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Several dead in shooting at Jehovah’s Witness church in Germany

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A gunman believed to have been acting alone killed several people on Thursday in a Jehovah's Witness church in the German city of Hamburg, police said, as they focussed their investigation on the motive for the attack, Reuters reported.

Police declined to say how many people had been killed but said the gunman was believed to be among the dead.

The Bild newspaper reported that seven people were dead and eight wounded in the shooting at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witness in the northern city that is home to Germany's biggest port.

"According to the current state of affairs, we assume that there is one perpetrator," police said in a message on Twitter.

"Police activities in the surrounding area are being successively discontinued. Investigations into the motives behind the crime are continuing."

Earlier, Germany's DPA news agency, citing a reporter on the scene, said that residents in the city's northern Alsterdorf district had received warnings on their mobile phones of a "life threatening situation" and that streets had been sealed off, read the report.

Television footage showed dozens of police cars as well as fire engines blocking off streets and some people, wrapped in blankets, being led by emergency service workers into a bus.

"We heard shots," one unidentified witness told reporters. "There were 12 continuous shots," he said. "Then we saw how people were taken away in black bags."

Police said they had received a call soon after 9 p.m. (2000 GMT) and officers arrived at the scene to find several people seriously injured and some dead, Reuters reported.

"Then they heard a shot from above, they went upstairs and found one further person," said a police spokesperson.

Germany has been shaken by a number of shootings in the last few years. In February 2020, a gunman with suspected far-right links shot dead nine people, including migrants from Turkey, in the western town of Hanau before killing himself and his mother.

In October 2019, a gunman killed two people when he opened fire outside a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, read the report.

The mayor of Hamburg expressed shock for Thursday's bloodshed.

"I extend my deepest sympathy to the families of the victims. The forces are working at full speed to pursue the perpetrators and clarify the background," Peter Tschentscher said on Twitter.

World

Donald Trump wins US presidency

In earlier election remarks at Florida’s Palm Beach Convention Center, Trump vowed not to rest “until we have delivered the strong and prosperous America.”

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Donald Trump has been elected the 47th president of the United States, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago and sparked a violent insurrection at the US Capitol.

Trump’s win in Wisconsin put him over the 270 threshold needed to clinch the presidency, Associated Press reported.

In earlier election remarks at Florida’s Palm Beach Convention Center, Trump vowed not to rest “until we have delivered the strong and prosperous America.”

Ahead of the presidential race call, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he had no information on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to congratulate Donald Trump but emphasized that Moscow views the US as an “unfriendly” country.

Peskov reaffirmed the Kremlin’s claim that the US support for Ukraine amounted to its involvement in the conflict, telling reporters: “Let’s not forget that we are talking about the unfriendly country that is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state.”

Asked if Putin’s failure to congratulate Trump could hurt ties, Peskov responded that the Russia-US relations already are at the “lowest point in history,” adding that it will be up to the new US leadership to change the situation.

He noted Putin’s statements about Moscow’s readiness for a “constructive dialogue based on justice, equality and readiness to take mutual concerns into account.”

Peskov noted Trump’s campaign statements about his intention to end wars, saying that “those were important statements, but now after the victory, while getting ready to enter the Oval Office or entering the Oval Office, statements could sometimes change.”

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Israel, Ukraine respond to Donald Trump’s ‘victory’

In an early message of congratulations, Netanyahu said Wednesday that former president Trump was set for “history’s greatest comeback”

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist government celebrated on Wednesday after Republican Donald Trump claimed victory in the US presidential election.

By mid-day Kabul time, Trump was leading with 267 electoral votes to Kamala Harris’ 224. 

In order to secure the presidency, 270 electoral votes are needed. 

While the US and people around the world wait for the results to be called officially, Israeli media has stated that a Trump win will be a relief for Netanyahu's coalition, which has clashed with President Joe Biden's Democratic administration over the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

In an early message of congratulations, Netanyahu said Wednesday that former president Trump was set for "history's greatest comeback".

"Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America," he said in a statement.

"This is a huge victory."

Far-right ministers in the government also welcomed the results.

"Yesssss, God bless Trump," National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads one of two hardline, pro-settler parties in Netanyahu's coalition, said on X.

Ukraine conflict 

Ukraine President Vladimir Zelensky has also issued an early message of congratulations to Trump on his "impressive election victory".

"Congratulations to Donald Trump on his impressive election victory! I recall our great meeting with President Trump back in September, when we discussed in detail the Ukraine-US strategic partnership," Zelensky wrote on his social media page X. 

