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Donald Trump on Monday deployed military and federal law enforcement to curb violent crime in Washington, as he seeks to make good on his campaign pledge to be a “law and order” president.The Republican leader said he would place the city’s Metropolitan Police under federal government control while also sending the National Guard onto the streets of the US capital.The overwhelmingly Democratic city faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged — although violent offenses are down.”This is Liberation Day in DC, and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said.Trump — a convicted felon who granted blanket clemency to nearly 1,600 people involved in the 2021 US Capitol riot in Washington — has complained that local police and prosecutors aren’t tough enough. He said 800 DC National Guardsmen — “and much more if necessary” — would be deployed to the city of 700,000.As Trump was speaking at the White House, several dozen demonstrators gathered outside.”There is absolutely no need for the National Guard here,” said 62-year-old retiree Elizabeth Critchley, who brandished a sign with the slogan “DC says freedom not fascism.””It’s all for show. It’s just a big theater,” she said.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was among several cabinet officials flanking Trump, said “other specialized” National Guard units could also be deployed.”They will be strong, they will be tough, and they will stand with their law enforcement partners,” he said.The new approach echoes Trump’s immigration policies that have effectively sealed the southern border amid mass deportations while deploying active-duty troops against protesters in Los Angeles.- New York, Chicago next? -The president told reporters he planned to roll out the policy to other cities, spotlighting New York and Chicago.Unlike the 50 states, Washington operates under a unique relationship with the federal government that limits its autonomy and grants Congress extraordinary control over local matters.Since the mid-1970s, the Home Rule Act has allowed residents to elect a mayor and a city council, although Congress still controls the city’s budget.Data from Washington police show significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.Trump posted on social media ahead of the news conference that he also wants to tackle homeless encampments, after signing an order last month making it easier to arrest homeless people.  He promised individuals “places to stay,” but “FAR from the Capital.” Trump said criminals would be jailed and that it would all happen “very fast.”Federal law enforcement have already increased their presence after a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer was beaten during an attempted carjacking. “Last week my administration surged 500 federal agents into the district including from the FBI, ATF, DEA, Park Police, the US Marshals Service, the Secret Service, and the Department of Homeland Security,” Trump said.”You know a lot of nations, they don’t have anything like that… They made dozens of arrests.”A Gallup poll in October found that 64 percent of Americans believed crime had risen in 2024, although FBI data shows the lowest levels of violent crime nationwide in more than half a century.”Let me be crystal clear — crime in DC is ending, and it’s ending today,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The ear-piercing beeps, squeals and buzzes of 90s-era dial-up internet will vanish from thousands of holdout American homes in September as historic provider AOL shuts down the service.The raucous sounds of modems establishing their connection to distant servers marked a generation of internet users and still pop up in memes to this day.It also made AOL one of the biggest tech firms of the era, but in the following decades the dial-up connections were steadily replaced with much faster ADSL and then fibre-optic lines.”AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue dial-up internet,” the pioneering internet service provider (ISP) said in a blog post. AOL did not say how many users would be affected by the September 30 shutoff.CNBC reported that numbers using dial-up had fallen from around 2.1 million in 2015 to just a few thousand in 2021.AOL merged with Time Warner in a 2001 mega-deal worth $162 billion at the peak of the dotcom bubble.After splitting off again, it was sold to Verizon in 2015 for a far humbler $4.4 billion.AOL was merged with another early internet heavyweight, Yahoo, and sold to the investment fund Apollo Global Management for $5 billion in 2021.Its once widely used chat programme AIM, launched in 1997 and beloved of early-2000s teens, was shut down in 2017.

US President Donald Trump said Monday he will deploy military and federal law enforcement in Washington as he seeks to curb violent crime in the nation’s capital.The Republican leader told a White House news conference he plans to place the DC Metropolitan Police under the direct control of the federal government while sending in the National Guard.The overwhelmingly Democratic city faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged — although violent offenses are down.”This is Liberation Day in DC, and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said.Trump — a convicted felon who has pardoned around 1,500 people involved in the 2021 US Capitol riot in Washington — complained that police and prosecutors aren’t tough enough.  He had repeatedly threatened a federal takeover of the city of 700,000, saying crime in Washington is “totally out of control.” The new approach echoes Trump’s immigration policies that have effectively sealed the southern border amid mass deportations while deploying active-duty troops against protesters in Los Angeles.He told reporters he planned to roll out the policy to other crime-ridden cities, spotlighting problems in New York and Chicago.Unlike the 50 states, Washington operates under a unique relationship with the federal government that limits its autonomy and grants Congress extraordinary control over local matters.Since the mid-1970s, the Home Rule Act has allowed residents to elect a mayor and a city council, although Congress still controls the city’s budget.Preliminary data from DC police show significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.Trump posted on social media ahead of the news conference that he wants to “stop violent crime” and tackle homeless encampments, after signing an order last month making it easier to arrest homeless people.  Trump ordered homeless people to “move out” of the city in a Truth Social post on Sunday, vowing to “make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before.”He promised individuals “places to stay,” but “FAR from the Capital.” Trump said criminals would be jailed and that it would all happen “very fast.”

