التصنيف: estaql

The 22-year-old ran over and killed four members of the family in 2021, leaving nine-year-old boy orphaned.

A Canadian man inspired by white nationalist beliefs has been found guilty of murdering four members of a Muslim family by running them over with a pick-up truck in an attack that sent waves of shock, grief and fear across the country and spurred calls to tackle Islamophobia.

On Thursday, 22-year-old Nathaniel Veltman, who had railed against immigration and Islam, was convicted of attacking the family in the Ontario town of London in June 2021.

“He was hunting for Muslims to kill,” prosecutor Fraser Ball said in closing arguments, adding that Veltman had donned body armour and a shirt bearing a crusader emblem.

Salman Afzaal, 46; his wife, Madiha Salman, 44; their daughter Yumnah, 15; and Afzaal’s mother, Talat, 74, were killed. The couple’s nine-year-old son suffered serious injuries but survived. The family, originally from Pakistan, had been out for a walk near their home.

Prosecutors called the attack an act of “terrorism”, and Veltman, convicted on four counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder, faces life imprisonment with no chance for parole for 25 years.

During the 10-week trial, the jury heard that Veltman had authored a far-right screed in which he described his hatred of Islam and opposition to mass immigration and multiculturalism.

After driving directly into the family, Veltman gave himself up to the police and said he had wanted to “send a strong message” against Muslim immigration.

In the manifesto, Veltman wrote, “I am a white nationalist,” and said white people were “facing genocide”. Prosecutors said he also repeatedly watched the video of a mass shooting by a white supremacist in New Zealand that killed 51 people.

For members of Canada’s vibrant Muslim community, Ball said, that the message was terrifyingly clear: “Leave this country or you and your loved ones could be next.”

The attack, which left three generations of the family dead and pieces of the victims’ clothing stuck to the front of Veltman’s truck, was the deadliest against Canada’s Muslim community since 2017 when a man, who had consumed far-right anti-Muslim material, gunned down six people in a Quebec City mosque.

The defence argued that Veltman suffered from numerous mental health issues and had asked that his charges be downgraded to manslaughter.

A sentencing hearing was scheduled for December 1.

“While this represents an important step towards closure for the Muslim community, and our city at large, it is by no means the end of that journey,” London Mayor Josh Morgan said in a social media post on Thursday.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims posted on X that it was “relieved that justice has been served”, adding, “We have to reflect deeply on the violent Islamophobia that has gripped our country.”

We are relieved to see that the man who killed four members of #OurLondonFamily has been convicted on all counts.

We are relieved that justice has been served.

This is a time for reflection and solidarity. With the family. With the community in London, Ontario.

We have to… pic.twitter.com/a8woB2EDK1

— NCCM (@nccm) November 16, 2023

The Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza has gone ‘completely out of service’ due to a lack of supplies and an overwhelming number of patients amid Israel’s assault on the besieged territory, hospital director Atef al-Kahlout has said.

Footage from the hospital in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip shows wounded Palestinians lining the hallways of the facility and lying prone amid pools of blood.

“We cannot offer any more services … we can’t offer patients any beds,” al-Kahlout told Al Jazeera on Thursday.

While the hospital has a capacity of 140 patients, al-Kahlout said some 500 patients are currently inside the hospital.

He said 45 patients are in need of “urgent surgical intervention”, and called on ambulances “not to bring any more wounded people” to the facility due to the lack of capacity.

He says the hospital’s departments are “unable to carry out their work”. Health workers at the hospital cited a critical shortage of supplies.

“We don’t have beds,” a health worker told Al Jazeera on a tour of the building.

“This person needs an intensive care unit,” he added pointing to a young man lying on the ground while being tended to by a nurse.

“And [here],” he says pointing to another patient with an amputated leg, “we have no medicine.”

“We receive wounded people from Wadi Gaza to Beit Hanoon,” he says, “some have been here for 10 days.”

Nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been wounded since Israel began its assault on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities.

More than 11,400 people have been killed, including more than 4,600 children, in the Israeli assault on Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel has also severely restricted supplies of water, food, electricity and fuel, with aid agencies warning of a humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave.

“Medical teams [at the Indonesian hospital] were forced to amputate some patients’ [body parts] due to the rotting of the organs,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from Khan Younis, adding that the hospital is unable to transfer the injured elsewhere.

“All hospitals in Gaza City and the north have stopped operating,” director al-Kahlout said.

The Indonesian Hospital, located near the Jabalia refugee camp – the largest in Gaza – has also been sheltering hundreds of displaced people who sought shelter there.

The vicinity of the hospital had been struck multiple times by Israeli forces, with at least two civilians killed in those strikes between October 7 and 28, according to Human Rights Watch.

