Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, has been rocked by a second consecutive night of violent anti-migrant rioting, after a circulated \”hit list\” targeting homes of foreign-born residents led masked, balaclava-clad rioters to launch coordinated attacks on ethnic minority communities across the city.\n\nThe unrest traces its origin to a knife attack carried out Monday by Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker who had previously been granted indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom. Alodid is currently facing charges of attempted murder, with many public commentators characterizing the assault on 38-year-old Stephen Ogilvie as an attempted beheading. Ogilvie, the attack victim, suffered catastrophic injuries including the loss of his left eye and severe lacerations across his face. In a remarkable display of empathy released Wednesday, Ogilvie’s family pushed back against attempts to exploit the attack for division, stating: \”We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country. We do not want this terrible tragedy to divide people and fuel hostility.\”\n\nViolence first erupted across Belfast on Tuesday night, when hundreds of masked rioters set fire to residential properties and vehicles overwhelmingly owned by ethnic minority residents. Targeting homes listed as belonging to migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, rioters were recorded kicking in doors, smashing windows, and shouting threats to force all foreigners out of the area. A local Middle Eastern-owned supermarket was completely destroyed by arson, and video footage showed children being evacuated from adjacent homes as nearby structures burned. Local pastor Jack McGee confirmed to the BBC that residents were driven from their properties solely \”because they’re black.\”\n\nBy Wednesday evening, the unrest continued as rioters clashed with officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) near a Belfast hotel that houses migrant arrivals. The PSNI confirmed it had received urgent reports from multiple \”extremely distressed\” families who found their addresses included on the circulated hit list, and issued a formal warning that sharing the document could constitute a criminal offense. \n\nFootage from the scene shows police deploying water cannons and firing plastic bullets to disperse crowds, while rioters ripped bricks from local buildings to hurl at officers and infrastructure. Rioters set fire to abandoned structures and wheelie bins, blocked major thoroughfares with makeshift roadblocks assembled from street furniture, and operated overt checkpoints to stop passing vehicles and screen for non-white drivers. \n\nThe unrest was not confined to Northern Ireland: parallel anti-migrant demonstrations broke out across the UK on Tuesday night, including in Glasgow, Scotland, where 300 masked men marched through city streets and assaulted random passersby. Police locked Muslim worshippers inside Glasgow Central Mosque for their own protection after crowds surrounded the religious building.\n\nPolitical leaders across the UK have uniformly condemned the violence, though sharp divisions have emerged over its root causes. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the disorder as \”shocking and completely unacceptable\” during a Wednesday statement. Scottish First Minister John Swinney directly blamed anti-immigration figures like Nigel Farage for stoking the racial tensions that led to violence. Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill echoed the condemnation, saying: \”Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice. This has nothing to do with community. This is outright thuggery.\” Green Party leader Zack Polanski framed the unrest as part of a broader coordinated movement, warning: \”What we are witnessing in Belfast is not an isolated incident – it is part of a coordinated far-right pattern playing out across these islands… We will not allow racism and fascism to be normalised on any of our streets.\”\n\nNigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform UK, pushed back against these claims, arguing that the violence stemmed from legitimate public fear unaddressed by mainstream politicians. \”Things kicked off in Belfast last night in a very big way, and things will continue to kick off,\” he said Wednesday. \”I’m very open about the fact that some very bad actors get involved in this stuff, but not the vast majority. The vast majority are fearful. The vast majority want action. They actually want something done to make their streets safer and nothing is being proposed.\”\n\nHigh-profile public figures with large platforms had already encouraged protests before the rioting began on Tuesday. Controversial far-right activist Tommy Robinson, born Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, joined billionaire X (formerly Twitter) owner Elon Musk in urging followers to demonstrate over the Monday knife attack. Hours before the first riot, Musk posted on his platform: \”Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!\” On Wednesday, he doubled down on his stance, writing: \”Murderous migrants beheading innocent people in their home town is what’s making people angry, not “social media”!\
作者： admin
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Everything to know about Canada’s men’s team at the 2026 World Cup
For a nation long synonymous with ice hockey dominance, Canada is preparing to write an unprecedented new chapter in its men’s football history this June. Making its first consecutive appearance at the FIFA World Cup, the Canadian men’s national team – known affectionately as Les Rouges, or The Reds – steps onto the global stage as a co-host of the 2026 tournament, with group stage matches held in two of the country’s largest urban hubs: Toronto and Vancouver. This historic home-field appearance comes as Canada seeks to shake off decades of underperformance at football’s most prestigious competition.
