Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has formally apologised for his country’s refusal to provide shelter to a ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees almost 80 years ago.

In May 1939, German ocean liner MS St Louis left Hamburg with more than 900 Jews fleeing the horrors of Nazi persecution in search of a safe haven for themselves and their families.

When Cuba, the United States and Canada turned the ship away, it returned to Europe where several countries took the refugees in and, according to historians and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), 255 of them were later killed in World War II, most of them in concentration camps. 

“We apologise to the 907 German Jews on board the St Louis as well as their families,” Trudeau said in a parliamentary sitting on Wednesday.

“We are sorry for the callousness of Canada’s response. We are sorry for not apologising sooner.

“While decades have passed since we turned our backs on Jewish refugees, time has by no means absolved Canada of its guilt or lessened the weight or our shame.”

The apology came following the October 27 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, where 11 people were killed, including a Canadian woman.

Trudeau admitted that Jewish Canadians “are understandably feeling unwelcome and uncomfortable” and shared that 17 percent of all Canadian hate crimes target Jewish people and “discrimination and violence against Jewish people in Canada and around the world continues at an alarming rate”.

“And I pledge to you all now, we will do more,” he said.

Shimon Koffler Fogel, head of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), applauded Trudeau’s “historic apology” and his pledge to expand security measures for Jewish institutions.

“Acknowledging moments in our history when Canada failed our ideals will help us remain vigilant in upholding those values today,” CIJA said in a press release.

Trudeau, a Liberal, has made a number of apologies for Canada’s historical failings.  

Last week the prime minister visited hundreds of indigenous people in British Columbia to apologise for the hanging of six chiefs 150 years ago.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

Wales have picked Worcester wing Josh Adams ahead of British and Irish Lions star Liam Williams for Saturday’s Test against Australia.

Adams replaces Luke Morgan as one of three changes from the team that beat Scotland, while Williams is joined on the bench by fly-half Dan Biggar as Gareth Anscombe stays at 10.

Tight-head prop Tomas Francis is recalled in place of Dillon Lewis.

The third change sees Adam Beard replace Cory Hill in the second row.

Williams, Adams, Francis and Biggar were all unavailable last weekend against Scotland because they play for English clubs, and the match fell outside World Rugby’s international window.

Saracens back Williams had been tipped to slot into the back three alongside Leigh Halfpenny and George North.

Anscombe has been given another chance at fly-half despite the availability of Northampton’s Biggar with Rhys Patchell also having passed concussion protocol tests.

With Samson Lee still ruled out with a hamstring injury, Exeter tight-head Francis starts ahead of Lewis who is named among the replacements.

The other change in the forwards sees Beard form an all-Ospreys second-row partnership with Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones.

Forwards coach Robin McBryde singled out Beard for praise on Monday following his replacement performance against Scotland. He edges out Dragons skipper Hill who was Wales’ summer tour co-captain with Cardiff Blues flanker Ellis Jenkins, who has himself recovered from a shoulder injury.

Jenkins is on the bench after back-row trio Dan Lydiate, Justin Tipuric and Ross Moriarty impressed last weekend.

Wales: Leigh Halfpenny; George North, Jonathan Davies, Hadleigh Parkes, Josh Adams; Gareth Anscombe, Gareth Davies; Nicky Smith, Ken Owens, Tomas Francis, Adam Beard, Alun Wyn Jones, Dan Lydiate, Justin Tipuric, Ross Moriarty

Replacements: Elliot Dee, Rob Evans, Dillon Lewis, Cory Hill, Ellis Jenkins, Tomos Williams, Dan Biggar, Liam Williams

Australia: Dane Haylett-Petty; Israel Folau, Samu Kerevi, Kurtley Beale, Sefa Naivalu; Bernard Foley, Will Genia; Scott Sio, Tolu Latu, Allan Alaalatoa, Izack Rodda, Adam Coleman, Jack Dempsey, Michael Hooper (capt), David Pocock

Replacements: Tatafu Polota-Nau, Sekope Kepu, Taniela Tupou, Rob Simmons, Ned Hanigan, Nick Phipps, Matt To’omua, Jack Maddocks.

Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)

Assistant referees: Romain Poite (France), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)

TMO: Simon McDowell (Ireland)

Saudi authorities have used acid and other chemicals to dispose of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi‘s body, a source at the Turkish attorney general’s office has told Al Jazeera.

The source said traces of hydrofluoric acid and other chemicals were found in a well at Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi’s home in Istanbul.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Istanbul, said on Thursday that Turkish investigators were able to take samples from the well when they were first granted access last month.

“We know that on the night of October 16 to 17, when the Turkish investigators were working inside the residence and wanted to gain full access to the garden and the well shaft, they were not given permission […] but were able to briefly take some samples from it with rods from the top of it,” he said.

