WASHINGTON: Facing growing criticism over a massive security failure, the US Secret Service on Monday vowed to cooperate with an independent review after a shooter was allowed to open fire on Donald Trump.
The 78-year-old former president was injured but survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, a brazen attack that shocked a nation already deeply polarized ahead of the November election.
“The Secret Service is working with all involved federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again,” the agency’s director Kimberly Cheatle said in a statement.
“We understand the importance of the independent review announced by President (Joe) Biden yesterday and will participate fully,” Cheatle added.
Trump was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when multiple bangs rang out.
He clutched his ear, with blood visible on his ear and cheek, then ducked to the floor as Secret Service agents swarmed onto the podium, surrounding him and rushing him to a nearby vehicle.
The shooter and a bystander were killed, and two spectators injured.
Newly surfaced video backs up reports from witnesses that they had called out to police and physically pointed at the shooter as he lay on the roof preparing to open fire, the Washington Post reported Monday.
The shots targeting Trump rang out 86 seconds after the first audible attempts to warn the police, the Post said, citing an analysis it did of video clips from the scene of the attack.
Biden ordered a full review of the security at the rally, as well as at this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Trump will be crowned the party’s presidential nominee.
He also ordered Secret Service protection for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and long-time vaccine skeptic who has no chance of winning in November, but whose candidacy could potentially sway close contests in key swing states.
The Secret Service faces intense scrutiny over how a gunman aiming an assault rifle was able to take position on a roof some 500 feet (150 meters) from one of the most protected political figures on the planet.
With Trump set to star at the convention, Cheatle said the agency was working to toughen security.
The Secret Service designs plans for major events “to respond to a kinetic security environment and the most up-to-date intelligence,” her statement said.
Earlier in the day, Trump had called for Secret Service protection for Kennedy “in light of what is going on in the world today.”
“Given the history of the Kennedy Family, this is the obvious right thing to do!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social web site.
Kenedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas in 1963. Five years later, the candidate’s father, Robert, was shot to death in Los Angeles while on the campaign trail.
The US Secret Service is responsible for the safety of the president, vice president and former presidents, and their families, as well as major election candidates and visiting foreign heads of state.
Secret Service agrees to independent probe over Trump shooting
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Secret Service agrees to independent probe over Trump shooting
- The Secret Service faces intense scrutiny over how a gunman aiming an assault rifle was able to take position on a roof some 500 feet (150 meters) from one of the most protected political figures on the planet
Detained Greenpeace activists to face judge over Macron waxwork
- Activists stole a 40,000-euro statue of Macron and placed it in front of the Russian embassy and later outside the headquarters of French electricity giant EDF to protest France’s economic ties with Russia
PARIS: Two Greenpeace activists who stole French President Emmanuel Macron’s waxwork from a Paris museum to stage anti-Russia protests have been detained and were set to appear before an investigating judge on Thursday, their lawyer and prosecutors said.
On Monday, several activists stole a 40,000-euro statue of Macron from the Grevin Museum and placed it in front of the Russian embassy and later outside the headquarters of French electricity giant EDF to protest France’s economic ties with Russia.
The statue, estimated to be worth 40,000 euros ($45,500), was returned to police on Tuesday night but two activists, a man and a woman, were detained on Monday, their lawyer Marie Dose said.
Jean-François Julliard, head of Greenpeace France, said that the detained pair were people who drove a truck during the protest in front of the Russian embassy, and not those who “borrowed” the statue from the museum.
“They have spent three nights in a cell,” said Dose, denouncing the detention as “completely disproportionate.”
The lawyer denounced the “deplorable” conditions in which the two activists were being held, “attached to benches for hours and dragged from police station to police station.”
One activist spent the night without a blanket and was unable to lie down because her cell was too small, the lawyer said.
“The other had to sleep on the floor because there were too many people in the cell,” she added.
“This treatment is worrying for Greenpeace activists and raises the question of a dangerous shift in the criminal response to acts of civil disobedience,” she said.
The pair will appear before an investigating magistrate on Thursday as part of a judicial inquiry into the “theft of a cultural object on display,” the Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP.
The judge will decide whether to charge them.
The lawyer argued that “no harm resulted from the non-violent action,” arguing that “all offenses” ceased to exist once the statue has been returned to the museum.
The Grevin Museum filed a complaint on Monday but subsequently took the matter in good humor. “The figures can only be viewed on site,” it said on its Instagram feed.
The activists managed to slip out through an emergency exit of the museum by posing as maintenance workers.
Suspect in murder of Tunisian man to appear before French judge: prosecutors
PARIS: A Frenchman accused of murdering his Tunisian neighbor in the south of France will appear before an anti-terrorism judge on Thursday, the national anti-terror prosecutor’s office said.
Christophe B. is accused of killing Hichem Miraoui in an attack Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described as both “racist” and “anti-Muslim.”
Anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the case, the first time a far-right racist attack has been treated as a “terrorist” offense since the unit was created in 2019.
Russia to repair warplanes damaged by Ukraine’s drones
- Ukrainian strikes targeted airfields in Siberia and the far north where Russia houses heavy bombers that form part of its strategic nuclear forces
- Commercial satellite images showed what appeared to be damaged Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers and Tu-22 Backfire long-range bombers
MOSCOW: Russian warplanes were damaged but not destroyed in a June 1 attack by Ukraine, and they will be restored, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
Ukrainian strikes targeted airfields in Siberia and the far north where Russia houses heavy bombers that form part of its strategic nuclear forces.
