An anti-Semitic attack on a kosher cafe in Canada that police described as one of the “worst” they had seen has been revealed as a ruse by the owners. A vigil and a fundraising campaign had been set up to support the family.

The fake attack saw the BerMax Caffe and Bistro in Winnipeg spray painted with anti-Semitic graffiti and “severely vandalized.” A woman was assaulted and taken to the hospital for treatment, CBC reported at the time.

Police charged the owners with public mischief after an investigation involving 25 police officers and 1,000 hours of work revealed it to be nothing more than a scam. “In the end, we found evidence of a crime. It just wasn’t a hate crime,” Police Chief Danny Smyth said, Global News reports.

Alexander Berent, Oxana Berent, and Maxim Berent are to appear in court next month. Oxana was the woman allegedly assaulted. She denied the attack was fake on CBC Radio, saying, “We don’t joke about swastikas on our walls.”

The attack was alleged to have taken place on April 18, and it was the fourth reported attack on the cafe in five months. Police are also investigating these incidents, but haven’t commented on them yet.

“If the allegations of Winnipeg police are true, we condemn this fabrication of a hate crime in the strongest possible terms,” Jewish organization B’nai Brith Canada said in a statement.

“Making false allegations of antisemitism does nothing to quell the rise of racism and discrimination in Winnipeg and across Canada and will embolden the conspiracy theorists and purveyors of anti-Jewish hatred who blame the entirety of society’s ills on the Jewish community.”

A crowdfunding page campaign had been set up to support the family and it was closed after news emerged about the fake attack. A vigil organized for Thursday night was also canceled.

Like this story?

Kim Jong-un arrived in Russia on Wednesday for a short visit, traveling in his trademark train and with his famous running bodyguards in tow. From sword swaps to salty starts, here are some of the highlights so far of his trip.

The short official visit got off to a traditional start with ‘karavai,’ a type of bread, and salt being presented to the Korean leader upon his arrival.

In a rather unusual piece of protocol (but impressive feat of train maintenance), Kim’s signature armored train was polished by his bodyguards as it rumbled into Vladivostok, before the fedora-wearing North Korean leader alighted to be greeted by Russian dignitaries.

It was all smiles as the two world leaders shook hands at their first-ever face-to-face meeting.

The two swapped swords as a symbol of the mutual respect between nations. Putin presented Kim with a Russian curved saber, and as the pair exchanged gifts the North Korean leader remarked: “[This sword] represents strength, it represents the soul – mine and that of our people, who support you.”

Putin and his guest later wrapped up their hours of official talks with a lavish dinner, surrounded by a night sky-like canopy.

The pair appeared to bid one another a warm farewell as Kim and his entourage moved off on the close of the summit.

Like this story?

The bodies of two miners have been recovered after an explosion rocked a coal mine in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine. Fifteen more people are missing, and survival chances appear slim.

A methane explosion hit the SkhidKarbon coal mine in the village of Yurievka on Thursday, trapping 17 miners underground. The head of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR), Leonid Pasechnik, said that the rescuers have pulled up two bodies. Fifteen people remain unaccounted for.

The head of the region’s emergency services, Evgeny Katsalapov, described the situation as “critical.”

A witness reported that a total of 20 people were inside the mine at the time of the incident. A former overseer at the mine, who lives just 200 meters from the entrance, told Komsomolskaya Pravda daily that he felt a very powerful jolt and saw plumes of black smoke billowing from the mine.

He said that he saw three miners climbing out of the mine shortly after the explosion ripped through it, adding that the chances of more people emerging unscathed are about zero.

A mine-rescue unit of the Russian Emergencies Ministry was sent LNR to assist the local rescuers.

SkhidKarbon halted its operations when the military conflict with Kiev started in 2014. The mine resumed coal output only last January, producing almost 30,000 tons of coal in 2018.

Think your friends would be interested?

The activity of jihadists affiliated to Islamic State and Al-Qaeda has been spotted in Latin America as they recruit fighters and promote extremist ideology among local Muslims, Russian GRU chief Igor Kostyukov said.

