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Tarique Rahman promises era of clean politics as Bangladesh holds first election since fall of Hasina

Tarique Rahman, who after 17 years in exile is the main contender to be the next prime minister of Bangladesh, has pledged to end entrenched corruption and put the country on a “new path” as voting began in the first free and fair elections in almost two decades. Speaking to the Guardian before polls opened on Thursday morning, Rahman promised a new era of clean politics, including a “top down, no tolerance” approach to graft, if his Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) was brought to power. According to polls, the BNP are likely to win a sizeable majority over their rival, the Islamist party Jamaat e-Islami, returning the party to power after 20 years. Softly spoken and understated, 60-year-old Rahman acknowledged the elections were taking place at a pivotal but “challenging” moment for Bangladesh, which has long ranked among the world’s most corrupt countries and where democracy has faced a sustained attack for more than a decade. “We saw in the last regime that corruption was encouraged,” said Rahman. “Our economy was left destroyed. It will take time, but if we establish real accountability in every part of the government and send a message down the chain, that will eventually control corruption.” The elections are the first since the fall of autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the summer of 2024. The student-led uprising that toppled Hasina after 15 years in power left an estimated 1,400 people dead according to the UN, after it was met with a ruthless and violent crackdown by the state. Last year, the former prime minister – now exiled in India – was found guilty of crimes against humanity committed during the final days of her rule and sentenced to death. For the past three elections, Hasina and her Awami League party have been accused of rigging the results and ruthlessly crushing and jailing opponents, including thousands of BNP activists and leaders. Since August 2024, Bangladesh has been led by an interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, tasked with restoring democracy and readying the country for free and fair polls. However, the country has remained in turmoil, amid a decline in law and order and frustrations over economic stagnation. Analysts emphasised that a fair and violence-free election would be a vital step forward for the country. There are 127 million registered voters and in a bid to keep security tight, more than 900,000 police, army and security personnel have been deployed on polling day. “This is the first credible election the country’s held in 17 years so it’s incredibly significant,” said Thomas Kean, Crisis Group’s senior consultant on Bangladesh. “People are eager to have the chance to vote after so long.” In Dhaka, young voters spoke of their thrill at experiencing democracy first hand. “I am excited, this is the first time I am freely taking part in an election,” said Yasmin Sorupa, 30, who said she intended to vote BNP. “In the past, I could never cast my vote because when I went to the polling station, somebody had already cast it.” Rahman returned to Bangladesh to fight the elections on Christmas day, ending more than 17 years spent as a political fugitive. He took over leadership of the BNP from his mother, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, a giant of Bangladeshi politics and longtime political nemesis of Hasina. She died just five days after Rahman’s return home in December. “Physically, I may have been out of the country but for all those years I was always connected to my people in Bangladesh,” he said. “As soon as the opportunity came to serve my people, I came back.” Rahman’s time in self-imposed exile in London, living in the suburb of Kingston with his wife and daughter, is