
Syrian security forces detonate leftover munitions, source says
The source from Syria's General Security Service, which is broadly responsible for security matters, told Reuters no-one was wounded in the controlled blast.
Residents had heard a loud blast and saw a plume of smoke rising in the western neighborhoods of the city early on Tuesday evening.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Homeless who refuse to cooperate with Trump crackdown may go to jail, White House says
By Colette Luke and Julio-Cesar Chavez WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Homeless people in Washington, D.C., could face jail time if they do not comply with President Donald Trump's efforts to crack down on crime and rid the U.S. capital of homeless encampments, the White House said on Tuesday. "Homeless individuals will be given the option to leave their encampment, to be taken to a homeless shelter, to be offered addiction or mental-health services, and if they refuse, they will be susceptible to fines or to jail time," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Leavitt said the administration was exploring strategies to relocate homeless individuals "far from the capital." She said U.S. Park Police have removed 70 homeless encampments from federal parks since March and are set to clear the remaining two encampments in the city later this week. Andy Wassenich, director of policy at Miriam's Kitchen - an organization offering services to the homeless - said his team was out trying to warn people. He said there was still a lot of confusion about what the crackdown may bring. Their best advice, he said, was: "Go to shelter if you can, if you can stand it. If you have anybody you can stay with, get off the street, and seek safety and let us know what we can do for you." Trump said on social media that he wanted the homeless out of Washington even before he announced the extraordinary step of temporarily taking over the District of Columbia's police department and deploying 800 National Guard troops as part of a crackdown on crime there - an effort that also includes another 500 federal law enforcement agents. A billionaire real estate developer, Trump described the homeless as one of several groups who have "overtaken" Washington that include "violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs." He likened his intended crackdown to his administration's actions to secure the U.S. border with Mexico. HOMELESSNESS REACHED A RECORD HIGH NATIONWIDE IN 2024 U.S. communities have long experienced seemingly intractable problems with homelessness, which reached an all-time national high of over 771,000 men, women and children on a single night in 2024, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's latest homelessness report to Congress. The HUD report estimated Washington's homeless population at 5,616, a 14.1% increase from the year before. That made Washington, a city of just over 700,000 people, the 16th out of the 20 U.S. cities with the largest homeless populations, according to the website USA Facts. The top five cities are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Denver. But the District of Columbia had the highest prevalence of homelessness among U.S. states, with 83 homeless individuals for every 10,000 people, HUD data showed. Homeless people did not appear to be caught up in a Monday night sweep by 850 officers and federal agents, who the White House said made 23 arrests across the city, an operation which Leavitt announced at a press conference on Monday. The District of Columbia operates under the Home Rule Act, which gives Congress ultimate authority but allows residents to elect a mayor and city council. Trump bypassed the city's elected leaders by declaring a "public safety emergency" and invoking a section of the act that allows the president to take over the police force for 30 days under emergency conditions. On Sunday night, a small group of federal agents arrived at Union Station - a gathering place for homeless people - and briefly questioned a person standing there, according to a man who was outside the building at the time. After about 15 minutes, the agents, who were from a variety of federal agencies, left with little fanfare. Jacob Adams, a political activist with FLARE USA, a self-described anti-Trump group, was sitting at the organization's table set up near the fountain outside the station. He said the agents did nothing to disperse the people who had gathered there, and in fact told them they could stay overnight. "I don't know if it was a show of force or photo ops. But it didn't come off as very forceful," Adams said. Wassenich said on Tuesday that so far there was little evidence of the unhoused population being directly affected by the surge in law enforcement. "If they are caught up in other things, that's certainly possible," he said. "The tents are still standing. The people are still sleeping on whatever bench they might be on."
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
UN's Haiti appeal has received lowest funding of any response plan, coordinator says
By Sarah Morland (Reuters) -The United Nations' Haiti appeal for 2025 has received the lowest funding of any response plan worldwide, the organization's humanitarian coordinator for the Caribbean nation said on Tuesday, as armed gangs continue to paralyze transport routes and fuel hunger. This year's humanitarian response plan aims to raise over $900 million, mainly from U.N. member countries, but is just 9.2% funded, the coordinator, Ulrika Richardson, said in a briefing marked "the lowest level of funding for any response plan in the world." Ukraine's $2.63-billion appeal for this year is by comparison 38% funded, according to U.N. financial tracking data, while a $4-billion flash appeal for the Palestinian territories received $890 million, or 22% of its target. "We have tools, but the response from the international community is just not at par with the gravity on the ground," Richardson said. More than 3,100 people have been killed this year in a conflict with heavily armed gangs that has pushed more than half the population into food insecurity and around 1.3 million from their homes. More than 8,000 people living in makeshift camps face famine-level hunger. A partially-deployed U.N.-backed force led by Kenya and based on voluntary contributions, deployed a year ago but has had little effect in helping a cash-strapped police force reclaim territories. Meanwhile, many aid organizations have had to cut back services due to the difficulty of bringing in supplies and ensuring the safety of the people they work with. Richardson said strangling the trafficking of arms - which the U.N. estimates are largely shipped from Florida - into Haiti was key to stopping the violence, as well as sanctions against those involved in financial support of the gangs. "Haiti can quickly spiral up again, but the violence needs to end," she said. Solve the daily Crossword


New York Post
11 hours ago
- New York Post
Disgraced crypto exec Do Kwon to plead guilty to fraud charges in $40B collapse
Do Kwon, the South Korean cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind two digital currencies that lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022, is planning to plead guilty on Tuesday to two charges of conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud, a judge said at a US court hearing. US District Judge Paul Engelmayer is expected to ask Kwon, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, a series of questions before formally asking him to enter the plea. Kwon, 33, had pleaded not guilty in January to a nine-count indictment charging him with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Do Kwon, 33, had pleaded not guilty in January to a nine-count indictment charging him with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering conspiracy. REUTERS The TerraUSD and Luna currencies developed by Kwon lost an estimated $40 billion in 2022. REUTERS He was accused of misleading investors in 2021 about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of $1. Kwon allegedly told investors a computer algorithm known as 'Terra Protocol' had restored the coin's value when it slipped below its peg in May 2021, when in fact he arranged for a high-frequency trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the token to artificially prop up its price. Prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney's office said that false claim and others drove retail and institutional investors to buy Terraform products and boost the value of Luna, a more traditional token developed by Kwon that fluctuated in value but was closely linked to TerraUSD, to $50 billion by the spring of 2022. Kwon had agreed in 2024 to pay an $80 million civil fine and be banned from crypto transactions as part of a $4.55 billion settlement that he and Terraform reached with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Kwon has been detained since his extradition from Montenegro late last year. He is one of several cryptocurrency moguls to face federal charges after a slump in digital token prices in 2022 prompted the collapse of a number of companies.