Former President Obama says that the United States is at “an inflection point” following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and that President Donald Trump has further divided the country rather than work to bring people together.
“There are no ifs, ands or buts about it: The central premise of our democratic system is that we have to be able to disagree and have sometimes really contentious debates without resorting to violence,” Obama said Tuesday night during an event in Erie, Pennsylvania, hosted by the Jefferson Education Society, according to a transcript obtained by The Associated Press.
“And when it happens to some, but even if you think they’re, quote, unquote, on the other side of the argument, that’s a threat to all of us,” he said. “And we have to be clear and forthright in condemning them.”
Obama has kept somewhat of a low profile in his post-presidency. Responding to a moderator’s questions Tuesday, he addressed Trump’s rhetoric after Kirk’s assassination, as well as other administrative actions.
The Democrat spoke about his own leadership following the 2015 slaying of nine Black parishioners at a Charleston, South Carolina, church, as well as Republican then-President George W. Bush’s actions following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He said he sees the role of a president in a crisis “to constantly remind us of the ties that bind us together.”
The sentiment among Trump and his aides following Kirk’s killing of calling political opponents “vermin, enemies … speaks to a broader problem,” Obama said.
Kirk, a dominant figure in conservative politics, became a confidant of Trump after founding Arizona-based Turning Point USA, one of the nation’s largest political organizations. Trump has escalated threats to crack down on what he describes as the “radical left” following Kirk’s assassination, stirring fears his Republican administration is trying to harness outrage over the killing to suppress political opposition.
This kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy
— Former President Obama
Trump’s White House on Wednesday responded to Obama’s remarks by blaming him for animosity in the country, calling him “the architect of modern political division in America.”
“Obama used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other, and following his presidency more Americans felt Obama divided the country than felt he united it,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
Obama on Tuesday also referenced Trump’s recent deployment of National Guard troops in Washington and ID checks by federal agents in Los Angeles. He urged citizens and elected officials to closely monitor the norm-busting decisions.
“What you’re seeing, I think, is the sense that through executive power, many of the guardrails and norms that I thought I had to abide by as president of the United States, that George Bush thought he had to abide by as president of the United States, that suddenly those no longer apply,” Obama said. “And that makes this a dangerous moment.”
Shortly after Kirk’s death, Obama wrote in a post on X that he and his wife, Michelle, were praying for Kirk’s family, adding: “This kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy.”
Obama said that he disagreed with many of Kirk’s stances, noting that his position “doesn’t negate the fact that what happened was a tragedy and that I mourn for him and his family.”
Calling political violence “anathema to what it means to be a democratic country,” Obama also mentioned the June shooting deaths of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband in their home.
Obama also applauded Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s calls for civility in leading the public response to Kirk’s killing. Obama said that while he and the Republican governor “disagree on a whole bunch of stuff,” Cox’s messaging around how to respond to Kirk’s death shows “that it is possible for us to disagree while abiding by a basic code of how we should engage in public debate.”
Syria, Jordan and the United States have announced plans to restore security in Suwayda, where sectarian violence in July claimed the lives of more than 250 people.
“The roadmap for a solution in Suwayda includes holding accountable those who attacked civilians, continuing humanitarian and medical aid, compensating those affected, ensuring the return of displaced persons, restoring basic services, deploying local Interior Ministry forces to protect roads, uncovering the fate of missing persons and returning abductees,” Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said in a news release on Tuesday after meeting with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi and US Syria’s envoy Tom Barrack in Damascus.
Al-Shibani also said the government was working on a plan for the return of those displaced by the violence, who number more than 160,000, according to UN figures. He did not give details on how these steps would be achieved.
The new plan includes proposals to launch an internal reconciliation process. Violence erupted on July 13 between Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze factions in the southern Syrian province.
Safadi, for his part, said the parties agreed on a Syrian-Jordanian-American plan “to overcome the events in Suwayda under the framework of Syria’s unity and stability.”
“We want Syria to stabilise, recover and rebuild after years of destruction and suffering, and to start practical steps toward a brighter future for all Syrians,” he added.
Jordan borders Suwayda province and has spent years fighting drug and weapons smuggling from its northern neighbour.
Sectarian violence
The fighting broke out in July following the abduction of a Druze truck driver on a public highway, and later drew in Bedouin tribal fighters from other parts of the country. A ceasefire was established after a week of violence in the Druze-majority province.
The government forces were deployed to restore order, but were accused of siding with the Bedouins.
Israel launched dozens of air attacks on convoys of government forces in Suwayda and even struck the Syrian Ministry of Defence headquarters in the capital Damascus. Israel has pledged to protect Syria’s Druze minority, which it sees as potential allies.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in August that his country was engaged in talks to establish a demilitarised zone in southern Syria.
Suwayda witnessed deadly clashes between the Druze and Bedouin tribes in July. The region has since remained calm [File: Getty Images]
After opposition fighters toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel deployed troops to the buffer zone on the Golan Heights. Israel still occupies the Golan Heights, recognised as Syrian territory.
Israel has also repeatedly bombed Syria since al-Assad’s fall.
Meanwhile, Syria’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Damascus and Washington were working to reach security understandings with Israel as part of a plan for stability announced earlier in the day with US and Jordanian support for violence-hit Suwayda province.
“The United States, in consultation with the Syrian government, will work to reach security understandings with Israel concerning southern Syria that address the legitimate security concerns of both Syria and Israel while emphasising Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement outlining the roadmap.
Confidence-building
No concrete steps were released Tuesday for how the goals discussed between Jordan, Syria and the US would be accomplished.
“Suwayda belongs to all its components, and it is the state’s duty to restore trust among them, return the displaced, and there is a determination to restore normal life to the governorate,” al-Shibani said in the news release on Tuesday.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Safadi said Syria’s security is an extension of Jordan’s security, adding that “all Syrians are equal citizens in rights and duties within their state”.
He stressed the need to hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable and deliver humanitarian assistance.
The US envoy Barrack said he came to Syria “as a representative of the president of the United States and the secretary of state in a difficult moment in the region and the world.”
Barrack said confidence-building “takes inches, centimetres and decades to build and can be lost in an instant.”
“We are going to hit speed bumps or we are going to have bus stops along the way,” he added.
Tuesday’s discussions build on earlier rounds hosted by Amman in July and August that focused on consolidating a ceasefire in Suwayda and finding a resolution to the conflict there. Suwayda has observed a ceasefire since July 19.
Remember when the notion of government censorship in the U.S. seemed like the plot of an Orwellian novel, or something that happened in other places, countries where masked militia kidnap people off the street and disappear them? Our 1st Amendment rights as Americans seemed to guarantee that would never happen here. The state could not take away our free speech.
It turns out we don’t need a state-sponsored crackdown to punish those who express sentiments that offend, because the private sector has stepped in to do the job. An office supply store, a news network and an airline carrier are among companies that recently fired staff who made comments about influencer Charlie Kirk’s death that were interpreted as celebratory, insensitive or blaming the conservative activist’s polarizing viewpoints for his targeted killing.
Now Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah says that she was unfairly fired over thoughts she expressed following the assassination of Kirk last week in Utah. She wrote: “The Post accused my measured Bluesky posts of being ‘unacceptable’, ‘gross misconduct’ and of endangering the physical safety of colleagues — charges without evidence, which I reject completely as false.”
