At least two children were killed and more than a dozen others injured in a mass shooting at a Catholic school in the US city of Minneapolis. A church service was underway when police say a shooter began firing through the windows.
Published On 27 Aug 202527 Aug 2025
Bringing prominent White House support to the streets of Washington, DC, US Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have visited with National Guard troops at the city’s main train station.
“We brought some law and order back,” the vice president asserted as protesters chanted “free DC” during the latest tense interlude from President Donald Trump’s crackdown in the nation’s capital on Wednesday.
“We appreciate everything you’re doing,” Vance said as he presented burgers to the troops. Citing the protesters whose shouts echoed through the station, Vance said, “They appear to hate the idea that Americans can enjoy their communities.”
Vance’s and Hegseth’s appearance, which also included White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, was a striking scene that illustrated the Republican administration’s intense focus on the situation in Washington and its willingness to promote an initiative that has polarised the Democratic-led city.
On August 8, federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), began patrolling parts of Washington, DC. Days later, on August 11, President Trump declared a “crime emergency” under Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which temporarily placed the city’s Metropolitan Police under federal authority.
An estimated 1,900 troops are being deployed in DC. More than half are coming from Republican-led states. Besides Union Station, they’ve mostly been spotted around downtown areas, including the National Mall and DC Metro stops.
The intersection of life in the city and a military presence produced another striking scene early on Wednesday when an armoured vehicle collided with a civilian car less than a mile (1.6km) from the US Capitol. One person was trapped inside the car after the accident and had to be extricated by emergency responders, according to DC Fire Department spokesman Vito Maggiolo. The person was transported to a hospital with minor injuries.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. A video posted online showed the aftermath of the collision, with a tan-coloured armoured vehicle twice the height of a civilian car with a crushed side.
“You come to our city and this is what you do? Seriously?” a woman yelled at the troops in the video.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi said more than 550 people have been arrested so far, and the US Marshals Service is offering $500 rewards for information leading to additional arrests. “Together, we will make DC safe again!” Bondi wrote on social media.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, trying to balance the constituency that elected her and the reality in front of her, acknowledged the changing situation in the city as she attended a back-to-school event with teachers and staff.
“This is not the same time, is it, that we experienced in opening school last year,” she said. Bowser said she would focus on the politics and told school employees that “your job is to love on the kids, teach them and make sure that they are prepared and to trust that I’m going to do the right thing for all of us”.
Despite the militarised backdrop, Bowser said it’s important that children “have joy when they approach this school year”. Public schools around Washington reconvene Monday for the fall semester.
The city’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) arrested an average of 61 adults and juveniles per day in 2024, according to city statistics. The Trump administration has not specified whether the arrest totals it has cited include those made by MPD officers or only consist of those made by federal agents.
DC crime rates have remained largely unchanged from a year ago, according to the police department’s weekly statistics.
As of Tuesday, the city’s overall crime rate is down 7 percent year over year, the same percentage as before the crackdown. DC has also experienced the same declines in violent crime and property crime as it did beforehand, according to the data.
Trump has defended his decision to deploy soldiers in the US capital as necessary to stem a wave of violent crime. City officials have rejected that assertion, pointing to federal and city statistics that show violent crime has declined significantly since a spike in 2023.
The president has said, without providing evidence, that the crime data is fraudulent. The US Department of Justice has opened an investigation into whether the numbers were manipulated, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
The White House has touted the number of guns that law enforcement has seized since Trump began surging federal agents into the city. In a social media post on Wednesday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said the operation had taken 76 illegal guns off the streets, along with the more than 500 arrests.
However, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday that federal prosecutors in DC will no longer seek charges against people who violate a local law prohibiting individuals from carrying rifles or shotguns in the nation’s capital.
The decision, which represents a break from the office’s prior policy, comes amid what Trump has described as a crime crackdown in Washington.
The president has deployed hundreds of National Guard troops and federal agents to the city’s streets to combat what he says is rampant crime, in an extraordinary exercise of presidential power.
66 arrests yesterday and 8 illegal firearms seized. One arrest was a warrant on a juvenile for armed robbery in Washington DC.
Thank you to our K9, Red, and all the men and women who continue to work hard so that Americans can feel safe in the nation’s capital! pic.twitter.com/jpcWfTvRhp
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) August 20, 2025
In a statement provided to Reuters, US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the new policy will not preclude prosecutors from charging people with other illegal firearms crimes, such as a convicted felon found in possession of a gun.
“We will continue to seize all illegal and unlicensed firearms,” she said.
The DC code in question bars anyone from carrying a rifle or shotgun with narrow exceptions. Pirro, a close Trump ally, argued in a statement to the Washington Post that the law violates two US Supreme Court decisions expanding gun rights.
In 2008, the court struck down a separate DC law banning handguns and ruled that individuals have the right to keep firearms in their homes for self-defence. In 2022, the court ruled that any gun-control law must be rooted in the country’s historical traditions to be valid.
Unlike US attorneys in all 50 states, who only prosecute federal offences, the US attorney in Washington prosecutes local crimes as well.
Investigators believe up to four shooters opened fire with multiple weapons in the early hours of Sunday
At least three men have been killed and eight others wounded after a shooting in a crowded New York City club in Brooklyn.
Investigators believe up to four shooters opened fire with multiple weapons early on Sunday just before 3:30am (07:30 GMT) at Taste of the City Lounge in the neighbourhood of Crown Heights after “a dispute”, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters.
