Non-profits say requests for legal help and housing on rise amid Trump funding cuts for prevention and response

As cities and states across the US report historic drops in homicides, domestic violence killings remain alarmingly high.

In Chicago, where homicides fell from 805 in 2021 to 425 in 2025, killings tied to domestic violence increased by 15% between 2024 and 2025. In Kansas City, Missouri, homicides in general have dropped since 2023, but 2025 was the second deadliest year for homicides tied to domestic violence. In Ohio, too, 2025 was the deadliest year for domestic violence killings, while homicides in general followed the national decrease. Across the US, the share of violent crimes that involve domestic violence has increased from 25% in 2020 to 27.5% in 2024, according to a 2026 FBI report.

The city’s police department and mayor warn the public to stay away from the Loring Park neighborhood nearby

Two people were killed and the suspect was dead after a shooting at an apartment building in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.

One shooting victim died at the scene. A second died after arriving at Hennepin county medical center, a hospital spokesperson said.

Police officer who fatally shot unarmed 22-year-old Glenwood Pysher IV faces voluntary manslaughter charge

A Pennsylvania police officer was charged on Tuesday with voluntary manslaughter for last week’s fatal shooting of a college student who was looking for his friends late at night and went to the wrong house.

Police body-camera video reviewed by investigators showed the officer yelled: “Drop to the ground,” then: “Stop or I’ll ...”. Before he finished the sentence, he fired two shots at the man who was unarmed and had his hands in the air. He hit 22-year-old Glenwood Earl Pysher IV twice in the chest, killing him.

Senatobia, where white officer shot and killed Kohen Wiley, terminates chief who reportedly used racist slurs in texts

Late Tuesday, the city of Senatobia, Mississippi fired its police chief, Harold Vanderford, after it was reported that Vanderford regularly used racist slurs against Black people in his text messages. The town, which is about 40% Black, made national news earlier this year after a white officer fatally shot and killed Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old Black baby, while responding to a shoplifting call at Walmart. Officers fired into a vehicle, shooting the driver and killing the toddler, who was being held in his mother’s arms.

Though Vanderford submitted a resignation letter earlier on 1 September, the city’s board of aldermen unanimously voted to reject it and to terminate the officer instead. Vanderford’s firing came just under a week after the city wrote in a statement that, despite the messages, he would “continue to serve the City with the confidence that was placed in him at the time that he was appointed as Chief”.

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and National Police shut down a Kyiv-based network of several dozen people who allegedly used fake cryptocurrency investment platforms and malicious code to steal digital assets from citizens of EU countries, the SBU said on 1 September.

Investigators identified the alleged organizer as a 25-year-old Kyiv IT specialist, according to the SBU. The case reaches beyond Ukraine because the agency says the alleged victims were EU citizens. The agency said the network’s monthly turnover from funds obtained illegally could reach $1 million during its most lucrative periods.

The SBU said investigators had documented alleged crimes by every member of the group. However, its statement did not specify how long the network had operated, how many EU citizens were affected, which countries they lived in, or the total amount allegedly stolen.

The agency did not name any foreign law enforcement partners involved.

How the crypto ring operated

The alleged organizer of the crypto ring recruited other tech workers in the capital, the SBU said. Posing as cryptocurrency-platform representatives, they offered targets seemingly profitable ways to invest in digital assets.

The network found victims by posting about supposedly lucrative crypto projects in popular Telegram channels, then showed them fabricated trading results and fake profits to make the operation look legitimate, investigators said.

Engaged targets were sent a link to a counterfeit site that mimicked a real crypto service and were persuaded to connect their wallets and approve a transaction, the SBU said. The site carried malicious code called a “drainer” that, the agency said, let the operators withdraw the victims’ assets to addresses they controlled—emptying the wallets.

During 23 searches of the suspects’ offices and homes, officers seized phones, computers, money believed to be criminal proceeds, and 16 high-end cars, including Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz models, the SBU said.

Authorities were still deciding whether to serve notices of suspicion, while the investigation continued under the Prosecutor General’s Office, the SBU said. Those involved could face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

Ukraine’s role in combating cross-border cybercrime

Ukraine has previously joined with foreign agencies to pursue cross-border cyber threats. In April, the SBU said it worked with the FBI, EU law enforcement, and Polish counterintelligence to disrupt Russian military-intelligence spying through hacked routers. The operation blocked more than 100 servers and removed hundreds of routers in Ukraine from Russian control.

Jury to return for more deliberations on Thursday in case of mother accused of murdering her three children

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The jury in the Lindsay Clancy trial was dismissed for the evening on Wednesday without reaching a verdict, after nearly 30 hours of deliberations over five days.

Addressing the 12-member jury – made up of nine women and three men – Judge William Sullivan said: “I know it’s been a long day.”

