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Tag: Violence

  • Chased away by Israeli settlers, these Palestinians returned to a village in ruins

    Chased away by Israeli settlers, these Palestinians returned to a village in ruins

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    KHIRBET ZANUTA, West Bank — An entire Palestinian community fled their tiny West Bank village last fall after repeated threats from Israeli settlers with a history of violence. Then, in a rare endorsement of Palestinian land rights, Israel’s highest court ruled this summer the displaced residents of Khirbet Zanuta were entitled to return under the protection of Israeli forces.

    But their homecoming has been bittersweet. In the intervening months, nearly all the houses in the village, a health clinic and a school were destroyed — along with the community’s sense of security in the remote desert land where they have farmed and herded sheep for decades.

    Roughly 40% of former residents have so far chosen not to return. The 150 or so that have come back are sleeping outside the ruins of their old homes. They say they are determined to rebuild – and to stay – even as settlers once again try to intimidate them into leaving and a court order prevents them from any new construction.

    “There is joy, but there are some drawbacks,” said Fayez Suliman Tel, the head of the village council and one of the first to come back to see the ransacked village – roofs seemingly blown off buildings, walls defaced by graffiti.

    “The situation is extremely miserable,” Tel said, “but despite that, we are steadfast and staying in our land, and God willing, this displacement will not be repeated.”

    The Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank said in a statement to The Associated Press it had not received any claims of Israeli vandalism of the village, and that it was taking measures to “ensure security and public order” during the villagers’ return.

    “The Palestinians erected a number of structural components illegally at the place, and in that regard enforcement proceedings were undertaken in accordance with law,” the statement said.

    The villagers of Khirbet Zanuta had long faced harassment and violence from settlers. But after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that launched the war in Gaza, they said they received explicit death threats from Israelis living in an unauthorized outpost up the hill called Meitarim Farm. The outpost is run by Yinon Levi, who has been sanctioned by the U.S., UK, EU and Canada for menacing his Palestinian neighbors.

    The villagers say they reported the threats and attacks to Israeli police, but said they got little help. Fearing for their lives, at the end of October, they packed up whatever they could carry and left.

    Though settler violence had been rising even before the war under the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it has been turbocharged ever since Oct. 7. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been displaced by settler violence since then, according to the United Nations, and very few have returned home.

    Khirbet Zanuta stands as a rare example. It is unclear if any other displaced community has been granted a court’s permission to return since the start of the war.

    Even though residents have legal protection Israel’s highest court, they still have to contend with Levi and other young men from the Meitarim Farm outpost trying to intimidate them.

    Shepherd Fayez Fares Al Samareh, 57, said he returned to Khirbet Zanuta two weeks ago to find that his house had been bulldozed by settlers. The men of his family have joined him in bringing their flocks back home, he said, but conditions in the village are grave.

    “The children have not returned and the women as well. Where will they stay? Under the sun?” he said.

    Settler surveillance continues: Al Samareh said that every Friday and Saturday, settlers arrive to the village, photographing residents.

    Videos taken by human rights activists and obtained by The Associated Press show settlers roaming around Khirbet Zanuta last month, taking pictures of residents as Israeli police look on.

    By displacing small villages, rights groups say West Bank settlers like Levi are able to accumulate vast swaths of land, reshaping the map of the occupied territory that Palestinians hope to include in their homeland as part of any two-state solution.

    The plight of Khirbet Zanuta is also an example of the limited effectiveness of international sanctions as a means of reducing settler violence in the West Bank. The U.S. recently targeted Hashomer Yosh, a government-funded group that sends volunteers to work on West Bank farms, both legal and illegal, with sanctions. Hashomer Yosh sent volunteers to Levi’s outpost, a Nov. 13 Facebook post said.

    “After all 250 Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta were forced to leave, Hashomer Yosh volunteers fenced off the village to prevent the residents from returning,” a U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said last week.

    Neither Hashomer Yosh nor Levi responded to a request for comment on intrusions into the village since residents returned. But Levi claimed in a June interview with AP that the land was his, and admitted to taking part in clearing it of Palestinians, though he denied doing so violently.

    “Little by little, you feel when you drive on the roads that everyone is closing in on you,” he said at the time. “They’re building everywhere, wherever they want. So you want to do something about it.”

    The legal rights guaranteed to Khirbet Zanuta’s residents only go so far. Under the terms of the court ruling that allowed them to return, they are forbidden from building new structures across the roughly 1 square kilometer village. The land, the court ruled, is part of an archaeological zone, so any new structures are at risk of demolition.

    Distraught but not deterred, the villagers are repairing badly damaged homes, the health clinic and the EU-funded school — by whom, they do not know for sure.

    “We will renovate these buildings so that they are qualified to receive students before winter sets in,” Khaled Doudin, the governor of the Hebron region that includes Khirbet Zanuta, said as he stood in the bulldozed school.

    “And after that we will continue to rehabilitate it,” he said, “so that we do not give the occupation the opportunity to demolish it again.”

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  • Pope arrives in remote jungles of Papua New Guinea, brings in a ton of humanitarian aid and toys

    Pope arrives in remote jungles of Papua New Guinea, brings in a ton of humanitarian aid and toys

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    VANIMO, Papua New Guinea — Pope Francis celebrated the Catholic Church of the peripheries on Sunday as he traveled to the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea, bringing with him a ton of medicine and toys and a message of love overcoming violence for the people who live there.

    Francis flew aboard a Royal Australian Air Force C-130 transport plane from Port Moresby to Vanimo, on the northwest coast of the South Pacific nation, close to the border with Indonesia. There, Francis met with the local Catholic community and the missionaries from his native Argentina who have been ministering to them.

    A crowd of an estimated 20,000 people gathered on the field in front of the Vanimo cathedral singing and dancing when Francis arrived, and he promptly put on a feathered headdress that had been presented to him.

    In remarks from a raised stage, Francis praised the church workers who go out to try to spread the faith. But he urged the faithful to work closer to home at being good to one another and putting an end to the tribal rivalries and violence that are a regular part of the culture in Papua New Guinea.

    He urged them to be like an orchestra, so that all members of the community can come together harmoniously to overcome rivalries.

    Doing so, he said, would help to end personal, family and tribal divisions “to drive out fear, superstition and magic from people’s hearts, to put an end to destructive behaviors such as violence, infidelity, exploitation, alcohol and drug abuse, evils which imprison and take away the happiness of so many of our brothers and sisters, even in this country.”

    It was a reference to the tribal violence over land and other disputes that have long characterized the country’s culture but have grown more lethal in recent years. Francis arrived in Papua New Guinea to urge an end to the violence, including gender-based violence, and for a sense of civic responsibility and cooperation to prevail.

    Earlier in the day, an estimated 35,000 people filled the stadium in the capital, Port Moresby, for Francis’ morning Mass. It began with dancers in grass skirts and feathered headdresses performing to traditional drum beats as priests in green vestments processed up onto the altar.

    In his homily, Francis told the crowd that they may well feel themselves distant from both their faith and the institutional church, but that God was near to them.

    “You who live on this large island in the Pacific Ocean may sometimes have thought of yourselves as a far away and distant land, situated at the edge of the world,” Francis said. “Yet … today the Lord wants to draw near to you, to break down distances, to let you know that you are at the center of his heart and that each one of you is important to him.”

    After the Mass, Francis boarded the C-130 with just a few aides and his security detail. On board was also the golf cart popemobile he was using in Vanimo, as well as a ton of humanitarian aid, including medicine, clothes and toys for children, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.

    The aircraft, which is based at Australia’s base in Port Moresby, was being used both because of its cargo capacity and because the small airport in Vanimo doesn’t have an ambulift, the wheelchair elevator that Francis now needs to get on and off planes. By flying in on a C-130, Francis can disembark via the ramp, Vatican officials said.

    Francis has long prioritized the church on the “peripheries,” saying it is actually more important than the center of the institutional church. In keeping with that philosophy, Francis has largely shunned foreign trips to European capitals, preferring instead far-flung communities where Catholics are often a minority.

    Vanimo, population 11,000, certainly fits the bill. Located near Papua New Guinea’s border with Indonesia, where the jungle meets the sea, the coastal city is perhaps best known as a surfing destination.

    Francis, history’s first Latin American pope, has also had a special affinity for the work of Catholic missionaries. As a young Argentine Jesuit, he had hoped to serve as a missionary in Japan, but was prevented from going because of his poor health.

    Now as pope, he has often held up missionaries as models for the church, especially those who have sacrificed to bring the faith to far-away places.

    There are about 2.5 million Catholics in Papua New Guinea, according to Vatican statistics, out of a population in the Commonwealth nation believed to be around 10 million. The Catholics practice the faith along with traditional Indigenous beliefs, including animism and sorcery.

    On Saturday, Francis heard first-hand about how women are often falsely accused of witchcraft, then shunned by their families. In remarks to priests, bishops and nuns, Francis urged the church leaders in Papua New Guinea to be particularly close to these people on the margins who had been wounded by “prejudice and superstition.”

