Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud, speaking over the phone, gives more details on the Israeli attack that killed five of his colleagues, including Anas al-Sharif, in a strike on a journalists’ tent in Gaza City.
United States President Donald Trump has pledged to evict homeless people from the nation’s capital, after days of musing about taking federal control of Washington, DC, where he has falsely suggested crime is on the rise.
“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.
“The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong. It’s all going to happen very fast.”
The announcement comes after Trump earlier this week threatened to deploy the National Guard as part of a crackdown on what he falsely says is rising crime in Washington, DC.
Trump’s Truth Social post on Sunday included pictures of tents and streets in Washington, DC with rubbish on them. “I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before.”
The White House declined to explain what legal authority Trump would use to evict people from the city. The Republican president controls only federal land and buildings in Washington.
Washington, DC, is ranked 15th on a list of major US cities by homeless population, according to government statistics from last year.
According to the Community Partnership, an organisation working to reduce homelessness in Washington, DC, on any given night, there are 3,782 single people experiencing homelessness in the city of about 700,000 people. These figures are down from pre-pandemic levels.
Most of the homeless people are in emergency shelters or transitional housing. About 800 are considered unsheltered or “on the street”, the organisation says.
A White House official said on Friday that more federal law enforcement officers were being deployed in the city following a violent attack on a young Trump administration staffer, which angered the president.
Alleged crimes investigated by federal agents on Friday night included “multiple persons carrying a pistol without license”, motorists driving on suspended licences, and dirt bike riding, according to a White House official on Sunday. The official said 450 federal law enforcement officers were deployed across the city on Saturday.
The Democratic mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser, said on Sunday that the capital was “not experiencing a crime spike”.
“We have spent over the last two years driving down violent crime in this city, driving it down to a 30-year low,” Bowser said on US media MSNBC’s news segment The Weekend.
The city’s police department reports that violent crime in the first seven months of 2025 was down by 26 percent in Washington, DC, compared with last year, while overall crime was down about 7 percent.
The city’s crime rates in 2024 were already their lowest in three decades, according to figures produced by the Department of Justice before Trump took office.
While Bowser did not directly criticise Trump in her remarks, she said that “any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false”.
Trump’s threat to send in the National Guard comes weeks after he deployed California’s military reserve force into Los Angeles to quell protests over immigration raids, despite objections from local leaders and law enforcement.
The president has frequently mused about using the military to control US cities, many of which are under Democratic governance and hostile to his policies.
Bowser said that Trump is “very aware” of the city’s work with federal law enforcement after meeting with Trump several weeks ago in the Oval Office.
The US Congress has control of Washington, DC’s budget after the district was established in 1790 with land from neighbouring Virginia and Maryland, but resident voters elect a mayor and the City Council. Trump has long publicly chafed at this arrangement, threatening to federalise the city and give the White House the final say in how it is run.
For Trump to take over the city, Congress likely would have to pass a law revoking the legislation that established local elected leadership, which Trump would have to sign.
Trump is planning to hold a news conference on Monday to “stop violent crime in Washington, DC”. It is not clear whether he will announce more details about his eviction plan then.
BREAKINGBREAKING,
Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif has been killed in what appears to be a targeted Israeli attack, the director of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City has said.
Al-Sharif, 28, was killed after a tent for journalists outside the main gate of the hospital was hit.
The well-known Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent reportedly extensively from northern Gaza.
The Al Jazeera Media Network had recently denounced the Israeli military for what it called a “campaign of incitement” against its reporters in the Gaza Strip, including most notably al-Sharif.
In July, Israeli army spokesperson Avichai Adraee reshared a video on social media accusing al-Sharif of being a member of Hamas’s military wing – a claim that has been forcefully rejected as false.
Israel has routinely accused Palestinian journalists in Gaza of being members of Hamas since it launched its war on the enclave in October 2023 as part of what rights groups say is an effort to discredit their reporting on Israeli abuses.
The Israeli military has killed more than 200 reporters and media workers since its bombardment began, including several Al Jazeera journalists and their relatives.