“It’s a terrible shooting that occurred in the city of New York,” Tisch said at a news briefing. She said officers are investigating at least 36 shell casings from the lounge, as well as a firearm that was discovered in a nearby street.
Those wounded in the shooting — eight men and three women — are being treated at hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries, she said.
The shooting comes amid a record low year for gun violence in New York City. “I mean, we have the lowest numbers of shooting incidents and shooting victims seven months into the year that we’ve seen on record in the city of New York,” Tisch said. “Something like this is, of course, thank God, an anomaly. And it’s a terrible thing that happened this morning, but we’re going to investigate and get to the bottom of what went down.”
A gunman who killed five people, including himself, in late July inside a midtown Manhattan office, was seeking out the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL), which he blamed for the brain injuries he suffered from, according to New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The operation, on paper, appeared to be a typical government crackdown on drug traffickers.
In late 2024, more than two dozen masked officers descended on an alleged narcotics lab on the outskirts of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where they found materials for processing cocaine and automatic weapons.
There was only one problem: The evidence, including the firearms and cocaine, seems to have disappeared from the public record.
That is according to a Honduran prosecutor specialising in cases of state corruption who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, for fear of professional reprisal.
The prosecutor believes there is a strong possibility the police may have kept the weapons and drugs to resell them on the black market.
Experts say questions of corruption and abuse have come to typify Honduras’s “state of exception”, an emergency declaration that has suspended certain constitutional rights while granting greater powers to the military and police.
Such measures are meant to be temporary. The state of exception was first declared in December 2022, in the name of fighting drug traffickers and gangs.
But it has been extended at least 17 times since, often without the explicit approval of Honduras’s Congress.
For human rights observers, the continued renewals have raised alarms over whether the state of exception is being used as a shield for law enforcement excesses.
In May, for instance, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged the Honduran government to “put an end” to the state of exception, citing systematic abuses at the hands of security forces.
“The implementation of the state of exception has led to serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and raids without judicial oversight,” the UN office wrote.
It added that Honduras’s National Commission for Human Rights (CONADEH) had arrived at similar conclusions.
Joaquin Mejia — an investigator with the Team for Reflection, Investigation and Communication, a Honduran human rights advocacy group — believes such abuses are a trend under the state of exception.
“The biggest negative effect is what the National Commission for Human Rights registered: that, from December 2022 to December 2024, 798 complaints at the national level over human rights abuses are attributed to state security forces,” Mejia said.
Victims not immediately identified after deadly attack at popular store in the state capital, Austin.
A gunman has opened fire in the parking lot of a Target store in Texas, United States, killing three people, according to authorities.
The attack occurred on Monday in the state’s capital, Austin, with Chief of Police Lisa Davis describing the attacker as a man in his 30s with “a mental health history”.
After the shooting, the man fled the scene in a stolen car, which he later crashed. He then stole another car from a nearby dealership before he was captured.
Emergency responders found the three victims, who were not immediately identified, when they arrived at the scene. Two were pronounced dead immediately, with a third pronounced dead at a hospital.
“This is a very sad day for Austin. It’s a very sad day for us all, and my condolences go out to the families,” Davis said.
The attack occurred shortly before schools restart in the country, in what is commonly a popular time for shopping.
In a post on X, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson called the attack a “devastating situation”.
“My heart is with the victims and their families,” he said. “While this remains an active and ongoing investigation, what I’ll say is that this was a sickening, cowardly act of gun violence.”
The Target attack comes just over two weeks after an attack at a Walmart store in Michigan.
A man stabbed 11 people at the store in Traverse City on July 26, and has been charged with “terrorism” and multiple counts of attempted murder.
In late July, a 27-year-old man fatally shot five people in Midtown Manhattan, in the deadliest shooting in the city in more than two decades.
Gun violence has been a leading driver of crime in the US. According to the database Gun Violence Archives, there have been 9,143 gun-related deaths and 269 mass shootings so far in 2025.
Haiti has appointed businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr as the head of its transitional presidential council as the country continues to battle rampant gang violence, corruption and economic insecurity.
Saint-Cyr’s inauguration ceremony took place on Thursday at the Villa d’Accueil, a colonial-style mansion in a suburb of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
“We must restore state authority,” Saint-Cyr said at the ceremony. “The challenges we face are certainly linked to insecurity, but they also are the result of our lack of courage, a lack of vision and our irresponsibility.”
But even the location of Saint-Cyr’s inauguration was a sign of the instability Haiti faced. The federal government has been largely displaced from downtown Port-au-Prince, where gangs control nearly 90 percent of the city.
On Thursday morning, one prominent gang leader, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, even pledged to disrupt Saint-Cyr’s inauguration.
“We have decided to march on the premier’s office and the Villa d’Accueil to end it all,” Cherizier said in a video posted online.
He called on Port-au-Prince’s residents to assist him and his fighters in their approach of the mansion: “People of Haiti, take care of yourselves and help us.”
But Cherizier was ultimately not successful. A security mission backed by the United Nations and led by Kenya issued a statement explaining that police officers had increased their patrols in the area.
“Armed gangs had plotted to disrupt national stability and render the country ungovernable,” the statement said, asserting that law enforcement had successfully deterred those efforts.
Saint-Cyr’s appointment, however, has drawn scrutiny for what it symbolises in the conflict-torn country.
Both Saint-Cyr and Haiti’s prime minister, Alix-Didier Fils-Aime, are light-skinned, mixed-race businessmen who made their fortunes in the private sector. Saint-Cyr worked in the insurance industry, while Fils-Aime led an internet company.
