Stock Markets
Factbox-Vehicle attacks on pedestrians increasingly common around the world
(Reuters) – A new chapter in mass attacks began in Nice, France, in 2016, when a man drove a heavy truck into crowds of Bastille Day celebrants. Since then vehicle attacks have become increasingly common, though only some have been declared acts of terrorism. The New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, as revelers ushered in 2025, was the latest attack.
A driver crashed his pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year’s Day in New Orleans’ French Quarter and opened fire, killing 10 people and injuring more than 35, in an early morning attack the FBI said was a potential act of terrorism.
Vehicle attacks have become increasingly common around the world. The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency calls vehicle attacks “a significant threat in the United States” and provides a “Vehicle Incident Prevention and Mitigation Security Guide.”
Below is a list in reverse chronological order of some high-profile incidents in which a vehicle was used to ram into crowds, harming and killing bystanders.
MAGDEBURG, Germany
Last month in Germany, a 50-year-old man was charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder after police said he plowed a car through crowds at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing five people and injuring scores.
The suspect, who was in custody, is a psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric who has lived in Germany for almost two decades.
ZHUHAI, China
A driver in November rammed his car into a crowd at a sports center in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai, killing 35 people and severely injuring 43 in one of the deadliest attacks in contemporary Chinese history.
Police said the 62-year-old driver, with the surname Fan, had been captured and was hospitalized for wounds believed to have been self-inflicted with a knife to the neck and other parts of his body. Fan had been upset about the split of assets in his divorce settlement, police said.
WAUKESHA, Wisconsin
A Wisconsin man was convicted in 2022 of killing six people and injuring dozens when he drove his SUV into a Christmas parade near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in November 2021. Darrell Brooks was accused of deliberately driving his sport utility vehicle through police barricades and plowing into crowds of people participating in the annual parade in Waukesha, about 15 miles (25 km) west of downtown Milwaukee.
LONDON, Ontario
A 22-year-old self-confessed Canadian white nationalist ran over and killed four members of a Muslim family with his pick-up truck in June 2021 in London, Ontario, a Canadian city about 120 miles (190 km) from Toronto. In 2023 Nathaniel Veltman was convicted of first-degree murder. The judge in the case called it an act of terrorism.
TORONTO
In 2018, a man plowed a rented van into dozens of people in downtown Toronto, killing 11 people and injuring 15.
Alek Minassian was found guilty in 2021 of murdering 10 people and attempting to murder 16. One of the 16 later died in connection with injuries suffered in the attack, and a judge said she considered the woman the 11th murder victim.
NEW YORK
In October 2017, a 34-year-old Uzbek national plowed a rented truck onto a Manhattan bike path, killing eight people and injuring 11, including a Belgian woman who lost her legs. Sayfullo Saipov, who had moved to the United States in 2010, was convicted in 2023 of murder with a goal of joining Islamic State, which the United States designates a terrorist organization.
BARCELONA
In August 2017, a 22-year-old man rammed a car into crowds in Barcelona on Las Ramblas, a popular tourist spot, killing 13 people. The man, Younes Abouyaaqoub, fled the scene on foot before later stabbing a man to death and taking his car to escape. Abouyaaqoub was shot dead by police a few days later near Barcelona.
NEW YORK
In May 2017, A U.S. Navy veteran rammed his car into pedestrians in Manhattan’s crowded Times Square, killing a woman and injuring 22 people. A jury in 2022 accepted the insanity defense offered by Richard Rojas.
LONDON
In March 2017, a car sped across Westminster Bridge, mowing down pedestrians just outside Parliament, killing four people and injuring dozens. The driver, 52-year-old Khalid Masood, a British-born convert to Islam, then fatally stabbed a police officer before he was shot dead.
BERLIN
In December 2016, Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker with Islamist links, hijacked a truck, killed the driver and then plowed it into a crowded Berlin Christmas market, killing 11 more people and injuring dozens. Four days later he was killed in a shoot-out with police in Italy.
NICE, France
In 2016, a gunman drove a heavy truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French coastal city of Nice, killing 86 people and injuring scores more in an attack claimed by Islamic State. The attacker was identified as a Tunisian-born Frenchman.
Stock Markets
Hamas says it has approved Israeli list of 34 hostages for possible deal
CAIRO (Reuters) – Palestinian militant group Hamas has approved a list of 34 hostages presented by Israel to be exchanged in a possible ceasefire deal, a group official told Reuters on Sunday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, also reiterated that any deal is contingent upon reaching an agreement on an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire.