“They rushed to fire me without even a conversation,” Attiah said. “This was not only a hasty overreach, but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and rigor the Post claims to uphold.” She said that in her posts she exercised “restraint even as I condemned hatred and violence.”
Her comments were largely about gun violence and issues of race. Attiah mentioned Kirk directly in just one post, paraphrasing from a comment he made about Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and former Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, both of whom are Black. “’Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot’ — Charlie Kirk,” she wrote.
Attiah didn’t celebrate the death of Kirk in her posts or make light of his slaying, but she didn’t mourn him either. In the current political environment, that alone could be enough to make her employer nervous, even compared to all the other truly awful stuff out there.
Sadly, the cruel, inhumane and politicized responses that followed Kirk’s tragic killing shouldn’t surprise anyone. Social media behaved as it always does — as a repository for every good, bad and really bad impulse experience following a tragedy or crisis.
The same quotient of 20% civility, 80% ugliness enveloped X, YouTube, TikTok and the like when three months ago Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were assassinated in their home in a politically motivated attack. Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also allegedly shot by the same suspect in their home but survived.
The difference back in June? There wasn’t a mass movement to fire, cancel or silence those who minimized the tragic killings or, worse, turned them into a trolling opportunity. Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah blamed the killings on the left — “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way,” he wrote on X — and posted a picture of suspect Vance Boelter with the caption “Nightmare on Waltz Street.” It was a crass reference to Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, who was Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 presidential election. Lee (who is now publicly mourning Kirk’s death) was taking his cues from the top.
President Trump’s short condemnation of Hortman’s killing on Truth Social stated that “such horrific violence will not be tolerated.” There was no lengthy eulogy, he did not attend the funeral, and when asked the day after Hortman’s killing if he had called Walz, the president said, “I could be nice and call, but why waste time?”
In response to Kirk’s killing, Trump issued an order to lower American flags to half-staff at the White House, all public buildings, U.S. embassies and military posts. He announced he would posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And during an appearance Friday on “Fox & Friends,” he promised vengeance against the left for Kirk’s killing, though the suspect — let alone his motives — were still unknown at the time.
“I’ll tell you something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less,” Trump said. “The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. They don’t want to see crime. They’re saying, ‘We don’t want these people coming in. We don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street.’ The radicals on the left are the problem. And they’re vicious, and they’re horrible, and they’re politically savvy.”
The prospect of retribution from a thin-skinned leader leaves no mystery as to why major media outlets such as the Post, “60 Minutes” and MSNBC appear to be reshaping their newsrooms to be less critical of the current administration. The same now goes for break rooms, shop floors and office cubicles across all sectors of American working life. It’s not the Big Brother scenario envisioned in George Orwell’s cautionary tale about a totalitarian state, “1984,” but it’s a start.
BASKING RIDGE, N.J. — After years of complaints from the right about “cancel culture” from the left, some conservatives are seeking to upend the lives and careers of those who they believe disparaged Charlie Kirk after his death. They’re going after companies, educators, news outlets, political rivals and others they judge as promoting hate speech.
Just days after the conservative activist’s death, a campaign by public officials and others on the right has led to the firing or other punishment of teachers, an Office Depot employee, government workers, a TV pundit and the expectation of more dismissals coming. A Florida reporter was suspended for a question posed to a Republican congressman.
This past weekend, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted that American Airlines had grounded pilots who he said were celebrating Kirk’s death.
“This behavior is disgusting and they should be fired,” Duffy said on the social media site X.
As elected officials and conservative influencers lionize Kirk as a warrior for free expression who championed provocative opinions, they’re also weaponizing the tactics they saw being used to malign their movement — the calls for firings, the ostracism, the pressure to watch what you say.
Such tactics raise a fundamental challenge for a nation that by many accounts appears to be dangerously splintered by politics and a sense of moral outrage that social media helps to fuel.
The aftermath of Kirk’s death has increasingly become a test of the public tolerance over political differences. Republicans are pushing not only to punish the alleged killer but those whose words they believe contributed to the death or dishonored it. At the same time, some liberals on social media have criticized those, such as actor Kristin Chenoweth, who expressed sympathy online over Kirk’s death.
“This pattern that we’ve seen for decades seems to be happening much more now and at this moment than it ever has before,” said Adam Goldstein of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. He dates the urge to persecute people for their private views on tragedies at least to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “If there was ever time to support the better angels of our nature, it’s now.”
Goldstein noted that it’s unpopular speech, such as people applauding Kirk’s shooting, that stands as the greatest test of acceptance of the 1st Amendment — especially when government officials get involved. “The only time you’re really supporting free speech is when it’s unpopular,” Goldstein said. “There’s no one out there trying to stop people from loving puppies and bunnies.”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, has cautioned that the motive for the slaying has not been confirmed. He said the suspect in custody clearly identifies with the political left and had expressed dislike of Kirk before the shooting. But he and other authorities also say the suspect was not known to have been politically engaged.
Kirk was seen as an architect of President Trump’s 2024 election win, helping to expand the Republican outreach to younger voters. That means many conservatives see the remarks by liberals as fomenting violence rather than acts of political expression.
“I think President Trump sees this as an attack on his political movement,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on NBC as he noted the two assassination attempts against Trump as well as Kirk’s killing. “This is unique and different. This is an attack on a movement by using violence. And that’s the way most Republicans see this.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who is running for governor, called on social media for the firings of an assistant dean at Middle Tennessee State University and professors at Austin Peay State University and Cumberland University.
All three lost their jobs for comments deemed inappropriate for expressing a lack of sympathy, or even for expressing pleasure, in the shooting of Kirk. One said that Kirk “spoke his fate into existence,” an apparent reference to the activist’s comments that some view as having fueled America’s current environment of political fury.
Because conservatives previously said they felt “canceled” by liberals for their views, Trump on his first day back in office signed an executive order prohibiting everyone in the federal government from engaging in conduct that would “unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.”
In February at the Munich Security Conference, Vice President JD Vance criticized the preceding Biden administration for encouraging “private companies to silence people who dared to utter what turned out to be an obvious truth” regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. He assailed European countries as censoring political speech.
“Under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree,” Vance said at the time.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has cracked down on immigrants and academics for their speech.
Goldstein noted that Trump’s State Department in the minutes after Kirk’s death warned it would revoke the visas of any foreigners who celebrated Kirk’s killing. “I can’t think of another moment where the United States has come out to warn people of their impending cancellation,” Goldstein said.
The glimmer of bipartisan agreement in the aftermath of Kirk’s shooting was in a sense that social media was fueling the violence and misinformation in dangerous ways.
“I can’t emphasize enough the damage that social media and the internet is doing to all of us,” Cox, the Utah governor, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He added: “The most powerful companies in the history of the world have figured out how to hack our brains [to] get us addicted to outrage.”
But many Republican lawmakers have also targeted traditional news media that criticized Trump for contributing to a toxic political climate for his consistent rhetoric painting anyone against him as an enemy.
On Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) blamed news outlets for having guests on who called Trump a fascist or compared him to Hitler.
