LA GRAND-MOTTE, France: Police were on Saturday hunting for a man who, draped in a Palestinian flag, was suspected of setting fires at a synagogue in southern France and triggering an explosion that injured a police officer.
Authorities said the incident was being treated as a potential terror attack and “all means” were being deployed to find the perpetrator.
France’s interim Prime Minister Gabriel Attal visited the site along with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and said: “We narrowly avoided an absolute tragedy.”
Attal said that “if the synagogue had been filled with worshippers... there probably would have been human victims.”
Security around Jewish sites was tightened following the attack early on Saturday at Beth Yaacov synagogue in the seaside resort of La Grande Motte, near the city of Montpellier.
Two cars outside the synagogue were set alight, with a gas canister then likely exploding inside one of the vehicles, police said.
Two fires were also started at the entrance of the synagogue, but were quickly put out, with two doors damaged, investigators said.
The wounded police officer was injured by the blast after rushing to the scene after the fires were started, police said.
President Emmanuel Macron called the incident “an act of terror,” adding on X: “The fight against anti-Semitism is a daily fight.”
He said “all means are being deployed” to apprehend the suspect.
La Grande Motte’s mayor, Stephan Rossignol, said that CCTV had picked up images of an individual setting fire to the cars.
On part of the footage, watched and authenticated by AFP, a man is seen with a Palestinian flag draped around his waist, his head covered by a red Palestinian keffiyeh.
The man carried two bottles filled with a yellowish liquid. The footage also seems to show the contours of a handgun.
Sources close to the investigation said the suspect left the scene hurriedly on foot.
The fires and explosion came amid a heightened state of alert in France and other European countries because of the war in Gaza.
Attal said France’s national anti-terror prosecutors had been tasked with probing the incident.
“La Grande Motte’s synagogue was the target of an attack this morning,” Attal said in a post on X. “An anti-Semitic act. Once again, our Jewish fellow citizens are being targeted.”
Darmanin called the incident “an obviously criminal act.”
He said “all means are being deployed to find the perpetrator.”
The police presence outside Jewish sites in France would be increased following the explosion, the minister added.
The blast occurred during Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest that runs from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, with many attending synagogue services.
There was, however, no religious service ongoing at the time of the incident, a police source said. A rabbi and four other people were inside the synagogue at the time but all were unharmed, investigators said.
The town of La Grande Motte has about 8,500 permanent residents but the population swells during the summer tourism season.
Darmanin said this month that the government had counted 887 anti-Semitic acts in France in the first half of 2024, nearly three times as many as in the same period in 2023.
France is home to the biggest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, and also to the largest Muslim community in the European Union.
The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) called the explosion “an attempt to kill Jews.”
The use of a gas canister “in a car at a time when worshippers are expected to arrive at the synagogue is not simply a criminal act,” CRIF president Yonathan Arfi told AFP. “This shows an intention to kill.”
France hunts terror suspect after fire attack on synagogue
https://arab.news/vva3a
France hunts terror suspect after fire attack on synagogue
- Potential suspect seen in footage was brandishing Palestinian flag
- Fire also started at entrance of synagogue, but was quickly put out
China defense minister calls for ‘negotiation’ to end Ukraine, Gaza wars
- "Promoting peace and negotiation is the only way out," Dong Jun tells global gathering of military officials in Beijing
- “There is no winner in war and conflict, and confrontation leads nowhere,” he said
BEIJING: Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun said Friday that “negotiation” was the only solution to conflicts such as the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, as he addressed a global gathering of military officials in Beijing.
Scores of delegates are in Beijing for the Xiangshan Forum, dubbed China’s answer to the annual Shangri-La meeting in Singapore.
It is hosting more than 500 representatives from over 90 countries and organizations across three days, according to state media.
Dong told the opening ceremony: “To resolve hotspot issues such as the crisis in Ukraine and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, promoting peace and negotiation is the only way out.”
“There is no winner in war and conflict, and confrontation leads nowhere,” Dong said.
