Law and Crime

Aug. 2 (UPI) — U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur was hospitalized on Sunday after being struck in a hit-and-run accident in Ohio, her office said.

Kaptur, D-Ohio, was on her way to church, riding as a passenger, when the car was hit shortly before 11 a.m.

“She is active, alert, and being treated for non-life threatening injuries,” the statement from her office said. “We look forward to additional information from Toledo Police as they investigate the accident.”

One witness told WTOL 11 the other driver was picked up by a third vehicle and fled the scene.

“Toledo Police Accident Investigators have responded to the scene, and the investigation remains active and ongoing,” Toledo police said in a statement obtained by CBS News.

Kaptur, 80, is the longest-serving woman in congressional history, having first been elected to her seat in 1982.

Aug. 1 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has called out District Attorney Jeanine Pirro after her office moved to dismiss charges against an Olympic canoeist for vandalism.

Prosecutors on Friday made the motion to dismiss charges against David Hearn, 67, and admitted that the damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was due to a “botched installation and not vandalism.” Hearn was indicted in early July for purposely ripping up a piece of the blue sealant from the bottom of the pool.

The filing in D.C Superior Court lists documents and evidence showing the contracting work was rushed to finish in time for the America 250 celebrations and was not done properly.

“I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, on the Reflecting Pool,” Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday. “I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned in giant letters on it, and other elements of the surrounding area. There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!”

Soon after, he posted again, saying, “Look for yourselves at the VANDALISM that took place at The Reflecting Pool. The material is being cut with a knife or a box cutter, for all to see!”

Aug. 1 (UPI) — At least three people were killed and two injured in a shooting at an In-N-Out restaurant in Idaho on Saturday, police said.

Authorities in Twin Falls responded to reports of shots fired about 2:30 p.m. in an area that included multiple major retailers and a movie theater, NBC News reported.

Videos posted on social media showed a man wearing a black shirt and carrying a large rifle in the area, Boise State Public Radio reported.

The man reportedly shot the front windshield of a parked car and later walked into the In-N-Out drive-through.

Police Chief Matthew Hicks said it was a “very chaotic scene” and confirmed the shooter was dead.

“We have literally hundreds of people that were in some way, shape or form in the area of this restaurant at the time that are being interviewed right now,” he told reporters, BSPR reported.

In a statement, Twin Falls police said roads and a nearby bridge were closed to all residents and visitors while officers responded to the incident.

“We are working to try to ascertain his identity and the motivations behind [the shooting] and we’ll be able to figure that out in the next coming days,” Hicks told reporters.

The police chief added, “Today has been a very hard day here in Twin Falls,” NBC News reported.

Aug. 1 (UPI) — At least seven states have suffered cyberattacks on water systems as cities and states work to keep the water supplies safe.

There has been no indication that any water supply is unsafe to drink, the New York Times reported. Minnesota first reported a cyberattack and now Michigan has also reported attacks.

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency said in a release that it’s “observing a significant increase in cyber threat actors targeting programmable logic controllers in the Water and Wastewater Systems sector. CISA urges critical infrastructure owners, operators, and integrators to remove publicly exposed PLCs and other operational technology from the Internet as soon as possible. Threat actors targeting exposed PLCs have modified passwords to lock out operators and disconnected the PLCs by changing their IP addresses. This activity has resulted in boil-water notices and sustained manual operations.”

Officials told The Times that Iran has increased cyberattacks on American systems, but that the water attacks haven’t been definitively declared to have come from Iran. But Iran has targeted water systems in the United States in the past. Because there’s no financial motive, an attack by hacking criminals is less likely, The Times said.

Michigan had “a small number of reports from Michigan communities indicating activity consistent with what federal agencies described,” Dale George, director of communications for Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, told CBS News.

“All systems continued to operate safely, issues were addressed by local operators, and there are no known impacts that posed a public health concern,” George added.

CBS reported that more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota were affected.

On Friday, President Donald Trump blamed Minnesota and Gov. Tim Walz for the attacks.

“I think that Minnesota is behind it,” Trump said during a televised Cabinet meeting at Camp David. “You know who’s behind it? Minnesota. Because they’re grossly incompetent. I think the governor’s behind it. I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think that Minnesota ought to get its act together.”

“They like to say, ‘Oh, it was Iran.’ Iran should be so lucky. Iran’s got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota,” the president said.

Walz responded to the jabs from Trump in a post on X.

“DOGE took an ax to CISA and left the U.S. exposed to cyber attacks. Thankfully, our experts in Minnesota were able to identify the vulnerability quickly and work with local communities to stop it,” Walz said.

Braham, Minn., Mayor Nate George said federal and local officials don’t doubt the source.

“We’re getting bits and pieces of information from the state of Minnesota and the FBI,” George told The Times. “They are pretty sure it’s Iranian actors” but are reluctant to say so publicly.

Aug. 1 (UPI) — Two ransom notes sent by people claiming to be the kidnappers of Nancy Guthrie were released Friday by local police in hopes of generating new leads.