Such statements have been born out of Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss, his pardoning of Jan. 6 rioters and a range of other actions, including deportations, deployment of the National Guard in American cities, mass firings of federal employees and his scorn for the historical limits on the power of the presidency.
But for Britt, those expressions were unfair, inaccurate and triggered violence.
“There must be consequences with regards to people spewing that type of hate and celebration in the face of this,” Britt said. “And I believe that there will be.”
Boak and Riccardi write for the Associated Press and reported from Basking Ridge and Denver, respectively. AP writer Jonathan Mattise in Nashville contributed to this report.
The governor of Utah has been criticised after he said he prayed that the man suspected of shooting Charlie Kirk “wouldn’t be one of us.” In Friday’s briefing, US officials revealed that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson had been arrested and that he had engraved messages on bullets.
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — As the nation comes to grips with the slaying of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, two candidates in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park are going door to door seeking to win a legislative seat left open by another political attack that killed a longtime state lawmaker and her husband.
The troubling political violence is a clear concern along Brooklyn Park’s tree-lined streets, where voters will head to the polls Tuesday to fill a state House seat left vacant by the fatal home-invasion killing of their neighbor, Rep. Melissa Hortman. The Democrat was first elected in 2005 and served as Minnesota’s Democratic House leader before her death in June.
Hortman, her husband and their dog were killed early on the morning of June 14 in their Brooklyn Park home in what investigators say was a politically motivated attack.
Vance Boelter, 57, faces federal and state murder charges in the Hortmans’ deaths, as well as attempted murder and other charges in the shooting of another Democratic Minnesota lawmaker, Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, who both survived a shooting attack at their home the same day.
A neighborhood in fear
The Republican candidate seeking Hortman’s seat, real estate agent Ruth Bittner, noticed early in her campaign that people in the neighborhood where Hortman was killed seemed afraid to open their doors.
“We are in very, very scary times, and we definitely need to get out of this trajectory that we’re on here,” Bittner said.
Bittner said the political violence — particularly since the Wednesday killing of Kirk as he spoke at a Utah college event — briefly gave her pause about running for public office. But she concluded that “we can’t cower.”
“We have to move forward as a country and we have to, you know, embrace the system that we have of representative government, and we have to just do it, you know?” she said. “There’s no way to solve this problem if we shrink back in fear.”
The special election also comes less than a month after two schoolchildren were killed when a shooter opened fire on a Minneapolis Catholic church during Mass. The Aug. 27 shooting injured 21 others, most of them students at Annunciation Catholic School.
Officials identified the shooter as 23-year-old Robin Westman, a former student who they say fired more than a hundred rounds through the windows of the church. Westman was found dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot.
“It’s definitely come up, you know, folks have referenced the recent shootings, Annunciation and Charlie Kirk,” the Democratic candidate, Xp Lee, a former Brooklyn Park City Council member, said Thursday as he knocked on doors in the district. “Just yesterday, I was outdoor knocking, [and] a couple of people mentioned it.”
Lee said Hortman was a neighbor whom he would often see walking her beloved golden retriever, Gilbert, around Brooklyn Park. He said she met with him to offer advice when he ran for City Council.
“I can’t think of a better way to honor her than to go to the Capitol and do my best in the seat,” he said.
Kirk killing aftermath
The shooting of Kirk, which happened in front of hundreds of people and was captured on video and widely circulated on social media, has rattled the nation and drawn condemnation from across the political spectrum. Officials announced Friday that the suspected gunman, Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken into custody Thursday night, and investigators said they believe he acted alone.
“An open forum for political dialogue and disagreement was upended by a horrific act of targeted violence,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a post on X. “In America, we don’t settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint.”
Hoffman, the lawmaker who was shot and wounded in June, and his family also issued a statement denouncing the attack on Kirk.
“America is broken, and political violence endangers our lives and democracy,” the Hoffmans’ statement said. “The assassination of Charlie Kirk today is only the latest act that our country cannot continue to accept. Our leaders of both parties must not only tone down their own rhetoric, but they must begin to call out extreme, aggressive and violent dialog that foments these attacks on our republic and freedom.”
Lee described the political climate in the wake of Kirk’s killing as a “charged atmosphere.”
“So I want to do what I can to really bring that down,” he said. That includes supporting a ban on semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, he said.
Lee keeps a shotgun for home defense, he said, but assault-style rifles “are weapons of, like, war that really we don’t need on our streets.”
Vancleave and Beck write for the Associated Press and reported from Brooklyn Park and Omaha.
Two assassination attempts on President Trump. The assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband and the wounding of others. The shooting death of a top healthcare executive. The killing of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington. The storming of the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob intent on forcing the nation’s political leaders to their will.
And, on Wednesday, the fatal shooting of one of the nation’s most prominent conservative political activists — close Trump ally Charlie Kirk — as he spoke at a public event on a university campus.
If it wasn’t already clear from all those other incidents, Kirk’s killing put it in sharp relief: The U.S. is in a new era of political violence, one that is starker and more visceral than any other in decades — perhaps, experts said, since the fraught days of 1968, when two of the most prominent figures in the civil rights movement, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, were both assassinated in a matter of months.
“We’re very clearly in a moment where the temperature of our political discourse is extremely high,” said Ruth Braunstein, an associate professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University who has studied religion and the far right in modern politics. “Part of what we see when that happens are these outbursts of political violence — where people come to believe that violence is the only solution.”
While the exact motives of the person who shot Kirk are still unknown, Braunstein and other experts on political violence said the factors shaping the current moment are clear — and similar to those that shaped past periods of political violence.
Intense economic discomfort and inequity. Sharp divisions between political camps. Hyperbolic political rhetoric. Political leaders who lack civility and constantly work to demonize their opponents. A democratic system that many see as broken, and a hopelessness about where things are headed.
“There are these moments of great democratic despair, and we don’t think the political system is sufficiently responsive, sufficiently legitimate, sufficiently attentive, and that’s certainly going on in this particular moment,” said Jon Michaels, a UCLA law professor who teaches about the separation of powers and co-authored “Vigilante Nation: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Our Democracy.”
“If we think there are no political solutions, there are no legal solutions, people are going to resort to forms of self help that are really, really deeply troubling.”
Michaels said the country has been here before, but also that he worries such cycles of violence are occurring faster today and with shorter breaks in between — that while “we’ve been bitterly divided” for years, those divisions have now “completely left the arena of ideas and debate and contestation, and become much more kinetic.”
Michaels said he is still shaken by all the “defenses or explanations or rationalizations” that swirled around the country after the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City in December — which some people argued was somehow justified by their displeasure with UnitedHealthcare’s policies or frustration with the American healthcare system.
That the suspect, Luigi Mangione, would attract almost cult-like adoration in some circles seemed like an alarming shift in an already polarized nation, Michaels said.
“I understand it is not the beliefs of the typical person walking down the street, but it’s seeping into our culture slowly but surely,” he said — and in a way that makes him wonder, “Where are we going to be in four or five years?”
People across America were asking similar questions about Wednesday’s shooting, wondering in which direction it might thrust the nation’s political discourse in the days ahead.
