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IED used in London Underground terror attack, says Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer

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Emergency services tend to an injured woman following the IED attack. (Gustavo Vieira/via Reuters)
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Social media image: (Twitter/@ASolopovas via Reuters)
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Social media image: (Twitter/@Faizz)
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The suspect package that appears to be made up of an insulated supermarket carrier bag and a white bucket (Twitter)
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The suspect package from a different angle appears to show wires coming from it. (Twitter)
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London Fire Brigade officers walk within a cordon near where the incident happened. (AP)
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Police forensics officers works alongside an underground tube train at a platform at Parsons Green underground tube station in London on Sept. 15, 2017. (AFP)
Updated 15 September 2017
Arab News
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IED used in London Underground terror attack, says Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer

Updated 15 September 2017
Arab News

LONDON: British police said an IED was used in the attack on a London Underground station which injured 22 people in what officers described as a “terrorist incident.”
“We now assess that this was a detonation of an improvised explosive device,” Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer Mark Rowley said on Friday.
London’s police are being supported by Britain’s MI5 intelligence service, he said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May has returned from her constituency to chair an emergency session of the Cobra committee, where she is being briefed on the full details of today's incident.
This will be her first opportunity to receive a full update on the live investigation underway and discuss any precautionary measures that need to be taken in the wake of the attack before making a statement to the British public this afternoon.
According to reports from Sky News, citing security sources, British security services have already identified a suspect involved in the attack, with the help of surveillance footage.
“Security sources say they’ve identified a suspect involved in the Parsons Green bombing, with the aid of CCTV footage,” Mark White, a home affairs correspondent for Sky News, said on Twitter.
The current threat level in the UK from international terrorism is “severe” according to the MI5 website.
But the BBC’s Frank Gardner tweeted that if the UK Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre concludes there is a bomber on the loose the national threat level would likely be raised to “critical.”
Police earlier said they believed someone who was not on the train at the time triggered the device with a timer.
Rowley said there would be an enhanced police presence on public transport services in London and asked the public to “remain vigilant but not be alarmed.”
He did not reveal whether any arrests have yet been made. Met police sources have revealed that the device used did not detonate fully.
Witness accounts 
Earlier witnesses described the scene, saying that commuters fled the area after the blast sent a “fireball” through the station in West London, leaving several injured and sparking panic.
Eye witnesses spoke of people being trampled as panicked passengers ran for the same door.
Some passengers appeared to have suffered facial burns.
One man said he heard a “whoosh” sound and saw the next carriage “engulfed in flames.”
An eyewitness on the train at the time of the explosion told Sky News there were “hundreds and hundreds of people running down a tiny staircase,” and described “blood curdling screaming.”
Ben Geoghegan, a Parsons Green resident who has been evacuated from his home, said “There was panic all over the place. People didn’t know what to do.”
London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan confirmed on Twitter that he was in touch with the emergency services and advised people to check the Metropolitan Police Twitter account for updates and advice.
 

In a statement released on his Twitter account Khan said: “Our city utterly condemns the hideous individuals who attempt to use terror to harm us and destroy our way of life… As London has proven again and again, we will never be intimidated or defeated by terrorism.”
He said he was in “close contact” with the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London (TfL), Government and other emergency services.
And he said he would be attending the “emergency COBRA meeting in Whitehall this afternoon with the Prime Minister.”
“My sincere gratitude goes to all our courageous emergency responders and the TfL staff who were first on the scene… I urge all Londoners to remain calm and vigilant, and to check TfL’s website for travel advice.”
Images apparently from the scene appear to show a charred white bucket inside a carrier bag on the train, although damage to the carriage does not appear to be extensive. 
The device
BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner described the device as “relatively small and relatively amateur,” adding that he believed the attacker probably intended to inflict a lot more casualties.
And a former Ministry of Defence counter-terrorism expert said the image “doesn’t look like a high-end explosive from IS,” using an alternative name for Daesh.
 

This tweet appears to show the burning remains of the suspect package.
 

