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.”
Mourners gather at Behesht Zahra Cemetery to honor protesters killed during anti-government demonstrations, on February 18, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. . (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Iranian students from several universities across the country continued protesting on Monday against the Islamic Republic’s regime for the third-consecutive day since Saturday, when schools reopened for the second semester.
Social media videos verified by ABC News show hundreds of students in Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan shouting slogans, including “Death to Khamenei” and “Woman, Life, Freedom/Iranian Republic,” targeting Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, and pushing for a regime change.
The protests appear to be the most significant to spread since the Iranian regime’s massacre across the country, in which more than 7,000 people were killed, as the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S.-based group, reported earlier this month. ABC News cannot independently verify the group’s figures.
Groups of students also chanted “Pahlavi will return,” calling for the return of Reza Pahlavi, the U.S.-based son of the former monarch of the country. Pahlavi’s call for protest in early January, 10 days after the unrest started in Tehran, escalated the nationwide protests just before the regime’s crackdown on the protesters.
Pictures of the victims of the January protests have been held by protesting students in universities. A verified video shows students gathering in the Foreign Languages department at the University of Tehran, with some holding pictures of Raha Bohlouli, a student of Italian language and literature at this school who was said to have been killed during the protests.
In a protest at Tehran’s Amirkabir University on Sunday, protesting students were confronted by pro-regime Basiji students who tried to disrupt their gathering.
Following the protests, some students of Tehran’s renown Sharif University who participated received a text message on Monday stating that they have been banned from getting into the university, the semi-official Asriran News Agency reported.
The current round of students’ protests appeared to be gathering momentum as families of thousands of the victims of January’s massacres have recently been holding 40th-day ceremonies in remembrance of their loved ones.
In Iran, one of the significant commemoration ceremonies after someone’s death is held on the 40th day after the burial, when loved ones gather to reflect on the memories of the departed. These ceremonies have traditionally been seen as potential hubs for more protests over the past decades, as the pain and loss of the families have the potential to stir anger and a demand for justice for those killed by the regime.
Dance of defiance
With the broad scope of the Islamic Republic regime’s massacre across the country, thousands of families are still mourning the loss of their loved ones. Iranian cemeteries, holy shrines and mosques — which normally are venues for the 40th-day ceremonies — have turned into scenes of the most extraordinary ways of mourning in the country, as victims’ families have been dancing to mourn as a sign of defiance.
Hundreds of videos circulating online from these ceremonies show parents, children, friends, wives and husbands of the victims dancing to upbeat music playing at mosques and holy shrine sites as a dramatic representation of their grief.
This is seen by many Iran watchers as an act of defiance, transforming a national collective pain into a form of resistance.
Videos show mourning women — even those from traditional and religious backgrounds — dancing in black, many of them without wearing a headscarf.
This comes as mosques and holy shrines have been important bases for the regime to spread the hardcore ideology its leaders stand by, which bans any kind of dance and music and scorns them as sins — let alone tolerating them in public or at holy sites.
The scenes have been witnessed at young victims’ commemoration ceremonies to highlight the happy life they deserved but were deprived of.
“No tears or words can express my pain,” a family member of one of the victims killed during protests in Tehran told ABC News on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“I always dreamt of dancing at his wedding,” she said. “I felt this burning pain in my chest as I was dancing by the side of his grave. My dream was taken away by a bullet.”
The remerging of the protests comes as the United States and Islamic Republic leaders are preparing for another round of talks in Geneva on Thursday to discuss a possible nuclear deal.
A cargo plane comes into land with two US Air Force B-1 bombers in the foreground at RAF Fairford on March 11, 2026 in Fairford, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A drone sighting that temporarily raised alarms at one of the United States Air Force’s largest and most strategic airfields earlier this month was more extensive, and potentially more dangerous, than first reported, according to a confidential internal briefing document reviewed by ABC News.
Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana said it was under a shelter-in-place order March 9 after “a report of an unmanned aerial system operating over the installation.”
The sighting raised concerns because Barksdale houses long-range B-52 bombers and plays a critical role in command and control of the Air Force nuclear defense capabilities.