How will Kirk’s many conservative fans — including legions of young people — respond? How will leaders, including Trump, react? Will there be a shared recognition that such violence does no good, or fresh attempts at retaliation and violence?
Leaders from both parties seemed interested in averting the latter. One after another, they denounced political violence and defended Kirk’s right — everyone’s right — to speak on politics in safety, regardless of whether their message is uplifting or odious.
Democrats were particularly effusive in their denunciations, with Gov. Gavin Newsom — a chief Trump antagonist — calling the shooting “disgusting, vile, and reprehensible.” Former President Obama also weighed in, writing, “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy.”
Many seemed dismissive of such messages. In the comments on Obama’s post, many blamed Obama and other Democrats for rhetoric demonizing Republicans — and Trump and his followers in particular — as Nazis or racists or fascists, suggesting that the violence against Kirk was a predictable outcome of such pitched condemnations.
Trump echoed those thoughts himself Wednesday night, blaming the “radical left” for disparaging Kirk and other conservatives and bringing on such violence.
Others seemed to celebrate Kirk’s killing or suggest it was justified in some way given his own hyperbolic remarks from the past. They dug up interviews where the conservative provocateur demonized those on the left, suggested liberal ideas constituted a threat to Western civilization, and even said that some gun violence in the country was “worth it” if it meant the freedom to bear arms.
Experts said it is important to contextualize this moment within American history, but with an awareness of the modern factors shaping it in unique ways. It’s also important to understand that there are ways to combat such violence from spreading, they said.
Peter Mancall, a history professor at USC, has delved into major moments of political violence in early American history, and said a lot of it stemmed from “some perception of grievance.”
The same appears to be true today, he said. “There are moments when people do things that they know are violating their own sense of right or wrong, and something has pushed them to it, “ he said. “The trick is figuring out what it is that made them snap.”
Braunstein said that the robust debate online Wednesday about the rhetoric of leaders was a legitimate one to have, because it has always been true that “the way our political leaders message about political violence — consistently, in public, to their followers and to those that don’t support them — really matters.”
If Americans and American political leaders truly want to know how we got here, she said, “part of the answer is the intensification of violent political rhetoric — and political rhetoric that casts the moment in terms of an emergency or catastrophe that requires extreme measures to address it.”
Democrats today are talking about the threats they believe Trump poses to democracy and the rule of law and to immigrants and LGBTQ+ people and others in extremely dire terms. Republicans — including Kirk — have used similarly charged rhetoric to suggest that Democrats and some of those same groups, especially immigrants, are a grave threat to average Americans.
“Charlie Kirk was one of many political figures who used that kind of discourse to mobilize people,” Braunstein said. “He’s not the only one, but he regularly spoke about the fact that we were in a moment where it was possible that we were going to see the decline of Western civilization, the end of American society as we know it. He used very strong us-vs.-them language.”
Particularly given the wave of recent violence, it will be important moving forward for politicians and other leaders to reanalyze how they speak about their political disagreements, Braunstein said.
That’s especially true of Trump, she said, because “one of the most dangerous things that can happen in a moment like this is for a political leader to call for violence in response to an act of violence,” and Trump has appeared to stoke violence in the past, including in the lead-up to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and during racist marches through Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.
Charlie Kirk speaks during a town hall meeting in March in Oconomowoc, Wis.
(Jeffrey Phelps / Associated Press)
Dr. Garen Wintemute, director of the Centers for Violence Prevention at UC Davis, agreed messaging is key — not just for responding to political violence, but for preventing it.
Since 2022, Wintemute and his team have surveyed Americans on how they feel about political violence, including whether it is ever justified and, if so, whether they would personally get involved in it.
Throughout that time frame, a strong majority of Americans — about two-thirds — have said it is not justified, with about a third saying it was or could be.
An even smaller minority said they’d be willing to personally engage in such violence, Wintemute said. And many of those people said that they could be dissuaded from participating if their family members, friends, religious or political leaders urged them not to.
Wintemute said the data give him “room for hope and optimism,” because they show that “the vast majority of Americans reject political violence altogether.”
“So when somebody on a day like today asks, ‘Is this who we are?’ we know the answer,” he said. “The answer is, ‘No!’”
The job of all Americans now is to reject political violence “out loud over and over and over again,” Wintemute said, and to realize that, if they are deeply opposed to political policies or the Trump administration and “looking for a model of how to resist,” it isn’t the American Revolution but the civil rights movement.
“People did not paint over how terrible things were,” he said. “People said, ‘I will resist, but I will resist without violence. Violence may be done to me, I may die, but I will not use 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.
Political analyst Matthew Dowd lost his contributor role at MSNBC because of comments he made about Charlie Kirk after the young right-wing activist was murdered Wednesday.
Shortly after Kirk was shot to death while speaking on stage at Utah Valley State University, Dowd told MSNBC anchor Katy Tur that “hateful thoughts lead to hateful words which then lead to hateful actions.”
The angry reaction on social media was immediate after Dowd’s comments suggested that Kirk’s history of incendiary remarks led to the shooting.
MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler issued an apology Wednesday night.
“During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive, and unacceptable,” Kutler said in a statement. “There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”
The network then severed ties with Dowd, according to a person briefed on the decision who was not authorized to comment.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Charlie Kirk,” Dowd later wrote on his Bluesky account. “I was asked a question on the environment we are in. I apologize for my tone and words. Let me be clear, I in no way intended for my comments to blame Kirk for this horrendous attack.”
Dowd is a political consultant who served as the chief strategist for George W. Bush’s successful 2004 presidential reelection campaign. Dowd broke away from the Republican party due to his unhappiness with Bush’s handling of the Iraq war.
Dowd previously served as a political analyst for ABC News.
As the CEO and cofounder of the conservative youth organisation Turning Point USA, the 31-year-old Kirk attracted millions of viewers online for his outdoor debates on US college campuses.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Video of the shooting circulating on social media showed Kirk speaking to a large outdoor crowd and, moments later, falling off his chair with his hands on his neck after a loud crack that sounded like a gunshot.
Utah authorities said Kirk was killed with a single shot that likely came from the rooftop of a nearby building in what is believed to be a targeted killing.
FBI director Kash Patel said a suspect in the shooting had been taken into custody but then released after interrogation.
The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement. Our investigation continues and we will continue to release information in interest of transparency https://t.co/YXsG6YpFR5
Kirk was known for his polarising debates on hot-button topics, including transgender identity and abortion.
An online petition calling on university administrators to prevent him from speaking on Wednesday had received nearly 1,000 signatures.
With the rise of political violence across the US in recent years, Kirk’s killing has brought condemnation from both sides of the political spectrum.
Here are reactions to the news of Kirk’s death:
US President Donald Trump
President Trump, who survived two assassination attempts last year, wrote on his Truth Social platform that “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead”.
Playing the role of adviser and supporter in previous Trump election campaigns, Kirk developed a close relationship with Trump’s campaign team and his family.
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me,” Trump wrote.
“In honour of Charlie Kirk, a truly Great American Patriot, I am ordering all American Flags throughout the United States lowered to Half Mast until Sunday evening at 6 PM,” he said.
