WASHINGTON: The US Secret Service’s acting director said on Friday that local police in Pennsylvania warned that there was a man with a gun on a roof before the July 13 attempted assassination of Donald Trump, but the message did not reach its agents on time.
Local authorities and Secret Service agents were using different communications channels, which prevented the warning from getting through before a 20-year-old assailant opened fire on the Republican presidential candidate, Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe told reporters.
“In the final 30 seconds — which has been the focus of what happened before the assailant opened fire — there (were) clearly radio transmissions that may have happened on that local radio net that we did not have,” Rowe said.
Rowe said the FBI, the agency leading a criminal investigation into the shooting, is working to determine exactly what was communicated. But Rowe said investigators believe “there was somebody who did in fact radio out that they had seen the individual with a weapon.”
A local police officer confronted the shooter on the roof of the industrial building where he ultimately opened fire. But the officer, who had been hoisted up by a colleague, fell to the ground about 30 seconds before the assailant began shooting, law enforcement officials previously have said.
At the time shots rang out, the Secret Service were aware local police were dealing with an issue on the periphery of the event, but did not know about a weapon, Rowe said.
In testimony to Congress on Tuesday, Rowe had blamed the failure on local law enforcement while also saying he was “ashamed” of the security lapse that occurred on the day of the shooting. Rowe also noted that the Secret Service had not been present in a command post set up by local law enforcement in Butler, Pennsylvania for the outdoor campaign rally by the former president.
The first shooting of a US president or major party presidential candidate in more than four decades was a glaring security lapse that led last week to former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation under bipartisan congressional pressure.
Officials have said that Thomas Crooks, 20, fired the shots that wounded Trump’s right ear, killed one rally attendee and wounded two others with an AR-15-style rifle, before law enforcement snipers shot and killed him.
US Secret Service chief says local police warned of gunman at Trump shooting
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US Secret Service chief says local police warned of gunman at Trump shooting
Bangladesh’s Yunus says no elections before reforms
- Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was appointed the country’s “chief adviser’ after a student-led uprising toppled ex-PM Hasina
- The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer is helming a temporary administration, to tackle the challenge of restoring democratic institutions
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim leader has refused to give a timeframe for elections following the ouster of his autocratic predecessor, saying in an interview published Tuesday that reforms are needed before polls.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was appointed the country’s “chief adviser” after the student-led uprising that toppled ex-premier Sheikh Hasina in August.
The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer is helming a temporary administration, to tackle what he has called the “extremely tough” challenge of restoring democratic institutions.
“None of us are aiming at staying for a prolonged time,” Yunus said of his caretaker government, in an interview published by the Prothom Alo newspaper.
“Reforms are pivotal,” he added. “If you say, hold the election, we are ready to hold the election. But it would be wrong to hold the election first.”
Hasina’s 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.
More than 600 people were killed in the weeks leading up to her ouster, according to a preliminary United Nations report which said the figure was likely an underestimate.
Her government was also accused of politicizing courts and the civil service, as well as staging lopsided elections, to dismantle democratic checks on its power.
Yunus said he had inherited a “completely broken down” system of public administration that needed a comprehensive overhaul to prevent a future return to autocracy.
“Reforms mean we will not allow a repetition of what happened in the past,” he added.
Yunus also batted away criticism at the numerous politicians, senior police officers and other Hasina loyalists arrested on murder charges after her government’s ouster.
The arrests have prompted accusations that Yunus’ caretaker government would hold politicized trials of senior figures from Hasina’s regime.
But Yunus said it was his intention that any criminal trials initiated against those arrested would remain free from government interference.
“Once the judicial system is reformed, then the issues will come forward, about who will be placed on trial, how justice will be carried out,” he said.
At least 25 journalists — considered by Hasina’s opponents to be partisans of her government — have been arrested for alleged violence against protesters since her downfall.
Press watchdog Reporters Without Borders has condemned those arrests as “systematic judicial harassment.”
But Yunus insisted he wanted media freedom.
“Write as you please,” he told the newspaper.
“Criticize. Unless you write, how will we know what is happening or not happening?“
Relations between Jewish and Muslim communities in the UK ‘fragile,’ British imam says
- There has been a “lack of common language to describe the massive onslaught of death and destruction” in Gaza that followed Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, imam said
LONDON: A year after the war in Gaza started, a British imam has described relations between Jewish and Muslim communities in the UK as “fragile and fractured.”
Israel’s military incursion into Gaza and Lebanon is an “apocalypse,” Qari Asim, the chairman of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, told PA Media on Monday.
There has been a “lack of common language to describe the massive onslaught of death and destruction” in Gaza that followed Hamas’ “brutal attack” on Oct. 7 last year, the leading imam said.