“Among the new risk factors is the emergence of jihadist training camps and hideouts in the region,” Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russia’s main intelligence directorate (the GRU), said during the annual Moscow Conference on International Security.

The jihadists currently operating in Latin America are linked to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and Al-Qaeda, he added.

“They recruit fighters to bolster their ranks in the Middle East and North Africa, collect funds and promote extremist ideology among the region’s six-million Muslim population,” Kostyukov warned. He didn’t name specific countries where the jihadist camps have been discovered.

Last year, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales Cabrera said that around 100 people linked to IS and other groups were arrested in his country and deported to where they came from.

Think your friends would be interested?

Valitor, a partner of Visa and Mastercard, must pay WikiLeaks US$10 million for refusing to lift its 2011 banking blockade against the whistleblowing site despite a court order, local media reports.

The District Court of Reykjavik is ordering Valitor to fork over some $10 million (1.2 billion Icelandic krona) to WikiLeaks payment processor DataCell and WikiLeaks publisher Sunshine Press after Valitor failed to comply with a 2013 Supreme Court order to resume processing credit card payments for WikiLeaks.

Valitor was warned when the ruling came down that if they did not lift the blockade, daily penalties would continue to pile up. It is reported that Valitor plans to appeal.

Iceland’s Supreme Court ruled almost six years ago that Valitor had acted unlawfully in terminating its contract with DataCell.

The website sued Valitor in June 2012 over the “extrajudicial” banking blockade, which it said was done “without democratic oversight or transparency.”

In 2010, Bank of America, VISA, Western Union, PayPal, and Mastercard jointly imposed a ban on donations to the publisher less than two weeks after it posted the Cablegate leaks, a damning trove of diplomatic cables that exposed the inner workings of governments around the world.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested earlier this month after Ecuador revoked his asylum claim and evicted him from its London embassy, where he had been living for seven years. He could be extradited to the US, where he faces charges of conspiring to unlawfully access the Pentagon’s computer network.

Think your friends would be interested?

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says he won’t bar Chinese firms like Huawei from doing business with Europe, as long as they respect market rules, despite continued US pressure to ban the company.

“We are not rejecting someone because he is coming from faraway, because he is Chinese, the rules have to be respected,” Juncker said at a press conference with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe on Thursday.

Asked about his response to the US call to “eliminate” Chinese telecoms equipment from Europe’s 5G buildout, Juncker was defiant. “The European Union and our internal market are open markets and all those respecting our rules governing this internal market are welcome,” he said.

Last month, Europe’s Parliament passed a resolution “expressing their deep concern” about alleged Chinese cybersecurity threats, but a subsequent statement from the European Commission regarding 5G cybersecurity did not include such language, instead merely urging member states to develop a “toolbox of mitigating measures” to combat cybersecurity risks to their growing 5G infrastructure.

The US has leaned heavily on allies to keep Huawei and other Chinese telecoms out of their countries, claiming the company could act as a spy for the Chinese government. Washington has even threatened to withhold intelligence from Germany over their refusal to ban the Chinese firm, pressure China’s foreign minister has called “abnormal” and “immoral.”

Like this story?

Donald Trump has called on the US, Russia, and China to reduce their nuclear arsenals amid reports that his administration is planning to propose a landmark arms control deal with Beijing and Moscow.

In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, the US president said that he welcomed Russia’s efforts to help denuclearize the Korean Peninsula – but that more must be done.

“We want to get rid of the nuclear weapons, we all have to get rid [of them]. Russia has to get rid of them, and China has to get rid of them,” Trump stated.

His comments coincide with reports that the White House is gearing up for an ambitious arms control treaty with Russia and China. The deal, still in its early stages, would impose restrictions on unregulated nuclear weapons and would call on Beijing to join an arms-control pact verifying China’s nuclear capabilities.

In past months, Trump has publicly expressed support for the idea of limiting or reducing the world’s nuclear arsenals.

“Between Russia and China and us, we’re all making hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons, including nuclear [weapons], which is ridiculous,” Trump said in early April.

The president continued: “I think it’s much better if we all got together and we didn’t make these weapons. So I think that’s something that could be a phase two after this [trade war] is done.”

