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The Citizen
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Citizen
Alfred Dunhill Championship moves from Leopard Creek to Joburg
The Alfred Dunhill Championship will return to its historical roots in Johannesburg when it will be played at Royal Johannesburg Golf Club from December 11 to 14 for the Leopard Creek golf course to recover after it hosted two big golf tournaments over the past summer. The Lowvelder reports that yesterday (July 25), the Sunshine Tour and organisers of the Alfred Dunhill Championship announced the decision to bring the championship back to the city where it was first played from 2000 to 2004 before moving to its traditional home of Leopard Creek. Leopard Creek course needs time to recover According to the Sunshine Tour, the hosting of the Alfred Dunhill Championship as well as the prestigious R&A Africa Amateur Championship in a short space of time over the intensely hot summer months in 2024, placed the Leopard Creek course under stress, and it requires a period of recovery. 'We're delighted to be bringing the Alfred Dunhill Championship back to Johannesburg where it was played for the first five years of its existence and are extremely grateful to Royal Johannesburg Golf Club for the opportunity,' said Thomas Abt, the commissioner of the Sunshine Tour.' Move to Royal Johannesburg Golf Club not permanent 'Royal Johannesburg Golf Club's East Championship Course is internationally renowned as a true championship venue and among the finest courses in Africa, and we look forward to showcasing the 2025 Alfred Dunhill Championship on such a challenging layout,' organisers said. The move back to Royal Johannesburg will only be effective for 2025, and the tournament will return to Leopard Creek in 2026.
The South African
3 days ago
- Sport
- The South African
Shock as Alfred Dunhill Championship moves from Leopard Creek
The Alfred Dunhill Championship will return to its historical roots in Johannesburg when it is played at the venerable Royal Johannesburg Golf Club from 11-14 December 2025. The Sunshine Tour and organisers of the Alfred Dunhill Championship announced the decision, for this year only, to bring the championship back to the city where it was first played from 2000 to 2004 before moving to its traditional home of Leopard Creek. According to the Sunshine Tour, the hosting of the 2024 Alfred Dunhill Championship as well as the prestigious R&A Africa Amateur Championship in a short space of time over the intensely hot summer months placed the Leopard Creek course under stress, and it requires a period of recovery. 'We're delighted to be bringing the Alfred Dunhill Championship back to Johannesburg where it was played for the first five years of its existence, and are extremely grateful to Royal Johannesburg Golf Club for the opportunity,' said Thomas Abt, Commissioner of the Sunshine Tour. 'Royal Johannesburg Golf Club's East Championship Course is internationally renowned as a true championship venue and amongst the finest courses in Africa, and we look forward to showcasing the 2025 Alfred Dunhill Championship on such a challenging layout.' Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
Axios
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
What's actually up with crime at Harvard University
One of several reasons President Trump cited for denying Harvard-bound international students entry into the country was "rising crime, including violent crime." Why it matters: Harvard doesn't have a crime problem, unless you count the scores of electric scooter thefts the Harvard Crimson reported last year, experts say. What's happening: The Department of Homeland Security cited dramatic percentage increases of crime at Harvard, using data disclosed under the Clery Act. But the raw numbers tell a different story. The percentages: Aggravated assaults rose 195%, robberies increased 460% and bias crimes doubled between 2022 and 2023, the latest year of university crime data publicly available under the Clery Act. By the numbers: On a campus of 45,000, Harvard reported 59 aggravated assaults, 28 robberies and 10 bias crimes in 2023. Altogether, crime increased from 208 in 2022 to 323 in 2023, with more than 144 crimes involving "motor vehicle thefts." A Harvard University Police Department spokesperson confirmed all but one of those were electric scooter thefts. Criminal justice experts say the numbers are so low at Harvard that any increase could look deceptively high — a bias known as "the law of small numbers." What they're saying: "When you look at the crime statistics and compare them to jurisdictions around the country, it's clear that Harvard is a low-violent crime campus, in a low-violent crime city, in a low-violent crime state," says Thomas Abt, founding director of the Center for Study and Practice of Violence Reduction and a former Harvard Kennedy School fellow. "There's simply no public safety basis for