“Those sample have been processed and they include proof that there had been hydrofluoric and other chemicals.”

Simmons said other samples taken from the sewerage and drainage system around the diplomatic district also showed that acid had been used.  

Saudi Arabia had consistently maintained that Khashoggi left the consulate building after obtaining the necessary paperwork that would allow him to marry his Turkish fiancee before admitting to the journalist’s killing on October 20.

It has since provided conflicting accounts about the way in which Khashoggi was killed.

In a meeting with US evangelicals on November 1, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly reiterated promises to get to the bottom of Khashoggi’s killing and punish those responsible.

According to the delegation’s organiser, quoted in an article published on Axios news site on Thursday, 18 people had been arrested and five sacked in connection with the killing.

‘Cover-up team’

On November 2, Yasin Aktay, a close aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said he believed Khashoggi’s body was dissolved in acid.

“The reason they dismembered Khashoggi’s body was to dissolve his remains more easily,” Aktay said.

“Now we see that they did not only dismember his body but also vaporised it.”

A few days later, the pro-government Sabah newspaper reported that Saudi Arabia sent a chemist and toxicology expert to Istanbul in an attempt to cover up evidence of the killing.

According to the Turkish daily, Riyadh sent an 11-member “cover-up team” on October 11, nine days after the Washington Post columnist vanished.

The paper said chemist Ahmad Abdulaziz al-Janobi and toxicology expert Khaled Yahya al-Zahrani were among “the so-called investigative team”, which visited the consulate every day until October 17, before leaving Turkey on October 20.

Bournemouth striker Callum Wilson has received his first senior international call-up for England’s games against the United States and Croatia.

Former England captain and record goalscorer Wayne Rooney has been included for the US game only.

More to follow.

At least 25 inmates and two security officers have been killed after a riot broke out at a high-security prison in Tajikistan, three security sources said on Thursday.

The violence started late on Wednesday when an inmate, believed to be a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), attacked a guard and seized his assault rifle, said an interior ministry official who declined to give his name.

Officers restored order hours later with the help of reinforcements, a security official speaking on condition of anonymity said.

The prison in the northern Tajik city of Khujand is where prisoners convicted of religious extremism offences, including membership of ISIL, are generally held. It also houses other prisoners.

The officials said at least 25 inmates were killed along with a warder and a policeman. The third source, also a security official, said three guards had died.

Local authorities confirmed a riot had occurred but gave no details.

Khujand is about 300km north of capital Dushanbe.

In July, ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack which killed four Western tourists in Tajikistan, an impoverished Central Asian country.

In 1997, security forces had reportedly killed at least 24 people after a riot broke out in Khujand prison, according to a Human Rights Watch report. Non-governmental sources, however, claimed that as many as 100 prisoners were killed.

SOURCE:
Reuters news agency

Chris Ashton will make his first England start in more than four years in Saturday’s match against New Zealand at Twickenham.

The Sale wing comes in for Jack Nowell, who drops to the bench.

Prop Ben Moon replaces Alec Hepburn in the front row and flanker Sam Underhill starts instead of the injured Tom Curry as boss Eddie Jones makes three changes from the side that beat South Africa.

There is no place for Manu Tuilagi in the matchday squad.

Despite his side starting as underdogs, Jones insists the expectation remains the same as ever.

“The expectation for Saturday is no different to any other Test match,” he said.

It is the first meeting between the two teams since the All Blacks secured a narrow 24-21 win at Twickenham in November 2014. In total, New Zealand have won 32 of 40 Tests against England.

Their last defeat to England came in December 2012, when Ashton scored a try in a 38-21 win for the hosts at Twickenham.

Ashton, 31, has made only one appearance for club side Sale this season, scoring a hat-trick against Connacht after his debut was delayed by a suspension for a tip-tackle in a pre-season friendly.

He joined the club in the summer after a successful one-year stint at Toulon where he scored a record 24 tries in a Top 14 season.

He was named in Jones’ first Six Nations squad in 2016 while at Saracens, but missed the tournament through a 10-week eye-gouging ban.

He was subsequently overlooked for the summer tour of Australia later that year and turned down a call-up for the second-string Saxons tour of South Africa.

Ashton has a total of 19 international tries in 40 appearances for England.

England: Elliot Daly; Chris Ashton, Henry Slade, Ben Te’o, Jonny May; Owen Farrell (co-captain), Ben Youngs; Ben Moon, Dylan Hartley (co-captain), Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Brad Shields, Sam Underhill, Mark Wilson.

Replacements: Jamie George, Alec Hepburn, Harry Williams, Charlie Ewels, Courtney Lawes, Danny Care, George Ford, Jack Nowell.

