Three killed in Taipei stabbing, smoke bomb attack
Officials say suspect, who died after falling from a building during police chase, carried out ‘indiscriminate attacks’. By News Agencies Published On 19 Dec 202519 Dec 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share At least three people have been killed and five injured after a knife-wielding attacker went on a rampage in central Taipei, before dying during a police chase, local authorities say. Taiwan’s Premier Cho Jung-tai said in a statement on Friday that the suspect had let off smoke bombs at Taipei’s main train station, and then ran to a nearby subway station in a busy shopping district, attacking people on the way. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The attacks were “a deliberate act”, although the motive was not immediately clear, Cho said. “He deliberately threw smoke bombs and wielded a long knife to carry out indiscriminate attacks on the public,” the premier added. The suspect then died during a police chase after falling from a building, according to local officials. Mayor Chiang Wan-an told reporters that the attacker had apparently jumped off the building “to evade arrest and has been confirmed dead”. This picture taken and released by Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) on December 19 shows police patrolling at a metro station in Taipei, after attacks at two stations in the city [AFP] Images released by Taiwan’s Central News Agency showed a canister on the ground at the Main Station, with officers examining potential evidence at the scene. Identifying the deceased suspect only by his last name, Chang, Premier Cho told reporters that he had a prior criminal record and outstanding warrants and said his house has been searched. “We will investigate his background and associated relationships to understand his motives and determine if there are other connected factors,” he added. Advertisement Taiwan police ramped up security across the island in response to the attacks. “All important locations … including railway stations, highways, subway stations and airports are maintaining a high level of alert and vigilance,” Cho said. Meanwhile, President William Lai Ching-te told reporters that the Taiwanese authorities would “quickly clarify the details of the case”. “There will be no leniency and we will do everything in our power to ensure the safety of our citizens,” he said. Violent crime is rare in Taiwan, though an attack in 2014 horrified residents when a man went on a stabbing spree on Taipei’s metro, killing four people. He was executed for the killings in 2016. Adblock test (Why?)
Hadi’s killing “chilling turning point” for Bangladesh
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Lawyer Taqbir Huda says Sharif Osman Hadi’s killing and violence in Bangladesh signal a shift and security failure
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,394
These are the key developments from day 1,394 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Published On 19 Dec 202519 Dec 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is where things stand on Friday, December 19: Fighting Three people, including two crew members of a cargo vessel, were killed in overnight Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don and the town of Bataysk in the country’s southern Rostov region, local governor Yury Slyusar said. Russian strikes near Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa killed a woman in her car and hit infrastructure. Odesa’s Governor Oleh Kiper said a Russian drone killed a woman crossing a bridge in her car, and three children were injured in the incident. Kiper also asked residents whose homes have been affected by extended power outages to be patient and to end blocking roads in protest against the blackouts. “As a result of enemy attacks, the energy infrastructure in Odesa region has suffered extensive damage,” Kiper said. About 180,000 consumers have been left without electricity across five Ukrainian regions after Russian attacks, Ukraine’s acting energy minister, Artem Nekrasov, said. Nekrasov said the southern regions of Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia, the central regions of Cherkasy and Dnipropetrovsk, and the northeastern region of Sumy have been impacted. Russia has formed a military brigade equipped with Moscow’s new hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile, Russian chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, said. Russia fired the Oreshnik at Ukraine for the first time in November 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has boasted that the missile is impossible to intercept and has destructive power comparable to that of a nuclear weapon. Sanctions Advertisement European Union leaders have agreed to provide an interest-free loan to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, EU Council President Antonio Costa has said. EU leaders avoided “chaos and division” with their decision to provide Ukraine with a loan through borrowing cash rather than use frozen Russian assets, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said. “We remained united,” De Wever added after EU leaders discussed for hours how to provide Ukraine with the money it needs to sustain its fight. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk had earlier said the EU leaders had agreed in principle at a summit in Brussels to work on financing Ukraine in 2026 and 2027 through the use of frozen Russian assets rather than EU borrowing. But attempts to overcome differences over the plan, including talks to reassure Belgium and other concerned countries that Europe would share the legal and financial risks, failed to seal the deal. The new draft had offered Belgium and other countries unlimited guarantees for damages should Moscow successfully sue them for using Russian assets to finance Ukraine. The deal also offered EU countries and institutions, whose assets may be seized by Russia in retaliation, the possibility to offset such damages against Russian assets held by the EU. Earlier, Russia’s central bank said it would extend legal action beyond its lawsuit against Belgium-based depository Euroclear and sue European banks in a Russian court over attempts the EU’s plans to use frozen Russian assets as loans for Kyiv. Britain has imposed more sanctions targeting Russian oil companies, including 24 individuals and entities, in what it described as a move against Russia’s largest remaining unsanctioned oil companies: Tatneft, Russneft, NNK-Oil and Rusneftegaz. Peace talks Ukrainian peace negotiators are en route to the United States and plan to meet Washington’s negotiating team on Friday and Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. US President Donald Trump said he believes talks to end the war in Ukraine are “getting close to something” as Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner plan to meet a Russian delegation in Miami this weekend. Aid The Ukraine-US reconstruction fund, established as part of a Trump-pushed minerals deal the two countries signed in April, has approved its asset policies and is poised to begin reviewing its first investment opportunities in 2026, the US body overseeing the fund said. The Development Finance Corporation (DFC) said the fund’s second meeting “reached final consensus necessary to bring the fund to full operational status”. Potential deals could focus on critical minerals extraction and energy development as well as on maritime infrastructure, the DFC said. Ukraine is facing a foreign aid shortfall of 45-50 billion euros ($53-$59bn) in 2026, President Zelenskyy said, adding that if Kyiv did not receive a first tranche of a loan secured by Russian assets by next spring, it would have to cut drone production. Ukraine has clinched a long-awaited deal to restructure $2.6bn of growth-linked debt, with creditors overwhelmingly accepting a bonds-and-cash swap offer – a key step for the country to emerge from the sovereign default it suffered in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Politics and diplomacy Advertisement President Zelenskyy said he saw no need to change Ukraine’s constitution enshrining its aim to become a NATO member state. A block on Ukraine joining the military alliance has been a core Russian demand to end its war. “To be honest, I don’t think we need to change our country’s constitution,” Zelenskyy said. “Certainly not because of calls from the Russian Federation or anyone else,” he said. Earlier this week, Zelenskyy said Ukraine could compromise on NATO membership if given bilateral security guarantees with protections similar to NATO’s Article 5, which considers an attack on one member as an attack against all. Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya met Chinese foreign ministerial aide Liu Bin in Beijing, where the pair “discussed ways to strengthen trade and economic cooperation, and issues of co-operation within international organisations”, the Foreign Ministry said. Russian affairs Sergei Yeremeyev, a Belarusian man accused by Russia of blowing up two trains in Siberia for Ukraine, has been jailed for 22 years. Yeremeyev was found guilty of carrying out an act of terrorism and of planting explosives on two freight trains in 2023. British man Hayden Davies, who fought for Ukraine against Russia, has been
Australia PM Albanese launches gun ‘buyback’ plan after Bondi Beach attack
Albanese said Australia has more guns now than 30 years ago, when the country’s deadliest-ever mass shooting took place. Australia will launch a national gun buyback scheme, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced, as the country continues to come to terms with the deadly attack on a Jewish holiday event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead. Albanese called the plan the country’s biggest gun buyback since 1996 – the year of Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in modern history, the Port Arthur massacre in the island state of Tasmania – and said authorities will purchase surplus, newly-banned and illegal firearms. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “Right now, there are more guns in Australia than there were during Port Arthur. We can’t allow that to continue,” Albanese told a news conference on Friday, adding that there are currently more than four million firearms in the country. “Non-citizens have no need to own a gun. And someone in suburban Sydney has no need to own six … The terrible events of Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,” he said. Albanese added that authorities in Australia’s states and territories will be tasked with collecting the weapons and processing payments for surrendered firearms under the scheme. Federal police will then be responsible for destroying them. “We expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed through this scheme,” Albanese added. Aided by some of the toughest gun restrictions globally, Australia has one of the lowest gun homicide rates in the world. Restrictions were tightened after a lone gunman, armed with semiautomatic weapons, killed 35 people at the Port Arthur tourist site almost 30 years ago. Advertisement The massacre shocked the country, with authorities soon after launching a major gun amnesty and buyback scheme that removed more than 650,000 newly-prohibited firearms from circulation. ‘We need to do more to combat this evil scourge’ Sunday’s shooting in Sydney’s Bondi Beach area – in which two attackers, named as father and son Sajid Akram and Naveed Akram, went on a shooting spree and killed 15 people – has had a similarly jolting impact on Australian society as the Port Arthur massacre and prompted self-reflection. Albanese said 50-year-old Sajid – who was shot dead at the scene – and 24-year-old Naveed – who was charged with “terrorism” and murder offences after he awoke from