President Trump shakes hands with Charlie Kirk during a Generation Next White House forum at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex, in Washington, in 2018 [File: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo]
Former US President Joe Biden
Joe Biden, who was running for president in 2020 when Kirk was a vocal ally of the Trump campaign, condemned the shooting on the X platform.
“There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones,” he wrote.
There is no place in our country for this kind of violence. It must end now. Jill and I are praying for Charlie Kirk’s family and loved ones.
“We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.”
We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy. Michelle and I will be praying for Charlie’s family tonight, especially his wife Erika and their two young children.
Kirk repeatedly professed his Christian Evangelical faith and was a staunch supporter of Israel during his on-air debates at college campuses. In a post on X, Israel’s Netanyahu regretted that the activist could not visit Israel as planned.
“Charlie Kirk was murdered for speaking truth and defending freedom. A lion-hearted friend of Israel, he fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization. I spoke to him only two weeks ago and invited him to Israel. Sadly, that visit will not take place. We lost an incredible human being. His boundless pride in America and his valiant belief in free speech will leave a lasting impact.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer
“My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk. It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.
“We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear – there can be no justification for political violence,” he wrote.
My thoughts this evening are with the loved ones of Charlie Kirk.
It is heartbreaking that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband.
We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear – there can be no justification for political violence.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, US Secretary of Health and Human Services
“Once again, a bullet has silenced the most eloquent truth teller of an era. My dear friend Charlie Kirk was our country’s relentless and courageous crusader for free speech. We pray for Erika and the children,” Kennedy wrote on X.
“Charlie is already in paradise with the angels. We ask his prayers for our country.”
Hollywood actor Mel Gibson
“The brutal murder of Charlie Kirk is nothing short of evil a cowardly attack on America’s very soul. Faith, family, freedom, the right to speak truth trampled by violence. My blood boils. Justice must be relentless and unforgiving,” he wrote.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
“If you knew him, you’d love him,” Hegseth told US troops, speaking of his admiration for and friendship with Kirk.
“Taken by an assassin’s bullet – unfathomable,” Hegseth said.
Dean Withers, American livestreamer and liberal political commentator
Withers, who was often seen on the opposite end of Kirk during debates on political YouTube channels, posted a video on TikTok, which now has more than 10 million views, saying: “I’m sad, distraught. In fact, I just cried in front of my livestream in front of 250,000 people.”
He continued, “[Gun violence] is always disgusting, always vile and always abhorrent.”
“My thoughts and prayers go out to Charlie Kirk’s friends, family, children, loved ones, as well as every single person in attendance at his event today in Utah.”
Eduardo Bolsonaro – son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro
Bolsonaro said in a post on the X platform that he was “shocked” by Kirk’s killing, whom he described as a “young man with a good heart … who dedicated his life to mobilising conservative youth in the US”.
“I had the honour of accompanying him in his work and know the greatness of his mission. Another conservative victim of hate and intolerance,” Bolsonaro wrote.
Brazil’s right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro, right, speaks alongside Turning Point USA cofounder Charlie Kirk, at an event in 2023, in Doral, Florida, the US [File: Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo]
Over the next few days, we are going to hear politicians, commentators and others remind us that political violence is never OK, and never the answer.
That is true.
There is no room in a healthy democracy, or a moral society, for killings based on vengeance or beliefs — political, religious, whatever.
But the sad reality is that our democracy is not healthy, and violence is a symptom of that. Not the make-believe, cities-overrun violence that has led to the military in our streets, but real, targeted political violence that has crept into society with increasing frequency.
Our decline did not begin with the horrific slaying Wednesday of Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old father and conservative media superstar, and it will not end with it. We are in a moment of struggle, with two competing views for where our country should go and what it should be. Only one can win, and both sides believe it is a battle worth fighting.
So be it. Fights in democracy are nothing new and nothing wrong.
We can blame the heated political rhetoric of either side for violence, as many already are, but words are not bullets and strong democracies can withstand even the ugliest of speeches, the most hateful of positions.
The painful and hard specter of more violence to come has less to do with far-right or far-left than extreme fringe in either political direction. Occasionally it’s ideological, but more often it isn’t MAGA, communist or socialist so much as confusion and rage cloaking itself in political convenience. Violence comes where trust in the system is decimated, and where hope is ground to dust.
These are the places were we find the isolated, the disenfranchised, the red-pilled or the blue-pilled — however you see it — and anyone else, who pushed by the stress and anger of this moment, finds themselves believing violence or even murder is a solution, maybe the only solution.
These are not mainstream people. Like all killers, they live outside the rules of society and likely would have found their way beyond our boundaries with or without politics. But politics found them, and provided what may have seemed like clarity in a maelstrom of anything but.
In the past few years, we have seen people such as this make two attempts on Donald Trump’s life. One of those was a 20-year-old student, Michael Thomas Crooks, still almost a kid, whose motives will likely never be known.
The American flag at the White House is lowered on Wednesday after the slaying of Charlie Kirk.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
A few months ago, we saw a political massacre in Minnesota aimed at Democratic lawmakers. Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed by the same attacker who shot state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and attempted to shoot their daughter Hope. Authorities found a hit list of 45 targets in his possession.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home was broken into in 2022 and her husband, Paul, was attacked by a hammer-wielding assailant with a unicorn costume in his backpack.
Despite the fact that these instances of violence have been aimed at both Democrats and Republicans, we live under a Republican government at the moment, one that holds unprecedented power.
Already, that power structure is calling not for calm or justice, but retribution.
“We’ve got trans shooters. You’ve got riots in L.A. They are at war with us, whether we want to accept it or not. They are at war with us,” said Fox News commentator Jesse Watters shortly after Kirk was shot. “What are we going to do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate? And that’s the question we’re just going to have to ask ourselves.”
On that last bit, I agree with Watters. We do need to ask ourselves how much political violence we are going to tolerate.
The internet is buzzing with a quote from Kirk on gun violence: “I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”
Like Kirk, I think some things are worth ugly prices. I don’t think guns are one of them, but I do think democracy is.
We can’t allow political violence to be the reason we curb democracy. Even if that violence continues, we must find ways to fight it that preserve the constitutional values that make America exceptional.
“It is extremely important to caution U.S. policymakers in this heated environment to act responsibly and not use the specter of political violence as an excuse to suppress nonviolent movements, curb freedoms of assembly and expression, encourage retaliation, or otherwise close civic spaces,” a trio of Brookings Institution researchers wrote as part of their “Monitoring the pillars of democracy” series. “Weaponizing calls for stability and peace in response to political violence is a real threat in democratic and nondemocratic countries globally.”
The slaying of Charlie Kirk is reprehensible, and his family and friends have suffered a loss I can’t imagine. Condolences don’t cover it.
But the legacy of his death, and of political violence, can’t be crackdowns — because if we do that, we forever damage the country we all claim to love.
If we take anything away from this tragic day, let it be a commitment to democracy, and America, in all her chaotic and flawed glory.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration and the conservative movement were stunned Wednesday by the shooting of Charlie Kirk, a disruptive leader in GOP politics who accomplished what was once thought a pipe dream, expanding Republican ranks among America’s youth.
Inside the White House, senior officials that had worked closely alongside Kirk throughout much of their careers reacted with shock. It was a moment of political violence reminiscent of the repeated attempts on Donald Trump’s life during the 2024 presidential campaign, one official told The Times.
