Police in Toronto, Canada, are opening a hate crime investigation after shots were fired overnight into the window of a Jewish girls’ elementary school – the second time this year the school was targeted by gunfire, officials said.

The incident occurred around 4 a.m. Saturday at the Bais Chaya Mushka Girls Elementary School on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the holiest day of the year in Judaism, Toronto Police Service Inspector Paul Krawczyk said at a news conference.

No arrests have been made and police are not releasing information about suspects at this time, Krawczyk said. The investigation into the incident will be led by the agency’s Gun and Gang Task Force with assistance from its hate crime unit, he added.

There were no injuries or reports of gunshots heard, and the building was empty because the school is currently closed for the Jewish High Holidays, Krawczyk said. In a news release, police said the suspect or suspects were in a motor vehicle when they discharged a firearm at the school. Evidence of gunfire was located at the scene, the release said.

The same school was also hit with gunfire in a similar incident in May, Krawczyk said.

“I appreciate the significant trauma that this can cause those in the Jewish community,” he said. “While we can’t say whether these incidents are connected at this time, it’s certainly a key aspect of our investigation.”

Krawczyk said officials would consider releasing video camera footage from the incident, which will be examined as part of the investigation. The agency has increased police presence in Jewish neighborhoods in recent weeks and will also do so at the school as the investigation unfolds, Krawczyk said.

“We’re asking anyone who is in the area or who could have dash cam footage or other CCTV footage to please step forward and provide us with that evidence. Your help is vital to the work we do and to find those responsible,” he said.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement on the shooting, saying: “I’m very disturbed to hear that last night, as families marked Yom Kippur, there were shots fired at a Jewish school in Toronto.”

“As we wait for more details, my heart goes out to the students, staff, and parents who must be terrified and hurting today,” Trudeau said on X. “Antisemitism is a disgusting and dangerous form of hate — and we won’t let it stand.”

It was the perfect feel-good story, just in time for Christmas.

On December 20 last year, the United States secured from Venezuela the release of 10 US citizens – six of them wrongfully detained – in exchange for a close ally of authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro and a commitment from Caracas that it would stop detaining Americans to use as negotiating pawns.

“The administration has made abundantly clear the expectation that additional Americans are not detained, and has secured commitments along those lines,” a cheerful US official announced at the time.

That deal, which also included the extradition of a former military contractor known as “Fat Leonard” who orchestrated the largest corruption scandal in US Navy history, was hailed as a thawing of relations in the long-running standoff between the countries that has seen the US impose sanctions on Venezuela and accuse its leader of illegally usurping power, abusing human rights and trafficking drugs.

But fast-forward to nearly a year later and the vibe has turned more Halloween trick than Christmas treat.

Venezuela recently announced it had detained at least four US citizens, along with a handful of other foreign nationals, alleging they were part of an international conspiracy masterminded by the CIA and Spanish intelligence to overthrow Maduro.

That claim has been strongly denied by both the US and Spanish governments.

The US State Department has said the claims are “categorically false” and intimated that the detentions are linked to American criticisms of Venezuela’s disputed presidential election, which Maduro claims to have won despite widespread skepticism. The United States “continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela,” the State Department said, pointedly, when commenting on the allegations.

So, is there anything to Venezuela’s claims? And if not, what does Maduro hope to gain by returning to an old playbook?

Hollywood script and a convenient bogeyman

The details of the alleged plot read like the script of a Hollywood thriller. Maduro’s interior minister Diosdado Cabello claims the detained foreigners – who also included two Spaniards and a Czech – were part of a shadowy unit who traveled to Venezuela to kill Maduro, apparently motivated by the up to $15 million reward the US Justice Department offered in 2020 for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

According to Cabello, the plot not only involved the CIA but was led by an active duty US Navy Seal, and involved a shipment of 400 (now seized) US-manufactured rifles and other firearms.

Two other US citizens, Cabello claims, were “hackers” intent on disrupting Venezuela’s chronically inefficient power service. (Not the first time Cabello has cried foul over blackouts; he alleged “terrorist actions” by the opposition were behind a late-August blackout that affected at least nine Venezuelan states and dozens of cities including the capital Caracas.)

Intriguingly, White House spokesperson John Kirby confirmed that the man Caracas identified as the alleged ringleader – Wilbert Castañeda – is an active service member in the US Navy whom, Kirby said, went to Venezuela on “personal travel.” Other media have reported that Castañeda, who is a dual Mexican-US citizen, used to serve as a Navy Seal but was stripped of his status sometime in the past.

Given the nature of the allegations, Venezuela’s claims are almost impossible to independently verify.

But then skeptics might say that’s exactly the point – that for Maduro, the CIA is merely a convenient, tried-and-tested bogeyman.

