Shots fired at US consulate in Toronto, investigators searching for 2 suspects: Police
A general view shows Toronto police securing the area after a âfirearm dischargeâ at the US Consulate in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on March 10, 2026. (Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(TORONTO) — Investigators are looking for two suspects and clues after shots were fired at the U.S. consulate in Toronto on Tuesday morning.
There were people inside the building at the time, but no one was injured, Toronto Police Service Deputy Chief Frank Barredo said. Officers got a call about the shooting around 5:29 a.m., and found shell casings and damage to the building when they arrived, he noted.
Witnesses observed two people emerging from a white Honda CR-V and discharge a handgun at the consulate before driving away, according to Barredo.
“This is very early in the investigation. It is very active, and we are aggressively assigning investigative resources to determine what happened and to bring the offenders to justice,” he told reporters.
Chris Leather, the chief superintendent for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Ontario Criminal Operations, told reporters that it is “being treated as a national security incident,” and prompted increased security around embassies in Toronto and Ottawa.
“There will be no tolerance for any form of intimidation, harassment, or harmful targeting of any communities or individuals in Canada. We want to ensure that everyone’s safety and security remain at the forefront of everything we do,” he said.
Leather noted that it was too early to determine if the shooting was linked to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
The RCMP is in communication with the FBI and other U.S. agencies, Leather said.
He noted that recent incidents in Toronto and elsewhere have prompted a need for heightened vigilance and security around diplomatic missions, expressing hope that these measures will help “bring the temperature down in the coming days and weeks.”
Jeffrey Epstein is seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, December 19, 2025. (U.S. Justice Department)
(LONDON) — London police said Friday they are “assessing” whether the city’s airports played a role in human trafficking tied to the release of the U.S. Department of Justice’s files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Following the further release of millions of court documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein by the United States Department of Justice, we are aware of the suggestion that London airports may have been used to facilitate human trafficking and sexual exploitation,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Friday. “We are assessing this information and are actively seeking further detail from law enforcement partners, including those in the United States.”
The Met Police’s statement comes after Essex Police said on Wednesday that they are also “assessing the information that has emerged in relation to private flights into and out of Stansted Airport following the publication of the US DoJ Epstein files.”
Met Police said that it had previously investigated sex trafficking allegations involving Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell has denied any knowledge of what Epstein was doing with women and girls at his various properties.
Based on guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service and U.S. authorities, “it was clear that any investigation into human trafficking would be largely focused on activities outside the UK and perpetrators based overseas and therefore international authorities were best placed to progress these allegations,” Met Police said.
Met Police said it decided in 2016 not to conduct a full criminal investigation, a decision that was reviewed in 2019, 2021 and 2022 and remained unchanged.
Following the release of the Epstein materials, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he asked Met Police “urgently to re-examine their decision-making in their investigation and the subsequent reviews,” in a piece published in the New Statesman earlier this month.
“The Epstein emails, which record the visas issued, payments made and transport organised for girls and women trafficked across the world, suggest a number of British girls were on 90 Epstein flights organised from UK airports on what was called his ‘Lolita Express,'” Brown wrote. “Among the many aspects that should sicken anyone looking at the emails is that 15 of these flights were given the go-ahead after his 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor. How the flights were allowed to continue should have been fully investigated.”
Brown further wrote that the Epstein emails “tell us in graphic detail how Epstein was able to use Stansted Airport — he boasted how cheap the airport charges were compared to Paris — to fly in girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.”
Stansted Airport, located some 30 miles northeast of central London, was where “women were transferred from one Epstein plane to another,” Brown wrote, adding that “women arriving on private planes into Britain would not need British visas.”
Brown also cited a BBC investigation into Epstein’s private planes published late last year that found that from the early 1990s to 2018, nearly 90 flights linked to Epstein had arrived or departed from UK airports — including some that had British women on board who alleged abuse by Epstein.
“It seems the authorities never knew what was happening: evidence the BBC has uncovered shows incomplete flight logs, with unnamed passengers simply labelled as ‘female,'” Brown wrote. “To this day, the names of many of the male passengers are unknown because their names were withheld. In short, British authorities had little or no idea who was being trafficked through our country, and for whom other than Epstein.”
In the wake of the Epstein files release, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — formerly known as Prince Andrew and the younger brother of King Charles III — was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was released after 11 hours and has not been charged.
In late 2010, Mountbatten-Windsor appeared to share sensitive information stemming from his role as the U.K. trade envoy with Epstein, emails released by the U.S. DOJ suggest.
His arrest follows the emergence of documents detailing communication between him and Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor has previously denied wrongdoing with respect to Epstein.
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Andriy Yermak, his chief of staff, has resigned after anti-corruption searches on his home and office on Friday morning.
Zelenskyy announced the resignation in an address he posted online Friday.
The head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office, Yermak is the president’s powerful right-hand man and had been leading the negotiations with the United States to end the war with Russia.
Yermak’s fall strips Zelenskyy of his closest adviser and chief negotiator at a moment when he has been under intense pressure to agree to a new peace plan with Russia.
Yermak had increasingly faced suspicion he could be implicated in a sprawling high-level corruption scandal in Ukraine’s energy sector that has rocked the country’s government, already taking in a former business partner of Zelenskyy’s and prompting the resignations of the justice and energy ministers.
