In today’s newsletter: The events in Golders Green this week are the latest in a line of attacks on the Jewish community that have led many to question their future in the UK

Good morning. It is a terrible fact of life for British Jews that few were surprised by Wednesday’s knife attack in Golders Green, north London, in which two men were stabbed in an area home to a large Jewish community. A 45-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder.

The incident is the latest in a string of antisemitic attacks, on people and property, that have struck fear into many British Jews in recent years. John Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, said many in the community are at “breaking point” and feel the UK is no longer a safe place for them to live.

Iran | Iran’s supreme leader has broken his recent silence with a defiant statement hailing Iran’s control over shipping in the strait of Hormuz and vowing to guard the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.

Environment | Governments have been asked to develop national “roadmaps” setting out how they will end the production and use of fossil fuels, after a landmark climate meeting involving nearly 60 countries.

UK news | Winston Marshall, a former member of the band Mumford & Sons and the son of the GB News co-owner Paul Marshall, has said Britain should construct a mine-laden “floating wall” to stop small boat crossings on the Channel.

Counter-terrorism | More and more young people are being drawn into the world of violent extremism, a senior police officer has warned, as a young neo-Nazi was convicted of planning a mass gun attack after being caught in an undercover MI5 sting.

UK economy | The Bank of England has left interest rates unchanged at 3.75% but said the UK may need to brace for increases later this year, as “higher inflation is unavoidable” as a result of the war in the Middle East.

Cryptocurrency ATMs also face ban, after public inquiry found Canada lacked anti-money-laundering strategy

Canada is to establish a new and powerful law enforcement agency to investigate financial crime, in stark contrast to the US, where weakened federal investigators have struggled to pursue fraudsters and the White House has pardoned convicted money launderers.

A bill to create the Financial Crimes Agency (FCA) completed its first reading in parliament this week. The legislation was introduced by the governing Liberals and with their parliamentary majority, the party is likely to move it through both levels of government quickly.

The authority that oversaw tender applications for the renovation work at the fire-hit Wang Fuk Court had not considered the risks of illegal tendering practices, a case manager has told an inquiry into the deadly blaze.

Testifying on Thursday, Matthew Chan, a case manager for the Urban Renewal Authority (URA), said the semi-government body had not considered the risks of bid-rigging in the tendering process for the large-scale renovation at Wang Fuk Court, a government-subsidised housing estate in Tai Po.

In a typical bid-rigging scheme, a consultancy firm usually offers a low price to oversee renovation or construction work at a fraction of the market rate.

In the case of Wang Fuk Court, where the massive fire in November killed 168 people and displaced thousands of residents, Will Power Architects was chosen to oversee the renovation project after offering a HK$308,000 consultancy fee and another HK$220,000 to inspect the entire estate.

The consultancy firm then had the opportunity to “rig” the tendering process in favour of Prestige Construction & Engineering, an affiliated contractor and carried out ineffective “rubber-stamp” inspections, the independent committee investigating the cause of the fire heard last month.

Despite being aware that there was a significant range of prices submitted for the renovation contract – with deceptively cheap consultancy fees at the lower end – the URA did not intervene in the bidding procedure, Chan told Victor Dawes, the lead counsel for the committee.

‘We wouldn’t intervene’

The URA case manager said that price discrepancies were common for various reasons, such as when a newcomer in the field wanted to gain experience by offering lower prices.

Chan told Dawes that he did not analyse whether the prices were reasonable.

“We wouldn’t intervene in the decision-making process of the owners’ corporation,” Chan said.

Dawes asked Chan whether he had thought Will Power’s price seemed “suspiciously cheap.” The case manager said that it did, “in terms of the number,” but added that he did not dwell on any possible wrongdoing involved.

Chan also said that the URA had “no role” in hiring the registered inspector and consultancy firm for Wang Fuk Court’s renovation work despite the service contract stipulating that it should have done so.

When Dawes presented a 2016 Competition Commission report on the prevalence of bid-rigging in Hong Kong’s building maintenance industry, Chan said that the URA did not take such risks into account despite being aware of rampant collusive tendering.

Chan also said that the URA “would not comment on [Will Powers’] professionalism,” as the authority trusted the consultant’s experience and would want to avoid appearing biased.

He also told the hearing that the URA receives more than 10,000 tenders every year and has no ability to scrutinise every application in detail.

Chan added that the URA’s “Smart Tender” platform, which anonymises the bidding procedure and arranges third-party price estimates to provide a fairer tendering process, could not address risks “with 100 per cent certainty.”

TOKYO, April 30 — A man wielding a hammer wounded five people in Tokyo, including a teenager who was allegedly struck in the face, local media said Thursday.

Violent crime is rare in Japan, which has a low murder rate and some of the world’s toughest gun laws.

The 44-year-old suspect, who is on the run from police, attacked two teenage boys near his house in Fussa city in the Japanese capital on Wednesday.

One victim sustained a severe facial injury, while the other suffered a minor shoulder injury, according to NHK and Kyodo News.

Police officers rushed to the scene, where the suspect sprayed them with an unknown substance and fled, Kyodo said.

Three officers were injured in the attack.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police declined to comment to AFP on the case. — AFP