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Tribune News Service on Jul 29, 2025

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Trump hails NYPD after NYC shooting; Democrats blame lax gun laws

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump hailed the New York Police Department after the Midtown mass shooting as Democrats slammed lax gun laws for allowing the attacker to purchase the assault weapon used to kill four people including a police officer.

In between golf and a meeting on his visit to Scotland, Trump praised the police for quickly ending the carnage and paid tribute to slain Officer Didarul Islam for trying to defend innocent victims inside the Park Avenue office building.

“My heart is with the families of the four people who were killed, including the NYPD Officer, who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “God Bless the New York Police Department, and God Bless New York.”

The president added that he believes law enforcement will “get to the bottom of why this crazed lunatic committed such a senseless act of violence.” On Capitol Hill, Democrats also decried the shooting and praised the NYPD. But they also called the bloodshed another prime example of why the nation needs stricter gun restrictions.

—New York Daily News

Trump administration now lets federal workers spread religion at work. Faith groups react

New guidance from President Donald Trump’s administration outlining how federal employees may engage with faith practices in the workplace garnered mixed reactions from religious groups, with some raising concern about the blurring boundary between church and state.

The guidelines, announced by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in a July 28 memo, allow federal employees to display religious items, pray and attempt to spread their religion at work, so long as these practices “are not harassing in nature.”

The memo is the latest in a series of efforts by the Trump administration to bring religion to the forefront of American society. In February, Trump signed an executive order aiming to end “anti-Christian bias” in the federal government and established a White House Faith Office, McClatchy News reported.

“President Trump is committed to reaffirming ‘America’s unique and beautiful tradition of religious liberty,’ including by directing ‘the executive branch to vigorously enforce the historic and robust protections for religious liberty enshrined in Federal law,’” Scott Kupor, director of the OPM, said in the memo.

—Miami Herald

UConn researchers determine potential cause of Alzheimer’s disease. What to know

HARTFORD, Conn. — Researchers at the UConn Center on Aging have uncovered causal links between depression and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD), sparking hope for potential interventions to prevent the disease.

The Alzheimer’s Association found that more than 7 million people in the country live with ADRD. Dr. Breno Diniz, associate professor of psychiatry at UConn Health and the Center of Aging found that the link between depression and ADRD is observed in the increase of inflammation of the brain and the lower efficiency to remove a toxic protein called amyloid-beta from the brain.

“We can try to develop more specific interventions to prevent Alzheimer’s disease in this population instead of going broadly without a focus,” Diniz said. Diniz explained that since the 1980s researchers have established that any history of depression throughout the lifespan, even in your 20s, is one of the most important risk factors for future development of Alzheimer’s disease.

UConn Today reported that between 11.1% and 14.7% of ADRD cases affecting roughly one million people in the United States are attributable to major depressive disorder.

—Hartford Courant

UK will recognize Palestine unless Israel takes 'steps' over Gaza, Starmer tells Cabinet

LONDON — The United Kingdom will recognize the state of Palestine in September unless Israel takes "substantive steps" to end the "appalling situation in Gaza," British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday.

The prime minister recalled his senior team of ministers from their recess to discuss the situation in Gaza, where the population is facing a mounting famine, according to warnings from the United Nations.

A readout of the Cabinet meeting issued by Downing Street said Starmer told ministers "now was the right time to move this position" on the two-state solution.

The read out continued: "He said that because of the increasingly intolerable situation in Gaza and the diminishing prospect of a peace process towards a two-state solution, now was the right time to move this position forward."

—dpa