    “I think too of the marginalized and wounded, both morally and physically, by prejudice and superstition sometimes to the point of having to risk their lives,” Francis said. He urged the church to be particularly close to such people on the peripheries, with “closeness, compassion and tenderness.”

    Francis’ visit to Vanimo was the highlight of his visit to Papua New Guinea, the second leg of his four-nation tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania. After first stopping in Indonesia, Francis heads on Monday to East Timor and then wraps up his visit in Singapore later in the week.

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    Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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  • FACT FOCUS: Google autocomplete results around Trump lead to claims of election interference

    FACT FOCUS: Google autocomplete results around Trump lead to claims of election interference

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    With fewer than 100 days until the 2024 election, social media users are claiming that a lack of Google autocomplete results about former President Donald Trump and his attempted assassination is evidence of election interference.

    Many posts include screenshots showing what the autocomplete feature, which predicts what users are trying to type, has generated for text such as “attempted assassination of tr” or “president donald.” Among the pictured results for the former phrase are references to other assassination attempts, including that of Harry Truman and Gerald Ford, but nothing for Trump. The latter provides two options — “president donald duck” and “president donald regan.”

    Multiple high-profile figures, including Trump and sitting members of Congress, promoted the claim across social media platforms, collectively amassing more than 1 million likes and shares by Tuesday. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Google attributed the situation to existing protections against autocomplete predictions associated with political violence, noting that “no manual action was taken” to suppress information about Trump.

    Search engine experts said there are many reasons that could explain why some autocomplete results concerning the former president were not appearing.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: Google is engaging in election interference by censoring autocomplete results about former President Donald Trump, including the assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally on July 13.

    THE FACTS: It is true that Google’s autocomplete feature as of Monday was not finishing certain phrases related to Trump and the assassination attempt as shown in screenshots spreading online, but there is no evidence it was related to election interference.

    By Tuesday, some of the same terms were providing relevant autocomplete results. The text “president donald” now also suggests “Donald Trump” as a search option. Similarly, the phrase “attempted assassination of” includes Trump’s name in autocomplete predictions. Adding “tr” to the same phrase though makes the option disappear.

    Completed searches about Trump and the assassination attempt done on both Monday and Tuesday yielded extensive relevant results regardless of what autocomplete predictions came up.

    Google told the AP that its autocomplete feature has automated protections regarding violent topics, including for searches about theoretical assassination attempts. The company further explained that its systems were out of date even prior to July 13, meaning that the protections already in place couldn’t take into account that an actual assassination attempt had occurred.

    Additional autocomplete results now appearing about Trump are the result of systemic improvements — rather than targeted manual fixes — that will affect many other topics, according to the company.

    “We’re rolling out improvements to our Autocomplete systems to show more up-to-date predictions,” Google told The Associated Press in a statement. “The issues are beginning to resolve, and we’ll continue to make improvements as needed. As always, predictions change over time and there may be some imperfections. Autocomplete helps save people time, but they can always search for whatever they want, and we will continue to connect them with helpful information.”

    Search engine experts told the AP that they don’t see evidence of suspicious activities on Google’s part and that there are plenty of other reasons to explain why there have been a lack of autocomplete predictions about Trump.

    “It’s very plausible that there’s nothing nefarious here, that it’s other systems that are set up for neutral or good purposes that are causing these query suggestions to not show up,” said Michael Ekstrand, an assistant professor at Drexel University who studies AI-powered information access systems. “I don’t have a reason not to believe Google’s claim that this is just normal systems for other purposes, particularly around political violence.”

    Thorsten Joachims, a professor at Cornell University who researches machine learning for search engines, explained that autocomplete tools typically work by looking at queries people make frequently over a certain period of time, providing the most frequent completions of those queries. Beyond that, a search engine may automatically prune predictions based on concerns such as safety and privacy.

    This means that it’s plausible that Google’s autocomplete feature wouldn’t have accounted for recent searches about the assassination attempt on Trump, especially if its systems indeed had not been updated since before the shooting.

    “Depending on how big the window is that they’re averaging over, that may simply not be a frequent query,” Joachims said. “And it may not be a candidate for autocompletion.” He added that it’s typical not to update a search model on a daily basis, given the costs and technical risks involved.

    A 2020 Google blog post about its autocomplete feature describes how the system reflects previous searches and why users might not see certain predictions, including those that are violent in nature. The post also explains that predictions may vary based on variables such as a user’s location, the language they speak or rising interest in a topic.

    Both Ekstrand and Joachims agreed that proving bias in a complex system like Google’s search engine from the outside would be extremely difficult. It would require much more data than just a couple of searches, for example, and would risk setting off the company’s protections against data scraping, reverse engineering and fraud.

    “In general, claims that platforms are taking particular targeted actions against specific people on political bases are hard to substantiate,” Ekstrand said. “They sometimes, I’m sure, happen, but there’s so many other explanations that it’s difficult to substantiate such claims.”

    Joachims noted that the demographics of Google’s user base could impact the results of such a study if they skewed toward one side of the political aisle or another and therefore searched more for their preferred candidates. In other words, the way the system works would make it difficult to probe the system.

    Technical issues aside, limiting autocomplete predictions as a method of political influence could simply be bad for business.

    “Even if Google would like to do that, I think it would be a very bad decision because they could lose a lot of users,” said Ricardo Baeza-Yates, a professor at Northeastern University whose research includes web search and information retrieval.

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    Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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  • History Happenings: Sept. 3, 2024

    History Happenings: Sept. 3, 2024

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    “70 to face court in Hampton rumble” was front-page news on this day in 1963. Although Hampton was a dry town, at least 70 of the estimated 100,000-person crowd, mostly out-of-state college students, were charged with drunkenness, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. Thousands of dollars in damage was done to motels, homes and businesses, with police deploying tear gas and firehoses to disperse the crowd.

    — Museum of Old Newbury

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  • On the first day without X, many Brazilians say they feel disconnected from the world

    On the first day without X, many Brazilians say they feel disconnected from the world

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    SAO PAULO — The blocking of social media platform X in Brazil divided users and politicians over the legitimacy of the ban, and many Brazilians on Saturday had difficulty and doubts over navigating other social media in its absence.

    The shutdown of Elon Musk’s platform started early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through mobile apps after the billionaire refused to name a legal representative to the country, missing a deadline imposed by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The blockade marks an escalation in a monthslong feud between Musk and de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

    Brazil is one of the biggest markets for X, with tens of millions of users.

    “I’ve got the feeling that I have no idea what’s happening in the world right now. Bizarre,” entertainment writer and heavy X user Chico Barney wrote on Threads. Threads is a text-based app developed by Instagram that Barney was using as an alternative. “This Threads algorithm is like an all-you-can-eat restaurant where the waiter keeps serving things I would never order.”

    Bluesky, a social media platform that was launched last year as an alternative to X and other more established sites, has seen a large influx of Brazilians in the past couple of days. The company said Friday it has seen about 200,000 new users from Brazil sign up during that time, and the number “continues to grow by the minute.” Brazilian users are also setting records for activities such as follows and likes, Bluesky said.

    Previous users of other platforms welcomed Brazilians to their ranks. “Hello literally everyone in Brazil,” a user wrote on Threads. “We’re a lot nicer than Twitter here,” said another.

    Platform migration isn’t new for Brazilians. They were huge adopters of Orkut and, when Orkut went kaput, they very gladly moved to other platforms.

    X is not as popular in Brazil as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. However, it remains an important platform on which Brazilians engage in political debates and is highly influential among politicians, journalists and other opinion makers.

    It’s also where they share their sense of humor. Many of the country’s most famous memes originate from posts on X before spreading to other social networks. Last week, for instance, Brazilians collaboratively crafted an absurd storyline for a fictional telenovela, complete with a theme song created using artificial intelligence tools.

    Pop stars and their fanbases were also hit by Brazilians being left off the platform.

    “Wait a lot of my fan pages are Brazilian!!! Come back hold up!!,” Cardi B said Friday on X. A fan page dedicated to Timothée Chalamet, known by the handle TimotheeUpdates, said it would temporarily cease updating as all of its administrators are Brazilian.

    De Moraes said X will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and he also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access it. Some legal experts questioned the grounds for that decision and how it would be enforced. Others suggested the move was authoritarian.

    The Brazilian Bar Association said Friday in a statement that it would request the Supreme Court review the fines imposed on all citizens using VPNs or other means to access X without due process. Brazil’s bar association argued that sanctions should never be imposed summarily before ensuring an adversarial process and the right to full defense.

    “I’ve used VPNs a lot in authoritarian countries like China to continue accessing news sites and social networks,” Maurício Santoro, a political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, said on the platform before its shutdown. “It never occurred to me that this type of tool would be banned in Brazil. It’s dystopian.”

    A search Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they are logging on from outside the country.

