Victims ask president

In March 2019 , the retired police detective Mike Crowley met me in the lobby of a hotel near the Miami Dolphins’ stadium. Crowley, a 71-year-old Vietnam vet, was wearing shorts, a white undershirt, and a camouflage baseball hat that said MARINE in block caps. Over the course of three hours, he sipped a single rum and Coke. Four years earlier, Crowley said, he’d noticed a pattern in a string of jewelry-store robberies happening all over Florida: The same means of entry had been used every time. As he spoke, I eyed a large stack of paperwork teetering on the table in front of us, including thick folders labeled DRILL TEAM in black marker. At first, Crowley had had multiple suspects for these crimes. He walked me through a laundry list of itinerant safecrackers who had passed through Florida in recent years, pulling off heists in various cities throughout the state. Florida, seen through Crowley’s eyes, is a migratory stopover for the most elite burglars and safe teams. If you … [Read more...] about The Rise and Fall of an All-Star Crew of Jewel Thieves

The TAKE with Rick Klein A new phase of primary season starts this week -- and it won't just be former President Donald Trump whose sway is tested as voting expands into battlegrounds that are likely to make or break a majority. Amid all the attention on vicious Republican primaries and Trump's impact, Democrats are set to make some of their own major decisions. That includes a few choice races where President Joe Biden has chosen to step in, and some others where his brand of politics comes into play. The Senate race in Pennsylvania is a neat encapsulation of the potential directions Democrats could take. The news Sunday that Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the leading candidate in recent polls, was hospitalized with a stroke puts more attention on the burly, progressive former small-town mayor who has campaigned extensively against the idea of "Joe Manchin Democrats." Fetterman is opposed by a young, gay Black state lawmaker, and a House member and Marine Corps veteran … [Read more...] about Biden and Trump both face tests in next stretch of primaries: The Note

A Home Office minister had a morning she will want to forget after fudging her numbers in a car crash interview about stop and search powers. Appearing on LBC , Rachel Maclean was forced to admit she didn’t know the crucial changes her own department is introducing. Ms Maclean was doing the media rounds after her boss Priti Patel lifted restrictions on Section 60, which give officers the controversial right to search people without reasonable grounds when they expect serious violence. The Home Secretary’s changes have extended the length of time the powers can be in force from 15 to 24 hours, and it’s believed black and minority ethnic communities will be disproportionately affected. When asked how long a Section 60 order can be put in place for, Ms Maclean wrongly said: ‘I think the time is 12 hours, but it has to be renewed on a proportionate basis when the intelligence is reviewed.’ After being corrected by the presenter, she replied: ‘Oh, forgive me, 24 … [Read more...] about Home Office minister gets numbers muddled over new police stop and search powers

I would like to take you back to a certain time in the young life of our republic—a time that was filled with a deep sense of foreboding, a grim expectation that our national life was about to change radically, and a giddy appreciation nonetheless of the possibilities held out by the rapid advance of human knowledge. It was a time that has perhaps more than a little in common with the times we inhabit now. The year was 1857. Railroads did not yet cross the North American continent, but everyone knew that one day soon they would. The publication of Darwin's Origin of Species was two years away, but loud rumblings in the halls of science had already warned the keepers of religious faith that serious challenges lay ahead. The largest wave of immigration in the nation's history was pouring through the cities of the eastern seaboard. Though he would become President in four years, Abraham Lincoln in 1857 was no more widely known nationally than any former one-term Congressman is today. … [Read more...] about The Atlantic: A History

In late 2021, as Australian cities were seeing anti-lockdown and anti-vaxxer protests against the country’s long-running pandemic restrictions and newly implemented vaccine mandates, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted “Don’t Australia my America.” As someone who has recently moved back to Sydney after covering the Trump presidency for the BBC, I have instead found myself thinking the opposite: Don’t America my Australia . The American variant of democracy is contaminating the body politic of my home. My family left the United States partly to escape its politics, so it was jolting to watch Trump banners that I was more used to seeing in Mississippi and rural Michigan being brandished on the streets of Melbourne. But the Trump paraphernalia, and crowds of Australian protesters that resemble mosh pits of MAGA diehards, have been only a mild form of the sickness. There have been more malign manifestations. Some lawmakers in the state of Victoria who backed tough lockdown measures received … [Read more...] about Don’t America My Australia

