Important Takeaways:
- The death toll from Indonesia’s Marapi volcano eruption jumped to 22 on Tuesday as rescuers found more climbers who had perished near the crater, the head of the West Sumatra rescue agency said on Tuesday, up from 13 earlier in the day.
- About 200 rescuers will resume search operations on Wednesday for one further missing climber.
- The 2,891-metre high volcano in West Sumatra erupted on Sunday, spewing gray clouds of ash as high as 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) into the sky.
- “We are now evacuating the dead bodies from the peak of the volcano,” said the head of the search and rescue team, Abdul Malik.
- Still, there were 75 climbers on the volcano when it erupted, rescuers said.
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Important Takeaways:
- Shoplifting surged 64% in NYC — more than any other US city in past 4 years
- New York City has led the US with the sharpest increase in the number of reported shoplifting incidents since before the pandemic, according to a study.
- The Big Apple saw a 64% increase in reported incidents of retail theft during the four-year period between mid-2019 and June of this year, while Los Angeles experienced a 61% surge in the same metric, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
- A New York Police Department spokesperson pointed to crime statistics showing that there were more than 93,000 incidents of petty larceny so far this year — which is 29% higher compared to the same period two years ago but 5% lower compared to the same period last year.
- LA, meanwhile, saw a 109% increase in reported retail theft incidents in the first six months of this year — the highest in the country, the report found.
- Dallas was second with a 73% bump in the number of reported shoplifting incidents in the first half of 2023.
- Virginia Beach, Dallas, Raleigh, Boston, and Pittsburgh are the other cities that saw a spike in the number of shoplifting incidents that were reported over the course of the last four years
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Important Takeaways:
- A homeowner shot and killed a home invasion suspect in Los Angeles early Saturday morning while a grandmother and toddler were in the house in the fifth such crime reported in the area in the space of 10 days.
- Officers were called to a home in the Granada Hills section of the San Fernando Valley, north of Beverly Hills, around 5am on Saturday after someone reported a ‘hot prowl’ – a burglary where the homeowner is present.
- ‘The officers’ preliminary investigation determined that approximately three to four armed males in their 20s entered the home with the intent to burglarize the location,’ according to LAPD officials.
- The name of the deceased burglar has not been released.
- The other three suspects fled the scene and have not yet been identified, but police said a ‘trail of blood’ suggested one of them had been injured.
- There was also a grandmother and a toddler in the house at the time.
- Video from the scene shows the unnamed male homeowner being detained by police during the initial investigation, but it is not known if he has been charged.
- LAPD Valley Bureau Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said that the investigation in ongoing and that it’s up to the District Attorney’s Office if charges will be filed in the case.
- Neighbors were alarmed by the incident but told KTLA that they aren’t surprised.
- Pat Walsh said: ‘We’ve been having burglaries every day in this neighborhood.
- ‘So I’m not surprised at all. It’s been a real problem. Residents here are fed up.’
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Important Takeaways:
- In some cases this included family trees, birth years and geographic locations, the company said.
- After weeks of speculation the firm has put a number on the breach, with more than half of its customers affected.
- The stolen data does not include DNA records.
- 23andMe is a giant of the growing ancestor-tracing industry. It offers genetic testing from DNA, with ancestry breakdown and personalized health insights.
- The biotechnology company, which is based in South San Francisco, was not hacked itself but cyber-criminals logged into about 14,000 individual accounts, or 0.1% of customers, by using email and password details previously exposed in other hacks.
- As was first reported by Tech Crunch, the company has acknowledged that by accessing those accounts, hackers were then able to find their way into “a significant number of files containing profile information about other users’ ancestry”.
- The criminals downloaded not just the data from those accounts but the private information of all other users they had links to across the sprawling family trees on the website.
- The stolen data includes information like names, how each person is linked and in some cases birth years, locations, pictures, addresses and the percentage of DNA shared with relatives
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Important Takeaways:
- FBI director says terror threats elevated to all-time high since Oct. 7: ‘Blinking lights everywhere’
- FBI Director Christopher Wray testified Tuesday that the terror threat facing the United States has reached unprecedented levels since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
- Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., asked Wray to describe the current “threat matrix” facing the United States at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
- “What I would say that is unique about the environment that we’re in right now in my career is that while there may have been times over the years where individual threats could have been higher here or there than where they may be right now, I’ve never seen a time where all the threats or so many of the threats are all elevated, all at exactly the same time,” the FBI director replied.
- “So, blinking red lights analogy about 9/11 — all the lights were blinking red before 9/11, apparently,” Graham continued. “Obviously, all of us missed it. Would you say there’s multiple blinking red lights out there?” he asked.
- “I see blinking red lights everywhere,” Wray answered.
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Important Takeaways:
- Poland issues shocking warning of upcoming Russian attack on NATO countries
- Poland has warned of a shocking impending Russian attack on the West that could come within the next three years.
- In an interview with Nasz Dziennik, the head of Poland’s national security agency, Jacek Siewiera, said that Russia could attack NATO countries within 36 months.
- Siewiera argued Russia could attack Poland, Estonia, Romania, and Lithuania as they are on NATO’s eastern flank.
