WASHINGTON: U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after the agency came under harsh scrutiny for its failure to stop a would-be assassin from wounding former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally, the White House said on Tuesday.
The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Secret Service, which is responsible for the protection of current and former U.S. presidents, faces a crisis after a gunman was able to fire on Trump from a roof overlooking the outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Cheatle faced bipartisan condemnation when she appeared before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on Monday, declining to answer questions from frustrated lawmakers about the security plan for the rally and how law enforcement responded to the suspicious behavior of the gunman.
Several Republican and Democratic lawmakers called on her to resign.
Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, was grazed in the right ear and one rallygoer was killed in the gunfire. The gunman, identified as a 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was shot and killed by s Secret Service sniper.
"While Director Cheatle’s resignation is a step toward accountability, we need a full review of how these security failures happened so that we can prevent them going forward," James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. "We will continue our oversight of the Secret Service."
Cheatle, who has led the agency since 2022, told lawmakers she took responsibility for the shooting, calling it the largest failure by the Secret Service since then-President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
The Secret Service faces investigations from multiple congressional committees and the internal watchdog of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, its parent organization, over its performance. President Joe Biden, who has ended his reelection campaign, has also called for an independent review.
Much of the criticism has focused on the failure to secure the roof of an industrial building where the gunman was perched about 150 yards (140 m) from the stage where Trump was speaking.
The rooftop was declared outside the Secret Service security perimeter for the event, a decision criticized by former agents and lawmakers.
Cheatle held a top security role at PepsiCo when Biden named her Secret Service director in 2022. She previously served 27 years in the agency.
She took over following a series of scandals involving the Secret Service that scarred the reputation of an elite and insular agency.
Ten Secret Service agents lost their jobs after revelations they brought women, some of them prostitutes, back to their hotel rooms ahead of a trip to Colombia by then-President Barack Obama in 2012.
The agency also faced allegations that it erased text messages from around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Those messages were later sought by a congressional panel probing the riot.
US Secret Service chief resigns following Trump assassination attempt
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US Secret Service chief resigns following Trump assassination attempt
- Cheatle faced bipartisan condemnation when she appeared before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on Monday
- Several Republican and Democratic lawmakers called on her to resign
Taiwan will not provoke confrontation with China; does not seek conflict
China considers democratic Taiwan as part of its own territory and calls President Lai Ching-te a “separatist.” Taiwan’s government disputes China’s claim.
Speaking to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club in the capital Taipei, Hsiao said that Chinese pressure on Taiwan had only escalated over the past few years but that the island’s people were peace-loving.
“We do not seek conflict; we will not provoke confrontation,” she said, reiterating Lai’s offer of talks between Taipei and Beijing.
For decades, Taiwan’s people and business have contributed to China’s growth and prosperity, which has only been possible under a peaceful and stable environment, Hsiao added.
“Aggressive military posturing is counterproductive and deprives the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait of opportunities to pursue an agenda of growth and prosperity,” she said.
“Defending the status quo (with China) is our choice, not because it is easy, but because it is responsible and consistent with the interests of our entire region.”
North Korea bars foreign tourists from new seaside resort
- The Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone appears to be lined with high-rise hotels and waterparks
- State media previously said visits to Wonsan by Russian tour groups were expected in the coming months
SEOUL: North Korea has barred foreigners from a newly opened beach resort, the country’s tourism administration said this week, just days after Russia’s top diplomat visited the area.
The sprawling seaside resort on its east coast, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s pet project, opened to domestic visitors earlier this month with great fanfare in state-run media.
Dubbed “North Korea’s Waikiki” by South Korean media, the Wonsan-Kalma Coastal Tourist Zone appears to be lined with high-rise hotels and waterparks, and can purportedly accommodate some 20,000 people.
State media previously said visits to Wonsan by Russian tour groups were expected in the coming months.
But following Lavrov’s visit, the North’s National Tourism Administration said “foreign tourists are temporarily not being accepted” without giving further details, in a statement posted on an official website this week.
Kim showed a keen interest in developing North Korea’s tourism industry during his early years in power, analysts have said, and the coastal resort area was a particular focus.