Canada’s World Cup legacy is a modest one by global standards. Since their debut appearance in 1986, the national side has never claimed a single tournament win, never advanced past the group stage, and has scored just two goals across its entire World Cup history. The most iconic of those came in 2022 Qatar, when Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies – widely regarded as Canada’s greatest ever men’s footballer – headed home the nation’s first World Cup goal against Croatia, cementing his place in Canadian sports history. Now, four years later, Les Rouges head into the 2026 tournament with clear, grounded ambitions: secure their first ever World Cup win, and punch their ticket to the knockout stage out of Group B.
That goal is far from out of reach, according to Stephen Hart, a former head coach of Canada’s national team who currently leads the Halifax Tides. Hart argues that the current squad boasts the caliber of talent required to make that long-awaited breakthrough, pointing to the growing number of Canadian players plying their trade in top European leagues and elite competitions like the UEFA Champions League. Today’s roster features players contracted to some of the continent’s biggest clubs, including Bayern Munich, Juventus, Porto, and Olympique de Marseille.
Current head coach Jesse Marsch, a 52-year-old American who previously managed Leeds United, has built a squad that reflects Canada’s long-standing commitment to multiculturalism, a core part of the nation’s identity. Beyond any on-pitch results, Hart says a successful run – particularly progression past the group stage – would deliver a transformative boost to football’s grassroots popularity across the country, calling the potential impact “massive” for growing domestic interest in the sport.
At the heart of Canada’s aspirations is captain Alphonso Davies, a player whose story is as remarkable as his on-pitch talent. Born to Liberian parents in a Ghanaian refugee camp, Davies moved to Canada at the age of five, working his way up from the country’s youth football system to win multiple domestic titles and the 2020 Champions League with Bayern Munich, becoming the first Canadian men’s player to claim the competition. Though officially a defender, Davies has scored 15 goals for Canada, a testament to his dynamic attacking ability. Few observers believe Canada can achieve its World Cup goals without their star captain at full strength – but a recent hamstring injury has thrown his availability into question, with Davies unlikely to feature in the team’s opening match this Friday. While Hart notes the squad has temporary cover to fill the role, he says Davies is in a league of his own, bringing unique inspiration, tactical flexibility, and dynamic play that can change the course of a match.
Davies isn’t the only key talent set to lead Canada’s charge, however. Hart highlights several other difference-makers capable of powering the team past the group stage. Forward Jonathan David, the nation’s all-time leading international goalscorer with 39 goals to his name, comes into the tournament off a transitional first season with Juventus, where he notched eight goals, and will be eager to find the back of the net on home soil. Twenty-seven-year-old midfielder Tajon Buchanan, plying his trade at Spanish side Villarreal, brings another source of dynamic attacking play after scoring seven goals in the 2025-26 season. Veteran defender Richie Laryea, 31, of Toronto FC, adds much-needed experience to Canada’s backline as they aim to keep opposition attacks at bay. “These are all players that, on their best day, are very difficult for opposition teams to deal with,” Hart notes.
Injury concerns hang over more than just Davies, with key defenders Moise Bombito and Ali Ahmed also carrying fitness issues heading into the tournament. FIFA rules allow Canada to make last-minute adjustments to their squad up to 24 hours before kickoff of their opening match, giving the coaching staff flexibility to address these issues.
Marsch, who took over the Canadian job ahead of the 2024 Copa America and led the side to a fourth-place finish, brings a wealth of top-level experience to the role. A former player, he served as an assistant coach for the United States national team at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa just months after hanging up his boots, making him the first American to ever lead Canada’s men’s side.