    “Tyrants want to turn Brazil into another commie dictatorship but we won’t back down. I repeat: do not vote on those who don’t respect free speech. Orwell was right,” right-wing congressman Nikolas Ferreira, one of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s closest allies, published before X went off. Musk replied with an emoji suggesting agreement: “100”.

    Ferreira is a 28-year-old YouTuber who received the most votes of the 513 elected federal lawmakers in the 2022 election. De Moraes ordered the block of his social media accounts after a mob of Bolsonaro supporters attacked Brazil’s Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court in January 2023 seeking to overturn the election.

    Lawmaker Bia Kicis said “the consequences of Alexandre de Moraes’ attacks to Elon Musk, X and Starlink will be regrettable for Brazilians.” She also urged Rodrigo Pacheco, the president of the country’s Senate, to act. Kicis has repeatedly urged Pacheco to open impeachment proceedings against the Supreme Court justice.

    “We need to leave this state of apathy and stop the worst from happening,” the pro-Bolsonaro lawmaker, whose profiles were temporarily blocked by de Moraes in 2022, also said.

    The former president said Saturday on Instagram that X’s departure from Brazil was “another blow to our freedom and legal security.”

    “It not only affects our freedom of expression, but also undermines the confidence of international companies in operating on Brazilian soil, with impacts ranging from national security to the quality of the information that reaches our citizens,” Bolsonaro said.

    On Friday, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva backed de Moraes’ decision and took aim at Musk for positioning himself as though he was above the law during an interview with Radio MaisPB.

    “Any citizen, from anywhere in the world, who has investments in Brazil, is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and Brazilian laws. Therefore, if the Supreme Court has made a decision for citizens to comply with certain things, they either have to comply or take another course of action,” Lula said. “It’s not because the guy has a lot of money that he can disrespect it.”

    Ana Júlia Alves de Oliveira, an 18-year-old student, shared that many young people like her no longer watch newscasts or read newspapers, relying solely on social media platforms like X for their news. Without this platform, she felt disconnected.

    “I kind of lost touch with what’s going on around the world,” she said. “I saw a lot of entertainment there too, so this is a new reality for me.”

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    Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese contributed from Sao Paulo.

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  • First rioter to enter Capitol during Jan. 6 attack is sentenced to over 4 years in prison

    First rioter to enter Capitol during Jan. 6 attack is sentenced to over 4 years in prison

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — A Kentucky man who was the first rioter to enter the U.S. Capitol during a mob’s attack on the building was sentenced on Tuesday to more than four years in prison.

    A police officer who tried to subdue Michael Sparks with pepper spray described him as a catalyst for the Jan. 6 insurrection. The Senate that day recessed less than one minute after Sparks jumped into the building through a broken window. Sparks then joined other rioters in chasing a police officer up flights of stairs.

    Before learning his sentencing, Sparks told the judge that he still believes the 2020 presidential election was marred by fraud and “completely taken from the American public.”

    “I am remorseful that what transpired that day didn’t help anybody,” Sparks said. “I am remorseful that our country is in the state it’s in.”

    U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who sentenced Sparks to four years and five months, told him that there was nothing patriotic about his prominent role in what was a “national disgrace.”

    “I don’t really think you appreciate the full gravity of what happened that day and, quite frankly, the full seriousness of what you did,” the judge said.

    Federal prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of four years and nine months for Sparks, a 47-year-old former factory worker from Cecilia, Kentucky.

    Defense attorney Scott Wendelsdorf asked the judge to sentence Sparks to one year of home detention instead of prison.

    A jury convicted Sparks of all six charges that he faced, including a felony count of interfering with police during a civil disorder. Sparks didn’t testify at his trial in Washington, D.C.

    In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, Sparks used social media to promote conspiracy theories about election fraud and advocate for a civil war.

    “It’s time to drag them out of Congress. It’s tyranny,” he posted on Facebook three days before the riot.

    Sparks traveled to Washington, D.C, with co-workers from an electronics and components plant in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. They attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6.

    After the rally, Sparks and a friend, Joseph Howe, joined a crowd in marching to the Capitol. Both of them wore tactical vests. Howe was captured on video repeatedly saying, “we’re getting in that building.”

    Off camera, Sparks added: “All it’s going to take is one person to go. The rest is following,” according to prosecutors. Sparks’ attorney argued that the evidence doesn’t prove that Sparks made that statement.

    “Of course, both Sparks and Howe were more right than perhaps anyone else knew at the time — it was just a short time later that Sparks made history as the very first person to go inside, and the rest indeed followed,” prosecutors wrote.

    Dominic Pezzola, a member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group, used a police shield to break a window next to the Senate Wing Door. Capitol Police Sgt. Victor Nichols sprayed Sparks in the face as he hopped through the shattered glass.

    Nichols testified that Sparks acted “like a green light for everybody behind him, and everyone followed right behind him because it was like it was okay to go into the building.” Nichols also said Sparks’ actions were “the catalyst for the building being completely breached.”

    Undeterred by pepper spray, Sparks joined other rioters in chasing Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman as he retreated up the stairs and found backup from other officers near the Senate chamber.

    “This is our America!” Sparks screamed at police. He left the building about 10 minutes later.

    Sparks’ attorney downplayed his client’s distinction as the first rioter to enter the building.

    “While technically true in a time-line sense, he did not lead the crowd into the building or cause the breach through which he and others entered,” Wendelsdorf wrote. “Actually, there were eight different points of access that day separately and independently exploited by the protestors.”

    But the judge said when and where Sparks entered the Capitol was an important factor in his sentencing.

    “I think it’s undeniable that the first person” to enter the Capitol “would have an emboldening and encouraging effect on everyone who was at least in your vicinity,” Kelly told Sparks. “To say it wasn’t a material, key point in the mob’s taking of the Capitol, I think, is just ignoring the obvious.”

    Sparks was arrested in Kentucky less than a month after the riot. Sparks and Howe were charged together in a November 2022 indictment. Howe pleaded guilty to assault and obstruction charges and was sentenced last year to four years and two months in prison.

    More than 1,400 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 950 riot defendants have been convicted and sentenced. More than 600 of them have received terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.

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  • Women in Chad defy discrimination and violence to assert their rights to own and control land

    Women in Chad defy discrimination and violence to assert their rights to own and control land

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    BINMAR, Chad — When Milla Nemoudji, a 28-year-old from a village in southern Chad, divorced her husband following years of physical abuse, she found herself without means for survival. Though raised in a farming family, she struggled to get by in a community where access to land is customarily controlled by men.

    With little support for women in her situation, divorce being relatively rare in Chad, she fought for economic independence. She sold fruits and other goods. During the rainy season, she plowed fields as a laborer. Last year, however, a women’s collective arrived in her village and she decided to join, finally gaining access to land and a say over its use. She farmed cotton, peanuts and sesame, making enough money to cover basic needs.

    The village, Birman, is on the outskirts of Chad’s second-largest city, Moundou, in the densely populated Logone Occidental region. Thatched-roof homes stand amid fields where women traditionally harvest the land but, like Nemoudji, have little or no say over it.

    In Chad, land access is often controlled by village chiefs who require annual payments. Women are often excluded from land ownership and inheritance, leaving them dependent on male relatives and reinforcing their secondary status in society.

    The struggle for land rights is compounded by the dual legal system in Chad where customary law often supersedes statutory law, especially in rural areas. While recent legal reforms mean laws recognize the right of any citizen to own land, application of those laws is inconsistent.

    For women like Nemoudji who seek to assert their rights, the response can be hostile.

    “There’s no one to come to your aid, although everyone knows that you are suffering,” Nemoudji told The Associated Press, criticizing the traditional system of land rights and urging local leaders to take domestic violence seriously. “If women weren’t losing access to farmlands, they would dare to leave their husbands earlier.”

    Initiatives like N-Bio Solutions, the collective Nemoudji joined, are challenging those norms. Founded by Adèle Noudjilembaye in 2018, an agriculturist and activist from a neighboring village, the collective is a rare initiative in Chad negotiating on behalf of women with traditional chiefs, who then seek out residents with available land willing to lease it.

    So far, Noudjilembaye runs five such collectives with an average 25 members. Although these initiatives are slowly gaining popularity, they are limited by financial resources and some women’s hesitancy to risk the little they have.

    Noudjilembaye told the AP that “despite the violence and neglect, many women stay (in situations) because of financial dependency, fear of societal judgement or lack of support.”

    The efforts of such collectives have broader implications for both gender equality and sustainable agriculture in Chad. Women of Binmar have adopted sustainable farming practices including crop rotation, organic farming and the use of drought-resistant seeds, which help preserve the soil and increase productivity.

    In general, women who gain access to land and resources are more likely to implement sustainable agricultural practices and improve local food systems, according to the United Nations.

    But in Chad, life for women who attempt to assert their rights is especially challenging.

    Chad is ranked 144th out of 146 countries, according to the 2024 Global Gender Gap Indicator Report compiled by World Economic Forum. The country’s maternal mortality rate is high at 1,063 deaths per 100,000 births in 2020, over three times the global average, according to the United Nations. Only 20% of young women are literate.