He said Kiev was counting on continued "strong bipartisan support".

Zelensky added that he would like to personally congratulate Trump on his victory and discuss ways of strengthening cooperation.

Zelensky said he expected that Trump's approach would bring the conflict over Ukraine closer to an end and hoped to "put it into action together."

According to forecasts by Fox News TV and The Hill newspaper, Trump has won the November 5 election.

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Netanyahu sacks defence minister, jolting Israeli politics as war grinds on

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on X, however, that “firing Gallant in the middle of a war is an act of madness.”

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Tuesday, citing a “crisis of trust”, and replaced him with close ally Israel Katz to lead the country’s war in Gaza and Lebanon.

Netanyahu’s critics accused him of putting politics ahead of national security at a time when Israel is bracing for Iranian retaliation to its [USN:L1N3M60ET TEXT:“Oct. 26 airstrikes”] on the Islamic Republic.

After Gallant was fired, protesters in Israel blocked highways and lit bonfires on roads, police said.

The prime minister named Gideon Saar as the new foreign minister in place of Katz.

Gallant and Netanyahu, both in the right-wing Likud party, have [USN:L1N3MC0YJ TEXT:“clashed for months”] over the objectives of Israel’s 13-month-old war in Gaza against Palestinian militant group Hamas. But the timing of Gallant’s dismissal was a surprise, and came as Israel’s ally the U.S. held its presidential election.

Israel’s campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon have entered new phases following the killing of top commanders in both Hamas and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Netanyahu said Gallant has made statements that “contradict the decisions of the government and the decisions of the cabinet”. In response, Gallant said: “The security of the state of Israel always was and will always remain my life’s mission.”

Katz vowed the return of Israel’s hostages from Gaza and destruction of Hamas and Hezbollah.

“I accept this responsibility with a sense of mission and holy fear for the security of the State of Israel and its citizens,” Katz said on social media platform X.

As foreign minister, [USN:S8N3LA00X TEXT:“Katz barred”] U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month from entering Israel over what he described as a failure to condemn an Iranian missile attack and antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct. In September, he [USN:L8N3L80L2 TEXT:“rejected proposals”] from the U.S. and France for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon.

[USN:L8N3KY0U8 TEXT:“Reports”] appeared in September that Netanyahu, under pressure from far-right coalition partners, was considering firing Gallant.

Gayil Talshir, a specialist in Israeli politics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, believed the last straw for Netanyahu came this week when Gallant issued 7,000 draft notices for ultra-Orthodox Haredi men, angering those in the government who oppose conscription.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, a minister in Netanyahu’s coalition government, praised Tuesday’s decision, saying Gallant was “deeply trapped in the conception” that it “is not possible to achieve absolute victory”.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said on X, however, that “firing Gallant in the middle of a war is an act of madness.”

In Washington, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said Gallant had been an important partner and that it would continue working collaboratively with Katz.

Gallant rose to the rank of general during a 35-year military career.

France’s foreign minister will travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday, a day after U.S. elections, to press Israel to engage diplomatically to end the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli forces issued new evacuation orders in the northern Gaza Strip and carried out military strikes which Palestinian medics and media said had killed at least 35 people since Monday night.

Acting U.N. aid chief Joyce Msuya said on X that Israeli military ground operations in northern Gaza had left Palestinians “without the essentials to survive, forced them to flee for safety multiple times, and cut off their escape and supply routes.”

An airstrike late on Monday damaged two houses in the town of Beit Lahiya, killing at least 20 people, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.

Ten were killed in central areas of the Palestinian enclave - six in separate airstrikes on Gaza City and the town of Deir Al-Balah, and four in the town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics and health officials said.

At least five others were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia north of Gaza City, medics said later on Tuesday.

The Israeli military said, without giving details, that its forces had “eliminated terrorists” in the central Gaza Strip and Jabalia area. Israeli troops had also located weapons and explosives over the past day in the southern Rafah area, where “terrorist infrastructure sites” had been eliminated, it said.

Later on Tuesday, Israeli planes dropped leaflets over Beit Lahiya ordering residents who have not yet left their homes and shelters housing displaced families to quit the town completely.

“To all those who remained at homes and shelters, you are risking your lives. For your safety you have to head south,” said the leaflet, which was written in Arabic.

Palestinians said the new attacks and Israeli orders for evacuations were aimed at emptying areas to create buffer zones.

Israel says the evacuations are meant to keep civilians out of harm’s way as its troops battle Hamas fighters.

More than 43,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of war in Gaza, health authorities in Gaza say.

The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. – Reuters

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