In December, the president tweeted that he wanted to make a deal with Russia and China to end the “uncontrollable arms race.”

The ambitious plan for promoting non-proliferation clashes with the president’s past approaches to arms control.

Trump announced in February that the US would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) with Russia. Moscow lambasted the move as a provocation that would lead to a new arms race.

Trump may also struggle to convince the international community that Washington will honor any new arms control agreements. His decision to unilaterally pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran angered many US allies, and sparked accusations from Tehran that the US is incapable of keeping its word.

Like this story?

An Indian naval officer has died after leading firefighting efforts when flames broke out on board India’s only operational aircraft carrier.

The fire started on Friday morning as the INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier entered the harbor of its home port of Karwar, just south of the popular holiday destination of Goa.

Lieutenant Commander DS Chauhan “bravely led the firefighting efforts in the affected compartment,” the Indian Navy said, as quoted by local media. The fire was brought under control, but the officer lost consciousness and was evacuated to a nearby naval hospital, but efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

An investigation into what caused the fire has started, but the navy said that, thanks to the “swift action” of the ship’s crew, the warship did not suffer any serious damage which would affect combat capability.

Purchased from Russia in 2004 for $2.35 billion, the modified Kiev-class carrier was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 2013. Currently the only carrier operational in India’s inventory, it is capable of carrying up to 30 aircraft including the MiG-29K fighter jet.

Think your friends would be interested?

Washington has to change its approach to denuclearization talks, a senior North Korean minister said, adding that the UN sanctions are not a major headache for the country.

Pyongyang is “barely affected” by the economic restrictions imposed by the UN to tackle its nuclear pursuits, North Korean External Economic Affairs Minister Kim Yong-jae told Yonhap News Agency on Friday.

North Korea faced international backlash when it withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and later conducted a series of nuclear tests and ballistic missiles launches. A range of UNSC resolutions, among other things, banned arms trade with Pyongyang and imposed restrictions on exports and imports.

The official claimed that the sanctions “don’t bother” the authorities in Pyongyang, and that the national energy and electricity output has increased from last year.

The minister also took a dig at Washington’s approach to North Korea’s nuclear program, indicating that officials in the US should revise their strategy.

The minister’s words come just one day after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un discussed denuclearization with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok.

Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal was also in the spotlight during the February Kim-Trump summit in Hanoi, which ended with both leaders abandoning the negotiations earlier than scheduled. North Korean officials later revealed that one of the reasons was Washington’s hardline stance on the matter of sanctions, accusing Trump’s team of a “gangster-like approach.”

Three journalists have been summoned for questioning by French police for their role in an explosive report detailing how the Macron government knowingly sold arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for use in Yemen.

Disclose co-founders Geoffrey Livolsi and Mathias Destal, as well as Benoit Collombat of Radio France have been summoned by police for questioning about the revelations contained within the April 15 report published by Disclose who partnered with Radio France, Mediapart, Arte Info, and Konbini.

The report contained a leaked, classified French intelligence report to the president and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly detailing the use of French weapons in Yemen during a defence council meeting on October 3, 2018.

The report proves that Macron’s government deliberately lied about having no knowledge that French arms, including French-supplied CAESAR howitzer artillery, tanks, and laser-guided missile systems, would be used “offensively” in Yemen, in violation of the 2014 Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) which entered into force on December 24, 2014.

The journalists argue that the revelations “are of major public interest, that bring to the attention of citizens and their representatives what the government wanted to conceal,” adding that Macron’s decision to pursue them constitutes infringement on freedom of the press and speech in general.  

“We have learned that a preliminary investigation for ‘compromising national defence secrets’ has been launched by the Paris prosecutors,” Disclose said in a statement.

The journalists are due to be questioned by the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), France’s domestic intelligence agency, in a hearing scheduled for mid-May. The move has been condemned in a statement signed by 36 French press outlets, including Le Monde and AFP.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen which has been waged since 2015. Up to 14 million people are at risk of starvation as a result of the ensuing Saudi-led blockade.

Think your friends would be interested?