“We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!”
Kirk, a founder of Turning Point USA, was instrumental in recruiting young Americans on college campuses to GOP voter rolls, making himself an indispensable part of Republican campaigns down ballot across the country. That mission made his shooting on a college campus in Utah all the more poignant to his friends and allies, who reacted with dismay at videos of the shooting circulating online.
His impact, helping to increase support among 18- to 24-year-old voters for Republican candidates by double-digit margins in just four years, has been credited by Republican operatives as driving the party’s victories last year, allowing the GOP to retake the House, Senate and the presidency.
Democrats have recognized his prowess, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom hosting him on his podcast earlier this year in an appeal to young, predominantly male voters lost by the Democrats in recent years.
“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible. In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form,” Newsom said on X in response to the news.
As videos of the shooting circulated online, a number of prominent Republicans, including senior members of the Trump administration, reacted to the news by asking the public to pray for the young activist.
“Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father,” Vice President JD Vance said in a post on X.
Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said federal agents were at the scene of the shooting in Utah. FBI Director Kash Patel added the FBI will be helping with the investigation.
Wilner reported from Washington, Ceballos from Tallahassee, Fla.
Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank amid a sharp escalation of violence, following the country’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s call this week to take over most of the territory.
The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the dead man as Ahmed Shehadeh, 57, saying he was killed on Friday by “occupation bullets” near the al-Murabba’a checkpoint south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Palestinian news agency Wafa cited Amid Ahmed, director of the Red Crescent’s Emergency and Ambulance Centre in Nablus, as saying Israeli soldiers prevented his crew from reaching the site of the shooting.
The Israeli military claimed in a statement that a man had “hurled a suspicious object” at soldiers operating near the checkpoint, after which they “eliminated” him.
Further south, troops carried out multiple raids in Bethlehem, with soldiers entering the Khalayel al-Louz area southeast of the city and setting up a military checkpoint, according to Wafa.
The news agency also reported raids on the villages of Artas and al-Ubayyat, where soldiers tore down posters of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.
In parallel, Israeli settlers wielding knives and sticks stormed the village of Khallet al-Dabaa in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron, injuring 20 people, including a three-month-old infant.
Palestinian activist Osama al-Makhmara told the Anadolu news agency that the injuries ranged from bruises and fractures to stab wounds, claiming that nine people were taken to hospital for treatment.
Four months ago, Israeli authorities demolished 25 homes, agricultural structures and water wells in the village, citing “unlicensed construction”.
Israel’s drive to expand illegal settlements in the West Bank was given renewed impetus by far-right finance minister and settler leader Smotrich, who said on Wednesday that Israel should annex roughly 82 percent of the West Bank.
Smotrich said he wanted “maximum territory and minimum [Palestinian] population” to be brought under Israeli sovereignty, “to remove, once and for all, a Palestinian state from the agenda”.
More than 700,000 settlers, or 10 percent of Israel’s population, live in 150 illegal settlements and 128 outposts spread across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Xavier Abu Eid, former communications director for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Al Jazeera that Israeli flags and settlements were now visible across the 30-40km (18-25 miles) between Ramallah and Nablus.
“Clearly, the maps that were presented by Smotrich are being designed on the ground by settlers and the Israeli army,” he said.
‘Too little, too late’
Smotrich launched his maximalist campaign as France, Britain, Belgium, Australia and Canada pledged to formally recognise a Palestinian state during the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month.
The diplomatic push comes as Israel mounts its full-scale offensive on Gaza City as part of takeover plans for the entire enclave, while accelerating its West Bank annexation plans in the background.
On Friday, Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen announced on X that her country would join the growing international drive for a two-state solution, which is being spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia. She called it “the most significant international effort in years to create the conditions for a two-state solution”.
The previous day, Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Cairo adopted a resolution saying that peaceful coexistence in the Middle East cannot be achieved while Israel “issues implicit threats to occupy or annex further Arab lands”.
The League said any lasting settlement must be based on a two-state solution and the 2022 Arab Peace Initiative, which offers a full normalisation of relations in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territories it occupied in 1967.
But the PLO’s Abu Eid told Al Jazeera that time was running out. “Many people feel that there is no longer a two-state solution to speak about, and perhaps this late international response recognising the state of Palestine is once again seen as too little, too late,” he said.
Mass arrests
As Israel grabs more Palestinian territory in the West Bank, its forces have ramped up their campaign of mass arrests, detaining at least 70 people across dozens of villages over the past week.
Wafa reported arrests in the town of Haris, near Salfit, where village council head Omar Samara, deputy head of the village council Tayseer Kulaib, and a “large number of villagers” were detained.
Troops also arrested a man in Qalqilya city as they raided family homes.
Israeli prison conditions for Palestinians have long been described by rights groups as harsh and degrading, with reports of medical neglect and abuse.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office issued a statement on Bilal Barghouti, a 39-year-old from Beit Rima serving a life sentence in Israel’s Gilboa prison, describing the conditions in which he was being kept as “slow murder and systematic torture”.
Former detainees have said Barghouti, who suffers from a range of chronic illnesses, has lost a lot of weight, has been barred from visits, and subjected to beatings, insults and scalding with hot water.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said on Friday that Israeli forces had made more than 19,000 arrests – including at least 585 women and 1,550 children – across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the war on Gaza started.
It said the figure does not include arrests in Gaza itself, where the number is believed to be in the thousands, according to its statement carried by news agency Wafa.
The society also reported 77 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody, including 46 from Gaza. The bodies of 74 of those who died remain withheld by Israel, alongside at least 85 other prisoners whose remains are being kept from their families.
Violent action unfolded in Wrocław’s historic square
6
Police separated the fans, before allegedly also arresting fans away from these scenes
The fighting spilt over when fans started kicking and throwing flares into each other’s camps, chairs were flying through the air, and fans squared up to each other before police, some armed with guns, came to split them up.
However, AWAY from that drama, according to the Football Supporters Association, ten Chelsea fans were wrongfully arrested and detained without any access to legal representation or allowed contact with relatives for 24 hours.
It’s claimed that these fans were not at all involved with the disorder elsewhere in Wrocław’s historic square.
Those involved allegedly had their hands cable-tied by police wearing masks, and held in vans with no ventilation, food or water for hours, before being taken to a police station.
There, they claim to have been mocked, strip-searched, and coerced into signing documents without the benefit of any translation or legal explanation.
One of the detainees said, “One individual suffered a panic attack and was nearly unconscious before officers permitted minimal bathroom access.
“When we arrived at the station, detainees were mocked by officers, denied phone calls, and strip-searched in front of mixed-gender officers.”
Another fan said: “We were presented with documents written entirely in Polish and were coerced into signing them without the benefit of any translation or legal explanation whatsoever.
“Although I was presented with my rights in English, I was barely given any time to read them before being taken to my cell. When I asked if I could take the document with me to read it properly, my request was denied, and this form remained unsigned.”
The fans involved were then supposedly released over 24 HOURS after the initial upset, missing the entirety of their team’s European final in which Chelsea beat Real Betis 4-1, while Polish police claim the fans were ‘misidentified’ and released as ‘witnesses’ without apology.
