted Saturday morning and forced the evacuation of a popular tourist beach.
Greece had earlier requested help from EU allies and two Italian aircraft were expected Sunday, according to the fire brigade, with units from the Czech Republic already at work.
Eleven regions of Greece still face a very high fire risk, according to officials.
Firefighters are working in several areas of the Peloponnese and there were numerous flare-ups overnight on the island of Evia, near Athens, where the flames have laid waste to swathes of forest and killed thousands of farm animals.
Workers have toiled since dawn to repair serious damage to Evia’s electricity network and some villages were facing problems with water supply.
Further south on Crete, reports said fires that broke out on Saturday afternoon and destroyed four houses and a church and largely been contained.
In Kryoneri north of Athens, police were reportedly bolstering security as fears grow that looters could target houses abandoned by residents fleeing a fire that erupted on Saturday afternoon but was mostly contained on Sunday.
“We are fighting here. What can we do,” asked Kryoneri Giorgos, wearing a mask to protect himself from the smoke.
He said on Saturday afternoon he and others were battling to save “the work of a lifetime.”
“By the time I got here the flames were already up here. It all happened so fast,” said Alexandros Andonopoulos, who rushed from Athens to the village.
“Fortunately the firemen arrived quickly.”
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote on social media that anyone who lost possessions “should know that the state will be by their side.”
He said Saturday was a “titanic” struggle but “the picture today looks better and the battle continues with all available resources.”
Greece has endured heatwave conditions for almost a week, with temperatures passing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many areas.
On Saturday, the temperature reached 45.2C in Amfilohia, in western Greece.
The extreme heat is expected to die down from Monday.
Last month, fires on Greece’s fifth-biggest island Chios, in the northern Aegean, destroyed 4,700 hectares of land, while early July a wildfire on Crete forced the evacuation of 5,000 people.
The most destructive year for wildfires in the country that is deemed a climate change hotspot, was 2023, when nearly 175,000 hectares were lost and there were 20 deaths.
Greece, like many countries is experiencing hotter summers stoked by human-induced climate change, which increases the length, frequency and intensity of wildfires.

Russian navy parade canceled for ‘security reasons’

Russian navy parade canceled for ‘security reasons’
Updated 5 min 32 sec ago
Follow

Russian navy parade canceled for ‘security reasons’

Russian navy parade canceled for ‘security reasons’
  • The parade was meant to be the highlight of Russia’s Navy Day, which falls on the last Sunday of July each year and honors the country’s sailors

MOSCOW: Russia said on Sunday a major annual navy parade had been canceled for “security reasons,” without specifying the threat or concern.

“It has to do with the general situation. Security reasons are of utmost importance,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies.

The parade was meant to be the highlight of Russia’s Navy Day, which falls on the last Sunday of July each year and honors the country’s sailors.

But local authorities in the coastal city of Saint Petersburg, where the warships and submarines were scheduled to pass, said on Friday the parade had been canceled without giving a reason.

Russian President Vladimir Putin — who re-established Navy Day in 2017, nearly four decades after it was canceled in Soviet times — did not show up in person this year for the first time.

Instead, he appeared in a video message hailing the “bravery” and “heroism” of Russia’s sailors participating in the offensive in Ukraine.

Russia, which launched its military operation on Ukraine in February 2022 with daily bombardments of its neighbor, has faced retaliatory Ukrainian drone strikes on its territory in recent months.

The Russian defense ministry said on Sunday that 100 Ukrainian drones were downed overnight.

At least 10 of them were intercepted not far from Saint Petersburg and a woman was wounded, the governor for the northwestern Leningrad region, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said on Telegram.

That drone assault also disrupted operations at Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport, delaying dozens of flights, the facility’s authorities said.


Questions swell in Eswatini over five men deported from US

Questions swell in Eswatini over five men deported from US
Updated 24 min 2 sec ago
Follow

Questions swell in Eswatini over five men deported from US

Questions swell in Eswatini over five men deported from US
  • The five nationals of Vietnam, Laos, Yemen, Cuba and Jamaica, were flown to Eswatini’s administrative capital of Mbabane on a US military plane and incarcerated after US authorities labelled them “criminal illegal aliens”

MBABANE: In the small African kingdom of Eswatini, the arrival of five men deported from the United States under Washington’s aggressive anti-immigrant measures has sparked a rare wave of public dissent.

The five, nationals of Vietnam, Laos, Yemen, Cuba and Jamaica, were flown to Eswatini’s administrative capital of Mbabane on July 16 on a US military plane and incarcerated after US authorities labelled them “criminal illegal aliens.”

The US Department of Homeland Security said the men were convicted of violent crimes “so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.”

The government of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, has confirmed their presence.

But spokesman Thabile Mdluli said they would not stay permanently, and “will be repatriated in due course to their different countries.”

That assurance, though, has not quelled a tide of questions and concerns that has risen within the kingdom about the operation.

Civic and rights groups are wondering whether further deportees from the United States will arrive, and what rights the five men detained have.

Public outrage at the lack of transparency led to 150 women protesting outside the US embassy in Mbabane on Friday.

The protest, organized by the Eswatini Women’s Movement, demanded the prisoners be returned to the United States and queried the legal basis Eswatini relied on to accept them.