The United States assesses that up to 20 warplanes were hit and around 10 were destroyed, two US officials said, a figure that is about half the number estimated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But Ryabkov, who oversees arms control diplomacy, told state news agency TASS: “The equipment in question, as was also stated by representatives of the Ministry of Defense, was not destroyed but damaged. It will be restored.”
It was not immediately clear how swiftly Russia could repair or replace the damaged aircraft – if at all – given the complexity of the technology, the age of some of the Soviet-era planes, and Western sanctions that restrict Russian imports of sensitive components.
Commercial satellite imagery taken after the Ukrainian drone attack shows what experts said appear to be damaged Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers and Tu-22 Backfire long-range bombers that Russia has used to launch missile strikes against Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump in a telephone conversation on Wednesday that Moscow would have to respond to the attacks, Trump said.
Russia has an estimated fleet of 67 strategic bombers, including 52 Tu-95s, known as Bear-H by NATO, and 15 Tu-160s, known as Blackjacks, of which about 58 are thought to be deployed, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
In addition, it has 289 non-strategic fighters and bombers, including Tu-22s, Su-24s, Su-34s and MiG-31s, according to the Bulletin. Russia has given no detail about which aircraft were damaged but said that Ukraine targeted five air bases.
Philippines, US hold joint maritime drills for seventh time
- The exercises included joint operations near shorelines as well as fire support
- The joint sail also showcased the Philippine vessel Miguel Malvar, a 118-meter guided missile frigate commissioned last month
MANILA: The Philippines and United States militaries have sailed together in the South China Sea for a seventh time to boost interoperability between the two sides, Manila’s armed forces said on Thursday.
The exercises, held on Wednesday in waters off the provinces of Occidental Mindoro and Zambales and away from contested features, included joint operations near shorelines as well as fire support.
“The MCA (maritime cooperative activity) is a demonstration of both nations’ resolve to deepen cooperation and enhance interoperability in line with international law,” the Philippine armed forces said in a statement.
The joint sail also showcased the Philippine vessel Miguel Malvar, a 118-meter guided missile frigate commissioned last month. It is one of two corvettes built by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries under the Philippines’ military modernization program.
Military engagements between the treaty allies have soared under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has pivoted closer to Washington in response to China’s growing presence in the South China Sea.
China claims sovereignty over nearly all the South China Sea, including parts of the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Indonesia allowing nickel industry abuses to go unchecked: report
- Indonesia is both the world’s largest nickel producer, and home to the biggest-known reserves
- Locals have reported a rise in air pollution from nickel processing smelters and rivers polluted by nickel tailings in soil brought down by heavy rain
JAKARTA: The Indonesian government is allowing environmental damage including deforestation and violations against Indigenous people to go unchecked around a multi-billion dollar industrial park on a once-pristine eastern island, a report said Thursday.
Indonesia is both the world’s largest nickel producer, and home to the biggest-known reserves, and a 2020 export ban has spurred a domestic industrial boom.
Operations have grown around Weda Bay, the world’s largest nickel mine by production, on Halmahera island as Indonesia exploits the metal reserves used in everything from electric vehicle batteries to stainless steel.
Climate Rights International (CRI) said companies had caused a spike in air and water pollution and deforestation around the industrial park, accusing the government of ignoring their conduct.
“The Indonesian government is giving a green light to corporate practices that prioritize profits over the rights of local communities and the environment,” Krista Shennum, researcher at Climate Rights International, told AFP.
“The Indonesian government should immediately hold companies accountable. This could include civil penalties, criminal prosecutions, or rescinding permits.”
Much of the park’s nickel is sourced by Weda Bay Nickel (WBN), a joint venture of Indonesian mining firm Antam and Singapore-based Strand Minerals, with shares divided between French mining giant Eramet and Chinese steel major Tsingshan.
An AFP report last week detailed how the home of the nomadic Hongana Manyawa tribe was being eaten away by the world’s largest nickel mine, with members issuing a call for nickel companies to leave their tribal lands alone.
Locals have reported a rise in air pollution from nickel processing smelters and rivers polluted by nickel tailings in soil brought down by heavy rain.
Water tests by Indonesian NGOs AEER, JATAM, and Nexus3 Foundation in 2023 and 2024 “revealed dangerously high levels of nickel and hexavalent chromium, among other pollutants,” the report said.
“(Companies) are failing local communities by not making information about the safety of important drinking water sources publicly available and accessible,” said Shennum.
Both WBN and Eramet told AFP last week they work to minimize impacts on the environment, including conducting water tests.
CRI also said Indonesian and foreign companies in coordination with police and military personnel had “engaged in land grabbing, coercion and intimidation” of Indigenous peoples and other communities.
Local activists and students opposing the industrial park have “faced criminalization, harassment and smear campaigns,” the report said.
Weda Bay Nickel and the Indonesian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But Indonesia’s energy ministry told AFP last week it was committed to “protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples and ensuring that mining activities do not damage their lives and environment.”
