Important Takeaways:
- Lawmakers repeatedly questioned why the agency tasked with protecting the country’s top leaders didn’t do a better job communicating with local authorities during the July 13 rally, particularly when it came to securing the building that was widely agreed to be a security threat but that ultimately was left so unprotected that gunman Thomas Michael Crooks was able to climb up and open fire on Trump.
- The panel — comprised of seven Republicans and six Democrats — has spent the last two months analyzing the security failures at the rally, conducting nearly two dozen interviews with law enforcement and receiving more than 2,800 pages of documents from the Secret Service.
- Edward Lenz, commander for the Butler County Emergency Services Unit who was in charge of the local tactical units operating at the Butler rally, said his agency was never asked to put a sniper team on top of the roof and never said that they would. Lenz said the Secret Service knew their shooters were inside the AGR Building and there was no “feedback or guidance” from the Secret Service that they wanted the team anywhere else.
- Lenz also testified that Secret Service officials did not check with him or his team to make sure they were in place before Trump went on stage and that the emergency communication for July 13 had not been worked out in advance.
- Thursday’s session was the fourth congressional hearing about the Butler shooting since July.
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Important Takeaways:
- A 20-year-old man tossed an explosive device into the California courthouse where he was about to be arraigned on a gun charge and the explosion left five people with minor injuries and shut down the court complex and other nearby city buildings, police said.
- The suspect ran away after the explosion and was captured as he tried to get into his vehicle parked nearby.
- The man, who is from Santa Maria, was wearing body armor underneath his jacket, according to Santa Barbara County undersheriff, Craig Bonner, and was booked on attempted murder and explosives charges.
- The suspect had been arrested last July for illegal gun possession and was to be arraigned on Wednesday. When he entered the courthouse and approached the screening station, he tossed a bag that then detonated.
- Bonner said three of the five victims suffered burns. All were treated and released from a hospital. None were court employees.
- Authorities evacuated a five-block radius of businesses, homes and a school after the explosion.
- The courthouse will be closed on Thursday as police complete their investigation
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Important Takeaways:
- The move announced at the UN general assembly is the first time the ICJ, based in The Hague, has been used by one country to take another to court over gender discrimination.
- The case is being brought under the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, which was adopted by the general assembly in 1979 and brought into force in 1981.
- Afghanistan, prior to the 2021 Taliban takeover of the country, ratified the convention in 2003.
- In the first legal move of this type since the Taliban took over, it is expected that Afghanistan would have six months to provide a response before the ICJ would hold a hearing and probably propose provisional measures.
- Advocates of the course argue that even if the Taliban refuse to acknowledge the court’s authority, an ICJ ruling would have a deterrent effect on other states seeking to normalize diplomatic relations with the Taliban.
- Last month, the Taliban published a new set of vice and virtue laws that said women must not leave the house without being fully covered and could not sing or raise their voices in public.
- The countries involved in the litigation say they are willing to negotiate with the Taliban in good faith to end gender discrimination, but will, if the necessary stages prove fruitless, seek a hearing at the ICJ.
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Important Takeaways:
- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday warned that Russia was changing its rules towards nuclear weapons, effectively lowering the threshold at which it might use them.
- He said an attack that poses a “critical threat” to the sovereignty of Russia, if carried by a non-nuclear power with the “participation or support of a nuclear power” would be considered a “joint attack on the Russian Federation”.
- Putin did not spell out any countries, but the message was clear: If the Kremlin concludes that a Ukrainian assault on its soil using US, French or British missiles represents a “critical threat” to Russia’s sovereignty, Moscow will consider Kyiv’s Western allies as the attackers too.
- Putin said such a scenario would meet Russia’s criteria – under its updated doctrine – for the use of nuclear weapons.
- He added that this also applies to attacks on neighboring Belarus, which Moscow considers its most steadfast ally.
- Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal globally, with a stockpile of 6000 warheads, some stationed in Belarus.
- Zelensky is currently in the US lobbying with the Biden administration, seeking its approval – and that of the UK – to use long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russian territory.
- Experts point out that despite the significance of Moscow’s announced change in nuclear doctrine, it is only the latest in a series of implicit or explicit nuclear threats made by Putin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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Important Takeaways:
- “There will be no ceasefire in the north,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X. “We will continue to fight against the Hezbollah terrorist organization with all our strength until victory and the safe return of the residents.”
- An Israeli warplane struck the edges of the capital Beirut, killing two people and wounding 15, including a woman in critical condition, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
- The strike killed the head of one of Hezbollah’s air force units, Mohammad Surur, two security sources said, the latest senior Hezbollah commander to be targeted in days of assassinations hitting the group’s top ranks.