said by associates to have mellowed him. His experiences of day-to-day British life also left an imprint, from his push for more tolerance in Bangladeshi politics to his determination to introduce weekly rubbish bin collections in the country. Many in Bangladesh say they cannot forget the corruption that flourished during the last BNP regime between 2001 and 2006, under his mother. Rahman did not dispute that “mistakes” had been made by his party in the past. “I will not deny that. If we do, it will not help anything,” he said. Though Rahman did not serve an official role in the previous regime, he was seen as having undue influence and in a leaked 2008 diplomatic cable was described as “a symbol of kleptocratic government”. He was jailed in 2007 as part of an anti-corruption drive by a military-backed caretaker government on charges he denies. In 2008, he was released to seek medical treatment in London, after being so badly tortured in jail that he was taken to the plane in a wheelchair. During Hasina’s subsequent 15-year rule, he was convicted of a slew of terror and corruption charges, which he alleges were politically motivated to keep him out of Bangladesh. In 2024, after Hasina’s fall, the courts overturned his convictions, finally freeing him to return home. “It’s been more than 18 years and they’ve failed to prove anything,” said Rahman. “Don’t you think that’s good enough, long enough to prove that I did nothing wrong?” Yet not all in Bangladesh have cheered Rahman’s return. Both his parents were Bangladeshi prime ministers and to many, he is just the next generation of dynastic politicians, continuing the grip that two families have had over Bangladesh since independence in 1971 and which many had hoped the July uprising would bring to an end. Even if the BNP win a sizeable majority in the election, analysts emphasised that the resurgence of the Islamist Jamaat e-Islami party and their Islamist alliance – parties that were banned under Hasina – could present major challenges for the BNP and Bangladesh’s secularism in the future. Jamaat e-Islami, alongside allies that follow even more hardline Islamist politics, all believe in the introduction of sharia law and are likely to gain the largest vote share in their history and form a formidable opposition. Jamaat e-Islami’s leader has already been accused of regressive policies and controversial views on women’s rights in the home and workplace. Human rights groups have also raised an alarm over a recent surge in moral policing of women, with incidents such as girls being prevented from playing football and enforcement of modest dress and headscarves. Rahman acknowledged there were “some extremist people who are trying to do these things” but he said it didn’t have “any relation with Islam or religion”. Instead, he attributed it to the “absence of democracy … People were not allowed to express themselves for so long, it has built up frustration and in some cases, extremism”. He insisted the rise of radical Islamist politics was not a threat to the plurality of Bangladesh. “If we are able to practise democracy, if we can create jobs for young people and the opportunity to have a decent life, I believe people will come away from this kind of thought.” One of the biggest geopolitical challenges facing the new government of Bangladesh will be rebuilding relations with its neighbour India. Under Hasina, India was Bangladesh’s closest ally but ties severely frayed after her government fell and have become outwardly hostile in recent months. Rahman acknowledged that there were “issues” with India and he would only want “a relationship of mutual respect, mutual understanding”. Questioned on whether India and Bangladesh could rebuild a friendship while Delhi continued to give a safe haven to Hasina and hundreds of her party members, Rahman was cagey. “That depends,” he said. “It has to be on them too.”