A federal judge on Monday rejected the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from the criminal case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted accomplice of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.District Judge Paul Engelmayer said there is little in the transcripts that is not already public record and they do not identify anyone other than Maxwell and Epstein as having had sexual contact with underage girls.President Donald Trump’s administration had sought to release the transcripts to help defuse spiraling anger among his own supporters over what they have long seen as a cover-up of Epstein’s crimes and high-level connections.Engelmayer dismissed government arguments that the grand jury transcripts should be released because of “abundant public interest” in the case.”Its entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably false,” he wrote.”Insofar as the motion to unseal implies that the grand jury materials are an untapped mine lode of undisclosed information about Epstein or Maxwell or confederates, they definitively are not that,” the judge said.”There is no ‘there’ there.”Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of recruiting underage girls for Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.The Justice Department is also seeking the release of the grand jury transcripts in Epstein’s case. That request is being handled by a different judge.Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said last month that the wealthy financier had committed suicide, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a “client list.”In a bid to calm the furor, the Justice Department asked for the release of the grand jury transcripts from the cases against Epstein and Maxwell.US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — who is also Trump’s former personal lawyer — met recently with Maxwell but has not revealed what was discussed.She was later moved to a lower security prison.Trump, 79, was once a close friend of Epstein, and The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the president’s name was among hundreds found during a Justice Department review of the so-called “Epstein files,” though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing.Maxwell is the only former Epstein associate convicted in connection with his activities, which right-wing conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young girls for VIPs and other elites.

The capital of the world’s leading superpower is a city unlike any other in the United States — not just in symbolism but in its legal and political structure.President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to impose his will on the city has brought its unique status back into the spotlight.Washington D.C. is a bustling urban center with schools and businesses serving 700,000 residents — but is also the seat of national power, home to the White House, Capitol and Supreme Court.This dual identity often places local interests at odds with federal oversight, in a city where democracy is on display daily, even as the locals themselves lack full democratic rights.Unlike the 50 states, the city operates under a unique relationship with the federal government that limits its autonomy and grants Congress extraordinary control over local matters.The overwhelmingly Democratic city faces complaints from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.- ‘Taxation without representation’ -The city was established by the constitution in 1790 as a federal district, not part of any state as the Founders wanted the capital to be independent of any single state’s influence. The land for the district was ceded by Maryland and Virginia, although the Virginia portion was returned in 1847.Because of its federal status, Washington is governed under the authority of Congress. Residents pay federal taxes, but lack voting representation in the House and Senate — earning the city the long-standing slogan seen on bumper stickers: “Taxation without representation.”- Limited home rule -In 1973, Congress passed the Home Rule Act, allowing residents to elect a mayor and a city council, although laws passed by the body are subject to congressional review and veto. Congress also controls the city’s budget, which has led to political tensions when lawmakers have blocked local initiatives on marijuana legalization, reproductive rights and police funding.- Push for statehood -Supporters of making the US capital the nation’s 51st state have framed their cause as an effort to end a glaring American civil rights violation.Despite having no say in congressional votes, the city’s residents fight and die in US wars and face a higher federal tax burden than people in the 50 states. Statehood advocates argue that the residents — who are more numerous than the populations of Vermont or Wyoming — deserve full congressional representation and local autonomy. In 2021, the House of Representatives passed a bill to make the District of Columbia the 51st state, but it stalled in the Senate.Opponents argue that the city was never intended to be a state and that making it one would require a constitutional amendment.A constitutional amendment ratified in 1961 gave the city votes in the presidential electoral college.- Mixed crime picture -Washington is not among the top 10 US cities for the rate of violent offenses, although it has historically struggled with crime.The 1990s saw soaring homicide rates, peaking at around 480 deaths in 1991, during a crack cocaine epidemic. Crime dropped significantly in the 2000s but then surged again after the Covid-19 pandemic.In 2023, homicides reached a 20-year high with 274 lives lost — a 36 percent increase on the previous year.However, preliminary data for 2024 indicates a substantial drop, with homicides down by 32 percent compared to 2023, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. The decrease has contributed to an overall reduction in violent crime in the city, which is down 35 percent from 2023. – Melting pot -As of the 2020 Census, Washington’s population stood at 683,000, although it is now estimated at 702,000.A racially diverse melting pot, Washington is around 44 percent Black and 37 percent white, with Hispanic and Asian Americans making up much of the rest of the population, according to Census data.It is also one of the best educated and richest urban areas in the country, though stark income inequality persists between neighborhoods.

Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will hold a high-stakes meeting about the Ukraine war on Friday in Alaska, which the United States bought from Russia more than 150 years ago.Russian influence still endures in parts of the remote state on the northwest edge of the North American continent, which extends just a few miles from Russia.- Former Russian colony -When Danish explorer Vitus Bering first sailed through the narrow strait that separates Asia and the Americas in 1728, it was on an expedition for Tsarist Russia.The discovery of what is now known as the Bering Strait revealed the existence of Alaska to the West — however Indigenous people had been living there for thousands of years.Bering’s expedition kicked off a century of Russian seal hunting, with the first colony set up on the southern Kodiak island.In 1799, Tsar Paul I established the Russian-American Company to take advantage of the lucrative fur trade, which often involved clashes with the Indigenous inhabitants.However the hunters overexploited the seals and sea otters, whose populations collapsed, taking with them the settlers’ economy.The Russian empire sold the territory to Washington for $7.2 million in 1867.The purchase of an area more than twice the size of Texas was widely criticized in the US at the time, even dubbed “Seward’s folly” after the deal’s mastermind, secretary of state William Seward.- Languages and churches -The Russian Orthodox Church established itself in Alaska after the creation of the Russian-American Company, and remains one of the most significant remaining Russian influences in the state.More than 35 churches, some with distinctive onion-shaped domes, dot the Alaskan coast, according to an organization dedicated to preserving the buildings.Alaska’s Orthodox diocese says it is the oldest in North America, and even maintains a seminary on Kodiak island.A local dialect derived from Russian mixed with Indigenous languages survived for decades in various communities — particularly near the state’s largest city Anchorage — though it has now essentially vanished.However near the massive glaciers on the southern Kenai peninsula, the Russian language is still being taught. A small rural school of an Orthodox community known as the “Old Believers” set up in the 1960s teaches Russian to around a hundred students.- Neighbors -One of the most famous statements about the proximity of Alaska and Russia was made in 2008 by Sarah Palin, the state’s then-governor — and the vice-presidential pick of Republican candidate John McCain.”They’re our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska,” Palin said.While it is not possible to see Russia from the Alaskan mainland, two islands facing each other in the Bering Strait are separated by just 2.5 miles (four kilometers).Russia’s Big Diomede island is just west of the American Little Diomede island, where a few dozen people live.Further south, two Russians landed on the remote St. Lawrence island — which is a few dozen miles from the Russian coast — in October, 2022 to seek asylum. They fled just weeks after Putin ordered an unpopular mobilization of citizens to boost his invasion of Ukraine.For years, the US military has said it regularly intercepts Russian aircraft that venture too close to American airspace in the region.However Russia is ostensibly not interested in reclaiming the territory it once held, with Putin saying in 2014 that Alaska is “too cold”.