a coma on Tuesday – were inspired by “Islamic State ideology”. On Thursday, Albanese announced tougher hate speech laws as he acknowledged the country had experienced a rising tide of anti-Jewish hate since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Albanese said rising anti-Semitism in Australia “culminated on Sunday in one of the worst acts of mass murder that this country has ever seen”. “It was an attack on our Jewish community – but it was also an attack on the Australian way of life,” he said. “Australians are shocked and angry. I am angry. It is clear we need to do more to combat this evil scourge, much more,” he added. The prime minister also announced on Friday that Australia will hold a national day of reflection this Sunday – one week after the mass shooting. Albanese urged Australians to light candles at 6:47pm (07:47 GMT) on Sunday, December 21 – “exactly one week since the attack unfolded”. “It is a moment to pause, reflect, and affirm that hatred and violence will never define who we are as Australians,” he told reporters. Earlier on Friday, hundreds of people plunged into the ocean off Bondi Beach in another gesture to honour the dead. Swimmers and surfers paddled into a circle as they bobbed in the gentle morning swell, splashing water and roaring with emotion. “They slaughtered innocent victims, and today I’m swimming out there and being part of my community again to bring back the light,” security consultant Jason Carr told the AFP news agency. “We’re still burying bodies. But I just felt it was important,” the 53-year-old said. “I’m not going to let someone so evil, someone so dark, stop me from doing what I do and what I enjoy doing,” he said. Surfers and swimmers congregate in the surf at Bondi Beach as they participate in a tribute for the victims of Sunday’s Bondi Beach attack, in Sydney, on December 19, 2025 [David Gray/AFP] Adblock test (Why?)
EU delays trade deal with South America’s Mercosur bloc as farmers protest
EU delays Mercosur trade deal until January amid farmer protests and opposition from France and Italy. The European Union has delayed a massive free-trade deal with South American countries amid protests by EU farmers and as last-minute opposition by France and Italy threatened to derail the agreement. European Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho confirmed on Thursday that the signing of the trade pact between the EU and South American bloc Mercosur will be postponed until January, further delaying a deal that had taken some 25 years to negotiate. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was expected to travel to Brazil on Saturday to sign the deal, but needed the backing of a broad majority of EU members to do so. The Associated Press news agency reported that an agreement to delay was reached between von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – who spoke at an EU summit on Thursday – on the condition that Italy would vote in favour of the agreement in January. French President Emmanuel Macron had also pushed back against the deal as he arrived for Thursday’s summit in Brussels, calling for further concessions and more discussions in January. Macron said he has been in discussions with Italian, Polish, Belgian, Austrian and Irish colleagues, among others, about delaying the signing. “Farmers already face an enormous amount of challenges,″ the French leader said. The trade pact with Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay would be the EU’s largest in terms of tariff cuts. But critics of the deal, notably France and Italy, fear an influx of cheap commodities that could hurt European farmers, while Germany, Spain and Nordic countries say it will boost exports hit by United States tariffs and reduce reliance on China by securing access to key minerals. Brazil’s President Lula says Italy’s PM Meloni asked for ‘patience’ The EU-Mercosur agreement would create the world’s biggest free-trade area and help the 27-nation European bloc to export more vehicles, machinery, wines and spirits to Latin America at a time of global trade tensions. Advertisement Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, said Germany, Spain and the Nordic countries were “all lobbying hard in favour of this deal”. But ranged against them were the French and Italian governments because of concerns in their powerful farming sectors. “Their worry being that their products, such as poultry and beef, could be undercut by far cheaper imports from the Mercosur countries,” Kane said. “So no signing in December. The suggestion being maybe there will be a signing in mid-January,” he added. “But there must now be a question about what might happen between now and mid-January, given the powerful forces ranged against each other in this debate,” he added. Farmers wear gas masks at the Place du Luxembourg near the European Parliament, during a farmers’ protest on December 18, 2025 [Nicolas Tucat/AFP] Mercosur nations were notified of the move, a European Commission spokeswoman said, and while initially reacting with a now-or-never ultimatum to its EU partners, Brazil opened the door on Thursday to delaying the deal’s signature to allow time to win over the holdouts. Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Italy’s Meloni had asked him for “patience” and had indicated that Italy would eventually be ready for the agreement. The decision to delay also came hours after farmers in tractors blocked roads and set off fireworks in Brussels to protest the deal, prompting police to respond with tear gas and water cannon. Protesting farmers – some travelling to the Belgian capital from as far away as Spain and Poland – brought potatoes and eggs to throw and waged a furious back-and-forth with police while demonstrators burned tyres and a faux wooden coffin bearing the word “agriculture”. The European Parliament evacuated some staff due to damage caused by protesters. Adblock test (Why?)