Canadian police identify suspect in school massacre that left nine dead

Canadian police have identified the suspect who carried out a school massacre in remote British Columbia as an 18-year old woman with a history of mental health problems. Six people, including a teacher and five students, were killed in the attack on Tuesday in the town of Tumbler Ridge, in foothills of the Rocky mountains. The victim’s mother and step-brother were later found dead at the family home, police said. The body of the shooter was also found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The incident was one of the worst mass casualty events in Canada’s recent history. “This is a deeply distressing incident where nine individuals have senselessly lost their lives,” said Dwayne McDonald, deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, at a briefing on Wednesday in which he revised the death toll down to nine from the initially reported 10. In a somber update to a tragedy that has shaken the country, McDonald said one of the victims believed to have succumbed to her injuries had survived but remains in critical condition. According to police, the shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, arrived at a Tumbler Ridge secondary school on Tuesday afternoon, armed with a long gun and a modified handgun. The shooter opened fire on staff and students, killing one teacher and five students, whose ages ranged from 12 to 13. Police arrived within two minutes of the shooting and were fired upon. When they entered the school, they found the victims in a stairwell and a classroom. The body of the shooter was also found. Police later visited the family home and found Van Rootselaar’s mother, 39, and 11-year-old step-brother dead from gunshot wounds. According to RCMP deputy commissioner Dwayne McDonald, the deaths at the family home occurred prior to the school shooting, CBC reported. McDonald said police had responded to Van Rootselaar’s home for mental health-related calls over the last several years, with some of the calls concerning weapons. He said that, on at least one occasion, firearms had been seized from the home, and the lawful owner of the firearms had petitioned to have them returned. Amid questions over how Van Rootselaar was described in alerts, McDonald said police “identified the suspect as they chose to be identified” in public and in social media. “I can say that Jesse was born as a biological male who, approximately six years ago, began to transition to female and identified as female, both socially and publicly,” he said. McDonald cautioned that the investigation remained in its early stages and police could not yet comment on a possible motive. Speaking to CBC, Tumbler Ridge resident Dennis Campbell said his daughter had just been coming out of one of the school’s bathrooms when the shooting began. According to Campbell, his daughter ran to the gym and hid in the gym. “Dad, there’s a shooting, there’s a shooting here,” Campbell recalled his daughter saying, adding that she was mourning the loss of four of her friends. The prime minister, Mark Carney, said: “What happened has left our nation in shock and all of us in mourning. “These children and their teachers bore witness to unheard-of cruelty. I want everyone to know this: our entire country stands with you, on behalf of all Canadians,” he said in an emotional address following a minute of silence in parliament. Speaking to lawmakers in the House of Commons following the moment of silence, Carney said: “Tumbler Ridge … is one of the youngest towns in the great province of British Columbia, carved out of the wilderness in the 1980s, built on the promise of the resource economy and by the determination of its residents. It’s a town of miners, teachers, construction workers, families who have built their lives there, people who have always shown up for each other there.” Carney, who had already suspended plans to travel to Germany for the high-level Munich security conference, said he had ordered flags on all government buildings be flown at half-mast for the next seven days. “We will get through this. We will learn from this,” he told reporters earlier in the day, at one point looking close to tears. “But right now, it’s a time to come together, as Canadians always do in these situations, these terrible situations, to support each other, to mourn together and to grow together.” The attack has left people reeling in Canada, where mass shootings are rare, especially compared with the US. While the country has relatively high levels of gun ownership, it has imposed much stricter laws than its southern neighbour, including a ban on assault-style firearms and a freeze on the sale of handguns. Carney said he was also dispatching the federal public safety minister, Gary Anandasangaree, to the small community of Tumbler Ridge, an isolated town of fewer than 2,500 residents, more than 1,000km (600 miles) north-east of Vancouver by road. At least two other people were hospitalised with serious or life-threatening wounds, and as many as 25 people were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said. The town’s mayor, Darryl Krakowka, said the small community was like a “big family”. “I broke down,” Krakowka said. “I have lived here for 18 years. I probably know every one of the victims.” British Columbia’s public safety minister, Nina Krieger, has said “speed and professionalism” had saved lives, and that a small detachment from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had “responded in two minutes”. A 12-year-old girl was said to be “fighting for her life” in a Vancouver hospital after being shot in the head and neck, according to a widely shared Facebook post local media said was written by the girl’s mother, Cia Edmonds. “She was a lucky one, I suppose. Condolences to the other families during this tragedy,” the post read. “This doesn’t even feel real.” The district of Tumbler Ridge issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon, calling the shooting a “deeply distressing” incident. “We recognise that many residents may be feeling shocked, scared and overwhelmed,” the district said. “In the days ahead, we know this will be difficult for many to process. Please check in on one another, lean on available supports, and know that Tumbler Ridge is a strong and caring community.” The Tumbler Ridge secondary school has 160 students in grades seven to 12, roughly ages 12 to 18, according to its website. The school will be closed for the rest of the week and counselling will be made available to those in need, school officials said. “Our priority at this time is taking care of each other and re-establishing a sense of safety in our community,” school officials said. “There are no words that can ease the fear and pain that events like this cause in a school community,” the Tumbler Ridge parent advisory council said in a statement. “We want families to know that the safety and wellbeing of students and staff are paramount, and we are grateful to the first responders and emergency personnel who acted quickly and professionally.” The attack is the second-deadliest school shooting in Canadian history. In 1989, a gunman killed 14 students at Montreal’s L’Ecole Polytechnique in an attack that targeted women. In 2016, five people were killed in a series of shootings in La Loche, Saskatchewan. After the country’s deadliest mass shooting attack, which left 22 people dead in Nova Scotia in 2020, Canada banned about 1,500 models of assault weapons. British Columbia’s premier, David Eby, called Tuesday’s attack an “unimaginable tragedy”. As a father of three, Eby said news of the shooting “makes you want to hug your kids a little tighter”. “Wrap these families with love. Not just tonight but tomorrow and into the future. This is something that will reverberate for years to come,” he said.

