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Year: 2025

Fox News Politics Newsletter: Attempts to end war

Fox News Politics Newsletter: Attempts to end war

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content. Here’s what’s happening… -US appeals court says Trump can slash billions in owed USAID funds -Three states sign new agreements with ICE for expanded immigration enforcement operations –Zohran Mamdani takes aim at Trump’s immigration policies in fiery Staten Island speech: ‘We are fighting to keep NYC a sanctuary city’ President Donald Trump threatened “very severe consequences” for Russia if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t agree to end the war in Ukraine after their meeting in Alaska on Friday.  Trump issued the warning Wednesday as he was preparing for a sit-down with Putin in Anchorage.  “Yes, they will. There will be consequences,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question on the topic. The president then refused to elaborate on what the punishment would be…Read more ‘FIGHTING FORCE’: Adversaries are ‘afraid’ of U.S. military, and that makes tough talks like Putin possible FISCAL FIGHT: Trump predicts little progress in potential shutdown talks with ‘crazy’ Schumer, Jeffries ‘IF I HAVE TO’: Trump warns he may bypass Congress with national emergency to keep D.C. police control beyond 30 days ‘STEP UP’: Vance to visit U.S. troops during high-stakes UK trip ahead of Trump’s Putin meeting ‘ENOUGH DAMAGE’: Former Navy SEAL Rep. Eli Crane fires off message for ex-President Obama: ‘Probably best to sit this one out’ PHILADELPHIA FREEDOM: Soros-linked DA warns Trump after D.C. crime crackdown: ‘Better not try it in Philly’ LEGAL SHOWDOWN: Venezuelan migrants, progressive group sue Trump admin after Noem nixes Biden-era ‘protected status’ ‘NO SIGN’: Zelenskyy, ahead of Trump-Putin meeting, says there is ‘no sign’ Russia wants to end the war ‘REMAKE AMERICA’: Vulnerable Democrats hammered with scathing ad handcuffing them to Mamdani, Jeffries CHECKING OUT: Last migrant hotel in New York City set to close as ’emergency shelter’ program sunsets QUORUM CRISIS: O’Rourke, Soros-linked groups face call for DOJ probe over alleged funding of Texas Dem walkout CLASSROOM CRISIS: Democratic governor hopeful unveils education overhaul plan as election nears ‘SAFER’ STREETS: Trump’s new D.C. crime crackdown yields more than 100 arrests CONTROVERSIAL DEAL: Rural town to turn closed prison into ICE detention facility, despite resident pushback JUDICIAL SHOWDOWN: DOJ faces off with entire Maryland federal bench over automatic pauses in deportation cases Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