Emergency services were called to the scene at 8:20 a.m. after reports of an explosion on the District Line train. 
London Fire Brigade confirmed that it had a number of appliances at the scene, as well as approximately 50 firefighters.
London Ambulance said paramedics were present.
In a statement London Ambulance Service said:  “Our initial priority is to assess the level and nature of injuries.”
Images posted on Twitter showed a women being attended to by emergency services sitting on a pavement.
Police said they were aware of reports on social media and would release facts regarding the incident once they could be sure of their accuracy.
Trump tweets "unhelpful"
Transport for London said on Twitter that there was no service between Earls Court and Wimbledon on the District Line which runs through Parsons Green.
An official source at the Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the Kingdom’s “strong condemnation and denunciation” of the attack.
The source added that the Kingdom maintained its solidarity with the UK and its stand against terrorism and extremism.
President Donald Trump took to Twitter later to blast the “loser terrorists” behind the attack.
“Another attack in London by a loser terrorist,” he tweeted.
“These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!” he added in what appeared to be criticism of how the British police are handling terrorism on its shores
 

He then added: “Loser terrorists must be dealt with in a much tougher manner,” without giving details of what that meant.
“The internet is their main recruitment tool which we must cut off & use better!” he added, also giving no details.
 

It was not immediately clear if the people behind the bomb attack on Friday were indeed previously known to British law enforcement.

But if it were the case, then Trump has apparently revealed the detail before authorities in Britain made the information public themselves.

Trump’s comment was described as “unhelpful speculation” by London’s Metropolitan Police.

Nick Timothy, former chief of staff to British Prime Minister Theresa May also branded the US leader’s tweet “unhelpful.”

“True or not – and I’m sure he doesn’t know – this is so unhelpful from leader of our ally and intelligence partner,” he wrote on Twitter.
Community spirit

Meanwhile in typical British tea-loving form, local residents have been tweeting offers to “put the kettle on” for those caught up in the incident.
 

 

London’s latest attack happened around the same time as a knife-wielding man attacked a soldier in Paris, although no one has yet suggested that the attacks were coordinated.
The soldier, who was part of an anti-terrorism operation known as Sentinelle, rapidly tackled the man and was uninjured. The attacker was taken into custody. 
(Additional reporting by news wires)

Topics: London Daesh terrorism London attacks Donald Trump

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Canada’s Liberals look for a new prime minister as Trump threatens tariffs and an election looms

Updated 4 sec ago
AP
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Canada’s Liberals look for a new prime minister as Trump threatens tariffs and an election looms