Ukraine war briefing: Elections will be held only after ceasefire, says Zelenskyy

Ukraine will hold elections only once it has security guarantees in place and a ceasefire with Russia, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, pushing back at suggestions he is planning to stage fresh ballots under US pressure. “We will move to elections when all the necessary security guarantees are in place,” the Ukrainian president told reporters on Wednesday in a voice note. “I have said it’s very simple to do: establish a ceasefire, and there will be elections.” He also said that if Russia agreed, it might be possible to “end hostilities by summer”. Elections in Ukraine have been effectively suspended since Russia invaded in 2022 due to martial law. Senior Ukrainian officials agreed on Wednesday to boost air defence capabilities around the capital to counter possible further Russian air attacks on energy infrastructure, the energy minister said. “We also identified and prioritised other critical infrastructure facilities that require protection,” Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram on Wednesday after a meeting of the military staff. The fresh preparations follow attacks on Kyiv that have left officials scrambling to repair damage that has left thousands in the cold and darkness. Russian strikes killed four civilians on Wednesday in different localities in Ukraine’s south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, the regional governor said. The attacks occurred in three small localities near the town of Synelnykove, east of the regional centre of Dnipro, Oleksandr Ganzha said on Telegram. In one attack, a man was killed and his wife wounded. In a different locality, a couple and their 45-year-old son was killed and a man wounded. A woman was hurt in a third village. Zelenskyy said the US needed to put more pressure on Russia if it wanted the war to end by summer, adding it is unclear whether Moscow would attend US-brokered peace talks next week. “It depends not only on Ukraine, but also on America, which must exert pressure – excuse me for saying so, but there is no other way: it must exert pressure on Russia,” he said on Wednesday, after previously saying Washington wants to end the war by June. Zelenskyy said Russia was still deliberating over whether to participate in the proposed next round of trilateral peace talks in Miami but that Ukraine was ready to attend. The Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych says he is ready to be disqualified on Thursday because he does not want to betray his country’s dead athletes, reports Sean Ingle. Heraskevych has vowed to wear his “helmet of memory” in the skeleton, even though the International Olympic Committee has told him it will kick him out if he does. “I will not betray these athletes,” he said after finishing first on the final day of practice. British defence minister John Healey says the UK has committed £150m ($205m) to the so-called prioritised Ukraine requirements list (Purl) initiative to supply Ukraine with US weapons. Purl was set up last summer to keep US weapons flowing to Ukraine at a time when new US military assistance had stalled. “Together we must provide Ukraine with the critical air defence it needs in response to Putin’s brutal onslaught,” Healey said in a statement on Wednesday. Allies have already put forward more than $4.5bn through the programme, the US ambassador to Nato, Matthew Whitaker, said on Tuesday. A Russian crackdown on the Telegram social media app risks damaging its own army, pro-war bloggers have warned, as the platform’s founder refused to bend to pressure from Moscow, reports Pjotr Sauer. Russia’s communications watchdog said on Wednesday that the app – used by more than 60 million Russians each day – would begin slowing nationwide, accusing it of failing to address earlier regulatory violations. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant can be restarted safely only if it is returned to Ukrainian control, the head of Ukraine’s nuclear power operator said on Tuesday. The six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have been shut down since Russian forces captured the area, and Moscow announced last year it was aiming to restart at least one reactor. But Pavlo Kovtoniuk, boss of Ukrainian state nuclear firm Energoatom, said Russia lacked some equipment and spare parts to operate it, and risked a nuclear accident if it tries.