DC violence has grown far more deadly, despite Dems claiming 30-year low

DC violence has grown far more deadly, despite Dems claiming 30-year low

The chances of a person facing a violent crime in Washington, D.C., have dropped in recent years, but the possibility of dying during such a crime has skyrocketed, data shows. “You have less chance of being victimized, but if you are victimized, you have more of a chance of dying,” John Jay adjunct lecturer Jillian Snider, a retired New York Police Department officer, told Fox News Digital Tuesday of violent crime trends in the nation’s capital.  Snider was referring to a report published by the Council on Criminal Justice in July, which studied violent crime data of 17 large U.S. cities between 2018 and 2024, specifically diving into the lethality of violent crimes in those cities. It found Washington, D.C., had the highest lethality level out of the group – which included cities such as Baltimore and Chicago – at a 38% increase in lethality in 2024 compared with 2018.  Lethality in D.C. jumped by a whopping 341% when compared to 2012 data, the study found, reporting that there were 13 homicides per 1,000 serious violent crimes in 2012 to 57 homicides per 1,000 serious violent crimes in 2024.   The study defined lethality as “the number of homicides per aggravated assaults and robberies.”  TOP DEMOCRATS RIPPED ON SOCIAL MEDIA OVER ‘BONKERS’ REACTIONS TO TRUMP’S DC CRIME PLAN: ‘MASSIVE LIAR’ D.C.’s crime rates are under the national spotlight this week after President Donald Trump announced Monday morning during a packed press conference that he was federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president to assume emergency control of the capital’s police force for 30 days.  WASHINGTON POST SOURCE SAYS DC IS SAFE BUT STAYS ANONYMOUS OVER ‘PERSONAL SAFETY’ CONCERNS “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” Trump said during the press conference. “And we’re not going to let it happen anymore. We’re not going to take it.”  Upon Trump’s announcement, Democratic lawmakers slammed the president for allegedly overstepping and sending in the National Guard despite crime trends falling in recent years. Top Democrats, such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, promoted the narrative that crime is at a 30-year low.  “Violent crime in Washington, D.C. is at a thirty-year low,” Jeffries said Monday. “Donald Trump has no basis to take over the local police department. And zero credibility on the issue of law and order. Get lost.”  “As you listen to an unhinged Trump try to justify deploying the National Guard in DC, here’s reality: Violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low,” former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posted to X.  When asked about some Democrats touting that crime has fallen to a 30-year-low, Snider argued that it’s not “fair” to compare any city in 2025 to one in the 1990s. TRUMP CLAIMS DC CRIMES TROUNCE STATS FROM NOTORIOUSLY VIOLENT CITIES WORLDWIDE “The ‘90s were a shaky time in most urban and metropolitan areas,” she said. “We were coming out of the crack epidemic. We were coming out of economic instability from the late ’80s. And then the ’90s, we saw like this revolutionary policing, this broken windows policing, this now hot-spot policing, this CompStat-driven era.”  “I don’t think that any agency today in 2025 should be saying, like, ‘Oh, we’re doing so much better than we were in 1995,’” she continued. “It’s a completely different world than it was in 1995. You have different demographics in different areas. You have different population counts in different areas.”  The U.S. was rocked by violent crime waves from coast-to-coast in 2020 and the subsequent years, when the pandemic upended day-to-day life with lockdown orders and social justice protests and riots broke out in major cities nationwide. The FBI logged a nearly 30% increase in murders compared to the year prior, marking the largest single-year increase in killings since the agency began tracking the crimes. TRUMP ADMIN CUTTING $20M IN DC SECURITY FUNDING AFTER FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ORDERED TO INCREASE PRESENCE Washington, D.C., was among the cities caught up in the national crime trend, recording 198 homicides that year, which marked a 16-year high for the city. Homicides jumped to 226 in 2021, another 203 in 2022 and 274 in 2023 – which was a 20-year high for the city.  D.C., saw homicides drop by roughly 31% from 2023 to 2024, according to year-end Metropolitan Police Department data reporting 274 homicides in 2023 compared to 187 in 2024. The data shows violent crime across the board fell by roughly 35% from 2023, when the department reported 5,345 violent crime incidents, to 2024, when it reported 3,469 violent crimes.  “Everyone should be celebrating that crime is falling,” Snider said. “But at the same time, we don’t have the full picture: Why is crime more deadly than it once was?”  The Council on Criminal Justice study found, specifically, that Washington’s lethality increased each year from 2012–2021, except for 2016.  “The largest single-year increase was a 57% jump from 2014 to 2015,” the study reported. “From 2019 to 2020, lethality increased by 22%, followed by another 14% increase in 2021. It then declined slightly in 2022 (-3%) and 2023 (-8%), before a 5% uptick in 2024. Lethality in 2020 was significantly higher than in all earlier years, except for 2019. However, lethality levels observed in 2021 through 2024 were not significantly different from those in 2020.”  The author behind the study, Council on Criminal Justice senior researcher Ernesto Lopez, explained to local media in July that “lethality has climbed significantly” in the nation’s capital despite crime trends falling.  “We look back to 2012 lethality – again, that share of violence that ended a homicide – that increased by over 300% from 2012 to 2024, even though the homicide rate drops,” Lopez told WTOP in July. “So, the violent situations can be getting less frequent, but when those violent situations occur, they more likely end in a fatality

