‘Makeshift flamethrower’ used to set people on fire
(CNN) — Editor’s note: Find the latest coverage of the Boulder attack here.
A man yelled “free Palestine” as he used incendiary devices – including a “makeshift flamethrower” – to set people on fire during a Jewish community event in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday, in what authorities are calling another “targeted” antisemitic attack. Witnesses described seeing huge flames and people pouring buckets of water onto burning victims. At least eight were injured, including four women and four men between the ages of 52 and 88, authorities said. Two victims were airlifted to the Denver metro area. At least one victim was “very seriously injured,” officials said.
The FBI is investigating the attack as “an act of terrorism,” the agency said. It happened at a weekly walk held in Boulder in support of the Israeli hostages who remain held by Hamas in Gaza. Among the eight injured is a Holocaust survivor, according to an individual who knows the person and who was at the event. It is unclear what their condition is.
The suspect has been identified as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, according to the FBI. In videos obtained by CNN, the suspect is seen shirtless, yelling “Palestine is free!” “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” The suspect is carrying two bottles, and witnesses can be heard saying he’s “spraying alcohol” and “he’s making Molotov cocktails.”
Soliman was booked into the Boulder County jail just before midnight Sunday on multiple felony charges, including one count of explosives or incendiary devices used during a felony, according to online jail records.
The records also show Soliman was booked on two counts of murder in the 1st degree, but the circumstances around those charges are unclear, as authorities have not announced any deaths resulting from the attack.
CNN reached out to the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office for comment. Soliman has a court date scheduled for Monday at 1:30 p.m. local time, according to the online jail records, which show he is being held on a bond of $10 million.
Officials are working to assess whether the alleged attacker has any possible mental health issues, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN. The FBI was also conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity” in El Paso County, a little over 100 miles from Boulder, where the suspect is believed to live.
Sunday’s attack comes less than two weeks after two young Israeli Embassy staffers were fatally shot in Washington, DC, by a man who claimed to have been acting “for Gaza.”
“The Jewish community has been warning the world that chants of ‘globalize the Intifada’ and ‘resistance by any means necessary’ are calls to violence. We’ve now seen that violence erupt in America twice in less than two weeks,” Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said on social media.
Global stocks slide as tariff tensions reignite
London (CNN) — Global stocks mostly dipped on Monday as investors digested President Donald Trump’s doubling of tariffs on American’s steel imports and as trade tensions with China flare up once again. The Dow was down 215 points, or 0.5%, during morning trading. The S&P 500 was down 0.3%, and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index edged lower by 0.05%. Earlier, in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down 0.6%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 finished the day 0.2% and 1.3% lower, respectively. South Korea’s KOSPI closed up 0.1%, however. Stocks were also trading lower in Europe. The region’s benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index had ticked down 0.2% by 9.28 am ET, while Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC had both fallen 0.4%. London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1% by the same time. Despite Trump’s tariff plan hitting a legal stumbling block last week, Trump upped the ante in his trade war again on Friday. Trump also announced Friday that he plans to set tariffs on US steel imports at 50% —doubling their current rate — in a bid to protect America’s steelworkers. The higher levy is due to come into force on Wednesday.
Huge eruption on Italy’s Mt. Etna leaves tourists fleeing volcano
(CNN) — A massive eruption at Mt. Etna forced tourists to flee the volcano on Monday after a plume of high temperature gases, ash and rock “several kilometers high” billowed into the air above them, Italian authorities said. Footage posted on social media shows long lines of people hurrying downhill away from the explosion while the owner of one tour company told CNN they had 40 people on the Sicilian volcano when it erupted. Giuseppe Panfallo, a guide with Go Etna, filmed his tour group huddled together with an enormous ash cloud in the distance. “We were nearly grazed, look at this cloud here. We were two steps away and thank goodness we have a responsible guide with us,” he says in the video shared with CNN. “It arrived all at once, an immense smoke, immense, immense roar.” About a dozen tour operators work on Etna at any given time, the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency told CNN, adding that they are contacting all of them to ensure everyone is accounted for. The volcano on the Italian island is a popular tourist destination visited by 1.5 million people a year, many of whom trek almost all the way to its summit.
Russia, Ukraine hold peace talks in shadow of Kyiv’s air raid
(CNN) — Russian and Ukrainian delegates met in Istanbul on Monday for their second set of direct peace talks, a day after Kyiv launched a shock drone attack on Russia’s nuclear-capable bombers, in an operation that President Volodymyr Zelensky said was a year and a half in the making. After the initial round of discussions in the Turkish city last month – the first between the warring countries since soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022 – both sides agreed to share their conditions for a full ceasefire and a potentially lasting peace. Zelensky said Sunday that Ukraine had presented Moscow with its “logical and realistic” demands, but said Russia had not yet shared its memorandum. “We don’t have it,” Zelensky said. “The Turkish side doesn’t have it, and the American side doesn’t have the Russian document either. Despite this, we will attempt to achieve at least some progress on the path toward peace.” It is not yet clear if Ukraine’s daring Sunday air raid will streamline that path or make it more thorny. Kyiv has long sought to impress upon the Kremlin that there are costs to prolonging its campaign, but some analysts have warned that the operation – which struck Russian airfields thousands of miles from Ukraine’s borders – will only replenish Moscow’s resolve.
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