“The more acute the conflict, the more we cannot give up dialogue and consultation. The end of any conflict is reconciliation,” he added, calling on all countries to promote “peaceful development and inclusive governance.”
More official speeches are expected on Friday, and top military representatives from Russia, Pakistan, Singapore, Iran, Germany and others will participate in roundtable talks.
Topics for discussion at the forum include US-China relations, security in Europe and Asia, and the challenges of defense in a multipolar world.
Dong in his speech urged against “the proliferation of national security concepts” to ensure “new technologies can better benefit the whole mankind” — a likely reference to the United States’ efforts to block Beijing’s access to advanced technology.
“At a time of high global security risks and increased instability and unpredictability, the responsibility for building the defense and security capacity of all countries is enormous,” Dong said.
Beijing, he added, “is willing to work with all parties to strengthen strategic alignment, deepen defense consultations, discuss the signing of bilateral and multilateral agreements on defense cooperation.”
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Chase is attending the forum, just a few days after top Washington and Beijing commanders held their first talks.
Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of self-ruled Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions.
But they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control.
A key flashpoint is the South China Sea, where Chinese vessels have engaged in a series of high-profile confrontations with Philippine ships in recent months.
China claims almost all of the economically vital body of water despite competing claims from other countries and an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
On Thursday, senior military official Lt. Gen. He Lei told journalists at the forum that China would “crush” any foreign incursion into its sovereign territory including in the South China Sea.
Biden calls the landmark Violence Against Women Act his proudest legislative achievement
- Says his goal was “to change the culture of America” by providing more protection and support for survivors and accountability for perpetrators
- Biden made the remark on the 30th anniversary of the law which he championed as a senator amid a surge in domestic violence cases in the US
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said Thursday joined scores of advocates and survivors of domestic abuse to mark the 30th anniversary of the landmark Violence Against Women Act, a law he wrote and championed as a US senator because he wanted to “change the culture of America” around this touchy issue.
Biden said that back then “society often looked away” and that violence against women was not treated as a crime in many places. He said a national hotline was not available to those suffering abuse and few police departments with what are known now as special victim units.
“My goal was to do more than change the law,” he said at a White House event marking Friday’s 30th anniversary of the law. He said his goal was “to change the culture of America” by providing more protection and support for survivors and accountability for perpetrators.
“I believed the only way we could change the culture was by shining a light on that culture, and speaking its name,” he said.
Biden wrote and championed the legislation as a US senator. It was the first comprehensive federal law that addressed violence against women and sought to provide support for survivors and justice. It sought to shift the national narrative around domestic violence at the time; that it was a private matter best left alone.
The White House said that between 1993 and 2022, annual rates of domestic violence dropped by 67 percent and the rate of rapes and sexual assaults declined by 56 percent, according to FBI statistics. A national domestic violence hotline has fielded more than 7 million calls since 1996, Biden said.
“It matters. It saves lives,” he said Thursday.
During a hearing on domestic violence in 1990, Biden told the committee that “for too long, we have ignored the right of women to be free from the fear of attack based on their gender. For too long, we have kept silent about the obvious.”
He spent years advocating for the law, moved by horrible stories of domestic violence. Congress passed it in 1994 with bipartisan support. Then-President Bill Clinton signed it into law on Sept. 13, 1994.
“The Violence Against Women Act is my proudest legislative achievement,” Biden said at the event on the White House lawn. It was attended by hundreds of people, including survivors of domestic violence, advocates, administration officials and members of Congress.
The president also spoke about continued efforts to strengthen the law, including announcing that the Justice Department was awarding more than $690 million in grants, along with efforts to serve orders of protection electronically and strategies to address online gender-based violence, a growing problem that law enforcement struggles to combat.
Federal agencies also sent reminders on housing rights for survivors of domestic violence who live in federally funded homes, including that they can request emergency housing transfers.
“Today, officers, prosecutors, judges, families, and society at large understand what should have always been clear: these crimes cannot be cast aside as somehow distinct or private,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Instead, we recognize that they are among the most serious crimes that our society faces and that we must continue to improve access to justice, safety, and services for survivors.”
