7 dead in suspected terror shooting, stabbing in Tel Aviv amid Iran missile attack
(TEL AVIV, Israel) — At least seven people were killed and eight others injured in a stabbing and shooting attack Tuesday night in Tel Aviv, Israel, according to the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli Police Spokesperson’s Unit suspects terror as a motive in the incident. Both of the two alleged attackers have been killed, the unit said.
The two suspected terrorists started the killing on the city’s light rail system and continued on foot before they were killed by the Municipal Security Patrol and citizens present using personal firearms, according to police.
Large police forces are present and conducting extensive searches for any additional threats.
The incident took place on Yerushalayim Street in Tel Aviv.
The attack took place just prior to a large missile launch from Iran into Israel. About 180 missiles were launched at multiple targets in Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Most of the missiles were intercepted, but “several hits were identified, and the damage is being assessed,” an Israeli security official said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — The U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan has said U.S.-mediated cease-fire talks between warring Sudanese parties are set to go ahead this week, despite pending confirmation of participation from the Sudanese Army.
The talks are set to begin Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland, and will be co-hosted by Switzerland and Saudi Arabia with additional observation from the African Union, Egypt, the United Nations and the United Arab Emirates, a senior U.S. official told ABC News.
“The time for peace is now,” said U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello on Tuesday ahead of talks aimed at ending the now 16-month war between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces Paramilitary group (RSF), along with its allied militias.
“The RSF delegation has arrived in Switzerland,” Perriello said on social media early on Wednesday. “Our U.S. delegation, and the collective international partners, technical experts, and Sudanese civil society, are still waiting on the SAF. The world is watching.”
Perriello said in the days leading up to the talks that the facilitators had had “extensive engagement” with the SAF, but still had not been given confirmation that representatives would arrive in Switzerland.
“We will move forward with every effort possible with our international partners to reach an action plan, a concrete action plan, about how we can advance that cessation of violence and the full humanitarian access and, monitoring and enforcement mechanism,” he said. “These are long past due.”
The talks come as the U.N. warns the situation in Sudan has reached a “catastrophic breaking point,” with a declaration of famine in Sudan’s North Darfur, recent widespread flooding and unabated combat between warring parties compounding on what was already “one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory.”
New figures from the International Office for Migration (IOM) show displacement in Sudan continues to soar, with almost 11 million people now internally displaced — many of whom have already been displaced twice, or more.
“Tens of millions of Sudanese face either full on starvation or acute hunger,” said Perriello. “There are more refugees and displaced people than the entire population of Switzerland just from Sudan alone right now.”
In Sudan’s Sennar State, where the RSF has advanced amid reports of widespread killings, lootings and human rights abuses, over 700,000 people have been displaced.
“Without an immediate, massive, and coordinated global response, we risk witnessing tens of thousands of preventable deaths in the coming months. We are at breaking point, a catastrophic, cataclysmic breaking point,” said Othman Belbeisi, IOM’s Regional Director for Middle East North Africa.
The northeast African nation was plunged into chaos in April 2023 as tensions between Sudan’s military and the notorious paramilitary group RSF boiled over as forces loyal to the two rival generals battled for control of the resource-rich nation following talks over a planned transition to civilian rule.
Fighting began on April 15, 2023, in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, before spreading across the country. The combat between warring parties has continued to rage in areas of North Darfur, Al Jazirah state, Sennar State, West Kordofan and other areas.
The civil war has left almost 16,000 dead in its wake and at least 33,000 injured according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Local groups, however, warn the true toll is likely much higher.
The U.S. invited warring parties to cease-fire talks last month. The talks are the latest in a string of yet-successful initiatives aimed at ending the war as regional and international efforts to end the conflict intensify.
They aim to build off the Jeddah negotiations, which were co-facilitated with Saudi Arabia. The talks are not set to address broader political issues, the U.S. State Department said.
“The US and our partners stand with the Sudanese people in pushing forward with all efforts to produce a cessation of violence and expanded humanitarian access now,” said Perriello.
(NEW YORK) — A government plan to pave a highway in the Amazon rainforest is prompting concerns from environmentalists who say the development will cause more wildfires in the region.