Canada kicks off its group stage campaign against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto at 15:00 EDT on June 12, followed by a match against Qatar in Vancouver at 18:00 EDT on June 18, and concludes group play against Switzerland in Vancouver at 15:00 EDT on June 24. Hart says the opening fixture against Bosnia and Herzegovina – a side that knocked out four-time World Cup champions Italy in qualifying – is a must-win if Canada wants to keep its knockout stage dreams alive. “I always think that in a tournament, it’s imperative you win the first game,” Hart explains. “Once you win the first game, it puts you at a certain mental ease. You get confidence, you’ve got three points on the board, and you approach the remaining games with far less anxiety.”
Against Qatar, the 2022 co-host that failed to advance out of the group stage four years ago, Hart believes Canada can secure a positive result if they limit unforced errors, calling the Qatari side unpredictable but beatable. For Canada’s final group match against Switzerland – the toughest opponent in Group B – Hart says a draw would be a strong outcome for the co-hosts.
Full Canada 2026 World Cup Squad:
Goalkeepers: Dayne St. Clair (Inter Miami), Maxime Crepeau (Orlando City), Owen Goodman (Crystal Palace)
Defenders: Alistair Johnston (Celtic), Derek Cornelius (Marseille), Richie Laryea (Toronto FC), Niko Sigur (Hajduk Split), Joel Waterman (Chicago Fire), Luc de Fougerolles (Fulham), Moise Bombito (Nice), Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich), Alfie Jones (Middlesbrough)
Midfielders: Stephen Eustaquio (Porto), Ismael Kone (Sassuolo), Tajon Buchanan (Villarreal), Mathieu Choiniere (Los Angeles FC), Ali Ahmed (Norwich City), Nathan Saliba (Anderlecht), Liam Millar (Hull City), Jayden Nelson (Austin FC), Jacob Shaffelburg (Toronto FC), Jonathan Osorio (Toronto FC)
Forwards: Jonathan David (Juventus), Cyle Larin (Southampton), Tani Oluwaseyi (Villarreal), Promise David (Union SG) -
Weather pattern El Nino is here and could reach historic intensity
The world has officially entered an El Niño event, the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Thursday, with leading climate scientists warning the periodic weather pattern could strengthen to one of the most intense recorded since 1950 by the end of 2023, amplifying already record-breaking global warming fueled by fossil fuel emissions.
El Niño is a naturally occurring climate cycle defined by above-average surface water temperatures across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. This shift reshapes global wind and precipitation patterns, often triggering widespread erratic and extreme weather that ripples across every inhabited continent. The cycle emerges roughly every two to seven years, and most events persist between nine and 12 months, peaking in the final months of a calendar year.
In NOAA’s latest official advisory, agency scientists calculated there is a 62 percent probability that El Niño will grow into a “very strong” event during the November-to-January period, a strength that would place it among the most powerful El Niño events documented in observational records stretching back to 1950. “El Niño is here, and it could be one for the history books,” NOAA meteorologist Haley Thiem explained in a public explainer video from the agency.
Unlike many routine weather events, strong El Niño carries compounding risks for a planet already gripped by long-term warming from human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists warn that the additional ocean heat released by El Niño will push global average temperatures even higher, supercharging a wide range of extreme weather events from droughts to catastrophic flooding.
Global climate experts warn the combined pressure of long-term climate change and a record-strength El Niño could push global temperatures to unprecedented new levels. “The combination of fossil fuel-caused climate change and a potential super El Niño event makes a terrible team,” noted Marc Alessi, a representative for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It could easily push global temperatures to record levels.” Alessi added that growing research links anthropogenic climate change to increasingly intense El Niño events, even though the pattern itself is naturally occurring.
For vulnerable communities across the globe, the arrival of a strong El Niño is far more than a routine climate forecast—it is an urgent warning of impending humanitarian crisis. “It’s not just another weather forecast, it’s a deadly siren to be feared,” said Mohamed Adow, director of Nairobi-based climate think tank Power Shift Africa. “It means failed rains, dying crops, rising food prices, and families pushed to the edge yet again.”
