Van driver who struck, killed 10 pedestrians in Toronto found guilty
TORONTO — A man who admitted using a van to kill 10 pedestrians in Toronto was found guilty Wednesday in a case that drew attention to an online world of sexual loneliness, rage and misogyny.
Alek Minassian faced 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder in connection with the April 23, 2018, attack.
Minassian, 28, told police he belonged to an online community of sexually frustrated men, some of whom have plotted attacks on people who have sex. He admitted to police that he drove a rental van into crowds of pedestrians in a busy north Toronto neighborhood. Eight women and two men ranging in age from 22 to 94 died.
His lawyer argued he didn’t know what he was doing was wrong because he has autism spectrum disorder, angering advocates for the rights of autistic individuals. Minassian had pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer argued his client was not criminally responsible.
Justice Anne Molloy said his lawyers failed to prove he was not criminally responsible. She said there is no doubt his actions were planned and deliberate and that he was fully aware of what he was doing.
“His attack on these 26 victims that day was an act of a reasoning mind,” Molloy said.
Minassian faces an automatic life sentence with no parole for at least 25 years. Sentencing will be at a later date.
A day after Gov. Greg Abbott announced an end to all pandemic-related precautions in Texas, President
Biden blasts Abbott:
Joe Biden slammed him Wednesday for putting lives at risk by clinging to “Neanderthal thinking” rather than heeding advice from the nation’s top scientists.
“I think it’s a big mistake,” Biden told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers. “We are on the cusp of being able to fundamentally change the nature of this disease because of the way in which we’re able to get vaccines in people’s arms . ... The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask. Forget it. It still matters.”
The nation’s top infectious disease experts have expressed disappointment at Abbott’s decision to end all restrictions starting next Wednesday, calling the move premature and warning it could lead to a resurgence of the outbreak that has cost more than 43,000 lives in Texas.
Israeli war crimes probe:
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Wednesday launched an investigation into alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories, turning the tribunal’s focus toward Israeli military actions and settlement construction on lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
The decision dealt an embarrassing blow to the Israeli government, which had conducted an aggressive public relations and behind-the-scenes diplomatic campaign to block the investigation.
It also raised the possibility of arrest warrants being issued against Israeli officials suspected of war crimes, making it potentially risky to travel abroad.
“The state of Israel is under attack this evening,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a videotaped statement. “The biased international court in The Hague made a decision that is the essence of anti-Semitism and hypocrisy.”
The decision by Fatou Bensouda, the court’s outgoing prosecutor, had been expected since the court determined last month that she had jurisdiction over the case.
Ukraine rejects US request:
A court in Ukraine on Wednesday rejected an extradition request for an American who served in the country’s right-wing paramilitary units, dealing a blow to U.S. law enforcement agencies seeking to clamp down on Americans traveling to Ukraine to get battle experience with far-right militias there.
Craig Lang, an Army veteran and North Carolina native, had been charged in the United States in connection with a double murder in Florida, but his case drew attention to the risk of Americans fighting for far-right groups in Ukraine and other global hot spots.
The U.S. authorities have signaled that they intend to focus on Ukrainian paramilitaries as one of the world’s hubs for right-wing extremists, an issue that shot to the top of the agenda this year after far-right groups demonstrated their potential for violence in the Capitol riot.
But the issue is seen quite differently in Ukraine, where right-wing militias are fighting on the side of the government in a war with Russian-backed separatists that has killed more than 13,000 people.
Collins to back Haaland:
Maine Sen. Susan Collins said she will support New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to be Interior secretary, the first Republican senator to publicly back a nominee set to become the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency.
The announcement makes Haaland’s confirmation by the Senate nearly certain and follows Haaland’s endorsement last week by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Manchin caused an uproar last month by announcing plans to oppose Biden’s choice for budget director, Neera Tanden, a decision that played a role in her withdrawal Tuesday.
Germany tracks far right:
For the first time in its postwar history, Germany has placed its main opposition party under surveillance, one of the most dramatic steps yet by a Western democracy to protect itself from the onslaught of far-right forces that have upset politics from Europe to the United States.
The decision by the domestic intelligence agency will now allow it to tap phones and other communications and monitor the movements of members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which not only sits in the Federal Parliament but has become entrenched at all levels of politics in nearly every part of the nation.
It is among the most sweeping efforts yet to deal with the rise of far-right and neo-Nazi political movements within Western democracies.
Vaccines to Africa:
More African countries received the long-awaited first deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday, with Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and Lesotho benefiting from the global COVAX initiative that aims to ensure doses for the world’s low-and middle-income nations.
Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Angola, Gambia and Congo also have received their first vaccine doses via COVAX, with other countries, including Mali, Senegal, Malawi and Uganda, set to receive them this week.