He said ahead of the opening of the beach resort that the construction of the site would go down as “one of the greatest successes this year” and that the North would build more large-scale tourist zones “in the shortest time possible.”
The North last year permitted Russian tourists to return for the first time since the pandemic and Western tour operators briefly returned in February this year.
Seoul’s unification ministry, however, said that it expected international tourism to the new resort was “likely to remain small in scale” given the limited capacity of available flights.
Kim held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Wonsan last week where he offered Moscow his full and “unconditional” support for its war in Ukraine, KCNA reported.
Lavrov reportedly hailed the seaside project as a “good tourist attraction,” adding it would become popular among both local and Russian visitors looking for new destinations.
Ahead of Lavrov’s recent visit, Russia announced that it would begin twice-a-week flights between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Myanmar junta offers cash rewards to anti-coup defectors
- The Southeast Asian country has been consumed by civil war since a 2021 coup
- Embattled junta faces an array of pro-democracy guerillas and ethnic armed rebels
YANGON: Myanmar’s junta said Friday it is offering cash rewards to fighters willing to desert armed groups defying its rule and “return to the legal fold” ahead of a slated election.
The Southeast Asian country has been consumed by civil war since a 2021 coup, with the embattled junta facing an array of pro-democracy guerillas and ethnic armed rebels.
After suffering major battlefield reverses, the military has touted elections around the end of the year as a pathway to peace – plans denounced as a sham by opposition groups and international monitors.
State media The Global New Light of Myanmar said Friday “individuals who returned to the legal fold with arms and ammunition are being offered specific cash rewards.”
The junta mouthpiece did not specify how much cash it is offering, but said 14 anti-coup fighters had surrendered since it issued a statement pledging to “welcome” defectors two weeks ago.
“These individuals chose to abandon the path of armed struggle due to their desire to live peacefully within the framework of the law,” the newspaper said.
The surrendered fighters included 12 men and two women, it added.
Nine were members of ethnic armed groups, while five were from the pro-democracy “People’s Defense Forces” – formed after the military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected civilian government four years ago.
The junta’s offer of a gilded olive branch matches a tactic used by its opponents – who have previously tried to tempt military deserters with cash rewards.
The “National Unity Government,” a self-proclaimed administration in exile dominated by ousted lawmakers, has called the junta’s call for cooperation “a strategy filled with deception aimed at legitimizing their power-consolidating sham election.”
Lightning strikes kill 33 people in eastern India
- The deaths in Bihar occurred during fierce storms between Wednesday and Thursday, a state disaster management department statement said
- The state government announced compensation of 4 million rupees ($4,600) to the families of those killed by lightning
PATNA, India: Lightning strikes during monsoon storms in eastern India this week killed at least 33 people and injured dozens, officials said Friday.
The deaths in Bihar occurred during fierce storms between Wednesday and Thursday, a state disaster management department statement said, with the victims mostly farmers and laborers working in the open.
More heavy rain and lightning are forecast for parts of the state.
Bihar state’s disaster management minister, Vijay Kumar Mandal, said that officials in vulnerable districts had been directed to “create awareness to take precautionary steps following an alert on lightning.”
The state government announced compensation of 4 million rupees ($4,600) to the families of those killed by lightning.
At least 243 died by lightning in 2024 and 275 the year earlier, according to the state government.
India’s eastern region, including Bihar, is prone to annual floods that kill dozens and displace hundreds of thousands of people during peak monsoon season.
Russia downs 73 Ukrainian drones, including three flying to Moscow
- Most of the drones were downed over Russia’s southwestern regions, including 31 over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine
Russian air defenses destroyed 73 Ukrainian drones overnight, including three heading for Moscow, Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday.
Most of the drones were downed over Russia’s southwestern regions, including 31 over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, writing on Telegram, made no mention of casualties or damage, but said emergency services were examining the area where drone fragments fell to the ground. The federal aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, briefly ordered the suspension of operations at two airports near the capital, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky, but services were later resumed.
Operations were halted well after midnight at a third Moscow airport, Vnukovo before being reinstated by the morning. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine about the attacks. Kyiv says that its strikes inside Russia are necessary to destroy infrastructure key to Moscow’s efforts in its war against Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
