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Russian Missile Strike Kills 32 in Ukraine’s Sumy, Kyiv Says
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Two Russian ballistic missiles slammed into the heart of the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, killing 32 people and wounding more than 80 in the deadliest strike on Ukraine this year, the Kyiv government said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded a tough international response against Moscow over the attack, which came with US President Donald Trump‘s push to rapidly end the war struggling to make a breakthrough.
Dead bodies were strewn on the ground in the middle of a city street near a destroyed bus and burnt-out cars in a video posted by Zelensky on social media.
“Only scoundrels can act like this. Taking the lives of ordinary people,” he said, noting that the attack had come on Palm Sunday when some people were going to church.
Russian authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
It followed a missile strike in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown and far from the ground war’s front lines in the east and south, earlier this month that killed 20 people, including nine children.
Sumy, with a population of around a quarter of a million and located just over 25 km (15 miles) from the Russian border, became a garrison city when Kyiv’s forces launched an incursion into Russia last August that has since been largely repelled.
The people who were caught in Sunday’s strike were out on the street or inside cars, public transport and buildings when the missiles hit, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
“Deliberate destruction of civilians on an important church feast day,” he wrote.
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said the missiles contained cluster munitions. “The Russians are doing this to kill as many civilians as possible,” he said.
Maryana Bezuhla, an outspoken Ukrainian lawmaker known for her sharp public criticism of military commanders, suggested on the Telegram app that the attack had taken place due to information about a gathering of soldiers leaking out.
Reuters was not able to verify that information.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently holds nearly 20% of the neighboring country’s territory in the east and south. Russian forces have been slowly advancing in the east.
‘SO-CALLED DIPLOMACY’
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv was “sharing detailed information about this war crime with all of our partners and international institutions.”
The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which Ukraine officially joined this year, is conducting investigations into high-profile cases of alleged war crimes in the conflict.
Andriy Kovalenko, a security official who runs Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, noted that the strike came after a visit to Russia by US envoy Steve Witkoff for talks with top officials including President Vladimir Putin.
“Russia is building all this so-called diplomacy … around strikes on civilians,” he wrote on Telegram.
Under Trump‘s administration, US officials have held separate rounds of talks with Kremlin and Kyiv officials to try to move towards a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia agreed to pause strikes on each other’s energy facilities last month, but both sides have repeatedly accused each other of breaking the moratorium.
Witkoff, Trump‘s special envoy, held talks with Putin on Friday in St. Petersburg on the search for a Ukraine peace deal. Trump told Russia to “get moving.”
In the aftermath of Sunday’s Sumy strike, Zelensky called on the United States and Europe to respond robustly to what he described as Russian terrorism.
“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war. Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and aerial bombs,” he wrote.
Russia’s defense ministry accused Ukraine on Saturday of having carried out five attacks on Russian energy infrastructure over the previous day in what it called a violation of the US-brokered moratorium on such strikes.
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Israel Says It Has Hit Houthi Targets Including Last Plane at Sanaa Airport
Illustrative: Smoke rises in the sky following US-led airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Adel Al Khader
Israel said it had struck Houthi targets including the last remaining plane used by the internationally designated terrorist group at Sanaa international airport, after the Yemeni militants launched missiles toward Israel a day earlier.
The General Director of Sanaa International Airport, Khaled al-Shaief, said in a post on his X account that the strike had completely destroyed the last of the civilian planes that Yemenia Airways was operating from the airport.
The airport is the largest in Yemen and came back into service last week after temporary repairs and runway restoration following previous Israeli strikes.
It was mainly being used by UN aircraft and the plane destroyed in the latest Israeli strikes. Three other Yemenia Airways planes were destroyed in an attack earlier this month.
“This is a clear message and a direct continuation of the policy we have established: whoever fires at the State of Israel will pay a heavy price,” Israel‘s defense ministry said in a statement.
The Houthis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” a regional alliance that includes Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis control territory where about 60 percent of Yemen’s population resides.
Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the group has fired at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea in what it says are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones fired towards Israel have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
The US also launched intensified strikes against the Houthis this year, before halting the campaign after the Houthis agreed to stop attacks on US ships.