Governments across Central America’s arid “Dry Corridor,” a region spanning parts of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, have already raised national alert levels in preparation for the event. The region has repeatedly faced devastating drought linked to past El Niño events, and authorities are already bracing for potential famine-level food insecurity. The Guatemalan government has already pre-positioned 1.1 million food rations to distribute in the event of a declared food security emergency. In East Africa, Adow added, extreme weather from El Niño will hit communities already reeling from back-to-back years of overlapping drought and flooding.
International climate agencies outside the U.S. echo NOAA’s grim forecast. “The odds are strongly in favor of a moderate to strong, or probably strong to record-breaking, event at this stage,” Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, told Agence France-Presse.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has already urged global leaders to treat the forecast intense El Niño as the urgent climate wake-up call it represents. “El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world,” Guterres said earlier this month. “The only effective response is climate action equal to the crisis — ending the addiction to fossil fuels, accelerating the shift to renewables, protecting the most vulnerable, and delivering early warning systems for all.”
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Brazil reports drop in Amazon deforestation rates, pushing back on US tariff accusations
SAO PAULO — In a direct challenge to one of the core justifications the Trump administration cited for imposing new trade barriers on Brazil, Brazilian environmental and space officials unveiled dramatic new data Thursday showing a steep decline in Amazon rainforest deforestation rates.
According to joint figures released by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the Ministry of Environment, deforestation across the Brazilian Amazon fell 61.4% in May 2026 compared to the same month in 2025, marking the lowest May deforestation total ever recorded. Even with the sharp decline, 370 square kilometers (nearly 143 square miles) of forest were still cleared last month. In the Cerrado, a threatened central Brazilian savanna that has been heavily targeted by large-scale agribusiness operations, deforestation also dropped by 12% over the same period.
Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco told reporters that May typically sees elevated deforestation activity, as it marks the beginning of the Amazon’s dry season, when land clearing operations become easier. Cumulatively, over the 10-month monitoring period from August 2025 through May 2026, Amazon deforestation is already down 37.5% compared to the same period a year earlier. Capobianco said the trend puts Brazil on track to hit its lowest annual deforestation rate on record once full-year data is finalized in the second half of 2026.
The new data comes less than a week after the Trump administration formally proposed 25% additional tariffs on all Brazilian imports, claiming the South American nation engages in unreasonable trade practices that harm U.S. commerce. A U.S. Trade Representative investigation leading up to the tariff announcement specifically cited illegal deforestation in Brazil as a core complaint, alongside claims of unfair Brazilian trade policies.
Capobianco argued that the updated deforestation numbers completely debunk the U.S. claims, saying “the unfair and unfounded accusation by the United States, which cited deforestation to justify imposing tariffs” has no basis in fact. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was present for the announcement, echoed the criticism, doubling down on his rejection of the U.S. framing.
Lula noted that the Trump administration previously lied about a U.S. trade deficit to justify earlier tariffs on Brazilian goods last year, and has now shifted to false claims about deforestation. “They don’t understand the work we are doing to bring deforestation down to zero by 2030. This is not a decision by any COP or by the United Nations. It is a decision of our government,” Lula said. “It’s a matter of justice, of Brazil’s contribution to the planet, fulfilling our obligation to avoid deforestation as much as possible. Preventing deforestation benefits Brazil, benefits the Amazon and benefits the world.”
Deforestation is the single largest contributor to Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions, which drive global climate change. As the world’s largest tropical rainforest, the Amazon plays an outsized role in regulating global climate patterns; scientific research has linked widespread Amazon forest loss to disrupted agricultural output as far away as the U.S. Midwest and Western Europe, alongside accelerating planetary warming.
After declining for decades following record highs in the 1990s and early 2000s, deforestation surged again during the 2019–2022 presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, whose administration rolled back nearly all major environmental protections and enforcement for the Amazon. Since Lula returned to office in 2023, however, deforestation has fallen steadily, hitting its lowest annual level in a decade last year.