In the US, the national maternal mental health hotline is 1-833-852-6262. In the UK, the Pandas foundation offers support via WhatsApp on 07903 508334. In Australia, the national maternal and perinatal mental health hotline is 1300 726 306

Rapper’s supporters reflect on ‘astonishing’ events leading to Duane Davis being found guilty over 1996 fatal shooting

A criminal conviction this week in the murder of Tupac Shakur, the first since the rapper was gunned down in 1996, sent shockwaves through his sea of fans who have waited three decades for answers.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former California gang leader, was found guilty of murder on Monday for the role he played in orchestrating the fatal shooting of Shakur.

Erin Piacenti, a 32-year-old vice-president at the bank, was killed in Tuesday stabbing in New York City, officials say

A corporate vice-president at Bank of America was killed in a stabbing in New York City’s Times Square, the second-biggest US lending bank ⁠said on Tuesday about a ⁠random incident that took place ​in broad daylight in the bustling heart of Manhattan.

The incident had brought the streets of the crowded area to a halt on Monday as emergency vehicles swarmed between the skyscrapers.

Massachusetts woman does not deny fatally strangling her three children but says postpartum psychosis led her to it

The judge has told the jury in the Lindsay Clancy trial to keep deliberating after it said it was unable to come to a unanimous decision in the controversial case of the mother who killed her three children.

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse in Massachusetts, does not deny strangling her children but says postpartum psychosis led to her actions. Prosecutors argue she knew what she was doing. Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility.

Authorities have charged Ryan Bassham after the deadly explosion at the marijuana extraction facility he owns

An Oklahoma man has been charged with murder after a large explosion at a marijuana extraction facility that killed two of his employees and damaged surrounding businesses, prosecutors said on Monday.

Ryan Bassham, 35, turned himself in this weekend after being charged with two counts of first-degree murder in Thursday’s blast at Solos Extracts near Tulsa, authorities said. The explosion at about 1am partially tore the roof from a building, crumpled doors and scattered debris around an industrial park.

Suspect Tyler Robinson to be tried for aggravated murder, felony charge that carries death penalty sentence in Utah

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A Utah judge ruled Tuesday that the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk must stand trial for aggravated murder, a felony charge that makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

After several hours of closing arguments in Provo, Utah, judge Tony Graf ruled there is sufficient evidence to try Tyler Robinson, 23, who has been charged with the murder of one of the US right’s most prominent figures.

North Carolina DA says girl, 17, who disseminated attackers’ manifesto charged with murder by aiding and abetting

A 17-year-old North Carolina girl who recorded a livestream of a shooting that killed three people at a San Diego mosque and disseminated the attackers’ white-supremacist writings has been charged with murder by aiding and abetting, a district attorney said on Monday.

Forsyth county district attorney Jim O’Neill said at a news conference in Winston-Salem that the girl, whose name was not mentioned during the news conference, was arrested last week. On Monday, just before she was due to begin the school year, a grand jury indicted her on three counts of murder and one count of conspiracy.

Company is offering cash reward for 40,000lb stolen cargo, and turns theft into lighthearted social media promotion

Pabst is offering a reward after tens of thousands of cans of its Blue Ribbon beer were stolen from the company’s southern California warehouse two weeks ago – if it is all safely returned.

In Instagram posts, Pabst put the weight of the stolen cargo at 40,000lb (18,000kg) and started a countdown seeking its return.

Singer, accused of murder and sexual abuse of teen Celeste Rivas Hernandez, to be represented by LA public defender

Singer D4vd lost his high-profile private lawyers on Monday at a hearing where he entered a new not guilty plea to charges that he killed, sexually abused and dismembered 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez.

It is not clear why Blair Berk and her colleagues Marilyn Bednarski and Regina Peter parted ways with the singer, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke. They were replaced by a lawyer from the Los Angeles county public defender’s office.

Both thefts occurred on 17 August at a distribution center east of Los Angeles

Thieves made off with tens of thousands of cans of Pabst beer in two separate heists from a southern California warehouse on the same day, police said.

Pabst Blue Ribbon has turned the thefts – valued by police at $70,000 – into a lighthearted social media promotion. But police in Montclair said on Friday that investigators were trying to determine whether they were part of a single operation.

The state concludes: ‘This wasn’t a woman suffering from a lack of care’ or ‘a lack of resources’

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The jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has moved into deliberations as jurors decide whether the 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse is criminally responsible for fatally strangling her three children in January 2023.

Over the past five weeks, the trial, which has been called “America’s saddest murder trial” , has renewed nationwide attention on postpartum mental healthcare. Clancy’s defense maintains that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis – a condition estimated to affect around two women per 1,000 births – and therefore should not be held criminally responsible for her actions.

Judge ruled Jeanine John Taele, discovered with firearm days before Trump visit, was unfit to face felony charge

A judge in California has suspended criminal proceedings against a man found with a loaded gun near Donald Trump’s golf course in Los Angeles, and instead ordered him to undergo a mental health evaluation.