Gisèle Pelicot calls on victims to ‘never have shame’ in her first TV interview

Gisèle Pelicot, who became a global symbol of courage during the trial of her ex-husband and the dozens of men who raped her while she was unconscious, has called on victims to never be ashamed. In her first TV interview, on the channel France 5, Pelicot said: “Shame sticks to you, it sticks to your skin. And that shame is a double sentence, it’s a suffering you inflict on yourself.” She added: “I said to myself that fighting against that on an individual level was also fighting for the collective. I said if I could do it, other people could too … My message of hope to all victims is never have shame.” Earlier, she described her shock when police first showed her images of the crimes, likening herself to a “rag doll”. In extracts from her forthcoming memoir, A Hymn to Life, Pelicot, 73, describes her shock when police told her of the actions of her ex-husband Dominique, whom she considered “a great guy” and had shared her life with for 50 years. She tells of her world falling apart on 2 November 2020 when she was first told her then husband had been drugging and raping her and inviting strangers to rape her, in extracts in Le Monde from the French-language version of the book that will be published simultaneously across the world in 22 languages next week. Dominique Pelicot had been summoned by police for questioning after a supermarket security guard caught him secretly filming up women’s skirts. Gisèle Pelicot had accompanied him to the police station and was completely unprepared for the bombshell delivered by the officer, Laurent Perret. He said: “I am going to show you photos and videos that are not going to please you. That’s you in this photo.” Pelicot said she did not believe the inert woman lying on the bed was her. “I didn’t recognise the individuals. Nor this woman. Her cheek was so flabby. Her mouth so limp. She was a rag doll,” she writes in the book. “My brain stopped working in the office of Deputy Police Sergeant Perret.” Pelicot became known internationally last year when she waived her right to anonymity in the trial that shocked the world. Dominique Pelicot had for over almost a decade crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her mashed potato, coffee or ice-cream and invited dozens of men to rape her in the village of Mazan in south-east France, where the couple had retired. She had been in a state akin to a coma. A total of 51 men were found guilty of rape or sexual assault. In the book extracts, Pelicot describes her decision to make the trial public. She said if she had kept the trial behind closed doors – as usually happened in such cases – it would have protected her abusers and left her alone with them in court, “hostage to their looks, their lies, their cowardice and their scorn”. She wrote: “No one would know what they had done to me. Not a single journalist would be there to write their names next to their crimes … Above all, not a single woman could walk in and sit in the courtroom to feel less alone.” She said if she had been 20 years younger: “I might not have dared to refuse a closed-door hearing. “I would have feared the stares. Those damned stares a woman of my generation has always had to contend with, those damned stares that make you hesitate in the morning between trousers and a dress, that follow you or ignore you, flatter you and embarrass you. Those damned stares that are supposed to tell you who you are, what you’re worth, and then abandon you as you grow older.” The launch of Pelicot’s book, co-written with the French author Judith Perrignon, is considered a major publishing event as it is released simultaneously across the world on 17 February. The British actor Emma Thompson will narrate the audiobook in English. In a social media post, Thompson said the “absolutely extraordinary” story was “difficult to read out loud” but that it inspired “courage and compassion but also crucially demands change”.

Tumbler Ridge school shooting: police identify suspect in Canada attack as 18-year-old local resident – as it happened

We’re now pausing our live coverage of the Tumbler Ridge shootings that left nine dead yesterday. Earlier today, the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, told the remote British Columbia community that “all of Canada stands with you” in an address to parliament that followed a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings. In the days ahead, there will be “important questions” and “difficult conversations” to have, Carney said, but for now it’s time for grieving and remembrance. Here’s a brief recap of what we learned from police today about the victims, the suspect, and how the country’s worst mass shooting in decades came to pass. Police revised the death toll down to nine people, including the suspect, after a female victim with significant injuries survived (she remains in critical condition). A 39-year-old found deceased at the suspect’s family residence was the mother of the suspect, and the 11-year-old victim was the suspect’s step-brother. The deaths at the private residence occurred first before the suspect went to the high school. Police were called to the home after they had been called to the school, by a female youth who is related to the suspect and victims. Those killed at the school were a 39-year-old teacher, three 12-year-old female students and two male students aged 12 and 13. One victim was found in the stairwell, and the others were located in the school’s library. Two firearms were recovered at the scene – a long gun and a modified handgun. Police are still working to determine their origins and role in the incident. The suspect had a firearms license that had expired in 2024 and did not currently have any firearms registered to her. The suspect had dropped out of Tumbler Ridge secondary school about four years ago and was not currently a student there. There is no information at this point to suggest that any of the victims in the school were specifically targeted. Police had attended the suspect’s family residence on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with mental health concerns of the suspect. This included one police attendance to the home approximately two years ago where firearms were seized under the criminal code. The lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for them to be returned, and they were. The suspect was born as a biological male who had started transitioning about six years ago and identified in public and on social media as female. The suspect is believed to have acted alone. Police don’t yet have an idea as to what the suspect’s motive was.