Even with the recent progress, the Amazon still faces a range of ongoing and emerging threats. Forest degradation driven by wildfires, illegal logging, and drought now impacts roughly 40% of the rainforest, and in recent years has outpaced full clear-cutting as the leading source of forest damage. A strong El Niño event this year is expected to worsen these risks, bringing higher temperatures and drier conditions that increase the likelihood of large-scale wildfires across the basin.
This climate and environmental reporting from The Associated Press receives funding from multiple private foundations, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content.
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Deadly Sudan drone strike targets funeral procession
A devastating drone attack targeting a funeral gathering at a cemetery in the central Sudanese city of El-Obeid has left at least four people dead and multiple others wounded, two prominent Sudanese human rights advocacy organizations have confirmed. The Sudan Doctors Network and Emergency Lawyers have jointly placed responsibility for the strike on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the country’s main paramilitary faction fighting against the national army in the ongoing civil conflict.
Emergency Lawyers added that the cemetery attack is just one incident in a sustained campaign of drone strikes that has rocked El-Obeid since Wednesday evening. Across this series of assaults, at least 23 people have been killed to date. The RSF has not yet issued any public statement or response to the allegations.
Strategically positioned in Sudan’s oil-rich Kordofan region, El-Obeid is currently held by Sudan’s regular army and has emerged as one of the most critical battlegrounds in the country’s three-year civil war. The conflict erupted in early 2023 after a bitter power struggle between the army’s top leadership and RSF command collapsed the country’s transitional ruling agreement, breaking out into open nationwide fighting.
Geographically, El-Obeid sits as a critical buffer between RSF-held territories in western Sudan and the majority army-controlled eastern regions. Analysts widely note that control of the broader Kordofan region grants effective command over Sudan’s entire national oil supply and a large portion of the country’s total land area, making the fight for El-Obeid strategically decisive for both warring factions.
Beyond the cemetery strike, Emergency Lawyers documented additional drone strikes hitting civilian residential areas, the airport district, and zones surrounding a local army base. Thirteen of the total confirmed fatalities occurred when civilians gathered near previously destroyed homes to assess damage or search for missing loved ones, the organization said. Five more civilians were killed in earlier strikes earlier in the week, and a fourth attack on Thursday killed a truck driver who was transporting emergency food supplies to residents of the embattled city.
Local residents described scenes of widespread destruction and despair following the strikes. “It is tragic. The roofs of houses collapsed on their occupants. When you look at some houses, you feel no-one could have survived,” one El-Obeid resident told AFP news agency in the hours after the latest attacks.
The two rights groups have emphasized that the past week’s strikes are part of a systematic pattern of repeated attacks on civilian targets in El-Obeid that has stretched over multiple days. Three years into the conflict, Sudan now faces what the United Nations has called the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crisis. More than 11 million Sudanese people have been displaced from their homes by the fighting, and an estimated 28 million people across the country face acute levels of food insecurity. While no fully verified, comprehensive death toll exists for the conflict, independent analysts estimate that at least 50,000 people have been killed since fighting began.
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Pentagon floors on lockdown after ‘hazardous materials’ incident
The U.S. Department of Defense headquarters at the Pentagon was placed under partial lockdown Wednesday after building systems picked up a potentially dangerous irregularity in indoor air quality, triggering an immediate response from hazardous materials crews and local emergency services.
Pentogon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed the incident in an official statement, noting that the detection of the air quality issue prompted precautionary action while authorities work to assess the severity of the hazard. Per standard safety protocols, a shelter-in-place order has been issued for all personnel in the affected sections of the massive building, Parnell added.
Local emergency response agency Arlington Fire & EMS confirmed its involvement in the operation via a social media post, stating that the department is on-site supporting the Pentagon’s response to the reported hazardous materials incident. According to reporting from multiple U.S. mainstream media outlets, uniformed police officers deployed inside the building have been outfitted with full gas masks and complete chemical protective suits as they conduct on-site operations.
