Lina Chernykh tells the BBC her niece Matilda was a joyous child who spread love everywhere she went
The family of the Bondi shooting's youngest victim Matilda urged the community to not let her death fuel anger, as they said a final goodbye to the 10-year-old on Thursday.
Matilda was among 15 people who were shot dead when two gunmen opened fire on an event marking the start of Hannukah at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday.
Speaking to the BBC at Matilda's funeral, her aunt Lina Chernykh said the Jewish community is right to want more action to stamp out antisemitism – she does too.
But she said Matilda was a joyous child who spread love everywhere she went, and urged the community to do the same in her honour.
"Take your anger and… just spread happiness and love and memory for my lovely niece," Ms Chernykh said.
"I hope maybe she's an angel now. Maybe she [will] send some good vibes to the world."
Jewish community leaders have in recent days suggested the tragedy was an inevitable result of Australia struggling to address rising antisemitism.
The attack on Sunday, which targeted the Jewish community at an event celebrating the first night of Hanukkah, was the country's deadliest incident since 1996, when a gunman killed 35 people during the Port Arthur massacre.
Ahead of Matilda's funeral on Thursday, Ms Chernykh said the family was devastated.
"I look at their faces [and] I don't know if they will be ever happy again," she said of Matilda's parents.
Matilda's younger sister, from whom she was "inseparable", is shattered and confused, she said.
"She doesn't have enough tears to cry."
At a flower memorial on Tuesday, Matilda's mother Valentyna told mourners that the family came to Australia from Ukraine more than a decade ago, thinking it would be a safe place for them.
"I couldn't imagine I'd lose my daughter here... It's just a nightmare," she said.
Ms Chernykh told the BBC she too has struggled to make sense of what is happening.
She was gardening at her home on the Gold Coast when Matilda's mother called on Sunday.
"Truly, I was thinking something happened to my father because he's 84 years old... and she says Matilda was shot," she recalled.
"How [could] someone in Australia understand, if someone tells you your kid was shot… I couldn't understand it. I was thinking I have bad reception. I asked a few times what I'm [hearing]."
Police have designated the attack a terrorist incident, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying it appears to have been "motivated by Islamic State" group ideology.
Police allege that the two gunmen were a father and son. Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead at the scene, while his son Naveed, 24, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act.
Australia on Thursday announced it would strengthen laws to crack down on hate - including by introducing powers to cancel or refuse visas on grounds of antisemitism.
Meg O’Neill of Australia’s Woodside Energy will lead the London energy giant, replacing Murray Auchincloss, who will exit after less than two years in the role.
The arbitrary detention of hundreds of gen Z protesters in Morocco and alleged “horrific” beatings have been condemned by human rights groups, as the country prepares to host the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday.
A wave of youth-led demonstrations swept across Morocco in late September and early October – the biggest since the 2011 Arab spring – in protest at underfunded healthcare and education.
The government responded to the protests, known as “Gen Z 212”, after the country’s dialling code, by arbitrarily arresting thousands of people, human rights groups said. The Guardian was told that people had been beaten and left for hours without food or water while in police custody.
“My son was at a snack bar having dinner when he was arrested. He was not even protesting,” said a mother whose 18-year-old son had been detained for more than two months.
She said her son had been hit so badly during the arrest that “he even lost some of his teeth”. She said he was beaten again in police custody “simply because he refused to sign police papers of his hearings”.
Female protesters were victims of “acts of harassment, insults, and crude and sexist remarks”, said Souad Brahma, president of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH). Some also reported incidents of “inappropriate touching”.
Three protesters were shot and killed, allegedly by security forces, at a protest on 1 October in the town of Lqliâa, near the popular Atlantic tourist hotspot of Agadir. A further 14 protesters were injured, including children as young as 12 left with firearm wounds. The authorities claim a group of protesters stormed the local police station, to which officers responded.
So far, more than 2,400 people are being prosecuted in connection with the protests, and dozens who took part in a non-violent demonstration have been charged with acts of violence, according to Amnesty International.
Dozens had already received prison sentences, some of up to 15 years, said AMDH, which denounced the absence of lawyers during hearings, insufficient investigations and the lack of presumption of innocence. It said hundreds more, including children, remained in detention.
A Human Rights Watch spokesperson, Ahmed Benchemsi, said: “The government clearly got scared and orchestrated this crackdown to send a strong message that they will not tolerate any form of dissent.”
As Morocco prepared to host the African Cup of Nations, there were renewed reports of unrest in several Moroccan cities, with protesters demanding the release of detained gen Z demonstrators.