The five men are being held in the Matsapha Correctional Center, 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Mbabane.

The facility, notorious for holding political prisoners and overcrowding, has been undergoing renovations and expansions since 2018, reportedly funded by the United States as part of a program covering all 14 of the country’s penal centers.



Sources within the penitentiary administration said the men were being held in solitary confinement in a high-security section of the facility, with their requests to make phone calls being denied.

The sources said the men have access to medical care and the same meals as the thousand other inmates, as well as a toilet, shower and television in their cells.

Prime Minister Russell Dlamini has dismissed calls by lawmakers and from other quarters for the secrecy surrounding the agreement with Washington to be lifted.

“Not every decision or agreement is supposed to be publicly shared,” he said.

Eswatini is the second African country to receive such deportees from the United States, after South Sudan earlier this month accepted eight individuals.

The situation has sparked concerns about the potential implications for Eswatini, a country already grappling with its own challenges under the absolute monarchy of King Mswati III.

The 57-year-old ruler has been criticized for his lavish lifestyle and has faced accusations of human rights violations.

US President Donald Trump has used the threat of high tariffs against other countries, such as Colombia, to coerce them to take in people deported from America.

Eswatini is currently facing a baseline US tariff of 10 percent — less than the 30 percent levelled at neighboring South Africa — which the government has said will negatively impact the economy.

Trump has directed federal agencies to work hard on his campaign promise to expel millions of undocumented migrants from the United States.

His government has turned to so-called third-country deportations in cases where the home nations of some of those targeted for removal refuse to accept them.

Rights experts have warned the US deportations risk breaking international law by sending people to nations where they face the risk of torture, abduction and other abuses.


Landlord imprisoned for decades in hate-crime attack on Palestinian American family has died

Landlord imprisoned for decades in hate-crime attack on Palestinian American family has died
Updated 27 July 2025
Follow

Landlord imprisoned for decades in hate-crime attack on Palestinian American family has died

Landlord imprisoned for decades in hate-crime attack on Palestinian American family has died
  • He was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen
  • The 73-year-old Czuba targeted them in October 2023 because of their Islamic faith
JOLIET: A landlord sentenced to decades in prison after he killed a Palestinian American boy and wounded his mother has died.
Three months ago, Joseph Czuba was sentenced to 53 years behind bars for the attack. He was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen.
The 73-year-old Czuba targeted them in October 2023 because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas, which started days earlier.
Czuba died Thursday in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to a statement from the Will County Sheriff’s Office.
Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Chicago office, said in a statement on Saturday that “this depraved killer has died, but the hate is still alive and well.”
Evidence at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 call, along with bloody crime scene photos and police video. Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before handing in a verdict.
The family had been renting rooms in Czuba’s home in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago when the attack happened.
Central to prosecutors’ case was harrowing testimony from the boy’s mother, who said Czuba attacked her before moving on to her son, insisting they had to leave because they were Muslim. Prosecutors also played the 911 call and showed police footage. Czuba’s wife, Mary, whom he has since divorced, also testified for the prosecution, saying he had become agitated about the Israel-Hamas war, which had erupted days earlier.
Police said Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 times, leaving the knife in the child’s body. Some of the bloody crime scene photos were so explicit that the judge agreed to turn television screens showing them away from the audience, which included Wadee’s relatives.
The attack renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination and hit particularly hard in Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, which have a large and established Palestinian community. Wadee’s funeral drew large crowds, and Plainfield officials have dedicated a park playground in his honor.

Philippine troops kill 7 communist rebels in latest flare up of decades-long insurgency

Philippine troops kill 7 communist rebels in latest flare up of decades-long insurgency
Updated 27 July 2025
Follow

Philippine troops kill 7 communist rebels in latest flare up of decades-long insurgency

Philippine troops kill 7 communist rebels in latest flare up of decades-long insurgency
  • Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said last week that less than 900 rebels remain, mostly in eastern rural regions, from the estimated 25,000 insurgent force at the peak of the 56 year insurgency

MANILA: Philippine troops killed seven communist guerrillas in an offensive Sunday in a central province and were pursuing several others in the latest flare-up of the decades-long insurgency that the military says is on the brink of collapse.

Army forces killed two New People’s Army guerrillas in a clash last week in Masbate province and then caught up with the fleeing insurgents early Sunday in the hinterlands of Uson town, where they killed seven of them in a 30-minute gunbattle, Maj. Frank Roldan of the army’s 9th Infantry Division said.

Seven assault rifles and two grenade launchers were recovered by troops at the scene of the battle. At least eight rebels managed to flee in different directions and were being pursued, Roldan said.

“We’re in the final push,” Roldan told The Associated Press by telephone, saying about 50 armed guerrillas remain in the island province, a poverty-stricken agricultural region of more than 900,000 people.

Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said last week that less than 900 rebels remain, mostly in eastern rural regions, from the estimated 25,000 insurgent force at the peak of the 56-year insurgency, one of Asia’s longest-running rebellions.

Saddled by battle defeats, surrenders and factionalism, the guerrilla forces “are on the brink of collapse,” said Brig. Gen. Medel Aguilar, deputy commander of the military’s Civil Relations Service.

Peace talks brokered by Norway collapsed under previous President Rodrigo Duterte after both sides accused the other of continuing deadly attacks despite the negotiations.