Police in Sydney detain men over possible ‘violent act’
NewsFeed Australian police say they intercepted two cars in Liverpool, southwest Sydney, over a possible “violent act”, with videos showing armed officers in fatigues detaining several people. Authorities say investigations are ongoing and there is currently no link to the Bondi Beach shooting. Published On 18 Dec 202518 Dec 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Egypt says gas deal with Israel is ‘purely commercial’
Natural gas agreement worth approximately $35bn comes amid frayed relations over Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. By News Agencies Published On 18 Dec 202518 Dec 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Egypt has said that Cairo’s natural gas deal with Israel is a “purely commercial” arrangement and that there are no “political dimensions” to the deal. On Thursday, Egypt’s State Information Service (SIS) said the agreement was struck by private energy companies under market rules and without government involvement. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “The deal is a purely commercial transaction concluded on the basis of strictly economic and investment considerations, and entails no political dimensions or understandings of any kind,” SIS chief Diaa Rashwan said in a statement. “The agreement serves a clear strategic interest for Egypt, namely strengthening its position as the sole regional hub for gas trading in the Eastern Mediterranean,” Rashwan added. Egypt’s announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the approval of the gas agreement with Egypt on Wednesday evening and called it “the largest gas deal in Israel’s history”. “Today, I approved the largest gas deal in Israel’s history. The deal is worth 112 billion shekels [$34.7bn]. Of this total, 58 billion shekels [$18bn] will go to the state coffers,” Netanyahu said during a televised address in Israel, alongside energy minister Eli Cohen. “The agreement is with the American company Chevron, with Israeli partners who will supply gas to Egypt,” Netanyahu added. Israel had signed the export agreement in August with Chevron and its partners to supply up to $35bn of gas to Egypt from the Leviathan natural gas field. But according to a report by the newspaper Israel Hayom, in September, Netanyahu had instructed that the gas agreement with Egypt should not move forward without his approval. His instructions came amid Israel’s allegations that Cairo had “violated the peace treaty” signed between the two countries through military deployments in Sinai – claims that Egypt has denied. Advertisement On March 26, 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in Washington, DC following the 1978 Camp David Accords. Its key provisions include ending the state of war, normalising relations, the full withdrawal of Israeli military forces and civilians from the Sinai Peninsula, and keeping the area demilitarised. According to CNN, Netanyahu’s announcement of the gas deal on Wednesday comes amid pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has been trying to organise a meeting between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Netanyahu. Relations between the two leaders have been frayed, and they have not met publicly in years. Tensions also intensified after Israel’s genocide in Gaza began. Egypt has been a vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza and played a key role in mediating a ceasefire in the enclave. But the truce is fragile and continues to fray amid a deepening humanitarian emergency across the Strip. Adblock test (Why?)
French anaesthetist jailed for life after poisoning and killing patients
The prosecution accused Frederic Pechier of having ‘used medicine to kill’ at least 12 people. Published On 18 Dec 202518 Dec 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share A French anaesthetist has been sentenced to life in prison after a court found him guilty of poisoning 30 patients during operations, killing 12. The Doubs Assize Court delivered its verdict on Thursday, with prosecutors describing the doctor as “one of the greatest criminals in history”. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Frederic Pechier, 53, was convicted of poisoning patients between 2008 and 2017 while working in two private clinics in the eastern city of Besancon. The victims ranged in age from four to 89. The verdict followed 15 weeks of hearings in a trial that lasted three months, marked by technical medical testimony and emotional accounts from victims’ families. The court heard that Pechier targeted patients treated by colleagues with whom he was in conflict, to discredit them professionally. In some cases, prosecutors said, he intervened to resuscitate patients he had poisoned not to save them, but to conceal his actions. The prosecution argued that Pechier acted to harm and “psychologically damage” healthcare workers he saw as rivals to “feed his thirst for power”. Christine de Curraize, the prosecuting lawyer, said Pechier’s goal in each poisoning was to “witness the downfall of his trapped colleague, to revel in his helplessness” before stepping in to resuscitate patients and present himself as the “doctor everyone admired”. Given the floor for a final statement on Monday, the last day of the trial, Pechier again denied the accusations, repeating a claim he maintained throughout the proceedings. Advertisement “I am not a poisoner,” he said. During closing arguments, the prosecution accused Pechier of having “used medicine to kill”. Pechier’s lawyers said they intend to appeal. He has 10 days to do so under French law. Adblock test (Why?)
