Category: 2. World

Key Facts

Violent Crime Fell To A 30-Year Low In D.c. Last Year—and Rates Are Lower In 2025

Violent crime rates in Washington, D.C., dropped 35% from 2023 to 2024, marking the lowest rates recorded in more than 30 years, according to the Justice Department. According to data released Aug. 8 by the Metropolitan Police Department, violent crime rates have continued to fall in 2025, with violent crime down 26% year-over-year. The MPD said homicide rates have dropped 12% on the year so far, sex abuse by 49%, assault with a dangerous weapon by 20% and robbery by 28%. Property crime rates have also fallen, including burglary (19%), theft from vehicles (4%) and other theft crimes (6%). However, Trump continued to insist Sunday that the crime numbers keep rising. “The Mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, is a good person who has tried, but she has been given many chances, and the Crime Numbers get worse, and the City only gets dirtier and less attractive,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “The American Public is not going to put up with it any longer.”

Why Does Trump Want A Federal Takeover Of D.c.?

Trump previously called for the federal government to take control of Washington, D.C., by falsely claiming violent crime rates were rising in the city. His latest calls follow an attack on a high-ranking member of the Department of Government Efficiency, as Trump wrote on Truth Social that crime in D.C. was “out of control” and the federal government would “put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.” MPD said two 15-year-old suspects were arrested and charged with unarmed carjacking, after Edward Coristine was assaulted in the early morning of Aug. 3. Bowser said that although the incident was unfortunate, crime in the city was already trending lower for the month. “We had one of the lowest crime levels in shootings in a July in recent history,” the mayor said, later adding that carjackings fell 50% after spiking in 2023, and are still falling this year.

Will Trump Deploy The National Guard To D.c.?

It’s not immediately clear whether Trump would bring in the National Guard, though the White House said in a statement that agents from some law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, immigration police and a dozen other offices were deployed early Friday. It’s not immediately clear where or how many agents were deployed, though the White House said deployment was focused on “high traffic areas and other known hotspots.” Officials will be “identified, in marked units, and highly visible.” Bowser said she was concerned that deploying the National Guard would not be the most “efficient” use of their time, explaining Sunday “they’re not law enforcement officials. These are men and women who leave their families to serve our country, and that is just not their primary role—to enforce local laws.” Earlier this year, Trump deployed about 4,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles in response to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

Could Trump Order A Federal Takeover Of D.c.?

Trump could lobby support for federal control of Washington, D.C., though doing so would require approval from Congress, which would need to vote to repeal the 1973 Home Rule Act. The law established a legal framework for city residents to elect local officials, including a mayor and city council, to manage city business. A bill to repeal the Home Rule Act was introduced by Rep. Andrew Ogles, R-Tenn., in February, though the legislation has yet to move forward. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., told Fox News she would “totally” support Trump if he sought a federal takeover, adding, “If that’s what we need to do to get it done, that’s what he should do.” Trump has said he would support a federal takeover of the MPD, falsely claiming the crime rate in the city was “ridiculous,” though legal experts have said this would likely be challenged in court. On Sunday, Bowser said that the president could only take over the MPD if specific conditions were met. “None of those conditions exist in our city right now. As I mentioned, we are not experiencing a spike in crime, in fact, we’re watching our crime numbers go down.”

Key Background

Trump proposed the federal government’s takeover of Washington, D.C., multiple times during his presidential campaign last year. He met with Mayor Muriel Bowser at his Mar-a-Lago property in December, during which Bowser said the pair discussed “shared priorities.” Bowser has not directly addressed Trump’s false claims of violent crime rates rising in the city, though she said in February that Washington, D.C. was a “world-class city” and noted the city holds a AAA bond rating from Moody’s and that violent crime was at a 30-year low. Bowser and Trump previously clashed in 2020, when Trump deployed the National Guard to the city as protests enveloped the city and others in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

Are Federal Law Enforcement Agents Already Operating In D.c.?

About 450 federal law enforcement agents were already deployed in D.C. and making arrests, FOX 5 DC reported. Law enforcement has not released official numbers for arrests. However, they reportedly include an individual detained for carrying a handgun without a license, a person driving on a suspended license and people riding dirt bikes in a park. Three guns were seized, including one that was stolen. “We are not experiencing a crime spike. We do know that this task force has been focused on quality of life issues,” Bowser said Sunday. After reviewing the reported arrests, the mayor said “that sounds like a typical MPD rundown of arrests that I review on a daily basis.”

Further Reading

ForbesTrump Says Federal Government Should ‘Take Over’ And Run Washington, D.C.By Siladitya Ray

Iran won’t allow nuclear site inspections when a senior International Atomic Energy Agency official visits Tehran on Monday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.

“Until we reach a new agreement framework, no cooperation will begin” with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, he said in televised remarks. Araghchi didn’t identify the IAEA deputy director general who he said will be visiting.

Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his plan to take control of Gaza City in the face of widespread international outrage, even as senior UN officials warned that the move risked unleashing “another calamity” on a territory already experiencing “starvation, pure and simple”.

In a rare press conference with foreign journalists in Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister said the plan, signed off last week by the security cabinet to criticism both at home and abroad, was “the best way to end the war and the best way to end it speedily.”

But during an emergency weekend session of the UN security council in New York, there were repeated warnings that rather than end the 22-month war, the move would exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation.

“If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings, and destruction,” said UN assistant secretary general, Miroslav Jenca.

Amid the heated rhetoric, Gaza’s health ministry said that five more people, including two children, had died of malnutrition-related causes, bringing the number of children who have died from such causes to 100. Including adults, the total death toll from malnutrition stands at 217, the ministry says.

Ramesh Rajasingham, Ocha’s coordination director, told the security council meeting: “This is no longer a looming hunger crisis – this is starvation, pure and simple.”

Israel has imposed a blockade and restrictions on aid entering the territory, but in his press conference Netanyahu said it was “completely false” that his government was pursuing a “starvation policy”. He acknowledged hunger, and problems with the food distribution system run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), but accused the media of “lies” about the scale of the problem.

A few hours before he spoke, at least 26 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid in Gaza, hospitals and witnesses said. They included 15 killed while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly built Morag corridor that separates the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital.

A further six were killed while waiting for aid in northern Gaza near the Zikim crossing, according to Gaza’s health ministry and Shifa hospital in Gaza City.

According to the UN, more than 1,370 Palestinians have been killed since 27 May while seeking food. Netanyahu did not take responsibility for the killings and said, without providing evidence, that “a lot of the firing was done by Hamas”. The Israeli military has repeatedly claimed Hamas is stealing aid, despite the European Commission finding no reports of this.

Except on organised and controlled “embeds” of a few hours alongside Israeli soldiers, international journalists have not been allowed into Gaza since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and more than 250 people were taken hostage.

Families of the remaining hostages have also criticised the plan, and many were among tens of thousands of people who marched on Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv on Saturday. The plan has also opened a rift between Netanyahu and the IDF leadership, but has not been opposed by the Trump administration, Israel’s most important backer.

Israel says Gaza City and nearby areas are home to two remaining Hamas strongholds.

“We have about 70 to 75% of Gaza under Israeli control, military control. But we have two remaining strongholds. These are Gaza City and the central camps in Al Mawasi,” Netanyahu told reporters.

“Given Hamas’s refusal to lay down its arms, Israel has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas”, Netanyahu said, adding he expected the operation to begin “fairly quickly”.

Hamas says it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established.

Netanyahu pushed back against what he called a “global campaign of lies”. “We will win the war, with or without the support of others,” he added.

Britain, a close ally of Israel which nonetheless pushed along with others for the emergency meeting, warned in New York that Netanyahu’s plan risked prolonging the conflict.

“It will only deepen the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This is not a path to resolution. It is a path to more bloodshed,” said British deputy ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki.

Algeria’s ambassador, Amar Bendjama, called for sanctions on Israel in response to its Gaza City plan. “The hour has come to impose sanctions on the enemy of humanity,” he said. The Palestinian envoy, Riyad Mansour, said: “If it was another country, you would have been imposing sanctions a long time ago.”

However, the US, a veto-wielding permanent member of the security council, offered support for Israel and accused those nations who supported Sunday’s meeting of “actively prolonging the war by spreading lies about Israel”.

“Israel has a right to decide what is necessary for its security and what measure measures are appropriate to end the threat posed by Hamas,” said the US envoy to the UN, Dorothy Shea.

Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, most of them civilians. The figure does not include the thousands believed to be buried under rubble or the thousands killed indirectly as a consequence of the war.

Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Jonathan Miller, said: “Pressure should not be placed on Israel, who suffered the most horrific attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, but on Hamas.”

A 6.1-magnitude quake struck Sindirgi in western Turkiye on Sunday, the Turkish disaster management agency (AFAD) said.

The quake was felt across several cities in the west of the country, including Istanbul and the tourist hotspot of Izmir, said officials, who are yet to comment on any potential damages or deaths.

Several buildings collapsed in the Balikesir province after the quake, according to images broadcast by Turkish media.

The quake hit at 7:53 pm (9:53pm PKT), with a 4.6-magnitude aftershock following several minutes later, according to AFAD.

The quake was also registered by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which recorded the quake and the aftershock at a depth of 10 kilometres.

“All AFAD teams and the relevant institutions have immediately begun searches on the ground. No undesirable event has been flagged up till now,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X.

Turkey is crisscrossed by several geological fault lines, which have previously caused catastrophes in the country.