The second note, which was sent Feb. 6, told the Guthrie family that Nancy Guthrie died soon after she was kidnapped.

“We believe it was heart related,” the note said. “She is buried in nature now. Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome. We want your family to know this and hope you all can find peace. We are truly sorry.”

Nancy Guthrie, 84, was the mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie. She was kidnapped from her home near Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 1. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department marked six months since the kidnapping on Thursday and reiterated that the investigation is ongoing.

The family posted a new plea on Instagram Saturday.

“This is our beautiful Mom. Six months ago, someone took her out of her bed in the dead of night. We have lived every moment, every breath and every heartbeat in agony and despair ever since,” the post said. “Every day, we wake up and try to be strong and go on — because that’s what our joyful and resilient Mom taught us to do. But make no mistake — our hearts are in ruins.”

The post asks that people review the letters for possible recognition.

“We are begging for help. We are desperate. We need someone to come forward. Someone knows something. Someone suspects something. Someone recognizes the writing in the ransom demand notes. Someone has noticed something different, strange, troubling or just unusual — perhaps with someone they deeply love. … There is a way to end this situation and do the right thing. Please. Bring her home,” the post said.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department posted the emailed ransom notes on X for the public to view, as well as a list of behaviors that could signal involvement.

The first note, which was sent on Feb. 2 to a local news outlet, noted that there was a white smartwatch on the floor at the foot of her bed, and that the backyard floodlight had been destroyed. It demanded $4 million in bitcoin by Feb. 5.

“Do not play games, law enforcement will not be able to help you,” the note threatened.

In July, a California man pleaded guilty to sending phony ransom notes to the Guthrie family to harass them.

But in a court filing Friday evening, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the damage was caused by a “botched installation.” Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI. | License Photo

July 31 (UPI) — Trump administration prosecutors on Friday moved to dismiss the felony case against U.S. Olympian David Hearn, admitting that damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was due to a “botched installation and not vandalism.”

Hearn, 67, was indicted by a federal grand jury early July on accusations that he purposefully ripped up a piece of the recently-installed blue sealant from the pool’s bottom.

President Donald Trump claimed the pool, which cost nearly $15 million to renovate, had been damaged by Hearn and other vandals.

But in a court filing Friday evening, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said she had been misled by the Interior Department into believing “nearly all of the damage” was done by vandals.

In charging Hearn, Pirro had said she had “tremendous evidence” that he committed a felony that could have landed him in prison for 10 years.

“Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism,” Pirro wrote in court papers, The New York Times reported.

Pirro added the “botched” renovation “was the result of a flawed installation by the contractor, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, and the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration.”

In a statement, Hearn’s attorneys said, “The Trump administration’s case against Davey Hearn should have never been brought.”

“Its dismissal today does not erase the abuse of government power in arresting and charging a patriotic American who did nothing wrong,” the attorneys added. “The government’s approach was ready, fire, aim.

“The administration owes Mr. Hearn an apology.”

July 31 (UPI) — A federal judge on Friday turned down a request by Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, to block a Minnesota law banning nudification technology.

Minnesota in May became the first state in the nation to pass legislation banning the practice of using AI to digitally remove clothing from a pictured individual.

xAI, which develops the chatbot and image generator Grok, filed the suit over the ban Tuesday.

“The court respectfully denies the request for a temporary restraining order before tomorrow,” U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank ruled on Friday. “xAI filed the motion on July 29, 2026, nearly three months after the law was signed, and only three days before the law is set to take effect.

“Such a delay in bringing the action and the motion suggests that harm is not immediate.”

The federal judge set a hearing on Aug. 19 to evaluate the lawsuit.

“See you in court, creep,” Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement on X, referring to Musk.

In its lawsuit, xAI argues that the Minnesota law “imposes an overbroad, content-based ban on free speech and the tools of visual expression in a clumsy attempt to prohibit ‘nudification.'”

“xAI accordingly does not contest Minnesota’s interest in prohibiting the dissemination of artificially generated nude images of real people without their consent,” the company wrote in court documents. “But the statute Minnesota enacted extends far beyond that goal, exposing a wide array of protected speech to civil liability and government sanctions.”

Minnesota’s law would apply fines of $500,000 to websites and apps providing nudification technology.

Musk’s company has faced intense scrutiny since a version of Grok, released in December, began generating thousands of sexualized images, including some that appeared to be of minors.

The company in January changed its policies, but Grok continued to generate sexualized images as late as April.

July 30 (UPI) — Seattle Police Department Chief Shon Barnes resigned on Thursday, as city officials have come under criticism following a mass shooting Sunday at the Bite of Seattle food festival that left three people dead and four others wounded.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced that she had accepted Barnes’ resignation and said he “served this department and this city with dedication.”

“I share Chief Barnes’ hope that we can return our focus to addressing youth gun violence and ensuring that every family can feel safe in their neighborhood and across the city,” Wilson said in a Thursday afternoon press release.

His exit comes as city officials face mounting criticism over their response to the shooting, particularly the lack of communication with the public in its immediate aftermath. Barnes also faced criticism for being out of town when the shooting occurred, renewing scrutiny of how frequently he was away from Seattle.

