FBI looking into New Orleans attack suspect’s visits to Egypt, Canada

This handout images taken from a video released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on January 5, 2025 shows suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar recording himself in a mirror with his Meta glasses before the New Orleans attack on January 1, 2025. (AFP)
This handout images taken from a video released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on January 5, 2025 shows suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar recording himself in a mirror with his Meta glasses before the New Orleans attack on January 1, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 06 January 2025
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FBI looking into New Orleans attack suspect’s visits to Egypt, Canada

FBI looking into New Orleans attack suspect’s visits to Egypt, Canada
  • The FBI said Jabbar made at least two trips to New Orleans in the months prior to the attack, one in October and the other in November

WASHINGTON: The FBI is looking into past visits to Egypt and Canada by the suspect in the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people after a truck was rammed into a crowd of revelers, an FBI official told reporters on Sunday.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US Army veteran aged 42 who had pledged allegiance to the Daesh extremist group, was the suspect in the attack and the FBI says he acted alone. He was killed in a shootout with police after the rampage, which also injured dozens of people and has been labeled by the FBI as an act of terrorism.
“We have also tracked that Jabbar traveled to Cairo, Egypt, from June 22 until July 3 of 2023. A few days later he flew to Ontario, Canada, on July 10 and returned to the US on July 13 of 2023,” Lyonel Myrthil, FBI special agent in charge of the New Orleans field office, said at a press briefing.
“Our agents are getting answers as to where he went, who he met with and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions in our city in New Orleans,” he added.
The FBI also said Jabbar made at least two trips to New Orleans in the months prior to the attack, one in October and the other in November.
The suspect stayed in a rental home in New Orleans during that time, the FBI said, adding he recorded videos with Meta glasses traveling through the French Quarter, the neighborhood in New Orleans where the attack occurred on Bourbon Street.
The New Orleans coroner’s office has identified all 14 deceased victims, among whom the youngest was aged 18 and the oldest was 63. Most were in their 20s.

 

 


Netanyahu says ordered enhanced security at Israel missions worldwide

Netanyahu says ordered enhanced security at Israel missions worldwide
Updated 3 sec ago
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Netanyahu says ordered enhanced security at Israel missions worldwide

Netanyahu says ordered enhanced security at Israel missions worldwide
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday he has ordered enhanced security measures at Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide after a gunman who shouted “free Palestine” shot dead two embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
“I have instructed to enhance security arrangements at Israeli missions around the world and to increase protection for state representatives,” he said.
“We are witnessing the terrible price of anti-Semitism and the wild incitement against the State of Israel.”
Gunfire broke out late Wednesday outside the Capital Jewish Museum in the center of Washington as the venue held a social event for young professionals and diplomatic staff.
A video clip circulating on social media showed a young bearded man in a jacket and white shirt shouting “free, free Palestine” as he was led away by police.
The victims were a young couple who planned to get married, according to the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he was “devastated” by the fatal attack but said the two countries would “stand united in defense of our people.”
“This is a despicable act of hatred, of anti-Semitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy,” Herzog said.
“America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar too pledged that Israel would not give into “terror,” saying he was “horrified” by the attack.
“Israeli representatives around the world are constantly exposed to heightened risk — especially in these times,” he said.
“We are in close contact with American authorities. Israel will not surrender to terror.”
ha/ser/kir

UK set to sign deal ceding sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

UK set to sign deal ceding sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius
Updated 27 min 58 sec ago
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UK set to sign deal ceding sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

UK set to sign deal ceding sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius
  • In 1965 Britain detached the Chagos Islands from Mauritius to create the British Indian Ocean Territory
  • The deal will allow Britain to retain control of the military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean

LONDON: Britain is set to sign a deal ceding sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius while also securing the future of the UK-US Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean, media reported on Thursday.
The deal, the details of which were first announced in October, will allow Britain to retain control of the military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, under a 99-year lease.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will join a virtual signing ceremony with representatives from the Mauritian government, the Telegraph newspaper reported.
In 1965 Britain detached the Chagos Islands from Mauritius — a former colony that became independent three years later — to create the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Financial details of the deal have not been set out. Media reports have put the cost to Britain at 9 billion pounds.
US President Donald Trump, who took office in November, indicated his backing for the deal in February after meeting Starmer in Washington. Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden had also supported the agreement.