    For Nemoudji, her family’s response to her plight was mostly passive. They offered her a place to stay and provided emotional support but did little to confront her abuser or seek justice on her behalf.

    “The system failed me when I sought help after my husband burned down my house,” Nemoudji said. When she reported the incident to the village chief, “nothing was done to solve my dispute.”

    Village chief Marie Djetoyom, a woman in the hereditary role, told the AP that she was afraid to take action and risk being imprisoned in retaliation. She asserted that she must act within the customary land laws.

    Despite the lack of support from traditional leaders and local authorities, women in the village of around 120 people have found strength in the collective.

    “As cultural practices do not favor access to land for many women individually, the community alternative remains the best possibility to achieve the objective,” said Innocent Bename, a researcher at CEREAD, a N’Djamena-based research center.

    Marie Depaque, another village woman who struggled to get by after her second husband refused to financially support her children from her first marriage, added that “our fight for land rights is not just about economic survival but also about justice, equality and the hope for a better future.”

    Nemoudji dreams of better educational opportunities for the children in her community so they can break the cycle of poverty and violence. She advocates in the community for changes in the land ownership system.

    “Knowing my rights means I can seek help from authorities and demand justice,” she said.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Man turns himself in, claiming to be behind deadly knife attack, German police say

    Man turns himself in, claiming to be behind deadly knife attack, German police say

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    SOLINGEN, Germany — German police said early Sunday that a 26-year-old man turned himself in, claiming to be behind the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary.

    Düsseldorf police said in a joint statement with the prosecutor’s office that the man “stated that he was responsible for the attack,” adding he had been arrested before, but didn’t provide details. “This person’s involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated,” the statement said.

    On Saturday the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. The extremist group said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and that he carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.” The claim couldn’t be independently verified.

    Officials had earlier said a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities, but that he was not the attacker. Two female witnesses told police they overheard the boy and an unknown person before the attack speaking about intentions that corresponded to the bloodshed, officials said.

    People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time Friday that a man had assaulted several people with a knife on the city’s central square, the Fronhof. The three people killed were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.

    Solingen, a city of about 160,000 residents near the bigger cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, was holding a “Festival of Diversity” to celebrate its anniversary. It began Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics. The attack took place in front of one stage.

    The festival was canceled as police looked for clues in the cordoned-off square.

    The IS militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria about a decade ago, but now holds no control over any land and has lost many prominent leaders. The group is mostly out of global news headlines.

    Still, it continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including lethal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that killed dozens of people. Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carry out attacks on government forces in both countries as well as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.

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  • Brazil and Colombia call on Venezuela to release vote tallies, denounce ‘violence and repression’

    Brazil and Colombia call on Venezuela to release vote tallies, denounce ‘violence and repression’

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    MEXICO CITY — The leaders of Brazil and Colombia on Saturday again called on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to release voting tallies, days after the country’s Supreme Court backed the government’s disputed claims that it won elections in July.

    In a joint statement, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro said the “credibility of the electoral process can only be restored through the transparent publication of disaggregated and verifiable data.”

    The two leaders also warned against repression as the Venezuelan government has jailed thousands and met protests with violence.

    The governments spoke a day after several other Latin American countries and the U.S. rejected the Venezuelan high court’s certification. Many were waiting to see how the two leftist leaders would respond to the court because both are close allies of Maduro and have been working to facilitate talks with both sides.

    Maduro claims that he won the presidential vote, but so far has refused to release official tally sheets, considered the one verifiable vote count in Venezuela as they are almost impossible to replicate.

    The main opposition coalition has accused Maduro of trying to steal the vote.

    Opposition volunteers managed to collect copies of voting tallies from 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide that show former opposition candidate Edmundo González won by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The Supreme Court alleged those tallies were forged.

    Lula and Petro said they “take note” of the court’s ruling, but added they are still awaiting release of the tallies.

    The governments also called on actors in Venezuela to “avoid resorting to acts of violence and repression” as security forces arrested more than 2,000 people and cracked down on demonstrations that erupted spontaneously throughout the country protesting the results. But the two leaders didn’t directly accuse the Maduro government of carrying out the violence.

    The arrests have again spread fear in a country that has seen other government crackdowns during previous times of political turmoil.

    At the same time, key opposition figure Maria Corina Machado has since gone into hiding and the government said Friday it will order González to provide sworn testimony in an ongoing investigation, claiming he was part of an effort to spread panic by contesting the results of the election.

    Both Lula and Petro have previously been criticized for what some say have been lenient policies toward Maduro’s government, but their tone has grown more stern in recent months, especially in the wake of the election fallout.

    Their two countries are neighbors to Venezuela and their governments were to witness agreements struck between Maduro and the opposition that aimed to chart the path to free and fair elections, which the opposition and other observers accused Maduro of violating. The two leaders reiterated their willingness to facilitate dialogue between the the government and the opposition.

    “The political normalization of Venezuela requires the recognition that there is no lasting alternative to peaceful dialogue and democratic coexistence,” the statement read.

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  • 2 dead in incident at North Andover home

    2 dead in incident at North Andover home

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    NORTH ANDOVER — Two people are dead following an incident Monday evening at a home at 201 Turnpike St. (Route 114), according to the District Attorney’s Office.

    One person was reportedly found dead at the home while the second individual, who was seriously injured, died later at an area hospital, according to the office of District Attorney Paul Tucker.

    Initial reports indicated the two people involved were a mother and a small child, possibly an infant, and that a stabbing occurred. The DA’s Office did not elaborate, saying only it was an “isolated incident” and there was no threat to the public.

    The DA’s Office announced the first death shortly before 7 p.m. while the second was not announced until close to 9 p.m. The office also said no further information would be released until further notice as the incident continued to be investigated.

    Police, firefighters and ambulance personnel first responded to the home about 5:15 p.m.

    There was no immediate arrest or search for a suspect, and police blocked off Turnpike Street. The intersection of Turnpike Street and Route 133 to the Bertucci’s intersection was blocked off as authorities continued to investigate.

    State troopers and a crime scene services processing and evidence collection team were called to the home along with investigators from the District Attorney’s Office.

    Officers from Andover, North Andover and Massachusetts State Police responded, lining the busy route during rush hour traffic. An ambulance arrived at the home about 7 p.m.

    Police stretched caution tape around the front lawn and two white cars, one of which was parked across the lawn near the front door. Red tape crime scene was later stretched across the parking lot to the left of the house.

    Police gathered in the street while family members waited near the garage toward the rear of the house. The home’s front door was wide open.

    More relatives began arriving at 6 p.m. and throughout the hour. Family members were later brought to another location. A woman could be heard crying and screaming hysterically outside the home.

    A North Andover fire ladder truck blocked the front of the house. Crowds tried to make sense of what was happening across the street, waiting outside Burger King’s parking lot.

    Police began to move people farther back into the parking lot, asking them to show respect for the people involved.

    Officers at the scene declined comment and said a statement would be released later. Authorities asked the public to stay away from the area as they investigated.

    201 Turnpike St. is a seven-room, three-bedroom home that last sold in November 2022, according to town assessing records. The owner is listed as 201 Turnpike Street LLC.

    This is a developing story. Check back at eagletribune.com for updates.

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    By Jill Harmacinski and Angelina Berube | Staff Writers

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  • Mother, child stabbed in North Andover

    Mother, child stabbed in North Andover

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    NORTH ANDOVER — A mother and a small child, possibly an infant, were critically injured in a stabbing Monday evening at a home at 201 Turnpike St. (Route 114)

    Police, firefighters and ambulance personnel responded to the home about 5:15 p.m.

    Initial police scanner reports indicated two people were hurt and the injuries were life threatening. 

    There was no immediate arrest or search for a suspect, and police blocked off Turnpike Street.  

    State troopers and a crime scene services processing and evidence collection team were called to the home along with investigators from District Attorney Paul Tucker’s office.

    Officers from Andover, North Andover and Massachusetts State Police responded, lining the busy route during rush hour traffic.

    Police set up caution tape around the front lawn and two white cars, one of which was parked across the lawn near the front door.

    Police gathered in the street while family members waited near the garage toward the rear of the house. The home’s front door was open. 

    Officers at the scene declined comment and said a statement would be released later. 

    The incident backed up traffic near Bertucci’s and the Panera plaza. 

    This is a developing story. Check back to eagletribune.com for updates. 

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    By Jill Harmacinski and Angelina Berube | Staff Writers

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  • Settler rampage in West Bank sparks rare condemnation from Israeli leaders

    Settler rampage in West Bank sparks rare condemnation from Israeli leaders

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    JIT, West Bank — Israeli leaders on Friday roundly condemned a deadly settler rampage in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a rare Israeli denunciation of the settler violence growing more common since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

    The settler riot in the village of Jit, near the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, killed one Palestinian and badly injured others late Thursday, Palestinian health officials said. Residents interviewed by The Associated Press said at least a hundred masked settlers entered the village, shot live ammunition at Palestinians, burned homes and cars and damaged water tankers. Video showed flames engulfing the small village, which residents said was left to defend itself without military help for two hours.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he took the riots “seriously” and that Israelis who carried out criminal acts would be prosecuted. He issued what appeared to be a call for settlers to stand down.