Can India catch up with the US, Taiwan and China in the global chip race?
In October, a small electronics manufacturer in the western Indian state of Gujarat shipped its first batch of chip modules to a client in California. Kaynes Semicon, together with Japanese and Malaysian technology partners, assembled the chips in a new factory funded with incentives under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s $10bn semiconductor push announced in 2021. Modi has been trying to position India as an additional manufacturing hub for global companies that may be looking to expand their production beyond China, with limited success. One sign of that is India’s first commercial foundry for mature chips that is currently under construction, also in Gujarat. The $11bn project is supported by technology transfer from a Taiwanese chipmaker and has onboarded the United States chip giant Intel as a potential customer. With companies the world over hungering for chips, India’s entry into that business could boost its role in global supply chains. But experts caution that India still has a long way to go in attracting more foreign investment and catching up in cutting-edge technology. Unprecedented momentum Semiconductor chips are designed, fabricated in foundries, and then assembled and packaged for commercial use. The US leads in chip design, Taiwan in fabrication, and China, increasingly, in packaging. The upcoming foundry in Gujarat is a collaboration between India’s Tata Group, one of the largest conglomerates in the country, and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC), which is assisting with the plant’s construction and technology transfer. Advertisement On December 8, Tata Electronics also signed an agreement with Intel to explore the manufacturing and packaging of its products in Tata’s upcoming facilities, including the foundry. The partnership will address the growing domestic demand. Last year, Tata was approved for a 50 percent subsidy from the Modi government for the foundry, along with additional state-level incentives, and could come online as early as December 2026. Even if delayed, the project marks a pivotal moment for India, which has seen multiple attempts to build a commercial fab stall in the past. The foundry will focus on fabricating chips ranging from 28 nanometres (nm) to 110nm, typically referred to as mature chips because they are comparatively easier to produce than smaller 7nm or 3nm chips. Mature chips are used in most consumer and power electronics, while the smaller chips are in high demand for AI data centres and high-performance computing. Globally, the technology for mature chips is more widely available and distributed. Taiwan leads production of these chips, with China fast catching up, though Taiwan’s TSMC dominates production for cutting-edge nodes below 7nm. “India has long been strong in chip design, but the challenge has been converting that strength into semiconductor manufacturing,” said Stephen Ezell, vice president for global innovation policy at the Washington, DC-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). “In the past two to three years, there’s been more progress on that front than in the previous decade – driven by stronger political will at both the central and state levels, and a more coordinated push from the private sector to commit to these investments,” Ezell told Al Jazeera. Easy entry point More than half of the Modi government’s $10bn in semiconductor incentives is earmarked for the Tata-PSMC venture, with the remainder supporting nine other projects focused mainly on the assembly, testing and packaging (ATP) stage of the supply chain. These are India’s first such projects – one by Idaho-based Micron Technology, also in Gujarat, and another by the Tata Group in the northeastern Assam state. Both will use in-house technologies and have drawn investments of $2.7bn and $3.3bn, respectively. The remaining projects are smaller, with cumulative investments of about $2bn, and are backed by technology partners such as Taiwan’s Foxconn, Japan’s Renesas Electronics, and Thailand’s Stars Microelectronics. “ATP units offer a lower path of resistance compared to a large foundry, requiring smaller investments – typically between $50m and $1bn. They also carry less risk, and the necessary technology know-how is widely available globally,” Ashok Chandak, president of the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), told Al Jazeera. Advertisement Still, most of the projects are behind schedule. Micron’s facility, approved for incentives in June 2023, was initially expected to begin production by late 2024. However, the company noted in its fiscal 2025 report that the Gujarat facility will “address demand in the latter half of this decade”. Approved in February 2024, the Tata facility was initially slated to be operational by mid-2025, but the timeline has now been pushed to April 2026. When asked for reasons behind the delays, both Micron and Tata declined to comment. One exception is a smaller ATP unit by Kaynes Semicon, which in October exported a consignment of sample chip modules to an anchor client in California – a first for India. Another project by CG Semi, part of India’s Murugappa Group, is in trial runs, with commercial production expected in the coming months. The semiconductor projects under the Tata Group and the Murugappa