In a statement issued to local media by his attorney, Barnes said Wilson had requested his resignation on Wednesday. Though he was “surprised” by the request, he believed that the city should be focused on investigating thee shooting, securing justice for the victims and helping the community heal.

“I want to emphasize that it has been one of the greatest honors to lead the Seattle Police Department and to serve the citizens of the City of Seattle,” he said.

Deputy Chief Andre Sayles has been named interim chief, according to the mayor’s office. Wilson said a thorough search will be conducted to find a permanent replacement.

In a recorded statement published to social media later Thursday, Wilson addressed criticism of the city’s lack of communication with the public, stating that a review “revealed real gaps.”

“Information could and should have gone out much faster through social media, the emergency alert system, the SPD blotter and-or an off-site press conference,” she said.

“The public should have heard sooner about outstanding suspects and the status of the Seattle Center campus.”

She vowed her office would work with the police department ensure that, if a similar situation arose again, information would released more quickly.

She acknowledged that she had been wrong to defend the city’s decision not to use its emergency system, saying the review revealed a miscommunication between departments that resulted in no alert being issued. She also cited a miscommunication between her office and the police department over the timing of a Sunday night press conference.

Following the shooting, SDP issued a statement on its social media platform. No further information was released by the department until a late-night press conference. The Seattle Fire Department provided UPI with an update on the shooting.

“What I did not fully understand in that moment was how little information had reached the public or the press since the incident began at 6 p.m.,” she said.

“Had I known that, I would have pushed for an immediate briefing, rather than waiting for a press conference to be organized.”

MyNorthwest, KING 5 and Fox 13 Seattle, citing unnamed sources, had earlier reported that Barnes had been dismissed.

Barnes, 51, was reportedly not in Seattle when the shooting took place. During a press conference on Monday, reporter Connor Nash of The South Seattle Emerald asked Barnes about reports that he is often out of town, leading to a heated confrontation.

“I don’t have to tell you where I go,” Barnes responded. “I have been working as hard as I can for this city from the day I got here. Do you got that?”

Barnes was at the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives Conference in Dallas on Sunday when the shooting took place, he said.

Barnes was scheduled to give an interview with KING 5 on Wednesday but the interview was canceled about 30 minutes before it was set to begin.

Three people were killed and four others were wounded, including a 2-year-old, during the shooting at the food festival. Police say it was a targeted, gang-related shooting.

A 15-year-old was arrested at the scene. A 19-year-old suspected to have been involved in the shooting was among those killed. The 15-year-old was charged on Wednesday with one count each of assault in the first degree with a firearm enhancement and unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree.

The Seattle Police Department has published Barnes’ 2026 schedule to date, showing four trips to Chicago and some trips to conferences.

Barnes was appointed Seattle’s police chief in 2024 by then-Mayor Bruce Harrell. Wilson retained Barnes when she became mayor on Jan. 1. He was the police chief in Madison, Wis., from 2021 until taking the position in Seattle.

Barnes has overseen reductions in violent crime during his tenures in Madison and Seattle.

Prior to Sunday’s shooting at the food festival, there had been 15 homicides recorded in Seattle. The city also recorded its first June since 1970 without a homicide. Homicides have decreased in Seattle each year since recording 74 in 2023.

Barnes also oversaw an increase in female representation during his tenure with the Madison Police Department. The rate of female staff increased to 28%.

July 30 (UPI) — The ABC network has accused the Federal Communications Commission of attempting to censor what it broadcasts by pressuring its local stations to apply for early renewal of their licenses.

In its regulatory filing, which is a response to the FCC’s request that ABC-owned broadcast stations reapply for their licenses, ABC alleged that FCC chair Brendan Carr’s criticism and actions at the agency have amounted to “attempted censorship,” Politico reported.

The network said in the filing that actions by the agency and Carr have been aimed at shaping news reports across the media in ways that violate U.S. Constitutional freedom of the press.

The FCC, in a statement on Thursday to The Hill, contended that it is operating in the public interest, based on what it said are “equal opportunity regulations” as it accused the network of operating “in the narrow or partisan interests of a political party.”

The Trump administration, and President Donald Trump, have long alleged that members of the media — print, online or television — who are critical or engage in satire of him during his two terms as president are violating federal law.

“The retaliation against ABC is a signal to every media company in the country: accommodate the administration’s view of what news coverage should look like or pay the price,” the network said in the filing.

“Across the government, regulatory and contracting carrots and sticks have been trained on other disfavored speakers,” ABC said. “The tools vary; the objective does not: a media industry too fearful of official reprisal to report the news freely.”

July 30 (UPI) — A federal jury has convicted the New Jersey man who attempted to murder writer Salman Rushdie on additional terrorism-related charges, including attempting to provide material support to the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah.

Hadi Matar of Fairview, N.J., was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a state court in May 2025 for trying to kill Rushdie on Aug. 12, 2022.