Visitors are still flocking to the quaint mountain town of Berkeley Springs in West Virginia to savor its hot springs, art galleries and gift stores. Residents, however, say they are navigating new tensions. They still smile and shake hands with neighbors at the bakery while getting their morning coffee, as long as they don’t mention two words: Donald Trump. The 850 residents of Berkeley Springs are a mix of rural conservatives who have lived here for generations and people who arrived more recently to the town, which is nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. The differences have existed for decades, but things are now growing tense.”A lot of people who quietly stand up for goodness are getting louder, and then that’s making the people who are upset by that also become louder,” says Kate Colby, 44, owner of Mineral Springs Trading Company.A large rainbow flag hangs on one wall of her gift store. Some locals told her to take it down, saying it made them feel unwelcome, she says.”They feel like they’ve got to be louder, and they’re aggressive… It just sort of builds, until it combusts,” she said with a bitter laugh.The small town dynamics are a portrait in miniature of what is happening across the country: liberal Americans hear the president’s frequent diatribes as attacks, while conservatives feel legitimized by his rhetoric.- Keeping quiet -Society in general has grown less civil in the United States in Trump’s second term, as he attacks the balance of powers and his political adversaries.”Trump does a really good job polarizing everything. He is like, you’re on my side, or you can get out,” says Nicole Harris, 47.Born in Oregon, Harris recently moved east to landlocked West Virginia, a rural and industrial state where almost 90 percent of the population voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election.To avoid problems, she keeps quiet: no political discussions with neighbors or with guests at her bed and breakfast, the Grand Castalian Inn.”We’re a business, so we accept everyone, and we accept everyone’s opinions. I keep my own opinions for myself,” she says.Beth Curtin has owned an antiques store in one of the beautiful brick homes in the center of town for 36 years. Many of her friends are Trump supporters. She is not.”It is a small community, and so we bump into one another. It’s not like, you know, a bigger metropolitan area where you can just hang with people who share your same views…. it’s more important that we try to get along and, you know, sometimes you have to bite your tongue,” she says.   Curtin says she avoids some stores in town because she does not want her money going “towards people who have those views.”  – ‘Communists’ -In the air-conditioned chill of the Lighthouse Latte cafe, Scott Wetzel, a wiry, bright-eyed 62-year-old, recalls his farm-based childhood and adult life in landscaping and construction. He views Democrats as “communists” who threaten his way of living.”If I speak of freedom, their idea of freedom is telling me how I could live. That’s not freedom. They just don’t get it so, but you can’t fix that. That’s something that’s twisted up in their heads,” the retiree says.He says people are still welcome to “spew that garbage” but “I’m just not gonna listen to it.” In early July, some town residents held a march in Berkeley Springs against Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” A truck nearby sold caps with his face on them.”There’s gonna have to be some shift. We can’t keep escalating like this,” says Colby, the gift store owner.  “We need to get back to a point where everybody can just sort of like, calmly live their own lives side by side, which I think was happening a lot more before Trump’s first term,” she says.Standing on the balcony of his elegant bed-and-breakfast, Mayor Greg Schene offers a more conciliatory view on town life.”This is certainly more of a melting pot,” says the Baltimore native, adding that having a spectrum of political beliefs “makes us better.””Finding, you know, some solutions and coming to a middle ground is always better than having one dominant party,” Schene said, smiling as he greeted people passing by.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that homeless people must be moved “far” from Washington, after days of musing about taking federal control of the US capital where he has falsely suggested crime is rising.The Republican billionaire has announced a press conference for Monday in which he is expected to reveal his plans for Washington — which is run by the locally elected government of the District of Columbia under congressional oversight.It is an arrangement Trump has long publicly chafed at. He has threatened to federalize the city and give the White House the final say in how it is run.”I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before,” the president posted on his Truth Social platform Sunday. “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital,” he continued, adding that criminals in the city would be swiftly imprisoned.  “It’s all going to happen very fast,” he said.Washington is ranked 15th on a list of major US cities by homeless population, according to government statistics from last year. While thousands of people spend each night in shelters or on the streets, the figure are down from pre-pandemic levels.Earlier this week Trump also threatened to deploy the National Guard as part of a crackdown on what he falsely says is rising crime in Washington. Violent crime in the capital fell in the first half of 2025 by 26 percent compared with a year earlier, police statistics show.The city’s crime rates in 2024 were already their lowest in three decades, according to figures produced by the Justice Department before Trump took office.”We are not experiencing a crime spike,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said Sunday on MSNBC.While the mayor, a Democrat, was not critical of Trump in her remarks, she said “any comparison to a war torn country is hyperbolic and false.”Trump’s threat to send in the National Guard comes weeks after he deployed California’s military reserve force into Los Angeles to quell protests over immigration raids, despite objections from local leaders and law enforcement.The president has frequently mused about using the military to control America’s cities, many of which are under Democratic control and hostile to his nationalist impulses.