    “Those who fight terrorism are the IDF and the security forces, and no one else,” he said, using an acronym for the Israeli military.

    President Isaac Herzog also condemned the attack, as did Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said the settlers had “attacked innocent people.” He added they did not “represent the values” of settler communities.

    The Palestinians seek the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, as the heartland of a future state, a position with wide international backing.

    Rights groups say that arrests for settler violence are rare, and prosecutions even rarer. Israel’s left-leaning Haaretz newspaper reported in 2022 that based on statistics from the Israeli police, charges were pressed in only 3.8% of cases of settler violence, with most cases being opened and closed without any action being taken.

    It was unclear why the Jit attack yielded such a strong rebuke from Israeli leaders. A similar settler riot in the village of Al-Mughayyir in April went without comparable mention from the authorities. The Jit attack comes as Israel is under heightened international scrutiny over its role in cease-fire talks with American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha, yet another attempt to broker an end to the 10-month-old war.

    The French foreign minister and the British foreign secretary were also in Israel on Friday for meetings with diplomatic officials, and both condemned the attack.

    The U.S. has broadly condemned settler violence and the expansion of Israel’s West Bank settlements. U.S. Ambassador Jack Lew wrote on the social media platform X on Friday that he was “appalled” by the attack, and the White House National Security Council called violent settler attacks “unacceptable.”

    ”Israeli authorities must take measures to protect all communities from harm, this includes intervening to stop such violence, and holding all perpetrators of such violence to account,” it said in a statement.

    Other Israeli officials distinguished between the settler attack on Jit and the larger Israeli settlement project, which the international community views as illegal under international law.

    Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — an ultranationalist settler who has turbocharged settlement expansion, railed against U.S. sanctions on violent settlers and previously defended violent settlers as heroes — labeled the rioters “criminals” who were “in no way related to the settlement and the settlers.”

    “We are building and developing settlements in a legal and official manner,” Smotrich wrote on X, adding that he “reject(s) any expression of anarchist criminal violence that has nothing to do with love for the land and the desire to settle in it.”

    Ultra-orthodox Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel called on Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency to investigate those involved and said the riot ran against Jewish values and harmed the “settlement enterprise.”

    Since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, violence has flared in the occupied territory. Palestinian health officials say 633 Palestinians, including 147 children and teenagers, have been killed by Israeli fire and over 5,400 injured. Many have been killed during Israeli military raids into Palestinian cities and towns, but settlers have killed at least 11 Palestinians, including two children, and injured 234 people, according to AIDA, a coalition of nonprofit and other groups working in the territory.

    The U.N. documented over 1,000 settler attacks in the West Bank since the start of the war, averaging four a day. That’s double the average during the same period last year, AIDA says.

    Sufian Jit, a resident of the village, said a group of 100 settlers streamed in before sundown Thursday, burning cars, puncturing water tankers and destroying homes. He called the army and firefighters, pleading for help. Firefighters never came, so villagers ran between burning cars to put out the fires, he said. After two hours, he said soldiers arrived.

    “It was more than 100 settlers against us. At the beginning, there were just a few people trying to stop them, and then later the whole town came and stopped them,” he said.

    The Israeli military said late Thursday it had arrested one Israeli civilian in connection with the violence and opened an investigation. Police did not say whether the civilian was still in custody on Friday, but said they were working with the Shin Bet and military to investigate and “bring the relevant perpetrators to justice.”

    Mourners prepared Friday for the funeral of young 23-year-old Rasheed Mahmoud abed Al Khadier Sadah. His relative, Ibrahim Sadah, said many residents wanted to help defend the village but had to take shelter once settlers started firing live ammunition.

    ___

    Frankel reported from Jerusalem.

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  • Protests grow in India over the rape and killing of a doctor at a state-run hospital

    Protests grow in India over the rape and killing of a doctor at a state-run hospital

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    NEW DELHI — Thousands of people marched through various Indian cities Friday to protest the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a government hospital, demanding justice and better security at medical campuses and hospitals.

    Demonstrators held signs calling for accountability for the woman’s rape and killing as they gathered near Parliament in New Delhi. Similar protests were held in the eastern city of Kolkata — the capital of West Bengal state where the killing took place — and other Indian cities like Mumbai and Hyderabad.

    The protests, which have generally been peaceful, began Aug. 9 when police discovered the bloodied body of the 31-year-old trainee doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital’s seminar hall in Kolkata.

    An autopsy later confirmed sexual assault, and a police volunteer was detained in connection with the crime. The family of the victim alleged it was a case of a gang rape and more were involved.

    State government officers who first began investigating the case have been accused of mishandling it. Police later handed the case to federal investigators following a court order.

    In the days since, mounting anger has boiled over into nationwide outrage and stirred protests over violence against women. The protests have also led thousands of doctors and paramedics to walk out of some public hospitals across India and demand a safer working environment.

    Sexual violence against women is a widespread problem in India. In 2022, police recorded 31,516 reports of rape — a 20% increase from 2021, according to the National Crime Records Bureau.

    Many cases of crimes against women go unreported in India due to stigma surrounding sexual violence, as well as a lack of faith in the police. Women’s rights activists say the problem is particularly acute in rural areas, where the community sometimes shames victims of sexual assault and families worry about their social standing.

    Richa Garg, a doctor who was part of the protests Friday in New Delhi, said she no longer felt safe at her workplace.

    “As a woman, it boils my blood. The culprits of this crime should be found immediately … and our workplaces should be made safer,” she said.

    On Wednesday night, the hospital where the trainee doctor was killed was attacked. Police did not identify who was behind the rampage, but said they have arrested 19 so far.

    The Indian Medical Association, the country’s largest grouping of medics, called late Thursday for a “nationwide withdrawal of services,” except essential services, for 24 hours starting Saturday.

    “Doctors, especially women are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for the authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses,” the IMA said in a statement issued on the social media platform X.

    Political parties, Bollywood actors and other high profile celebrities have also voiced shock at the crime and called for stricter punishments for those who commit them.

    “Monstrous behavior against women should be severely and promptly punished,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Thursday in an address to the nation on its 78th Independence Day.

    For many, the gruesome nature of the attack has invoked comparisons with the horrific 2012 gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus. The attack galvanized massive protests, sometimes violent, and inspired lawmakers to order harsher penalties for such crimes, as well as the creation of fast-track courts dedicated to rape cases. Under pressure, the government also introduced the death penalty for repeat offenders.

    The rape law amended in 2013 also criminalized stalking and voyeurism and lowered the age at which a person can be tried as an adult from 18 to 16.

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  • King Charles III applauds people who stood against racism during recent unrest in UK

    King Charles III applauds people who stood against racism during recent unrest in UK

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    LONDON — King Charles III has applauded people who took to the streets of British towns and cities earlier this week to help blunt days of unrest fueled by far-right activists and misinformation about a stabbing attack that killed three girls.

    Charles on Friday held telephone audiences with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and law enforcement officials during which he offered his “heartfelt thanks” to police and other emergency workers for their efforts to restore order and help those affected by the violence, Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

    “The king shared how he had been greatly encouraged by the many examples of community spirit that had countered the aggression and criminality from a few with the compassion and resilience of the many,” the palace said. “It remains his majesty’s hope that shared values of mutual respect and understanding will continue to strengthen and unite the nation.”

    British police remain on alert for further violence after the nation was convulsed by rioting for more than a week as crowds spouting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans attacked mosques, looted shops and clashed with police. The government described the violence as “far-right thuggery,” and mobilized 6,000 specially trained police officers to quell the unrest.

    The disturbances have been fueled by right-wing activists using social media to spread misinformation about the July 29 knife attack in which three girls between the ages of 6 and 9 were killed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in Southport, a seaside town north of Liverpool.

    Police detained a 17-year-old suspect. Rumors, later debunked, quickly circulated on social media that the suspect was an asylum-seeker, or a Muslim immigrant.

    On Saturday, the family of one of the Southport victims, Bebe King, 6, thanked their community, friends and even strangers who had offered the family solace in their grief.

    “The outpouring of love and support from our community and beyond has been a source of incredible comfort during this unimaginably difficult time,” they wrote. ”From the pink lights illuminating Sefton and Liverpool, to the pink bows, flowers, balloons, cards, and candles left in her memory, we have been overwhelmed by the kindness and compassion shown to our family.”

    The unrest has largely dissipated since Wednesday night, when a wave of expected far-right demonstrations failed to materialize after thousands of peaceful protesters flocked to locations around the U.K. to show their support for immigrants and asylum-seekers.