Matar rushed the stage and stabbed the India-born writer at New York’s Chautauqua Institution in Mayville, N.Y., before being subdued by audience members and taken into police custody. Rushdie lost vision in his right eye and suffered nerve damage as a result of the attack.

A federal jury in the Western District of New York on Wednesday convicted Matar on charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, engaging in an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries and providing material support to terrorists. Matar faces a maximum penalty of life in prison on the most serious charge when sentenced on Nov. 3.

“Hadi Matar, who was born and raised in the United States, chose to align his values with the terroristic values of the leaders of Iran, which often promote violence, and in this case, the call for murder,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York Michael DiGiacomo said in a statement.

“The defendant spent months planning and preparing to carry out what he hoped would be the execution of Salman Rushdie and possibly follow in the footsteps of martyrs he admired. Instead, his attempted act of terror failed, and Salman Rushdie survived, thanks to courageous members of the public and law enforcement, who saved Rushdie and captured Matar.”

The trial began July 22, and Rushdie, 79, testified.

DiGiacomo said Rushdie answered every question asked of him by the defense and prosecutors.

“It was very powerful,” DiGiacomo said.

“And at the end, at some point, Mr. Rushdie removed his glasses so the jury could see the extent of the injury to his eye that he no longer has vision it.”

Prosecutors said Matar was attempting to carry out the orders of Iran’s late spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who in 1989 called for Rushdie’s murder after the publication of his award-winning novel The Satanic Verses on the grounds that it was blasphemous to Islam.

The fatwa was reaffirmed in 2017 by Khomeini’s successor, Ali Khamenei, and endorsed by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah was killed Sept. 27, 2024, in Israeli airstrikes on Beirut, while Khamenei was killed Feb. 28 in joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran.

Federal prosecutors said during the trial that Matar had spent more than a year researching the fatwa before deciding to try to kill Rushdie and discussed it with people in Iran, Australia and Canada.

According to the Justice Department, Matar had surrounded himself with Hezbollah symbols ahead of the attack and had traveled to the institution that day with a false driver’s license bearing the name Hassan Mughniyeh, with Hassan being Nasrallah’s first name and Mughniyeh being the surname of Hezbollah’s former external security organization head, Imad Mughniyeh.

DiGiacomo told reporters following the conviction that ahead of the attack, Matar traveled by bus from New Jersey to Buffalo, then traveled toward the Chautauqua Institution.

On the morning of the attack, Matar visited a website run by Hezbollah and took screenshots of Hezbollah operatives who had died that month.

“The evidence presented in the trial showed that this attack was not spontaneous. It was deliberate. It was research. It was planned. It was motivated by violent extremist ideology,” Alan Davis, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Buffalo field office, said during the press conference.

“For more than a year, the defendant researched a decades-old fatwa, communicated with individuals overseas about carrying it out and embraced the propaganda and symbols of Hezbollah before traveling to western New York to commit this violent act.”

July 28 (UPI) — U.S. healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson said it has reached a proposed $5.5 billion settlement to resolve most remaining lawsuits alleging its talc-based baby powder and other products caused ovarian cancer.

The agreement, announced Monday, follows more than a decade of litigation, including nearly a decade of consolidated federal litigation in New Jersey, along with related cases throughout the country. Tens of thousands of claimants accused Johnson & Johnson of marketing its talc products for feminine hygiene and failing to adequately warn consumers about an alleged cancer risk, despite studies dating back to the 1980s reporting an association between genital talc use and ovarian cancer.

Johnson & Johnson has denied the allegations, describing the litigation as meritless, but said it reached the agreement “to put this matter behind it and remain focused on its mission to develop medicines and devices that save lives,” Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement.

Before becoming final, the settlement is condition on thee participation by law firms representing at least 95% of the approximately 76,000 ovarian-cancer claimants covered by the agreement.

Johnson & Johnson expects to pay up to $3 billion in 2027, with no additional payments to be made until 2028.

Johnson & Johnson has been facing talc-related lawsuits since at least the late 2000s and has paid out billions of dollars in judgments and settlements. In 2021, it paid about $2.5 billion, including interest, to women whose claims that the company’s talcum powder caused their cancer were consolidated in Missouri.

In 2024, it agreed to pay $700 million to resolve a separate investigation launched by a coalition of 43 attorneys general into allegations that it deceptively marketed the safety and purity of its talc-based products.

The agreement announced Monday was made on the heels of a federal magistrate judge overseeing the multi-district litigation ordered plaintiffs last week to explain why claims should not be dismissed for failing to present specific causation in pending talc claims. Johnson & Johnson said the order affirms its position that the allegations are “premised on junk science.”

Johnson & Johnson discontinued its talc-based Baby Powder in the United States and Canada in 2020 and worldwide in 2023.

July 28 (UPI) — Chad has announced it is withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, days after a U.S. official urged the central African nation to consider doing so and amid a concerted U.S. campaign seeking to dismantle the court.

In an official communique made public Monday, Chad’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it notified United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of its decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the court, following what it described as an “in-depth examination” of its operations.

