Man shot dead in Sweden ahead of court verdict over Qur’an burning; five people arrested

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Updated 30 January 2025
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Man shot dead in Sweden ahead of court verdict over Qur’an burning; five people arrested

  • Salwan Momika protested outside a mosque in Stockholm on June 28, 2023, during the Eid al-Adha holiday
  • Momika was shot in a house in the town of Sodertalje near Stockholm

STOCKHOLM: An Iraqi refugee and anti-Islam campaigner was shot dead in Sweden hours before he was due to receive a court verdict following a trial over burning the Qur’an, and five people were arrested over the shooting on Thursday.
The five were arrested in connection with the incident late on Wednesday and ordered detained by a prosecutor, Swedish police said on their website. They did not say if the shooter was among those detained.
Salwan Momika, 38, was shot in a house in the town of Sodertalje near Stockholm, public broadcaster SVT reported, citing unnamed police sources.
Momika had burned copies of the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, in public demonstrations in 2023 against Islam.
A Stockholm court had been due to sentence Momika and another man on Thursday in a criminal trial over “offenses of agitation against an ethnic or national group,” but said the announcement of the verdict had been postponed.
A police spokesperson confirmed a man was shot dead in Sodertalje, but gave no other details.
The other defendant in the same court case was giving interviews on Thursday and posted a message on X, saying: “I’m next.”
The Security Service said that police were leading the investigation but “we are following the development of events closely to see what impact this may have on Swedish security,” a spokesperson told Reuters.
Swedish media reported that Momika was streaming live on TikTok at the time he was shot. A video seen by Reuters showed police picking up a phone and ending a livestream that appeared to be from Momika’s TikTok account.
Sweden in 2023 raised its terrorism alert to the second-highest level and warned of threats against Swedes at home and abroad after the Qur’an burnings, many of them by Momika, outraged Muslims and triggered threats from jihadists.
While the Swedish government condemned the wave of Qur’an burnings in 2023, it was initially regarded as a protected form of free speech.
Sweden’s migration agency in 2023 wanted to deport Momika for giving false information on his residency application, but couldn’t as he risked torture and inhumane treatment in Iraq.
Burning the Qur’an is seen by Muslims as a blasphemous act because they consider it the literal word of God.


Trump administration tells Pentagon to slash budget

Updated 4 sec ago
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Trump administration tells Pentagon to slash budget

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has ordered senior US military leaders to plan for expansive cuts that could slash the defense budget by eight percent annually, or some $290 billion within the next five years, US media reported Wednesday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Pentagon to develop the deep reductions, The Washington Post reported, citing a memo.

The Pentagon’s budget for 2025 is some $850 billion. Lawmakers across the political spectrum agree that the massive spending is needed to deter threats, especially from China and Russia.

The cuts, if implemented in full, would reduce that figure by tens of billions each year to some $560 billion by the end of the five years.

The report did not give details of where the cuts would be made in the world’s biggest military, but an earlier Post report said that junior civilian workers, not uniformed personnel, were being targeted.

The news — which comes after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency reportedly visited the Pentagon last week — was likely to be met with stiff resistance from both the military and Congress.

Trump on Wednesday signaled support for a House of Representatives bill that would increase the defense budget by $100 billion — a move at odds with the Hegseth-directed cuts.

The planned reductions also run counter to calls by Trump and Hegseth for NATO members to increase their military spending to five percent of GDP a year.

The United States currently spends around 3.4 percent of its GDP on defense, and the five percent threshold would be even farther out of reach if the Pentagon’s budget is reduced.

The stock prices of major US defense contractors were hit by the news, with Lockheed Martin dropping briefly before recovering, Northrop Grumann falling nearly two percent and Palantir closing down more than 10 percent.

Hegseth’s memo said the proposed cuts must be drawn up by February 24, and include 17 categories that Trump wants exempted, including operations at the US border with Mexico and modernization of nuclear weapons and missile defense.

It also calls for funding for regional headquarters such as Indo-Pacific Command and Space Command.

But other major centers such as European Command, which has led the way on US strategy throughout the war in Ukraine, and also Africa Command and Central Command — which oversees operations in the Middle East — were absent from the list, the Post reported.

The Defense Department “must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence,” Hegseth wrote in the memo, dated Tuesday, according to the Post.

“Our budget will resource the fighting force we need, cease unnecessary defense spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and drive actionable reform including progress on the audit,” he reportedly continued.

US President Donald Trump has vowed to slash government spending and end US support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion.