Israeli Gaza attacks kill 123 in 24 hours as three children die of hunger

Israeli Gaza attacks kill 123 in 24 hours as three children die of hunger

At least 123 Palestinians, including 21 people seeking aid, have been killed and 437 others were injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hour reporting period, according to the Health Ministry in the besieged territory. In the same period, at least eight people, including three children, died from Israeli-imposed starvation and malnutrition, bringing the total number of hunger-related deaths since the war began in October, 2023 to 235, among them 106 children, the ministry said on Wednesday. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), described the deaths as “the latest in the war on children and childhood in Gaza”. “This is in addition to: over 40,000 children reported killed or injured due to bombardment and airstrikes, at least 17,000 unaccompanied and separated children, and one million deeply traumatised children and out of education,” he wrote in a post on X. “Children are children. No one should stay silent when children die, or are brutally deprived of a future, wherever these children are, including in Gaza.” Ceasefire talks to restart As the death toll continues to rise in Gaza, a delegation from the Palestinian group Hamas was scheduled to begin discussions in Egypt over a potential ceasefire on Wednesday. The previous round of indirect ceasefire talks in Qatar ended in deadlock in late July, after Israel and the United States withdrew their delegations hours after Hamas submitted its response to a truce proposal. The talks in Cairo will focus on ways to stop the war, deliver aid, and “end the suffering of our people in Gaza”, Hamas official Taher al-Nono said. Israeli soldiers look at destroyed buildings in the northern Gaza Strip as they stand at a viewpoint in Israel on August 13, 2025 [Amir Levy/Getty Images] A Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told the news agency Reuters that “Hamas believes negotiation is the only way to end the war and is open to discuss any ideas that would secure an end to the war”. Advertisement A Hamas representative also told Reuters the group was willing to hand over governance of Gaza to a non-partisan committee, but would not give up its weapons before a Palestinian state is established. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to continue the war until Hamas is “destroyed”. Israeli military plan to seize Gaza City Israel’s security cabinet last week approved plans to take control of Gaza City, despite international condemnation from the United Nations and dissent from within Israel’s own military. However, earlier Wednesday, the military said its chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, had signed off on the “main framework” for the operational plan during a meeting with top commanders, Shin Bet representatives and senior officers. According to the statement, Zamir “emphasised the importance of increasing troop readiness and preparedness for reserve recruitment, while conducting proficiency training and providing breathing space ahead of the upcoming missions”. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said Israeli forces appeared to be in the preparatory stage of the expanded invasion, hitting multiple neighbourhoods overnight. “Explosions [were] clearly heard from the eastern part of Gaza City, particularly near the Zeitoun neighbourhood and surrounding areas as far as the Sabra neighbourhood,” Mahmoud reported. “Seven people were reported killed overnight from a mixture of heavy artillery and air strikes targeting major residential clusters.” In the city’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, three more people were reportedly killed as they fled the area. Mahmoud said the Zikim crossing, the main entry point for aid in northern Gaza, had become “deadly for Palestinians”, with limited aid trucks allowed through despite crowds of desperate people. “More people are dying there, either from deliberate Israeli military fire or from the stampede,” he said. Aid restrictions criticised Foreign ministers from 24 countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France and Japan, said on Tuesday the humanitarian crisis in Gaza had reached “unimaginable levels” and urged Israel to allow unrestricted aid into the enclave. A Palestinian girl cries as she tries to receive cooked meals along with others from a food distribution centre in Gaza City on August 13, 2025 [AFP] The entreaty follows months, from March until May, of Israel blockading the enclave, until eventually allowing limited aid deliveries via the controversial US-backed GHF. Amid growing international criticism over the hunger crisis, restrictions on aid supplies were further eased slightly in late July, with dozens of aid trucks entering Gaza on some days. But UNRWA says 500–600 trucks of aid are needed daily, but that aid getting into the Strip remains a fraction of that figure – while many Palestinians are killed on their way to collect aid. Advertisement Mahmoud added that there was growing international condemnation of Israel “for creating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza”, but no change on the ground. “They gave permission for some aid trucks to enter Gaza, to create a media buzz that there is food coming in,” he said. “But that has nothing to do with what’s going on … more people are still dying on a daily basis of enforced starvation. Adblock test (Why?)

Dozens injured in Serbia as clashes erupt at antigovernment protests

Dozens injured in Serbia as clashes erupt at antigovernment protests

Images from the scene show government supporters throwing flares at the protesters who hurl back various objects. Clashes have erupted as opponents and supporters of the Serbian government faced off, each side staging its own demonstrations, as sustained protests against populist President Aleksandar Vucic have now gone on for more than nine months. The clashes first began on Tuesday night in Vrbas, northwest of the capital Belgrade, where riot police separated the two groups outside the governing Serbian Progressive Party offices in the town. The student-led protests in Serbia first started in November after a train station canopy collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people, triggering furious accusations of corruption in state infrastructure projects. Serbia’s president, other government officials and pro-government media have repeatedly described the protesters as “terrorists”, although protests since November have been largely peaceful. Led by university students, the protesters are demanding that Vucic call an early parliamentary election, which he has refused to do. Images from the scene showed government supporters throwing flares, rocks and bottles at the protesters, who hurled back various objects. Police said that dozens of people were injured, including 16 police officers. Similar incidents were reported at protests in other parts of the country. Police said that several people were detained in Vrbas. Police Commissioner Dragan Vasiljevic told state-run RTS television that the protesters “came to attack” the governing party’s supporters outside the party’s offices. An image taken from video shows protesters and riot police engulfed by smoke as clashes erupted at protests in Vrbas, Serbia, Tuesday, August 12, between opponents and supporters of the government [File: N1 Serbia via AP] Protesters have said that government supporters attacked them first in Vrbas and also further south in Backa Palanka and later in Novi Sad and the southern city of Nis. In Belgrade, riot police pushed away protesters who gathered in a downtown area. Advertisement Vucic said at a news conference on Wednesday with Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker that pro-democracy protests in Serbia have been “very violent and were violent last night”. Protests have, since November, drawn hundreds of thousands of people, rattling Vucic’s long-running presidency. The Serbian leader’s supporters have recently started organising counterdemonstrations, fuelling fears of further violence. Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership, but Vucic has maintained strong ties with Russia and China, and has been accused of stifling democratic freedoms since coming to power 13 years ago. Adblock test (Why?)