Israel’s military has alleged the Indonesian Hospital is used “to hide an underground command and control centre” for Hamas. Palestinian officials and the Indonesian group that funds the hospital have rejected the claims.

Meanwhile, concerns are growing for the thousands of civilians trapped at al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex, amid an ongoing Israeli raid. Israel says the hospital harbours a Hamas command centre, a claim the group has denied.

White House spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday the United States was “confident in our own intelligence assessment” that Hamas has been using the hospital “as a command and control node, and most likely as well as a storage facility”.

Late on Thursday, the Israeli army published videos it said showed a Hamas tunnel shaft and a vehicle “containing a large number of weapons” uncovered at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital complex.

New York state has sued PepsiCo for allegedly polluting one of its rivers with plastic bottles and wrappers.

The lawsuit accuses the soft drinks company and its Frito-Lay subsidiaries of creating a public nuisance by the mass production of the single-use items, some of which inevitably fall or blow into the Buffalo River when they are discarded.

The legal action alleges PepsiCo has hurt the environment, claiming it is partly responsible for litter that ends up in water supplying the city of Buffalo with drinking water.

The lawsuit was filed in the state’s Supreme Court by attorney general Letitia James who said: “No company is too big to ensure that their products do not damage our environment and public health.

“All New Yorkers have a basic right to clean water, yet PepsiCo’s irresponsible packaging and marketing endanger Buffalo’s water supply, environment, and public health.”

The attorney general’s office noted that a 2022 survey named PepsiCo as the single largest identifiable contributor to plastic waste in the Buffalo River.

It found that of 1,916 pieces of plastic waste containing an identifiable brand, 17.1% were produced by PepsiCo. McDonald’s was a distant second.

The lawsuit links the plastic waste to the prevalence of microplastics, which are pieces less than 5mm in length and could be harmful to human health if ingested.

Ms James, a Democrat, wants PepsiCo to warn customers about the potential health and environmental risks of its packaging.

The lawsuit also wants the court to force the company to develop a plan to keep its packaging out of the Buffalo River, and seeks financial penalties and restitution.

Read more from Sky News:
UN tells world ‘get a grip’ as 1.5C target being missed
Mountain of cigarette butts dumped on high street

PepsiCo, which is headquartered in Westchester County in New York, said in a statement that it was serious about “plastic reduction and effective recycling”.

It did not directly comment on the lawsuit’s claim that it was legally responsible for keeping litter out of the Buffalo River.

Last week, Coca-Cola, Danone and Nestle were accused of misleading claims about the number of recycled plastics they use.

Lawyers complained to the European Commission that the firms’ claims that their single-use plastic bottles are either 100% recycled or 100% recyclable bottles aren’t accurate.

By a road in Calais, a group of people sit and watch the traffic roll past. Their trousers are splattered with mud and water.

The rain is tumbling down in the grey of an early morning. It is cold and unwelcoming. Beyond the beach at Sangatte, the sea rolls ominously.

The group are all wearing coats against the weather, but most look ferociously tired. One young woman huddles beneath an unfurled sleeping bag.

In most seaside towns, they would look discordant and unlikely but here, on the northern French coast, everyone knows what’s going on. Another group who have tried to cross the Channel, and failed.

This time, it is a tale of a journey that never happened – the group were spotted by the police, intercepted and their boat slashed, rendering it useless.

“I will try again,” one man tells us.

“When?” I ask.

He shrugs slightly. “Maybe tonight.”

Among this group – Turks, Iraqis, Iranians and Kurds. All tell tales of fleeing in the face of persecution. There is, remarkably, an acclaimed filmmaker here, celebrating his birthday. Three days ago, he discovered he had won an award at an international festival. Now, he has just failed to get on a boat across the Channel.

There are tales of people who attempted previous crossings – once, twice, five, even seven times before. A man who was shot by ISIS in Mosul.

Most affecting, perhaps, twins from Iran – 25 years old and desperate to leave their country.

They had joined protests against the ruling regime and saw the violence that came as punishment. Hundreds left at least partially blinded by pellets fired by police. Friends who had been imprisoned, raped and even murdered as an act of revenge.

“I need to get away from Iran,” says Asrin, as her twin brother sleeps alongside her, sitting by the road. “Even life in the camp here is better than being at home – being persecuted, tortured and raped.”

And when you visit the camp in question, on the edge of Dunkirk, you realise what a significant thing that is to say. I’ve been there many times over the past few years, and it is a sorry place at the best of times.

But now, lashed with rain and dotted with puddles in which empty drink cans float around, it is utterly miserable. A place where nobody wants to be; a shanty town united by the single aspiration of getting to Britain.