  • A new Canadian leader is unlikely to be named before Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20
Updated 4 sec ago
AP
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation after facing an increasing loss of support both within his party and in the country.
Now Trudeau’s Liberal Party must find a new leader while dealing with US President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to impose steep tariffs on Canadian goods and with Canada’s election just months away.
Trudeau said Monday he plans to stay on as prime minister until a new party leader is chosen.
He could not recover after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long one of his most powerful and loyal ministers, resigned from the Cabinet last month.
Trudeau, the 53-year-old scion of Pierre Trudeau, one of Canada’s most famous prime ministers, became deeply unpopular with voters over a range of issues, including the soaring cost of food and housing as well as surging immigration.
What’s next for Canada?
A new Canadian leader is unlikely to be named before Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
The political upheaval comes at a difficult moment for Canada. Trump keeps calling Canada the 51st state and has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian goods if the government does not stem what Trump calls a flow of migrants and drugs into the US — even though far fewer of them cross the border from Canada than from Mexico, which Trump has also threatened with tariffs.
Trump also remains preoccupied with the US trade deficit with Canada, erroneously calling it a subsidy. Canada’s ambassador to Washington, Kirsten Hillman, has said the US had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year. But she noted that a third of what Canada sells to the US are energy exports and that there is a deficit when oil prices are high.
If Trump applies tariffs, a trade war looms. Canada has vowed to retaliate.
When will there be a new prime minister?
The Liberals need to elect a new leader before Parliament resumes March 24 because all three opposition parties say they will bring down the Liberal government in a no-confidence vote at the first opportunity, which would trigger an election. The new leader might not be prime minister for long.
A spring election would very likely favor the opposing Conservative Party.
Who will be the next prime minister?
It’s not often that central bank governors get compared to rock stars. But Mark Carney, the former head of the Bank of Canada, was considered just that in 2012 when he was named the first foreigner to serve as governor of the Bank of England since it was founded in 1694. The appointment of a Canadian won bipartisan praise in Britain after Canada recovered faster than many other countries from the 2008 financial crisis. He gained a reputation along the way as a tough regulator.
Few people in the world have Carney’s qualifications. He is a highly educated economist with Wall Street experience who is widely credited with helping Canada dodge the worst of the 2008 global economic crisis and helping the UK manage Brexit. Carney has long been interested in entering politics and becoming prime minister but lacks political experience.
Freeland is also a front-runner. Trudeau told Freeland last month he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister but that she could remain deputy prime minister and the point person for US-Canada relations. An official close to Freeland said Freeland couldn’t continue serving as a minister knowing she no longer enjoyed Trudeau’s confidence. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The person added it’s far too early to make declarations but said Freeland would talk to her colleagues this week and discuss next steps.
After she resigned, Trump called Freeland “totally toxic” and “not at all conducive to making deals.” Freeland is many things that would seem to irritate Trump: a liberal Canadian former journalist. She is a globalist who sits on the board of the World Economic Forum. Freeland, who is of Ukrainian heritage, also has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Another possible candidate is the new finance minister, Dominic LeBlanc. The former public safety minister, and a close friend of Trudeau, LeBlanc recently joined the prime minister at a dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. LeBlanc was Trudeau’s babysitter when Trudeau was a child.
Is it too late for the Liberals?
Recent polls suggest the Liberals’ chances of winning the next election look slim. In the latest poll by Nanos, the Liberals trail the opposition Conservatives 47 percent to 21 percent.
“Trudeau’s announcement might help the Liberals in the polls in the short run and, once a new leader is selected, things could improve further at least for a little while but that would not be so hard because, right now, they’re so low in the polls,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.
“Moreover, because Trudeau waited so long to announce his resignation, this will leave little time to his successor and the party to prepare for early elections,” Béland said.
Many analysts say Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre will form the next government. Poilievre, for years the party’s go-to attack dog, is a firebrand populist who blamed Canada’s cost of living crisis on Trudeau. The 45-year-old Poilievre is a career politician who attracted large crowds during his run for his party’s leadership. He has vowed to scrap a carbon tax and defund the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Strong earthquake strikes in China’s Tibet region near border with Nepal

Updated 07 January 2025
Reuters
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Strong earthquake strikes in China’s Tibet region near border with Nepal

  • The CCTV online report said there were a handful of communities within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the epicenter, which was 380 kilometers (240 miles) from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet
  • A 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed some 9,000 people and damaged about 1 million structures in Nepal in 2015
Updated 07 January 2025
Reuters

BEIJING: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck near one of Tibet’s holiest cities on Tuesday morning, the China Earthquake Networks Center said, damaging buildings around Shigatse and sending people running to the streets in neighboring Nepal and India.
The trembler at 9:05 a.m. (0105 GMT) had an epicenter depth of 10 km (6.2 miles), the report added, revising the magnitude from an earlier 6.9.
Crumbled shop fronts could be seen in a video showing the aftermath from the nearby town of Lhatse, with debris spilling out onto the road.
Reuters was able to confirm the location from nearby buildings, windows, road layout, and signage that match satellite and street view imagery. The date could not be verified independently.
Tremors were felt in Nepal’s capital Katmandu some 400 km (250 miles) away, where residents ran from their houses.
Tremors were felt in the northern Indian state of Bihar which borders Nepal. As walls shook, people rushed out of their homes and apartments to open areas.
So far, no reports of any damage or loss to property have been received, officials in India said.
A magnitude 6.8 quake is considered strong and is capable of causing severe damage.
Southwestern parts of China are frequently hit by earthquakes. A huge quake in Sichuan province in 2008 killed almost 70,000 people.
According to China’s state broadcaster CCTV, there have been 29 earthquakes with magnitudes of 3 or higher within 200 km of the Shigatse quake in the past five years, all of which were smaller than the one that struck on Tuesday morning.
In 2015, a magnitude 7.8 tremor struck near Katmandu in neighboring Nepal, killing about 9,000 people and injuring thousands in that country’s worst earthquake.