But Moroccan human rights groups said many young people remained fearful of returning to the streets again because of the alleged beatings and forced confessions after the September and October protests.
“We have heard horrific testimonies of torture while in police custody,” said Mustapha Elfaz, from the Marrakech branch of the AMDH.
“Some detainees were forced to strip. One mother said her son and his friend were beaten so badly with electrical wires on their legs the marks were still visible weeks later. Her son remains in prison.”
Elfaz said many protesters and families would not reveal what had happened to them for fear of repercussions. “What happens inside prisons now remains largely hidden,” he said.
A lawyer in Casablanca, who has joined a group of about 50 volunteers across the country defending protesters, told the Guardian that there were “multiple procedural violations regarding arrests and police custody”, with severe sentences handed down on insufficient evidence and rushed reports.
Last week, six relatives of two victims killed at the protest in Lqliâa said they were detained by the police after standing outside parliament in the capital, Rabat, holding pictures of their loved ones. The families said the police took their phones and “deleted everything related to the gathering” before later ordering them to leave the city.
“We just want justice, a transparent investigation and accountability for those responsible,” said a relative of one of those killed, Abdessamade Oubalat, a 24-year-old film-maker.
The Moroccan authorities said the families were taken to a police station after refusing to comply with orders to disperse. It said they had not been arrested or taken into custody.
Sir Chris Hoy is in his kitchen, chatting about early-morning coffee and fry-ups.
And mindsets.
An Olympic champion's mindset to be exact.
An exacting, leave-no-stone-unturned, meticulous mindset that defined a career in which he won six gold medals and one silver across four Olympic Games.
This is the same mindset he is relying on more than ever to reframe his entire existence and purpose following a terminal cancer diagnosis.
"We normally have a fry-up for breakfast but, when you guys are here, we need to make an effort," he jokes.
The "you" in this instance are the BBC cameras that have been following Hoy and his family and friends for the past 12 months for the documentary Sir Chris Hoy: Cancer, Courage and Me.
The programme will be broadcast for the first time at 21:00 GMT on Thursday, 18 December on BBC One and available from 22:00 GMT on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.
It shows a hopeful, yet raw, portrayal of the realities of living with stage four cancer, while it also brings to life Hoy's realisation that he can use his platform as a force for raising awareness, and money, for other people living with the illness.
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Sir Chris Hoy: Cancer, Courage & Me
As he weighs his coffee – perhaps the number one area where Hoy's obsessive eye for detail manifests itself – the Scot is in an upbeat mood, laughing and joking with wife Sarra about their imagined usual morning scenario of a full English breakfast compared to the omelette and green homemade smoothie they are actually tucking into.
It has not been anywhere near this rosy for much of the past two years, however, as Hoy explains a few minutes later when the cameras are rolling properly.
"It's about five miles from the hospital back home," he says, describing his return journey from seeing doctors after learning of his cancer diagnosis in September 2023. "I just walked back in a daze. I don't remember the walk. I was just thinking, how am I going to tell Sarra? What am I going to say?
"As soon as I said the words, I broke down."
What Hoy had to articulate was a terminal cancer diagnosis. Incurable secondary bone cancer. Between two and four years to live.
"In my sporting career it used to be about process, not outcome," he says. "Focus on what you have control over. But if you win or lose, it's not life and death.
"[After the diagnosis] the stakes have changed dramatically. The principle is the same – but now it is life and death."
Hoy has shrewdly taken on support for this difficult time in his life.
Steve Peters is a man that Hoy knew could make a difference.
The list of sportspeople that Peters has worked with - the public list he is happy to talk about on the record - is a high-profile 'who's who' ranging from Steven Gerrard to Ronnie O'Sullivan.
The donkeys in the front paddock of the psychiatrist's countryside home bely that glitzy, glamourous list.
But their tranquil nature make complete sense when you spend a few hours in the company of Peters and Hoy.
Peters was Hoy's first port of call throughout his career when it came to training and calming his mind to be at its peak in and around Olympic competition.
He was also one of the first people Hoy called when he got his terminal diagnosis last year.
At first Peters was part of the firefighting phase of what Hoy's wife Sarra describes as a "deep grief" in the first few days post-diagnosis.
But in time, with Peters' help, Hoy set about finding a new purpose.
Firstly, it is to raise awareness of the limitations of the current provision for prostate cancer in the UK. Both Hoy's father and grandfather have had prostate cancer.