As the central headquarters of the U.S. national defense apparatus, the Pentagon houses more than 20,000 civilian and military government employees across its sprawling campus in Arlington, Virginia, making any safety incident at the site a high-priority emergency for federal and local authorities. As of the latest update, authorities have not released additional details on the source of the air quality issue, nor have there been any reports of injuries or confirmed toxic exposure among personnel.
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Sweden ditches plan to imprison 13-year-old serious offenders
Sweden’s center-right government has abandoned its controversial proposal to allow imprisonment of serious offenders as young as 13, after failing to secure enough parliamentary backing for the two-year reduction in the age of criminal responsibility. Instead, the administration will push forward a more modest overhaul, lowering the current threshold of 15 to 15, the legislative text expected to be drafted ahead of September’s national general election. The policy shift comes as Sweden grapples with a growing national crisis of underage recruitment into violent organized criminal networks, a trend that has reshaped the country’s long-stable security landscape.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer explained that the revised reform is designed to address gaps in the current justice system, which currently sentences convicted children under 15 to placement in state-run youth care homes, known as SiS homes. Under existing rules, youth convicted of violent offenses cannot be held in standard prison facilities. Strömmer argued that the current framework fails both public safety and offender rehabilitation, noting that SiS placements have been linked to higher rates of recidivism among young violent offenders. “By lowering the age of criminal responsibility, we can impose fairer, proportionate sanctions and create better conditions for rehabilitation than we can today,” he told reporters, adding that the core goal of the policy is to “protect society from life-threatening crime, and protect crime victims — who are often children themselves.”
Eight existing adult prisons have already been instructed to set up dedicated, isolated sections to house young offenders, separated completely from the adult inmate population to prevent radicalization and exploitation. According to government data, more than 50 children under the age of 15 appeared in Swedish courts last year facing charges of murder or attempted murder, a statistic that underscores the severity of the youth violence crisis.
The push for reform comes amid a decade-long shift in Sweden’s homicide trends: the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) recorded a substantial overall increase in homicides over the past 10 years, rising from 87 murders in 2014 to 121 in 2023, though the total fell to 92 in 2024 as law enforcement cracked down on major gang networks. Much of the recent violence can be traced to a brutal turf war between two of Sweden’s most powerful criminal organizations: the Foxtrot gang, led by fugitive Rawa Majid, and the rival Rumba gang headed by Ismail Abdo. The conflict, which peaked in 2023, has seen gangs increasingly exploit underage members to carry out high-risk attacks, from targeted shootings and bombings to contract killings. Abdo was arrested in Turkey in 2025, while Majid is believed to be hiding in the Middle East, and both the United States and United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Foxtrot and its leader last year over their alleged ties to foreign interference.
In a troubling development that has drawn international attention, multiple recent attacks on Israeli-linked targets in Sweden — including an attack on defense contractor Elbit Systems’ Gothenburg facility and the Israeli embassy in Stockholm — have involved suspects as young as 13 and 14. Sweden’s domestic security service Säpo has publicly linked these plots to Iran, accusing the Iranian government of recruiting Swedish gang members to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe. Iran’s foreign ministry has repeatedly rejected the claims as “unfounded and biased,” asserting the accusations are rooted in misinformation spread by Israel. The 2025 US and UK sanctions explicitly cited Foxtrot’s role in carrying out “violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime.”
Not all stakeholders support the government’s criminal age reform plan. Maria Frisk, secretary-general of leading Swedish children’s rights organization Bris, argued that the solution to youth violence lies not in lowering the age of criminal responsibility, but in strengthening the underfunded and overstretched SiS youth home system. “Nothing indicates that lowering the age to 14 will turn the situation around,” she said in a public statement. Critics have also pointed out that SiS homes themselves have increasingly become recruitment grounds for criminal networks in recent years, as young offenders are exposed to established gang members within the care system, perpetuating a cycle of violence.
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India’s viral Cockroach Party launches nationwide youth protests
NEW DELHI – A youth-driven grassroots political movement that turned a derogatory label into a rallying cry has launched a nationwide protest campaign, putting new pressure on India’s federal government to address widespread discontent among young people over systemic failures in education and employment.