Moment cops swoop on man after Chelsea game over fears he was carrying gun
While the group are pursuing legal advice and hoping to receive compensation for how they were treated, they have been backed by the Chelsea Supporters Trust and called on Chelsea and UEFA to look into the incident further.
The fans involved said: “We ask that Chelsea treat these matters with the seriousness they deserve and stand firmly against the injustice committed against innocent supporters.
“We hope Chelsea FC will support its fans and take appropriate steps to defend those who did nothing wrong.
“The treatment that some Chelsea supporters received from the Polish authorities in Wroclaw before the Conference League Final in May was utterly appalling.
“The treatment of these supporters was unacceptable, and the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust will continue to assist and support those supporters in their ongoing dispute with all authorities involved.”
6
Police used tear gas on fans in the main square
6
Gun-wielding officers took to the streets as fans looked on in fear
An estimated 70,000 fans arrived in the city earlier in the week with many drinking and eating in close proximity to rival supporters.
A statement from Lower Silesian Police in Wrocław said 28 people had been arrested on Wednesday over the violent scenes.
They said at the time: “After 5pm on the Wrocław Market Square, in connection with the previous negative behaviour of fans and the clash of several hundred people from both teams, arrests of fans involved in this incident are ongoing.
“The police quickly took action and restored the violated legal order, and now they continue to act so that others can safely participate in this great celebration of sports.
“At this moment, we can confirm the arrest of 28 participants in the incident.
“No one will escape legal responsibility and the police will react decisively and appropriately to the situation.”
Chelsea 2025/26 Home Kit: Available Now!
*If you click on a link in this boxout we will earn affiliate revenue.
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, is praising a U.S. strike on a boat suspected of carrying drugs in the southern Caribbean.
President Trump said Tuesday that 11 people were killed aboard the boat that had departed Venezuela, which is located near Trinidad and Tobago.
“I, along with most of the country, am happy that the U.S. naval deployment is having success in their mission,” Persad-Bissessar said in a statement late Tuesday. “The pain and suffering the cartels have inflicted on our nation is immense. I have no sympathy for traffickers; the U.S. military should kill them all violently.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the drugs aboard the vessel were likely headed to Trinidad or elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Persad-Bissessar said that restricting illegal guns, drugs and human trafficking would decrease violence in the Caribbean region and the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, which has imposed two state of emergencies in recent months.
“Our country has been ravaged by bloody violence and addiction because of the greed of the cartels,” Persad-Bissessar said. “The slaughter of our people is fueled by evil cartel traffickers.”
Other Caribbean leaders were more reserved in their remarks.
Barbados Today, a local news site, quoted Barbadian Foreign Minister Kerrie Symmonds as saying that foreign ministers within Caricom, a 15-member regional trade bloc, wrote to Rubio to ensure that future military operations within the Caribbean don’t occur without prior notice or explanation.
“What effectively we are trying to do is to work through the diplomatic channels of making sure that there are no surprises and practices, so that you get notification wherever it is feasible for actions that are going to have a foreseeable regional impact,” Symmonds was quoted as saying.
He said that ongoing dialogue would “avoid misunderstandings, and we can maintain and strengthen our mutual confidence with each other.”
Trump has said that the vessel targeted in the strike in international waters was operated by Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. The White House didn’t immediately explain how the military determined that those aboard the vessel were Tren de Aragua members.
The strike came after the U.S. announced last month that it planned to boost its maritime force in waters off Venezuela to fight threats from Latin American drug cartels.
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.
Qatar’s foreign ministry said delegations were meeting in Doha to review the implementation of a truce signed in July.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the M23 armed group have resumed negotiations in Qatar as violence deepens in the country’s mineral-rich eastern provinces in spite of a recently signed an agreement to reach a full peace deal.
Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said delegations from Kinshasa and the M23 were meeting in Doha to review the implementation of a truce signed in July. “We’ve received the two parties here in Doha to discuss the earlier agreement,” Ansari said at a news briefing on Tuesday.
The deal, brokered by Qatar, committed both sides to a ceasefire and a path to a final settlement. Under its terms, talks were supposed to begin on 8 August and conclude by 18 August. Both deadlines passed without progress, and the agreement has faltered amid accusations of violations from both sides.
Ansari said the current discussions include plans to create a mechanism for monitoring the truce, as well as an exchange of prisoners and detainees. He added that the United States and the International Committee of the Red Cross were closely involved in supporting the talks.
The Qatar-led initiative followed a separate ceasefire agreement signed in Washington between Rwanda, who back M23, and DRC in June. But the M23 rejected that deal, demanding direct negotiations with Kinshasa to address what it called unresolved political grievances.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that he ended the conflict, and several others, describing DRC as the “darkest, deepest” part of Africa and asserting that he “saved lots of lives.” On Monday, Trump claimed that nine million people were “killed with machetes” during the decades-long war, insisting, “I stopped it.”
Rights groups have dismissed Trump’s claims as misleading. “It is far from the reality to say that he has ended the war,” said Christian Rumu of Amnesty International. “People on the ground continue to experience grave human rights violations, and some of these amount to crimes against humanity,” he added, calling on Washington to accelerate efforts to secure peace.
Despite multiple ceasefire attempts, fighting has intensified in North and South Kivu provinces, forcing more than two million people from their homes this year. Human Rights Watch last week accused the M23 of carrying out ethnically targeted “mass killings,” while United Nations experts have said Rwandan forces played a “critical” role in supporting the group’s offensive.
Rwanda denies involvement, but the M23’s capture of vast areas, including the regional capital Goma earlier this year, has fuelled fears of a wider regional conflict.
The DRC’s eastern region, home to some of the world’s richest deposits of gold, cobalt, and coltan, has been devastated by years of armed conflict, with civilians bearing the brunt of atrocities despite repeated international mediation efforts.
CHICAGO — President Trump said Chicago will probably be the next target of his efforts to crack down on crime, homelessness and illegal immigration.
Trump indicated that the Midwestern city could receive similar treatment to what he’s done in Washington, where he’s deployed 2,000 troops on the streets.
“I think Chicago will be our next,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday, later adding, “And then we’ll help with New York.”
The comments came as the Pentagon on Friday began ordering troops in Washington to carry firearms, though there have been no overt indications they have faced threats that would require them to carry weapons.
Trump has repeatedly described some of the nation’s largest cities — run by Democrats, with Black mayors and majority-minority populations — as dangerous and filthy.
He singled out Chicago on Friday, calling it a “mess” and saying residents there are “screaming for us to come” despite significant decreases in crimes of violence.
Trump’s suggestion that Chicago might be the next target for a crackdown on crime didn’t sit well with Illinois officeholders.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said his office has not received formal communication from the Trump administration about military or federal law enforcement deployments in Chicago but said that “we have grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops.”
Johnson called Trump’s approach “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound,” arguing that it “has the potential to inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement.”
It is unclear how Trump would pursue an effort in Chicago that is similar to his approach to D.C., where home rule laws give the federal government greater authority.
But the president’s eldest son said it might be time to look at a whole host of cities in the Pacific Northwest. In an interview Thursday with Newsmax, Donald Trump Jr. blamed Democrats for “through-the-roof” murder rates.