Maduro has in the past also alleged, without proof, that the US government and former US President Donald Trump were behind a 2018 assassination attempt in which an explosive-laden drone detonated mid-air during one of his speeches (an ‘attack’ prosecutors initially tried to pin on then-Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos). Maduro has also alleged, again without evidence, that the CIA and Washington in general were to blame for an insurrection in April 2019, and in September of the following year his government detained US citizen Matthew Heath on allegations of spying on oil refineries in the state of Falcon. Heath was later released in a prisoner exchange, and the US government has always denied involvement in any of the alleged schemes.

All that said, Maduro knows there is an audience receptive to such narratives, precisely because the CIA does have a well-documented history of meddling in the region. And it’s likely not lost on him that the US was aware of a plot to overthrow his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, weeks before a coup d’etat was attempted in 2002.

‘Loose dogs’, or a threat from within?

Still, even among those in the Venezuelan government who believe the security services have stumbled on some kind of plot, there are some who are skeptical of Cabello’s claims of CIA involvement.

“I think these are more loose dogs than a real involvement from the US government, because everyone knows that removing Maduro by force would only escalate the conflict around Venezuela,” said a government source who, like other people consulted for this article, asked not to be named due to the confidential nature of the topic.

“But you cannot underestimate the allure of the ($15 million Department of Justice) reward especially for crazy adventurers, or do you really believe a Navy Seal on active duty travelled to Venezuela for a summer romance?” the source said.

One scenario that doesn’t seem to be under consideration in Caracas’ corridors of power is whether a plot could have originated from within the country.

That may sound surprising, given Maduro has alienated vast swathes of the population with his election ‘victory’ and subsequent crackdown on the opposition. He has also likely alienated some of those within his own government with his habit of chopping and changing key personnel on a whim.

But while it’s not impossible to imagine former Chavistas plotting to bring Maduro down, a more likely explanation may simply be that the Venezuelan leader has cooked up the whole story for political leverage against his old foe, the US.

If so, what does Maduro think he has to gain?

A negotiating tactic?

The obvious answer leads back to the election. In October last year, before the release of “Fat Leonard” and Co, Maduro had promised the US that Venezuela’s election would be free and fair. And as recently as six months ago, the economic community in Caracas was hoping it would be at least fair enough for the US to lift its remaining oil sanctions and bring Venezuela back into the fold of the world’s democracies.

The subsequent electoral farce, and Maduro’s desertion of his commitments to restore democracy, pulverized those hopes and made it clear that any further steps toward reconciliation would have to be painfully negotiated by diplomats.

It would seem Maduro sees the newly detained Americans as pawns to be used in those negotiations, with a view to quieting US criticisms of the election, and as leverage in any sanctions negotiations.

It’s an approach that sends a calculated message to US President Joe Biden, whose administration has prioritized the release of US citizens unjustly detained abroad – having reached similar deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the releases of WNBA star Brittney Griner and the Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich.

But beyond Biden, the detentions are also a message to the new Commander in Chief, be it Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.

Since the disputed vote in Venezuela, the State Department has only minimally acted against the country, imposing personal sanctions on 16 individuals and calling for Venezuela to release the full voting ballots to clarify the result.

While the US has imposed economic sanctions on Venezuela’s oil exports for years, a special authorization allowing oil company Chevron to operate in the country is still valid despite the international outcry this summer.

Whoever wins the US election in November will have the fate of the detainees weighing on them when they are faced with deciding whether to continue that minimal approach or to turn the screw.

And they can forget any hope that the detainees’ fate can be left to the courts.

“You cannot even talk of a trial, to be honest,” said a lawyer who represented US citizens wrongfully detained in Venezuela in the past. “In most cases, there’s no file with the charges presented against your client, you don’t have access to the investigation, there are no witnesses, and you cannot present new evidence, all of those proceedings happen in a court, but they’re a farce.”

“It’s frustrating, you basically go to court, and you know nothing ruled there will make any difference for your client,” said another lawyer, whose client was released after spending more than two years in jail without being sentenced.

So, what’s Maduro’s bottom line?

Even for those convinced that Maduro has cooked up the plot to gain leverage with the US, there’s one mystery left: his preferred endgame.

In previous negotiations over prisoner exchanges, Maduro was able to obtain the release of his alleged money fixer, Alex Saab, and of two of his wife’s nephews who were serving time for trying to smuggle 800 kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

He was also able to secure the withdrawal of some of the oil sanctions the US imposed on Caracas in recent years.

This time around, with none of his close associates in US hands, it’s unclear what Maduro could ask at the bargaining table other than legitimacy and further sanctions withdrawal.

Likewise, it’s unclear how a new US administration would entertain the idea of giving in to – and being seen to give into – an authoritarian bully.

Hostage negotiation is an awkward topic for any government, none more so than the United States, which has in the past made a point of refusing to engage with kidnappers.

On the other hand, the US may decide the freedom of its citizens are worth whatever limited concessions Maduro is seeking.

