A police operation was underway at a kosher grocery store in the Porte de Vincennes area of Paris, France, on Friday, January 9. At least five hostages were taken, according to AFP, with the suspect believed to be linked to the fatal shooting of a policewoman in Paris on January 8. This footage shows the huge police presence in Porte de Vincennes. Credit: Paul Wells, Maclean’s magazine
Ukraine’s air force claimed Friday it shot down a Russian strategic bomber, but Moscow officials said the plane crashed in a sparsely populated area due to a malfunction after a combat mission. Previous Ukrainian claims of shooting down Russian warplanes during their more than two-year war have met with silence or denials from Moscow. Russia’s air force is vastly more powerful than Ukraine’s, but sophisticated missile systems provided by Kyiv’s Western partners are a major threat to Russian aviation as the Kremlin’s forces slowly push forward along the around 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line in what has become a grinding war of attrition.
A group of Japanese doctors has filed a civil lawsuit against U.S. search giant Google, demanding damages for what they claim are unpoliced derogatory and often false comments. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Tokyo District Court, demands 1.4 million yen ($9,400) in damages for 63 medical professionals. Google said in an emailed statement Friday that it is working “24 hours a day” to reduce misleading or false information on its platform, combining human and technological resources “to delete fraudulent reviews.”
Oil prices rallied and equities fell Friday as reports said explosions had been heard in Iran and Syria, fuelling fears of an escalation of the Middle East crisis after last weekend's missile attack on Israel by Tehran."It is now clear that the escalating shadow warfare between Israel and Iran... has finally ignited the powder keg in the Middle East, and we have moved decisively out of the shadows and into the glaring light of open conflict," said Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management.
Two people have been detained in Poland on suspicion of attacking Leonid Volkov, an exiled top aide to the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told reporters on Friday. Volkov suffered injuries from hammer blows in the attack on March 12 outside his home in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. Nauseda said the suspects would be transferred to Lithuania.
The Fed chair this week doused any hope homebuyers still had that mortgage rates would soften anytime soon.
Wall Street strategists are becoming less confident in small cap stocks as Fed rate cut hopes diminish.
Two people have been detained in Poland on suspicion of attacking Russian opposition activist Leonid Volkov, an ally of the late activist Alexei Navalny, the Lithuanian president announced on Friday. Volkov was attacked in March outside his home in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, where he lives in exile. President Gitanas Nausėda announced the arrests to reporters in Vilnius and thanked Poland for its work.
Three workers from the Philippines have died in heavy flooding in the United Arab Emirates, Filipino officials announced, as the desert country struggled on Friday to recover from record rains.Middle East financial centre Dubai was particularly badly hit by the rain fall, the heaviest since records began 75 years ago.
An attack on pro-government fighters by suspected members of the Islamic State group in central Syria killed 22 pro-government fighters, an opposition war monitor and pro-government media reported Friday. Gunmen attacked a bus carrying members of the Quds Brigade, a government and Russian-backed faction of mostly Palestinian fighters in Syria, near the town of Sukhna late Thursday night. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based opposition war monitor, and the pro-government radio station Sham FM said IS was behind the attack.
San Francisco is the latest U.S. city preparing to receive a pair of pandas from China, in a continuation of Beijing’s famed “panda diplomacy.” San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced the panda loan in Beijing on Friday, alongside officials from China Wildlife Conservation Association, or CWCA.
Apple has removed Meta's WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China on orders from the country's internet regulator, US media reported Friday."The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) ordered the removal of these apps from the China storefront based on their national security concerns," it added, referring to China's internet regulator.
Ukraine said Friday that, for the first time since Russia's invasion, it had downed a Russian long-range bomber used to fire cruise missiles at cities across the war-battered country."For the first time, anti-aircraft missile units of the air force in cooperation with the defence intelligence of Ukraine destroyed a Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber," Ukraine's military said in a statement on social media.
Israel has carried out a strike inside Iran, a US official told CNN Friday, a move that threatens to push the region deeper into conflict. The target is not nuclear, the official added.
Kenya began three days of mourning on Friday after its defence chief and nine other senior military officers were killed in a helicopter crash, the latest accident to blight the nation's military.General Francis Omondi Ogolla, the Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces (CDF), was killed when his helicopter went down shortly after takeoff in a remote area of northwestern Kenya on Thursday.
Here’s what we know so far amid fears of conflict escalating in the region.
Shoppers and workers returned to a “really quiet” Sydney mall Friday, where six days earlier an assailant stabbed six people to death and wounded more than a dozen others in an attack that police believe targeted women. Westfield Bondi Junction mall near world-famous Bondi Beach had opened Thursday, although shops inside were closed, for a “community reflection day.” New South Wales state Premier Chris Minns described it as “the first step in healing” in what has been a traumatic week for Australia’s largest city.
A former teacher in Indiana is accused of orchestrating a “Fight Club” in which he allegedly encouraged classmates to beat up a 7-year-old student with disabilities and videotaping at least one assault, according to a lawsuit filed this week.
Bitcoin enthusiasts were eagerly waiting for bitcoin's 'halving' on Friday - a change to the cryptocurrency's underlying technology designed to cut the rate at which new bitcoins are created. The halving, which happens roughly every four years, was written into Bitcoin's code at its inception by pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto as a way to reduce the rate at which bitcoins are created. Chris Gannatti, Global Head of Research at asset manager WisdomTree, which markets bitcoin exchange-traded funds, called the halving "one of the biggest events in crypto this year".
A Polish man has been charged with assisting Russia in an alleged plot to assassinate Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to authorities in Poland and Ukraine.
European markets opened lower and Asian stocks tumbled Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei slumping 2.7% on heavy selling of semiconductor-related shares and other market heavyweights. Markets are waiting for the Japanese central bank’s next move after it raised its benchmark interest rate last month for the first time in 17 years, ending a longstanding policy of negative rates meant to boost the economy.
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