The United States brokered the agreement, giving it leverage and business opportunities.
There is a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia, after nearly four decades of conflict.
The final stage was brokered by US President Donald Trump in the White House.
Crucial to the deal is a corridor to connect the main part of Azerbaijan with another part of its territory, which is cut off because it is on the other side of Armenia.
But how long will it take before the corridor becomes a reality?
And what will Washington’s growing presence in the South Caucasus mean for the region?
Presenter: James Bays
Guests:
Vasif Huseynov – Head of department at the Center of Analysis of International Relations (AIR Center)
Jamila Mammadova – Research assistant at the Henry Jackson Society
A senior United Nations official has warned the UN Security Council (UNSC) that Israel’s plan to seize Gaza City risked “another calamity” in the Gaza Strip with far-reaching consequences, as five more people in Gaza reportedly died from starvation – bringing the overall toll to 217, including 100 children.
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas Miroslav Jenca on Sunday told an emergency weekend meeting that if implemented, the plan could result in the displacement of all civilians from Gaza City by October 7, 2025, affecting some 800,000 people, many of them already previously displaced.
This “will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza, reverberating across the region and causing further forced displacement, killings and destruction, compounding the unbearable suffering of the population,” Jenca said.
Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the UNSC that Israel was aiming for “the destruction of the Palestinian people through forced transfer and massacres to facilitate its annexation of our land”.
“What will force Israel to change course is our ability to transform justified condemnation into just actions … History will judge us all,” he said.
Foreign powers, including some of Israel’s allies, have slammed Israel’s plan. The United Kingdom, a close ally of Israel which nonetheless pushed for an emergency meeting on the crisis, warned the Israeli plan risked prolonging the conflict.
“It will only deepen the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This is not a path to resolution. It is a path to more bloodshed,” the British Deputy Ambassador to the UN James Kariuki said.
France’s Deputy Permanent UN Representative Jay Dharmadhikari condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the plan, which he said would have “dramatic humanitarian consequences” for civilians already “living in horrifying conditions”.
“The images of children dying of hunger or civilians being targeted as they tried to find food are unbearable,” Dharmadhikari said, urging Israel to comply with international humanitarian law.
The UK, Denmark, France, Greece and Slovenia issued a joint statement asking Israel “to urgently reverse this decision and not to implement” the plan, saying it violates international law.
In a separate statement, the foreign ministers of Spain, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal and Slovenia warned that Israel seizing Gaza City would be “a major obstacle to implementing the two-state solution, the only path towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace”.
Despite the international backlash and rumours of dissent from Israeli military top brass, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has remained defiant over the plan to seize Gaza’s largest urban centre, which was approved by Israel’s security cabinet on Friday.
“The timeline that we set for the action is fairly quickly,” Netanyahu told a news conference in Jerusalem on Sunday. “I don’t want to talk about exact timetables, but we’re talking in terms of a fairly short timetable because we want to bring the war to an end.”
He said Israel had “no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas”, given the group’s refusal to lay down its arms. Hamas said it would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state was established.
Netanyahu said the military had been given the green light to “dismantle” what he described as two remaining Hamas strongholds: Gaza City in the north and al-Mawasi further to the south.
“This is the best way to end the war and the best way to end it speedily,” he said. “We will do so by first enabling the civilian population to safely leave the combat areas to designated safe zones.”
While the prime minister stressed that these “safe zones” would be given “ample food, water, and medical care”, guards at the controversial Israel- and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), purportedly established to deliver aid to the starving Palestinian population, have routinely opened fire on the aid seekers, killing dozens at a time.
Asked about the growing criticism targeting his cabinet’s decision, Netanyahu said the country was prepared to fight alone. “We will win the war, with or without the support of others,” he said.
The United States, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UNSC, has so far shielded its staunch ally from any practical measures of UN censure. Netanyahu said he had not yet spoken with US President Donald Trump since Israel’s cabinet approved the expanded war plan, but intended to do so soon.