targeting Harvard University in this way." Neither Harvard nor the White House commented on the crime trends when asked by Axios. Reality check: Harvard reported 659 crimes in 2024, up from 613 crimes in 2023, per the uniform crime reporting system required by the FBI. That's roughly 15 for every 1,000 Harvard affiliates. The UCR numbers tend to look higher as the Clery Act data doesn't show larcenies or fights that aren't bias-related. Yes, but: The UCR data doesn't distinguish between crimes on campus involving Harvard affiliates and crimes on nearby public property involving non-affiliates. The Clery Act data, which the Trump administration cites, shows that nearly one-third of criminal offenses in 2023 occurred in public parks, streets and other areas near campus that aren't Harvard affiliated. What we're watching: Harvard typically releases its security reports with annual crime data in the fall.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump decried crime in America, then gutted funding for gun violence prevention
Violent crime was already trending down from a covid-era spike when President Donald Trump presented a picture of unbridled crime in America on the campaign trail in 2024. Now his administration has eliminated about $500 million in grants to organizations that buttress public safety, including many working to prevent gun violence. In Oakland, California, a hospital-based program to prevent retaliatory gun violence lost a $2 million grant just as the traditionally turbulent summer months approach. Another $2 million award was pulled from a Detroit program that offers social services and job skills to young people in violent neighborhoods. And in St. Louis, a clinic treating the physical and emotional injuries of gunshot victims also lost a $2 million award. They are among 373 grants that the U.S. Department of Justice abruptly terminated in April. The largest share of the nixed awards were designated for community-based violence intervention — programs that range from conflict mediation and de-escalation to hospital-based initiatives that seek to prevent retaliation from people who experience violent injuries. Gun violence is among America's most deadly public health crises, medical experts say. Among programs whose grants were terminated were those for protecting children, victims' assistance, hate-crime prevention, and law enforcement and prosecution, according to an analysis by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank. The grants totaled $820 million when awarded, but some of that money has been spent. 'Not only are these funds being pulled away from worthy investments that will save lives,' said Thomas Abt, founding director of the Violence Reduction Center at the University of Maryland, 'but the way that this was done — by pulling authorized funding without warning — is going to create a lasting legacy of mistrust.' The Justice Department 'is focused on prosecuting criminals, getting illegal drugs off the streets, and protecting all Americans from violent crime,' according to a statement provided by agency spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre. 'Discretionary funds that are not aligned with the administration's priorities are subject to review and reallocation, including funding for clinics that engage in race-based selectivity.' The Council on Criminal Justice analysis of the terminated grants found that descriptions of 31% of them included references to 'diversity,' 'equity,' 'race,' 'racial,' 'racism,' or 'gender.' Baldassarre's statement said the department is committed to working with organizations 'to hear any appeal, and to restore funding as appropriate.' Indeed, it restored seven of the terminated grants for victims' services after Reuters reported on the cuts in April. But the cuts have already prompted layoffs and reductions at other organizations around the country. Five groups filed a lawsuit on May 21 to restore the grants in their entirety. Joseph Griffin, executive director of the Oakland nonprofit Youth Alive, which pioneered hospital-based violence intervention in the 1990s, said his organization had spent only about $60,000 of its $2 million grant before it was axed. The grant was primarily to support the intervention program and was awarded for a three-year period but lasted just seven months. The money would have helped pay to intervene with about 30 survivors of gun violence to prevent retaliatory violence. He's trying to find a way to continue the work, without overtaxing his team. 'We will not abandon a survivor of violence at the hospital bedside in the same way that the federal government is abandoning our field,' he said. The cuts are also hitting St. Louis, often dogged by being labeled one of the most dangerous cities in America. The city created an Office of Violence Prevention with money available under former President Joe Biden, and various groups received Justice Department grants, too. Locals say the efforts have helped: The 33% drop in the city's homicide rate from 2019 to 2024 was the second-largest decrease among 29 major cities examined by the Council on Criminal Justice. 