11/06/2026

THURSDAY | JUNE 11, 2026

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Masked men attack homes, burn cars in Belfast

POPE SPEAKS ON DEPRESSION, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BARCELONA: Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday spoke about depression and domestic violence after hearing dramatic personal testimonies from young people at a prayer vigil here. After a woman who tried to commit suicide told her story, the pope said public health systems should prioritise tackling the “invisible malaise” in mental health. “It is important to recognise how mental health is increasingly threatened in the context of societies that consider themselves advanced, the pope said. “There is something deeply wrong with a notion of progress that subjects people to pressures, expectations and tensions that compromise healthy balances.” The pope also urged young people to “learn to pause and value what is important”, denouncing“a social system that does not put people first and creates situations of injustice and existential poverty”. – AFP UKRAINE DRONES HIT HISTORIC CRIMEA MUSEUM MOSCOW: Ukrainian drones hit a historic museum in Sevastopol in Crimea, local authorities said, as they reduced the number of nighttime trains in the face of intensifying air attacks. The museum commemorates the 1853-1856 Crimea War between the Russian Empire and a coalition that included the Ottoman Empire. Russia was defeated in that war. Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram the museum’s roof was on fire. He did not provide further details about the damage or whether there were any casualties. “The enemy will pay for this sacrilege!” he said. Elsewhere in Crimea, authorities cut train schedules for night hours, the peninsula’s governor Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram, after a drone attack this week injured a train driver and killed his assistant. – Reuters NETANYAHU TO RUN FOR RE-ELECTION, SAYS PARTY TEL AVIV: Benjamin Netanyahu will seek re election this year, his party announced, after US President Donald Trump said he wasn’t sure if the prime minister would stand again. Netanyahu’s Likud Party said he would run in the election. The election has not yet been announced but must be held by October. Earlier, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl posted on X that Trump had told him he did not know if Netanyahu would stand. “He’s had an amazing career. Does he want to continue?” the journalist quoted Trump as saying. The election will be the first since the Oct 7, 2023 attack. Netanyahu has faced a tumultuous term since returning to power in December 2022 at the helm of the most right-wing coalition in Israeli history. He faced mass protests before the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. – Reuters PARIS: France on Tuesday banned Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country, as part of coordinated sanctions over settler violence against Palestinians. Smotrich is the second member of the Israeli government to be forbidden from entering France in recent months, after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was barred on May 23 for mocking activists detained from a flotilla carrying aid for Gaza. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said his country was banning Smotrich because he “actively promotes the annexation of the West Bank, which he openly claims, the creation of new settlements, the re-colonisation of Gaza, the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority and its harmful consequences for the Palestinian population”. “This is a policy that the overwhelming majority of the international community, firmly committed to the two-state solution, cannot accept.” – AFP FRANCE BANS ISRAELI MINISTER SMOTRICH

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He accused Washington of undermining diplomacy through contradictory messages, shifting positions and repeated ceasefire violations, and said Israel was also damaging the process through ceasefire breaches in Lebanon. “Following overnight events, we need to re assess (the diplomatic path with Washington) ... any diplomatic process requires a minimum stable environment,” Baghaei said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had carried out attacks against a US base in Jordan and 21 other targets in the Gulf yesterday in retaliation for American strikes. The Iranian strikes, which included attacks in Kuwait and Bahrain, came after the US military said on X it had targeted Iranian air defence, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites in response to what US President Donald Trump said was the downing of a US Apache helicopter on Tuesday. “I believe the response should be very strong, very powerful, and that’s what this one is,” Trump told ABC News on Tuesday. Iran’s state media reported that Qeshm island and the port city of Sirik in the Strait of Hormuz were attacked. Sounds of explosions were heard in nearby Bandar Abbas, and later in the vicinity of Jask, BELFAST: Masked men burned families out of their homes in Belfast and torched a number of vehicles in a wave of anti-immigrant violence on Tuesday night that followed a knife attack for which a Sudanese man has been charged with attempted murder. Hundreds of protesters, many with their faces covered, attacked police and burned vehicles in a number of locations across Northern Ireland after a video of the knife attack, which left one person with serious neck and head wounds, went viral. Video broadcast by the BBC showed police helping a family escape from a burning house. Residents inspected the damage to homes yesterday morning, with the fronts of some houses blackened by smoke and others gutted by fire, with their windows broken or burned out. Some cars were reduced to shells. “There can be no excuse and no justification for these attacks,” Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill said. “Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had described the initial knife attack, which took place in north Belfast late on Monday evening, as “sickening”. Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister Naomi Long told Reuters that “bad faith actors” who would have previously struggled to find the province on a map had sought to weaponise the understandable fear and anger sparked by the knife attack to target those who had the same skin colour. “Do not allow your genuine concerns to be manipulated by bad faith actors,” she said. “We know in Northern Ireland the damage that can o Anti-immigrant violence erupts after knife attack

A police car drives past a burnt building in Belfast yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

The BBC reported that a crowd of 100 men kicked in doors and broke windows of homes on a street in east Belfast. The suspect in the stabbing, a 30-year-old Sudanese national, was charged on Tuesday evening with attempted murder, possession of an article with a blade or point in a public place and threats to kill. The victim, a man in his 40s, suffered injuries to his eyes and slash wounds to his face and back during the “brutal” attack, with a kitchen knife, Northern Ireland’s Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said. Footage showed men trying to fight off the attacker before police arrived and they were credited by officers with saving the man’s life. Northern Ireland was also hit by rioting last year amid anger over an alleged sexual assault. – Reuters

do when you demonise a whole group of people because of the behaviour of a few, and we do not want to go back there.” Claire Hanna, the leader of the opposition Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland, described the violence as a “race based pogrom”. “The online ecosystem that talked this up will move on now and the people of Belfast will be left picking up the pieces,” she said. Smaller protests also took place outside parliament in London while other gatherings were reported across Britain. In Northern Ireland, masked youths gathered early on Tuesday evening at points across Belfast, with police responding by deploying armoured vehicles. Rioters set fire to a number of cars across the city, while a bus was engulfed in flames in east Belfast.

US, Israel undermining diplomatic process: Iran DUBAI: Diplomatic efforts with the United States cannot advance under repeated ceasefire violations, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, following clashes in the Gulf between Tehran and Washington. Israel striking Tyre in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. – AFPPIC

intercepted and shot down five missiles. It said debris from the interception fell on Jordanian territory but caused no injuries or damage. The Kuwaiti army said its air defence systems were engaging hostile aerial targets and urged the public to follow official safety instructions, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted the Ali Al Salem base in Kuwait with drones. – Reuters

near the entrance to the strait, media reported. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted four sites at the US al-Azraq base in Jordan using long-range missiles. The Guards said the targets included F-35 fighter jet hangars and a command-and-control centre, and warned they were ready to deliver a “crushing and decisive” response to any attack. Jordanian armed forces said they had