As one of the people involved in last year’s negotiations put it: “Free societies decide that no innocent man should be in jail. When you accept that a criminal walks free but no detainee is innocent, that is real freedom.”

Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has died at 69, according to statements from Scotland’s main political parties and UK media reports.

Salmond was taken ill while in North Macedonia, collapsing after delivering a speech on Saturday, according to British media reports.

“I will never be able to thank Alex for all his lessons, advice, guidance, mentorship, love and friendship and for everything he did for Scotland. For many years he was the father of the nation and for several years he has been a father-like figure to me. All of our thoughts are with all of the family and everyone across Scotland who are in mourning,” the General Secretary of Alex Salmond’s Alba Party Chris McEleny said Saturday.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “For more than 30 years, Alex Salmond was a monumental figure of Scottish and UK politics. He leaves behind a lasting legacy. As First Minister of Scotland he cared deeply about Scotland’s heritage, history, and culture, as well as the communities he represented as MP (member of parliament) and MSP (member of the Scottish parliament) over many years of service. My thoughts are with those who knew him, his family, and his loved ones. On behalf of the UK government, I offer them our condolences today.”

Salmond stood down as first minister and SNP leader following defeat in the September 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, which he had long championed. He was replaced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. He later campaigned for Scotland’s independence under the newly formed Alba Party, which he founded in 2021.

After losing his seat in parliament, Salmond remained a major figure in both Scottish and British politics, working as a commentator and hosting the Alex Salmond Show on Russian state broadcaster RT.

In 2018, he took the country’s government to court over accusations of sexual misconduct made against him. Salmond said the Scottish government denied him the opportunity to properly defend himself against the claims, which related to his alleged behavior toward a member of staff at the official Bute House residence, according to the Daily Record of Scotland.  Salmond was eventually cleared of all charges by a jury in a March 2020 trial.

“The sad news of Alex Salmond’s passing today will come as a shock to all who knew him in Scotland, across the UK and beyond. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time and on behalf of Scottish Labour I offer our sincere condolences to all who will be mourning his loss,” said the leader of the Scottish Labour Party Anas Sarwar. “Alex was a central figure in politics for over three decades and his contribution to the Scottish political landscape cannot be overstated.”

The Scottish National Party (SNP) also reposted multiple Scottish media reports of Salmond’s death on social media.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region is now entering its third month, with scores of settlements still firmly under its control.

The operation marked the first time foreign troops entered Russian territory since World War II – embarrassing the Kremlin and proving to Kyiv’s backers and the rest of the world that Ukraine’s military was not perpetually on the back foot.

Some nine weeks later, Ukraine’s advance has stalled, and neither side has made major gains or counterattacks in recent days.

The endgame is unclear. Analysts believe Kyiv is trying to use its initial momentum for a morale boost and a potential bargaining chip, while Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to downplay the entire incursion and limit the resources Russia’s war machine devotes to countering it.

What’s the latest on the ground?

Ukraine has maintained a foothold in Kursk of about 786 square kilometers (300 square miles), according to the latest assessment by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a think tank in Washington, DC.

Ukraine’s main foothold is around the Russian town of Sudzha and its military is trying to establish a second foothold around Veseloe village. Ukraine has not disclosed how many troops it has sent to the region.

Russia has deployed a reasonably large number of troops – estimated at 40,000 – to defend and counterattack in Kursk, but analyst Mark Galeotti described the initial force as “built from wherever they can find,” with Russia using conscripts and reservists at the outset of the incursion.

Moscow has since deployed more experienced forces, but not as many resources as Russian civilians in Kursk would perhaps want.

As fighting in the area continues, Russian authorities say more than 100,000 civilians have been displaced, while many others find themselves living behind Ukrainian lines.

“Over time, there is a degree to which the Kursk operation has become normalized,” Galeotti said. “We shouldn’t assume that Russians have just come to accept it… I think Putin has managed to postpone judgment, but I don’t think it’s been completely waived.”

Why hasn’t Russia’s response been stronger?

Russia is trying to avoid diverting any resources from the frontlines of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine to fight in Kursk.

Although the incursion was initially a shock to both the government and ordinary Russians, “the Kremlin has played this down,” according to John Lough, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Program. “The strategy is to distract the population from what’s happened, which is undoubtedly a major embarrassment, and to create the impression that this is not serious.”

Putin’s government has characterized it as a “raid” and even downplayed their counterattack as a “counterterrorism mission.”

One Russian military blogger put the normalization into stark words, saying: “Most of Russia has already got used to the fighting near Kursk… Those who have nothing to do with the Kursk region are rather sluggishly interested in what is happening.”

Frontlines are moving only slightly, but the fighting is reportedly fierce, with Russian forces deploying numerous drones, barrel artillery and aerial bombers, according to the Ukrainian commander.

