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58 shot over Labor Day weekend in Chicago as governor rejects Trump threat to send National Guard

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Chicago police officers investigate a shooting, Aug. 30, 2025, in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood that left seven people injured. WLS
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At least 54 people have been shot, seven fatally, across Chicago over Labor Day weekend, including a drive-by attack that left seven victims wounded, according to police.

The violent holiday weekend came as President Donald Trump renewed threats to send federal agents and National Guard troops to Chicago over the objections of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

Trump on Saturday sent a warning to Pritzker in a post on his social media platform, referencing recent crime in Chicago and saying Pritzker “better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!”

Pritzker, a Democrat, responded in a news conference a week ago to an earlier Trump threat to “straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C.,” by saying that the president’s plan was “unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, it is un-American.”

Johnson responded last week by saying in part that he had “grave concerns about the impact of any unlawful deployment of National Guard troops to the city of Chicago,” and calling Trump’s approach “uncoordinated, uncalled for, and unsound.” Johnson also said that deploying the National Guard in Chicago could “inflame tensions between residents and law enforcement.”

On Saturday, Johnson signed an executive order dubbed the “Protecting Chicago Initiative,” which he described in a news conference as “the most sweeping campaign of any city in the country to protect ourselves from the threats and actions of this out-of-control administration” and which “directs our department of law to pursue any and every legal mechanism to hold this administration accountable for violating the rights of Chicagoans.”

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“We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some type of militarized activity by the federal government,” Johnson said, in part. “We take these threats seriously and we find ourselves in a position where we must take immediate, drastic action to protect our people from federal overreach.”

At least 32 separate shootings occurred in Chicago between 10:32 p.m. Friday and noon on Monday, according to a review by ABC News of police incident reports published online.

The victims included a 17-year-old girl who was inside her home when a bullet came through a front window and hit her in the arm, a 31-year-old man who was shot in the leg after getting caught in the crossfire of gunmen shooting at each other from two vehicles, and two people who shot and injured while driving down a street, all according to the incident reports.

Fewer than five hours after Trump posted a message on social media on Saturday criticizing Pritzker’s handling of crime in Chicago, a mass shooting occasionally urred in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side that left seven people wounded.

“He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!” Trump said in his post about Pritzker.

The shooting in Bronzeville occurred about 11:10 p.m. on Saturday on South State Street, according to police. A group of people were gathered outside in the area when a vehicle drove by and at least one occupant opened fire on the crowd. All seven people shot, five men and two women ranging in age from 28 to 32, were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries to their lower extremities, police said. No suspects have been arrested.

The first of seven homicides that police say occurred over the long holiday weekend happened at 11:56 p.m. on Friday at the South Shore apartment complex on East Essex Street, where two women were discovered shot, according to police.

A 25-year-old woman was found in the apartment suffering from two gunshot wounds to her stomach and one to her leg, according to a police incident report. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was pronounced dead, according to authorities. The victim’s name was not immediately released.

The second victim, a 23-year-old woman, suffered gunshot wounds to both legs and was in fair condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Investigators were interviewing a person of interest in the East Essex Street homicide but no arrests have been announced, according to police.

Elsewhere, two men were shot, one fatally, in the East Garfield Park neighborhood of Chicago around 11 a.m. on Saturday, according to police. The victims were standing outside on North Sawyer Avenue when a dark SUV approached them and a gunman exited the vehicle and opened fire, according to a police incident report.

A 29-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was shot multiple times and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police. The second victim, a 32-year-old man, suffered a gunshot wound to his right side and was in stable condition at Mount Sinai, police said. No arrests have been announced in the incident.

Also on Saturday, gunfire erupted in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood. Around 7:46 p.m., a 43-year-old woman was standing outside on E. 131st Street when five armed men approached her and opened fire, striking her multiple times, according to police. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to Christ Hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.

No arrests have been announced in the Altgeld Gardens homicide.

Around 1:39 a.m. on Sunday, a 46-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was killed in a triple shooting that occurred in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago’s Lower West Side, according to police. The victims were standing on West 17th Street when a gunman walked up to them and opened fire, police said.

