Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and wife Sophie are separating

 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau are separating, Trudeau announced on his Instagram account Wednesday.

Trudeau said after “many meaningful and difficult conversations” with Sophie, “we have made the decision to separate.”

“As always, we remain a close family with deep love and respect for each other and for everything we have built and will continue to build,” he wrote.

He asked that their privacy be respected for the well-being of their children.

The prime minister’s office said the pair have “have signed a legal separation agreement,” in a Wednesday statement.

“They have worked to ensure that all legal and ethical steps with regards to their decision to separate have been taken, and will continue to do so moving forward,’ it said.

How they met

After spending several years teaching in Vancouver, Trudeau returned to Montreal in 2002 where he met Grégoire, according to the Canadian Prime Minister’s official biography.

“In 2002, Justin returned home to Montréal, where he met Sophie Grégoire. They married in 2005 and are now the proud parents of Xavier, Ella-Grace, and Hadrien,” it wrote.

According to Trudeau’s Liberal Party website, Grégoire Trudeau gained a degree in communications at the University of Montréal, later working in sales and advertising before becoming a television and radio reporter.

In an Instagram post celebrating their wedding anniversary last year, Grégoire Trudeau said the pair had “navigated through sunny days, heavy storms, and everything in between and it ain’t over.”

She added: “Long-term relationships are challenging in so many ways. They demand constant work, flexibility, compromise, sacrifice, devotion, patience, effort, and so much more. None of us are perfect and so there is no perfect relationship, but love is only true when it keeps you safe, sets you free, and makes you grow.”

The pair attended King Charles’ coronation in London earlier in May, and also met with US President Joe Biden in March.

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Scottish court rules rape suspect accused of faking own death can be extradited to US

A Scottish court ruled Wednesday that a rape suspect who has been accused of faking his own death can be extradited to the US to face charges, according to UK news agency PA Media.

Nicholas Rossi, 35, currently faces a string of accusations in separate US states.

On Wednesday, Sheriff Norman McFadyen told Edinburgh Sheriff Court that Rossi’s extradition “would be compatible with the Convention rights within the meaning of the Human Rights Act 1998,” PA Media reported.

McFadyen told the court that he will next send Rossi’s case to Scottish ministers “for their decision whether he is to be extradited,” according to PA Media.

Rossi has steadfastly insisted that he is a victim of mistaken identity, claiming that he is in fact an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight, despite a court ruling otherwise last November.

He came to international attention in October 2021 after he was served an Interpol Red Notice, which is a request to law enforcement worldwide to provisionally arrest a person.

Rossi appeared before court on Wednesday via video link after claiming to be not well enough to attend physically. He has previously attended court in a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen mask, but has faced questions about the veracity of his health issues.

Barbara Mundweil, Rossi’s medical doctor at the Edinburgh prison where he has been held since 2022, told the court that she had “no major concerns” regarding his health generally, PA Media said.

Rossi’s lawyer Mungo Bovey had asserted in his closing speech that Rossi’s extradition to the US would serve as a “flagrant breach” of his human rights.

Public prosecutor Alan Cameron countered this claim, telling the court there was no evidence that Rossi suffered any conditions that would hinder his extradition, according to PA Media.

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Aid group working to secure the freedom of an American woman and her daughter kidnapped in Haiti, it says

Six days since American nurse Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter were kidnapped from the community ministry where she works in Haiti, information about their capture and whereabouts remains unclear as the aid group works with authorities and partners in the United States and Haiti to secure their freedom, it said.

The effort comes amid waves of crimes and unrest across Haiti, with more than 1,000 people taken hostage for ransom there this year, according to United Nations figures.

“Many people are laboring for their return, but currently we cannot share more specific details,” Christian humanitarian organization El Roi Haiti said Monday in a statement about Dorsainvil and her child. “We are so thankful for all of the support that has been shown. Please continue to pray with us for the protection and freedom of Alix and her daughter.”

Dorsainvil, the wife of El Roi Haiti Director Sandro Dorsainvil, and their child reportedly were abducted Thursday morning while serving at their community ministry on El Roi Haiti’s campus near the capital city Port-au-Prince, according to a statement from the non-profit. It’s not clear how old their child is.

The kidnapping – including a man pulling out a gun – unfolded in view of a patient waiting for a medical checkup, they told the Associated Press.

“When I saw the gun, I was so scared,” Lormina Louima told the AP. “I said, ‘I don’t want to see this, let me go.’”

The same day, the US State Department ordered the departure of nonemergency government personnel from Haiti as the security situation in the country deteriorates. The order followed a travel advisory from the US Embassy in Haiti advising US nationals to leave immediately due to recent armed clashes between criminal groups and police in Port-au-Prince.

Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas have been gripped by a yearslong kidnapping-for-profit epidemic, with hundreds of Haitians targeted by gangs seeking ransom payments each year.

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Israeli lawmakers to vote to weaken Supreme Court amid protests, as Netanyahu leaves hospital

After six months of street protests, parliamentary maneuvering, compromise talks and increasingly urgent pleas from the White House, Israeli lawmakers are set to vote on the first part of the government’s sweeping plan to weaken the power of the country’s courts on Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who left hospital on Monday morning after having been fitted with a pacemaker, has been pressing on with his plans for the judicial system overhaul even as protests against them show no signs on easing.