“They don’t hesitate to drop a bomb on a tree line if they assume we have troops there,” Ukrainian battalion commander “Kholod” said. He claims Russia has now sent a powerful group of troops and combat brigades to where his unit is fighting in Kursk, and argued the Russian counterattack was staved off by Ukraine’s drone and mine attacks.

What has Ukraine achieved?

The incursion into Kursk likely had multiple goals, analysts say, including giving Ukraine a narrative win.

“Their goal was to demonstrate to Ukraine’s Western allies that the Russians are vulnerable and that there are limits to their ability to deploy combat power,” said Lough, adding that the incursion also highlighted how “Russia’s red lines are rhetorical.”

Yet Ukraine’s goal of diverting troops from the eastern frontline to Kursk has so far failed.

Kursk could still be a bargaining chip for negotiations in the future, though, experts said.

“By taking this territory, they immediately ruled out the possibility of both the Russians and the Western allies saying, ‘Now it’s time to stop. Let’s have a ceasefire,’” Lough said.

Focus still on eastern Ukraine

Meanwhile, the primary focus of the war remains on the frontlines in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where its troops are fighting to retain control of the strategic city of Pokrovsk.

Rather than focus resources on liberating their own territory, the Russian military has expanded its assaults on multiple fronts in Ukraine, including in key areas of Kharkiv, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.

“It seems to be a very high priority for the Kremlin to advance as far as possible in Donbas, regardless of the losses,” Lough added. “There is a sort of window that is about to close, because you get to this time of year when the roads turn to mud.”

Russia’s daily attacks on Ukraine continued Thursday, with several people killed in the regions of Odesa, Kherson and Donetsk.

The Israeli military is carrying out a widespread operation in northern Gaza, issuing evacuation orders and blocking food supplies, just weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reported to be mulling a plan to besiege the area to starve Hamas and force it to release hostages.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) this week launched the operation following intelligence that it said showed “the presence of terrorists and terror infrastructure in the area of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip, as well as efforts by Hamas to rebuild its operational capabilities in the area.” In practice, the renewed offensive has been far more widespread than the Jabalya refugee camp.

The operation comes at a time when the Israeli government is known to be considering several plans to reset the war in Gaza.

Eiland last month proposed forcing all civilians out of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, and then cutting off all supplies to the area. The goal, he said, was to force a reset in the war and upend Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s calculus. “The reality today in Gaza is that Sinwar is really not stressed,” he said in a video released at the time.

On Monday, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson ordered all Palestinians in Gaza’s northern-most communities – Beit Hanoun, Jabalya, and Beit Lahia – to leave and relocate to Al Mawasi, an Israel-declared “humanitarian area” in southern Gaza that has nonetheless come under intense aerial bombardment for months.

The military on Saturday added additional mandatory evacuation zones, dropping flyers and posting on X, ordering people in the Nazla area and more areas of Jabalya to leave.

The military “is operating with great force against terrorist organizations and will continue to do so for an extended period,” Avichay Adraee said on X. “You must evacuate the area immediately via Salah al-Din Street to the humanitarian zone.”

Most intense action

“Virtually the entire area is under evacuation orders, and thousands of families have been forced to flee amid intense airstrikes and military operations on the ground,” WFP said in a statement on Wednesday. “With the main aid crossings into northern Gaza closed and WFP-partner kitchens forced to shut down, WFP is no longer able to distribute food in any form to families that desperately need it.”

“Even the basic necessities of life for the besieged people are unavailable,” Ibrahim said. “There is no safe drinking water, no adequate or healthy food, no medicine, no treatment, and no hospitals. They are working at minimum capacity and are exhausted. Even the safe places are bombed with shells and rockets.”

Dr. Hussam Abu Saifiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, said the facility was informed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Tuesday that medical staff and patients must evacuate the hospital “within 24 hours.” They were not told where to go, he said. Al Awda and the Indonesian hospitals have also been ordered to leave, according to local officials. Hospital officials say Israel’s intense bombardment of the area makes it impossible to leave safely.

Meanwhile, seven attempts this week by the World Health Organization to reach northern Gaza were “denied or impeded,” Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.

“The team was unable to carry out the medical evacuation of critical patients from Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals to Al-Ahli and Al-Shifa, due to delays of over 10 hours at checkpoints,” he said in a statement on X.

Criminalizing marital rape would be “excessively harsh,” the Indian government has said, in a blow to campaigners ahead of a long-awaited Supreme Court decision that will affect hundreds of millions of people in India for generations.

In India, it is not considered rape if a man forces sex or sexual acts on his wife, as long as she is over 18, due to an exception in a British colonial-era law.

Most Western and common law jurisdictions have long since rectified this – Britain outlawed marital rape in 1991, for example, and it is illegal in all 50 US states.

But across the world, about 40 countries do not have legislation that addresses the issue of marital rape – and among those that do, the penalties for non-consensual sex within marriage are “significantly lower” than other rape cases, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s 2021 State of World Population review.

