Political leaders condemn firebomb attack
Poland: Warsaw’s main synagogue was attacked with firebombs overnight by an unknown perpetrator, but there was minimal damage and nobody was hurt, Poland’s chief rabbi said yesterday.
The incident was strongly condemned by political leaders.
The attack on the Nozyk Synagogue happened at around 1am, the country’s Americanborn chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said.
He said the synagogue was hit with three firebombs, or Molotov cocktails, and only suffered minimal damage “by tremendous luck or miracle”.
A black area that appeared to be the result of flames could be seen at one spot on the building.
Poland’s president Andrzej Duda wrote on social media site X that he condemned “the shameful attack”, adding: “There is no place for antisemitism in Poland! There is no place for hatred in Poland!”
Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski noted that the incident fell on the 20th anniversary of Poland joining the European Union along with nine other countries, most of them central European nations that had been under the Soviet sphere of influence for decades.
“Thank God no-one was hurt. I wonder who is trying to disrupt the anniversary of our accession to the EU,” he wrote on X. “Maybe the same ones who scribbled Stars of David in Paris?”
Kenya: Tourists were evacuated by air from Kenya’s Maasai Mara national reserve yesterday after more than a dozen hotels, lodges and camps were flooded as heavy rain continued to batter the country.
Tourist accommodation facilities were submerged after a river within the Maasai Mara broke its banks early yesterday.
The reserve, in southwestern Kenya, is a popular tourist destination because it features the annual wildebeest migration from the Serengeti in Tanzania.
The Kenya Red Cross said it rescued 36 people by air and 25 others by land.
The Narok County government said it deployed two helicopters to carry out evacuations in the expansive conservation area.
More than 170 people have died across Kenya since mid-march when the rainy season started, causing flooding and landslides, and destroying infrastructure.
The Meteorology Department has warned that more rain is expected this week.
Australia: A 15-year-old boy who claimed to be a friend of a teenager accused of stabbing a bishop in Australia has applied to be released from custody on bail.
He is one of six teenagers, aged 14 to 17, who were charged in a Sydney court last week with a range of offences including conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act.
All are currently in custody.
Police allege that they “adhered to a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology” and that they are part of a network that includes a 16-year-old boy charged with stabbing an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest on April 15 as a church service was being streamed online.
Prosecutor Rebekah Rodger opposed the bail application, arguing that the boy’s circumstances are unexceptional.