Somalia climate shocks and aid cuts create perfect storm

Somalia climate shocks and aid cuts create perfect storm
Updated 44 min 16 sec ago
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Somalia climate shocks and aid cuts create perfect storm

Somalia climate shocks and aid cuts create perfect storm
  • After his home in the Somali capital was battered by torrential rains, Mohamed Abdukadir Teesto worries about his future at a time when local and foreign aid is vanishing

MOGADISHU: After his home in the Somali capital was battered by torrential rains, Mohamed Abdukadir Teesto worries about his future at a time when local and foreign aid is vanishing.
The Horn of Africa nation is among the most vulnerable to climate change, according to the United Nations, and in the last five years has experienced both the worst drought in 40 years and once-in-a-century flooding.
The more severe weather compounds the insecurity many Somalis face after decades of violent insurgency and political instability.
“We have cleaned our house using our bare hands,” Teesto, 43, told AFP, saying neither international agencies nor the government had offered any assistance.
“Some families who had their houses destroyed are still displaced and cannot come back,” he said. “If it rains again, we will have the same situation.”
Teesto is among around 24,000 people in the Banadir region, which includes Mogadishu, impacted by flooding this month that killed at least 17.
Humanitarian work in Somalia was already under-funded before the halt of aid programs under the US Agency for International Development (USAID), made by President Donald Trump upon his return to the White House.
The UN says its humanitarian needs for the year — estimated at $1.4 billion — are only 12 percent funded so far.
“This can get very, very bad, very quickly,” said Sara Cuevas Gallardo, spokesperson for the World Food Programme, which handles roughly 90 percent of food security assistance in Somalia.
“We don’t know if we have the capacity,” she said.
This month, CARE International said Somalia had 1.8 million severely malnourished children under five, with 479,000 at risk of dying without urgent help.
Cuevas Gallardo said Somalia could see a return to the situation in 2020-2023 when it was on the brink of famine.
The difference being that now “we don’t have the funds to actually act when we have to,” she said.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) has repeatedly warned about the link between climate change and conflict.
Recent attacks are stoking fears of a resurgence by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab, adding to the displacement and vulnerability caused by weather problems.
Globally, the main driver of hunger is conflict, Cuevas Gallardo said.
“If it’s mixed with the uncertainty of climate shocks in Somalia, then it just equals more food needs, more hunger, more people on the move, and us being unable to respond to that uncertainty as well.”
The WFP is not alone in its warnings.
British charity Save the Children said last week that funding shortfalls would force it to shut more than a quarter of the health and nutrition facilities it runs in Somalia in the coming weeks.
They include every single one in the central city of Baidoa.
It shared the story of Fatima and her one-year-old son, who fled their village after successive droughts damaged crops and killed their livestock.
“If we were not able to get medicines and nutrition support here, we would have no other option but to see our children dying in front of us,” Save the Children quoted the 25-year-old as saying.
The charity said that the current period always sees an uptick in malnourishment but this year it expects an 11-percent increase in malnutrition, leaving remaining facilities “stretched to breaking point.”
At a clinic in Baidoa, doctor Mustafa Mohammed said they have already seen a surge in patients and that closure would be grave.
“There is nowhere else for these children to go.”


Philippine president calls for all Cabinet secretaries to resign after election setbacks

Philippine president calls for all Cabinet secretaries to resign after election setbacks
Updated 22 May 2025
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Philippine president calls for all Cabinet secretaries to resign after election setbacks

Philippine president calls for all Cabinet secretaries to resign after election setbacks
  • At least 21 Cabinet secretaries either immediately submitted their resignations or expressed their readiness to do so
  • Ferdinand Marcos Jr.: ‘This is not about personalities – it’s about performance, alignment and urgency’

MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. asked all of his Cabinet secretaries to submit resignations on Thursday in a “bold reset” of his administration following last week’s mid-term elections, which saw more opposition candidates win crucial Senate seats.
Marcos, the 67-year-old son of a late Philippine dictator overthrown in 1986, won the presidency in the deeply divided Southeast Asian country by a landslide in 2022 in a stunning political comeback as he made a steadfast call for national unity. But his equally popular vice presidential running mate, Sara Duterte, later broke from him in a falling out that has sparked intense political discord.
With support from treaty ally the United States and other friendly countries, Marcos emerged as the most vocal critic of China ‘s growing aggression in the disputed South China Sea while contending with an array of longstanding domestic issues, including inflation — and delayed fulfillment of a campaign promise to bring down the price of rice — as well as many reports of kidnappings and other crimes.
“This is not business as usual,” Marcos was cited as saying in a government statement. “The people have spoken and they expect results — not politics, not excuses. We hear them and we will act.”
Marcos called for the “courtesy resignation of all Cabinet secretaries in a decisive move to recalibrate his administration following the results of the recent elections,” the government statement said.
“The request for courtesy resignations is aimed at giving the president the elbow room to evaluate the performance of each department and determine who will continue to serve in line with his administration’s recalibrated priorities,” the government said.
At least 21 Cabinet secretaries led by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin either immediately submitted their resignations or expressed their readiness to do so.
“This is not about personalities — it’s about performance, alignment and urgency,” Marcos said. “Those who have delivered and continue to deliver will be recognized. But we cannot afford to be complacent. The time for comfort zones is over.”
Government services will remain uninterrupted during the transition, the government said, adding that “with this bold reset, the Marcos administration signals a new phase — sharper, faster and fully focused on the people’s most pressing needs.”
Five out of the 12 Senate seats contested in the mid-term elections were won by allies of Sara Duterte or her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been arrested and detained by the International Criminal Court in The Hague in the Netherlands. The elder Duterte, a staunch critic of Marcos, was accused of committing crimes against humanity over a brutal anti-drugs crackdown he launched that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead.
Marcos-endorsed senatorial candidates won five Senate seats while two other seats were unexpectedly won by two liberal democrats associated with the late former President Benigno Aquino III, whose family has long been at odds with the Marcoses.
Voting for half of the 24-member Senate is crucial because the government body will hold an impeachment trial for Sara Duterte in July over an array of criminal allegations, including corruption and a public threat to assassinate Marcos, his wife and House Speaker Martin Romualdez. She made those threats in an online news conference in November but later issued a vague denial that she wanted the president killed.
Sara Duterte is facing a separate criminal complaint for her threats against the Marcoses and Romualdez.
Most of the seats in the House were won by candidates allied with Marcos and his cousin, Romualdez, in the May 12 elections, which many saw as a preview to the presidential elections scheduled for 2028.


Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held

Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held
Updated 10 min 47 sec ago
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Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held

Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held
  • Staff members were shot ‘at close range’ while attending a Jewish event at the museum
  • US President Donald Trump condemns the ‘horrible’ killings

WASHINGTON: Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were fatally shot Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, police said.

The attack was seen by officials in Israel and the US as the latest in a growing wave of antisemitism as Israel ramps up its offensive in the Gaza Strip, and as food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless Israel’s blockade ends.

The two victims, a man and a woman, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum around 9:15 p.m. Wednesday when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

The suspect was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said.

When he was taken into custody, the suspect began chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” Smith said. She said law enforcement did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the community.

The suspect and the victims

The suspect has been identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said the two people killed were a young couple about to be engaged, saying the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem. Their identities were not immediately made public.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio that the woman killed was an American employee of the embassy and the man was Israeli.

Israel’s reaction

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that he was “shocked” by the “horrific, antisemitic” shooting.

“We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel,” he said in a statement.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948. The

Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital — lands Israel captured in the 1967 war. However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.

Witnesses to the attack

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, “Free Palestine,’” Kalin said.

“This event was about humanitarian aid,” Kalin said. “How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.”

The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the alleged gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.

Israel’s new campaign in Gaza

The shooting comes as Israel has launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war that has set tensions aflame across the wider Middle East. The war began with the Palestinian militant group Hamas coming out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, to kill 1,200 people and take some 250 hostages back to the coastal enclave.

In the time since, Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The fighting has displaced 90 percent of the territory’s roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape. Aid groups ran out of food to distribute weeks ago, and most of the population of around 2.3 million relies on communal kitchens whose supplies are nearly depleted.