"At some point in 2022 — at the end of 2022 or through 2023 — there was just a tipping point where violence started to fall and it just continued to fall," said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics. In cities big and small, from both coasts, violence has dropped. (Zamora, Shapiro & Dorning, NPR)
Read MoreMore than three-quarters of American Jews feel less safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. and nearly half have changed their behavior as a result, according to a report on antisemitism released Tuesday by the American Jewish Committee. (Ramirez, USA Today)
Read MoreA municipal prosecutor this week moved to dismiss code violation charges against Dad’s Place church Pastor Chris Avell, weeks after the church filed a federal lawsuit accusing the city of Bryan of trying to repeatedly harass and intimidate it. The city said it wanted to reserve the right to refile charges against Avell if needed. (Scolforo, AP News)
Read MoreAs the election year gets underway, a conspiratorial narrative typically circulated by fringe movements has come to dominate mainstream Republican discourse on immigration, extremism researchers warn. Specifically, they say that rhetoric used by Republican officeholders about the surge of migrants at the border with Mexico increasingly echoes the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory that has inspired violence in the past and could do so again in the future. (Yousef, NPR)
Read MoreIn recent weeks, the ethics professor, ordained priest and self-proclaimed geek has joined Bill Gates at a meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, presided over a commission seeking to save Italian media from ChatGPT bylines and general A.I. oblivion, and met with Vatican officials to further Pope Francis’s aim of protecting the vulnerable from the coming technological storm. (Horowitz, The New York Times)
Read MoreThe ceremony to declare Mama Antula a saint marked the first meeting between the Argentine pope and Milei, who once called Francis an “imbecile” for defending social justice. The president, who was seated to Francis’ right on the side of the main altar throughout the ceremony, bent over and gave the pope a big bearhug when Francis was wheeled over to him at the end of the service. (Winfield, Tarantino & Stara, AP News)
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