Zelenskyy had resisted calls for Yermak’s resignation, but after the highly publicized raids on Yermak’s addresses Friday morning, he appeared to have concluded the suspicions against his chief of staff were causing too much damage. He did not directly acknowledge the raids or accusations during his address, saying he had made the decision to remove Yermak because he wanted to “avoid rumors and speculation” that could harm internal unity at a critical time.
““For internal strength to exist, there must be no reasons to be distracted by anything other than defending Ukraine. I want there to be no questions whatsoever about Ukraine,” Zelenskky said in the video statement.
He said he would hold consultations on Saturday to choose Yermak’s replacement.
Investigators from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) on Friday morning raided Yermak’s office and home as part of their investigation into the corruption scandal that has been dubbed “Mindich-gate” in Ukraine, a reference to Zelenskyy’s former business partner Timur Mindich who is implicated.
Prosecutors allege senior officials and Mindich arranged a kickback scheme that funneled tens of millions of dollars from contractors building defenses to protect Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Investigators have not formally announced any allegations against Yermak or charged him. But he has faced mounting suspicion with critics alleging Yermak must have known about the corruption or bore responsibility for it. Some members of Parliament and anti-corruption campaigners also alleged that he was featured in recording made as part of the investigation under the name “Ali Baba.”
Yermak was also accused by opponents of being behind a failed attempt over the summer by Zelenskyy’s administration to strip independence from the same anti-corruption bodies now investigating him, which triggered mass protests.
There is no evidence Zelenskyy himself knew about the alleged corruption scheme or benefited from it. But as the scandal moved to the heart of his administration, he faced widespread calls to act or be seen as complicit, with worries he could face protests again if Yermak remained in post.
On Friday before his resignation Yermak posted he was “fully assisting” investigators.
Often referred to as Zelenskyy’s “grey cardinal,” Yermak has long-faced accusations of creeping authoritarianism and over-centralizing power, while allegations of corruption have lingered.
He has played a central role in Ukraine’s negotiations, including leading the delegation to Geneva last weekend for the talks with the U.S. on the Trump administration’s new peace plan. In an interview on Thursday with Time Magazine, Yermak ruled out ceding any territory to Russia.
Zelenskyy on Friday thanked Yermak for his role in leading the negotiations to end the war, saying “it has always been a patriotic position” and that he had represented Ukraine’s position “exactly as it should be.”
New peace talks are expected to be held perhaps as early as this weekend and Zelenskyy said they would now be headed by the head of Ukraine’s General Staff, as well as its National Security Council and foreign ministry representatives.
US President Donald Trump during a news conference at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. Nicole Combeau/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump implied on Sunday that Colombian President Gustavo Petro could face U.S. action soon, following the American attack on Venezuela that saw its president, Nicolas Maduro, captured and taken to face trial in the U.S.
Trump also appeared to threaten Cuba, the leftist government that has been a longtime ally of Maduro and his authoritarian regime in Venezuela.
“Colombia is very sick too, run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you,” Trump told reporters Sunday.
Asked if the U.S. would launch a military operation against Colombia, Trump responded, “It sounds good to me.”
Earlier on Sunday, Petro released a statement on the operation against Venezuela and Trump’s previous comments about him, saying, “I deeply reject Trump speaking without knowing; my name does not appear in the judicial files on drug trafficking over 50 years, neither from before nor from the present.”
“Stop slandering me, Mr. Trump. That’s not how you threaten a Latin American president who emerged from the armed struggle and then from the people’s struggle for Peace in Colombia,” he added.
Following the removal of Maduro in Venezuela, reporters asked Trump if the U.S. had a similar plan to deal with Cuba, to which he said that the government in Havana only survived because of Venezuelan largesse.
“Now, they won’t have that money coming in. They won’t have the income coming in. You know, a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday, you know that a lot of Cubans were killed,” Trump said.
Trump said the Cubans killed on Saturday were trying to protect Maduro. According to Cuban officials, at least 32 Cuban nationals were killed in the U.S. operation.
“Cuba looks like it’s ready to fall. I don’t know how they — if they’re going to hold out, but Cuba now has no income,” Trump said. “They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of it. And Cuba literally is ready to fall. And you have a lot of great Cuban Americans that are going to be very happy about this.”
Asked again if the U.S. is considering action in Cuba, the president said he did not think it necessary because “it looks like it’s going down.”
In Venezuela, meanwhile, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was appointed as interim president by the country’s Supreme Court, which described the U.S. capture of Maduro as a “kidnapping.”
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are scheduled to make their initial appearances on Monday in a federal court in Manhattan.
On Saturday, Rodriguez demanded Maduro’s return and vowed to defend Venezuela against American aggression.
On Sunday, Rodriguez posted a statement to social media in which she invited “the U.S. government to collaborate with us on an agenda of cooperation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence.”
In comments to The Atlantic, Trump threatened further action in Venezuela if Rodriguez failed to “do what’s right.” Asked what he wanted from Rodriguez, Trump called for “total access” to the country’s oil reserves.
“We’re in charge,” Trump told reporters of the situation in the country on Sunday. The president said that he had not spoken to Rodriguez. Asked if he planned to, the president said, “At the right time, I will.”
ABC News’ Meghan Mistry, Hannah Demissie and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