The two other victims, a 41-year-old man and a 43-year-old man, suffered gunshot wounds to their legs and were in good condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

Around 2:52 a.m. on Sunday, a 33-year-old man was killed in the West Inglewood neighborhood on the Southwest Side of Chicago, police said. The victim got into a argument inside a residence with a man who shot him in the head, according to police. The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. No arrests were announced.

The violence continued Sunday night as police launched two more homicide investigations.

A 26-year-old woman was fatally shot around 7:28 p.m. on Sunday in the Pullman neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side after getting into a verbal altercation with another woman, police said. The victim, whose name was not released, was shot in the chest and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, according to police. No arrests have been announced.

Also on Sunday night, police discovered a man lying on the ground suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the Little Village neighborhood of southwest Chicago, police said. The victim, who was found on S. Drake Avenue, died at the scene, police said. No suspects have been identified.

At least three additional shootings unfolded early Monday in the city, including one that left five people wounded, including a 17-year-old boy who was in critical condition after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, police said.

Just after 1 a.m. on Monday, police were called to the Oakland neighborhood on the city’s South Side for a report of a large disturbance on South Cottage Grove Avenue, according to a police incident report. Upon arrival, officers followed the sound of gunfire to an area where they found the five shooting victims and four discarded firearms, according to police. Besides the critically wounded teenager, police said the four other victims, ranging in age from 26 to 36, were taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

One person of interest was being questioned in the Oakland neighborhood shooting, but no charges have been announced.

Around 11:20 a.m. on Monday, a 48-year-old man was shot in the West Elsdon neighborhood of southeast Chicago, according to police. The victim, who was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, was standing outside of a residence when a gunman approached him and opened fire, striking him multiple times in the abdomen, according to police. No arrests have been announced.

The series of shootings came after President Donald Trump said last week that he is prepared to order National Guard troops to American cities in addition to those in the nation’s capital, but that he wanted local officials to request his help.

Trump threatened to make Chicago the next city he would target after he declared what he said was a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C., and he put the city’s police force under federal control on Aug. 11.

Violent crime in Chicago has dropped significantly in the first half of the year, according to official data released by the city. Shootings are down 37% and homicides have dropped by 32% compared to the first half of 2024, while total violence crime dropped by over 22%, according to the crime statistics.

“Do not come to Chicago, you are neither wanted here nor needed here,” Pritzker further said in response to Trump during a news conference last week. “Donald Trump wants to use the military to occupy a U.S. city to punish its dissidents and score political points. If this were happening in any other country, we would have no trouble calling it what it is – a dangerous power-grab.” (ABC News)

International

‘UK’s oldest witch’ dies in Sheffield aged 97

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Patricia Crowther UK’s oldest witch dies at 97
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A woman who was known as the UK’s oldest witch has died at home at the age of 97.

Patricia Crowther was a follower and “high priestess” of the Wicca pagan religion and co-created the show “A Spell of Witchcraft” on BBC Radio Sheffield in the 1970s.

Introducing the first of the six episodes, she said: ” ‘Witchcraft’ simply means the craft of the wise people – nothing sensational or horrific in that.”

The show hoped to “redress some of the balance” in attitudes towards witchcraft by delving into the history and rituals of the then-obscure religion, and is credited with bringing it to a wider audience.

Mrs Crowther, who lived in Sheffield all her life, created the show alongside her husband, Arnold Crowther, with whom she established Sheffield Coven.

She was initiated into Wicca in 1960 by Gerald Gardner, who is credited with developing the religion, according to pagan publication Wild Hunt.

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Her husband, who had been initiated a short time after her, died in 1974.

Before joining the occult, she had spent summers as a performer on piers and theatres, and did pantomimes in winter, said Ian Lilleyman, her partner of more than 40 years.

“She loved the theatre. That was the best part of her life, she just loved it,” the 75-year-old said.

The pair met at a vegetarian society meeting, where she had been a speaker, and Mr Lilleyman a member of the audience.

Mrs Crowther had been a professional dancer for years and spent time as a children’s entertainer but, as she told The Guardian in the nineties, witches do not work for money.

But she kept dancing as part of witchcraft practices, Mr Lilleyman said.

