spiral

Kirk Killing Sparks Fears of ‘Vicious Spiral’ in Political Violence

The assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk is seen as a significant event amidst rising political violence in the U. S. Experts believe this may lead to further unrest in a country already divided. Mike Jensen, a researcher, noted that in the first half of the year, there were about 150 politically motivated attacks, nearly double from the previous year. He warned that the situation could escalate into wider civil unrest if not controlled, viewing the assassination as a potential trigger for more violence.

Experts attribute the rise in violence to several factors, including economic insecurity, racial and ethnic tensions, and aggressive political rhetoric. The divide in politics has grown from policy disagreements to personal animosity, driven by social media and conspiracy theories. A report by Reuters indicated that there had been over 300 cases of political violence in the U. S. since the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, reflecting the highest level of such violence in decades. Jon Lewis from George Washington University commented that extreme political violence is becoming more common, regardless of clear motives.

Lilliana Mason, a political science professor, emphasized the tendency for people to retaliate rather than initiate violence. Kirk, a prominent figure in the conservative movement and ally of former President Trump, was shot while speaking at an event, resulting in a panic among the crowd of 3,000. As of Thursday, authorities had not arrested a suspect, and the FBI was investigating. Following Kirk’s death, there has been a call for increased security from many lawmakers.

“Vicious Spiral”

Trump was involved in two assassination attempts last year. In one attempt, the shooter was killed by authorities, and in the other, a man with a rifle was arrested near a golf club where Trump was playing. His trial has started this week. This year, two significant attacks by right-wing conspiracy theorists also occurred. In June, a Christian nationalist killed a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband. In August, a gunman targeting the CDC in Atlanta killed a police officer.

There have been at least 21 deaths from political violence since January, including 14 from an attack in New Orleans by a jihadist linked to the Islamic State. In May, a pro-Palestinian activist killed two Israeli embassy employees, stating it was for Gaza. Additionally, in July, a group of militants attacked an immigration detention center in Texas, injuring a police officer.

Since taking office, Trump has reduced efforts to combat domestic extremism, focusing on immigration instead. A researcher from the University of Maryland warns that the political climate is dangerous, with increasing violence from those who oppose recent government changes.

with information from Reuters

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As Marines reach L.A., experts say: ‘This could spiral out of control’

After days of fiery protest against federal immigration raids, Los Angeles residents and officials braced for the arrival of hundreds of U.S. Marines on Tuesday in what some called an unprecedented and potentially explosive deployment of active-duty troops with hazy mission objectives.

As Trump administration officials vowed to crack down on “rioters, looters and thugs,” state and local officials decried the mobilization of 700 troops from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, calling it a clear violation of law and civility. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass even likened the deployment to “an experiment” that nobody asked to be a part of.

According to the U.S. Northern Command, which oversees troops based in the United States, the Marines will join “seamlessly” with National Guard troops under “Task Force 51” — the military’s designation of the Los Angeles forces. The Marines, like the Guard, they said, “have been trained in de-escalation, crowd control and rules for the use of force.”

Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot told The Times on Tuesday that the Marines in Los Angeles were limited in their authority, deployed only to defend federal property and federal personnel. They do not have arrest power, he said.

“They are not law enforcement officers, and they do not have the authority to make arrests,” Guillot said. “There are very unique situations where they could detain someone … but they could only detain that person long enough to hand it off to a proper law enforcement official.”

But military experts have raised practical concerns about the unclear parameters of the Marines’ objective. They also warn that sending in Marines without a request from a governor — a highly unusual step that has not been made since the civil rights era in 1965 — could potentially inflame the situation.

U.S. Marines are trained for overseas conflict zones, with deployments in recent decades in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. But the roles they have played in those nations — including providing artillery support to coalition forces fighting against Islamic State militants and advising and training local security forces — are quite different from what they might face as they confront protesters in Los Angeles.

“Marines are trained to fight, that’s the first thing they’re trained to do,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a military research group. “So I think you do have a little bit of mismatch in skills here.”

“In a crisis, when they’re forced to make a snap decision, do they have enough training and experience to make the one that de-escalates the situation rather than escalates it? I think that’s a question mark,” Kavanagh said.

Hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional lawmakers Tuesday that the mobilization of troops to Los Angeles to curtail protests would cost $134 million, President Trump told U.S. Army troops at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina that he deployed thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines “to protect federal law enforcement from the attacks of a vicious and violent mob.”

But city and state officials have repeatedly said that troops are not necessary to contain the protests.

On Monday night, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the deployment of Marines “a blatant abuse of power” and filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the deployment.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell warned that — “absent clear coordination” — the prospect of Marines descending on Los Angeles “presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city.”

However, Guillot said coordinating among different agencies “hasn’t been a challenge to us at all.”

“I think people understand that we’re there for a very specific purpose,” he said. “We’re very highly trained, professional and disciplined, and people have been very cooperative so far.”

