Killing of divisive conservative Charlie Kirk triggers fears of a cycle of violence.
As investigators look into the killing of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, his death is raising broader questions for the United States.
He was a divisive figure – wildly popular with some for his Christian views. But to others, he promoted hate and used racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic language.
Kirk supported President Donald Trump, lobbying young people and promoting his “Make America Great Again” campaign.
His killing is one of 150 politically motivated attacks recorded in the US this year – a sharp increase on previous years.
What’s feeding this trend? And what does it mean for the future of the US?
Presenter: Sami Zeidan
Guests:
Eric Ham – US political analyst and author
Greg Swenson – Political commentator and chairman of Republicans Overseas United Kingdom
Even in a city known for staging some of boxing’s greatest fights, the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford match stands nearly alone.
It will be the first fight at 5-year-old Allegiant Stadium, the Saturday night showdown underscoring the magnitude of an event that will have implications for both boxers trying to further strengthen their Hall of Fame-worthy careers.
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Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 knockouts), as is typically the case when the Mexican great fights in his boxing home of Las Vegas, will have the vast majority of the crowd behind him as he defends his unified super middleweight championship. The 35-year-old is a -175 favourite at BetMGM Sportsbook.
“This fight for me is big,” Alvarez said. “It’s one of the biggest fights of my career for sure.”
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) is moving up two weight classes, and the 37-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska, already has captured two unified division titles. No male fighter has accomplished that feat in three classes.
“This is a massive fight,” Crawford said. “It’s talked about all over the world right now.”
Alvarez and Crawford talk of the town in Las Vegas
The city known as the “Fight Capital of the World” is used to hosting big-time matches, but there was no stadium like Allegiant to house some of the great bouts of the past.
Resorts such as Caesars Palace’s outdoor arena, The Mirage and Las Vegas Hilton hosted some of the more notable fights in 1980s and 1990s, before giving way to MGM Grand Garden Arena and then T-Mobile Arena.
Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2010, has booked many of those matches, but he’s not involved with this one. UFC CEO and President Dana White and Riyadh Season are promoting this card.
“I think it’s right up there with the great fights in Las Vegas history,” Trampler said. “You’ve got two champions fighting. There’s a lot of storylines – Crawford moving up in weight, Canelo hoping to cement his legacy. But beyond all that, on paper it’s a tremendous matchup. It’s two contrasting styles, two contrasting fan bases. It’s got all the ingredients.”
Kevin Iole, who covered combat sports for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Yahoo! Sports, noted many other major fights in this city included star power in both corners.
Alvare, left, and Crawford during the news conference before Saturday’s fight [Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters]
Muhammad Ali fought Larry Holmes in 1980, Marvelous Marvin Hagler took on Thomas Hearns in 1985, Sugar Ray Leonard met Roberto Duran in 1989, and Mike Tyson faced Evander Holyfield in 1996 and 1997. More recently, Floyd Mayweather Jr faced Manny Pacquiao in 2015.
“Crawford doesn’t reach the level of stardom,” Iole said. “He will if he wins, but going into this fight, he’s not as big as a Sugar Ray Leonard was. Tyson, Sugar Ray Leonard, even an Oscar De La Hoya, those guys were just bigger names. So when they had their biggest fights here, those guys were bigger because of their names.”
Alvarez is unquestionably the bigger draw, a point Crawford has conceded.
But even Alvarez finds himself fighting in a different era and in a different atmosphere than many previous champions.
“Yes, Canelo is the biggest star in boxing today, but boxing isn’t the same sport that it was in the 1980s,” Iole said. “So I think that mitigates it a little bit, but I would say without question, that this is one of the biggest fights in Las Vegas history.”
Will Alvarez-Crawford be a fight for the ages?
The ultimate test is what happens in the ring. It could be a night that will be forgotten quickly or it could go down in history.
“There’s a reason there’s going to be 50,000 or 60,000 people there,” Trampler said. “That’s because everyone wants to see it. It’s going to be quite the event, the biggest one of the year in Las Vegas for sure.”
Alvarez has been asked many times in recent years whether he would fight WBC interim light heavyweight champion David Benavidez.
He was asked again at Thursday’s news conference.
“I never say no to anything,” Alvarez said. “We’ll see later, but I’m 100% focused on this fight.”
Those with a Netflix subscription can watch this fight rather than shell out $90 or $100 on pay-per-view, which could be more of the norm going forward.
This is White’s first foray into boxing, and he doesn’t plan to make it his last. The UFC reached a seven-year deal with Paramount last month, going away from the PPV model and making its numbered cards available to those who subscribe to Paramount+.
Callum Walsh (14-0, 11 KOs) of Ireland meets Fernando Vargas Jr. (17-0, 15 KOs) of Las Vegas in the co-main event. Vargas Senior was an IBF, IBA and WBC super welterweight champion.