The majority of Haitians, however, are Black, with only 5 percent of the population identifying as mixed race. The country itself is the poorest in Latin America.
Some critics fear the leadership of figures like Saint-Cyr could herald a slide backwards for Haiti’s government, where power has long been concentrated among the rich and lighter-skinned.
The country has not held a presidential election since 2016, and turmoil in the country increased following the 2021 assassination of Jovenel Moise.
Criminal networks have exploited the power vacuum to expand their own influence, while denouncing the remaining government leadership as inefficient and corrupt.
Though the presidential council was only formed in April 2024, by the end of that year, three of its members had been accused of corruption, though they denied wrongdoing.
The transitional presidential council is considered to be widely unpopular, and its nine members have been rotating into the leadership position.
Saint-Cyr is meant to be the final head of the council before it completes its task of holding a presidential election on February 7, 2026. At that point, Saint-Cyr and the council are expected to hand off power to the election’s victor.
Elections for roles in the federal government are expected to unfold in three stages, starting in November and ending with February’s presidential race. But critics warn gang violence could thwart those plans.
The United Nations estimates that 4,864 people in Haiti were killed from October 2024 to June of this year.
Threats of violence have forced essential services to shut down, including hospitals and roadways, and nearly 1.3 million people have been displaced from their homes.
The humanitarian situation in Haiti is considered among the most dire in the world, and Saint-Cyr called on the international community to respond with further resources.
“I invite all international partners to increase their support, send more soldiers, provide more training,” Saint-Cyr said at Thursday’s ceremony. “I am asking the security forces to intensify their operations.”
Ambassadors from several foreign countries were in attendance. He directed some of his remarks at them.
“Our country is going through one of the greatest crises in all its history,” Saint-Cyr said. “It’s not the time for beautiful speeches. It’s time to act.”
Police have told residents to stay home and not approach the suspect, who could be ‘armed and dangerous’.
A manhunt is under way for a former United States soldier suspected of carrying out a shooting in a bar in the US state of Montana, which has left four people dead.
The shooting happened on Friday at about 10:30am (16:30 GMT) at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, with four people pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation.
The suspect has been identified as 45-year-old military veteran Michael Paul Brown. Brown lived next door to the bar, according to public records and owner David Gwerder.
Gwerder, who was not there at the time of the incident, said a bartender and three patrons were killed before Brown fled the scene.
“He knew everybody that was in that bar. I guarantee you that,” Gwerder said. “He didn’t have any running dispute with any of them. I just think he snapped.”
Brown’s home in Anaconda – a town of about 9,000 people, located in southwest Montana about 109 miles (175km) west of the city of Bozeman – was cleared by a SWAT team.
Montana Senator Steve Daines said a “massive manhunt” is under way, aided by drones.
Authorities said Brown was last seen in the Stump Town area, just west of Anaconda, and he is “believed to be armed and dangerous”.
He should not be approached if seen, the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement Center said in a social media post, while Anaconda residents have been instructed to stay home and lock their doors.
More than a dozen police officers have converged on Stump Town, locking it down so no one is allowed in or out as police search for Brown in a wooded, mountainous area.
Randy Clark, a retired police officer who lives in the area, said a police helicopter hovered over a nearby mountainside as officers moved among the trees.
A US army spokesperson said Brown served as an armour crewman from 2001 to 2005 and was deployed to Iraq from early 2004 until March 2005. Brown was also in the Montana National Guard from 2006 to 2009.
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte said in a social media post that he was “closely monitoring the situation involving an active shooter in Anaconda”.
Our hearts are with the community of Anaconda, Montana, where four lives were lost in a senseless bar shooting.
Law enforcement is actively searching for the suspect, Michael Paul Brown, who remains at large and is considered armed and dangerous. We stand with the brave officers… pic.twitter.com/nHmlib8D2o
— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@GLFOP) August 1, 2025
The US football league has previously faced legal challenges over its failure to address players’ concussions.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has said that a gunman who killed five people, including himself, sought out the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL), which he blamed for the brain injuries he suffered from.
Adams said on Tuesday that a note carried by the shooter, identified as 27-year-old Shane Tamura, suggests his target was the NFL.
“The note alluded to that he felt he had CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy], a known brain injury for those who participate in contact sports,” Adams told CBS News. “He appeared to have blamed the NFL for his injury.”
But Tamura appears to have arrived at the wrong floor of a New York City office tower and instead opened fire in the offices of a real estate firm, on top of shooting people in the ground-floor lobby.
The NFL has previously faced litigation relating to concussions suffered by football players.
The organisation, which oversees professional US football, has denied any link between conditions like CTE and its sport, but it has nevertheless paid out more than $1bn to settle concussion-related lawsuits.
Monday’s shooting has also renewed debate about mass shootings and access to firearms in the US. Tamura reportedly entered the building with an AR-15-style rifle.
The NFL’s headquarters are located in a skyscraper that it shares with other firms.
Tamara is believed to have started shooting as he entered the lobby of the skyscraper. Then, police believe he took the wrong elevator, arriving at the 33rd floor, which contained the offices of Rudin Management, a real estate firm.
There, he opened fire once more and then took his own life.
Among those killed in the shooting was a 36-year-old police officer named Didarul Islam, who had come to the US from Bangladesh and had been on the force for three years.
Other victims include security guard Aland Etienne, Julia Hyman of Rudin Management, and an executive at the BlackRock investment firm, Wesley LePatner.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated in a memo that there would be an “increased security presence” at the organisation’s offices over the coming weeks.