Topics: nepal earthquake China Tibet

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US records first human bird flu death: health authorities

Test tube is seen labelled "Bird Flu" in front of the U.S. flag in this illustration taken, June 10, 2024. (REUTERS)
Updated 07 January 2025
AFP
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US records first human bird flu death: health authorities

  • The patient, aged over 65, had been hospitalized for a respiratory ailment, and was the first serious case of human infection of the H5N1 virus to be detected in the United States
Updated 07 January 2025
AFP

WASHINGTON: The first human death linked to bird flu has been reported in the United States, health authorities in the state of Louisiana said Monday, adding that the patient was elderly and suffered from other pathologies.
The patient, aged over 65, had been hospitalized for a respiratory ailment, and was the first serious case of human infection of the H5N1 virus to be detected in the United States. Despite this death, the public health risk posed by bird flu remains “low,” the statement said.
 

 

Topics: US Bird flu

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Biden visits makeshift memorial in New Orleans where attack began that killed 14 and injured 30

Updated 07 January 2025
AP
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Biden visits makeshift memorial in New Orleans where attack began that killed 14 and injured 30

Updated 07 January 2025
AP

NEW ORLEANS: President Joe Biden on Monday visited a makeshift memorial at the site of the deadly New Year’s attack in New Orleans, holding a moment of silence before meeting with grieving families and attending a prayer service.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden made their first stop in the city Monday evening at a memorial that sprung up on city’s famous Bourbon Street, where the attack began last week when an Army veteran drove a truck into revelers, killing 14 and injuring 30 more.
Flowers and messages had been left at the base of more than 14 crosses erected on the sidewalk in the French Quarter. After Jill Biden placed white flowers at the memorial, she and the president stood in silence and bowed their heads.
Joe Biden crossed himself, and the the couple headed to the historic St. Louis Cathedral nearby, where the president and first lady met privately with the families of those killed, survivors and local law enforcement. Afterward, they were expected to attend an interfaith prayer service.
The visit is likely to be the last time Biden travels to the scene of a horrific crime as president to console families of victims. He has less than two weeks left in office.
“I think what you’re going to see this president do today is show up for the community, be there for the community in the hardest time,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Louisiana.
She went on, speaking about Biden’s own understanding of loss, and said, “He believes this is also an important part of the job that he believes he needs to do as president.”
It’s a grim task that presidents perform, though not every leader has embraced the role with such intimacy as the 82-year-old Biden, who has experienced a lot of personal tragedy in his own life. His first wife and baby daughter died in a car accident in the early 1970s, and his eldest son, Beau, died of cancer in 2015.
“I’ve been there. There’s nothing you can really say to somebody that’s just had such a tragic loss,” Biden told reporters Sunday in a preview of his visit. “My message is going to be personal if I get to get them alone.”
Biden often takes the opportunity at such bleak occasions to speak behind closed doors with the families, offer up his personal phone number in case people want to talk later on and talk about grief in stark, personal terms.
In addition to the meeting with families, Biden hoped to visit with first responders in New Orleans, according to Jean-Pierre.
The Democratic president will continue on to California following his stop in New Orleans. With a snowstorm hitting the Washington region on Monday, Biden’s trip began with Air Force One starting its takeoff from inside a large hangar instead of on the tarmac as thick snow covered the ground at Joint Base Andrews and snowplows worked to clear the runway.
In New Orleans on Jan. 1, the driver plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street. Fourteen revelers were killed along with the driver. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who steered his speeding truck around a barricade and plowed into the crowd, later was fatally shot in a firefight with police.
Jabbar, an American citizen from Texas, had posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he proclaimed his support for the Islamic State militant group and previewed the violence that he would soon unleash in the French Quarter.
Biden on Sunday pushed back against conspiracy theories surrounding the attack, and he urged New Orleans residents to ignore them.
“I spent literally 17, 18 hours with the intelligence community from the time this happened to establish exactly what happened, to establish beyond any reasonable doubt that New Orleans was the act of a single man who acted alone,” he said. “All this talk about conspiracies with other people, there’s not evidence of that — zero.”
The youngest victim was 18 years old, and the oldest was 63. Most victims were in their 20s. They came from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey and Great Britain.
Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, was asked on “Fox News Sunday” what the city was hoping for from Biden’s visit.
“How can we not feel for both the families of those who die but also those who’ve been injured in their families?” he asked.
“The best thing that the city, the state, and the federal government can do is do their best to make sure that this does not happen again. And what we can do as a people is to make sure that we don’t live our lives in fear or in terror — but live our lives bravely and with liberty, and then support those families however they need support.”
Jean-Pierre said Monday that Biden was directing additional resources to help New Orleans with major upcoming events, including Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl, with both events being assigned the highest level of federal support for security measures.
___
Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein in Washington and Michelle L. Price in New York contributed to this report.