He said that although there are “different perspectives” of the conflict, he has had “a number of open and frank conversations” with Jewish faith leaders “about the pain, trauma and heartbreak that British Muslims feel when they hear on their screens the cries of young children.”
Such dialogue has also involved listening to the perspectives of the Jewish community on “the pain and suffering that they’re experiencing because of the horrific attacks on October 7 last year.”
He said: “The relations between Jewish and Muslim communities are currently fragile and fractured.”
However, he also paid tribute to those who have come together to keep communication open between the two communities.
“Despite the extremely aching and traumatic last 12 months, I see that brave members of our respective communities have continued some form of dialogue.
“These encounters and activities show that no matter how fractured interfaith relationships between the two communities may seem in this country, people of all faiths and beliefs stand together when they see a stain on our national moral conscience,” Asim said.
Mourners and leaders around the world on Monday voiced horror and a desire for peace at tearful memorials remembering the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked a year of devastating war in Gaza.
People from Sydney to Rome and Warsaw to Washington grieved for those killed and urged freedom for those taken hostage by Hamas one year ago, while rallies also called for peace in the Palestinian territories.
Kyiv arrests Kremlin ‘ideologue’ extradited from Moldova
- The SBU said Dmytro Chystilin — whom it called an “ideologue” of Moscow’s invasion — was charged with “high treason” and “justification” of Russia’s aggression
- “The SBU detained one of the Kremlin’s ideologues of the ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine“
KYIV: Ukraine has arrested a Russian-Ukrainian dual national extradited from Moldova charged with promoting the Kremlin’s invasion, Kyiv’s security service said Tuesday.
The SBU said Dmytro Chystilin — whom it called an “ideologue” of Moscow’s invasion — was charged with “high treason” and “justification” of Russia’s aggression, facing a possible life sentence.
“The SBU detained one of the Kremlin’s ideologues of the ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine,” the security service said in a statement.
It accused Chystilin of “providing assistance” to Russian special services, organizing pro-Moscow conferences in Europe and “interference in election processes in Eastern and Central Europe in favor of Moscow.”
The security service said he was arrested after an event in Moldova when he tried to return to Moscow.
An SBU spokesman, Artem Dekhtyarenko, told AFP that Moldova then extradited Chystilin to Ukraine “over the weekend.”
Dekhtyarenko said he has both Ukrainian and Russian passports.
Ukrainian prosecutors said Chystilin had acted as a Kremlin “mouthpiece” and was detained for “developing and implementing information warfare strategy against Ukraine.”
“While in Moldova, he strengthened the Kremlin’s information influence on the domestic and foreign policy of a sovereign state,” Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said in a statement.
The SBU said Chystilin had also worked as an assistant to Sergei Glazyev, a former Kremlin adviser known for his hawkish positions.
Russian state media quoted a friend of Chystilin, Igor Kaldare, as saying that the dual national was organizing a “regional security” conference in Bucharest and was arrested by Moldovan security services.
Biden cancels trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane
- Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the change was necessary “given the projected trajectory and strength” of the storm
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden is postponing a planned trip to Germany and Angola to remain at the White House to monitor Hurricane Milton, which is bearing down on Florida’s Gulf Coast, the White House announced on Tuesday.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the change was necessary “given the projected trajectory and strength” of the storm.
It was not clear when the trip might be rescheduled. Biden had promised to go to Africa during his term in office, which ends in January.
UK PM Starmer rules out total ban on arms exports to Israel
- Sir Keir warns that defensive weapons must continue to be sent in the face of Iranian threats, proxy activities
- Remarks come after French President Macron calls for halt on arms sales, demanding a return to a ‘political solution’
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he would “never” ban all arms sales to Israel.
The Labour leader made the claim during questions in the House of Commons on Monday, adding he believed Israel has a right to defend itself.
“If the sale of weapons for defensive use by Israel were banned, that is a position I could not countenance a year after Oct 7. It’s not a position I could countenance in the face of attacks by Iran,” Sir Keir told Parliament.
“The idea that we could say we support Israel’s right to defend herself, and at the same time deprive her of the means to do so, is so wholly inconsistent that it will never be my position.”
The UK government suspended 30 arms export licenses to Israel last month over fears they could be used to break international law. However, 32 other licenses remain.
The prime minister received criticism for his stance, with Zarah Sultana MP, currently suspended from the Labour Party, telling Sir Keir to do what is “morally and legally right” and ban “all arms sales” to Israel, including components for F-35 fighter jets.
On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt on arms exports to Israel after it invaded Lebanon.
“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” he said.
Sir Keir echoed the need for a political solution to the crisis on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.
“Make no mistake, the region can’t take another year of this. All sides must step back from the brink and find the courage of restraint,” Sir Keir said.
US President Joe Biden also used the anniversary to tell Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Washington would “never give up until we bring all of the remaining hostages home safely.”