Tamura is a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, with a history of mental health issues. He never played in the NFL, but he did play football in high school.
The news outlet Bloomberg reported that Tamura’s note alleges that his football career was cut short by a brain injury.
The note also called for his brain to be studied. CTE can only be diagnosed through an autopsy.
The headquarters of the National Football League was the intended target of a mass shooter, according to the NYC mayor.
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The attacker was armed with an AR-style rifle when he opened fire inside a skyscraper at 345 Park Avenue, Midtown Manhattan.
At least four people, including a New York City police officer, have been killed in a shooting inside a Midtown Manhattan office tower that houses major financial institutions and the headquarters of the National Football League, US media reports.
The shooting took place at about 6pm local time (22:00 GMT) on Monday at 345 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, with police arriving at the scene within minutes, according to local media reports.
The suspected shooter, tentatively identified as a 27-year-old man from Las Vegas, was also found dead at the scene, CNN reported. The US network said authorities believe he died from a self-inflicted injury, citing multiple law enforcement sources.
The New York Post, citing unnamed police sources, reported that the gunman was wearing a bullet-resistant vest and was armed with an AR-style rifle when he opened fire inside the skyscraper. He had reportedly barricaded himself inside the building, possibly on the 32nd floor.
CNN said police shared a photo of the suspect walking into the building carrying the rifle. Preliminary checks of the suspect’s background did not show a significant criminal history, the report added, citing officials.
New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the situation has been “contained” and that the “lone shooter has been neutralised”.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said in a video message on X that there were “multiple injuries” in the shooting.
The skyscraper at 345 Park Avenue is home to several major firms, including Blackstone – the world’s largest hedge fund – KPMG, Deutsche Bank and the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL). It is located near Rockefeller Centre, just a few blocks south of Central Park.
Separately, earlier on Monday, an attacker armed with a pistol opened fire outside a casino in Reno, Nevada, killing three people and critically wounding two others, before being shot and seriously injured by police, authorities said.
The shooting occurred just before 7:30am local time (00:30 GMT) at the valet station in the car park of the Grand Sierra Resort, a high-rise casino and hotel complex in Nevada’s third-largest city, according to police.
The suspect, whose identity has not been released, was described only as an adult male.
Police believe the victims were targeted at random.
The South American nation has reeled under a substantial increase in violent crime over the last several years.
Gunmen in Ecuador have killed at least 17 people, including a child, in an attack on a bar, the latest incident to underscore the South American nation’s challenges with rising violent crime.
The country’s attorney general said on Monday that more than 40 pieces of ballistic evidence were recovered from the bar in the small town of El Empalme, located about 160 kilometres [100 miles] north of the city of Guayaquil in the coastal province of Guayas.
Images shared by Ecuadorian media show bodies and pools of blood across the floor of the bar.
Ecuador has reeled from a surge in violent crime over the last several years, which experts say is largely driven by criminal groups sparring over territory and lucrative drug trafficking routes.
Police said that groups of gunmen in two trucks opened fire on the bar with pistols and rifles on Sunday night in an attack that also injured at least 11 people, with other reports putting the number as high as 14.
One minor hit in the attack ran more than a kilometre before collapsing in the street and dying from his wounds.
The news agency AFP reported that the trucks full of men also shot and killed two more people at a different location, and that the men shouted “Active Wolves!” during the attack on the bar.
El Empalme police chief Oscar Valencia said the term was a possible reference to the criminal group Los Lobos, which competes with another group, Los Choneros, for control of drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, and illegal mining operations.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa has pushed for expanded powers for the executive and state security forces in the name of addressing crime, measures that have mostly won over public support despite concerns over potential abuses.
Pam Bondi says the proposed change will give her discretion over who can own firearms, in a move opposed by gun control groups.
Washington, DC – United States Attorney General Pam Bondi has begun a process to make it easier for individuals with criminal convictions to own guns.
The move on Friday comes amid a wider push by the administration of President Donald Trump to make good on campaign promises to gun rights groups, which criticise restrictions on firearm ownership as violations of the Constitution’s Second Amendment. Trump ordered a review of government gun policies in February.
Gun control advocates, meanwhile, have voiced concerns over the administration’s ability to adequately assess which convicted individuals would not pose a public safety risk.
In a statement released on Friday, Bondi said individuals with serious criminal convictions have been “disenfranchised from exercising the right to keep and bear arms — a right every bit as constitutionally enshrined as the right to vote, the right to free speech, and the right to free exercise of religion — irrespective of whether they actually pose a threat”.
“No longer,” she added.
Under the plan, Bondi seeks to return the power to determine which individuals convicted of crimes can own firearms directly to her office.
That exemption process has currently been overseen by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. However, Congress has, for decades, used its spending approval powers to stem the processing of exemption requests.
The Department of Justice said the proposed change “will provide citizens whose firearm rights are currently under legal disability with an avenue to restore those rights, while keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals and illegal aliens”.
The US attorney general would have “ultimate discretion to grant relief”, according to the department.
It added that, “absent extraordinary circumstances”, certain individuals would be “presumptively ineligible” for the restoration of their gun rights. They include “violent felons, registered sex offenders, and illegal aliens”.
The plan was outlined in a “proposed rule” submitted to the Federal Register on Friday. It will undergo a final public comment period before it is adopted.
In Friday’s statement, US Pardon Attorney Edward Martin Jr said that his team was already developing a “landing page with a sophisticated, user-friendly platform for Americans petitioning for the return of their gun rights, which will make the process easier for them”.