A quake in February 2023 in the southwest killed at least 53,000 people and devastated Antakya, the site of the ancient city of Antioch.

More recently, a 5.8-magnitude tremor in the same region resulted in one death and injured 69 people at the beginning of July.

At least 26 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid in the Gaza Strip, hospitals and witnesses said, as families of Israeli hostages called for a general strike to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to expand military operations in the territory.

Mr. Netanyahu on Sunday (August 10, 2025) sought to defend a new military offensive in one of Gaza‘s most populated areas amid growing condemnation at home and abroad, declaring that Israel “has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas.”

He spoke to foreign media minutes before an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Gaza. Notably, Mr. Netanyahu said he has directed Israel’s military in recent days to “bring in more foreign journalists” — which would be a striking development, as they haven’t been allowed into Gaza beyond military embeds during 22 months of war.

“Our goal is not to occupy Gaza, our goal is to free Gaza,” Mr. Netanyahu asserted. He also pushed back against what he called a “global campaign of lies” — and said Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, one of Israel’s strongest backers, had “buckled under” by announcing that Germany won’t authorize exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza until further notice.

Mr. Netanyahu said there is a “fairly short timetable” in mind for next steps in Gaza, but didn’t give specifics.

The Prime Minister, who has asserted that there is “no starvation in Gaza,” did acknowledge hunger there, saying, “there was a problem with deprivation, no question about it”. Israel wants to increase the number of aid distribution sites, he said, but gave no details.

Hospital officials said they received bodies from areas where Palestinians were seeking aid — either along food convoy routes or near privately run aid distribution points across Gaza.

The dead include 10 who were killed while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly built Morag corridor which separates the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, said Nasser hospital.

A further six persons were killed while waiting for aid in northern Gaza near the Zikim crossing, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the Shifa hospital in Gaza City which received the casualties.

In central Gaza, witnesses said they first heard warning shots before the fire was aimed toward crowds of aid seekers trying to reach a food distribution site operated by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. AP cannot independently confirm who fired the shots. The Awda hospital in the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp said four people were killed by Israeli gunfire.

“First, it was in the air, then they started to fire at the people,” said Sayed Awda, who waited hundreds of meters (yards) from the GHF site in the area.

Six other aid seekers were killed while trying to reach GHF sites in Khan Younis and Rafah, Nasser hospital said.

The U.S. and Israel backed the foundation months ago as an alternative to the U.N.-run aid system, but its early operations have been marred by deaths and chaos, with aid-seekers coming under gunfire near the routes leading to the sites.

Responding to Associated Press inquiries, the GHF media office said, “There were no incidents at or near our sites today and these incidents appear to be linked to crowds trying to loot aid convoy.”

Israel’s military also said there were no incidents involving Israeli troops near central Gaza aid sites.

Seven people were killed in airstrikes, local hospitals reported — three people near the fishermen’s port in Gaza City and four people, two of them children, in a strike that hit a tent in Khan Younis. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strikes but has accused Hamas of operating from civilian areas.

Hunger deaths mount, toll among children hits 100

Israel’s air and ground offensive has displaced most of the population and pushed the territory toward famine. Two more Palestinian children died of malnutrition-related causes on Saturday (August 9, 2025), bringing the death toll among children in Gaza to 100 since the war began.

A total of 117 adults have died of malnutrition-related causes since late June when the ministry started to count this age category, it said.

The toll from hunger isn’t included in the ministry’s death toll of 61,400 Palestinians in the war. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, doesn’t distinguish between fighters or civilians, but says around half of the dead have been women and children.

The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties.

Labour strike urged in Israel over looming Gaza City offensive

The prospect of expanding the war has sparked outrage both internationally and within Israel, where bereaved families and relatives of hostages still held in Gaza urged companies to declare a general strike next week.

Tens of thousands of Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday (August 9, 2025) night in what local media called one of the largest anti-government protests in recent months.

The families and their supporters hope to pressure the government to reverse its decision to take over Gaza City, warning that expanding the war will endanger their loved ones.

Of the 251 people abducted when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, killing about 1,200, around 50 remain in Gaza, with 20 Israel believed to be alive.

Lishay Miran-Lavi, whose husband Omri is among the hostages, also appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff to halt the war.

“The decision to send the army deeper into Gaza is a danger to my husband, Omri. But we can still stop this disaster,” she said.

Also, on Sunday (August 10, 2025), Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz toured the northern part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He said Israel’s military would remain in the area’s refugee camps at least until the end of the year.

Approximately 40,000 Palestinians have been driven from their homes this year in the West Bank’s largest displacement since Israel captured the territory in 1967. Israel says the operations are needed to stamp out militancy, as violence by all sides has surged since Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023, attack ignited war in Gaza.

Mr. Katz on Sunday (August 10, 2025) said the number of warnings about attacks against Israelis in the West Bank had decreased by 80% since the operation began in January.