'I don't think there's any doubt that there's some positive impact from the work that's happening,' said University of Missouri-St. Louis criminologist Chris Sullivan, who received a grant from the Justice Department to assess the work of the city's new Office of Violence Prevention. That research grant remains in place. But the Justice Department slashed two other grants in St. Louis, including $2 million for Power4STL. The nonprofit operates the Bullet Related Injury Clinic, dubbed the BRIC, which provides free treatment for physical and mental injuries caused by bullets. The BRIC had about $1.3 million left on its grant when the award was terminated in April. LJ Punch, a former trauma surgeon who founded the clinic in 2020, said it was intended to fund a mobile clinic, expand mental health services, evaluate the clinic's programs, and pay for a patient advisory board. The BRIC won't abandon those initiatives, Punch said, but will likely need to move slower. Keisha Blanchard joined the BRIC's advisory board after her experience as a patient at the clinic following a January 2024 gun injury. Someone fired a bullet into her back from the rear window of a Chevy Impala while Blanchard was out for a lunchtime stroll with a friend from her neighborhood walking group. The shooting was random, Blanchard said, but people always assume she did something to provoke it. 'It's so much shame that comes behind that,' she said. The 42-year-old said the shooting and her initial medical treatment left her feeling angry and unseen. Her family wasn't allowed to be with her at the hospital since the police didn't know who shot her or why. When she asked about taking the bullet out, she was told that the common medical practice is to leave it in. 'We're not in the business of removing bullets,' she recalled being told. At a follow-up appointment, she said, she watched her primary care doctor google what to do for a gunshot wound. 'Nobody cares what's going to happen to me after this,' Blanchard recalled thinking. Before she was referred to the BRIC, she said, she was treated as though she should be happy just to be alive. But a part of her died in the shooting, she said. Her joyful, carefree attitude gave way to hypervigilance. She stopped taking walks. She uprooted herself, moving to a neighborhood 20 miles away. The bullet stayed lodged inside her, forcing her to carry a constant reminder of the violence that shattered her sense of safety, until Punch removed it from her back in November. Blanchard said the removal made her feel 'reborn.' It's a familiar experience among shooting survivors, according to Punch. 'People talk about the distress about having bullets still inside their bodies, and how every waking conscious moment brings them back to the fact that that's still inside,' Punch said. 'But they're told repeatedly inside conventional care settings that there's nothing that needs to be done.' The Justice Department grant to the BRIC had been an acknowledgment, Punch said, that healing has a role in public safety by quelling retaliatory violence. 'The unhealed trauma in the body of someone who's gotten the message that they are not safe can rapidly turn into an act of violence when that person is threatened again,' Punch said. Community gun violence, even in large cities, is concentrated among relatively small groups of people who are often both victims and perpetrators, according to researchers. Violence reduction initiatives are frequently tailored to those networks. Jennifer Lorentz heads the Diversion Unit in the office of the St. Louis Circuit Attorney, the city's chief prosecutor. The unit offers mostly young, nonviolent offenders an opportunity to avoid prosecution by completing a program to address the issues that initially led to their arrest. About 80% of the participants have experienced gun violence and are referred to the BRIC, Lorentz said, calling the clinic critical to her program's success. 'We're getting them these resources, and we're changing the trajectory of their lives,' Lorentz said. 'Helping people is part of public safety.' Punch said the BRIC staffers were encouraged during the Justice Department application process to emphasize their reach into St. Louis' Black community, which is disproportionately affected by gun violence. He suspects that emphasis is why its grant was terminated. Punch likened the grant terminations to only partially treating tuberculosis, which allows the highly infectious disease to become resistant to medicine. 'If you partially extend a helping hand to somebody, and then you rip it away right when they start to trust you, you assure they will never trust you again,' he said. 'If your intention is to prevent violence, you don't do that.' KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