Campaigners in India have long fought against the clause, with the country’s top court currently hearing petitions seeking to amend it, after the Delhi High Court delivered a split verdict on the issue in 2022.

In its formal opposition to those petitions, the government’s Ministry of Home Affairs argued a man should face “penal consequences” for forcing himself on his wife. But punishing it as rape would “severely impact the conjugal relationship” and “have a far-reaching effect on the institution of marriage.”

Classifying marital rape as a crime, “can be arguably considered to be excessively harsh and therefore, disproportionate,” the government said.

The government’s written affidavit is its clearest position yet on the issue of marital rape in India.

Advocates for criminalization said the government’s arguments were not surprising, but it represents a “step back” for women already living in a deeply patriarchal society where sexual violence is rampant.

“It speaks to India’s acceptance of sexual violence in our culture,” said Ntasha Bhardwaj, a criminal justice and gender scholar. “We’ve normalized that sexual violence is a part of being a woman in our country.”

In July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government overhauled the country’s 164-year-old penal code with new criminal laws, but the exemption for marital rape stayed on the books.

India has struggled for years to tackle high rates of violence against women, with a number of high-profile rape cases sparking nationwide anger and drawing international headlines.

The government’s formal opposition to the marital rape criminalization campaign comes two months after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in the West Bengal city of Kolkata sparked mass outrage and protests in the country, with hundreds of thousands of doctors striking to demand better protection for health workers.

‘Consent is consent’

In its argument against criminalization, the Indian government said that a woman’s consent is protected in marriage, but there is “a continuing expectation, by either of the spouse, to have reasonable sexual access from the other.”

It added that, “though these expectations do not entitle the husband to coerce or force his wife into sex… the consequences of such violations within marriage differ from those outside of it.”

The government also claimed existing laws on sexual and domestic violence were sufficient to “protect consent within marriage.”

Mariam Dhawale, General Secretary of the All India Democratic Women’s Association – one of the petitioners fighting for criminalization – said consent inside and outside of marriage are “not two different things.”

“Consent is consent,” she said. “In our country, a woman is not thought of as an independent human being, as an independent citizen of the country. She is like, sort of an appendage to the husband. She’s subordinate, she’s not a separate identity as such.”

Dhawale said marital rape is a big part of the violence reported by women who seek help from her organization, but they often avoid coming out in the open with their allegations.

“Because they know that nobody will believe them, and it’s not considered as a crime,” she said.

Shifting that belief will take more than changing a law, but it’s the “first step,” said Bharadwaj.

“It’s a cultural revolution underneath,” she said. “Until and unless you make a big statement that this is not okay, the culture will never shift, because by not having that law, the culture is accepting of that violence.”

Other laws not ‘sufficient’

Women alleging rape in India have some avenues of potential legal action against their husbands, but advocates for criminalization say the current laws don’t go far enough.

Women can seek a restraining order under civil law or charges under Section 354 of India’s Penal Code, which covers sexual assault short of rape, and Section 498A, which is intended to punish cruelty toward women specifically in the context of dowry, and India’s Domestic Violence Act.

But the laws are open to interpretation and women face hurdles even when even trying to file initial police complaints, according to recent studies.

In May, a judge in Madhya Pradesh dismissed a woman’s complaint that her husband committed “unnatural sex” by citing the country’s marital rape exemption and saying in his judgement that in such instances, “consent of the wife becomes immaterial.”

AIDWA’s Dhawale said women often remain trapped in abusive households with no recourse or way out, especially if she is financially reliant on her husband.

“We don’t have any kind of safe places, shelter homes, institutions. So she has to remain in the four walls of that place. She cannot complain, because if she complains, she has no place to go… nobody will stand by her, unless and until it’s recognized as a crime.”

‘Serious disturbances in the institution of marriage’

India’s Supreme Court increased marital consent from the age of 15 to 18 in a landmark judgement in 2017.

“The Supreme Court debunked that argument,” she said.

Now, recognizing marital rape, Kothari said, “is a crucial way in which women’s equality within the marriage is going to really be bolstered.”

Similarly, Dhawale said “the sanctity of marriage, or the harmony within the home is actually getting disturbed by the man who is committing the violence, not by the woman who is asking for justice.”

A major concern of the government and of men’s rights groups is that a marital rape law will lead to women falsely accusing their husbands of rape.

Kothari said that already, it’s extremely hard for women to report sexual violence, even when the laws support them.

“All the claims of domestic violence being misused, it’s largely untrue, because it takes an immense amount of effort for women to come out and report it,” she said.

“It’s not like floodgates are going to be opened with hundreds of marital rape cases [being reported]. It’s still going to be very difficult.”

The man wore camouflage gear, a long beard protruding below a mask. His features were hidden, but when New Zealand police saw the video showing three figures walking behind him, one name came instantly to mind.