The ministry said the court’s effectiveness “has remained limited and uneven in light of the expectations that led to its creation,” alleging an anti-African bias and noting that its first nine investigations concerned situations in Africa. The ICC currently lists 17 situations under investigation.

Chad also highlighted that six of the seven people in the court’s custody are being prosecuted in connection with situations in Africa.

“Taken together, these objective factors explain the perception, widely shared among numerous states and their populations, that the court’s judicial activity has remained durably concentrated on the Global South in general and on the African continent in particular, which have consistently been victims of a form of political instrumentalization of the ICC,” the ministry said.

It called on the African Union and member stats to reconsider the future of what it called an “apparently biased system” and to strengthen the African judicial mechanisms instead.

The decision, which is to take effect in one year, comes amid an intensified U.S. campaign against the ICC following the court’s issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a campaign seeking to “dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty.”

The United States is not a member of the ICC, and although the Trump administration has taken a more aggressive stance toward the court, the United States has long rejected the cour’s assertion of jurisdiction of U.S. nationals without Washington’s consent.

Four days before Chad announced its decision to withdraw from the ICC, Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul spoke with U.S. Under Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Frank Garcia Jr..

A statement from Chad said the call was made at the request of the United States. During the call, Garcia expressed the United States’ concerns about the ICC’s operation and requested that Chad review its membership, which Fadoul said Chad would.

“The United States welcomes Chad’s decision to withdraw from the ICC and join the growing number of nations reclaiming their sovereignty from this flawed institution,” the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs said in a statement.

“The United States will never surrender its sovereignty to an unaccountable global tribunal, and we are launching a comprehensive, whole-of-government campaign to end the ICC’s illegitimate overreach. We call on all other ICC members to withdraw from the Rome Statute.”

The announcement comes days after Venezuela announced it was withdrawing from the ICC.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger all announced their withdrawals from the court in June 2026.

July 27 (UPI) — The U.S. Consulate in Toronto was shot at early Monday, according to authorities, marking the second time the facility been targeted by gunfire this year.

Deputy Chief Frank Barredo of the Toronto Police Service told reporters in a press conference that a police security detail at the consulate in downtown Toronto heard what sounded like a gunshot in the vicinity at 4:46 a.m. EDT.

The officer noticed a white late-model Honda Accord with no license plates speed away from the building and radioed the information. Additional officers noticed the suspect vehicle nearby and engaged it in a high-speed chase onto the Don Valley Parkway, heading northbound.

Barredo said the suspect vehicle was driving at speeds in excess of 87 miles per hour, prompting officers to end the chase, in accordance with police procedures because of the danger posed to the public, near the Don Mills Road and the DVP.

At the scene, police recovered a single shell casing, he said. The building’s facade also suffered damage, he added.

While no motive is known, Barredo said police suspect the shooting was premeditated.

“I don’t think it’s just a fluke that there was no license plate on the vehicle,” he said. He also described the shooting as “brazen” and “reckless” given that a police cruiser was parked outside.

Two security officers were inside the heavily fortified building at the time of the shooting, though Barredo said they would not necessarily have noticed the shot.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow mirrored Barredo’s description of the shooting as a “brazen attack” and vowed to work with authorities to get “the illegal American guns off our street” and to bring those responsible to justice.

“I want to say to the person or persons responsible. We will get you. We have apprehended the previous shooters, all three of them, and we will bring you to justice. You will be held accountable,” she said.

UPI has contacted the consulate for comment.

The shooting comes amid fraying relations between Canada and the United States. President Donald Trump‘s combative rhetoric and actions, including threatening to annex Canada and imposing stiff tariffs on it, have angered many across the Great White North and have compelled Ottawa to begin distancing itself economically and militarily from Washington.

In March, multiple shots were fired at the U.S. Consulate in downtown Toronto.

Last month, Toronto police arrested three people in connection with the March shooting. Constable Marc Pinizzotto was killed in a related police raid.

Police said the shooting was one of at least 27 they believe were carried out by criminals for hire. Authorities have not made public who hired them.

The second shooting at the consulate also occurred as two Jewish-owned bakeries in the city were the targets of vandalism, at least one of which was shot at.

Asked if the second shooting at the consulate was potentially another criminal-for-hire plot or connected to the bakery shootings, Barredo said it was too early to tell.

“We, obviously, would not rule that out as a possibility,” he said.

“We do know that is a phenomenon that has grown in the GTA area. Some criminals simply perform services for hire. They don’t have any personal interest in matter; they simply are hired to carry out a specific act of criminality.”

Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree said in an online statement he was “appalled by the brazen shooting” and has spoken with Chow, and offered his full support to the Toronto Police Service.

“Violence of any kind will never be tolerated in Canada,” he said.

July 27 (UPI) — The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice said Monday that they’re taking “significant action” against school districts in Maryland and Michigan because of policies allowing school personal to protect students’ personal gender identity.