Understandably, given an earlier diagnosis could have shifted his diagnosis from terminal to manageable, the 49-year-old Scot argues eloquently that a national screening programme should be made a priority for men from their 45th birthday onwards.
But, crucially, his approach is also to show other people living with cancer that sport and exercise can still be a positive part of their lives, even through their treatment.
Peters explains: "What Chris did when he was presented with this illness is he said: 'Right, what's the plan?' After we worked through the initial stages of the shock and grief of it, then he came out the other side and he picked up on the purpose.
"And that was to reach other people. It became a mission for him."
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Sir Chris Hoy and his wife Lady Sarra recall the night they met
Peters knows all too well how unstoppable Hoy can be when a mission takes him over.
The pair have now worked together for more than 20 years, with perhaps their crowning moment coming at the Athens 2004 Games.
It was in the Greek capital that Peters' "pink elephant" technique helped Hoy win his first Olympic gold. In the run-up to Athens, Peters had encouraged Hoy to pre-empt a scenario in which his rivals broke the world record in the men's kilometre time trial before the Scot had his chance to ride. The scenario became reality on three occasions, but rather than falter, Hoy, the last to ride, responded with a world record of his own to take gold.
The mindset of that moment is one he is tapping into again with his approach to cancer. Control the controllables, but don't waste time worrying about the end result.
Just like in Athens.
"As I went to the start line, a personal best would have got me third," Hoy remembers.
"Recognising what you have control over is such an important part of life. Focus on what you have control over - but the outcome itself, you don't have control over.
"Steve helped me to access the best of myself, and get the best out of myself."
The BBC Breakfast and BBC Sport cameras witnessed Hoy, with the help of Lady Sarra - who herself is dealing with her own diagnosis of multiple sclerosis - making the best of his cancer diagnosis in the last 12 months.
They have followed Hoy and his family to doctor and physio appointments and out on mountain bike rides in Wales with a GB Olympic cycling A-list group of riders and friends.
That same cast list turned out in Glasgow in September as Hoy and a host of his supporters took his cycling fundraising event the Tour de Four from concept to delivery inside a few months.
'Overwhelming' response to Hoy mission
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Murray and Kennys on discovering 'superhero' Hoy’s cancer diagnosis
It is just after 9am in a back room of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow – a few minutes before Hoy's charity mass participation cycling event, the Tour de Four, is due to get under way.
The ride was set up, and given its title, in an effort to change perceptions around stage four cancer.
Every time the door opens, a member of British Olympic and Paralympic royalty walks through it.
Sir Mark Cavendish, Sir Jason Kenny, Becky James, Dani King, Sir Ben Ainslie, Sir Steve Redgrave, Dame Sarah Storey...
In and among the clip-clop of cycling cleats comes another sporting knight.
This one is wearing tennis shoes.
Hoy goes over to check in with Sir Andy Murray about his readiness and is met with a typical sardonic quip from his fellow Scot.
Hoy asks: "Are you feeling ready mate?"
"Well, I've got the kit," Murray responds.
As it turns out, the two-time Wimbledon champion was woefully ill-prepared – completing the ride in tennis shoes and boxer shorts. Not typical road cycling gear, but typical of the response of Hoy's friends to his diagnosis.
"The response of friends has been quite overwhelming at times," Hoy says.
The friend response has been mirrored by that of the public.
September's Tour de Four raised more than £3m for cancer charities across the UK.
However, the highs of that success were followed in November by the UK National Screening Committee's recommendation that a prostate screening cancer programme for all men in the UK was not justified.
For Hoy, the fight to raise money and raise awareness is his new Olympic-sized mission and his response therefore was dignified, yet resolutely determined.
"I was quite astonished," he said. "I can't believe that the answer to this situation is to sit on your hands and do nothing. There are 10,000 men a year in the UK who find out they have prostate cancer too late – it's incurable.
"We're failing these men if we don't do something proactive. Regardless, I'm going to keep pushing."
Again, we meet his Olympic-honed mindset, targeted on a bigger mission.
"The Olympics was something that was my life for so many years and drove me on," Hoy says.
"I'm still incredibly proud of it now and I look back with great fondness, but this is something on an entirely different level.
"It's more important than riding bikes in anti-clockwise circles, put it that way."
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Sir Chris Hoy on his BBC documentary and 'speaking to the world'
You can watch Sir Chris Hoy: Cancer, Courage & Me on Thursday, 18 December at 21:00 GMT on BBC One, and from 22:00 GMT on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app.