When details of Bondi’s plan initially emerged in March, the gun control group Brady was among those who voiced opposition.
“If and when gun rights are restored to an individual, it needs to be through a robust and thoughtful system that minimizes the risk to public safety,” the group’s president, Kris Brown, said in a statement.
She added that Trump’s restoration of gun rights to those who were convicted — and later pardoned — for their role in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, raised concerns over how the administration would exercise its discretion.
“This would be a unilateral system to give gun rights back to those who are dangerous and high risk, and we will all be at greater risk of gun violence,” she said.
The United Nations has appealed to the international community to bolster its support for Haiti after a report revealed that gang violence has claimed 4,864 lives from October to June.
More than 20 percent of those deaths unfolded in the departments of Centre and Artibonite, indicating that intense violence is spilling into the areas surrounding the capital, Port-au-Prince.
In a report released on Friday, the UN explained that the growing presence of gangs like Gran Grif in those areas appears to be part of a broader strategy to control key routes connecting the capital to Haiti’s north and its border with the Dominican Republic.
“This expansion of gang territorial control poses a major risk of spreading violence and increasing transnational trafficking in arms and people,” the report said.
Among its recommendations was for the international community to better police the sale of firearms to Haiti and to continue to offer support for a Kenya-led security mission aimed at strengthening Haiti’s local law enforcement.
In a statement, Ulrika Richardson, the UN’s resident coordinator in Haiti, explained that propping up the country’s beleaguered police force is key to restoring security.
“Human rights abuses outside Port-au-Prince are intensifying in areas of the country where the presence of the State is extremely limited,” she said.
“The international community must strengthen its support to the authorities, who bear the primary responsibility for protecting the Haitian population.”
The report indicates that the violence in the regions surrounding Port-au-Prince took a turn for the worse in October, when a massacre was carried out in the town of Pont Sonde in the Artibonite department.
The Gran Grif gang had set up a checkpoint at a crossroads there, but local vigilante groups were encouraging residents to bypass it, according to the UN.
In an apparent act of retaliation, the gang launched an attack on Pont Sonde. The UN describes gang members as firing “indiscriminately at houses” along the road to the checkpoint, killing at least 100 people and wounding 16. They also set 45 houses and 34 vehicles on fire.
The chaos forced more than 6,270 people to flee Pont Sonde for their safety, contributing to an already dire crisis of internal displacement.
The UN notes that, as of June, more than 92,300 people were displaced from the Artibonite department, and 147,000 from Centre — a 118-percent increase over that department’s statistics from December.
Overall, nearly 1.3 million people have been displaced throughout the country.
The massacre at Pont Sondé prompted a backlash, with security forces briefly surging to the area. But that presence was not sustained, and Gran Grif has begun to reassert its control in recent months.
Meanwhile, the report documents a wave of reprisal killings, as vigilante groups answered the gang’s actions with violence of their own.
Around December 11, for instance, the UN noted that the gangs killed more than 70 people near the town of Petite-Riviere de l’Artibonite, and vigilante groups killed 67 people, many of them assumed to be relatives or romantic partners of local gang members.
Police units are also accused of committing 17 extrajudicial killings in that wave of violence, as they targeted suspected gang collaborators. The UN reports that new massacres have unfolded in the months since.
In the Centre department, a border region where gangs operate trafficking networks, similar acts of retaliation have been reported as the gangs and vigilante groups clash for control of the roads.
One instance the UN chronicles from March involved the police interception of a minibus driving from the city of Gonaives to Port-au-Prince. Officers allegedly found three firearms and 10,488 cartridges inside the bus, a fact which sparked concern and uproar among residents nearby.
“Enraged, members of the local population who witnessed the scene lynched to death, using stones, sticks, and machetes, two individuals: the driver and another man present in the vehicle,” the report said.
Haiti has been grappling with an intense period of gang violence since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021. Criminal networks have used the resulting power vacuum to expand their presence and power, seizing control of as much as 90 percent of the capital.
A transitional government council, meanwhile, has struggled to re-establish order amid controversies, tensions and leadership turnover. The council, however, has said it plans to hold its first presidential election in nearly a decade in 2026.
Meanwhile, Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, warned that civilians will continue to suffer as the cycle of violence continues.
“Caught in the middle of this unending horror story are the Haitian people, who are at the mercy of horrific violence by gangs and exposed to human rights violations from the security forces and abuses by the so-called ‘self-defence’ groups,” he said.
The police said gunmen opened fire in the River North neighbourhood. At least three victims are in critical condition.
Four people in the United States have been killed and at least 14 others wounded when gunmen opened fire on a crowd outside a lounge in downtown Chicago, according to police.
According to authorities, the mass shooting took place around 11:00pm (04:00 GMT) on Wednesday, when shots were fired from a vehicle travelling along Chicago Avenue in the city’s River North neighbourhood.
Chicago police reported that 13 women and five men, all between the ages of 21 and 32, were struck by the gunfire. Among the dead were two men and two women.
As of Thursday, at least three victims remained in critical condition. The injured were transported to local hospitals.
Police said the driver fled the scene immediately, and no arrests have been made. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling urged the public to submit anonymous tips to help detectives identify the suspects.
Local media reported that rapper Mello Buckzz, also known as Melanie Doyle, was hosting a private event at the lounge Wednesday evening to celebrate the release of her new album.