Canada shooting: Nine dead including suspect in attack on Tumbler Ridge high school, police say

Nine people have been killed and dozens injured after an assailant opened fire at a school in western Canada, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country’s history. The suspect was later found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted injury. Police found six people dead inside the high school in the remote town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, with a further two bodies found at a residence believed to be connected to the incident. Another person initially believed to have died on the way to hospital was later said to have survived, but remained in critical condition. The suspected shooter was found dead at the school, police said, adding they did not believe there were any more suspects or an ongoing threat to the public. Prime minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the shootings. “I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens,” he said. “Our ability to come together in crisis is the best of our country – our empathy, our unity, and our compassion for each other.” The prime minister’s office said Carney had suspended plans to travel to Germany on Wednesday for the Munich security conference. More than two dozen people have been hospitalised – two with life-threatening injuries – in what British Columbia’s premier, David Eby, called an “unimaginable tragedy”. “It’s hard to know what to say on a night like tonight. It’s the kind of thing that feels like it happens in other places and not close to home,” Eby told reporters. A police active-shooter alert sent to people in the area described the suspect as “female in a dress with brown hair”. Police Supt Ken Floyd later confirmed at a news conference that the suspect described in the alert was the same person found dead in the school. Police did not say how many of the victims were minors. The District of Tumbler Ridge issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon, calling the shooting a “deeply distressing” incident for a community of less than 2,500. “We recognise that many residents may be feeling shocked, scared and overwhelmed,” the district said. “In the days ahead, we know this will be difficult for many to process. Please check in on one another, lean on available supports, and know that Tumbler Ridge is a strong and caring community.” Tumbler Ridge is a remote town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern British Columbia, approximately 1,155km northeast of Vancouver. Tumbler Ridge secondary school has 160 students in grades 7 to 12, roughly ages 12 to 18, according to its website. The school will be closed for the rest of the week and counselling will be made available to those in need, school officials said. “There are no words that can ease the fear and pain that events like this cause in a school community,” the Tumbler Ridge Parent Advisory Council said in a statement. “We want families to know that the safety and wellbeing of students and staff are paramount, and we are grateful to the first responders and emergency personnel who acted quickly and professionally.” Officials said the town’s small police force was on the scene within two minutes of receiving a call, and that victims were still being assessed hours after the incident. British Columbia’s public safety minister, Nina Krieger, said at a press conference: “Speed and professionalism saved lives today.” Earlier, Krieger, said online that news of the shooting was “sending shockwaves through the community and the entire province”. Police initially issued an emergency active shooter alert on Tuesday afternoon after receiving reports of a shooting at the secondary school at about 1.20pm. The alert told residents to shelter in place, lock their doors and refrain from going outside. The RCMP alert was lifted at 5.45pm. Supt Floyd told reporters the scene of the shooting was “very dramatic” with extensive injuries. He said all remaining students and staff at the secondary school, numbering about 100 people, had been safely evacuated from the school. Floyd said police wouldn’t comment on a possible motive. “We’re following all leads to try to determine the connection to the shooter,” he said. “I think we will struggle to determine the ‘why’, but we will try our best to determine what transpired.” The town’s health centre was placed on Code Orange, signifying a mass-casualty incident or large-scale emergency response. But given the rural nature of the community, at least two victims were airlifted to larger hospitals. Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS) said one of its aircraft from Grande Prairie, Alberta, was requested for the incident. Because of Canada’s strict gun laws, which make it difficult to own both handguns or “assault-style weapons”, the country has experienced far fewer instances of mass violence compared with the United States. Still, the shooting is the second-deadliest school shooting in Canadian history. In 1989, a gunman killed 14 students at Montreal’s L’Ecole Polytechnique in an attack that targeted women. In 2016, five people were killed in a series in La Loche, Saskatchewan. Speaking to reporters, Eby, a father of three, said news of the shooting “makes you want to hug your kids a little tighter”. “Wrap these families with love. Not just tonight but tomorrow and into the future. This is something that will reverberate for years to come,” he said. He later added: “This is the kind of thing that feels like it happens in other places, and not close to home in a way that this feels like for many British Columbians and Canadians.” • This article was amended on 11 February 2026. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police initially said a person had died on the way to hospital, then later clarified the person had survived, but remained in critical condition.