In a press release, the departments said Anne Arundel public schools in Maryland and Ann Arbor public schools in Michigan were “hiding sensitive information about children’s health well-being from their own parents.” They cited parental rights in the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office received complaints from Maryland parents who said that the school was helping their child “pretend to be male.” The principal declined to give the parents information about their student, and the assistant principal refused to turn over records, the release said. It said the SPPO and the Just Department’s Civil Rights Division will start applicable judicial proceedings and the district may face the loss of federal funding.

In Michigan, the release said, SPPO has found an Ann Arbor district policy requiring school employees to protect a student’s gender identity from their parents “likely violates FERPA.” The departments have given the district until Aug. 10 to “demonstrate why ED and DOJ should not move forward with enforcement.”

“This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents’ rights under federal law,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Today, ED and DOJ are putting districts on notice that we will use every tool available to hold them to account for this egregious behavior.”

July 27 (UPI) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado and opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia said they will not participate a dialogue between representatives of the Venezuelan government and members of the National Assembly elected in 2015.

They said, however, they will not stand in the way of any initiative that produces concrete progress toward a democratic transition.

The dialogue mechanism was announced earlier this month by representatives of the government led by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and members of the National Assembly elected in 2015, headed by Dinorah Figuera.

Both sides said the talks will formally begin Saturday and address issues that include institutional recovery, the electoral system, guarantees for political participation and the country’s reconstruction after the June 24 dual earthquakes.

The process has the backing of the United States. The U.S. State Department described the roadmap as an important step toward Venezuela’s political reconciliation and national recovery, while the Spanish newspaper El País reported that Washington has played an active role in promoting the talks and a possible political transition.

In a joint statement addressed to the Venezuelan people and the international community, Machado and González said they did not participate in the design, creation or operation of the dialogue mechanism.

“Those promoting it must inform the country of its objectives, its methodology and its timetable,” they said.

The opposition leaders said they will assess any negotiation based on “concrete and verifiable” results, including restoration of democratic institutions, release of all political prisoners, guarantees for all political actors without exclusion, a timely timetable for presidential elections and full respect for the will of the people.

The statement opens by reaffirming the validity of the mandate that, according to both leaders, emerged from the opposition primary election held Oct. 22, 2023, and the presidential election of July 28, 2024.

“That mandate remains in force,” they said.

Machado and González also said Venezuela is facing a crisis that has accumulated over more than 25 years and was made worse the June 24 earthquakes, which they said left communities devastated and deepened the humanitarian emergency.

Against that backdrop, they alleged that citizen-led aid efforts after the earthquakes were subject to attempts to block and control the aid.

“Venezuelans saw with their own eyes how the aid organized by the people themselves was blocked, diverted and controlled to prevent it from reaching those who needed it most,” the statement said.

The opposition leaders argued that rebuilding the country requires “a new government with moral authority and managerial capacity” to guarantee freedoms, restore the institutions of the Republic and support families affected by the disaster.

Machado and González reiterated their commitment to return to Venezuela to stand alongside the public during the country’s reconstruction.

July 27 (UPI) — Brazil and China agreed Monday to speed up negotiations on a trade agreement between Mercosur and China as both countries seek to strengthen economic ties after new U.S. tariffs hit Brazilian exports.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by telephone for more than an hour just days after the United States confirmed a 25% tariff on Brazilian exports.

Lula said on X that the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to expanding cooperation in strategic and high-technology sectors, including artificial intelligence, satellites, critical minerals processing and fertilizer trade.

In the post, Lula highlighted the “positive results” of bilateral trade and the recent short-term visa waiver, saying the measures “will increase tourist flows and business opportunities.”

He also emphasized the need to expand cooperation in other sectors and advance negotiations on a trade agreement between Mercosur, the South American trade bloc, and China.

“I stressed that our government remains committed to diversifying markets,” Lula wrote.

The two leaders also discussed global conflicts and their impact on people’s lives, as well as global food and energy security, identifying them as key international challenges.

“While discussing the crisis in the Middle East, we agreed that restrictions on freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait have harmful effects on the global economy,” Lula said.

According to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, Xi rejected what he described as external interference in Brazil’s electoral process and expressed China’s willingness to support Lula’s government.

Xi said that under new global circumstances and challenges, China and Brazil, as leading members of the Global South, should uphold historical justice and the progress of civilization while playing a greater role in reforming and improving the global governance system and defending international fairness and justice.

According to Xi, China “highly values Brazil’s international standing and significant influence, supports the country in safeguarding its sovereignty and independence, opposes foreign interference and will contribute to maintaining regional and global peace and stability.”

Lula also said both leaders criticized the inability of the United Nations Security Council to respond effectively to current international crises and reaffirmed Brazil’s and China’s commitment to multilateralism. They agreed to maintain close coordination on international issues through forums, including the United Nations and the BRICS group.

The conversation comes as Lula has intensified his efforts to diversify Brazil’s trade relationships. In an article published Sunday in The Washington Post, he described the new U.S. tariffs on Brazilian goods as a “strategic mistake” and said Brazil would pursue alternative markets to expand investment and economic partnerships.