The shelter-in-place order was lifted later that day but the unauthorized drone flights continued for nearly a week.
“Barksdale Air Force Base detected multiple unauthorized drones operating in our airspace during the week of March 9th,” Capt. Hunter Rininger of the 2nd Bomb Wing said in a statement provided to ABC News. The additional drone incursions had not been previously reported.
According to the confidential briefing document dated March 15, the drones came in waves and entered and exited the base in a way that may suggest attempts to “avoid the operator(s) being located.” Lights on the drones suggested the operators “may be testing security responses” at the base.
“Between March 9-15, 2026, BAFB Security Forces observed multiple waves of 12-15 drones operating over sensitive areas of the installation, including the flight line, with aircraft displaying non-commercial signal characteristics, long-range control links and resistance to jamming,” the document said. “After reaching multiple points across the installation, the drones dispersed across sensitive locations on the base.”
According to the document there was no drone activity detected on March 13 and 14 and it’s not clear if there has been activity since.
The flights lasted around four hours each day and the drones used varied routes of ingress and deliberate maneuvering within restricted airspace.
“Certainly, it seemed to be more than just your average drone enthusiast who just pushed it too far,” said ABC News contributor Mick Mulroy, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense. “It looked like this was deliberate and intentional to see just how they would react.”
The briefing includes a determination that the drones were different than what the typical consumer could purchase off the shelf. They appeared to be custom built and required “advanced knowledge” of signal operations.
The analysts said “with high confidence” they expected unauthorized drones to continue to operate in and around Barksdale Air Force Base in the immediate future.
“The drone incursions at BAFB pose a significant threat to public safety and national security since they require the flight line to be shut down while also putting manned aircrafts already inflight in the area at risk,” the document said.
The FAA referred ABC News to the military for comment. The Louisiana State Police, which is also assisting the investigation, declined to comment.
“Flying a drone over a military installation is not only a safety issue, it is a criminal offense under federal law. We are working closely with federal and local law enforcement agencies to investigate these incursions. The security of our installation and the safety of our people are top priorities, and we will continue to vigilantly monitor our airspace,” Capt. Rininger’s statement said.
Greenland residents and political leaders have publicly rejected suggestions by U.S. President Donald Trump that the Arctic island could become part of the United States. Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, has emphasized that its future will be decided by its own people, with officials stating that the island is not for sale and does not wish to become American. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were expected to meet Wednesday at the White House with top diplomats from the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland, its semiautonomous territory, U.S. officials said, as tensions escalate amid President Donald Trump’s threats to “acquire” the island — possibly even by military force.
When asked about his strong personal interest in the world’s largest island, Trump repeatedly cites its rare earth minerals and other natural resources he says are critical to U.S. national security.
“One way or the other, we are going to have Greenland,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. He told the New York Times last week that his desire to take over the territory is “what I feel is psychologically needed for success.”
At the same time, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen argues Trump using the U.S. military to seize Greenland would mark “the end of NATO” because Denmark, a NATO ally, like the U.S., is obligated to come to the island’s defense, as are other European NATO allies.
The European Union’s defense commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, echoed her grave hypothetical scenario, contending Europe would be forced to confront the U.S. if Greenland’s NATO allies had to protect it from an American takeover attempt.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has downplayed the diplomatic alarms, saying the alliance is “not at all” in crisis and offered assurances it was focused on securing the Arctic from inroads by China and Russia, something Trump has said Greenland, and Denmark, have failed to do.
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Wednesday’s meeting was aimed at understanding the U.S. position after weeks of heated rhetoric from Trump and his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, who has said the U.S. has a “right” to Greenland and has notably declined to rule out military force to secure it.
“Our reason for seeking the meeting we have now been given,” Rasmussen said, “was to move this whole discussion, which has not become less tense since we last met, into a meeting room where we can look each other in the eye and talk about these things.”
But Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, was more direct ahead of the Washington meeting.
“We are now facing a geopolitical crisis,” he said. “If we have to choose between the U.S. and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark, NATO, and the EU.”
