Nightclub tragedy in North Macedonia hits a generation already doubting its future

LONDON: A UK teenager who killed three family members and planned to outdo notorious US massacres to become “the world’s most famous school shooter of the 21st century” was on Wednesday jailed for a minimum of 49 years.
Nicholas Prosper, 18 at the time of the killings, used a shotgun to kill his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, sister Giselle, 13, and brother Kyle, 16, who also received more than 100 knife wounds, at their home in Luton, southern England, in September 2024.
“Your ambition was notoriety. You wanted to be known posthumously as the world’s most famous school shooter of the 21st century,” judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said on Wednesday as she sentenced the now 19-year-old Prosper.
Prosper told police upon his arrest of his “Friday the 13th” plan to kill four-year-old pupils and two teachers at a nearby primary school, and then himself.
He said his aim was to conduct an attack more deadly than the US Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech massacres, but the plan was interrupted when his mother woke up before he could kill his family in their sleep.
The noisy struggle alerted neighbors, who called the police.
“You explicitly sought to emulate and outdo Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old American who shot dead 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut in 2012,” the judge said.
“You aimed for 34 deaths, one more than the deadliest school shooting of recent times in the United States of America, at Virginia Tech in 2007,” she added.
Prosper, who experts said showed symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), was handed a life sentence, with a minimum term of 49 years. Taking into account the time already served, he will serve a minimum of 48 years and 177 days.

FRANKFURT: German defense firm Hensoldt has warned it will take time before European militaries can operate without American support as the continent races to rearm amid worries about US commitment to its security.
“It will only be possible in the medium term for Germany and the EU to achieve autonomy in armaments without relying on American capabilities,” Oliver Doerre, CEO of the defense electronics maker, told journalists on Tuesday.
The firm, based in the southern state of Bavaria, provides radars used in Ukraine to defend against Russian airstrikes.
European nations have been unsettled by signs of US President Donald Trump’s uncertain commitment to the continent’s defense and NATO, and were also shocked after he made overtures to Russia on the Ukraine war.
Responding to the geopolitical turmoil, German lawmakers Tuesday approved a plan to dramatically ramp up defense spending pushed by leader-in-waiting Friedrich Merz while the EU is seeking to mobilize huge sums for the continent to rearm.
But Doerre cautioned that it was “essential to continue our trusted collaboration with the American industry, particularly with Lockheed Martin,” in the areas of naval command systems and radar technologies.
He called for defense firms, both in Germany and Europe, to focus more on greater cooperation and less on competing with one another, and for Europe to improve when it comes to procurement of military gear.
Doerre, who served in the Germany military for over 20 years, said there were still “significant deficits in terms of capabilities” in the Germany army, despite a 100-billion-euro special fund set up to boost the armed forces after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Germany needs an estimated 300 billion to 500 billion euros for investments in equipment, infrastructure and extra personnel, he said.
Doerre said that Hensoldt was “ready” to boost its operations in response to growing demand, noting the company had invested one billion euros in recent years to ramp up production, and had hired 1,000 people alone last year.