Hundreds of students and young backers of the self-styled Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) gathered this Thursday for a major public rally at Savitribai Phule Pune University, located in India’s western state of Maharashtra. The demonstration comes one week after the movement held its first large-scale street protest in the national capital of New Delhi, marking the start of a coordinated national push for policy and political change.
At the core of the group’s immediate demands is the resignation of India’s Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. CJP organizers say Pradhan must be held accountable for persistent examination irregularities and repeated high-stakes exam paper leaks that have upended the academic and career prospects of millions of young job seekers across the country.
Addressing the crowd of supporters, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke – a political communications strategist and current Boston University student who recently returned to India from the United States to lead the movement – confirmed Thursday’s rally marked the official opening of a broad national campaign. Dipke announced that organized protests are already planned for multiple major Indian cities in the coming weeks, and warned that thousands of CJP supporters will march back to New Delhi later this month if Pradhan fails to step down from his post.
“ The government cannot continue to ignore the voices of India’s youth,” Dipke told reporters on the sidelines of the Pune rally.
The unusual story of the CJP begins back in May, when a comment from Supreme Court Justice Surya Kant sparked national outrage. During a hearing related to youth unemployment, Kant compared some unemployed young people to “cockroaches” – a remark that sparked immediate backlash from young Indians across the country. Rather than reject the insult, CJP founders and supporters embraced the term, rebranding it as a symbol of resilience and survival in the face of persistent economic and political barriers.
The movement’s rapid growth on social media has been unprecedented: it has already amassed more than 22 million followers on Instagram, making it one of the most visible youth political mobilization efforts in India today. What started as a reaction to a single offensive comment has since expanded its scope, with the CJP now centering a broader set of grievances that resonate with millions of young Indians: widespread youth unemployment, skyrocketing living costs, and a lack of transparency and accountability from the ruling government.
A defining feature of the CJP’s political identity is its blend of self-deprecating humor and sharp political criticism. Supporters lean into the joke, jokingly describing themselves as “unemployed and chronically online,” while short-form videos and viral memes mocking high unemployment, systemic corruption, and government dysfunction have racked up millions of views across platforms. The satirical energy of the movement has spawned dozens of parody CJP accounts, all of which have adopted the cockroach as a unifying, tongue-in-cheek political symbol that sets the movement apart from traditional, formal Indian political parties.
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Toronto police officer dies in raid linked to US consulate shooting
A decades-long veteran law enforcement officer with Toronto’s police force has been killed in a deadly gunfight during a coordinated raid targeting suspects connected to a brazen March shooting at the United States consulate in downtown Toronto, according to official police statements.
The confrontation unfolded in the early hours of Thursday at a residential high-rise, where members of the Toronto Police Service executed search warrants as part of their months-long investigation into the consulate attack, which both U.S. and Canadian authorities labeled a national security incident at the time of the original shooting. Forty-three-year-old Marc Pinizzotto, who had 18 years of service with the force and five years with the elite Emergency Task Force, was struck by gunfire during the exchange and later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
A second suspect was also hit in the crossfire and rushed to hospital with critical, life-threatening injuries; police have not yet released the individual’s name to the public. A third suspect, identified as 19-year-old Zara Jabbi, remains at large, and law enforcement has warned the public that he is considered armed and extremely dangerous. Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw issued an urgent public appeal, urging anyone who spots Jabbi to contact emergency services immediately rather than approach him.
Original details of the March consulate attack confirm two male suspects exited a vehicle, fired multiple rounds at the fortified building using what appeared to be a handgun, then fled the scene in the same vehicle. No personnel inside the heavily secured consulate were injured in that earlier incident. Thursday’s search warrants were also linked to other unsolved shootings across the city, though police have not released additional details about those cases.
The fatal shooting of the officer was publicly acknowledged by U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra during a Canada-U.S. trade conference held in downtown Toronto the same day. Hoekstra extended condolences to Pinizzotto’s family and colleagues, noting that the ongoing joint investigation into the consulate attack is a testament to the close law enforcement cooperation between the two North American neighbors, and a reminder of the grave risks frontline officers take every day.
