The riots that broke out across Dublin city centre on Thursday evening appear to have begun as a heated demonstration at the scene of a tragic incident that took place earlier in the day, Irish police have said. Three young children and an adult woman and man were all injured in a knife attack outside the Irish-medium primary school Gaelscoil Cholaiste Mhuire on Parnell Square East at approximately 1.30pm on Thursday lunchtime, an incident that immediately made headlines. Two girls hurt in the attack are currently receiving treatment for serious injuries while a five-year-old boy has already been discharged from hospital. Both adults remain in care and are being treated for serious wounds. Eyewitness Siobhan Kearney told the broadcaster RTE: “I looked across the road and I see the man and the stabbing motion with a load of children so I flew across the road. “The man was after stabbing two children as far as I could make out, and we got the children up to the left with the women that were there, and the teachers I presume. “People were trying to attack the man so me and an American lady, we formed a ring around the man, and then about three minutes later the ambulance came for the children and then another ambulance and fire officers came for the man on the ground.” Caio Benicio, a Brazil-born Deliveroo driver, said that he leapt from his moped and knocked the knifeman to the ground with his helmet as part of the public effort to stop him. A police source told The Irish Daily Mail: “We have to say fair play to those people who stepped in. They gave that man a good hiding to make sure he wasn't going to get up and hurt more people, but I can tell you now that they saved lives.” Police have since said they believe the incident itself was a “standalone” attack and is not terror-related. A man in his 50s has been arrested and named a “person of interest” in the investigation and the scene remains cordoned off as of Friday morning. In the immediate aftermath of the stabbings, a spontaneous demonstration formed at the edge of the police cordon over the course of Thursday afternoon and escalated as the evening progressed. A crowd of between 100 and 200 people, some of whom wore scarves and hoodies to cover their faces, confronted gardai verbally before violent clashes erupted with riot police. The mob’s number would ultimately grow to around 500, according to later estimates. Tricolours and an “Irish lives matter” sign were held by some who were present. Fireworks and flares were soon thrown at police and, just before 7pm, a Garda car was seen alight near the scene. Two more police cars sustained fire damage during the episode and another eight were extensively vandalised by the rioters, some of whose actions was captured on mobile phone footage that was swiftly spread across social media. People were seen picking up furniture from nearby shops and smashing it to the ground, some of whom appeared to be minors. Several small pushes were made by riot police down O’Connell Street and away from the scene, which appeared to temporarily scatter those gathered, only for them to reform and confront police again. Some onlookers sheltered in a hotel lobby until the garda effort had moved down towards O’Connell Bridge, where a car and a bus were also set alight. An empty Luas tram that had been left at a stop nearby had its windows smashed and was set on fire. Dublin Fire Brigade tackled the flames that had engulfed the Luas, as well as nearby buses, once they reached the scene. Rioters were also seen on nearby Henry Street, a major shopping thoroughfare, looting a Footlocker shoe store. People threw bottles at gardai on the famous street, while others carried metal bars and smashed shop windows. Smoke from bus and car fires filled the air while a Garda helicopter monitored the situation overhead. As of Friday morning, 32 people have been charged over Thursday night’s violence, which required 400 police officers and a further 250 public order officers to contain, according to the authorities. The affair has been condemned by the Irish justice minister Helen McEntee and the Garda commissioner Drew Harris. Ms McEntee pledged that the scenes of disorder “will not be tolerated” and said: “A thuggish and manipulative element must not be allowed use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc.” Mr Harris described the clashes with police officers and the criminal damage as “disgraceful” and blamed a “complete lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology” for Thursday’s chaos. He also urged the public to “act responsibly and not to listen to the misinformation and rumour that is circulating on social media”. Also condemning the participants was Irish taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who said on Friday: “Those involved brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves. These criminals did not do what they did because they love Ireland. “They did not do what they did because they wanted to protect Irish people. They did not do it out of any sense of patriotism, however warped. They did so because they’re filled with hate, they love violence, they love chaos and they love causing pain to others.” Local residents have meanwhile been advised to work from home on Friday as the investigation into the disorder and a major cleanup operation continues. Read More Hamas to release more hostages as thousands set for Gaza ceasefire march NHS doctor says family’s situation in Gaza has worsened despite ceasefire Labour set to further water down £28bn green plans – reports Tech firm Palantir rejects concerns over role in NHS data platform plans Police appeal over ‘wanted man’ who killed motorcyclist in 2016 crash Autistic boy obsessed with John Lewis Christmas ad thanks retailer for gifts