NATO is deploying additional fighter jets and a naval vessel to eastern Europe under a new program called Eastern Sentry. The military bloc shot down Russian drones over Polish territory earlier this week in a large-scale violation of the military bloc’s airspace.
NATO has announced a new initiative to bolster the security of its eastern European members in the wake of Russia’s violation of Polish airspace.
“NATO is launching Eastern Sentry to bolster our posture even further along our eastern flank,” Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Friday in Brussels during a joint news conference with NATO’s top commander in Europe, US General Alexus Grynkewich.
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“This military activity will commence in the coming days and will involve a range of assets from allies, including Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Germany,” Rutte added.
The announcement comes two days after multiple Russian drones crossed into Poland on Wednesday, prompting NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down and underlining long-held concerns about Russia’s three-year war in neighbouring Ukraine expanding.
NATO is still assessing whether Russia intentionally violated Poland’s airspace or not, Rutte said, but repeated that, either way, “it is reckless. It is unacceptable.”
“Although the immediacy of our focus is on Poland, this situation transcends the borders of one nation. What affects one ally affects us all,” Grynkewich said.
“Eastern Sentry will be flexible and agile, delivering even more focused deterrence and defence exactly when and where needed,” he added.
Russia said its forces had been attacking Ukraine at the time of the drone incursions and had not intended to hit any targets in Poland.
More allies to join
The new NATO mission, which begins on Friday evening, will involve a range of assets integrating air and ground bases.
Allies, including Denmark, France, the United Kingdom and Germany, have so far committed to the mission with others set to join, Rutte said.
Earlier on Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would deploy three Rafale fighters to Poland.
“The security of the European continent is our top priority. We will not yield to Russia’s growing intimidation,” Macron posted on X.
The United Nations Security Council was set to meet on Friday at Poland’s request to discuss the incident.
Poland’s Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz thanked NATO for its “decisive action and decisions in response to Russia’s aggressive policy”.
The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly backed a resolution reviving a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, less than 24 hours after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would never be a Palestinian state.
The “New York Declaration”, which outlines “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” towards a two-state solution, was adopted on Friday by 142 votes in favour, 10 against – including Israel and key ally the United States – and 12 abstentions.
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Presented by France and Saudi Arabia, the seven-page document calls for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the effective implementation of the Two-State solution”.
It also orders Palestinian group Hamas, which runs the government in Gaza, to “free all hostages”, stipulating that it must “end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority … in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Palestinian State”.
Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed Saudi-French efforts to create an “actionable plan” towards a two-state solution. The ministry also called for “activating all mechanisms to end the Israeli colonial occupation” and “achieve the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people”.
Attempt to ‘take negotiation process forward’
The UN’s ringing endorsement of the two-state solution came amid Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza, one day after Netanyahu signed off on a settlement expansion plan in the occupied West Bank that would make any future Palestinian state virtually impossible.
Reporting from New York, Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey said that the vote showed “an incredible amount of pushback from the international community”.
“This shows mounting concern over a lack of progress on … talks, and an attempt by the international community to take the negotiation process forward,” she said.
The vote precedes an upcoming UN summit co-chaired by Riyadh and Paris on September 22 in New York, in which French President Emmanuel Macron and several other leaders have promised to formally recognise the Palestinian state.
While 146 members of the UN already back a Palestinian state, another 10 or so, including France, Norway, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom are expected to join their ranks later this month.
“Crucially, European nations who have been more reluctant to do so under the pressure of the United States and Israel, [are] showing the concerns that the situation on the ground there is becoming all the more dire, no progress is being made,” said Al Jazeera’s Saloomey.
Israel derailing peace efforts
Israel rejected the declaration after the landmark vote, slamming it as “disgraceful”.
The vote has “proven how much the General Assembly is a political circus detached from reality”, said Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein in a post on X, criticising the resolution for not calling Hamas a “terrorist organisation”.
The vote took place in a week in which Israel has been on particularly bellicose form, dialling up regional tensions with a number of deadly strikes across the Middle East, targeting Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Tunisia and Qatar in parallel with its attacks on Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
On Thursday, UN Security Council members condemned Israel for its strike on lead mediator Qatar, which killed five members of Hamas in Doha, who were discussing a new deal proposed by US President Donald Trump.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, who had flown in for the UNSC emergency session, had blasted Israel’s leaders as “arrogant”, adding that the timing of the attacks during mediation efforts showed that the country intended to derail them.
As the UN voted on Friday to advance the two-state solution, people in the Gaza Strip continued to endure heavy artillery fire and bombing from Israeli forces, with Friday’s death toll hitting 59 just after the results were announced.
The Israeli army said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City this week as part of its takeover plan, targeting more than 500 sites. It said it would “continue to intensify the pace of strikes in a focused manner … with the aim of hitting Hamas’ infrastructure”.