The November 6 midterm election was a very good one for the Democrats. Next year they will have far more power in US politics, and the Republicans far less. The way Democrats won, and the Republicans lost, should worry President Donald Trump for it suggests he is going to have a hard time getting re-elected in 2020. There are two main reasons why:

The margin of victory

In what was a very high turnout election, Democrats beat the Republicans by 7.1 points in the popular vote. In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s margin was just 2 percentage points. So this was a five-point decline from what was already a low 2016 number. It was on par with other recent midterm “wave” elections which had margins of 7.1 for the Republicans in 1994; 8.0 for the Democrats in 2006; 7.2 in 2010 and 5.7 in 2014 for the Republicans.

And it was enough to give the Democrats the House of Representatives, win seven governorships, and pick up 330 state legislative seats. Even in the Senate where Democrats lost ground, they won the popular vote in those races by 15 points (they got 57 percent of the popular vote; the Republicans – just 42 percent). 

In the exit polls taken last night, Trump’s approval rating was 44 favourable, 55 unfavourable. This is consistent with the voting results showing him and his party losing ground since 2016. The reason this matters, is that if Trump is any lower than he was in 2016 – and he looks to be between 2 and 5 points lower – he will not get re-elected. 

The GOP lost ground in critical 2020 battlegrounds

Democrats had strong nights in both the Midwest/Rustbelt region and in the Southwest part of the US, the regions of the country which will decide the 2020 presidential election. In the Rustbelt/Midwest Democrats won Senate races in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wyoming by large margins; and also won governor’s races in and Michigan and Minnesota by very large margins.

Democrats will pick up between seven to nine House seats in this region, and while they came up short in the Iowa governor’s race, they now control three of the four House seats there. As this was the region that was seen as one which gave Trump the presidency, the deep rejection of the GOP there has to be seen as a dangerous development for the president.

The Southwest, on the other hand, has never been friendly territory for Trump. The three states which saw the biggest movement towards the Democrats in 2016 were California, Texas and Arizona. 

Last night we saw Beto O’Rourke make a statewide race in Texas competitive for the first time in decades. The Arizona Senate race is too close to call and Democrats won all the important races in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. Dems are on track to gain 11 House seats in these states including California, a state where the GOP didn’t even have a Senate candidate on the statewide ballot this year. All of this adds up to a night of dangerous erosion for the Republican Party in the region of the United States with the two biggest states, California and Texas.

Over the last two years there was always this sense that while the president’s thunderous championing of white nationalism and anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies was hurting him in the heavily Mexican-American parts of the southwestern US, it was the key to unlock the Rustbelt and Midwest – the part of the country seen as the one which gave him the presidency.

Given the really bad night the GOP had in the northern part of the US, that no longer appears to be true, which is a highly problematic development for him and his party. He may have used the migrant caravan in the final days to win in very red and rural places like Indiana, Missouri and Tennessee but in the states which matter for him to get re-elected next year, there is far more evidence that his attacking immigrants has done far more to hurt his re-election chances.

So yes, during his post-midterms press conference on November 7, Trump tried to claim that the 2018 election was a good one for him. But in reality, it wasn’t – it was a bad loss, a repudiation; the real weakness evident in the two parts of the country where he needs to win to get re-elected suggests Trump will just be a weakened president over the next two years. Today, his chances for re-election look much more difficult than they did just a few months ago. 

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. 

Keaton Jennings ended his two-year wait for a Test century as England moved into a formidable position on day three of the first Test against Sri Lanka.

Jennings scored a brilliant 146 not out to allow England to declare late in the day on 322-6.

Sri Lanka closed on 15-0 and must bat the final two days for a draw or score a record 462 to win to deny England a first away win since in 13 Tests.

Jennings’s century was his first since his ton on debut in 2016.

He batted patiently early on as England lost wickets in the morning session, before attacking after reaching three figures for the first time in 22 innings.

The tourists had lost Rory Burns and Moeen Ali in poor fashion before lunch, with captain Joe Root also falling, but Jennings put on 107 with Ben Stokes, 77 with Jos Buttler and 61 with Ben Foakes.

The late contributions ensured Sri Lanka must make the highest successful run chase in Test history, at a ground where the highest winning chase is just 99.

If rain does not wash out large portions of the final two days then England will likely earn their first Test win overseas since 2016.

Jennings returns to form

Jennings has been one of the most criticised England batsmen in recent months as he struggled to repeat the success of his debut century in Mumbai against India in December 2016.

He was dropped from the team in 2017, after one fifty in five matches, before being recalled in June and averaging just 19.20 against Pakistan and India this summer.

That meant his place was under threat for this series but England stuck with the Lancashire player following the retirement of fellow opener Alastair Cook.