From aged four, when she took lessons at the Constance Grant Dance Centre in Sheffield, she never stopped until she lost her mobility later in life, he said.

And, during wartime, she had sung and played the accordion as part of a group which entertained the troops.

“If I remember rightly, they weren’t allowed to know where they were going and the windows were blacked out,” he added.

She maintained her interest and belief in witchcraft for her whole life and wrote multiple books, including Witchcraft in Yorkshire and From Stagecraft to Witchcraft.

Mr Lilleyman said there was “never a time she would just sit down and do nothing”.

“At night, I would go off to bed and she would be sat reading a book. She never stopped learning, even as she got older,” he said.

“She said, ‘you’ve got to read to learn, you don’t know everything, you might think you do but you don’t’.”

The couple also enjoyed visiting their cottage in Whitby.

After about five years of struggling with dementia, she passed away on Wednesday morning with her partner at her side.

Reporting her passing, pagan news site Wild Hunt described her memory as a “blessing” to those who have been touched by her work.

“Her spirit continues to live on in the covens and communities she inspired,” it added. (BBC)

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International

UK is a home, not hotel, Kemi Badenoch tells immigrants, Starmer’s govt

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Kemi Badenoch
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UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has slammed Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government over its immigration policy, declaring that Britain is “a home, not a hotel.”

Badenoch accused Labour of weakening the country’s borders and enabling mass automatic citizenship.

In a 1:11-minute video posted on her official X account on Friday, Badenoch claimed Labour’s proposed reforms could allow up to two million immigrants to automatically qualify for British citizenship starting next year.

“From next year, two million immigrants can automatically claim British citizenship. Two million people! That’s nearly twice the population of Birmingham. That’s massive,” Badenoch said in the video.

Badenoch noted that the Conservative Party has introduced a deportation bill to bring immigration down.

Among the measures she endorsed in the video were deporting all foreign criminals, mandatory age checks, no more pretending to be kids, tougher visa rules and salary thresholds, disapplying the Human Rights Act to immigration cases, and no more abusing human rights laws to judge deportations.

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Make asylum support repayable, and no permanent right to stay in the UK if you’ve relied on benefits.

“Until that’s law, we won’t fix this. Labour should adopt it now. It’s time to get tough. That’s what the Conservatives’ Deportation Bill delivers, and we’re going to go further. Our country is a home, not a hotel. And if we don’t defend it, no one else will.”

In the caption that came with the video, she tweeted, “Labour has blocked every single measure we’ve put forward to cut immigration and stop abuse of the system.

“Now they’re pushing one half-arsed proposal — it’s weak; it won’t work. It’s time they stopped playing games and backed our Deportation Bill.”

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Former Congolese president sentenced to death for war crimes

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Joseph Kabila
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Former Democratic Republic of Congo President, Joseph Kabila, has been sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes and treason.

The charges concern accusations that Kabila had been supporting the M23, a rebel group who have wreaked devastation across the country’s eastern region.

Kabila was convicted on Friday of treason, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, including murder, sexual assault, torture and insurrection.

Kabila however rejected the case as “arbitrary” and said the courts were being used as an “instrument of oppression”. His current whereabouts are unknown.

The 54-year-old led DR Congo for 18 years, after succeeding his father Laurent, who was shot dead in 2001.

Kabila handed power to President Félix Tshisekedi in 2019, but they later fell out and Kabila went into self-imposed exile in 2023.

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In April this year, the former president said he wanted to help find a solution to the deadly fighting in the east and arrived in the M23-held city of Goma the following month.

President Tshisekedi accused Kabila of being the brains behind the M23 and senators stripped him of his legal immunity, paving the way for his prosecution.

Decades of conflict had escalated earlier this year when the M23 seized control of large parts of the mineral-rich east, including Goma, the city of Bukavu and two airports.

Pointing to overwhelming evidence, the UN and several Western countries have accused neighbouring Rwanda of backing the M23, and sending thousands of its soldiers into DR Congo.

But Kigali denies the charges, saying it is acting to stop the conflict from spilling over onto its territory.

A ceasefire deal between the rebels and the government was agreed in July, but the bloodshed has continued.

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