Murder dropped by more than 11% in largest single-year decline in decades while rape and other crimes also fell
Murder dropped by more than 11% from 2022 to 2023, the largest single-year decline in two decades, according to FBI data released on Monday.
Meanwhile, the broader category of violent crime nationwide decreased about 3%, said the data, which is audited and confirms earlier reporting from unaudited statistics.
Continue reading...Democratic nominee says she accepted an invitation from CNN to debate Republican rival, who said it was ‘too late’
Kamala Harris laid down another challenge to Republican rival Donald Trump to meet her for a second debate before November’s presidential election, telling supporters in New York that her opponent “seems to be looking for an excuse” to avoid a second confrontation.
On Saturday, the vice-president and Democratic nominee said she had accepted an invitation from CNN to debate the former president, but Trump said it was already “too late”.
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Mark Butler is asked whether a ban on vapes is having the effect he intended. The minister says the government has already “seized 5m vapes at the border”, on top of the 1 July retail ban:
We’ve taken the approach in the first few months to try to get businesses to surrender their vapes, and many have done that to the TGA. We’ve been conducting inspections in conjunction with state authorities to hundreds of premises to inform them of the new laws and warn them of the consequences in the longer term, but we have to switch to a far more assertive approach.
As I said, my starting position is that … if we can give more families the joy of having children, that’s a great place to start, but we will work through these recommendations carefully, as I imagine your viewers would expect me to.
Continue reading...US president is recorded on hot mic singling out Beijing, saying it ‘continues to behave aggressively’ in areas including the South China Sea
Joe Biden has been recorded on a hot mic telling the leaders of Australia, India and Japan that an aggressive China is “testing us”, in remarks at a Quad summit that risked undercutting the group’s declaration that carefully avoided referring to Beijing by name.
The comments came as Biden opened a farewell summit in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware, with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida and Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.
Continue reading...Women and children confirmed among dead, as US and UN officials warn against further escalation
Three children and seven women were among 37 people killed by an Israeli strike on Beirut that targeted a top Hezbollah leader in a densely populated neighbourhood, Lebanese authorities have said, as US and UN officials warned against further escalation.
On Saturday, Israel closed its northern airspace as it awaited Hezbollah retaliation for the assassination of Ibrahim Aqil, a veteran commander of the elite Radwan unit, along with more than a dozen other militants. On Saturday afternoon, fires broke out after a barrage of rockets from Lebanon.
Continue reading...Zelenskyy will present ‘victory plan’ to US president during trip to Washington next week, when he is also likely to hold talks with Trump
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to carry out long-range strikes inside Russia with US-supplied weapons, and to earn “a place in history” by “strengthening Ukraine” before he leaves office.
Speaking before a crucial trip next week to Washington, where he will meet Biden and the US vice-president and presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, and address the UN, Zelenskyy said he would present a “victory plan” to end the war.
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As far as the election campaign is concerned, this week the Kamala Harris team has its focus on youth turnout to coincide with today’s National Voter Registration Day.
In a statement campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez said: “The stakes this November couldn’t be higher, and vice-president Harris knows our democracy is stronger when we all vote. We are focused on meeting young Americans where they are to drive home the stakes of this election on the issues they care most about.”
Continue reading...‘No one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,’ X owner tweeted after apparent Trump assassination attempt
The White House has condemned Elon Musk for tweeting “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” in response to an X user asking “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?”
The president’s office issued a statement Monday criticizing the “irresponsible” post, which was accompanied by an emoji face with a raised eyebrow. The White House said: “Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible.” The statement added that there should be “no place for political violence or for any violence ever in our country”.
This article was amended on 16 September 2024. An earlier version stated that Elon Musk had tweeted “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” It was later corrected to make clear he was replying to that tweet.
Continue reading...Another apparent Trump assassination attempt happened – as we brace for what has been dubbed ‘a tinderbox election’
It has happened again. Another serene and sunny weekend. Another lone suspect wielding a rifle. Another apparent bid to assassinate Donald Trump. And a nation hurtling into uncharted territory 50 days from a presidential election.
On Sunday, Secret Service agents opened fire after seeing a man with a rifle near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club in Florida while the Republican candidate was playing. The suspect fled in an SUV and was later apprehended by local law enforcement.
Continue reading...US president Joe Biden and British PM Keir Starmer fear secret arms link-up amid talks in Washington over Ukraine
Britain and the US have raised fears that Russia has shared nuclear secrets with Iran in return for Tehran supplying Moscow with ballistic missiles to bomb Ukraine.
During their summit in Washington DC on Friday, Keir Starmer and US president Joe Biden acknowledged that the two countries were tightening military cooperation at a time when Iran is in the process of enriching enough uranium to complete its long-held goal to build a nuclear bomb.
Continue reading...Family members and political leaders gather in Turkish Aegean coastal city of Didim to mourn activist slain by IDF
Hundreds of people waving Turkish and Palestinian flags gathered on Saturday for the funeral of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish American activist killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Cevdet Yılmaz, Turkey’s vice-president; Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister; Numan Kurtulmuş, the parliament speaker; and Özgür Özel, the main opposition leader from the Republican People’s party (CHP) were among mourners at the ceremony in the Turkish Aegean coastal city of Didim.