Toronto Police Association President Clayton Campbell remembered Pinizzotto as a deeply valued and respected member of the policing community. A visibly emotional Demkiw told reporters Thursday that the entire city is reeling from the loss, saying “there is very heavy sorrow in our communities right now.” Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow also issued a statement of tribute, calling Pinizzotto’s line-of-duty death heartbreaking news for the entire city.
The violent incident comes just one day before Toronto is scheduled to host its first match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where host nation Canada will face off against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the city’s BMO Field.
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Bangladesh claim first ODI series win over Australia
Cricket history was made in Mirpur on Wednesday, as Bangladesh pulled off a landmark five-wicket victory over Australia in the second ODI, claiming their first ever ODI series win against the six-time world champions. The underdog hosts have now sealed back-to-back wins over Australia, adding an ODI series triumph to their T20I series victory against the same opponent in 2021, with one match still left to play in the three-match tour. What makes the win even more remarkable is the context of the matchup: before this series, Bangladesh had never won an ODI series against Australia, falling to 0-3 sweeps in each of their four previous encounters. Their only prior individual ODI win against Australia came in a tri-series with England back in 2005, and they waited 21 years between their first 50-over win, which they earned in the opening match of this current series. The match, disrupted by rain, relied on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method to set a revised target for Bangladesh, after a late rain delay cut Australia’s innings short. Australia, missing several of their star first-choice players including pace spearheads Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, top-order batters Travis Head and all-rounder Mitch Marsh, got off to one of the worst possible starts in ODI history. Inside the first two overs, Australia were 0 wickets for 3 runs, becoming only the fourth men’s ODI side in nearly 5,000 matches to lose three wickets without scoring a single run. A sensational collapse was only avoided thanks to a resilient fightback from stand-in captain Josh Inglis, who scored 34, and a match-saving seventh-wicket partnership of 103 runs between Marnus Labuschagne and Xavier Bartlett. Labuschagne finished the innings unbeaten on 55, while Bartlett hit a valuable 52 off 63 balls. Just before the rain rolled in to stop play, Bartlett and spinner Adam Zampa fell to the Bangladesh bowling attack, cutting Australia’s final total to 187 for 8 from 42 overs and adjusting the target Bangladesh needed to chase to 192 runs from 41 overs. Bangladesh’s chase got off to a shaky start, with opening batter Tanzid Hasan Tamim out for a golden duck on the very first over. Middle-order batters Soumya Sarkar and Najmul Hossain Shanto steadied the innings, putting together an 86-run second wicket partnership that put Bangladesh back on track, with Sarkar scoring 42 and Shanto adding 41. The pair fell in quick succession after their stand, leaving the hosts on 98 for 3 halfway through their chase, but Bangladesh never let the momentum slip. Tawhid Hridoy hit an unbeaten 40, and captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz contributed 22 not out to guide the side across the finish line with six full overs to spare. In a moment that underlined Bangladesh’s fighting spirit, Mehidy was hit on the body by a bouncer from Australian paceman Nathan Ellis, and required medical attention after a stretcher was called onto the pitch, but he refused to leave and finished his innings to secure the win. The result means Bangladesh cannot lose the series, with the final match of the three-match ODI series set to take place in Mirpur this Sunday, kicking off at 06:00 BST. Beyond the bilateral series, this result carries major implications for 2027 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup qualification. Only the top eight teams in the ICC ODI rankings by September this year will qualify directly for the tournament. Currently, England sit in eighth place, Bangladesh ninth, and the West Indies 10th. England face a difficult away series against top-ranked India in July, meaning Bangladesh’s rising ranking points from this historic series could push them above England and alter the automatic qualification landscape ahead of the 2027 tournament. Bangladesh still hold an unfinished goal against Australia: while they now hold ODI and T20I series wins against the side, they are still yet to claim a Test series victory over Australia, a milestone they will look to reach in future matchups.