Republican lawmaker seeks US judge’s impeachment over ruling against Trump

Updated 17 min 23 sec ago
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Republican lawmaker seeks US judge’s impeachment over ruling against Trump

  • Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning some Democrats would need to vote for impeachment in order to remove the judge from the bench

A Republican ally of Donald Trump has moved to impeach a federal judge who blocked a team set up by the president and spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk from accessing US Treasury Department systems responsible for trillions of dollars in payments. Congressman Derrick Van Orden on Tuesday filed a resolution in the House of Representatives seeking to have US District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan removed from office following calls by Musk and several conservative lawmakers for judges to be impeached after stymieing key parts of Trump’s agenda.
Van Orden’s resolution accused the judge of judicial misconduct and abuse of power.
In order to be removed from office, the House must pass by a simple majority vote an article of impeachment accusing Engelmayer of a crime and then the Senate must then vote by at least a two-thirds majority to convict the judge. Republicans control both chambers of Congress but do not have a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Engelmayer, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, drew Musk’s scorn after temporarily blocking Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing Treasury Department systems in a lawsuit brought by 19 Democratic state attorneys general. That decision and rulings by other judges have prompted Trump, Musk and their conservative allies to sharply criticize judges who have ruled against the Republican president’s policies, fueling concerns about whether his administration will abide by judicial rulings.
Van Orden and Engelmayer did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Judges rarely speak publicly about matters concerning pending litigation.
Trump has put Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, in charge of his efforts to downsize and overhaul the federal government. Musk has called for a “wave of judicial impeachments.” Two conservative lawmakers have announced plans to introduce articles of impeachment against US District Judge John McConnell of Rhode Island, who blocked Trump’s administration from freezing federal funding, as well as Engelmayer.
Van Orden, whose reelection bid last year received Trump’s endorsement, was the first member of Congress to formally do so, accusing Engelmayer in his resolution of committing high crimes and misdemeanors. He is the resolution’s sole sponsor.
Van Orden in his resolution accused Engelmayer of ruling against DOGE and Trump “on purely political grounds, demonstrating clear bias and prejudice against the president and the 74,000,000 Americans who voted for him.”
Marin Levy, a Duke University School of Law professor who studies the federal judiciary, said impeachment under the US Constitution is supposed to be reserved for serious misconduct, not disappointment with court decisions, which can be appealed.
“Articles of impeachment filed against judges who are simply performing their constitutional role represent an attempt to politicize the judiciary and quite frankly to intimidate judges,” Levy said.
Impeachments of federal judges are rare: Only 15 have ever been impeached in US history, and only eight have been convicted by the Senate, most recently in 2010. Such impeachments in modern history have typically related to criminal or bribery offenses.
Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning some Democrats would need to vote for impeachment in order to remove the judge from the bench. US Chief Justice John Roberts in a year-end report issued on December 31 defending the judiciary’s independence described a threat by an unnamed elected official to impeach a judge over her decisions as a regrettable example of “recent attempts to intimidate judges.”


Canada refugee claims drop as country issues fewer visas

Updated 29 min 3 sec ago
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Canada refugee claims drop as country issues fewer visas

  • About 11,840 people filed refugee claims in Canada in January, down from a high of 19,821 in July, Immigration and Refugee Board data shows
  • Canada is publicly discouraging asylum-seekers and clamping down on the visas it issues

TORONTO: Refugee claims in Canada are dropping from historic highs as the country grants fewer visas and advocates worry legitimate claimants are being left stranded with few good options.
About 11,840 people filed refugee claims in Canada in January, down from a high of 19,821 in July, Immigration and Refugee Board data shows. This was the lowest monthly figure since September 2023.
Canada is publicly discouraging asylum-seekers and clamping down on the visas it issues, aiming to gradually reduce the population and reduce strain on services amid a broader backlash against migrants.
Last year Canada issued about 1.5 million visitor visas, down from about 1.8 million in 2023, according to government data.
The decline was particularly sharp for certain countries that have been significant sources of asylum-seekers, Reuters analysis shows.
The number of visitor visas granted to Bangladeshi citizens dropped to 27,975 from 45,322; Haitians dropped to 5,487 from 8,984; Nigerians, to 51,828 from 79,378. Visitor visas to some countries with high refugee acceptance rates have declined from 2023. Last year Canada granted visitor visas to 330 Afghans, down from 468; 38,075 Iranians, down from 57,127; 2,019 Ugandans, from 6,096; 1,174 Syrians, from 2,716; and 3,199 Kenyans, from 11,464.
The number of pending claims is still at a historic high — 278,457 in January, according to the Immigration and Refugee Board. Canada has no asylum-seeker visas. Anyone who wants to claim refugee status must come as a visitor, student or worker — or sneak into the country, no easy feat for a place surrounded by water and an agreement with the United States to turn back asylum-seekers.
Displaced people can also wait in refugee camps, potentially for years, in hopes they will be selected for resettlement.
Canada is using heightened scrutiny of visa applications from countries with the “highest rates of abuse” with the aim of ensuring visas are used for their intended purpose, Renee LeBlanc Proctor, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Marc Miller, wrote in an email.
“This work additionally protects the asylum process ... so that it is available for those who need it most.”
At a time of global displacement, advocates argue, Canada’s clampdown leaves desperate people with no good options. “It’s very problematic,” said Diana Gallego, co-executive director at Toronto-based FCJ Refugee Center, which provides services to asylum-seekers.
“If people are fleeing persecution the only way that some of them may find safe haven is having an exit visa because, if not, they are forced to cross borders walking, putting their lives in danger.”
Gallego said the center is seeing fewer people, although she does not know if they are being sent elsewhere.
“It’s like invisible walls.”


