New York City's Record Murder-Free Streak Ends After 12 Days

An unusually long run of days without a murder in New York City ended Saturday just shy of two weeks.
The New York Police Department believes this 12-day stretch was the longest without a homicide since the early ’90s, though last February saw a comparably long streak of 10 days.
Eric Roman was shot outside of his home in Queens on Friday and died of his wounds in a hospital on Saturday, the New York Times reports. The same day, another Queens man was found dead in his basement with head trauma, though that case has not yet been ruled a homicide.
Officials believe cold weather is the primary cause for these extended periods of quiet, and the shooting rate isn’t down year over year—136 people have been shot in New York as of Saturday this year, compared to 110 in the same period last year.
But while shootings are up, the murder rate is on the decline: homicides are down 2.5% year-to-date as of Feb. 8, and 82.4% since 1993.

Hundreds of Jewish Tombs Have Been Desecrated in France

Hundreds of Jewish tombs at a French cemetery in eastern France have been vandalized in what the French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called “a despicable act” on Sunday.
The incident, which happened in the town of Sarre-Union, near the German border, is the latest to have targeted European Jews in recent months, according to the Guardian.
“Everything will be done to identify, arrest and judge the perpetrator or perpetrators of this ignominious act,” Cazeneuve said in a statement.
Images on social media show the tombs violated with images of swastikas and Nazi symbolism