Snelling said police were trying to determine a motive and that the venue, Artis Lounge, is closed “until we get to the bottom of this”. He did not identify the number of attackers involved in the incident but said police found two different calibres of casings and were still reviewing footage.
“Clearly, there was some target in some way,” Snelling said. “This wasn’t some random shooting.”
Artis Lounge confirmed they were working with authorities as the investigation continued.
In the hours after the shooting, Buckzz asked for prayers and expressed her anger and sadness on social media.
“My heart broke into so many pieces,” the artist wrote on Instagram Stories.
In her posts, the rapper revealed that many of those injured were her friends, and that she had been in a relationship with one of the men who was killed.
“Prayers up for all my sisters god please wrap yo arms around every last one of them,” Buckzz wrote across several Instagram Story slides. “Feel like everything just weighing down on me … all I can do is talk to god and pray.”
Chicago pastor Donovan Price, who works with communities affected by violence, described the scene as a “warzone”.
“Just mayhem and blood and screaming and confusion as people tried to find their friends and phones. It was a horrendous, tragic, dramatic scene,” he told The Associated Press.
The shooting took place days before the Fourth of July weekend, when Chicago and other major cities often see a surge in gun crimes. In recent years, however, Chicago has seen an overall decrease in gun violence.
During the last Fourth of July weekend in Chicago, more than 100 people were shot, resulting in at least 19 deaths. Mayor Brandon Johnson said at the time that the violence “has left our city in a state of grief”.
Two firefighters were killed by gunfire while responding to a brush fire in Coeur d’Alene, a lakeside town in the northwestern US state of Idaho.
The local sheriff’s office reported that a shelter-in-place order was lifted on Sunday night after a tactical team found the body of a man with a firearm nearby. The dead man is believed to be the suspect.
Officials did not disclose his identity or specify the type of weapon recovered.
Officials said crews responded to a fire at Canfield Mountain in the city at about 1:22pm (20:22 GMT), and gunshots were reported about a half hour later at 2pm (21:00 GMT).
Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris said the shooter used high-powered sporting rifles to open rapid fire on first responders.
Two firefighters were killed and, according to authorities, a third one came out of surgery and is in a stable condition but “fighting for his life”.
Norris told reporters on Sunday that authorities believe the suspect intentionally started the fire as “an ambush”.
“We do believe he started it and it was totally intentional what he did,” he added.
However, officials have not spelled out any possible motives for why the suspect might have wanted to ambush the firefighters.
According to reports, more than 300 law enforcement officers and FBI agents responded to the emergency, while police snipers searched the area from helicopters.
Video footage from the area showed smoke rising from forested hillsides, with multiple ambulances and emergency vehicles seen arriving at a local hospital.
Multiple heroic firefighters were attacked today while responding to a fire in North Idaho. This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters. I ask all Idahoans to pray for them and their families as we wait to learn more. Teresa and I are heartbroken.
As this…
— Brad Little (@GovernorLittle) June 29, 2025
The Canfield Mountain area is on the eastern outskirts of Coeur d’Alene. It is a popular 24‑acre (10-hectare) natural space featuring hiking and mountain‑biking trails.
Coeur d’Alene, a city of about 55,000 people, is located roughly 260 miles (420 km) east of Seattle.
The mountain is densely covered with trees and thick brush, and its network of trails extends into a national forest.
Based on preliminary evidence, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office believes there was only one shooter involved in the attack. Initially, authorities had suspected there might be as many as four.
Authorities located the suspect after detecting mobile phone activity in the area and tracing the signal.
There, they discovered a man who appeared to be deceased with a weapon found nearby. They did not say how the man died, or what firearm was discovered. Norris said that authorities believe the dead man was the shooter. However, the police have not yet revealed his identity.
Police said a man called 911 to report the fire but said that it was unclear if the caller was the gunman.
Update: pic.twitter.com/S60CnpFsyX
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) June 30, 2025
Kootenai County officials said they would not release the names of the two firefighters who died.
“Their families will need support,” Sheriff Norris said.
“This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters,” Idaho Governor Brad Little wrote on Facebook.
Officials said the bodies would be transported in a procession to nearby Spokane, Washington, accompanied by a convoy of official vehicles. One of the firefighters was working with the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department; the other served with Kootenai County Fire and Rescue.
The shelter-in-place notice was lifted at 03:50 GMT on Monday.
The wildfire on Canfield Mountain scorched approximately 20 acres (81 hectares), Norris said on Sunday, but no structures were lost in the fire, authorities confirmed.
At 03:00 GMT, authorities confirmed that the fire was still burning.
Kootenai County Sheriff says law enforcement officials are taking sniper fire as they hunt for the killer.
At least two people have been killed in the United States after a gunman shot at firefighters responding to a blaze in the state of Idaho, according to officials.
The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office said that crews responded to a fire at Canfield Mountain, just north of the city of Coeur d’Alene, at about 1:30pm (19:30 GMT) on Sunday, and gunshots were reported about a half hour later.
Sheriff Bob Norris said officials believe the two people killed were fire personnel. He did not know if anyone else was shot.
The sheriff said it was not immediately clear if there was one gunman or more, and urged the public to stay clear of the area.
“We don’t know how many suspects are up there, and we don’t know how many casualties there are,” Norris told reporters. “We are actively taking sniper fire as we speak.”
The Canfield Mountain, an area popular with hikers, is located near Coeur d’Alene, a city of 57,000 people about 260 miles (420 km) east of Seattle in Washington state.
Norris said the shooter or shooters were using high-powered sporting rifles to fire rapidly at first responders, and that the perpetrators “are not, at this time, showing any evidence of wanting to surrender”.