    Police had prepared for confrontations at more than 100 locations after right-wing groups circulated lists of potential targets on social media. While anti-racism groups planned counterprotests in response, in most places they reclaimed the streets with nothing to oppose.

    Starmer has insisted the police will remain on high alert this weekend, which marks the beginning of the professional soccer season. Authorities have been studying whether there is a link between the rioters and groups of “football hooligans” known to incite trouble at soccer matches.

    “My message to the police and all of those that are charged with responding to disorder is maintain that high alert,” Starmer said on Friday while visiting the special operations room of London’s Metropolitan Police Service.

    The National Police Chiefs’ Council said some 741 people have been arrested in connection with the violence, including 304 who have been charged with criminal offenses.

    Courts around the country have already begun hearing the cases of those charged in relation to the unrest, with some receiving sentences of three years in prison.

    Starmer has said he is convinced that the “swift justice that has been dispensed in our courts” will discourage rioters from returning to the streets this weekend.

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  • Nobel laureate Yunus arrives in Bangladesh to take over as interim leader

    Nobel laureate Yunus arrives in Bangladesh to take over as interim leader

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    DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh’s next leader Muhammad Yunus arrived home Thursday from an overseas trip and will take office later in the day, as he looks to restore calm and rebuild the country following an uprising that ended the 15-year, increasingly autocratic rule of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

    Yunus landed at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Thursday afternoon and was welcomed by the country’s military chief, Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, who was flanked by navy and air force heads.

    Some of the student leaders who led the uprising against Hasina were also present at the airport to welcome him. They had earlier proposed Yunus as interim leader to the country’s figurehead president, who is currently acting as the chief executive under the constitution.

    Security was tight at the airport to ensure Yunus’ safe arrival, as the country has experienced days of unrest following the downfall of Hasina on Monday. President Mohammed Shahabuddin will administer the oath-taking ceremony on Thursday night when Yunus is expected to announce his new Cabinet.

    Before leaving Paris, where he was attending the Olympics, Yunus appealed for calm in Bangladesh amid tensions over the country’s future.

    Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who acts as an adviser to his mother, vowed Wednesday that his family and the Awami League party would continue to be engaged in Bangladesh’s politics — a reversal from what he’d said earlier in the week after Hasina stepped down Monday and fled to India.

    Yunuswas named as interim leader following talks among military officials, civic leaders and the student activists who led the uprising against Hasina. Yunus made his first public comments in the French capital on Wednesday before boarding a plane to return home.

    Yunus congratulated the student protesters, saying they had made “our second Victory Day possible,” and he appealed to them and other stakeholders to remain peaceful, while condemning the violence that followed Hasina’s resignation.

    “Violence is our enemy. Please don’t create more enemies. Be calm and get ready to build the country,” Yunus said.

    Bangladesh’s military chief, Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman, said in a televised address on Wednesday that he expected Yunus to usher in a “beautiful democratic” process.

    Yunus, who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work developing microcredit markets, told reporters in Paris: “I’m looking forward to going back home and seeing what’s happening there, and how we can organize ourselves to get out of the trouble that we are in.″

    Asked when elections would be held, he put his hands up as if to indicate it was too early to say.

    “I’ll go and talk to them. I’m just fresh in this whole area,” he said.

    A tribunal in Dhaka earlier on Wednesday acquitted Yunus in a labor law violation case involving a telecommunication company he founded, in which he was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail. He had been released on bail in the case.

    The president had dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, clearing the path for an interim administration that is expected to schedule new elections.

    Yunus has been a longtime opponent of Hasina, who had called him a “bloodsucker” allegedly for using force to extract loan repayments from rural poor, mainly women. Yunus has denied the allegations.

    In a span of weeks since July 15, more than 300 people died in violence in Bangladesh. Rising tensions in the days surrounding Hasina’s resignation created chaos, with police leaving their posts after being attacked. Dozens of officers were killed, prompting police to stop working across the country. They threatened not to return unless their safety is ensured. The looting of firearms was also reported in local media.

    The chaos began in July with protests against a quota system for government jobs that critics said favored people with connections to Hasina’s party. But the demonstrations soon grew into a broader challenge to Hasina’s 15-year rule, which was marked by human rights abuses, corruption, allegations of rigged elections and a brutal crackdown on her opponents.

    Joy, Hasina’s son, said in a social media post on Wednesday that his family would return to politics and not give up following attacks on the Awami League party’s leaders and members. Many see Joy as Hasina’s successor in a dynastic political culture that dominates the South Asian nation’s politics.

    On Monday, Joy had said Hasina would not return to politics after she stepped down. But in a video message posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday, he urged party activists to rise up.

    “You are not alone. We are here. The family of Bangabandhu has not gone anywhere,” he said.

    Hasina’s father, independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is fondly referred to in Bangladesh as Bangabandhu, which means “friend of Bengal.”

    “If we want to build a new Bangladesh, it is not possible without the Awami League,” he said.

    “The Awami League is the oldest, democratic, and largest party in Bangladesh,” Joy added. “The Awami League has not died … It is not possible to eliminate the Awami League. We had said that our family would not engage in politics anymore. However, given the attacks on our leaders and activists, we cannot give up.”

    Overnight into Thursday, residents across Dhaka carried sticks, iron rods and sharp weapons to guard their neighborhoods amid reports of robberies. Communities used loudspeakers in mosques to alert people that robberies were occurring, as police remained off duty. The military shared hotline numbers for people seeking help.

    The quick move to select Yunus came when Hasina’s resignation created a power vacuum and left the future unclear for Bangladesh, which has a history of military rule, messy politics and myriad crises.

    Many fear that Hasina’s departure could trigger even more instability in the densely populated nation of some 170 million people, which is already dealing with high unemployment, corruption and a complex strategic relationship with India, China and the United States.

    Hasina, 76, was elected to a fourth consecutive term in January, in an election boycotted by her main opponents. Thousands of opposition members were jailed before the vote, and the U.S. and U.K. denounced the result as not credible.

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  • Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst has book out this fall on Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of Israel

    Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst has book out this fall on Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of Israel

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    NEW YORK (AP) — The chief foreign correspondent for Fox News, Trey Yingst, will have a book out this fall timed to the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.

    “Black Saturday” will be published Oct. 1 by Fox News Books, a HarperCollins imprint. According to the publisher, Yingst will offer “a vivid picture of horrors and violence, matched by acts of courage and humanity that cut through the darkness on the morning of October 7th.”

    Yingst said in a statement Tuesday that he and his colleagues “arrived in southern Israel on the morning of October 7th as the massacre was unfolding.”

    “‘Black Saturday’ plunges the reader into that day while exposing the realities of war told by Israelis and Palestinians,” he added.

    Yingst, 30, has covered conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East since joining Fox in 2018. He received widespread attention for his reporting on Oct. 7, during which a Hamas rocket landed 100 feet (30 meters) from him.

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  • UK government calls on Elon Musk to act responsibly amid provocative posts as unrest grips country

    UK government calls on Elon Musk to act responsibly amid provocative posts as unrest grips country

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    LONDON — The British government has called on Elon Musk to act responsibly after the tech billionaire used his social media platform X to unleash a barrage of posts that officials say risk inflaming the violent unrest gripping the country.

    Justice Minister Heidi Alexander made the comments Tuesday morning after Musk posted a comment saying that “Civil war is inevitable” in the U.K. Musk later doubled down, highlighting complaints that the British criminal justice system treats Muslims more leniently than far-right activists and comparing Britain’s crackdown on social media users to the Soviet Union.

    “Use of language such as a ‘civil war’ is in no way acceptable,’’ Alexander told Times Radio. “We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, and so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly.’’

    Britain has been shaken by violence for more than a week, as police clashed with crowds spouting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans in cities and towns from Northern Ireland to the south coast of England. The unrest began after right-wing activists used social media to spread misinformation about a knife attack that killed three girls during a Taylor Swift-themed dance event on July 29.

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has described the riots as “far-right thuggery,” said after an emergency meeting with law enforcement officials and government ministers Tuesday that perpetrators will swiftly be punished.

    More than 400 people have been arrested due to violence in more than two dozen towns and cities and about 100 have been charged, after Starmer announced plans to ramp up the criminal justice system.

    An 18-year-old man who trashed police cars in Bolton, in northern England, on Sunday was believed to be the first person sentenced in the unrest. James Nelson got a two-month prison term Tuesday after pleading guilty in Manchester Magistrates’ Court to criminal damage, police said.

    “That should send a very powerful message to anybody involved, either directly or online, that you are likely to be dealt with within a week and that nobody, but nobody, should be involving themselves in this disorder,” Starmer said.

    Starmer deflected questions from reporters about Musk, saying his focus was on keeping communities safe.

    The government is calling on social media companies, such as Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, to do more to combat the spread of misleading and inflammatory information online.

    Alexander said Tuesday that the government would look at strengthening the existing Online Safety Act, which was approved last year and won’t be fully implemented until 2025.