Jeanine John Taele, 38, of Downey, California, was arrested for weapons violations days before the president spoke at a 5 August Republican fundraiser at the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes.

FBI psychiatrist Gregory Saathoff says he has treated only two women with postpartum psychosis, both decades earlier

Testimony finished in the Lindsay Clancy trial on Wednesday, as a final witness for the prosecution laid out that he believed the Massachusetts mother knew right from wrong when she took the lives of her three young children before attempting to commit suicide in 2023.

Closing arguments are expected to begin on Thursday. The jury will then start deliberating.

Christian Castro charged with assault after allegedly shooting Venezuelan man and remains in custody in Texas

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A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent accused of firing his gun and wounding a Venezuelan man in the leg is caught in an interstate extradition dispute between Texas and Minnesota – and could walk out of a Texas jail as soon as Wednesday after a federal judge refused to intervene.

Christian Castro is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime by another, in relation to the incident in which he was involved in the wounding of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in January.

A cousin says death of Sean Grayson in prison ‘doesn’t give Sonya back her life or return her’ to her children

The death in prison of the former Illinois sheriff’s deputy convicted of murder after fatally shooting Sonya Massey in her home “doesn’t feel like justice to me”, a cousin of the woman has said in an emotional statement.

“It doesn’t give Sonya back her life or return her back to her [two] children”, who were aged 15 and 17 at the time of the killing, Sontae Massey wrote in the statement on Monday. Referring to Sonya Massey’s mother, the statement continued: “It doesn’t give my aunt back her daughter. And it doesn’t give our family the accountability were still waiting for …

Samuel Bateman, 50, is convicted of three state child abuse counts after previous conviction on federal counts

A polygamous sect leader already serving a 50-year federal sentence for orchestrating sex involving children was given another 24 years in prison Tuesday on separate state convictions for child abuse for hauling girls in an unventilated trailer in Arizona.

Samuel Bateman, 50, was convicted of three child abuse counts stemming from an August 2022 traffic stop in Flagstaff that led to the discovery of three girls, aged 11 to 14, in the trailer. It had a makeshift toilet, sofa and camping chairs and lacked air conditioning and seat belts. Someone tipped off authorities about the trailer after seeing small fingers reaching through gaps in the doors.

One more day of testimony expected as closing arguments set for Thursday and jury likely begins deliberations Friday

One more day of rebuttal testimony was expected this week in the trial against Lindsay Clancy, followed by closing statements likely on Thursday.

The jury, which will likely begin deliberations on Friday, will decide whether the Massachusetts mother was experiencing postpartum psychosis when she killed her three children in January 2023.

In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Lawyer Baltasar Garzón, representing Chambers, said case against his client is ‘very strange’ as US requests extradition

FBI agents raided the Ibiza, Spain, vacation rental of 41-year-old James “Fergie” Chambers, a US citizen and wealthy donor to leftwing and humanitarian projects worldwide, in the days following his arrest last month, the Guardian has learned.

Baltasar Garzón, a human rights lawyer representing Chambers, revealed the details in an exclusive interview. Chambers is wanted for extradition by the Trump administration for alleged financial support of Hamas, as well as other charges.

Home in Billings was also set on fire, with victims representing four generations of a blended family

A man killed eight of his relatives, including four children, on Sunday evening in a shooting at a home in Billings, Montana, that was also set on fire, according to authorities and local media reports.

Police have characterized the case as a family disturbance, according to Montana news outlet KULR.

Maxwell sought to vacate Epstein-related conviction, alleging hidden trial evidence and juror’s abuse history

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A federal judge has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal effort to throw out her 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges and 20-year prison sentence, calling her claims “demonstrably meritless, and generally based on speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods”.

In a 67-page decision filed on Tuesday, the US district judge Paul Engelmayer for New York’s southern district denied the former British socialite’s petition for relief, finding that Maxwell had failed to make a substantial showing that her constitutional rights were denied when she was convicted for her role in crimes linked to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

‘A child isn’t born to commit gun violence,’ Francisco Villarruel says

Francisco Villarruel and Gustavo Galvez sat in a park in Los Angeles reminiscing on their first boxing lesson together. They had gone to a big commercial gym, where they took turns hitting boxing pads and doing footwork exercises. They then started regularly training together.

For Villarruel, 40, working out together wasn’t really about boxing. It was about giving Galvez, 19, an opportunity to open up and to mentor someone whose pain he understands. “ I think a lot of the traumatic scenarios that he went through are very similar to mine in my upbringing,” Villarruel said.

Karen Solomon had been missing for six days after her husband Kurt Solomon was found dead at their home

A mental health advocate suspected of killing her police officer husband was found dead on Monday, six days after she disappeared from her Massachusetts home, authorities said.