- He said: “If we want to avoid war, NATO countries on the eastern flank should adopt a shorter, three-year time horizon to prepare for confrontation. This is the time when a potential must be created on the eastern flank that would be a clear signal deterring aggression. Therefore, it is necessary to further increase the number of Polish troops.”
- This comes after German think tank German Council on Foreign Relations issued a warning that Europe needs to be on high alert to Russian escalation that could result in a direct attack. But their time frame was a little more optimistic.
- They said in a statement: “With its imperial ambitions, Russia represents the greatest and most urgent threat to Nato countries.
- “Once intensive fighting will have ended in Ukraine, the regime in Moscow may need as little as six to ten years to reconstitute its armed forces.
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Important Takeaways:
- A US Navy warship had to gun down more threats as American forces get pulled deeper into fights being fueled by Israel’s war with Hamas
- In the most recent episode on Sunday, a US Navy warship shot down three drones over a period that lasted more than four hours as it responded to missile attacks against internationally flagged commercial vessels in the Red Sea. US Central Command (CENTCOM) pinned the blame on the Houthis, a rebel group in Yemen that’s armed and supported by Iran.
- All three drones were headed toward the USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, when it shot them down. But it’s unclear if the warship or any of the commercial vessels that came under the attack were the actual targets in all three cases.
- “These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security,” CENTCOM said in a statement that provided details on the incidents. “They have jeopardized the lives of international crews representing multiple countries around the world.”
- “We also have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran,” the US military said, adding that it will consider “all appropriate responses in full coordination with its international allies and partners.”
- After a 2016 incident, the US Navy retaliated against Houthi aggression by launching strikes on coastal radar sites in Yemen, but so far, the US military has yet to respond to the latest aggressive acts with force as it did in the past. Actions so far have been defensive.
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Important Takeaways:
- Young Brits Open to Banning the Bible ‘Unless the Offended Parts Can Be Edited Out’
- Close to a quarter of young British people said recently they would be open to banning the Bible if they believed its pages contained “hate speech.”
- Whitestone Insights, a polling group, surveyed 2,088 adults in the United Kingdom, asking them if they agreed with the following statement:
- Unless the offending parts can be edited out, books containing what some perceive as hate speech should be banned from general sale, including if necessary religious texts such as the Bible.
- Twenty-three percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 were most likely to agree with the statement, followed by 17% of those ages 35 to 54, and 13% of those over the age of 55, according to Christian Today.
- Lois McLatchie of the Alliance Defending Freedom UK voiced her concerns over the new survey — and pointed to Räsänen as a cautionary tale.
- “We may no longer be a majority Christian population here in Britain,” said McLatchie. “That’s even more reason to protect freedom of speech and belief for all.”
- In addition to Räsänen’s case, there have been instances of unabashed censorship in the U.K. — including a woman who has been arrested twice for praying silently outside an abortion clinic.
- “Censoring one type of belief because it fails to fit with the dominant orthodoxy of our day is no better than imposing the illiberal blasphemy laws of the Middle Ages,” McLatchie said. “We need a robust defense of religious freedom from those who craft our legislation and we need to educate the ‘be kind’ generation on the truly hateful consequences of censorship before this type of thinking creeps further into reality.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Asked by Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times DealBook Summit why perceptions of the economy are poor in recent polling, despite some positive indicators, Dimon said inflation and other issues are holding it back, and again at the expense of lower earners.
- “If you look at the U.S., yes, you know, almost all-time low unemployment, but inflation is hurting people,” he said. “The bottom third, I kind of think they have a right to be p—ed off. I would probably be a little p—ed off if I were them.”
- “You’re all wealthy and have money and stuff like that, but their average wages are $15 to $20 [an hour]. They’re the ones who lost their jobs in COVID,” he said. “They’re dying five or six years younger than the rest of us. They’re the ones who don’t have medical insurance. They’re the ones where their schools don’t work. They’re the ones dealing with crime. What the hell have we done as a nation?”
- “Yeah, corporate profits are up because people are spending a lot of money. Where do they get the money? The government gave it to them. Well, of course, profits are up,” he added. “So, I’m quite cautious about the economy… I would just be a little careful about that just because it feels pretty good today.”
- The Biden administration has repeatedly touted low unemployment and declining rates of inflation, but a majority of Americans say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, and the economy is viewed as a place of vulnerability for the White House going into 2024.
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Important Takeaways:
- White House warns it is ‘out of money and nearly out of time’ to aid Ukraine
- The warning, issued on Monday in a letter to congressional leaders, laid out how the government had already gone through about $111bn appropriated for Ukraine military aid.
- “I want to be clear: without congressional action, by the end of the year we will run out of resources to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine and to provide equipment from US military stocks,” Shalanda Young, director of the office of management and budget, wrote in the letter, parts of which were published by the Hill.
- The latest plea for money comes after the White House asked Congress to act on a $100bn supplemental funding request in October, arguing that it “advances our national security and supports our allies and partners”.
- The request identified border security, allies in the Indo-Pacific, Israel and Ukraine. About $61bn covered money for Ukraine, which included $30bn to restock defense department equipment sent to support the country after Russia invaded in February 2022.
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