By Tuesday afternoon, all 700 Marines had arrived in the Greater Los Angeles area, Guillot said. At least one convoy of U.S. Marine vehicles from Twentynine Palms had arrived at Orange County’s Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach under police escort.

The mobilized Marines and National Guard troops will be stationed in facilities across the region, including Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and a number of National Guard armories, Guillot said. He didn’t provide further details.

Over the last few days, National Guard members have already been stationed at a few federal buildings and have accompanied Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on missions, Guillot said. He expects Marines will be mobilized on the ground Wednesday, if not Tuesday evening, after wrapping up final training.

It is rare for U.S. Marines to be sent to an American city. The last time they were deployed in the U.S. was after riots broke out in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of four LAPD officers who were recorded beating a Black motorist, Rodney G. King.

Back then, President George H.W. Bush acted at the request of California Gov. Pete Wilson and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley after what The Times described as “three days of the worst urban unrest in Los Angeles history.”

Deploying Marines to Los Angeles is not only a dramatic escalation of events, but also potentially illegal, according to Abigail Hall, a defense scholar and senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a nonprofit think tank based in Oakland.

Bringing in the Marines to L.A., she said, violates the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law enacted after the Civil War, which forbids active-duty federal forces to provide regular civilian law enforcement unless authorized by Congress or the president invokes the Insurrection Act.

Trump has yet to invoke the Insurrection Act.

“I don’t see any way that this is not a direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act,” Hall said. “We’re not at war, we’ve not invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 — and even if we did, that’s what the National Guard is for. It’s not what the Marines are for.”

Kavanagh didn’t comment on the deployment’s legality, but called it unprecedented in modern times. She worried that could make its mission and parameters unclear for troops.

The last time the military was deployed without a governor’s request or approval, military experts said, was to facilitate court-ordered desegregation in Southern states during the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Kori Schake, senior fellow and director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said the Trump administration appeared to be trying out a new way to get around the restrictions on domestic law enforcement by the American military.

“The authority the president is claiming is his constitutional authority under what’s called the Take Care clause … he’s claiming the federal responsibility to protect federal agents and federal property operations. That authority has never been tested in court.”

Such an approach, Schake said, was fraught with more than legal risk.

“If violence burgeons, tempers are running high, the Marines are armed, this could spiral out of control,” Schake said.

The L.A. deployment, Kavanagh said, could also be a jarring mission for Marines who signed up to go abroad and defend America’s freedom — and instead are facing off with fellow citizens.

“Does everyone know the rules of engagement?” Kavanagh asked of the L.A. mission. “Are they clear?”

She also worried that the troops deployed to L.A. are likely to have some of the most limited experience. Guard members are not full time and undergo less frequent training, and Marines retain the youngest service members of all the military branches. Nearly three-quarters of active-duty enlisted members of the Marine Corps are 25 or younger, according to a 2022 Department of Defense report. The average age is 24, compared with 27 for the Army and 28 for the Air Force.

Schake, however, pointed out that although Marines may be the youngest cohort in the military, they are well trained in de-escalation tactics.

“The wars that the United States has been fighting for the last 25 years have required incredible discipline on the use of force by the military in Afghanistan and in Iraq in particular, so they are trained for de-escalating conflict,” Schake said. “I think actually, it’s quite possible they’re better trained at de-escalation of violence than the police forces are.”

In that sense, Schake said she was less worried about violence on the streets than about “creeping authoritarianism.”

“The way the president, that Homeland secretary, the secretary of Defense, the White House press spokesman are talking is incendiary and reckless,” Schake said.

“They’re calling the city of Los Angeles — where 1 in 40 Americans live — a hellscape, and everybody in the city a criminal. They’re describing protests that are really peaceful as an insurrection. And that’s a very reckless thing to do in a difficult situation.”

Times staff writers Hayley Smith and Christopher Buchanan contributed to this report.

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UK ‘secretly’ prepares for direct attack by Russia & updates decades-old emergency plans as World War 3 fears spiral

BRITAIN is “secretly” preparing for outright war with Russia, it is claimed.

Government officials are reportedly being ordered to update decades old contingency plans amid fears the nation is not ready for a potential attack from the Kremlin.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaving 10 Downing Street.

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Sir Keir Starmer’s government is said to be updating contingency plansCredit: Getty
Troops marching towards Red Square in Moscow.

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Russian troops march towards the Red Square last weekCredit: Getty
Vladimir Putin listening during a meeting.

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Russian President Vladimir PutinCredit: AP

The classified “home defence plan” would lay out how Downing Street will respond if Vladimir Putin declares war on the UK, including putting the Royal Family into bunkers.

Ministers worry Britain could be outfought by Russia on the battlefield, but also poorly defended at home as things stand.