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Several current and former elected officials – including Georgia’s two former Republican senators – are on a list of prominent Donald Trump allies who narrowly avoided criminal charges in the state’s sweeping racketeering case against him. The unsealed report from a special purpose grand jury tasked with investigating Trumpworld attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results revealed a much wider picture of the subsequent criminal case against the former president and his 18 co-defendants. That report – the product of an eight-month investigation separate from an Atlanta grand jury’s indictment – revealed that grand jurors recommend criminal charges against 39 people for nearly 160 counts of violations against more than a dozen state laws. The list includes Georgia’s two former Republican US senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, but neither of them were charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in a sweeping racketeering indictment. How did Mr Perdue and Ms Loeffler – who were sitting members of Congress during the time of the alleged crimes – end up in the crosshairs of the sprawling investigation? Mr Perdue was first elected to office in 2014 and lost his bid for re-election in a closely watched runoff against Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff in the smoldering aftermath of the 2020 election. Ms Loeffler – who was appointed to the seat in 2019 following the retirement of her predecessor – lost a runoff election to Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock. Following Mr Trump’s election loss, all eyes were on Georgia for two races that would determine the balance of party power in Congress – high-stakes elections in which the GOP campaigns were intertwined with Mr Trump’s spurious attempts to claim victory in a state he decisively lost. On the campaign trail leading up to the runoff election day on 5 January, 2021, both candidates promoted their Trump links, refused to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory, and called for the resignation of Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was baselessly accused of election “failures” following Mr Trump’s loss in the state. One week after the 2020 election, Governor Brian Kemp issued a joint statement with Lt Governor Geoff Duncan and the state’s House Speaker David Ralston – all Republicans – declaring that any effort to reverse the results through the legislature would lead to “endless litigation.” At a fundraiser on 3 December 2020, Mr Perdue urged the governor to summon lawmakers back to the state Capitol for a special session to overturn Mr Trump’s loss. Two days later, then-President Trump called on Mr Kemp to order a special legislative session among state lawmakers to invalidate the election’s outcome. Mr Kemp refused. At a Georgia rally for the senate candidates that night, Mr Trump baselessly alleged the outcome was manipulated and stolen from him. The governor said that Mr Trump asked him to order an audit of signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes; audits and full hand recounts of the state’s election results repeatedly confirmed Mr Biden’s victory, which also was affirmed and defended by the state’s Republican election officials. “Your people are refusing to do what you ask,” Mr Trump said on Twitter at the time, addressing Mr Kemp. “What are they hiding? At least immediately ask for a Special Session of the Legislature. That you can easily, and immediately, do.” Mr Perdue allegedly spoke daily with Mr Trump before the special election, listening to him unload his gripes, frustrations and bogus allegations surrounding Georgia’s election results and Mr Raffensperger’s refusals to engage Mr Trump. On 2 January, 2021, Mr Trump spoke with Mr Raffensperger on an hour-long conference call in which then-President Trump urged Georgia’s top elections official to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss. That call is central to the indictment facing Mr Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia, as well as a separate indictment from the US Department of Justice surrounding the former president’s attempts to subvert the election’s outcome. Mr Perdue’s term in Congress ended the next day, leaving his seat vacant three days before Congress convened to certify the presidential election results. “Senator Perdue still owes my wife an apology for all the death threats she got after he asked for my resignation,” Mr Raffensperger told Fox News at the time. “I have not heard one peep from that man since. If he wants to call me, face-to-face, man-to-man, I’ll talk to him, off the record, but he hasn’t done that.” Ms Loeffler initially supported efforts among GOP lawmakers to reject the election’s outcome during the joint session of Congress on 6 January, 2021, but she reversed her decision after a mob of then-President Trump’s supporters broke into the US Capitol and stormed the halls in an effort to stop the certification of Mr Biden’s victory. The special grand jury report indicates that then-Senator Perdue was involved with the “persistent, repeated communications directed to multiple Georgia officials and employees” between November 2020 and January 2021. Sixteen jurors voted to indict him on a charge of filing false documents, with one juror voting against and one abstaining. The special grand jury also implicated Mr Perdue and Ms Loeffler under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the national scheme to overturn 2020 election results, “focused on efforts in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania” and Washington DC, according to the report. Seventeen jurors voted to support a RICO indictment against Mr Perdue, with four jurors voting against charges. In the case of Ms Loeffler, 14 jurors supported the charge, while six voted against and one abstained. A footnote in the report notes that one of the dissenting jurors voting against recommending indictments against the senators on the RICO charge “believes that their statements following the November 2020 election, while pandering to their political base, do not give rise to their being guilty of a criminal conspiracy.” In a statement following the release of the special grand jury report, Ms Loeffler said she was “giving voice to millions of Americans who felt disenfranchised in 2020” and that she would not be “intimidated by a two-tiered system of justice that seeks to systematically destroy conservatives across this country.” In 2022, Mr Perdue was enlisted and endorsed by Mr Trump to run for governor of the state against incumbent Mr Kemp. Mr Perdue lost that race as well. 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