Fugitive Thomas Callam Phillips has been evading police for three years since disappearing with his children Ember, Maverick and Jayda – now 8, 9 and 11 – into the rugged wilderness of the country’s North Island during a bitter family split in December 2021.

At first Phillips was wanted for failing to appear in court on charges of wasting police resources but, three years on, his charge sheet has grown longer and more serious, with allegations that he robbed a bank in May 2023 with an unnamed female accomplice.

Police have scrambled search teams, helicopters and planes to investigate sporadic sightings but have failed to find them.

Last week’s sighting is believed to be the first of all three children since 2021.

“The guy had a big, long beard, and the kids were all masked up, and they were carrying packs, and they weren’t very keen to talk to them at all,” McOviney said.

Instead, his grandson filmed them on his phone, providing the first proof of life of the missing Phillips children that their mother Cat has seen since they left.

The entire country wants to know where they are, and why it’s taking police so long to find them.

“This is not a big country we’re talking about,” said Lance Burdett, a former detective inspector and lead crisis negotiator for New Zealand Police. “It’s very surprising that they haven’t been found, particularly since the number of sightings are in a very similar area.”

Max Baxter, mayor of the Otorohanga district that includes Marokopa, a rural community home to fewer than 100 people, says authorities believe Phillips is receiving help.

“We absolutely believe that somebody, or some people, are helping them,” said Baxter. “Tom still has a number of supporters out there believing that he is doing the right thing for him and his children.”

A family missing in wild terrain

New Zealand’s North Island is home to the wild, awe-inspiring landscape that formed some of the backdrop to Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies.

Steep hills with sweeping views drop away into deep valleys, dotted with caves covered by a blanket of dense forest. Marokopa is the type of place where it’s easy to get lost – and even easier to hide.

“There’s a reason why people live at Marokopa,” said Baxter. “It’s because they love the isolation. They love the fact that they’re on the rugged west coast, that they can go fishing, they can hang out with like-minded people.”

Phillips was raised in the area and his parents still live there in the family home. In a statement provided to TVNZ last year, his mother denied any knowledge of her son’s whereabouts and said the family would “like nothing more” than for the four to return.

It’s not the first time Phillips has disappeared with Ember, Maverick and Jayda. In September 2021, his car was reported abandoned on a beach, prompting a large police search of land and sea.

For three weeks, a police helicopter and drones scoured the coastline, while rescue teams searched on land, but just as the operation was winding down – with fears the family was lost at sea – they suddenly reappeared.

Phillips reportedly told police he and the children had been camping in bushland. He was later charged with wasting police resources and given a date to appear in court.

But before that day came, he disappeared again with the three children. Some assumed he’d “gone bush” again, and would later emerge – but this time, they haven’t come home.

Three children isolated from society

Ember, Maverick and Jayda were just 5, 7 and 8, when they vanished. For more than two years, their mother kept a low profile, releasing written statements through police, appealing for help to find them.

But this June, she introduced herself in an emotional video posted to Facebook.

“Hello world,” she said. “My name is Cat … I’m standing here before you today, begging you for your help to bring my babies home.”

The eldest child, Jayda, had just turned 11. “She will be a young woman now, and she needs her mother,” said Cat, who has not publicly revealed her surname. “Ember is asthmatic as am I … she needs medical care that cannot be provided from the land.”

“I can only imagine how Maverick is coping,” she added.

At the time the video was released, police had just offered a reward for 80,000 New Zealand dollars ($48,000) for information leading to finding the children. It flushed out reports of sightings, but no breakthrough.

The children’s older sister, Jubilee Dawson, made a separate appeal in an interview last year, sharing memories of her siblings.

“Jayda is the more outgoing one … she’s definitely the most confident of the three … loves talking to everybody,” Dawson told a Mata Reports documentary. “Maverick is more introverted, I’d say he’s more shy … Ember is the youngest, and more sweet and bubbly.”

Dawson fears the children may now be “traumatized and scared” and worries that they don’t know that their family is looking for them.

“We love them very much, and we are just waiting for them to come home,” she said.

An alleged bank robbery

Authorities are concerned that Phillips is not just hiding the children, but encouraging them to engage in criminal acts.

In May 2023, two masked people held up a branch of the ANZ bank, escaping on a motorbike with cash. New Zealand Police later named Phillips as the suspect, and said he was aided by a female accomplice. Both were said to be armed.

A witness told local media the accomplice was small, “even shorter than me.”

Phillips is now wanted for aggravated robbery, aggravated wounding and unlawfully possessing a firearm.

Burdett, the former detective inspector, said if Phillips carried out the bank robbery, it suggests the fugitive father was desperate for cash.

“They have to be surviving on something. You do need money. You can only live so much on the land, and particularly with three young kids,” Burdett said. “They’re going to be growing in three years.”

In November 2023, Phillips and an unnamed child are also alleged to have smashed the window of a shop at 2 a.m., before fleeing on a stolen quad bike. Phillips has also been seen on CCTV, with his face covered, buying supplies in a hardware store.