Continue reading...Exchange of military personnel took place as Ukraine called again on west to allow use of long-range weapons
More than 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war will be able to return to their families after an exchange of captured members of the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces.
The prisoner swap on Saturday, mediated by the United Arab Emirates, involved 206 military personnel from both countries.
Continue reading...US and UK leaders’ talks dominated by row with Russia over use of Storm Shadow missiles
Joe Biden dismissed sabre-rattling threats made by Vladimir Putin as the US president met with the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, at the White House on Friday.
Biden said he did not accept that Ukraine using western-made Storm Shadow missiles to bomb targets in Russia would amount to Nato going to war with Moscow.
Continue reading...Trump says he won’t debate Harris but claims he won the matchup; Harris tells North Carolina crowd that Americans should see another one
In an interview with the Financial Times, Leonard Leo, the conservative activist who was involved in the effort to build the current rightwing supermajority on the supreme court, says he will spend $1b to fight liberal cultural influence in the United States.
“We need to crush liberal dominance where it’s most insidious, so we’ll direct resources to build talent and capital formation pipelines in the areas of news and entertainment, where leftwing extremism is most evident,” Leo told the FT in a rare interview.
“Expect us to increase support for organisations that call out companies and financial institutions that bend to the woke mind virus spread by regulators and NGOs, so that they have to pay a price for putting extreme leftwing ideology ahead of consumers.”
As the United States approaches a critical election, I can’t sit quietly as Donald Trump – perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation – eyes a return to the White House. For that reason, though I’m a Republican, I’ve decided to support Kamala Harris for president.
Trump failed to do his duty and exercise his presidential power to protect members of Congress, law enforcement and the Capitol from the attacks that day. He failed to deploy executive branch personnel to save lives and property and preserve democracy. He just watched on television and chose not to do anything because that would have been contrary to his interests. Trump still describes that day as beautiful. And as for those subsequently convicted of committing crimes, he describes them as hostages.
Any discussion about fidelity to the rule of law has to include Trump’s 34 state felony convictions, his state civil financial judgment of libel based on sexual abuse, as well as the pending federal elections interference case, not to mention the recently dismissed federal documents case that Special Counsel Jack Smith is continuing to pursue. Standing alone, these charges, convictions and judgments show that Trump is someone who fails to act, time and time again, in accordance with the rule of law.
To be fair, I have spoken with Trump only once. I do not really know him. It is telling, however, that several senior officials who worked for him in the White House now refuse to support him, including his vice president, chief of staff, defense secretary and national security adviser. Their unwillingness to endorse their former boss is an indictment of his character at a level equal to his many, many criminal indictments.
Continue reading...Protests in West Bank village had subsided half an hour before IDF shot Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, says report
Israeli security forces mischaracterised the events that led up to the fatal shooting of a Turkish-American protester in the West Bank, according to an investigation by the Washington Post.
The Israel Defense Forces claimed that their soldiers were targeting the leader of a violent protest when they shot Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old member of the International Solidarity Movement who had come from her native Washington state to Israel to protest against settlements in the West Bank.
Continue reading...Secretary of state and defence secretary decry fatal shooting of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi in West Bank
The family of the American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi said on Tuesday that neither the White House nor Joe Biden had called to offer condolences.
Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who is also a Turkish national, was shot dead last Friday at a protest march in Beita, a village near Nablus where Palestinians have been repeatedly attacked by far-right Jewish settlers.
Continue reading...Sons whose mother was executed with her husband Julius in 1953 say newly released document proves innocence
The family of Ethel Rosenberg, who was sent to the electric chair along with her husband, Julius, in 1953 after being convicted of spying for the Soviets at the height of the Red Scare, have called on Joe Biden to formally exonerate her after a newly released document appeared to show that the US government knew she was not a spy.
The couple maintained their innocence until the end and the case of the Rosenbergs has long been seen as a possible miscarriage of justice. Though most historians see Julius Rosenberg as a real Soviet spy, questions about Ethel Rosenberg’s role have lingered and their sons, Robert and Michael Meeropol, have long campaigned in their family’s cause.
Continue reading...In a video promoting her memoir, she declares ‘we need to uncover the truth’ about assassination attempt on Trump
Former first lady Melania Trump has raised questions around the law enforcement response to the attempted assassination of her husband, in a video she published on Tuesday to promote her new book.
In the 34-second video posted to her X account, Melania begins by describing the attempted assassination on her husband as a “horrible, distressing experience”. And now, she says in the video, which is overlayed with dramatic instrumental music, “the silence around it feels heavy”.
Continue reading...In Las Vegas summit speech, Republican candidate paints potential Harris presidency in cataclysmic terms for Israel
Donald Trump told Jewish donors on Thursday that they would be “abandoned” if Kamala Harris becomes president.
In his speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, the Republican presidential candidate also said he would ban refugee resettlement from “terror-infested” areas such as Gaza and arrest “pro-Hamas thugs” who engage in vandalism, an apparent reference to the college student protesters.
Continue reading...US president’s son, who previously pleaded not guilty, seeks new plea deal wherein he would not admit to allegations
Hunter Biden offered to plead guilty to federal tax charges but avoid admitting any wrongdoing, in an unusual, last-minute legal maneuver that federal prosecutors quickly opposed.
The surprise back-and-forth unfolded on Thursday morning as the president’s only surviving son entered a Los Angeles courthouse for the start of his tax-avoidance trial.
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