    “We’ve been working with the social media companies, and some of the action that they’ve taken already with the automatic removal of some false information is to be welcomed,” Alexander told the BBC. “But there is undoubtedly more that the social media companies could and should be doing.”

    That type of rhetoric may be part of what sparked Musk’s attack on the government. Musk has taken a more combative approach to his critics than was the norm in Silicon Valley technology firms, said Alex Krasodomski, who studies the intersection between technology and politics at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.

    “He has sparred with U.K. and EU policymakers in the past when they have questioned his approaches to content moderation on the platform,” Krasodomski said.

    X didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. It rarely responds to media requests.

    Musk just kept wading into the debate about the violence in Britain.

    After Starmer posted a comment on X saying that the government “will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities,” Musk responded with the question, “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on (asterisk)all(asterisk) communities?”

    Musk attached a similar comment to a video that said it showed a “Muslim patrol” attacking a pub in Birmingham, highlighting the original post for his 193 million followers.

    Such comments are vintage Musk, who has a history of making provocative statements, said Stephanie Alice Baker, a sociologist at City University of London who has studied online discourse. Musk frequently comments on geopolitical issues and his fans come to his defense when he is criticized, Baker said.

    Earlier this year, he clashed with a Brazilian supreme court justice over free speech, far-right accounts and purported misinformation on X. He also accused Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, of “major election fraud” after last week’s disputed election.

    Those comments are closely watched by a group of people attracted by his success in business, Baker said.

    “Musk’s following represents the cult of the entrepreneur …” she said. “By questioning convention, they are depicted as gifted visionaries, who can predict the future and bring it into being. For his fans and followers, Musk’s impulsive comments are perceived as part of his genius.”

    —-

    Associated Press writer Brian Melley contributed.

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  • Bangladesh’s president dissolves Parliament, clearing the way for elections to replace ousted leader

    Bangladesh’s president dissolves Parliament, clearing the way for elections to replace ousted leader

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    DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh’s president dissolved Parliament Tuesday, clearing the way for new elections to replace the longtime prime minister who resigned and fled the country following weeks of demonstrations against her rule that descended into violence.

    President Mohammed Shahabuddin also ordered the release of opposition leader Khaleda Zia from house arrest. Zia, a longtime rival of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was convicted on corruption charges by Hasina’s government in 2018.

    On Tuesday, some senior positions in the military were reshuffled. The student protesters said they would not allow any military-backed government.

    The streets of Dhaka, the capital, appeared calmer Tuesday, with no reports of new violence as jubilant protesters thronged the ousted leader’s residence. Some posed for selfies with soldiers guarding the building, where a day earlier angry protesters had looted furniture, paintings, flowerpots and chickens.

    Dhaka’s main airport resumed operations after an eight-hour suspension.

    The Bangladesh Police Association said it was launching a strike across the country because of a lack of security after numerous police stations were attacked on Monday and “many” officers were killed, though it didn’t give any number of the dead.

    It said officers would not return to work unless their safety is assured. The association also apologized for violent police attacks on student protesters, saying officers had been “forced to open fire” and had been cast as the “villain.”

    As the country waited for a new government to emerge, a key student leader said protesters wanted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus to head an interim government. Yunus — who is currently in Paris for the Olympics — called Hasina’s resignation the country’s “second liberation day.” He could not immediately be reached for comment, but a key organizer of the protests, Nahid Islam, said Yunus had agreed.

    Islam said protesters would propose more names for the Cabinet and suggested that it would be difficult for those in power to ignore their wishes.

    Hasina fled to India by helicopter on Monday as protesters defied military curfew orders to march on the capital, with thousands of demonstrators eventually storming her official residence and other buildings associated with her party and family.

    Protests against a quota system for government jobs, which critics said favored people with connections to her party, grew into a broader challenge to her 15-year rule, which was marked by human rights abuses, corruption and allegations of rigged elections amid a brutal crackdown on her opponents.

    A bloody crackdown on the demonstrations led to clashes that left scores dead, further fueling the movement.

    Military chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman said he was taking temporary control of the country after Hasina resigned, and he and the country’s figurehead president promised an interim government would be formed soon to preside over new elections.

    But the chaos left in the wake of Hasina’s ouster has created a power vacuum and it is unclear what it would mean for the South Asian nation with a history of military rule and messy politics which in the past has pushed the country into many crises.

    The military wields significant political influence in Bangladesh, which has faced more than 20 coups or coup attempts since its independence from Pakistan in 1971.

    It was not clear if Hasina’s resignation or the military chief’s calls for calm would be enough to end the turmoil, and whether the army would have any role in the interim government or if it would try to influence it from outside. The student protesters have warned that they would not allow any military-backed government.

    Zaman said the military would investigate all the killings and punish those responsible, giving in to the weekslong demand of the protesters.

    Earlier Tuesday, protest leader Sarjis Alam told reporters that they had asked the president to dissolve Parliament by 3 p.m., and threatened to renew their demonstrations otherwise as they seek to “repair the state.”

    “We have proposed the name of Muhammad Yunus with his consent. Now if someone else comes from among the MPs, we will not allow that to happen,” he said.

    Yunus, a longtime opponent of the ousted leader, was accused of corruption by her government and tried on charges he said were motivated by vengeance. He received the Nobel Prize in 2006 for work pioneering microlending.

    Amidst the celebrations, student Juairia Karim said it was a historic day. “Today we are getting what we deserve,” she said. “Everyone is happy, everyone is cheerful.”

    But the country was still counting the toll of weeks of violence that produced some of its worst bloodshed since its 1971 war of independence. Many fear that Hasina’s departure could lead to even more instability in the densely populated nation, which is already dealing with high unemployment, corruption and climate change.

    Violence just before and after Hasina’s resignation left at least 109 people dead, including 14 police officers, and hundreds of others injured, according to media reports which could not be independently confirmed.

    In the southwestern district of Satkhira, 596 prisoners and detainees escaped from a jail after an attack on the facility Monday evening, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported, as police stations and security officials were attacked across the country.

    Many police in Dhaka assembled in a central barracks in fear of attacks after several stations were burned or vandalized.

    There are growing fears among the country’s Hindu minority, which has been targeted in the past during political unrest and which has long been seen as pro-Hasina, that they could again face attacks. Local reports of violence against Hindu leaders and other minorities could not be confirmed.

    “Hindus are very afraid,” Charu Chandra Das Brahmachari, leader of the Bangladesh branch of a Hindu movement, told the IANS news service. “Hindus are very afraid that they could be attacked anytime. This is because whenever the government falls, minorities are affected.”

    The EU ambassador to Bangladesh, Charles Whitley, said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that European diplomats were “very concerned” about reports of anti-minority violence.

    Opposition politicians have publicly called on people not to attack minority groups, while student leaders asked supporters to guard Hindu temples and other places of worship.

    The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Tuesday urged people to exercise restraint in what it said was a “transitional moment on our democratic path.”

    “It would defeat the spirit of the revolution that toppled the illegitimate and autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina if people decide to take the law into their own hands without due process,” Tarique Rahman, the party’s acting chairman, wrote on the social media platform X.

    In a statement Monday, the United Nation’s human rights chief, Volker Türk, said the transition of power in Bangladesh must be “in line with the country’s international obligations” and “inclusive and open to the meaningful participation of all Bangladeshis.”

    The students said they hoped to fix the country.

    “I think the next leader of the country should learn from the students that if anyone becomes corrupt, a traitor, or takes any action against the country, they will face the same fate,” said Mohammad Jahirul Islam, a student in Dhaka.

    Hasina, 76, was elected to a fourth consecutive term in January polls that were boycotted by her main opponents. Thousands of opposition members were jailed before the voting, and the U.S. and the U.K. denounced the result as not credible, though the government defended it.

    Hasina landed at a military airfield near New Delhi on Monday after leaving Dhaka and met Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, the Indian Express newspaper reported. It said Hasina was taken to a safe house and planned to travel to the United Kingdom.

    Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar confirmed her presence in the country but did not indicate whether she intends to stay.

    He told Parliament that Hasina “at very short notice requested approval to come for the moment to India.”

    The U.S. issued a new travel advisory for Bangladesh on Tuesday, asking its citizens not to travel to the country “due to civil unrest, crime, and terrorism.”

    ___

    Saaliq reported from New Delhi, India.

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  • Pelosi warns in her new book that political threats and violence ‘must stop’

    Pelosi warns in her new book that political threats and violence ‘must stop’

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    WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Nancy Pelosi thought briefly she might have died on Jan. 6, 2021.

    Not quite two years later, the threat of political violence would come for her husband at their home.

    “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?”

    That was the chilling question the intruder posed to Paul Pelosi before bludgeoning the then-82-year-old over the head with a hammer in their San Francisco house. It echoed the menacing jeers of the rioters roaming the halls of the Capitol calling out “Nancy, Nancy” on Jan. 6.