“Yes, I live surrounded by rubbish, but that is what I have to do,” says Kamal, who left Kurdistan. “Some Europeans don’t understand – can’t understand – the suffering that we have gone through. If you understood that, then you would know why I’m here.” He looks about him at the squalor all around.

It is this determination that runs like a seam in these camps, and it’s why the Rwanda policy has never seemed to permeate here. We found plenty of people who’d heard of it, but nobody who said it had had any effect at all on their decision to try to reach Britain.

Take Sina, an Iranian who had fled those same protests. He was imprisoned at 18 and, at the age of 22, wounded in the neck by shrapnel. Another millimetre to the side, he was told, and he would probably have been dead.

Now, aged 23, he’s fleeing. If he were to return home, he’s sure he would be killed.

He asks me about the Rwanda plan, and I tell him about the decision of the Supreme Court – it’s the first time he’s heard.

“It’s the best news I’ve had today. It’s about human rights. It was a stupid thing to do and it never should have been done. I’m very very happy to hear that,” he said.

Read more on this story:
Rwanda plan ruled unlawful by Supreme Court
What is the government’s Rwanda plan and what will they do next?

Sina is hardly an unbiased observer – he would, after all, be at risk of being sent to Rwanda if the policy were ever to be enacted. But he does reflect an opinion that was unanimous among the people I spoke to.

Kamal, for instance: “Migrants are looking for safety – they’re searching for security,” he said. “The people in Rwanda are the ones who need help so why would you send migrants to a country where the people are already short of support and security?”

It is a disconnect, and a familiar one at that.

Talk to people in these camps, and they will tell you that they want to come to Britain to feel safe, to work, to see friends and family, to become educated and to escape fear. What they rarely seem to understand is just how politically toxic the debate is that encircles them.

The weather is dreadful. There are warnings of more flooding in the Calais region and one local I spoke to summed it up as simply “horrible – again”.

They are the sort of conditions where you want to be tucked up inside. But as you read this, a group of people will probably be preparing to try to cross the Channel in a small, unsuitable boat, powered by a lousy engine, captained by a novice.

For all the political rhetoric, the wave of migrants arriving in northern France rolls on.

A group of Tory MPs plan to write a letter to Rishi Sunak demanding his “emergency legislation” to revive the Rwanda deportation scheme overrides human rights laws.

Sky News understands the New Conservatives group – a cohort of predominantly red wall MPs on the right of the party – will demand the legislation be “over-engineered” so it can see off potential further legal challenges.

The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the flagship immigration policy to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was unlawful.

Politics live: James Cleverly briefly forgets where he works and makes sly digs

The prime minister has rejected calls to scrap the plan, saying a new treaty with Rwanda would be signed and “emergency legislation” would be passed in order to declare the east African country safe and address the judges’ concerns.

However, some Tory MPs are sceptical about the timings and fear the new bill could still be challenged.

The New Conservative group will make three requests to stop this from happening, including that the new legislation disapplies the UK Human Rights Act.

They will say it should also include “notwithstanding” clauses in order to override any international treaties or laws that could block the plan.

And they also want to give ministers powers to disregard so-called “pyjama injunctions” – which are last-minute orders from judges that could stop planes from taking off.

The group of MPs wants the legislation to be drawn up immediately, so it can be in place before the next general election.

The letter piles fresh pressure on Mr Sunak, who has staked his premiership on a promise to “stop the boats”.

But with an election due by January 2025 at the latest, time is running out to pass new legislation, which can take months.

Earlier, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said he could not guarantee flights will go to Rwanda next year – apparently contradicting Mr Sunak’s position on Wednesday that the scheme will be up and running by spring, despite the Supreme Court ruling.

The UK’s highest court said the scheme was not lawful because there was a risk that people sent to Rwanda could be deported to the countries they are fleeing from (a term known as refoulement).

The judges said this fell foul not only of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which many Tory MPs want to leave, but also other international treaties and the UK’s own domestic legislation.

Read More:
Why Sunak’s promise looks extremely hard to keep | Beth Rigby analysis
Explainer – how did the government policy end up in the courts?

The yet-to-be-published treaty with Rwanda is expected to attempt to address the Supreme Court’s concerns around refoulement.

However, it is not clear how the government thinks it can bypass human rights laws and international conventions, or when the new legislation will be brought before parliament.

Members of the House of Lords have warned the proposed emergency legislation bill is likely to face opposition and could very well be blocked by the upper chamber.

Former supreme court judge Jonathan Sumption told the BBC the plan to use a law to declare Rwanda as safe is “constitutionally really quite extraordinary” and would “effectively overrule” a decision by the UK’s highest court.