“We know Tom has been sighted at retail locations across the Waikato region disguised with various masks,” police said in a statement. 

Burdett said police need more resources to search the area and suggested a general call-out might help boost numbers on the ground.

“Let’s get in there and saturate the area. I’m sure if you asked a lot of locals – can you spend one or two days walking across these hills? – a lot of people would do it. Not just locals,” he said.

However, Mayor Baxter suggests venturing into the dense bushland around Marokopa is not a good idea for those unaccustomed to the terrain.

“For an inexperienced person out there, you could find yourself two meters off the track and may not find the track again,” he said. “We’re talking very, very deep bush and rugged countryside.”

Have they been living rough?

Their most recent statement says the “credible” sighting of Phillips and the children on October 3 prompted a three-day search but “nothing further of significance was located.”

“Police continue to urge those in the Marokopa community to remain alert and report any suspicious activity, no matter how minor, to us,” the statement added.

Mayor Baxter said the search had divided opinion in the community between those who believe Phillips should give the children up and others who defend his rights as a father.

Many just want the entire police operation to go away, he said.

Baxter said he finds it hard to believe the children have been living rough for three years in an area frequently pelted by wind and rain, where winter temperatures dip below freezing. That’s why he believes Phillips and the children must be receiving help.

“We all know it, but it just gets very uncomfortable when it’s raining day after day after day,” he said.

“I think there has to be either a shearer’s quarters, another house somewhere, a woolshed where they’ve been holed up for extensive periods of time, and they’ve been given supplies,” he said.

McOviney, whose grandson took the recent footage, posited a similar theory, noting that woolsheds and houses are dotted across the remotely populated area, used by workers tending livestock that graze in the hills.

“I think they’ve got help. I don’t know that for sure, but to keep little kids like that isolated from the family and from everybody else, you’d think they’d need some help, wouldn’t you?”

In her video message, Cat hinted at resistance in the community to the search from people who don’t believe her children need saving.

“Many of you say that the children are fine, that they’re being well looked after. How do you know, have you seen them, or is it just bush talk?” she said.

“What Thomas is doing is not okay…  It is not okay to isolate and control. It is child neglect. It is child endangerment … None of this is okay.”

Catherine, Princess of Wales delighted royal-watchers this week with an unexpected appearance alongside her husband, Prince William.

The couple popped up in Southport, a town in the northwest of England, on Thursday, where the community is still grieving after the murders of three young girls this summer.

William and Kate are thought to have spent around 90 minutes with the families of Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, who lost their lives in July when they were attacked while attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

It was also an opportunity for the pair to sit down with some of the emergency services personnel who responded to the scene and hear about their experiences and the mental health support they have received in the months since.

It was an emotional conversation that saw the princess express the couple’s gratitude to the first responders, before comforting and hugging some of those grappling with the traumatic impact of the incident.

“The Princess of Wales broke off and came back into the building to give a hug to the people who responded because she could see the emotion in them and could see it was difficult for them to relay their feelings and to say how impactful events have been,” Phil Garrigan, chief fire officer for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, explained after the engagement, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency.

“I think that just shows a really caring side and is very, very touching for them.”

It was a big moment for the popular 42-year-old royal – her first public outing since wrapping up her chemotherapy treatment.

But wanting to be there and carrying out the engagement are two very different things. Ultimately, her appearance came down to whether she felt well enough on the day.

King Charles previously visited the area in August and it’s clear that the royal family don’t want the town to feel forgotten as the weeks and months pass.

The Southport engagement was designed to be a low-key event and, in fact, had not been previously announced either to the public or the press. However, it quietly supported the princess’ own words from a month ago when she revealed she had completed her cancer treatment.

In a video message, Kate had thrilled royal fans by saying she was “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can.”

Since then, she’s undertaken private meetings on some of her projects at Windsor Castle and carried out a few private visits. It all signals that her recovery is going well.

While aides would not want to jeopardize her recovery by pushing her to appear before she’s ready, the Princess of Wales’ latest appearance shows that she’s back at work, steadily increasing her workload while she continues to get stronger.

This all means she’s likely to keep her workload lighter and that we’ll continue to see these unexpected pop-ups as she makes daily decisions on engagements on a case-by-case basis. And if all continues well, it could mean she takes on more in the new year and perhaps, even, starts traveling again.

Russia has confirmed that Donald Trump sent the Kremlin sample Covid-19 tests in the early days of the pandemic, after revelations in veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s new book raised further questions about the former US president’s relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The Trump administration “sent us several samples of test kits,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday, broadly supporting Woodward’s claim. His intervention comes after Trump denied the claims, telling ABC News they were “false.”

Legendary reporter Woodward wrote in “War” that Trump “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.”

“Please don’t tell anybody you sent these to me,” Putin said to Trump, according to Woodward. “I don’t care,” Trump replied. “Fine.”