Experts have warned the country’s national infrastructure is vulnerable ahead of the release of Labour’s Strategic Defence Review – an examination of the Armed Forces.

It comes as the former Soviet nation continues to threaten the UK over its support for Ukraine – and ministers last month officially designated it a national security threat for the first time.

The ongoing conflict, which began with a Russian invasion in February 2022, could soon see British troops deployed on the frontlines.

The classified plan by the Cabinet Office’s Resilience Directorate – which was last updated in 2005 – would set out a strategy for the days immediately after a strike on British shores, including from nuclear warheads.

For the first time, it’s understood the document – unlikely to ever be released to the public – will address cyber warfare.

It will also direct PM Sir Keir Starmer on how to run a wartime government, as well as strategies for travel networks, courts and the postal system, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The Cabinet Office ran a risk assessment in January in which it modelled a scenario in which a hostile foreign state launched various types of attack on the UK’s infrastructure.

It found any such successful strike could be devastating.

Meanwhile, defence officials have warned Britain must develop its own version of Israel‘s Iron Dome to protect against missiles.

A senior RAF official said last month if Russia had attacked the UK in the same way as it had Ukraine more than three years ago – within hours missiles would have broken through defences and destroyed key targets.

There is particular concern for the country’s five active nuclear power stations, which if damaged by strikes could release radioactive material across the country, resulting in long-term impact, according to the assessment.

The plan is based on the War Book, a Cold War dossier of instructions for government response to nuclear attacks.

Under such plans, Britain could be divided into 12 zones, each governed by Cabinet ministers, and food rationed.

A Government spokesman said: “The UK has robust plans in place for a range of potential emergencies that have been developed and tested over many years.”

The Sun has approached the Ministry of Defence for comment.

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Security guards kidnapped from gold mine found dead as 13 bodies are discovered in ‘spiral of uncontrolled violence’

THIRTEEN security guards kidnapped from a major gold mine have been found dead after being kept hostage for a week.

The security staff disappeared in the mountains near Pataz, northern Peru, as bloody mining turf war grips the region.

Security personnel assisting a person in a dark setting.

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Rescuers searched for the guards for a week in the mountain shaftsCredit: AP
SWAT officers recovering bodies from a mine.

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Police eventually found the bodies of all thirteen of the abducted workersCredit: AP

The group has been sent out to confront a group of illegal miners in the area, but were attacked and snatched.

Throughout the week, the gang sent threatening messages to the victims’ families.

The mining company that employed the workers, La Poderosa, said search-and-rescue teams recovered their remains on Sunday.

The company said on Sunday: “This morning, after intense search efforts, the police rescue team was able to recover the bodies of the 13 workers who were kidnapped […] by illegal miners in collusion with criminal element.”

It continued: “The spiral of uncontrolled violence in Pataz is occurring despite the declaration of a state of emergency and the presence of a large police contingent which, unfortunately, has not been able to halt the deterioration of security conditions in the area.”

Peru‘s interior ministry said organised crime investigators were probing the deaths, and vowed its agents were “fully empowered to use their firearms if the circumstances warrant it”.

In the city of Trujillo, west of Pataz, some of the victims’ relatives waited for the bodies of their loved ones to be transferred to the morgue there.

Abraham Dominguez, whose son Alexander was found dead, told channel Canal N: “We want justice, that this doesn’t just stop here.”

Peru declared a state of emergency last month after being plagued by a wave of violent crime – with the mining industry a particularly vicious battleground.

La Poderosa said 39 of its workers had been killed by criminal groups fighting for control of the mines around Pataz since it began operations there in the 1980s.

Last video shows Aziz Ziriat’s plans to hike Italian mountain with pal Samuel Harris before pair vanished on hike

In December 2023, illegal miners attacked the same site with explosives, killing nine people and wounding at least 20.

A gang armed with explosives and other weapons burst into the mine, taking four people hostage.

Bodies recovered from outside the mine showed signs of burns resulting from the detonation of explosive devices.

The attackers raided the mine, “violently confronting internal security personnel from the company“, Peru’s interior ministry said at the time.

At least seven arrests were made and weapons seized following that attack.

Aerial view of the La Esperanza gold mine in Peru where a fire killed at least 27 workers.

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A mine in Peru, which is one of the world’s foremost excavators of gold and copperCredit: AFP

La Poderosa drafted in more security guards in response to the string of attacks.

Following the 2023 assault, Angela Grossheim, the head of the mining industry group SNMPE, said: “Formal mining is under attack.

“Illegal mining today is the country’s main illicit activity, even bigger than drug trafficking.”

Peru is a major gold and copper supplier for the world.

It has an unusual tolerance for illegal miners, which it allows to operation with some protections as they plan to legalize their operations.

Illegal mining boomed into a lucrative industry as the metals became more lucrative and new mining techniques emerged.

The Peruvian government has struggled to mount a response – and the turf wars are increasingly lawless.

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