On the spinning pitch in Galle he looked far more comfortable than he did in swinging and seaming conditions in England.

He batted sensibly, pushing the ball into open spaces for the majority of his innings and persistently looking to reverse sweep, one of his favoured shots.

Sri Lanka chose not to review an lbw decision just after Jennings passed 50 which replays showed would have been out had they done so, but that was the only chance he gave in the innings, other than a sharp caught and bowled effort when attacking late on.

He was unbeaten on 98 at tea but afterwards safely reached three figures before kicking on to better the 112 he made in Mumbai in conditions which also favoured spin.

More to follow.

At least 14 Afghan army soldiers were killed in Takhar province after midnight on Thursday in the latest attack by Taliban armed group, which has killed or wounded dozens of security forces this week.

Six soldiers are missing and 16 others wounded in the attack on military base in Khawja Ghar district, provincial council member Mohammad Azam Afzali told Al Jazeera.

In the neighbouring Kunduz province, at least seven army soldiers were killed and several others were wounded on Wednesday, Afzali added.

Also on Thursday, Taliban attacked and overran two checkposts in Ghazni’s Jaghori district, killing several local police forces, as fighting continued.

Jaghori resident Asad Arman told DPA news agency that army commandos had reached the district by helicopter early Thursday, forcing the fighters to retreat.

Jaghori, a predominantly Hazara Shia dominated district, is one of the safest in the province, which has come under Taliban attacks following the armed group’s assault on neighbouring Uruzgan province.

On Sunday, at least 13 policemen were killed in Khogyani district after Taliban fighters attacked their checkpost, according to Ghazni governor spokesman Arif Noori.

Taliban fighters have ramped up attacks on Afghan security forces and government facilities in recent months, leaving troops thinly stretched throughout the country.

A US watchdog agency said last week that the Afghan government was struggling to recover control of districts lost to the Taliban while casualties among security forces had reached record levels.

The government had control or influence over 65 percent of the population but only 55.5 percent of Afghanistan‘s 407 districts, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report.

The latest phase of Afghanistan’s decades-old war began in 2001, when the US-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Moscow peace talks

Amid escalation of violence across the country, Russia is facilitating a peace conference on Friday attended by officials from the High Peace Council (HPC) and members of the Taliban group based in Doha, Qatar.

The HPC established by the Afghan government told local media “that the meeting is aimed at brokering talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban”.

Russia invited 12 countries and the Taliban, but the United States and the US-backed Afghan government have stayed away from the peace talks.

Representatives from Iran, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are expected to attend, officials said.

Diplomatic engagement between the Taliban and the US gained momentum last month after the US special envoy for peace in Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, met Taliban leaders in Qatar.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

Image copyright
Reuters

India cricket captain Virat Kohli is embroiled in controversy after lashing out at a cricket fan who said he preferred English and Australian batsmen to Indian players.

“I don’t think you should live in India, go and live somewhere else,” Kohli told him in a video recording.

He was responding to messages during the launch of his mobile app on Monday.

The video went viral and prompted a torrent of criticism against Kohli on social media.

The 30-year-old cricketer has been hailed as one of the greatest batsmen in the world and is often touted as India’s cricket megastar since national legend Sachin Tendulkar retired in 2013.

• Virat Kohli becomes the fastest batsman to reach 10,000 ODI runs

In the video, Kohli is seen reading out a message from a cricket fan who described him as an “over rated batsman”. He also said he enjoyed watching batsmen from English and Australian teams rather than the current Indian team.

“Why are you living in our country and loving other countries? I don’t mind you not liking me, but I don’t think you should live in our country and like other things,” Kohli said in his response. He added that the fan should get his “priorities straight”.

Social media users were quick to call out Kohli over his remarks – and many referred to past instances in which he had praised sportspeople of other nationalities.

Harsha Bhogle, a prominent cricket commentator and journalist, also weighed in on the controversy.

Some others mocked Kohli’s response.

This isn’t the first time Kohli has been in the spotlight for controversial statements.

In 2016, when India’s federal government cancelled 86% of the country’s currency, Kohli called it the “greatest move” he has ever encountered in politics.

The remark sparked criticism because the surprise decision had disrupted the lives of millions of Indians.

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Getty Images

Writing about Kohli’s latest comments, Times of India journalist Dwaipayan Dutta wonders if the cricket captain is “losing perspective” off the field.

The statement, he writes, is “probably an extension of the nationalist narrative that modern India tries to propagate”.

Last month, Kohli became the fastest batsman to reach 10,000 one-day international runs in a match against West Indies.

He achieved the feat in his 205th innings and surpassed Tendulkar, who did it in 259 innings in 2001.