The sheriff said it appeared the attacker was hiding in the rugged terrain and using a high-powered rifle. He said he has instructed deputies to fire back.
“If these individuals are not neutralised quickly, this is going to be likely a multi-day operation,” he added.
Idaho Governor Brad Little said “multiple” firefighters were attacked.
“This is a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters,” he said on X. “I ask all Idahoans to pray for them and their families as we wait to learn more.”
Little did not give further details on any casualties or how the incident unfolded.
“As this situation is still developing, please stay clear from the area to allow law enforcement and firefighters to do their jobs,” Little added.
Law enforcement is investigating whether the fire could have been intentionally set to lure first responders to the scene, Kootenai County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Jeff Howard told ABC News.
The broadcaster reported that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been briefed on the shooting.
The FBI said it has sent technical teams and tactical support to the scene.
“It remains an active, and very dangerous scene,” the agency’s deputy director, Dan Bongino, wrote in a post on X.
Gun ownership is widespread in the US, where the country’s Constitution protects the rights of Americans to “keep and bear arms”.
Deaths related to gun violence are common. At least 17,927 people were murdered by a gun in 2023 in the US, according to the most recent available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Doctors give everything to save lives during a violent gang war in one of the last remaining trauma hospitals in Haiti.
The streets of Port-au-Prince have become a combat zone. Fighting between armed groups and beleaguered government forces has caused hospitals to shut down, overwhelming the ones that remain with mostly civilian casualties. Doctors at the Tabarre Hospital are caught in the crossfire and doing everything they can to save lives, including sacrificing their own comfort and safety. This is the story of the doctors and patients trying to survive in a country torn apart by violence.
Violence begets violence, so many religions say. Americans should know. After all, the United States – a nation founded on Indigenous genocide, African enslavement and open rebellion against an imperial power to protect its wealthiest citizens – cannot help but be violent. What’s more, violence in the US is political, and the violence the country has carried out overseas over the generations has always been connected to its imperialist ambitions and racism. From the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites on June 21 to the everyday violence in rhetoric and reality within the US, the likes of President Donald Trump continue to stoke the violent impulses of a violence‑prone nation.
The US news cycle serves as continual confirmation. In June alone, there have been several high‑profile shootings and murders. On June 14, Vance Boelter, a white male vigilante, shot and killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, after critically wounding State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. That same day, at a No Kings mass protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, peacekeepers with the 50501 Movement accidentally shot and killed Samoan fashion designer Arthur Folasa Ah Loo while attempting to take down Arturo Gamboa, who was allegedly armed with an AR‑15.
On June 1, the start of Pride Month, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez allegedly shot and murdered gay Indigenous actor Jonathan Joss in San Antonio, Texas. On June 12, Secret Service agents forcibly detained and handcuffed US Senator Alex Padilla during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference in Los Angeles.
Mass shootings, white vigilante violence, police brutality, and domestic terrorism are all normal occurrences in the United States – and all are political. Yet US leaders still react with hollow platitudes that reveal an elitist and narcissistic detachment from the nation’s violent history. “Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America. God bless the great people of Minnesota…” said Governor Tim Walz after Boelter’s June 14 shootings. On X, Republican Representative Derrick Van Orden wrote: “Political violence has no place in America. I fully condemn this attack…”
Despite these weak condemnations, the US often tolerates – and sometimes celebrates – political violence. Van Orden also tweeted, “With one horrible governor that appoints political assassins to boards. Good job, stupid,” in response to Walz’s message. Senator Mike Lee referred to the incident as “Nightmare on Waltz Street” before deleting the post.
Political violence in the US is commonplace. President Trump has long fostered it – such as during a presidential debate in Philadelphia, when he falsely claimed Haitian immigrants “eat their neighbours’ pets”. This led to weeks of threats against the roughly 15,000 Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. On June 9, Trump posted on Truth Social: “IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT… harder than they have ever been hit before.”
That led to a federally-sanctioned wave of violence against protesters in Los Angeles attempting to end Trump’s immigration crackdowns, including Trump’s takeover and deployment of California’s National Guard in the nation’s second-largest city.
But it’s not just that Trump may have a lust for political violence and is stoking such violence. The US has always been a powder keg for violence, a nation-state that cannot help itself.
Political violence against elected officials in the US is too extensive to list fully. Assassins murdered Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James A Garfield, William McKinley, and John F Kennedy. In 1804, Vice‑President Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Populist candidate Huey Long was assassinated in 1935; Robert F Kennedy in 1968; Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was wounded in 2011.
Many assassins and vigilantes have targeted those fighting for social justice: Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, Marsha P. Johnson, and civil‑rights activists like Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Viola Liuzzo, and Fred Hampton. Jonathan Joss and Arthur Folasa Ah Loo are more recent examples of marginalised people struck down in a white‑supremacist society.
The most chilling truth of all is that, because of the violent nature of the US, there is no end in sight – domestically or overseas. The recent US bomb mission over Iran is merely the latest unprovoked preemptive attack the superpower has conducted on another nation. Trump’s unilateral use of military force was done, presumably, in support of Israel’s attacks on Iran, allegedly because of the threat Iran poses if it ever arms itself with nuclear weapons. But these are mere excuses that could also be violations of international law.