Jen Klein, the White House gender policy adviser, said the measures are meant to keep pushing efforts to help survivors of domestic violence.
“While we have made tremendous progress since VAWA was signed into law in 1994, we also know that much work remains in the fight to prevent and end gender-based violence,” she said.
The law was reaffirmed in 2022, but it almost didn’t happen. The sticking point was a provision in the last proposal, passed by the House in April 2019, that would have prohibited persons previously convicted of misdemeanor stalking from possessing firearms.
Under current federal law, those convicted of domestic abuse can lose their guns if they are currently or formerly married to their victim, live with the victim, have a child together or are a victim’s parent or guardian. But the law doesn’t apply to stalkers and current or former dating partners. Advocates have long referred to it as the “boyfriend loophole.”
Expanding the restrictions drew fierce opposition from the National Rifle Association and Republicans in Congress, creating an impasse. Democrats backed down and did not include the provision.
That provision was later addressed in Biden’s bipartisan gun safety legislation signed by Congress in 2022, and now prohibits people convicted of misdemeanor crimes in dating relationships from purchasing or possessing firearms for at least five years.
US judge dismisses three counts in Trump election case in Georgia state
WASHINGTON: A Georgia judge on Thursday dismissed three of the counts in the indictment accusing former US president Donald Trump and co-defendants of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the southern state.
Two of the three charges thrown out by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee involved Trump, and he now faces a total of eight felony counts in Georgia.
McAfee declined, however, to quash the entire indictment, which accuses the Republican presidential candidate and his allies of racketeering and other offenses.
The three dismissed charges involved the filing of fake elector certificates with a federal court stating that Trump had won the election in Georgia, although he lost to Democrat Joe Biden by some 12,000 votes.
McAfee said that under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, state prosecutors cannot bring a case for federal crimes.
“The Supremacy Clause declares that state law must yield to federal law when the two conflict,” the judge said in his order.
Trump had been charged with filing false documents and conspiring to file false documents.
The Georgia case has been frozen by an appeals court until it hears a bid by Trump and his co-defendants to disqualify Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who brought the charges.
In March, McAfee rejected an attempt to disqualify Willis following revelations she had a romantic relationship with the man she hired as a special prosecutor.
Trump and his co-defendants appealed the ruling, and the Georgia Court of Appeals is to hear arguments in December.
Because the case is paused, the two counts against Trump of filing false documents will not technically be dropped until after the appeals court rules.
Evidence in the case includes a taped phone call in which Trump asked a top Georgia election official to “find” enough votes to reverse the result.
Eighteen co-defendants were indicted in Georgia along with Trump on racketeering and other charges, including his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Four of Trump’s original co-defendants, including three former campaign lawyers, have pleaded guilty to lesser charges in deals that spared them prison time.
Trump was convicted in a separate criminal case in New York in May of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star who alleged they had a sexual encounter.
Trump is also facing federal charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results, but no date has been set for a trial.
Father of Ohio boy asks Trump not to invoke his son’s death in immigration debate
- “This needs to stop now,” Nathan Clark said, referring to the repeated use of his son's death by Donald Trump in his campaign rhetoric against rival Kamala Harris
- 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed on his way to school in an accident by a Haitian migrant driver. Trump blames the Biden government for letting illegal migrants in
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio: The father of an Ohio boy killed last year when a Haitian immigrant driver hit a school bus is imploring Donald Trump and other politicians to stop invoking his son’s name in the debate about immigration.
Nathan Clark spoke Tuesday at a Springfield City Council hearing — the same day that the former president and Vice President Kamala Harris debated, and the city in Ohio exploded into the national conversation when Trump repeated false claims demonizing Haitian immigrants there, saying they eat pets.
“This needs to stop now,” Nathan Clark said. “They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members. However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed, to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio. I will listen to them one more time to hear their apologies.”
Eleven-year-old Aiden Clark was killed in August last year when a minivan driven by Hermanio Joseph veered into a school bus carrying Aiden and other students. Aiden died and nearly two dozen others were hurt.