- Israel has vowed to secure its north and return thousands of citizens to communities there who have evacuated since Hezbollah launched a campaign of cross-border strikes last year in solidarity with Palestinian militants fighting in Gaza.
- Israel’s airstrikes have sharply intensified since Monday, when more than 550 people were killed in Lebanon’s deadliest day since the end of a 1975-1990 civil war.
- The bombing follows attacks last week when pagers and walkie talkies exploded across Lebanon, killing scores of people and wounding thousands including Hezbollah members.
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Important Takeaways:
- New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been hit with five federal charges – including wire fraud, bribery and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national – according to a sprawling 57-page federal indictment unsealed Thursday.
- Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York accuse Adams of seeking and accepting luxury international travel from a wealthy businessman and at least one Turkish government official for nearly a decade.
- “As Adams’ prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021, it became clear that Adams would become New York City’s mayor,” the indictment says. “Adams agreed, providing favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received.”
- The details of the criminal case come at a time of extraordinary turmoil for the Adams administration. In the past two weeks alone, the city’s police commissioner, top lawyer and schools chancellor have announced their resignations.
- The Adams administration has also been facing a public corruption investigation and another federal probe that resulted in a search of homes belonging to Adams’ former director of Asian affairs.
- In a videotaped statement he released late Wednesday, Adams remained defiant, saying any charges against him would be “entirely false, based on lies.”
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Important Takeaways:
- U.S. President Joe Biden announced more than $8 billion in military assistance for Ukraine on Thursday to help Kyiv “win this war” against Russian invaders, using a visit by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to make a major commitment.
- The aid includes the first shipment of a precision-guided glide bomb called the Joint Standoff Weapon, with a range of up to 81 miles (130 km).
- The bulk of the new aid, $5.5 billion, is to be allocated before Monday’s end of the U.S. fiscal year, when the funding authority is set to expire.
- Another $2.4 billion is under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the administration to buy weapons for Ukraine from companies rather than pull them from U.S. stocks.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hurricane Helene continues to strengthen and is now a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph. The National Hurricane Center says Helene will likely become a major Category 3 hurricane when it makes landfall along Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday night or early Friday morning.
- Nearly the entire state of Florida is under some sort of tropical weather alert, with Tropical Storm Warnings extending hundreds of miles inland into Georgia and the Carolinas, including Atlanta.
- The National Hurricane Center (NHC) says that because of Hurricane Helene’s massive size, there is a significant risk of a life-threatening storm surge along the entire west coast of the Florida Peninsula, as well as Florida’s Big Bend region.
- “A catastrophic and deadly storm surge is likely along portions of the Florida Big Bend coast, where inundation could reach as high as 20 feet above ground level, along with destructive waves,” the NHC warned.
- Earlier this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency for 61 of the state’s 67 counties to help agencies prepare for the storm.
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Important Takeaways:
- A chemical gas leak from a rail tanker near Cincinnati prompted fears of an explosion and evacuation orders for people within at least a half-mile radius of the incident.
- Roughly 210 households in Whitewater Township, about 22 miles west-northwest of Cincinnati in an area near the city airport and the Kentucky state line, were under evacuation orders, officials said Tuesday night.
- Colorless, odorless gas spewing from the tanker at State Route 128 and U.S. Route 50 was reported to first responders shortly after 1 p.m.
- Authorities determined the chemical is styrene, he said. It’s used in the production of plastic, rubber, fiberglass and other structural materials.
- The threat for the community is that the rail car tank has been heating up and will explode if it continues, Siefke said. Firefighters were dousing the container with water in an attempt to reverse its temperature rise, he said.
- “This will be a long, long event,” Siefke said.
- It wasn’t yet clear who owns the rail car or its cargo, officials said Tuesday night.
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Important Takeaways:
- India has confirmed its first case of a deadlier strain of mpox, which has raised alarm among health officials around the world over the rapid pace of its spread.
- The clade Ib strain of the virus was confirmed by health authorities in the southern state of Kerala after being detected last week in a 38-year-old man who had recently traveled to Dubai.
- Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease that can spread easily between people and from infected animals. It can spread through close contact such as touching, kissing or sex, as well as through contaminated materials like sheets, clothing and needles, according to WHO.
- Symptoms include fever, rash, lesions, headache, muscle and back pain, low energy and enlarged lymph nodes.
- The virus is characterized by two genetic clades, I and II. A clade is a broad grouping of viruses that has evolved over decades. Clade II was responsible for a global outbreak that WHO also declared a global health emergency from July 2022 to May 2023. Clade Ib causes more severe disease.
- Authorities had identified 29 people who came into contact with the patient and they are now in self-quarantine, he said.
- Some 37 passengers on the flight from Dubai to Kerala and five other close contacts of the patient are being monitored, he added.
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