But for those who live in remote areas of northwest Brazil, the highway could serve as a lifeline to modern civilization, experts argue.
The current road is 560 miles long and mostly dirt. It connects the Amazon-adjacent states of Amazonas and Roraima to the rest of the country.
The road is difficult for most vehicles to navigate, Nauê Azevedo, a litigation specialist for the Climate Observatory in Brazil, a network of 119 environmental, civil society and academic groups, told ABC News. The unpaved road has led to a lack in modern development in many rural areas, he added.
Paving the road, however, would pose dire consequences for the already degrading rainforest, Azevedo said.
The construction of BR-319, the formal government nomenclature, would likely lead to a “fishbone pattern” of deforestation extending from the roadway, Rachael Garrett, a professor of conservation and development at the University of Cambridge, told ABC News.
Moreover, the exposure to outside communities could harm indigenous groups living in the Amazon, Garrett said.
Added Azevedo: “From an environmental standpoint, paving this road will be so detrimental for the Amazon rainforest, which we all know is crucial — both to Brazil and the world in general.”
Aside from the further deforestation, environmental crimes, such as illegal logging and mining, would likely increase without proper governance in the region, Azevedo pointed out. Criminals would have easier access to remote areas and authorities would not be able to stop illegal activities, he said.
Brazil is experiencing one of the worst drought emergencies in history, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Rapid deforestation in the Amazon is reducing the amount of rainfall, therefore exacerbating the drought and risk of extreme wildfires.
Paving the road, however, would have social benefits for the residents nearby, according to Garrett, who has heard concerns from residents about having access to hospitals, schools and goods.
“There are really good, moral reasons, from the perspective of people living in this region, to have roads being paved,” she said.
The controversy over the construction of BR-319 has been going on for years. In 2022, a permit to pave the highway was issued by former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose administration favored development in the Amazon.
But in July, a federal court suspended the permit following a lawsuit by the Climate Observatory, citing the need for protective measures to be put in place to control deforestation before paving begins.
“We asked the judiciary branch to stop this licensing process,” Azevedo said. “The pathway is still there, but they will not be … allowed to build anymore. So, it will stay as it is right now.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised last week to pave the road while on a visit to an indigenous community in the state of Amazonas.
“We can’t leave two capitals,” Lula said, adding that the construction will be done “with the utmost responsibility.”
Lula’s administration has appealed to reinstate the permit suspended by a federal judge.
Ensuring governance surrounding the construction of the highway is of the utmost importance, Azevedo said, adding that the health of the rainforest depends on it.
“We can’t undo the damage that has already been done, but we could probably conserve and preserve what’s the left of it,” he said.
(PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea) — Pope Francis boarded an Australian Royal Air Force C-130 on Sunday and flew over the pristine jungles of Papua New Guinea, travelling to the faraway settlement of Vanimo as the 87-year-old continues reaching out to what he likes to call the “peripheries” of the Catholic Church.
He was warmly welcomed with a series of traditional performances. Speaking to a crowd of about 20,000, the Pope praised the missionaries doing God’s work in the remote region, where communities often depend on them for healthcare, education, access to running water, and electricity.
“You are doing something beautiful, and it is important that you are not left alone,” he said.
The pontiff brought close to a tonne of humanitarian aid, medicine and toys with him. He was gifted a traditional feathered headdress that he chose to wear for part of the event.
The Pope then met with a group of missionaries from Argentina, including one he personally knows, Father Miguel de la Calle, who told Vatican Media people had been “walking for days” to see the Pope.
“People are coming from all over — from the jungle, the mountains, from Indonesia across the border, from other provinces,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the Pope held mass in Port Moresby, to a packed stadium of about 35,000.
“Brothers and sisters, you who live on this large island in the Pacific Ocean may sometimes have thought of yourselves as a far away and distant land, situated at the edge of the world,” he said. “Today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to break down distances.”
This comes as Pope Francis continues the most ambitious trip of his pontificate; a 12-day, four country, two continent odyssey. Religious harmony was a key part of the Pope’s message on this first leg of his 12-day trip.
Papua New Guinea marks the furthest from Rome he’s ever been.
The Pope’s next stop: Timor-Leste, where over 97% of the population identifies as Catholic.