The director of the coordination division at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the “unacceptable catastrophe” unfolding in Gaza must be brought to an end as he addressed the UN Security Council via videolink on Sunday.
Ramesh Rajasingham expressed concern over “the prolonged conflict, the reports of atrocities and further human toll that is likely to unfold following the government of Israel’s decision to expand military operations in Gaza”.
Israel has blocked all but a trickle of aid from entering Gaza for months and has prevented UN workers from accessing and distributing lifesaving assistance. “The UN has a plan and the systems in place to respond. We’ve said this before, and we will say it again and again: Let us work,” Rajasingham said.
The Government Media Office in Gaza said only 1,210 aid trucks have entered Gaza over the past 14 days. Officials said this represents just 14 percent of the territory’s minimum actual needs of 8,400 trucks.
Netanyahu acknowledged there have been issues of “deprivation” in Gaza, but denied that Israel has a “starvation policy”. Human Rights Watch, among other international organisations, has repeatedly called Israel’s use of starvation of civilians as a weapon of war a “war crime”.
Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children International’s director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, told Al Jazeera that his team on the ground was seeing an “exponential increase” in the number of malnutrition cases, with effects that can “span generations”.
Crystal Palace twice came from behind to stun a new-look Liverpool and win the FA Community Shield for the first time on penalties after a 2-2 draw at Wembley.
New signings Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong scored for the Premier League champions, but Palace responded through Jean-Philippe Mateta and Ismaila Sarr before winning an error-strewn shootout 3-2 on Sunday.
Mohamed Salah blazed over from the spot, while Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott were denied by an inspired Dean Henderson as Palace built on winning their first ever major trophy by beating Manchester City in May’s FA Cup final.
The traditional curtain-raiser to the English football season was given extra significance after a summer marked by tragedy for Liverpool.
Forward Diogo Jota was killed in a car accident alongside his brother Andre Silva.
Reds legend Ian Rush and Palace chairman Steve Parish laid wreaths on the side of the pitch before kickoff, while the Liverpool end was awash with banners and flags paying tribute to the Portuguese international.
A minute’s silence, however, had to be cut short due to disturbances in the crowd.
Jota’s death has dampened the excitement over Liverpool’s transfer spending spree to build on a squad that romped to a record-equalling 20th league title last season.
All four of their new signings at a cost of 260 million pounds ($350m) – Ekitike, Frimpong, Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez – started.
Ekitike’s role this season could depend on whether Liverpool are successful in their pursuit of Newcastle striker Alexander Isak.
But the Frenchman – signed from Eintracht Frankfurt last month for an initial 69 million pounds ($93m) – made his case to be Liverpool manager Arne Slot’s preferred number nine, no harm at all.
Wirtz also bagged his first assist for the Reds when Ekitike spun onto the German’s pass and fired into the far corner in just the fourth minute.
Palace were making their first-ever appearance in the fixture, but the Eagles again showed their ability to match one of the Premier League’s giants over 90 minutes.
Mateta missed a glorious chance to level when he failed to beat Alisson Becker one-on-one.
But from the rebound Sarr charged into the box and was tripped by an out-of-sorts Virgil van Dijk.
Mateta coolly sent Alisson the wrong way from the penalty spot to equalise.
Liverpool’s players were sporting a “Forever 20” emblem, referencing Jota’s now-retired shirt number, that they will wear all season.
The Liverpool fans had risen to chant Jota’s name as the game entered the 20th minute when their side retook the lead.
Frimpong’s chipped cross caught out Henderson and flew into the far corner.
Ekitike wasted a great chance for his second early in the second half from another Wirtz pass, as this time he fired over.
However, Slot’s new-look side are still to find the right balance between attack and defence, as has been evidenced during pre-season.
Palace were a constant threat with balls in behind the Reds defence and levelled again 13 minutes from time.
Sarr sped onto Adam Wharton’s through ball and calmly slotted past Alisson for his fourth goal in seven games against Liverpool.
Liverpool also survived a VAR review for a penalty against Mac Allister for handball before the match went to a shootout without extra time.