Teen sentenced to 52 years in prison for deadly stabbing at Taylor Swift-themed party
(LONDON) — A teenager has been sentenced to 52 years in prison for fatally stabbing three girls at a children’s Taylor Swift-themed event in the United Kingdom last year.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty to all charges, including three counts of murder, earlier this week, avoiding a trial.
The horrific stabbing spree unfolded in July in Southport, a seaside town about 20 miles north of Liverpool. Merseyside police said the children were attending a Taylor Swift-themed event at a dance school.
Three girls — 6-year-old Bebe King, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and 9-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar — were killed. Ten people were also injured in the attack, police said.
Rudakubana, from Banks in Lancashire, was initially charged with three counts of murder, as well as 10 charges of attempted murder and one charge of possession of a knife in the incident. He subsequently faced a terror charge for possessing a jihadi training manual and was charged with producing ricin, a toxin.
He pleaded guilty to all 16 charges on Monday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Car drives into crowd at Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. Via ABC News
(LONDON) — At least five people are now known to have been killed in the vehicle-ramming attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday, the Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt Reiner Haseloff told journalists on Saturday.
Haseloff said that at least 200 more people were injured when a car plowed into festive market-goers in the eastern German city, around 75 miles west of the capital Berlin.
A young child and an adult were among those killed in the attack, according to Haseloff. At least 15 of those injured were seriously hurt, according to a local official.
A suspect — a doctor from Saudi Arabia aged around 50 — was arrested, Haselhoff said. The man has lived in Germany since 2006. A rental car was used in the attack, the minister said.
The motive is unknown at this time, U.S. sources said. But U.S. law enforcement sources told ABC News that German authorities are treating the attack as a terrorist incident.
“We send our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed and injured and to all those affected by this terrible incident,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“We stand in solidarity with the people of Germany in grieving the loss of life. The United States is ready to provide assistance as recovery efforts continue and authorities investigate this horrible incident,” Miller’s statement continued.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz offered his condolences to those affected. “My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” Scholz said in a statement. “We stand by their side and by the side of the people of Magdeburg. My thanks go to the dedicated rescue workers in these anxious hours.”
Friday’s ramming incident came almost exactly eight years after a similar terror attack at a Christmas market in the German capital. On Dec. 19, 2016, a man drove a truck into a crowd at a market in Berlin, killing 13 and injuring dozens.
U.S. law enforcement officials have warned of similar vehicle-ramming attacks on American soil, particularly over the festive season.
A joint threat assessment about New Year’s Eve in New York City’s Times Square, for example, noted the use of vehicle-ramming alone or in conjunction with other tactics “has become a recurring tactic employed by threat actors in the West.”
The NYPD, out of an abundance of caution, will surge resources to similar areas around the city, including Christmas markets, according to NYPD deputy commissioner for counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner.
“We know this is a very festive time, it is a busy time in the city, and we are going to make sure that all of our holiday markets, all of our holiday activities are protected by our counter weapons teams, by officers on patrol, all our counter-terrorism officers, our critical response command,” Weiner told ABC New York station WABC.
(DOHA) — Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement to end over 15 months of fighting — with a brief pause in November 2023 — and release some of the hostages still in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
However, despite an agreement between negotiators on both sides, the deal still needs to go through a four-step ratification process in the Israeli government before it can go into effect.
Step 1
The agreement has to be officially voted on favorably by the security cabinet, then approved by the full cabinet. The vote is expected to be 28-6 in favor of the deal, with some hard-liners holding out.
Once that vote happens, the agreement would be ratified.
Step 2
Once ratified, the names of the 33 Israeli hostages to be released from Gaza are expected to be announced.
Step 3
From the time the cabinet ratifies the agreement, there will be a 48-hour window allowing for appeals to the Israeli Supreme Court against the agreement.
Any appeal is expected to be rejected by the court.
Step 4
Once the 48-hour legal window closes, the implementation of the agreement begins.
The first release of an Israeli hostage can be expected from that time on.
(LONDON and ISTANBUL) — A predawn fire at a hotel in the Kartalkaya Ski Resort in Turkey killed at least 76, with another 51 injured, Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Tuesday.
“We are in deep pain,” Yerlikaya told reporters during a press conference.
The fire ignited after 3 a.m. on Tuesday at the Grand Kartal, a hotel at the resort in Northwestern Turkey.
A city official told ABC News that after the fire broke out in the middle of the night, around 3:27 a.m. local time, most of the victims, including children, appeared to have lost life due to suffocation.
There were 238 registered guests in the 12-story hotel at the time of the fire, according to the interior minister.
The fire department had not reported a negative situation regarding the fire adequacy of the hotel until Tuesday, Yerlikaya said, adding that an investigation is ongoing.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said an administrative and criminal investigation is underway.
“All necessary steps will be taken and are being taken to shed light on all aspects of the incident and to hold those responsible accountable,” he said.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
