WASHINGTON: Talk about a spectacular joyride: an American soldier commandeered an armored personnel carrier and led police on a chase along a major highway for more than an hour.
In scenes that drew comparisons with the anarchic Grand Theft Auto videogame series, the vehicle tore through streets, ignoring traffic signals — and the screaming sirens in hot pursuit.
Cops in the eastern state of Virginia were unable to deploy the stingers that might normally be laid out across the roads to burst a stolen car’s tires.
Instead, they raced along behind the sand-colored all-terrain vehicle, whose caterpillar tracks were carrying it at speeds of up to 40 miles (65 kilometers) per hour.
“This is INSANE!” wrote Twitter-user @ParkerSlay89, posting a video of the chase.
“Someone has hijacked a ‘Tank-like’ vehicle from Fort Pickett and just drove it by our apartment!”
Kayleigh, a bystander, told local TV network WWBT: “Honestly it kinda reminds me of the Grand Theft Auto games where the tanks drive just in the middle of the city, it’s surreal.”
The wildly successful Grand Theft Auto series is an open-world video game in which players create mayhem across an urban landscape, stealing vehicles and committing crimes.
Virginia State Police Sargent Keeli Hill told reporters the APC, which was not equipped with any weapons, had been boosted from a Virginia National Guard base and driven along a major road to the state capital, Richmond.
During the pursuit, officers closed exit ramps on the highway, Hill said, adding the soldier eventually stopped the vehicle and surrendered.
High-speed police chases are a regular feature of US news networks, many of which dispatch helicopters to give their audience a bird’s-eye view of the action.
US soldier steals armored vehicle for a GTA-like joyride
US soldier steals armored vehicle for a GTA-like joyride
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