One of the primary aims of most malware is to trick you into giving it your password. Armed with that, there’s little to stop it gathering up your secrets and sending them off to your attacker’s servers. One of your key defences against that is to know when a password request is genuine, and when it’s bogus. By far the best way to authenticate now is using Touch ID, but many Macs don’t support it, either because they can’t, or because their keyboard doesn’t, and there are still occasions when a genuine request may not offer it. This article looks at the anatomy of a range of genuine password requests. Note that these dialogs aren’t generated by the app, but come from the macOS security system, hence their consistency.
Traditional, no Touch ID
This authentication dialog is very important: although malware might try to forge it, it contains distinctive features you should always look for:
The icon consists of a locked padlock, on which is superimposed a miniature icon representing the app or component that has asked to access the keychain.
The bold text names the app or component that has called for keychain access, and states which item it’s asking to access: here, a named secure note.
The smaller lettering specifies that it’s asking for the keychain password, that is the password used to unlock the named keychain, not that for your Apple Account or any other password.
If you’re in any doubt about its authenticity, click on the Deny button and the request will be denied.
If you’re in any doubt about its authenticity, open Keychain Access, lock the keychain there, and repeat the action while watching the keychain to ensure that it’s unlocked and handled correctly.
Note this doesn’t provide or ask for your user name, only the password for that keychain.
Vertical, no Touch ID
This newer vertical format should contain the following:
The icon consists of a locked padlock, on which is superimposed a miniature icon representing the app or component that is asking for your password.
Bold text names the app making the request.
Below that is a general indication of the purpose of the request.
Below that is the instruction to Enter your password to allow this.
There are two text boxes, to contain your user name (already completed) and password.
There are only two buttons, one of which may be OK or something more specific, and the other is Cancel.
If you’re in any doubt as to its authenticity, click on the Cancel button to deny the request, and consult the app’s documentation.
Here’s a similar version from Sequoia, seen in Dark Mode, with the same key features.
Touch ID
If your Mac supports Touch ID (all Intel Macs with T2 chips, and all Apple silicon Macs), and currently has a keyboard connected to it with support for Touch ID (Intel laptops and Apple silicon Macs only), macOS should offer you the biometric version of that authentication dialog.
This should contain the following:
The icon consists of a Touch ID fingerprint, on which is superimposed a miniature icon representing the app or component that is asking for your password.
Bold text names the app making the request.
Below that is a general indication of the purpose of the request.
Below that is the instruction to Touch ID or enter your password to allow this.
There are only two buttons, the upper being Use Password…, and the lower is Cancel.
If you’re in any doubt as to its authenticity, click on the Cancel button to deny the request, and consult the app’s documentation.
This dialog has distinctive behaviour that’s difficult to forge. When you place your fingertip on the Touch ID button on the keyboard, it will either authenticate successfully, so dismissing the dialog, or the dialog shakes to indicate you should try placing your fingertip on the button again.
Here’s a more recent version from Tahoe, with the icon and text left-justified.
You will also see the icon with its fingerprint whorls filled in colour.
If Touch ID authentication fails, or you click on the button to Use Password…, the dialog expands to resemble the non-biometric version above, with the following two important differences:
The icon still consists of a Touch ID fingerprint, with a superimposed miniature icon representing the app or component.
The instruction remains to Touch ID or enter your password to allow this.
Terminal
Authenticating in Terminal, typically when using sudo, has less scope for distinctive detail, and might appear simpler to forge. However, macOS has a couple of tricks up its sleeve that are difficult to fake.
This contains the following:
The prompt consists of the single word ending with a colon, Password: Other words, such as System password, are fakes.
Immediately after the colon is a distinctive icon of a vertical white key on a grey rectangle. The closest you’ll see in standard Unicode is the Squared Key character ⚿ which is obviously different.
As you type in your password, not only are the characters not shown, but the same key icon remains where it is, and there’s no indication on screen that you’re typing anything in until you press Return. Fakes usually display characters as you type them in.
Again, if you’re in any doubt, simply press Return and exit without giving any characters of your password away.
Finally, no matter how rushed you might be, or sick to death of repeated authentication requests, check every one carefully before typing anything in, as if your Mac’s security depended on it. Because it does.
A mourner carrying a balloon bearing Matilda’s name and an illustration of a bee, an insect she was known to love, before her funeral in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday.
Lina Chernykh tells the BBC her niece Matilda was a joyous child who spread love everywhere she went
The family of the Bondi shooting's youngest victim Matilda urged the community to not let her death fuel anger, as they said a final goodbye to the 10-year-old on Thursday.