Group have drawn public scrutiny after Indian online news outlet Scroll.in reported that both companies made massive political donations after they were picked for the projects. As per Scroll.in, the Tata Group donated 7.5 billion rupees ($91m) and 1.25 billion rupees ($15m), respectively, to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just weeks after securing government subsidies in February 2024 and ahead of national elections. Neither group had made such large donations to the party before. Such donations are not prohibited by law. Both the Tata Group and the Murugappa Group declined to comment to Al Jazeera regarding the reports. Meeting domestic demand a key priority The upcoming projects in India – both the foundry and the ATP units – will primarily focus on legacy, or mature, chips sized between 28nm and 110nm. While these chips are not at the cutting-edge of semiconductor technology, they account for the bulk of global demand, with applications across cars, industrial equipment and consumer electronics. China dominates the ATP segment globally with a 30 percent share and accounted for 42 percent of semiconductor
‘No evidence’ Australia’s Bondi gunmen trained in the Philippines: Official
Philippine official said ‘a mere visit’ to the country does not support claims the men underwent ‘terrorist training’. There is no evidence the suspected gunmen in the deadly Bondi Beach attack received military training in the southern Philippines, Manila’s national security adviser has said, as Australia announced plans to introduce measures to tighten the country’s hate speech laws. In a Wednesday statement, Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano confirmed the two suspects in Sunday’s attack in Sydney, Australia – which saw 15 people killed after gunmen opened fire at a Jewish event – were in the country from November 1 to 28 this year. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Ano said immigration records showed that 50-year-old Sajid Akram and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram travelled via the Philippine capital Manila to Davao City on the southern island of Mindanao. He added that Sajid had entered the country on an Indian passport, while Naveed entered on an Australian one. Ano added that there was “no evidence” that the men had received “any form of military training” while in the country. “A mere visit does not support allegations of terrorist training, and the duration of their stay would not have allowed for any meaningful or structured training,” he said. The men mostly stayed in their hotel rooms when in Davao, according to a report by local news outlet MindaNews. Staff at the hotel said the pair checked in on November 1 and rarely went out for more than an hour at a time during their almost monthlong stay. Australian authorities announced on Wednesday that Naveed Akram had been charged with 59 offences for his role in the attack, including murder and terror charges, when he woke from his coma. Sajid Akram, his father, was shot dead by police at the scene. Ano also suggested that reports describing Mindanao – home to most of the Catholic-majority country’s Muslim population, plagued by a decades-long secessionist conflict – as a “hotspot for violent extremism or Islamic State ideology” were “outdated and misleading”. Advertisement “Since the 2017 Marawi Siege, Philippine security forces have significantly degraded ISIS-affiliated groups in the country,” he said, referring to a five-month battle in which the ISIL-inspired Maute group seized the southern city and fought government forces. “The remnants of these groups have been fragmented, deprived of leadership, and operationally degraded,” Ano added. A 2014 peace agreement, which saw rebels drop their secessionist aspirations in exchange for a more powerful and better-funded Muslim autonomous region called Bangsamoro, has also brought a degree of calm to Mindanao. But smaller rebel groups continue to carry out sporadic, deadly attacks across the restive southern Philippines’ region. ‘Also an attack on the Australian way of life’: Anthony Albanese On Thursday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged to introduce new legislation cracking down on hate speech in response to the Bondi Beach attack, as he acknowledged that Australia had witnessed an increase in anti-Semitism since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Announcing the new measures at a news conference, Albanese said his government will seek to introduce legislation making it easier to charge people promoting hate speech and violence – including religious preachers – while new powers will be created to cancel or reject visas of people who spread “hate and division”. The legislation would also develop a regime to target organisations whose leaders engage in hate speech, Albanese added. Albanese said rising anti-Semitism “culminated on Sunday in one of the worst acts of mass murder that this country has ever seen”. “It was an attack on our Jewish community – but it was also an attack on the Australian way of life. Australians are shocked and angry. I am angry. It is clear we need to do more to combat this evil scourge, much more,” he said. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said on Wednesday he would recall the state parliament next week in order to pass urgent reforms on gun laws. Adblock test (Why?)