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At least 14 people were killed and 20 were injured after a student opened fire at a university in Prague, marking the Czech Republic’s worst mass shooting in history.
The bloodshed took place in the philosophy department building of Charles University, where the shooter was a student, Prague Police Chief Martin Vondrasek said. The gunman also died, authorities said.
Police gave no details about the victims or a possible motive for the shooting at the building located near the Vltava River in Jan Palach Square. Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said investigators do not suspect a link to any extremist ideology or groups. Vondrasek said police believe the gunman killed his father earlier Thursday in his hometown of Hostoun, just west of Prague, and that he had also been planning to kill himself. He didn’t elaborate.
A woman lights a candle in front of the Charles University main building following a shooting at one of the university's buildings in Prague, Czech Republic, Dec. 21, 2023.DAVID W CERNY/Reuters
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Two months after an Ontario hospital hack, many patients are left in limbo
Almost two months after a massive ransomware attack on five southwestern Ontario hospitals, patient care remains in upheaval, with many being diverted to hospitals throughout the province and in the U.S. for treatment.
The attack compromised the personal data of hundreds of thousands of patients and forced officials at the facilities – Windsor Regional Hospital, Sarnia’s Bluewater Health, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Erie Shores HealthCare and Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare – to shut down their information technology systems. With no access to electronic patient records, doctors and nurses reverted to methods most hospitals left behind in the 1990s: pen-and-paper patient care.
Professionals and residents in Windsor and Sarnia speak about how the cyberattack on their hospitals has affected their care and trust in the system, while experts explain that health care facilities across the country are vulnerable to similar attacks.
EMS paramedics are seen working in the ambulance bay at Windsor Regional Hospital-Met Campus, Dec. 17, 2023.Dax Melmer/The Globe and Mail
On the new front line of Myanmar’s civil war, resistance fighters are gaining ground
Nearly three years after a military coup, Myanmar’s resistance fighters are making key advances. In a country where foreign media are banned, photojournalist Siegfried Modola captures the battle for the town of Loikaw and the toll the conflict has taken.
A Karenni soldier fires his weapon from the building of a hotel as the group tries to breach a police station less than 150 metres away that is still in the control of the State Administration Council in the town of Loikaw, the capital of Karenni state, on Nov. 29, 2023.Siegfried Modola/The Globe and Mail
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Also on our radar
Ottawa approves RBC’s $13.5-billion takeover of HSBC Canada: Ottawa has given the go-ahead to Royal Bank of Canada’s $13.5-billion takeover of Britain-based HSBC Holdings PLC’s Canadian subsidiary, with the bank agreeing to several commitments to close the deal.
Ottawa launches temporary visa program for Palestinians in Gaza with ties to Canadians: Hundreds of Palestinians with relatives in Canada are expected to come to this country to escape violence in the Gaza Strip under a temporary immigration program announced by the federal government. Meanwhile, the Liberal government is insisting that Hamas must surrender to Israel, after the armed militant group praised Canada for being one of the countries calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. UN Security Council diplomats have also delayed until Friday a vote on a resolution to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza and another round of talks took place in Egypt to try to get warring Israel and Hamas to agree on a new truce so hostages can be released.
Did Earth once have a 19-hour day? A debate over the answer may illuminate the history of life: For inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. But this year, scientists presented new evidence for a time deep in Earth’s past when the planet spun around on its axis in only 19 hours.
Man who tormented Amanda Todd to suicide has his sentence cut in Dutch court: Amanda Todd’s mother says she is pleased a Dutch court has handed out the longest prison term possible to the man who spent more than two years tormenting her teenage daughter to suicide. But this new decision halves the sentence he received last year in British Columbia.
Alberta Premier defends province’s fall immunization campaign: Danielle Smith encouraged people to speak with their doctors about vaccines, while her Health Minister acknowledged that hundreds of thousands of Albertans are without family physicians.
Morning markets
Global shares struggle: World shares were mostly lower after several strong profit reports helped Wall Street claw back most of its sharp losses from day before. Around 5:30 a.m. ET, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.12 per cent. Germany’s DAX slid 0.04 per cent while France’s CAC 40 edged up 0.03 per cent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed up 0.09 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 1.69 per cent. New York futures were lower. The Canadian dollar was higher at 75.34 US cents.
What everyone’s talking about
Law and politics collide as Donald Trump’s fate on the ballot may end up in U.S. Supreme Court
“While the country’s attention has been fixed on the changes in the presidency and in Congress, the transformation in the character and inclinations of the high court may be even more dramatic.” – David Shribman
François Legault’s ‘targeted attack’ on McGill and Concordia is trademark wedge politics
“For any rational person, it boggles the mind why the Legault government, nationalist though it is, would willfully seek to handicap two of the province’s most respected institutions by pricing them out of the market for most out-of-province students and discouraging even those with the means from coming to Quebec by forcing them to learn French to graduate.” – Konrad Yakabuski
Today’s editorial cartoon
Illustration by David Parkins
Living better
The 18 purchases that made our lives better in 2023
We polled Globe staffers about the items that made their lives just a little bit easier in 2023. From a $3 IKEA bag to a fancy Dyson vacuum, here are our best buys of 2023.
The Globe and Mail’s 2023 giant holiday crossword puzzle
Test your mental mettle with this brain-twisting assortment of word, logic and number puzzles by Fraser Simpson, creator of The Globe and Mail’s cryptic crossword. You can play the giant crossword online or download it and play it at home.
Moment in time: Dec. 22, 1808
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony premieres in Vienna
They are perhaps the most famous first four notes in music – GGGE-flat – simple notes that despite their brevity elicit a profound dread in the listener. Beethoven himself described them as “fate knocking at the door,” immediately repeating them one step lower. Today, because of that opening, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is a rare piece of music that has escaped its genre. So recognizable are these notes it’s almost impossible to imagine a time before their existence. Imagine the thrill of being among their first audience, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna 215 years ago? In fact, it would have been terrible. The four-hour concert, on a bitterly cold night, featured eight Beethoven works. Unfortunately, the musicians had little chance to practise these unfamiliar pieces, resulting in numerous errors, while a teenaged soprano, seized by stage fright, massacred the solo of Ah! perfido. During the final piece of the night, the Choral Fantasy, the orchestra got so lost that Beethoven, as conductor, actually had to restart it mid-performance. By all contemporary accounts, the audience was freezing and unhappy by the end, possessing no idea they had just taken part in one of the biggest moments in music history. Ken Carriere.
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Editor’s note: A previous version of this Moment in Time incorrectly stated the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. This version has been updated.
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