Karen Solomon, an advocate who called for improvements and greater awareness of police mental health issues, had disappeared after Worcester police officer Kurt Solomon was found dead at their home just before 5.30am on 18 August. Officials had named Karen Solomon a suspect and said she was believed to be armed.

Dr Kirk Heilbrun says he believes Clancy took children’s lives so they wouldn’t ‘suffer’ after she killed herself

With just days to go before the murder trial for Lindsay Clancy concludes, a forensic psychologist called by the prosecution testified on Monday that he did not believe she was experiencing acute psychosis when she killed her three children.

Kirk Heilbrun, who reportedly performed psychiatric tests on Clancy in April, told the court that he questioned her claims that a hallucinated voice commanded her to commit the act, and that he believed she took their lives so they wouldn’t “suffer” after she killed herself.

Authorities believe Benjamin Charles ​Parker, 36, died by suicide after he was found in vehicle in Washington state

A man ⁠suspected of killing ⁠five ​people in rural Oregon was found dead in a suspected ⁠suicide, local law enforcement officials said on Sunday.

The five homicide victims were found ⁠on Saturday at a home in a ​rural community near ‌Forest Grove, ‌Oregon, about 30 miles (48km) outside Portland, ‌when authorities responded to a report of a vehicle fire.

Sean Grayson, who was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 2023, was serving a 20-year sentence for second-degree murder

The former Illinois sheriff’s deputy convicted of fatally shooting Sonya Massey in her home after she reported a possible prowler to 911, has died, his attorney said on Sunday.

Sean Grayson died on Sunday, lawyer Daniel Fultz – who represented the ex-Sangamon county deputy at his trial – told NBC News and CBS News.

Algorithms are responsible for fever pitch content surrounding trial, including misinformation, experts say

As the trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three children, starts to wind down, a now international discussion on social media about the case has hit a fever pitch as viewers examine details of the trial and question the state of maternal mental healthcare in the United States.

Amateur sleuths and armchair psychologists have been creating content throughout the several weeks of the trial, pointing out perceived discrepancies in evidence. They’ve pointed to Clancy’s last recorded heart rate and body temperature as “smoking guns”, suggested that Patrick Clancy, Lindsay’s ex-husband and father of the children, actually committed the crime, despite no legal evidence to back up the claim.

Relatives of woman fatally stabbed on public transit allege death was preventable and Charlotte knew of violent crime issue

The family of Iryna Zarutska is suing Charlotte and a security company one year after the Ukrainian refugee was fatally stabbed onboard a light rail train in the North Carolina city.

A lawsuit filed on Friday in Charlotte’s Mecklenburg county superior court alleges Zarutska’s death was preventable. It also claims the city and the company that provides security for the Charlotte Area Transit System failed to put adequate protections in place despite knowing about violent crime on and around the municipal light rail line.

Michael Jeffries is ruled mentally competent to stand trial after being hospitalized for months for dementia symptoms

The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial as he faces sex-trafficking charges after being hospitalized for months for dementia and Alzheimer’s symptoms.

Michael Jeffries, who is 82 and free on bond for now, is scheduled to be tried in late October, alongside two co-defendants: his partner Matthew Smith and staffer James Jacobson. A pretrial hearing was slated for Thursday.

Woman remains missing more than five days after police found officer she was married to dead in their home

An arrest warrant has been issued for a mental health advocate who remained missing on Sunday, more than five days after police found the Massachusetts officer she had been married to dead in their home.

Karen Solomon, 58, was last spotted in a doorbell camera video, walking down a street in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops early Tuesday morning, just minutes after Worcester police officers responded to a call from the home where Kurt Solomon was found dead.

PEN America condemns lawyers using passage from thriller to bolster claim ex-FBI director intended to harm Trump

A leading US free-expression group has hit out at federal prosecutors’ use of a novel written by former FBI director James Comey in their case accusing him of threatening to kill Donald Trump.

“Citing a novel to save an indictment that is constitutionally dubious is a desperate Hail Mary and should be rejected,” said a statement posted on Friday by Mara Gassmann, legal director of PEN America, using a term for a last-second heave in American football.

Latest attack happened amid Islamophobic blowback against Arab and Muslim Americans running for office

Nashid Shakir describes how assailants used wire cutters to break into the Westwood Islamic Community Center in the early hours of 3 August.

“They cut the wire and broke the window to get in. They broke into the office, too. It was total disarray,” says Shakir, a board member, and member, at the community center since the 1960s.

Thomas Bailey, 58, faces charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling near Covington, Louisiana

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer was jailed on Friday on allegations of breaking into a woman’s apartment.

Thomas Bailey, 58, faces a charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling after his arrest by the sheriff’s office of St Tammany parish, Louisiana, the agency said in a statement.