Trump calling Zelensky a dictator is ‘wrong and dangerous’: Scholz

Updated 19 February 2025
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Trump calling Zelensky a dictator is ‘wrong and dangerous’: Scholz

  • Olaf Scholz: ‘What is correct is that Volodymyr Zelensky is the elected head of state of Ukraine’
  • Annalena Baerbock: ‘No one but Putin started or wanted this war in the heart of Europe’

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that it was “wrong and dangerous” of US President Donald Trump to call Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator.”
“What is correct is that Volodymyr Zelensky is the elected head of state of Ukraine,” Scholz told the Spiegel news site.
Earlier on Wednesday Trump called Zelensky “a dictator without elections.”
Zelensky’s five-year term ended last year but Ukrainian law does not require elections during wartime.
Scholz condemned any attempt “to deny President Zelensky democratic legitimacy.”
“The fact that proper elections can’t be held in the middle of the war is reflected in the Ukrainian constitution and electoral law,” he said.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also hit back at Trump’s comments, branding them “absurd.”
“If you look at the real world instead of just firing off a tweet, then you know who in Europe has to live in the conditions of a dictatorship: people in Russia, people in Belarus,” Baerbock told broadcaster ZDF.
Earlier Berlin had also pushed back against Trump’s claim that Kyiv had “started” the fighting.
“No one but Putin started or wanted this war in the heart of Europe,” Baerbock said in a statement, adding that “we are working with all our might to further strengthen Ukraine.”
She said “we are at an existential waypoint for security and peace in Europe” and that the goal was “achieving lasting peace for Ukraine — safe and protected from future Russian aggression.”
Baerbock said that any “false peace ... would only give Russia a respite for new military campaigns.”
Regarding the fast-moving events since Trump spoke directly with Putin about ending the conflict, she said that “we must not allow ourselves to be confused” and “keep a cool head.”
Downplaying Europe’s role on Ukraine “only plays into the hands” of Russia, she said.
“I therefore advocate acting confidently toward the US administration.”


Austrian authorities arrest teenager who apparently planned an attack at a railway station

Updated 19 February 2025
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Austrian authorities arrest teenager who apparently planned an attack at a railway station

  • The arrest was triggered by tips to Austrian intelligence
  • The suspect had a knife in his pocket at the time of his arrest, the ministry said

VIENNA: Austrian investigators have arrested a 14-year-old who was apparently planning an attack at a railway station in Vienna and found material that suggested he supported the Daesh group, authorities said Wednesday.
The Interior Ministry said that the boy, an Austrian with Turkish roots, was arrested in the capital on Feb. 10, the Austria Press Agency reported. The arrest was triggered by tips to Austrian intelligence that a supporter of Daesh had posted stories and videos with Islamic extremist content on several TikTok profiles.
The suspect had a knife in his pocket at the time of his arrest, the ministry said. During a search of his home, investigators found numerous Islamic extremist books as well as sketches of attacks with knives and machetes at a station and against police officers.
They also found handwritten instructions for making explosive material to serve as a detonator for a bomb.
Further material that apparently was meant to be used in making a bomb was found in the building’s basement, along with other knives. The suspect refused to testify in initial questioning.
APA reported that he apparently had planned an attack at the Westbahnhof, a major railway station in Vienna.
On Sunday, a teenager was killed and five other people were wounded in a stabbing in Villach, in southern Austria, by a man with possible connections with Daesh.
The suspect, a 23-year-old Syrian, was arrested after the attack on Saturday afternoon.