July 27 (UPI) — Two locations of a Jewish-owned Toronto bakery chain were damaged overnight, authorities said Sunday, as the incidents are being investigated by Toronto Police Service’s Hate Crime Unit.

The Toronto Police Service said both locations suffered broken windows, but only one appeared to be the result of gunfire.

“At this time, investigators are examining whether the incidents are connected and working to identify those responsible,” the Toronto Police Service said in a statement.

“There have been no reported injuries.”

Founded in 1979, Kiva’s Bagel has three locations in the city.

Duty Insp. Scott Bradbury told reporters that the incidents occurred overnight, sometime between the stores’ closing Saturday and opening Sunday, when police received calls from employees reporting the damage.

Toronto police said they received a report at 8:12 a.m. EDT of a broken window apparently struck by gunfire at the Kiva’s location at Young Street and St. Clair Avenue West. Evidence of a shooting was located, police said, adding there were no reported injuries.

About 20 minutes later, police said they received a report of a broken window at the Kiva’s location at Bathurst Street and Steeles Avenue West.

“We understand that this is concerning for those that work and live in this area, especially members of the Jewish community, and we have all the resources available to thoroughly investigate this matter,” Bradbury said.

“Members of our Hate Crime, members of our guns and gangs integrated task force and our divisional units are here canvassing the area. So members of the public can be aware that there’s going to be an increased presence of police in that area conducting our investigation.”

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow described the incidents as “vile and unacceptable.”

“We all have a responsibility to stand against hate,” she said in an online statement.

“I will always stand with Toronto’s Jewish community against anti-Semitism.”

The incident come after Toronto recorded a sharp decline in reported hate crimes last year.

Toronto police recorded 231 hate-motivated occurrences last year, down nearly 48% from 443 in 2024.

Anti-Jewish occurrences, however, remained the most frequently reported category of hate crime, with 81 incidents, accounting for 35% of all hate crimes and 82% of all religiously motivated hate crimes.

However, police in May said there had been a “concerning” 40% increase in reported hate crimes so far in 2026, compared with the same period last year.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in a statement Sunday that he was following the incidents involving the Kiva’s locations “with concern.”

“While thankfully none were injured, this is the latest attack in a long and horrifying line of violence and intimidation against the Canadian Jewish community,” he said online.

“The Canadian government must confront this anti-Semitic violent wave!”

July 25 (UPI) — The lieutenant governor of Hawaii was indicted this week for allegedly being bribed by a lobbyist aiming to help a company receive a contract for COVID-19 testing.

A grand jury on Friday indicted Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, a former state representative and the lobbyist, among others, for setting up a scheme to contribute $70,000 to Luke’s campaign in exchange for the contract, the Aloha State Daily reported.

The lobbyist, Tobi Solidum, offered the to Luke to retain a contract with the state, and allegedly was looking to bribe her in the future after she accepted two $5,000 checks at the beginning of the scheme.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told Fox News that, in light of the indictment, Luke should depart from office.

“The attorney general announced significant developments in her department’s corruption investigation and has provided an update on their findings,” Green said.

“The lieutenant governor needs to consider formally resigning to address this matter and so that the state of Hawaii can move forward,” he said.

Luke, Solidum, former state Public Utilities Commission chair Leodoloff Asuncion Jr., and state Department of Transportation airports administrator Ford Fuchigami all were indicted for involvement in the scheme.

The indictment alleges that that Luke accepted two checks for $5,000 in January 2022 at a Morton’s Steakhouse, with the promise of two more payments of $35,000 each.

Although Luke has acknowledged accepting the $5,000 checks, she I miss that she never received additional money and never acted on what she was paid for.

July 24 (UPI) — A prominent Supreme Court litigator in Maryland has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for tax evasion and mortgage fraud, prosecutors said Friday.

Thomas Goldstein, who argued some 40 cases in front of the nation’s highest court, was found guilty of eight felonies in a February trial.

Prosecutors say Goldstein, an avid poker player, funneled millions from his law firm to cover gambling debts — and lied to IRS agents to hide them.

“His motivation was singular: pure, unrelenting greed,” prosecutors wrote in court documents. “Whether funneling gambling income through offshore bank accounts, shaving millions off his true law firm income, or lying to his lenders, Goldstein’s crimes always sought to advance and maintain his exorbitant lifestyle, replete with Bentleys, globe-trotting vacations, and a $200,000 watch.”

Goldstein also submitted fraudulent mortgage applications to two lenders, omitting “millions of dollars of liabilities, including more than $14 million he owed for poker-related debts, as well as taxes he owed the IRS,” officials said.

He was approved for a $1.98 million mortgage.

Goldstein, 56, cofounded the widely-popular SCOTUSblog, which follows the Supreme Court.

His trial featured an appearance by Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire, who testified Goldstein assisted him in recovering a gambling debt from a billionaire.

Goldstein was ordered to serve six years in prison, five years probation and pay more than $3.1 million in restitution.

“Thomas Goldstein built a distinguished legal career arguing that the rule of law matters,” said Kelly O. Hayes, the U.S. attorney in Maryland, in a statement. “Yet, as the evidence at trial showed, he repeatedly chose to violate that very principle for his own financial benefit.”