Tumbler Ridge shooting: key questions answered about deadly attack in Canada

Canada was in mourning on Wednesday after nine people including the suspect were killed, including six children, and dozens more injured in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country’s history. The country’s prime minister, Mark Carney, was visibly emotional as he told reporters that it was a “difficult day” for the nation following the attack in Tumbler Ridge, a remote mining town in western Canada. “Parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you,” said Carney. “Canada stands by you.” He said he had asked that the flags at government buildings across the country be flown at half-mast for the next seven days. “We will get through this,” he said. “But right now it is a time to come together, like Canadians always do in these terrible situations. To support each other, to mourn together and to grow together.” Here’s what we know so far about the attack: Where did it take place? The attack unfolded in the small town of Tumbler Ridge, home to about 2,400 residents. The close-knit community sits in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in north-eastern British Columbia. Many residents in the town – which lies about 730 miles (1,170km) north of Vancouver near the border of the province of Alberta – work in the mining, quarrying and hydrocarbon industries. How did it unfold? Police said they received a report of an active shooter at the Tumbler Ridge secondary school on Tuesday afternoon at about 1.20pm. The school has 160 students in grades seven to 12, roughly ages 12 to 18, according to its website. Minutes later, officers arrived at the school, according to officials. “Upon arrival, there was active gunfire, and as officers approached the school, rounds were fired in their direction,” Dwayne McDonald of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told reporters on Wednesday. Six people – a teacher, 39, and five students – were found dead in the school. Police said the students killed were three girls, all of them 12, and two boys, ages 12 and 13. About 25 people were injured. The presumed shooter was also found dead at the school with what was believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. Police initially said one victim had died on the way to the hospital but later said that the victim was instead among the two people who had been airlifted with serious or life-threatening injuries. Police said on Wednesday that both were in critical but stable condition. About 25 others were treated for injuries at a nearby medical center. All remaining students and staff were safely evacuated from the school. Images broadcast on Tuesday showed students being led out of the school, some of them with their hands raised. Police said that before the shooting at the school, a woman, 39, and a child, 11, were killed at a residence linked to the suspect. The two were believed to be the mother and step-brother of the suspect, police said, while another sibling who was present at the residence at the time had managed to alert a neighbour of the shooting. Police said on Wednesday that they believed the suspect had acted alone and no other suspects were being sought in connection with the shooting. What do we know so far about the suspect? More than 24 hours after the mass shooting unfolded, officials identified the suspect as local resident, Jesse Van Rootselaar, 18. “Two firearms, a long gun and a modified handgun, were recovered by responding officers,” said McDonald. Police had attended the residence where the two family members had been found dead on multiple occasions in recent years after “concerns of mental health with respect to our suspect”, he said. “I can say that on different occasions the suspect was apprehended for assessment and follow-up.” Van Rootselaar had dropped out of school about four years ago, he said. He said that police had identified the suspect as they had chosen to be identified in public. “I can say that Jesse was born as a biological male who approximately, with the information that I have, approximately six years ago began to transition to female and identified as female both socially and publicly.” He added: “It’s too early to say whether that has any correlation in this investigation.” The suspect’s motive remained unclear, he said, and police were still investigating whether the victims were connected to the suspect. Police said the suspect had a firearms license that had expired in 2024 and did not have any firearms registered to her. How common are shootings like these in Canada? Mass shootings in Canada are rare, particularly compared with the neighbouring United States. Analysts have long pointed to Canada’s stricter gun laws, which make it difficult to own handguns or “assault-style weapons”, to explain the difference. Tuesday’s attack is the second deadliest school shooting in Canadian history, behind a 1989 tragedy that saw a 25-year-old man claiming to be “anti-feminist” burst into a Montreal school. He killed 13 female students and a secretary before taking his own life. The country’s deadliest shooting took place in 2020, when a man disguised as a police officer went on a shooting and arson rampage in the eastern province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people. The government later banned 1,500 models of assault weapons in response to the attack.

