Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan to co-host FIFA under-20 world cup 2027
The 2027 FIFA Under-20 World Cup will mark a first for global football, with Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan set to co-host a tournament that bridges contin...
British police said on Friday they may have accidentally shot two victims, including one who died, in their attempts to bring under control an attack on a Manchester synagogue during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
In Thursday's attack two men, Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were killed after a British man of Syrian descent drove a car into pedestrians and then began stabbing several people outside Manchester's Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue.
The attacker, whom armed officers shot dead at the scene, was not carrying a firearm, said Greater Manchester Police chief constable Steve Watson, though one of those killed suffered a gunshot wound.
"It follows therefore this injury may have been sustained as a tragic and unforeseen consequence of the urgently required action taken by my officers to bring this vicious attack to an end", Watson said in a statement.
The attacker wore a vest that had the appearance of an explosive device, but the police later determined it was not capable of causing an explosion.
UK vows to crack down on antisemitism
Watson said another worshipper is believed to have suffered a non life-threatening gunshot wound, and that it is thought both victims were close together behind the synagogue door, as worshippers tried to prevent the attacker from gaining entry.
Police have named the attacker as Jihad al-Shamie, 35, and said they could find no records to show he had been referred to the government's anti-radicalisation programme.
In a statement on Facebook, the family of al-Shamie said that they were in "profound shock" and wanted to distance themselves from what they called his "heinous act".
The British government vowed to redouble its efforts to tackle antisemitism as the Jewish community reeled from the attack.
On Friday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited the site of the attack and spoke with members of the police and ambulance services workers where he praised "the degree of professionalism and speed" they showed in their response.
Police also urged organisers of a planned protest in London this weekend in support of a banned pro-Palestinian group to cancel or postpone the event, saying it would divert police resources needed to protect fearful communities.
Organisers said the protest, the latest in a series in which police have arrested more than 1,500 people, would go ahead, and that it was the police's choice whether to make more arrests of people "peacefully holding signs".
Like other European countries and the United States, Britain has recorded a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in the nearly two years since the war in Gaza started.
Israel has accused Britain of allowing rampant antisemitism to spread through its cities and universities, and repeated that criticism after Thursday's attack.
Starmer last month announced that Britain was recognising a Palestinian state, a decision that was criticised by Israel as a "huge reward to terrorism".
Britain's interior minister, Shabana Mahmood, criticised pro-Palestinian protests that took place hours after the Manchester attack, calling them un-British and dishonourable and urging people to show a bit more "humanity and some love towards a community that is grieving".
Antisemitic incidents, Jewish community's concerns
The killing shocked Britain's Jews, particularly in Manchester, home to the country's largest Jewish community outside London and a highly diverse city.
Many Jewish leaders noted that they were the only faith in Britain that routinely required security at its institutions.
Last year was the second worst on record for antisemitic incidents in Britain, surpassed only by 2023, according to the Community Security Trust, which provides security to Jewish organisations across Britain. It recorded more than 3,500 incidents last year.
Islamophobic incidents in Britain have also increased since the start of the Gaza war.
On Friday morning there was a heavy police presence at the scene of the attack, with debris still lying in the street and bunches of flowers being left nearby.
Dawud Taj, a 28-year-old from Manchester, said the government should have done a better job at protecting people.
"There's an atmosphere in the air," he told Reuters as he walked to the city centre, "and everything feels a little bit shaky".
A day of mourning has been declared in Portugal to pay respect to victims who lost their lives in the Lisbon Funicular crash which happened on Wednesday evening.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
The 2027 FIFA Under-20 World Cup will mark a first for global football, with Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan set to co-host a tournament that bridges continents and highlights the sport’s growing reach.
U.S. President Donald Trump has given Hamas until Sunday evening to accept a ceasefire deal with Israel, warning of severe consequences if the group refuses.
A massive Russian air assault struck some of Ukraine's main gas production facilities, officials said on Friday, in some cases causing critical damage as Ukraine prepares for a new heating season.
Russian warships have repeatedly manoeuvred on collision courses, aimed weaponry at Danish naval vessels, and disrupted navigation systems in Denmark's straits, which connect the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, according to the Danish Defence Intelligence Service on Friday.
Czechs began voting on Friday in an election likely to oust their centre-right government, with polls favouring populist billionaire Andrej Babis to return to power on pledges to raise wages and lift growth while reducing aid for Ukraine.
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