In a statement on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that any harm directed at Israel will be met with greater force.
“But, as I have said more than once, the Houthis are only the symptom. The main driving force behind them is Iran, which is responsible for the aggression emanating from Yemen,” Netanyahu said.
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Israel Denies NYT Report That Israel Pressing for Iran Strike
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israel on Thursday rejected a report in the New York Times that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been threatening to disrupt talks on a nuclear deal between the United States and Iran by striking Iran‘s main nuclear enrichment facilities.
Netanyahu’s office issued a statement in response to the article which said simply: “Fake news.”
The New York Times said it stood by the report.
“The New York Times reporting on this matter is thorough and based on discussions with people directly familiar with the matter. We remain confident in what we published,” a spokesperson said in an email.
Citing officials briefed on the situation, the newspaper said Israeli officials were concerned that US President Donald Trump was so eager to reach a deal with Iran that he would allow Tehran to keep its nuclear enrichment facilities, a red line for Israel.
It said Israel was particularly concerned about the possibility of any interim deal that would allow Iran to maintain its nuclear facilities for months or even years while a final agreement was reached.
The report said US officials were concerned that Israel could decide to strike Iran with little warning, and said US intelligence estimated that Israel could mount an attack on Iran in as little as seven hours.
The paper said that Netanyahu’s minister of strategic affairs Ron Dermer and David Barnea, head of the foreign intelligence agency Mossad, met Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Rome on Friday.
The two then traveled to Washington for a meeting on Monday with CIA director John Ratcliffe before Dermer met Witkoff again on Tuesday.
One of the main sticking points in the talks between US and Iranian officials has been US insistence that Iran must give up its nuclear enrichment facilities, a demand that Iran rejects.
On Monday, US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said she had had a “very candid conversation” with Netanyahu on the negotiations with Iran.
She said she had told the Israeli prime minister that Trump had asked her to convey “how important it is that we stay united and let this process play out.”
Trump bypassed Israel on his trip to the Middle East this month and has made policy announcements that have shaken Israel‘s assumptions about its relations with the US.
Netanyahu has dismissed speculation about a falling out with the US administration, while Trump has also brushed off any suggestion of a break.
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Antisemitism in North America: Unmasking Hate in the Guise of Activism
Yale University students at the corner of Grove and College Streets in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., April 22, 2024. Photo: Melanie Stengel via Reuters Connect.
We are witnessing an alarming moral erosion across North America as antisemitism continues its steep and brazen ascent. This is not the subtle “dog whistle” antisemitism of past decades. It is overt. It is violent. It is organized. And it is often masquerading as “activism” under the guise of anti-Zionism or anti-Israel sentiment.
The growing chorus of hatred is not merely about Israel’s policies — it is about Jews, period.
In city streets, on college campuses, in media and political discourse, antisemitic rhetoric has become normalized and even celebrated. As a Jewish activist, journalist, and advisor working on the frontlines of Jewish advocacy, I can no longer temper my condemnation: our governments are failing us. Our cities are complicit through inaction. And too many voices of reason have been muted by fear or ignorance.
Anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, and anti-Jewish sentiments directed against our entire movement, people, and country are, in fact, antisemitism.
Being against Israeli policies, specific individuals, or specific actions is one thing. Being against an entire movement, country, or people is another thing.
Hate in the Streets, on Campuses, and in Political Discourse
Let us start with the public sphere, where antisemitism no longer hides.
Just last week, Washington, D.C., was rocked by a violent terror attack targeting a Jewish gathering and murdering two young people because they attended a Jewish gathering in a Jewish building. This followed a string of violent incidents in both the United States and Canada, from vandalism of synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses to death threats at “Israel Day” events in Toronto, Montreal, and New York City. It also followed murders and attempted murders that targeted Jews across America.
One unsettling battleground is the university campus, which reflects exactly what we are witnessing on city streets, as performative activism and “catchy” slogans are used to justify anti-Jewish racism, bigotry, and hatred.