July 24 (UPI) — Nicaragua’s government began the process Friday of reforming the Constitution and the legal framework governing the electoral system, days after President Daniel Ortega said the country “will never again hold elections” that would allow the opposition to return to power.

According to an official statement released by the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity, the proposed constitutional and legal reforms were drafted by the National Assembly’s Constitutional Commission in coordination with the Supreme Electoral Council and will be submitted to the presidency for review and authorization.

Once that stage is completed, the National Assembly will open a consultation process next week on the proposed Partial Reform Law to the Political Constitution before it is debated and put to a vote in the full legislature.

According to the statement, the reforms are part of the “Nicaragua Triumphs in Peace and Unity” plan and are intended to strengthen the constitutional framework to guarantee “peace, well-being, security, stability and the continuity of the achievements of the people as president.”

The announcement came five days after Ortega declared, during the commemoration of the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution’s victory, that Nicaragua “will never again hold elections” so the opposition can “try to take over the government and power,” remarks that drew criticism from the United States, the Organization of American States and opposition organizations.

On Wednesday, National Assembly President Gustavo Porras said Ortega’s remarks did not mean elections would be eliminated, but rather the end of processes that, according to the ruling party, had been influenced by the United States.

“Those elections will never return to this country,” Porras said during a news conference.

“They will be the elections of the Nicaraguan people, national elections to choose our national authorities and our municipal authorities, with the terms established by the Nicaraguan people and with the candidates and conditions established by the Nicaraguan people.”

Porras said the reforms are intended to prevent “the terrible manipulation of the empires and their lackeys” and to guarantee, in his words, “an absolutely clean, transparent and absolutely national election.”

During the same news conference, he said the new legal framework is intended to prevent foreign interests from influencing Nicaragua’s electoral processes and reiterated that “those elections will never return to this country,” referring to what he described as processes controlled by foreign powers.

The National Assembly, controlled by the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front, will be responsible for debating the reforms, which must follow the procedure established for constitutional amendments before taking effect.

July 24 (UPI) — A Georgia teenager changed his plea to guilty Friday in the shooting deaths of four people at Apalachee High School in 2024.

Colt Gray, 16, entered a non-negotiated plea of guilty to 55 charges, including malice murder, aggravated battery and aggravated assault, CBS News reported. He was charged as an adult.

A non-negotiated plea means that though he’s changed his plea to guilty, he has not made a deal with prosecutors concerning his sentencing.

The judge in the case will determine his sentence, which ranges from life with parole to life without parole. The defense and prosecutors will each present a case for their preferred sentence, ABC News reported.

Gray is accused of fatally shooting two students — Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn — and two teachers — Richard Aspinwall and Cristina Irmie — at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., in 2024, when he was 14 years old. He’s also accused of injuring nine others in the shooting.

Breanna Schermerhorn, Mason’s mother, presented a victim impact statement Friday in court, saying her son “was so much more than victim.”

“Mason was kind, compassionate, funny and fiercely protective of others,” she said. “As a child with exceptional needs, he understood what it felt like to struggle and be overlooked by others. Instead of becoming bitter, he became an advocate.”

Breanna Schermerhorn said Gray knew that the shooting was wrong and would impact countless lives.

“I had no doubt in my mind if Cole had actually attended school as he should have, that Mason would have befriended him,” she said.

Prosecutors said Colt Cray used an AR-style rifle his father, Colin Gray, gave to him for Christmas despite being warned by sheriff’s deputies that his son had threatened an attack at school.

In May, a jury found him guilty of 29 charges, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Colin Gray was the first adult charged in Georgia in connection with a school shooting by their child.

July 22 (UPI) — The man who rushed a stage to attack author Salman Rushdie will face federal terrorism charges in a trial that began Wednesday in New York.

Hadi Matar, 28, was found guilty of murder in state court last year and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the August 2022 attack that left Rushdie blind in one eye and without use of one hand.

The federal case will determine if the attack was an act of terrorism and if he was carrying out a fatwa against Rushdie, set by the former Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, or if it was for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia in Lebanon, or neither.

Khomeini, then the ayatollah of Iran, created the fatwa in 1989 because of Rushdie’s novel, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988. Hardline Muslims considered the book blasphemous because of the way it portrayed the Prophet Muhammad.

The attack on Rushdie happened at the Chautauquah Institution in Chautauquah, N.Y., as he was delivering a speech for more than 1,000 people on writers in political exile. Matar rushed the stage and stabbed Rushdie more than a dozen times.

Matar is a U.S. citizen of Lebanese origin who was raised in New Jersey and California. His friends and relatives said that after some professional and academic frustration, he became religious. His mother told The New York Times that she could not support him.

Rushdie, 79, wrote and published in 2024, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, a memoir about the attack and his recovery.

Matar had written in his notebook a list of pros and cons to attacking Rushdie. The Times reported that a page provided by prosecutors showed that he wrote one reason not to do it was: “Could make life worse. But I doubt that. It kind of sucks already.”