Month: July 2025

At least three people were killed and 10 others injured in a shooting early Monday in South Philadelphia’s Grays Ferry neighborhood.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said the shooting occurred on the 1500 block of South 27th Street just before 1 a.m, adding that that a group of individuals fired randomly just before 1 a.m. EDT near the intersection of Etting Dickinson streets in South Philadelphia.

According to officials, nine victims were taken to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and three others were taken to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. One additional victim walked into the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Pavilion Campus. Bethel said at least eight of the victims were taken by police; and added that among the injured shooting victims, two of them were juveniles and both are expected to survive.

Bethel said he had heard about 40 people may have been in the area when the shooting started, and said during a press conference: “You know, this is coward stuff. This is, you know, you see the size of this block. I mean, just individuals just shooting randomly into houses, into cars, children out here. I mean, this is coward, wanna-be thug stuff .. There was a large crowd out here. Clearly, there was something going on, on the block. You could see that. .. We believe there was probably an exchange of gunfire, but who was exchanging, we will be going through that process now.”

Police believe there may have been a switch, which makes a gun automatic, was involved in the shooting. Nearly 140 pieces of ballistic evidence were found at the scene, according to Commissioner Bethel.  One person with a weapon was taken into custody, their exact involvement is unknown at the time; police are working to apprehend others that may have been involved the incident.

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President Donald Trump announced on Monday that at least seven countries are set to face steep tariffs on their imports, to begin on Aug. 1st.

In a series of posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump shared screenshots of form letters dictating new tariff rates to the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos and Myanmar. Goods imported to the U.S. from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Kazakhstan are now set to face 25% tariffs, while South African goods will be subject to a 30% U.S. tariff, and imports from Laos and Myanmar will face a 40% duty.

Trump had imposed a Wednesday deadline for nations to negotiate better trade deals; on April 2, he announced 10% across-the-board baseline tariffs on 90 trading partners and harsher ones for the worst offenders. However just one week later, he pushed the deadline back until July 9 for the reciprocal duties.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that 14 letters will be sent out Monday, and confirmed that Trump would sign an executive order to delay the Wednesday deadline until Aug. 1.

USA Today reported that in addition to Japan and South Korea, other nations are bracing for higher tariffs, including the 27 countries in the European Union – with as many as 100 letters potentially being sent out to nations.

Editorial credit: Joey Sussman / Shutterstock.com