He and his allies call the measures “reforms” and say they are required to rebalance powers between the courts, lawmakers and the government. Opponents of the plan call it a “coup” and say it threatens to turn Israel into a dictatorship by removing the most significant checks on government actions.

Netanyahu was forced to pause the legislative process earlier this year in the face of widespread protests and international pressure.

The demonstrations continued on Monday. Huge crowds of people waving flags took over the area around the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, despite the sweltering heat. The protesters were met with police water cannons, fences and barbed wire as they attempted to block access to the building.

The Knesset begun discussing the first part of the reform on Sunday, with so many lawmakers requesting time to speak that the discussion was scheduled to last 26 hours.

Deep divisions

Monday’s vote is on the so-called reasonableness bill, which would strip the Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable. It could be voted into law in on Monday evening.

Other elements of the judicial overhaul would give the far-right coalition government more control of the appointment of judges, and would remove independent legal advisers from government ministries. Those bills have not advanced as far in the legislative process at the reasonableness bill.

The Israel Bar Association is already preparing a legal challenge to the bill, the lawyers’ group said Sunday.

Its executive, the Bar Council, is holding an emergency meeting to approve the decision to petition the Supreme Court to cancel the reasonableness law if it passes on Monday, the Bar said.

The Bar is also warning it will shut down “as an act of protest against the anti-democratic legislative process,” the statement said. That means the Bar Association would not provide professional services to its members, not that lawyers would go on strike.

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Netanyahu isn’t backing down on judicial overhaul despite pressure from Biden

On Thursday evening, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced a last-minute televised statement by Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rumors and reports had been swirling that Netanyahu was going to step back or soften one bill of the judicial overhaul legislation that was set to come up for its final votes early next week: the reasonableness standard.

But instead, despite the tens of thousands of protesters, the increase in refusals to serve by military reservists and even a very public and harsh criticism of the judicial overhaul plan by US President Joe Biden, Netanyahu refused to back down.

Netanyahu spent the speech extolling how this piece of legislation, which would strip the Israeli Supreme Court of its ability to declare government actions “unreasonable,” would strengthen democracy, not destroy it – even though the Supreme Court is the only check on government actions in Israel, since the executive and legislative branches of government are always controlled by the same governing coalition. He said he was still open to discussions with the opposition, but blamed them for the breakdown in negotiations towards a compromise over the past few months.

He saved his harshest criticisms for two groups: the demonstrators on the streets and the military reservists who are refusing to serve in protest. Netanyahu said “extremists” in the protest movement “do not want any compromise but are striving for only one thing – to sow chaos in the country,” and chastised the tens of thousands of demonstrators who have been taking to the streets, blaming them for blocking traffic, trains, even ambulances (a charge the protest organizations have vehemently denied).

Even worse, he said, the growing number of military reservists who are refusing to serve as a form of protest “endangers the security of us all, of every citizen of Israel.

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Germany warns of suspected lioness on the loose in Berlin

 

Berlin police warned residents in parts of the capital to stay indoors as a wild animal, believed to be a lioness, is on the loose in the southwestern part of the German capital Thursday morning.

“Please avoid leaving the house due to an escaped wild animal in the Kleinmachnow, Teltow & Stahnsdorf (PM) area and also bring your pets into the house. Our colleagues are on site and checking the situation,” local police said Thursday morning on Twitter.

Police said that the wild animal has not been found yet and urged people to call emergency services if they spot it, according to their latest update posted at 6 a.m. local time.

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Ukraine claims responsibility for new attack on key Crimea bridge

A Ukrainian security official has claimed Kyiv’s responsibility for an attack on the bridge linking the annexed Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland – a vital supply line for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine and a personal project for President Vladimir Putin.

The nearly 12-mile crossing, also known as the Kerch Bridge, is the longest in Europe and holds huge strategic and symbolic importance for Moscow. Monday’s attack on the bridge was the second since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, after a fuel tanker exploded while crossing it in October.

A source in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) told CNN this attack was a joint operation of the SBU and Ukraine’s naval forces. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not received authorization to speak on the record.

Two people were killed and their daughter wounded in the attack, according to Russian-appointed officials.

Two strikes were reportedly carried out around 3 a.m. local time Monday (8 p.m. ET Sunday), damaging part of the bridge, according to Telegram channel Grey Zone, which supports the Wagner mercenary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, confirmed that two people were killed and a third person was injured in the incident.

Gladkov said a girl was injured and her parents were killed while traveling in the car that was damaged in the incident.

“There is damage to the roadway on spans of the Crimean Bridge,” Russia’s Transport Ministry said on Telegram. The spans on a bridge are the lengths between the support piers. Images showed a partial collapse of a section of the roadway portion of the bridge, which also carries railroad tracks.

On his Telegram channel, Vladimir Konstantinov, head of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea, blamed the damage to the bridge on a Ukrainian attack.

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