On Tuesday, when was asked about the prime minister’s comments, Trump told reporters, “That’s their problem. I disagree with them. I don’t know who he is. Don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him.”
Danes shocked by US rhetoric toward Greenland Danish and Greenlandic officials have said consistently that Greenland is not for sale, even as Rubio appeared to try to temper Trump’s strong rhetoric — and defuse congressional opposition to using force — by floating the idea of the U.S. buying the island, saying Trump has talked about doing so since his first term.
A source familiar with the emerging rift said the policy pronouncement came as a shock, and that the U.S. goal to buy the island was never communicated to Copenhagen — which the source said had never received an offer of any kind.
State Department officials under Rubio had never driven a Greenland policy aimed at acquiring it, the source said, and Copenhagen had been satisfied with bilateral relations through most of 2025.
That changed in December, when Trump appointed Louisiana GOP Gov. Jeff Landry to be his special envoy to Greenland, a move designed to steer policy from the White House instead of through the State Department, the source said.
Vance, who traveled to Greenland last March, said last Thursday, “I guess my advice to European leaders and anybody else would be to take the president of the United States seriously.”
Following some of Trump’s comments that he wanted Greenland to be part of the U.S., which came days after he ordered the American military to attack Venezuela, Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington went to Capitol Hill to voice concerns to lawmakers.
A source familiar with those meetings said there was a tone shift among Republicans, who said they took the president’s threats seriously – not as a laughing matter.
The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee emerged from his meeting with the Danish envoys foreclosing any suggestion the future of Greenland was in dispute.
“I think it has been made clear from our Danish friends and our friends in Greenland that that future does not include a negotiation,” Sen. Roger Wicker said.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of American lawmakers was crossing the Atlantic for meetings in Copenhagen at the end of this week.
Arctic security as a central argument Trump has said the U.S. would demand sovereignty over the island for its own national security purposes, suggesting China and Russia could pose a threat to America by taking the island themselves.
“Basically, their defense is two dog sleds,” Trump said of Greenland, where the U.S. has a military base and 150 troops stationed. “In the meantime, you have Russian destroyers and submarines and China destroyers and submarines all over the place.”
Danish officials have pointed to new investments there and a willingness to work with NATO and the U.S. on protecting the island. The kingdom announced a $6.5 billion Arctic defense package last year.
Denmark’s top lawmaker overseeing defense said the threat to the island did not come from the east, but instead from the U.S., its NATO ally across the Atlantic.
“It is my job to be on top of security in Greenland and I get all relevant information about it,” Rasmus Jarlov wrote in a post on X. “I can assure you that your fantasies about a big threat from China and Russia against Greenland are delusional. You are the threat,” he wrote of the U.S. “Not them.”
Provocations from China and Russia have been more concentrated near Alaska than Greenland, said Connor McPartland, who noted China has minimal commercial interests on the island and there’s been no uptick in Russian or Chinese naval activity near the island.
McPartland, who was the deputy director of the Pentagon’s Office for Arctic and Global Security until September, said Trump’s attention to Arctic security comes as a needed focus on an overlooked region.
“Caring about the Arctic is not just caring about the Arctic,” he said. “It has ramifications for our global security, not just in this one little sliver of at the top of the world.”
“In my office, we’d like to say that the Arctic is the front door to the homeland, because most of the really existential threats to the United States that we think about [like a] nuclear missile … are going to fly over the pole to get to the continental United States,” said McPartland, who is now an an assistant director with the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative.
“It’s the fastest way to get to the United States, from Russia, from North Korea, from Iran, from China.”
A 1951 treaty between the U.S. and Greenland allows the American military, which has downsized its presence to only one base in Greenland, to upscale its footprint as it wants. During the Cold War, the U.S. had 17 military installations there.
“There aren’t really problems to be solved by the United States controlling Greenland,” said McPartland. “We can build infrastructure, we can station troops, we can operate from Greenland almost at will, as long as we recognize the sovereignty of Denmark and Greenland.”