According to a sweeping 2024 study conducted by Hillel International and the Anti-Defamation League, 73% of Jewish college students have experienced or witnessed antisemitism since October 7, 2023. Even more disturbingly, 41% report concealing their Jewish identity due to safety concerns
At UCLA, Jewish students were blocked from entering campus spaces unless they denounced Israel’s right to exist. In 2024, a Federal court ruled in their favor, underscoring the university’s gross failure to uphold basic rights. At McGill University in Canada, protesters called for the destruction of Israel with chants of “Long live the intifada,” while intimidating Jewish students with hateful signage and harassment. The encampments are not peace protests — they are theaters of intimidation and hate.
The Digital Engine of Antisemitic Hate
This surge of hate is not organic. It is algorithmically amplified. The digital sphere — particularly social media platforms — has become the central artery through which antisemitic content spreads.
According to CyberWell’s analysis of the 2025 Canadian federal election, 72.1% of antisemitic content tracked was posted to X (formerly Twitter), often mixing Holocaust denial, dehumanizing slurs, and calls for violence with the language of political activism. Other platforms — TikTok, Instagram, YouTube — are also culpable. This is not free speech; this is the incitement and proliferation of hate speech, and it has very real offline consequences.
The Unholy Alliance: Islamism and the Far-Left
What is perhaps most insidious is the strategic manipulation of far-left ideologies by Islamist movements that are fundamentally opposed to liberal democracy. These Islamist entities have perfected the art of linguistic appropriation — using terms like “decolonization,” “social justice,” and “intersectionality” — to disguise antisemitism as a virtue. And too many progressive institutions, including our universities and civic spaces, have bought this lie.
The placard-waving crowds chanting for “liberation” are often parroting slogans that call for the elimination of Jews and Israel.
This is not solidarity — it is sinister exploitation. These ideologues weaponize moral language to deceive well-meaning, uninformed minds. What begins as ignorance metastasizes into hate. The results are playing out in real time, in both physical attacks and the chilling erasure of Jewish identity in public life.
The Path Forward: The Stakes for Everyone
Let me be clear: when Jews are targeted, the foundational values of the entire nation are under assault.
Antisemitism is the canary in the coal mine. History teaches us that societies that allow hatred against Jews to fester will eventually turn on themselves. If you want to protect the soul of America or Canada, you must protect your Jewish citizens.
What can be done? Everything. Everyone must act.
- For citizens: Speak out when you see hate. Do not allow bigotry to masquerade as activism in your community or workplace. Educate yourself beyond social media slogans.
- For politicians: Condemn antisemitism without conditions or “context.” Pass legislation that defines and prosecutes antisemitic hate crimes. Fund security for vulnerable communities.
- For universities: Enforce codes of conduct. Protect Jewish students. Restore academic integrity by removing ideologically extreme professors who promote hate under the banner of scholarship.
- For tech companies: Ban antisemitic content. Enforce your own policies. The digital space must not be a breeding ground for violent ideology.
A Final Word
I refuse to be silent as hatred spreads like wildfire. I refuse to downplay antisemitism as just another political opinion. It is not. It is the world’s oldest hatred, and it has been rebranded and repurposed in our modern era with terrifying efficiency.
As Jews, we carry the burden of survival — and the responsibility to fight forward, not back. As citizens of democratic nations, we all share the obligation to confront hate wherever it appears. This is not a Jewish problem; this is a North American crisis. And the time to act is now.
Yuval David is an Emmy Award–winning journalist, filmmaker, and actor, and an internationally recognized advocate for Jewish and LGBTQ rights. He serves as a strategic advisor to diplomatic missions, international NGOs, and multilateral organizations, focusing on human rights, pluralism, and cultural diplomacy. With extensive experience in global media and public engagement, Yuval contributes to leading international news outlets and frequently speaks at diplomatic forums, policy conferences, and intergovernmental gatherings. His work fosters cross-cultural understanding, combats antisemitism and hate, and promotes democratic values and inclusive societies. Instagram.com/Yuval_David_ X.com/YuvalDavid Facebook.com/YuvalDavid YouTube.com/YuvalDavid Tiktok.com/@yuval.david
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