Matilda was among 15 people who were shot dead when two gunmen opened fire on an event marking the start of Hannukah at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday.
Speaking to the BBC at Matilda's funeral, her aunt Lina Chernykh said the Jewish community is right to want more action to stamp out antisemitism – she does too.
But she said Matilda was a joyous child who spread love everywhere she went, and urged the community to do the same in her honour.
"Take your anger and… just spread happiness and love and memory for my lovely niece," Ms Chernykh said.
"I hope maybe she's an angel now. Maybe she [will] send some good vibes to the world."
Jewish community leaders have in recent days suggested the tragedy was an inevitable result of Australia struggling to address rising antisemitism.
The attack on Sunday, which targeted the Jewish community at an event celebrating the first night of Hanukkah, was the country's deadliest incident since 1996, when a gunman killed 35 people during the Port Arthur massacre.
Ahead of Matilda's funeral on Thursday, Ms Chernykh said the family was devastated.
"I look at their faces [and] I don't know if they will be ever happy again," she said of Matilda's parents.
Matilda's younger sister, from whom she was "inseparable", is shattered and confused, she said.
"She doesn't have enough tears to cry."
At a flower memorial on Tuesday, Matilda's mother Valentyna told mourners that the family came to Australia from Ukraine more than a decade ago, thinking it would be a safe place for them.
"I couldn't imagine I'd lose my daughter here... It's just a nightmare," she said.
Ms Chernykh told the BBC she too has struggled to make sense of what is happening.
She was gardening at her home on the Gold Coast when Matilda's mother called on Sunday.
"Truly, I was thinking something happened to my father because he's 84 years old... and she says Matilda was shot," she recalled.
"How [could] someone in Australia understand, if someone tells you your kid was shot… I couldn't understand it. I was thinking I have bad reception. I asked a few times what I'm [hearing]."
Police have designated the attack a terrorist incident, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying it appears to have been "motivated by Islamic State" group ideology.
Police allege that the two gunmen were a father and son. Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead at the scene, while his son Naveed, 24, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act.
Australia on Thursday announced it would strengthen laws to crack down on hate - including by introducing powers to cancel or refuse visas on grounds of antisemitism.
Anthony Albanese has announced new laws that will target 'those who spread hate'
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his government will crack down on hate speech following Sunday's deadly shooting at Bondi Beach that targeted a Jewish festival.
Fifteen people were killed when two gunmen opened fire at an event to mark the first day of Hanukkah.
New laws will target "those who spread hate, division and radicalisation", Albanese told reporters in Canberra.
The home affairs minister will also be given new powers to cancel or refuse visas for those who spread hate and a new taskforce will be set up to ensure the education system "prevents, tackles and properly responds to antisemitism".
The new laws will also include penalties for preachers and leaders who promote violence, a new federal offence of "aggravated hate speech", and the introduction of "hate" as an aggravating factor in sentencing crimes for online threats and harassment.
"Every Jewish Australian has the right to feel safe, valued and respected for the contribution that they make to our great nation," Albanese said.
"The terrorists, inspired by ISIS... sought to turn Australians against each other. Australians have responded to that act of hatred with love and sympathy for those in mourning."
Albanese added that his government would be "fully supporting and adopting" the recommendations put forward in July in a report by antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal, who also spoke at the press conference.
She said the country was "at a very important moment not only for our community, but for fighting antisemitism around the world."
Her report was criticised by some upon its release in July due to its implications for free speech, including plans to monitor universities and arts organisations and withhold funding if they were deemed to have failed to act against antisemitism. There were concerns for instance, that the funding could be used to silence pro-Palestinian protests.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government was "shifting the threshold".
"There have been individuals who have managed to exploit a nation that had different principles of freedom of speech and have gone right to the limits of language that is clearly dehumanising, unacceptable, having no place in Australia, but have not quite crossed the threshold to violence," he said.
Meanwhile, Albanese acknowledged accusations from the Jewish community that his government had not done enough to prevent antisemitism since the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, and said more could have been done.
"I accept my responsibility for the part in that as prime minister of Australia," he said. "But what I also do is accept my responsibility to lead the nation and unite the nation. Because what people are looking for at this time isn't more division."
In an 18-minute address, President Trump said the economy was booming despite the public’s consistent concerns about prices. Here are six takeaways from the speech.
President Trump in an address from the White House on Wednesday argued that U.S. economy under his leadership is in better shape than many voters think.
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