Topics: Joe Biden New Orleans terror attack

UK leader Starmer slams ‘lies and misinformation’ after attacks from Elon Musk

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer answers a question from the media during a visit to the Elective Orthopaedic Center.
Updated 06 January 2025
AP
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UK leader Starmer slams ‘lies and misinformation’ after attacks from Elon Musk

  • Tesla CEO has taken an intense and erratic interest in British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July
  • Musk has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013
Updated 06 January 2025
AP

LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday condemned “lies and misinformation” that he said are undermining UK democracy, in response to a barrage of attacks on his government from Elon Musk.
The billionaire Tesla CEO has taken an intense and erratic interest in British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July. Musk has used his social network, X, to call for a new election and demand Starmer be imprisoned. On Monday he posted an online poll for his 210 million followers on the proposition: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”
Asked about Musk’s comments during a question session at a hospital near London, Starmer criticized “those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible,” particularly opposition Conservative politicians in Britain who have echoed some of Musk’s claims.
Musk often posts on X about the UK, retweeting criticism of Starmer and the hashtag TwoTierKeir -– shorthand for an unsubstantiated claim that Britain has “two-tier policing” with far-right protesters treated more harshly than pro-Palestinian or Black Lives Matter demonstrators. During summer anti-immigrant violence across the UK he tweeted that “civil war is inevitable.”
Recently Musk has focused on child sexual abuse, particularly a series of cases that rocked northern England towns in which groups of men, largely from Pakistani backgrounds, were tried for grooming and abusing dozens of girls. The cases have been used by far-right activists to link child abuse to immigration, and to accuse politicians of covering up the “grooming gangs” out of a fear of appearing racist.
Musk has posted a demand for a new public inquiry into the cases. A huge, seven-year inquiry was held under the previous Conservative government, though many of the 20 recommendations it made in 2022 — including compensation for abuse victims — have yet to be implemented. Starmer’s government said it would act on them as quickly as possible.
Musk also has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013.
Starmer defended his record as chief prosecutor, saying he had reopened closed cases and “changed the whole prosecution approach” to child sexual exploitation.
He also condemned language used by Musk about Jess Phillips, a government minister responsible for combating violence against women and girls. Musk called Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and said she deserved to be in prison.
“When the poison of the far-right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book, a line has been crossed,” Starmer said. “I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics, the robust debate that we must have, but that’s got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies.”
Musk has also called for the release of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a far-right activist who goes by the name Tommy Robinson and is serving a prison sentence for contempt of court.
Starmer said people “cheerleading Tommy Robinson … are trying to get some vicarious thrill from street violence that people like Tommy Robinson promote.”
Starmer largely avoided mentioning Musk by name in his responses, likely wary of giving him more of a spotlight — or of angering Musk ally Donald Trump, who is due to be inaugurated as US president on Jan. 20.
Musk’s incendiary interventions are a growing worry for governments elsewhere in Europe, too. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, another target of the X owner’s ire, said he is staying “cool” over critical personal comments made by Musk, but finds it worrying that the US billionaire makes the effort to get involved in Germany’s election by endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Starmer said the main issue was not Musk’s posts on X, but “what are politicians here doing to stand up for our democracy?”
He said he was concerned about Conservative politicians in Britain “so desperate for attention they are amplifying what the far right are saying.”
“Once we lose the anchor that truth matters … then we are on a very slippery slope,” he said.
While some Conservatives, including party leader Kemi Badenoch, have echoed Musk’s points, the main UK beneficiary of his interest has been Reform UK, the hard-right party led by Nigel Farage that has just five seats in the 650-seat House of Commons but big expansion plans. Farage said last month that Musk was considering making a multimillion-dollar donation to the party.
But Farage is critical of Tommy Robinson, refusing to let him join Reform, and on Sunday Musk posted: “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
Farage tweeted in response: “Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree.”

Topics: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer Elon Musk UK

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