Trump advocates ‘9 barrels shooting at’ Liz Cheney

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump directed violent rhetoric at former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, criticizing her past support for military action and saying she should face “nine barrels shooting at her” as a result, his latest advocacy of violence against his rivals.

“She’s a radical war hawk — let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? And let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face,” the former president and convicted felon said during a Thursday event in Glendale, Arizona, that was moderated by commentator Tucker Carlson.

Cheney, a former member from Wyoming and one-time chair of the House GOP Conference, was vice chair of the special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. More recently, Cheney has endorsed and campaigned with Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

One of the few congressional Republicans to ever criticize Trump, Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, did not hold back in her response, posted on X.

—CQ-Roll Call

Trump’s fear of a ‘migrant crime wave’ plays well, but there’s little evidence it exists

With the 2024 presidential election coming to a close, Donald Trump and other Republican candidates are upping the volume as they hammer away at one of their central messages: The influx of migrants from the southern border has put Americans in danger.

An “army of migrant gangs who are waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens” are coming into the country, Trump claimed last week at his Madison Square Garden rally. Incessant TV ads echo the same theme.

But most of the horror stories setting a foreboding and ominous tone are anecdotal episodes — not evidence of any sort of widespread migrant crime wave. In fact, experts and data say there really is little evidence of any such trend.

In New York City, where over 210,000 migrants have come to since Spring 2022, there’s been no associated spike in crime. Despite oft-repeated claims about a “migrant crime wave,” there is no available data that shows any evidence of a migrant-driven increase in crime in the city.

—New York Daily News

Florida again leads US in book bans at public schools, new report finds

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Sunshine State led the nation in school book bans for the 2023-24 academic year, according to a new report released Friday.

There were 4,561 instances of book banning in Florida public school districts last school year — accounting for about 45% of all book bans nationally, according to the report by PEN America, a free speech group.

The report blamed a 2023 Florida law (HB 1069) for the bans. The law expanded the Parental Rights in Education law, which was dubbed “don’t say gay” by critics and put any book that included “sexual conduct” under scrutiny. Orange County Public Schools removed nearly 700 books from classrooms in 2023 for fear they violated the law. Educators across the state removed titles they worried would no longer pass state muster, from classics by Ernest Hemingway to the picture book “No, David!”

PEN America found Florida led the nation in book bans the previous school year, too. Last school year, there were more than 10,000 instances of book bans across the country, and 4,200 unique titles banned this year, it found.

—Orlando Sentinel

Russia speeds up advance in Ukraine as mood darkens in Kyiv

Russia’s army is gaining speed in its advance in eastern Ukraine, seizing more land last week than at any point this year, increasing pressure on Kyiv’s U.S. and European allies to bolster its defenses.

The gain of more than 200 square kilometers (77 square miles) adds to territory taken in a grinding summer offensive that’s involved huge losses of Russian troops and equipment.

Russia has captured 1,146 square kilometers in Ukraine since Aug. 6, about a quarter more than in the first seven months of the year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence calculations based on changes recorded by the DeepState map service that’s maintained in cooperation with the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

The outcome of next week’s U.S. election may mean Kyiv is forced to accept peace under unfavorable conditions or face the prospect of continuing the fight against Russia on its own, according to two people close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter is sensitive. There’s a deepening sense of despondency among officials about the course of the war, one of the people said.

—Bloomberg News