    The through line of escalating political rhetoric and violence in American public life serves as the opening and closing message of Pelosi’s new book, “The Art of Power, My Story as America’s First Woman Speaker of the House.”

    Pelosi recounts her nearly four-decade legislative record in Congress but also allows a rare public glimpse into the private devastation around the assault on her husband. With it, she delivers a grave warning that the casual mockery and mimicry of political violence in America is chasing a generation from public service.

    “The current climate of threats and attacks must stop,” Pelosi writes.

    “We cannot ask people to serve in public life if the cost is risking the safety of their families and those they love.”

    Pelosi’s book pages through familiar terrain for those who have followed the 84-year-old’s career, rising from “housewife to House member to House speaker.” The steely California Democrat, the speaker emerita, is no longer in leadership but running for reelection to the House this fall.

    She twice won the speakers gavel, worked alongside seven presidents and, more recently, played a pivotal role in quietly convincing President Joe Biden to reassess his decision to remain in the 2024 presidential election rematch with Republican Donald Trump. Biden bowed out.

    But it’s the first and final chapters that bring a new element to the Pelosi era, detailing in personal and painstaking ways the toll that America’s violent strain is taking on civic life and public service.

    “I don’t know that we will ever feel safe,” she writes.

    Written well before the July assassination attempt on Trump, Pelosi’s assessment of the nation’s dangerous discourse arrives after back-to-back congressional shootings of Republican Rep. Steve Scalise and earlier of Democratic former Rep. Gabby Giffords, and it serves as a walk-off warning in what could be among her final years in Congress.

    Pelosi recounts her disbelief at being “pulled off the Speaker’s platform” and out of the House chamber by security the afternoon of Jan. 6 as rioters sent by Trump stormed through the halls, some searching for her.

    “I can handle it,” she protested, telling U.S. Capitol Police she wanted to stay and finish the work as Congress was certifying the 2020 election.

    “Their response was curt,” she writes. “’No, you can’t.’”

    After being whisked away to safety at Fort McNair, she writes about huddling with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, the three of them desperately calling the Pentagon to send National Guard troops to restore order at the Capitol. She describes House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Trump loyalist, as almost entirely unseen.

    So worried about the rioters’ threats against Vice President Mike Pence in hiding at the Capitol, she called and told him, “Don’t let anybody know where you are.”

    “It still took three hours from the time I was dragged out of the House chamber for the Guard to arrive at the Capitol complex,” she writes. “It took about three and a half hours to clear the rioters from the building.”

    Later, surveying the wreckage of broken glass and splintered wood, she was told of blood outside the Speaker’s Lobby. In some places, including her office, the mob had “literally defecated on the floors and rugs,” she wrote. “What was left behind was pure destruction.”

    She recalled being in war zones, and in Kyiv at the start of the Russian invasion thinking she may well die in Ukraine. “I briefly thought the same on January 6,” she wrote.

    “When I became Speaker, I knew that I was making myself into a target,” she writes. “However, our accepting the risk is something that is fundamentally different for our families.”

    Not quite two years later, she was awakened in the middle of the night by the “Knock. Knock. Knock. Pound, Pound. Pound,” of the Capitol Police security detail at her door in Washington.

    “The officers’ expressions were grim,” she writes.

    “It’s Mr. Pelosi. He’s been attacked in your home.”

    “Is he okay?”

    “We don’t know.”

    “Is he alive?”

    “We don’t know.”

    Pelosi recounts the dizzying hours, frantic family phone calls and flight back to San Francisco, the hospital, the surgeries and the long recovery for her husband. Their youngest daughter said he looked like a bandaged-up Frankenstein.

    Her son, Paul Jr., went to the family’s home to vacuum up the broken glass and clean up the blood. Her daughter Alexandra, who had been a high schooler when Pelosi first ran for Congress, told her, had she known what they were signing up for she would “never have given you my blessing.”

    The attacker was tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. But Pelosi writes, the story of Paul’s attack would not go away.

    “Our home remains a heartbreaking crime scene,” she wrote.

    Pelosi said her children told her that for a long time Paul would only sleep in the bedroom when she was there. He still suffers from headaches and dizzy spells, and she said she has seen him faint and fall twice from vertigo. As of February, she wrote, she was still changing bandages from surgery on his arm.

    But the “true horror” she writes was the dehumanizing jokes by Republicans from Trump on down, including the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., who posted a Paul Pelosi Halloween costume to social media, and the way the crowds would “laugh, cheer, and applaud” their cruel remarks.

    “It made me profoundly sad for our country,” she writes.

    Pelosi situates the two bloody episodes in the arc of her career, from the way Republicans vilified her in countless campaign ads from the time she first rose as Democratic leader to the way protesters spit on Democrats, including civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, the day the House voted for the Affordable Care Act, to the severed pig’s head left outside her family’s home in the days before Jan. 6.

    Pelosi writes that when she speaks to young people about running for office, “especially young women, too often I hear their reluctance to put their families in harm’s way.”

    “This is not the way our country should be — if you engage in public service, you should not be a target, and your family should not be a target.”

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  • UK leader Starmer condemns attack on asylum-seeker hotel as far-right violence spreads

    UK leader Starmer condemns attack on asylum-seeker hotel as far-right violence spreads

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    LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer strongly condemned an attack Sunday on a hotel housing asylum seekers that saw at least 10 police officers injured, one seriously, describing it as “far-right thuggery,” as more violence broke out across the country in the wake of a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and many more wounded.

    In a statement from 10 Downing Street on Sunday afternoon, the prime minister vowed that the authorities will “do whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice” and that justice will be swift.

    “I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves,” he said. “This is not a protest, it is organized, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets or online.”

    Starmer was speaking after another day of far-right violence, which was particularly acute in the north of England town of Rotherham where police struggled to hold back hundreds of rioters who sought to break into a Holiday Inn Express hotel being used as accommodation for asylum-seekers.

    Before bringing the riot under some sort of control, police officers with shields had faced a barrage of missiles, including bits of wood, chairs and fire extinguishers. A large bin close to a window of the hotel was also set alight but the small fire was extinguished.

    South Yorkshire Police, which is responsible for Rotherham, said at least 10 officers have been injured, including one who was left unconscious.

    “The behaviour we witnessed has been nothing short of disgusting. While it was a smaller number of those in attendance who chose to commit violence and destruction, those who simply stood on and watched remain absolutely complicit in this,” said Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield. “We have officers working hard, reviewing the considerable online imagery and footage of those involved, and they should expect us to be at their doors very soon.”

    Far-right agitators have sought to take advantage of last week’s stabbing attack by tapping into concerns about the scale of immigration in the U.K., in particular the tens of thousands of migrants arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel.

    Tensions were also running high Sunday in the northeastern town of Middlesbrough, where some protesters broke free of a police guard. One group walked through a residential area smashing the windows of houses and cars. When asked by a resident why they were breaking windows, one man replied, “Because we’re English.” Hundreds of others squared up to police with shields at the town’s cenotaph, throwing bricks, cans and pots at officers.

    Starmer said anyone targeting people for the color of their skin or their faith is far-right.

    “People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric, so no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery,” he said.

    The violence over the past days, which has seen a library torched, mosques attacked and flares thrown at a statue of wartime leader Winston Churchill, began after false rumors spread online that the suspect in the dance class stabbing attack was an asylum-seeker, fueling anger among far-right supporters.

    Suspects under 18 are usually not named in the U.K., but the judge in the case ordered Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales to Rwandan parents, to be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation. Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder, and 10 counts of attempted murder.

    Hundreds of people have been arrested in connection with the disorder and many more are likely as police scour CCTV, social media and body-worn camera footage. However, police have also warned that with widespread security measures in place, with thousands of officers deployed, other crimes may not be investigated fully.

    With so many arrests, the courts will face a challenge in processing all the charges at a time when the criminal justice system is overstretched, following years of austerity and the COVID pandemic. In May, the National Audit Office warned that the courts faced a backlog of more than 60,000 cases, while the government said last month that thousands of inmates would have to be released early to ease prison overcrowding.

    Stephen Parkinson, director of public prosecutions for England and Wales, said extra lawyers have been deployed over the weekend and will work “around the clock” over coming days to ensure justice is served. He said he has directed prosecutors to make immediate charging decisions where key evidence is in place.

    “I am determined that we will act swiftly and robustly, giving the courts maximum ability to pass sentences that reflect what has occurred,” he said.

    Many of the demonstrations over the past week were organized online by far-right groups, who mobilize support with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.”

    Rallying cries have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson. He led the English Defense League, which Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, near the scene of the stabbing attack.

    Yaxley-Lennon, 41, was banned from Twitter in 2018 but allowed back after it was bought by Elon Musk and rebranded as X. He has more than 800,000 followers. He currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the U.K. last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him.

    Nigel Farage, who was elected to parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform U.K., has also been blamed by many for encouraging — indirectly — the anti-immigration sentiment. He has sought to link many of the problems the country faces, such as in health and housing, on the big annual increases in the country’s population.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

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