“Maybe we should roll out the tour to Portland, Seattle, the other craphole cities of the country,” Trump Jr. said.
Homicide rates in Portland and Seattle, though up since before the COVID-19 surge nationwide, have declined this year.
In a post on X titled “Things People are Begging For,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, listed cheaper groceries, no cuts to Medicaid or food aid for low-income families, and the release of federally held files on Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex trafficker and former Trump friend.
What they are not begging for, Pritzker continued, is “an authoritarian power grab of major cities.”
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, called Trump’s Washington troop strategy “political theater.” He said Chicago is “a beautiful, vibrant city with people from all walks of life” and suggested pursuing “proven bipartisan solutions” toward further crime reduction.
“These unprecedented threats from President Trump are nothing more than a power grab to distract from his disastrous policies,” Durbin said in a statement.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Army National Guard combat veteran and Illinois’ junior senator, criticized what she called Trump’s misuse of the military to “intimidate Americans in our own communities.”
Lisa Hernandez, chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, called Trump’s comments “offensive and false” and argued that his rhetoric echoes a history of racist narratives about urban crime.
“Chicagoans are not begging for him,” she told the Associated Press.
Trump has taken aim at Chicago for more than a decade, a prominent feature of his presidential campaigns. He has repeatedly compared the city to Afghanistan and, as president in 2017, threatened to “send in the feds” due to gun violence in the city.
Violent crime in Chicago dropped significantly in the first half of 2025, representing the steepest decline in more than a decade, according to city data. Shootings and homicides were down more than 30% in the first half of the year compared with the same time last year, and total violent crime dropped by over 22%.
Johnson touted the city’s approach to violent crime, asserting in a statement to the Associated Press that “our communities are safest when we fully invest in housing, community safety, and education.” While Trump turns to the military, he said, Chicago has invested in mental health services, community-based interventions, raising minimum wages and improving affordable housing.
If the president wants to make the city safer, Johnson said, Trump should restore $158 million he cut in violence-prevention programs for cities such as Chicago.
“There are many things the federal government could do to help us reduce crime and violence in Chicago, but sending in the military is not one of them,” he said.
Pastor Donovan Price, a local advocate for gun crime victims, emphasized that community-based anti-violence programs, rather than militarism, is key to reducing gun violence in Chicago.
“Stay out of our city,” he said. “This is not a federal issue. We live this every day. We know what our community needs.”
Fernando, O’Connor and Price write for the Associated Press and reported from Chicago, Springfield, Ill., and Washington, respectively.
A Copa Sudamericana match in Buenos Aires was abandoned after violent clashes between fans, with some being stripped and beaten.
Ten people were seriously injured and more than 300 arrested at Wednesday’s last-16 second leg between Argentine hosts Independiente and Universidad de Chile, according to local media.
A stun grenade was among the objects thrown by spectators while one fan fell from the top tier of a stand at the Estadio Libertadores de America in the Avellaneda area of the Argentine capital.
Violence flared at half-time as objects including toilets, sinks, pieces of masonry and seats were thrown from the away section on to the section below them housing home supporters.
Home fans then appeared to enter the away section early in the second half, attacking visiting supporters and forcing them to flee.
“What happened in Avellaneda between the fans of Independiente and Universidad de Chile is wrong in too many ways, from the violence among the supporters to the evident irresponsibility in the organisation. Justice must determine those responsible.”
Jose Antonio Viera-Gallo, the Chilean Ambassador to Argentina, told Chilean radio station Cooperativa: “There are injuries on both sides, some with knives. There is at least one Chilean seriously injured, hospitalised, a person in his 30s.”
Universidad de Chile director Daniel Schapira told Chilean radio station ADN: “We’re always experiencing the same thing, it’s desperate. It’s a social, cultural issue; this is much more than football. They gave us 3,500 tickets and look what’s happening.
“Terrible, this is unbelievable. It’s also an organisational issue: they can’t put the U fans above the Independiente fans. Everyone has problems here; this has become a circus.”
Independiente president Nestor Grindetti told TyC Sports that the safety precautions taken “were logical” and that the number of tickets given to the visiting team was agreed with Conmebol, South American football’s governing body.
Grindetti added: “[It was] reprehensible behavior from the U supporters. They destroyed our bathrooms, took artefacts and threw them in the stands. Violence I’d never seen before.
“The Independiente fans didn’t deserve such a thing. It’s clear the problem started and continued with just one fanbase.”
The game was initially suspended, with players leaving the field in the second half with the game level at 1-1 and the Chilean side leading 2-1 on aggregate.
Conmebol said the match had been cancelled because of “the lack of security guarantees from the local club and local security authorities”.
It added that the case would be referred to its judicial bodies and that information regarding the events would be sent to its disciplinary committee.
Chile president Boric added: “Now our priority as a government is to know the condition of our compatriots who have been attacked, ensure their immediate medical attention, and guarantee that those who are detained have their rights respected.”
Marius Borg Hoiby faces up to 10 years in prison after being charged with 32 criminal offences, including rape.
The son of Norway’s crown princess has been charged with raping four women, domestic violence, assault and other crimes following a yearlong police investigation, according to prosecutors.
Marius Borg Hoiby, 28, son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit and stepson of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon, is expected to stand trial early next year and could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of the most serious charges, Oslo state attorney Sturla Henriksbo said on Monday.
Hoiby denies the most serious accusations against him but plans to plead guilty to some lesser charges in court when the trial starts, his lawyer Petar Sekulic told the Reuters news agency.
“He does not agree with the claims regarding rape and domestic violence,” Sekulic said of his client.
Hoiby was charged on Monday with 32 criminal offences, including one count of rape with sexual intercourse and three counts of rape without intercourse, some of which he filmed on his telephone, the prosecution said.
Henriksbo estimates the trial could begin in mid-January and take about six weeks.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Marius Borg Hoiby, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit attend the celebrations of Princess Ingrid Alexandra’s Official Day at Deichman Museum on June 16, 2022, in Oslo, Norway [File: Rune Hellestad/Getty Images]
Hoiby does not have a royal title and is outside the line of royal succession.
“It is up to the courts to hear this case and to reach a decision,” the royal palace said in a statement.
The prosecutor said Hoiby, as a member of the royal family, would not be treated “more lightly or more severely” than anyone else in similar circumstances.
Domestic abuse
Police in November last year held Hoiby in detention for one week as part of the investigation.
In August of last year, Hoiby was named as a suspect of physical assault against a woman with whom he had been in a relationship – the only victim identified by the prosecution, Nora Haukland.
“The violence consisted, among other things, of him repeatedly hitting her in the face, including with a clenched fist, choking her, kicking her and grabbing her hard,” the prosecutor said.
Hoiby, in a statement to the media at the time, admitted to causing bodily harm to the woman while he was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol and of damaging her apartment. He had stated then that he regretted his actions.
According to media reports, he spent time with gang members, Hells Angels bikers and members of Oslo’s Albanian mafia. In 2023, police contacted him to discuss his hangouts with “notorious criminals”.
It emerged last year that Hoiby had already been arrested in 2017 for using cocaine at a music festival.