“No, no,” Putin said. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don’t care about me.”

Peskov did not confirm whether or not those tests were specifically for Putin’s own use, as Woodward writes.

The Kremlin’s press secretary said: “At that time, the pandemic was starting, and the situation was very difficult for all countries.

“Of course, initially, all countries tried to exchange aid shipments with each other,” he continued. “At that time, we sent a shipment of ventilators to the United States, and the Americans sent us several samples of test kits, as those were practically unique items. Many countries were doing the same.”

The Kremlin’s response seemingly contradicts Trump’s denial of Woodward’s claims.

“He’s a storyteller. A bad one. And he’s lost his marbles,” Trump told ABC News of Woodward on Tuesday. In a statement, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said Trump gave Woodward “absolutely no access” for the book. “None of these made-up stories by Bob Woodward are true,” he said.

Citing a Trump aide, Woodward also reported that there have been “maybe as many as seven” calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left the White House in 2021. Peskov denied those claims, saying: “That is not true; it did not happen.” Trump also denied those claims to ABC News.

The frantic first weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a diplomatic opening for Putin; the Trump White House was criticized at the time for purchasing medical supplies from Moscow, a move that was described by experts as a propaganda win for the Kremlin.

The Trump administration also spent $200 million sending thousands of ventilators around the world, starting weeks after the former president touted America as the “king of ventilators,” but without any established way to locate them, the Government Accountability Office found in a report. Russia was among the countries to receive those ventilators.

Woodward’s claims once again throw scrutiny on Trump’s relationship with Putin, weeks before the US presidential election.

They were quickly seized on by Democratic candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris, who said in an interview with Howard Stern: “People were dying by the hundreds. Everybody was scrambling to get these (test) kits … and this guy who was President of the United States is sending them to Russia? To a murderous dictator, for his personal use?”

“You’re getting played,” Harris said of Trump.

Trump has, for his part, continued to speak fondly of his relationship with Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 made him a pariah among Western leaders.

“I got along well with him. I hope to get along well with him again,” Trump said during an interview on X with billionaire Elon Musk. Trump added that getting along well with strongmen world leaders “is a good thing.”

A United Nations inquiry has accused Israel of carrying out a “concerted policy” of destroying the health care system in Gaza during its year-long conflict with Hamas in attacks it said amount to war crimes.

Israel’s actions in the besieged Palestinian enclave “constitute the war crimes of willful killing and mistreatment and the crime against humanity of extermination,” the commission said in a statement Thursday.

“Israeli security forces have deliberately killed, detained and tortured medical personnel and targeted medical vehicles” in Gaza, according to the report by the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.

The Israeli attacks resulted in “fuel, food, water, medicines and medical supplies not reaching hospitals, while also drastically reducing permits for patients to leave the territory for medical treatment,” it said.

The Israeli foreign ministry called the accusations “outrageous” and said they were “another blatant attempt by the (commission) to delegitimize the very existence of the State of Israel and obstruct its right to protect its population while covering up the crimes of terrorist organizations.”

“This report shamelessly portrays Israel’s operations in terror-infested health facilities in Gaza as a matter of policy against Gaza’s health system, while entirely dismissing overwhelming evidence that medical facilities in Gaza have been systematically used by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad for terrorist activities.”

Hamas, it said, uses medical facilities to conceal operatives, store weapons, conduct attacks and hide hostages. Hamas has repeatedly denied that it uses hospitals for military activity.

The UN report also accused Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups of committing war crimes of “torture, inhuman or cruel treatment, rape and sexual violence” for their treatment of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza. It also investigated “institutionalized mistreatment” of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

The Israeli foreign ministry rejected “accusations of widespread ill-treatment and torture of detainees,” saying Israel is “fully committed to international legal standards” on treatment of detainees.

In a statement accompanying the 24-page report, which does not have the force of law, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Israel “must immediately stop its unprecedented wanton destruction” in Gaza.

“Children in particular have borne the brunt of these attacks, suffering both directly and indirectly from the collapse of the health system,” she said.

As part of the report, UN experts investigated the killing of 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who made headlines in late January after a recording emerged of her pleading to emergency workers to rescue her and her family after they became trapped in their car due to Israeli shelling.

Despite an ambulance arriving at the scene while the girl was still alive, the presence of Israeli security forces effectively “prevented access,” meaning the bodies of Rajab’s relatives “could not be retrieved from their bullet-ridden car until 12 days after the incident,” the report said.

The report “determined on reasonable grounds that the Israeli Army’s 162nd Division” which operated in the area at the time is “responsible for killing the family of seven, shelling the ambulance and killing the two paramedics inside.”

The incident was just one of several alleged attacks on health care in Gaza, amid broader wartime conditions.

The report will be presented to the UN General Assembly on October 30.

The commission previously alleged that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, and that Israel’s actions also amounted to crimes against humanity.