“Weapons,” a new horror film about the mysterious disappearance of a group of children from the same school class, opened atop the North American box office with $42.5 million in ticket sales, industry estimates showed Sunday.”This is an outstanding opening for an original horror film,” analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research said of the Warner Bros. movie starring Julia Garner (“Ozark”) and Josh Brolin (“Avengers: Infinity War”).Debuting in second place was Disney’s “Freakier Friday” starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, the much-anticipated sequel to the 2003 family film in which body-switching leads to amusing hijinks, at $29 million, Exhibitor Relations said.”This is an excellent opening. The estimated weekend figure is well above average for a comedy follow-up sequel, and it’s also well above the first film’s opening 22 years ago,” Gross said.”The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” Disney’s debut of the rebooted Marvel Comics franchise, dropped to third place at $15.5 million. Its overall take in the United States and Canada stands at $230.4 million.Actor-of-the-moment Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Emmy-winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn star as the titular team of superheroes, who must save a retro-futuristic world from the evil Galactus.Universal’s family-friendly animation sequel “The Bad Guys 2,” about a squad of goofy animal criminals actually doing good in their rebranded lives, dropped to fourth, earning $10.4 million.Finishing out the top five was Paramount’s reboot of “Naked Gun,” a slapstick comedy starring Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr, son of the bumbling police lieutenant from the original 1980s movie and related television series “Police Squad!”The film, which co-stars Pamela Anderson, pulled in $8.4 million in its second weekend in theaters.Rounding out the top 10 were:”Superman” ($7.8 million)”Jurassic World: Rebirth” ($4.7 million)”F1: The Movie” ($2.8 million)”Together” ($2.6 million)”Sketch” ($2.5 million)

European leaders urged more “pressure” on Russia overnight Saturday, after the announcement of a Trump-Putin summit to end the war in Ukraine raised concern that an agreement would require Kyiv to cede swathes of territory.Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet in the US state of Alaska this Friday to try to resolve the three-year conflict, despite warnings from Ukraine and Europe that Kyiv must be part of negotiations.Announcing the summit last week, Trump said that “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” sides, without elaborating.But President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Saturday that Ukraine won’t surrender land to Russia to buy peace.”Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” he said on social media.”Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace,” he added.Zelensky urged Ukraine’s allies to take “clear steps” towards achieving a sustainable peace during a call with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer.European leaders issued a joint statement overnight Saturday to Sunday saying that “only an approach that combines active diplomacy, support to Ukraine and pressure on the Russian Federation to end their illegal war can succeed”.They welcomed Trump’s efforts, saying they were ready to help diplomatically — by maintaining support to Ukraine, as well as by upholding and imposing restrictive measures against Russia. “The current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations”, said the statement, signed by leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain, Finland and EU Commission chief Ursula Von Der Leyen, without giving more details.They also said a resolution “must protect Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests”, including “the need for robust and credible security guarantees that enable Ukraine to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity”.”The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine,” they said. National security advisors from Kyiv’s allies — including the United States, EU nations and the UK — gathered in Britain Saturday to align their views ahead of the Putin-Trump summit.French President Emmanuel Macron, following phone calls with Zelensky, Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said “the future of Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukrainians” and that Europe also had to be involved in the negotiations.In his evening address Saturday, Zelensky stressed: “There must be an honest end to this war, and it is up to Russia to end the war it started.”- A ‘dignified peace’ -Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine this year have failed to bear fruit.Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with millions forced to flee their homes.Putin, a former KGB officer in power in Russia for over 25 years, has ruled out holding talks with Zelensky at this stage.Ukraine’s leader has been pushing for a three-way summit and argues that meeting Putin is the only way to make progress towards peace.The summit in Alaska, the far-north territory which Russia sold to the United States in 1867, would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.Nine months later, Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.Zelensky said of the location that it was “very far away from this war, which is raging on our land, against our people”. The Kremlin said the choice was “logical” because the state close to the Arctic is on the border between the two countries, and this is where their “economic interests intersect”.Moscow has also invited Trump to pay a reciprocal visit to Russia later. Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump’s first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January, but Trump has failed to broker peace in Ukraine as he promised he could.- Fighting goes on -Russia and Ukraine continued pouring dozens of drones onto each other’s positions in an exchange of attacks in the early hours of Saturday. A bus carrying civilians was hit in Ukraine’s frontline city of Kherson, killing two people and wounding 16.The Russian army claimed to have taken Yablonovka, another village in the Donetsk region, the site of the most intense fighting in the east and one of the five regions Putin says is part of Russia. In 2022, the Kremlin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — despite not having full control over them. As a prerequisite to any peace settlement, Moscow demanded Kyiv pull its forces out of the regions and commit to being a neutral state, shun Western military support and be excluded from joining NATO.Kyiv said it would never recognise Russian control over its sovereign territory, though it acknowledged that getting land captured by Russia back would have to come through diplomacy, not on the battlefield.burs-jj/gv/tc/fox