Gamesmanship has suddenly become a worrying issue in rugby. Long thought of as the preserve of footballers, rugby players are now pushing the idea of fair play to the limits. As our columnist Will Greenwood wrote last week : "In rugby, we have enjoyed looking down on football, claiming we occupy the moral high ground...Well, don’t be so sure. Rugby is on that road, and it has all come about from a very real concern around player welfare and head safety." So what can be done to make sure rugby shows the yellow card to football-style faking? We asked for your comments and our deputy rugby correspondent Daniel Schofield has responded to some of the best of them: We absolutely have to have referees leading the way in firmly reinstalling the rugby rule that only the captain can talk to (including appeal) to the referee. I don’t want to see players chirping at or remonstrating to or towards the referees. Let them run to their captain. And captains calmly address the referee at the … [Read more...] about ‘Yellow cards for diving’: Dan Schofield replies to Telegraph readers on football-style faking in rugby

It is an utter tragedy that Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed last week while covering an Israeli military operation. It is also patently absurd to frame this tragedy as Israel "murdering" Palestinians with no accountability, as antisemitic Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) keep insanely tweeting. Here is what we know: On May 11, Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers, along with officers in the Israel Security Authority and the Border Police , conducted a counterterrorism operation in the Jenin area to arrest several suspects as part of their investigation into the recent wave of terror attacks that has killed 19 innocent people in Israel over the past two months. During the operation, Palestinian gunmen fired indicriminately at the Israelis, who returned fire. Toward the end of the exchange, Ms. Abu Akleh, who was covering the situation for Al Jazeera , was hit by a stray bullet and killed. (Aside: Reps. Tlaib and Omar, if … [Read more...] about A tragic death has brought out all the usual Jew-haters and Israel-haters | Opinion

The UK's rogue trade hotspots have been revealed with residents from Newcastle, Belfast and London falling victim the most. More than a third (37 per cent) of homeowners have endured a rogue tradesperson at some point, including 31 per cent in Newcastle, 23 per cent in Belfast and 23 per cent in London. But almost half the amount have experienced this in Glasgow (11 per cent), Cardiff (15 per cent) and Norwich (16 per cent). Plumbing (20 per cent), closely followed by bathroom installation (18 per cent), painting/decorating (18 per cent) and kitchen fitting (16 per cent) are the most prevalent sectors where consumers are being left with disappointing work. A fifth of the 2,880 homeowners polled have experienced a financial loss due to disappointing work carried out by a rogue trader. And seven in 10 have had to fork out additional money to finish off or fix disappointing work. Financially, respondents from Oxford have been hardest hit - experiencing a loss of £4,990 on … [Read more...] about UK’s rogue trading hotspots revealed – is your city on the list?

A government minster has sparked outrage after suggesting people should ‘work more hours’ to combat the living cost crisis. She also suggested finding ‘better-paid jobs’ would help families offset soaring inflation and rising energy bills. Rachel Maclean, safeguarding minister in the Home Office, did concede the approach would not suit every household. She told Sky News: ‘I think what we need to focus on now is over the long-term. ‘We do have these short-term pressures on us that we’re all aware of. ‘But over the long-term we need to have a plan to grow the economy and make sure that people are able to protect themselves better, whether that is by taking on more hours or moving to a better-paid job.’ During the interview, in which journalist Kay Burley questioned the MP’s advice, Ms Maclean did admit her suggestions would not suit everyone. But she then went on to encourage people to visit job centres to find aforementioned better-paid work and more hours. The … [Read more...] about Minister says people should ‘work more hours’ or get ‘better paid jobs’ to fight cost of living crisis

When he was in office, many thought that President Donald Trump was too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Who would have thought, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that President Joe Biden would end up an inadvertent energy czar — for Putin, against the interests of the free world? Biden’s administration is canceling oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska, removing millions of acres from possible drilling. And, as anyone who can read a newspaper knows, when our allies in Europe are being held hostage to cutoffs of Russian energy. And, as anyone who can read a newspaper knows, when the Biden administration is asking Persian Gulf petrostates to pump more oil. This makes no sense. Energy officials in Biden’s administration are working at cross-purposes with our diplomats and military. Much of the domestic discussion is about gasoline prices at the pump, setting records and fueling inflation worldwide. Long-term, there is … [Read more...] about Our Views: Curb on Gulf energy leases serves Russia’s interests, not America’s