It wouldn’t be the first time the US has sought to start a war based on questionable intelligence or reasons, however. The most recent example, of course, is the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a part of George W Bush’s “preemptive war” doctrine, attacking Iraq because they supposedly had a stockpile of WMDs that they could use against the US in the future. There was never any evidence of any stockpile of chemical or biological weapons. As many as 2.4 million Iraqis have died from the resulting violence, statelessness, and civil war that the initial 2003 US invasion created. It has not gone unnoticed that the US mostly bombs and invades nation-states with majority people of colour and non-Christian populations.
Malcolm X said it best, a week after Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F Kennedy in 1963: “Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they’ve always made me glad.” Given that Americans consume nine billion chickens a year, that is a huge amount of retribution to consider for the nation’s history of violence. Short of repealing the Second Amendment’s right-to-bear-guns clause in the US Constitution and a real commitment towards eliminating the threat of white male supremacist terrorism, this violence will continue unabated, with repercussions that will include terrorism and revenge, domestically and internationally. A country with a history of violence, elitism, and narcissism like the US – and an individual like Trump – cannot divorce themselves from their own violent DNA, a violence that could one day consume this nation-state.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum decries shooting at Irapuato festival as ‘deplorable’ and promises investigation.
A gun attack during a religious celebration in central Mexico has left 11 people dead and at least 20 others injured in violence-plagued Guanajuato state, local officials have confirmed.
The shooting erupted Tuesday night in the city of Irapuato, authorities said on Wednesday, during festivities marking the Nativity of John the Baptist. Witnesses described terrible scenes of panic and chaos as partygoers fled the gunfire.
“It was chaos. People put the wounded into their cars and rushed to hospital to try to save them,” one witness told the news agency AFP, speaking anonymously due to safety concerns.
Footage shared online shows the moment gunfire rang out as people danced and celebrated. Screams can be heard as the crowd scattered in panic.
Bloodstains and bullet holes were still visible at the scene on Wednesday morning. Among the dead were a 17-year-old, eight men, and two women, according to the Guanajuato state prosecutor’s office.
In a statement, Irapuato’s local government called the attack a “cowardly act” and said security forces are hunting those responsible. Psychological support is being offered to affected families.
President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the attack as “deplorable” and said an investigation had been launched. At her daily news conference, Sheinbaum referred to the shooting as a “confrontation”, without elaborating on details.
Guanajuato Governor Libia Dennise also denounced the attack, offering condolences to the victims’ families and pledging justice.
While Guanajuato is known for its industrial growth and colonial-era tourism hubs, it has notoriously become renowned as Mexico’s most violent state in recent years.
Authorities blame much of the bloodshed on an ongoing turf war between the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel.
Government figures show Guanajuato recorded more than 3,000 homicides last year — the highest in the country.
Since Mexico launched its so-called war on drugs in 2006, more than 480,000 people have been killed in criminal violence, with more than 120,000 listed as missing.
United States President Donald Trump has said he will not call Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in the wake of weekend shootings that killed a Democratic state lawmaker and injured another.
Trump denounced the shootings as an act of “horrific violence” in a statement over the weekend. But on Tuesday, he confirmed to reporters that he would not reach out to Walz, who served as the running mate to his rival in the 2024 presidential election, Democrat Kamala Harris.
“I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out. I’m not calling him. Why would I call him?” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. So I could be nice and call him, but why waste time?”
Walz, for his part, said he was not surprised by Trump’s lack of interest in calling him. He did, however, point out that he had spoken with Vice President JD Vance.
“I’m always open to, you know, people expressing gratitude. Vice President Vance assured us, and he delivered, that the FBI would be there as partners with us to get it done,” Walz said. “That was what needed to be done.”
The suspect in the shootings is 57-year-old Vance Boelter, a father of five who was arrested on Sunday night.
He has since been charged with federal counts of murder and stalking in connection with the shootings early on Saturday, which resulted in the killings of Melissa Hortman, a top Democrat in the Minnesota House of Representatives, and her husband, Mark Hortman.
Boelter is also accused of shooting Democratic state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, both of whom survived.
Prosecutors said that Boelter visited the lawmakers’ homes wearing a face mask and body armour to impersonate a police officer. He allegedly knocked on the Hoffmans’ door, identifying himself as police.
Prosecutors said on Monday that Boelter sent a message to his family after the shootings, which read: “Dad went to war last night.”
Law enforcement officials have said they are still investigating a potential motive in the attack. But investigators have recovered notebooks from the suspect with the names of Democratic lawmakers and abortion rights advocates.
“Political assassinations are rare,” Joseph Thompson, Minnesota’s acting US attorney, said at a news conference. “They strike at the very core of our democracy.”
He added that authorities are searching through Boelter’s notebooks but have not found a “manifesto” clearly laying out his motivations. Boelter’s friends, meanwhile, have told reporters that the suspect was a supporter of Trump and an opponent of abortion rights.
The slayings have spurred increased concerns about political violence in the US. In the past year alone, Trump has faced an assassination attempt, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has seen his governor’s mansion targeted in an act of suspected arson.
Between January 6, 2021, and October 2024, the news agency Reuters said it had tallied upwards of 300 cases of political violence in the US.
In the aftermath of last weekend’s shootings, conspiracy theories claiming that the alleged shooter was a leftist ideologue began to circulate, with support from some Republican lawmakers.
Boelter had previously served with other community members on a state workforce development board under two Democratic governors, including Walz, a fact that helped to fuel the rumours.
He had also worked as the director of security patrols at a security services company whose website said he had been “involved with security situations in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East, including the West Bank, Southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip”.
Boelter appeared briefly in court on Monday but did not enter a plea. He is due to appear in court again on June 27.