1. Vehicle Hits People Near London Mosque, Causing Casualties
Channel 5: One person has been arrested but police have not said if the crash was deliberate or accidental. The London Ambulance Service says the injured are being taken to hospitals. Eyewitnesses reported seeing police give emergency medical treatment to at least one of the injured.
The Muslim Council tweeted that worshippers were struck by a van as they were leaving prayers near the Finsbury Park mosque. It said its prayers are with the victims.
London police have declared the crash a major incident and closed the area to normal traffic. A helicopter circled above the area as a large cordon was established to keep motorists and pedestrians away. Eyewitness told Sky News and other British media that the van seemed to have veered and hit people intentionally. Police did not confirm that.
Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim organization, said that based on eyewitness reports it seems to be a "deliberate attack against innocent Muslims." The neighborhood has two mosques, and several hundred worshippers would have been in the area after attending prayers as part of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Finsbury Park mosque was associated with extremist ideology for several years after the 9/11 attacks in the United States but was shut down and reorganized. It has not been associated with radical views for more than a decade.
2. Pentagon: US shoots down Syrian aircraft for first time
Associated Press: Yesterday, the U.S. military shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet that bombed local forces aligned with the Americans in the fight against Islamic State militants, an action that appeared to mark a new escalation of the conflict.
The U.S. had not shot down a Syrian regime aircraft before yesterday’s confrontation, said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. While the U.S. has said since it began recruiting, training and advising what it calls moderate Syrian opposition forces to fight IS that it would protect them from potential Syrian government retribution, this was the first time it resorted to engaging in air-to-air combat to make good on that promise.
The U.S. military statement said it acted in "collective self defense" of its partner forces and that the U.S. did not seek a fight with the Syrian government or its Russian supporters.
3. U.S. Attorney's Office Considering Federal Review of Yanez Case
CHANNEL 5: The federal government is considering whether to review the case of Jeronimo Yanez after a jury found him not guilty on three charges Friday. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota released a statement on Friday that said the case has been closely monitored by the Department of Justice. The statement said that a higher level of intent is required when weighing charges under federal criminal civil rights law.
At the protests following the Yanez verdict, among the 18 people were arrested early Saturday morning at a standoff between protesters and the Minnesota State Patrol on Interstate 94 in St. Paul were two working reporters.
Susan Du from City Pages and David Clarey from the Minnesota Daily were charged with unlawful assembly and being a public nuisance. Both were released from the Ramsey County jail later on Saturday.
At 10:30 p.m. on Friday, about 500 people raced onto Interstate 94 and blocked lanes in both directions. Du was reporting on the freeway standoff.
By 12:30 a.m., state troopers and St. Paul police had pushed the few dozen remaining protesters onto an exit ramp. Susan Du from City Pages said, “It became fairly clear that if we didn’t get out of there, we were going to get arrested, too, which was obviously not my intention.”
Remaining members of the media, including photographers and TV crews, climbed over a fence to get off the exit ramp. Du, who was not far behind them, was prevented from doing so by an officer who put his arm in front of her body. “I followed his directives” to go back down the hill, she said.
Du and protesters were handcuffed and put into a Metro Transit bus, where she sat next to Clarey. “We quickly learned that we were both reporters and that we were both kind of fixated on watching what was happening and ... got swept up,” she said.
The bus took them to the Ramsey County jail for booking, a process that took several hours. They were released more than eight hours after their arrest. Representatives of the Newspaper Guild and Randy Lebedoff, general counsel for the Star Tribune, which owns City Pages, waited for them outside the jail.
4. POLL: 7% of adults believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows
American Mirror: A real survey conducted by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy finds a startling amount of U.S. adults believe chocolate milk comes brown brown cows.
The poll of 1,000 adults aged 18 and older taken in April finds 7% of respondents “still think that chocolate milk only comes from brown cows,” Food & Wine reports.
Perhaps more jolting: 48% of respondents “said that they aren’t sure where chocolate milk comes from.”
5. MN dad takes 'Father's Eve' idea worldwide
KARE 11: Out of his garage in St. Paul, John Francis create the idea for "Father's Eve." An idea that has now spread across the country and even the world. In 2012, it started with some dads swapping stories in the garage. "We call it the brotherhood of fatherhood, which is kind of fun," said Francis.
Over the years, that low-key event grew until they outgrew the garage. Now "Father's Eve" is celebrated in 41 cities and two other countries, Costa Rica and the U.K.
The purpose is to bring together dads to support each other. The first "official" Father's Eve event took place at O'Gara's restaurant in St. Paul. This gathering gave fathers a chance to connect, share stories and start to help charities that focused on dads. In 2016 Francis and other dads raised $7,000 for dad-related charities including helping stay-at-home dads and helping recently paroled fathers connect with their kids.
The goal for next year is to have "Father's Eve" celebrated in more than 100 cities across the U.S.