Stock Markets
Israeli strikes kill 14 people in Gaza, mediators strive for a truce deal
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dawoud Abu Alkas
CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Israeli airstrikes killed at least 14 Palestinians in three separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, taking the weekend death toll to 102, Palestinian medics said, as U.S. and Arab mediators stepped up efforts to conclude a ceasefire deal.
Health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed five people in a house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, while another airstrike killed four others in Jabalia in the northern edge of the enclave, where Israeli forces have been operating for three months.
Later on Sunday, an Israeli airstrike hit a police station in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing five people, medics said. It was not immediately clear if all the dead were policemen.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants operating from the humanitarian area in Khan Younis, and an Islamic Jihad militant who carried out attacks from the humanitarian area in Dier al-Balah.
Earlier on Sunday, the health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli strikes across the territory had killed at least 88 Palestinians and wounded more than 200 others in the past 24 hours.
In Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, relatives and neighbours rushed to the Zuhd family’s house, which was struck by an Israeli airstrike late on Saturday, killing seven people, medics said. The search continued on Sunday morning for four others believed to be trapped under the rubble.
A hand belonging to one of the dead could be seen amongst the ruins, with the rest of his body buried under collapsed masonry. Three men removed dirt with their bare hands to retrieve bodies and search for possible survivors.
“Three young men, the son’s wife, and three children are still here. We retrieved this cousin of mine. Another cousin has been martyred and is now in the hospital. Approximately 11 people have been martyred here,” Ammar Zuhd, a relative, told Reuters.
ISRAEL SAYS DOZENS OF HAMAS MILITANTS KILLED
The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that its forces had attacked more than 100 targets across Gaza over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas militants. It said it had also destroyed rocket launching sites that had been used to wage attacks on Israel in recent days.
Later on Sunday, it said it killed an Islamic Jihad militant last week in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza. Sa’ed Saeed Zaki Dahnoun participated in the Oct. 7 cross-border attack on Israel, the military said.
A renewed push is underway to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, and return Israeli hostages who were taken to Gaza, before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Israeli negotiators were dispatched on Friday to resume talks in Doha brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, while U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, which is helping to mediate, urged Hamas to agree to a deal.
Hamas said it was committed to reaching an agreement as soon as possible, but it was unclear how close the two sides were.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas militants on communities in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military campaign, with the stated goal of eradicating Hamas, has leveled swathes of the enclave, driving most people from their homes, and has killed 45,805 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi. Additional reporting by Dawoud Abu Alkas in Gaza and Maytaal Angel in Jerusalem; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Stock Markets
Massive winter storm to clobber U.S. from Plains to East Coast
By Rich McKay
(Reuters) – Millions of Americans from the Plains to the East Coast faced the threat of blizzards, heavy snow, treacherous ice and freezing rain through Monday, the National Weather Service said on Saturday.
Governors in Kentucky and Virginia declared states of emergency ahead of the winter storm.
“The storm is still taking shape,” meteorologist Rich Bann of the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center said Saturday evening. “But this thing has multiple hazards from heavy snows in the Plains to significant icing covering roads farther south.”
He added that more than 60 million people in the U.S. were affected by winter weather warnings, watches or advisories this weekend.
A swath extending eastward from Nebraska and Kansas through Ohio, Indiana, southwestern Pennsylvania and northwestern Virginia could see from 1 inch (2.54 cm) to 1 foot (30 cm) of snow. Ice could knock out power lines and cause widespread outages.
A wintry mess of freezing rain and ice will hit southern Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee on Sunday, Bann said, likely making roads hazardous and downing power lines.
“It’ll be nearly impossible to drive in some areas,” he said.
The Kansas City International Airport in Missouri closed temporarily on Saturday afternoon due to rapid ice accumulation, officials said on social media.
Bann said that the storm should move past the East Coast and into the Atlantic Ocean by late on Monday, but a new blast of Arctic air will bring frigid cold to the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. by the middle of next week.
- Forex2 years ago
Forex Today: the dollar is gaining strength amid gloomy sentiment at the start of the Fed’s week
- Forex2 years ago
How is the Australian dollar doing today?
- Forex2 years ago
Unbiased review of Pocket Option broker
- Forex2 years ago
Dollar to pound sterling exchange rate today: Pound plummeted to its lowest since 1985
- Cryptocurrency2 years ago
What happened in the crypto market – current events today
- World2 years ago
Why are modern video games an art form?
- Commodities2 years ago
Copper continues to fall in price on expectations of lower demand in China
- Forex2 years ago
The dollar is down again against major world currencies