US to Focus on Ending War When World Leaders Gather at UN

A handout still image taken from handout video provided on 17 September 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry shows a Russian BM-21 Grad, a self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher, firing towards Ukrainian positions at an undisclosed location in Russia. EPA/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/Handout
A handout still image taken from handout video provided on 17 September 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry shows a Russian BM-21 Grad, a self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher, firing towards Ukrainian positions at an undisclosed location in Russia. EPA/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/Handout
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US to Focus on Ending War When World Leaders Gather at UN

A handout still image taken from handout video provided on 17 September 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry shows a Russian BM-21 Grad, a self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher, firing towards Ukrainian positions at an undisclosed location in Russia. EPA/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/Handout
A handout still image taken from handout video provided on 17 September 2024 by the Russian Defense Ministry shows a Russian BM-21 Grad, a self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher, firing towards Ukrainian positions at an undisclosed location in Russia. EPA/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/Handout

The US focus at next week's annual UN gathering of world leaders will include ending the scourge of war and revitalizing an overstretched aid system, US envoy Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Tuesday.

She specifically mentioned Russia's war in Ukraine, the conflict in Sudan, instability in Haiti, the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip and violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar.

"As we work to silence the guns, we must also redouble our efforts to address humanitarian crises," Thomas-Greenfield told reporters ahead of the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly.

"Aid workers put their own lives at risk to save the lives of others. But what we hear time and time again is that humanitarians don't have the resources, they don't have the protection, they don't have the access they need to do their jobs," she said.

More than 130 heads of state or government are due to travel to New York to address the 193-member General Assembly, a week after a second assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

"The situation that happened with President Trump is unacceptable," Thomas-Greenfield said. "We have a responsibility to do everything possible to protect the heads of state who are coming here, but also protect their own political leaders."

"New York City has police everywhere, diplomatic security is supporting Secret Service to also provide security for all the heads of state who will be here," she said, adding that there had never been a security incident related to a head of state at the UN.



German Police Say 4 Women and a Boy Were Killed in the Christmas Market Attack

Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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German Police Say 4 Women and a Boy Were Killed in the Christmas Market Attack

Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Tributes to the victims are seen outside the Johanniskirche (Johannes Church), a makeshift memorial near the site of a car-ramming attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

More details emerged Sunday about those killed when a man drove a car at speed through a Christmas market in Germany, while mourners continued to place flowers and other tributes at the site of the attack.

Police in Magdeburg, the central city where the attack took place on Friday evening, said that the victims were four women ranging in age from 45 to 75, as well as a 9-year-old boy they had spoken of a day earlier.

Authorities said 200 people were injured, including 41 in serious condition. They were being treated in multiple hospitals in Magdeburg, which is about 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Berlin, and beyond.

Authorities have identified the suspect in the Magdeburg attack as a Saudi doctor who arrived in Germany in 2006 and had received permanent residency.

The suspect was on Saturday evening brought before a judge, who behind closed doors ordered that he be kept in custody pending a possible indictment.

Police haven’t publicly named the suspect, but several German news outlets identified him as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect appears to have been an active user of the social media platform X, accusing German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he referred to as the “Islamification of Europe.”

The horror triggered by yet another act of mass violence in Germany make it likely that migration will remain a key issue as German heads toward an early election on Feb. 23.

The far-right Alternative for Germany party had already been polling strongly amid a societal backlash against the large numbers of refugees and migrants who have arrived in Germany over the past decade.

Right-wing figures from across Europe have criticized German authorities for having allowed high levels of migration in the past and for what they see as security failures now.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is known for a strong anti-migration position going back years, used the attack in Germany to lash out at the European Union’s migration policies.

At an annual press conference in Budapest on Saturday, Orban insisted that “there is no doubt that there is a link between the changed world in Western Europe, the migration that flows there, especially illegal migration and terrorist acts.”

Orban vowed to “fight back” against the EU migration policies “because Brussels wants Magdeburg to happen to Hungary, too.”