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CHICAGO — A 71-year-old Illinois man accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounding a 32-year-old woman was charged with a hate crime Sunday. Police allege he singled out the victims because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas.

Officers found the woman and boy late Saturday morning at a home in an unincorporated area of Plainfield Township, southwest of Chicago, the Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on social media.

The boy was pronounced dead at a hospital. The woman had multiple stab wounds and was expected to survive, according to the statement. An autopsy on the child showed he had also been stabbed dozens of times.

“Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis,” the sheriff’s statement said.

In recent days, police in U.S. cities and federal authorities have been on high alert for violence driven by antisemitic or Islamophobic sentiments. Jewish and Muslim groups have reported an increase of hateful and threatening rhetoric on social media.

According to the Will County sheriff’s office, the woman had called 911 to report that her landlord had attacked her with a knife, adding she then ran into a bathroom and continued to fight him off.

The man suspected in the attack was found Saturday outside the home and “sitting upright outside on the ground near the driveway of the residence” with a cut on his forehead, authorities said.

Joseph M. Czuba of Plainfield was charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of hate crimes and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to the sheriff’s office. He was in custody Sunday and awaiting a court appearance.

Attempts to reach Czuba or a family member were unsuccessful Sunday. His home phone number was unlisted. Messages left for possible relatives in online records and on social media were not immediately returned. The sheriff’s office and county public defender’s office did not immediately return messages about Czuba’s legal representation.

Authorities did not release the names of the two victims.

But the boy’s paternal uncle, Yousef Hannon, spoke at a news conference Sunday hosted by the Chicago chapter Council on American-Islamic Relations where the boy was identified as Wadea Al-Fayoume, a Palestinian-American boy who had recently turned 6. The organization identified the other victim as the boy’s mother.

“We are not animals, we are humans. We want people to see us as humans, to feel us as humans, to deal with us as humans, because this is what we are,” said Hannon, a Palestinian-American who emigrated to the U.S. in 1999 to work, including as a public school teacher.

The Muslim civil liberties organization called the crime “our worst nightmare,” and part of a disturbing spike in hate calls and emails since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The group cited text messages exchanged among family members that showed the attacker had made disparaging remarks about Muslims.

“Palestinians basically, again, with their hearts broken over what’s happening to their people,” said Ahmed Rehab, the group’s executive director, “have to also worry about the immediate safety of life and limb living here in this most free of democracies in the world.”

The Anti Defamation League, an organization that combats antisemitism, condemned the killing.

“We’re disgusted and horrified that a 6-year-old boy was murdered and his mother was severely injured in #Plainfield, IL, allegedly because they are Muslim. We express our condolences to the Muslim community and categorically reject all anti-Muslim hate,” it said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Just In News | The Hill 

A showdown over the future of the world’s oceans and its hidden resources has been building over the past few years. 

The global community recently finalized a new United Nations (UN) treaty to conserve and sustainably manage marine biodiversity on the high seas and the deep seabed, yet at the same time the world seems poised to begin mining mineral resources in these regions to help fuel the electric revolution needed to reduce carbon emissions. 

We face a consequential choice: Will we finally protect the unique and fragile organisms found in the largest and least disturbed ecosystem on Earth? Or, in an attempt to curb the damage already caused by fossil fuels, will we destroy these species and habitats they depend upon before we have even discovered them? 

The regions beyond national jurisdiction encompass nearly two-thirds of the planet, and scientists estimate that they contain over 2.2 million species, 90 percent of which have yet to be classified. More than 80 percent of the world’s oceans are unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored. There are not only new and wondrous plants and creatures to be discovered in the deep sea, but also new drugs and treatments derived from this rich biodiversity, which are helping us combat cancer and HIV.

In 2021, the Pacific island nation Nauru triggered a mechanism under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which gave the International Seabed Authority (the mining regulatory body under the Convention) two years to finalize rules for mining the deep sea, or else unregulated mining could begin. In the time since, negotiations have been fraught, and we passed the deadline in July 2023 without a solution. Formal discussions will continue next year, aimed at adopting regulations in 2025. 

Meanwhile, several nations, environmental organizations, and even businesses are calling for a moratorium on mining until it can be managed in a way that will ensure effective protection of the marine environment. Over 20 countries have called for a pause on deep-sea mining, led by the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Palau and Samoa, which have formed a “Moratorium Alliance.” Additionally, more than 30 companies and businesses support a moratorium, including electric vehicle manufacturers such as BMW, Volkswagen, and Volvo; technology companies including Google and Samsung; some financial and retail institutions; and part of the tuna fishing industry. 

The new UN treaty is an important threshold for conserving life in the oceans by providing a mechanism to protect vulnerable species and their habitats through the use of “area-based management tools”, such as marine protected areas (i.e. parks in the oceans). It also builds a framework for humanity to share the benefits derived from marine genetic resources, the building blocks for new medicines and other biological products yet to be discovered/developed. 

However, the impacts of mining threaten the treaty’s potential success. Vacuuming nodules off the sea floor will cause drifting plumes of sediment that smother filter feeding species such as deep-sea corals and sponges. Dumping wastewater back into the ocean adds to this threat, polluting it with contaminants. Mining seamounts and hydrothermal vents will destroy the habitats that grew there over thousands of years and the species that depend upon them. Industrial activities will also add to the growing threats of ocean noise, vibration, and light pollution that significantly impact life in the oceans.

Arguments for ocean mining as a more “sustainable” or “just” approach to mining on land are misleading. While we need batteries for electric cars and storing wind and solar power, there are alternatives to using cobalt and nickel-based lithium-ion batteries, including new approaches that use fewer and less damaging metals. We can invest in hydrogen and biofuel technologies and recycle old batteries. Given these advances, investing in deep-sea mining may even be a bad economic decision.

It doesn’t make sense to repeat the destructive legacy of terrestrial mining in the oceans. Instead, we must find greener solutions and fuel a sustainable energy transition, simultaneously holding the terrestrial mining industry accountable. 

While the list of countries and industries hesitant toward plundering the oceans is promising, citizens must also join the chorus and demand a say in how the largest and least-known ecosystem on the planet will be treated.

In an uncertain climate future, the oceans provide a vital buffer. As a “carbon sink,” they have already absorbed 25 percent of our carbon dioxide emissions and 90 percent of the excess heat generated by them. The oceans also generate half of the oxygen we breathe, and absorbing carbon and heat has impacted their ability to sustain life. For our own well-being and food security, as well as the rich biological resources and the potential medicines we may yet derive from them, we must look to other solutions and ban mining in the deep sea.

Elizabeth M. De Santo, associate professor of environmental studies at Franklin & Marshall College, is a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Environmental Law and a member of the editorial board of Marine Policy.

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