In May, a Clark County jury deliberated for just an hour before convicting Joseph of involuntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide. He was sentenced to between nine and 13 1/2 years in prison. A motion to stay his sentence pending an appeal was denied in July.
Trump’s campaign and others, including his running mate, JD Vance, have cited Aiden’s death in online posts. On Monday, the Trump campaign posted “REMEMBER: 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed on his way to school by a Haitian migrant that Kamala Harris let into the country in Springfield, Ohio.” On Tuesday, Vance posted: “Do you know what’s confirmed? That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here.”
Clark’s death got wrapped up in a swirl of false rumors on Monday about Haitian immigrants eating pets. Then Tuesday, Trump repeated the statements, which local officials and police have said are not supported by evidence.
Clark declined to comment further on Thursday. A message seeking a response to Clark’s statement was left with representatives of Trump.
Vance’s spokesperson said in a statement that Harris owed an apology over her border policies and added that the Clark family was in Vance’s prayers.
Clark also mentioned Republican senate candidate Bernie Moreno in his speech. Moreno campaign spokesperson Reagan McCarthy said it was Harris and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown who should apologize and criticized their handling of the border.
Four government buildings and two schools were evacuated in the city Thursday after a bomb threat was emailed to multiple city agencies and media outlets, Springfield police chief Allison Elliott said. City officials said the buildings included Springfield City Hall, a local office of the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, a licensing bureau and a driver’s exam station. The city is working with the FBI to determine the source of the threat. Officials didn’t specify whether the threats had to do with the discussions about immigration.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday condemned the conspiracies regarding Haitians as “hate speech.” She deferred to the local police department regarding any threats to the Springfield community, but she described the situation as “an attempt to tear apart communities” and an “insult to all of us as Americans.”
Pastors from Springfield churches gathered Thursday to address the effects of the false rumors.
Vile Dorsainvil, the executive director of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, attended the event and said it was necessary to bring peace to the community.
People have to understand each other, he said.
Many Haitians have come to the US to flee poverty and violence. They have embraced President Joe Biden’s new and expanded legal pathways to enter, and they have shunned illegal crossings, accounting for only 92 border arrests out of more than 56,000 in July, according to the latest data available.
The Biden administration recently announced an estimated 300,000 Haitians could remain in the country at least through February 2026, with eligibility for work authorization, under a law called Temporary Protected Status. The goal is to spare people from being deported to countries in turmoil.
On Tuesday, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said he would send law enforcement and millions of dollars in health care resources to the city of Springfield, which has faced a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. DeWine said some 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020 under the Temporary Protected Status program, and he urged the federal government to do more to help affected communities.
Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost also drew attention to the crisis on Monday when he directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending “an unlimited number of migrants to Ohio communities.”
Japan scrambles jets as Russia aircraft circle country
- The Russian planes did not enter Japanese airspace but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute, Japanese officials said
- Since the start of the Ukraine conflict, relations have deteriorated sharply between Japan and Russia, which both claim the Kuril Islands
TOKYO: Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said Friday.
From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, according to a defense ministry statement.
They then went northwards over the Pacific Ocean to finish their journey off northern Hokkaido island, it added.
The planes did not enter Japanese airspace but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, the official said.
“In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets on an emergency basis,” the ministry statement said.
The last time Russian military aircraft circled Japan was in 2019, a ministry official told AFP on Friday, but that incident involved bombers that did enter the nation’s airspace.
Earlier this week, Russian and Chinese warships began joint drills in the Sea of Japan.
The drills are part of a major naval exercise that Russian President Vladimir Putin has described as the largest of its kind in three decades.
Russia and China have ramped up military cooperation in recent years, with both railing against what they see as the US domination of global affairs.
They declared a “no limits” partnership shortly before Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine in 2022.
Since the start of the Ukraine conflict, relations have deteriorated sharply between Japan and Russia, which both claim the Kuril Islands — known in Japan as the Northern Territories.
The Soviet Union seized the strategically located volcanic archipelago north of Hokkaido in the final days of World War II, and has maintained a military presence there ever since.