Marwan Barghouti’s son calls on UK to put father’s release at heart of Palestinian renewal

The son of Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner often described as the Nelson Mandela of the Palestinian movement, has called on the British government to put his father’s release at the heart of Palestinian democratic renewal. Arab Barghouti warned the UK government that its recent recognition of a Palestinian state risks providing nothing but false hope unless it follows through by using diplomatic channels to secure his father’s freedom. “Simply saying ‘we support a two-state solution’ without doing anything about it is deepening the problem, because you are just giving the Palestinian people false hopes,” he said. Barghouti also insisted that nothing in law would prevent his father from standing in the Palestinian parliamentary elections due on 1 November, even if the Israelis keep him in jail. A cross-party group of British MPs have been campaigning for the release of Barghouti, arguing he is a unifying figure who can hasten a two-state solution, the peaceful political outcome he has championed from inside jail. Successive opinion polls have shown he remains the most popular candidate to become president of the Palestinian Authority in succession to Mahmoud Abbas. The Foreign Office has so far declined to back the calls for his release. Barghouti, a member of the Fatah party central committee, has been held in jail for 22 years after being given multiple life sentences in September 2003 for five murders, at a trial that a lengthy Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) inquiry found failed to meet the standards of fairness. Barghouti, during the second intifada, said he opposed the targeting of civilians inside Israel, but defended the right to resist the occupation. Israel has released more than 500 Palestinians serving life sentences in the last 15 years, but has always excluded Barghouti. His son warned a meeting in London: “The UK recognition of Palestine is going to be seen as symbolic in the history books as long as there are no actual steps being taken on the ground.” He said: “Current Palestinian politics is dysfunctional and that can only be changed with democratic renewal, including a new leadership that really represents the people. We have not had elections for 20 years.” “My father does not have a magic stick, he cannot change everything overnight, but people look at my father as a source of hope,” he said. Barghouti said his father, freed from jail, would be in a position to sell any agreement to Palestinians, and so represented the best route to a non-violent solution, adding: “The reason he is not being released is because the Israeli government does not want a legitimate Palestinian leader, because it does not want a two-state solution.” He said his father has been kept in solitary confinement since the 7 October attack on Israel and has been assaulted multiple times, most recently in October, leading to broken ribs. He said: “If that is not an invitation to speak out against the violations of international law, I don’t know what is. I would expect the UK government, as an upholder of international law, to go further and call for his release. He can change the status quo, Palestinian politics, and take us on a path to where there is real hope for a political settlement. “We have not yet had brave enough British politicians when it comes to the highest level of politics.” Labour MPs said there is a growing sense of frustration that the UK government has sat back after the recognition of Palestine, and that France and Spain have been more proactive. Asked if the UK supports Barghouti’s release, the Foreign Office in written answers states it supports the International Committee of the Red Cross having access to Palestinian prisoners. With some MPs reluctant to back Barghouti on the basis that he was found guilty by an Israeli court of organising the murder of four Israelis, and one Greek monk, the Barghouti campaign has been working to reassure MPs about his innocence and the many flaws in the Israeli judicial process. The author of the 2003 IPU inquiry, Simon Henderson, told the Westminster meeting he compiled his highly critical report after full conversations with the Israeli attorney general. He said he discovered that, of the 96 witnesses, only 21 were in a position to testify to his involvement, and yet none did so, while 12 of them explicitly exonerated him. Israel claims that at the time of the second intifada Barghouti helped found the armed wing of Fatah, and that the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade had claimed him as its leader.