Connect with us

UK News

Suspected gunman likely targeting Trump administration officials at White House press dinner, acting attorney general says – live | White House correspondents’ dinner shooting

Published

on


‘Preliminary findings’ suggest suspect was ‘likely’ targeting Trump administration officials, says acting US attorney general

The acting US attorney general, Todd Blanche, has said that “preliminary findings” suggest that the alleged White House correspondents’ dinner shooter was targeting Donald Trump and officials in his administration.

Blanche told NBC News’ Meet the Press:

double quotation markWe’re still investigating a motive, and that’s something that will necessarily take a couple of days at least. We believe he was targeting administration officials in this attack, attempted attack, but that’s again, quite preliminary.

Those officials “likely” include the US president, Blanche added, “but I want to wait and not get ahead of us on that.”

Blanche went on to say that he does not believe that the suspect is cooperating with the investigation.

He will be charged in federal court tomorrow with assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer, Blanche said, adding he did not know if there was an Iran connection to the attack.

Investigators believe the suspect travelled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then Chicago to Washington DC by train, before checking into the hotel where the dinner was held, Blanche added.

He said investigators were looking into reports that the suspect had assembled the weapon somewhere in the hotel, but that he “didn’t get very far”.

double quotation markHe barely broke the perimeter. And by barely, I mean by a few feet.

Todd Blanche last night speaking next to FBI director Kash Patel and Donald Trump – still in their tuxedos - at a press briefing at the White House, following the shooting incident during the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Todd Blanche last night speaking next to FBI director Kash Patel and Donald Trump – still in their tuxedos – at a press briefing at the White House, following the shooting incident during the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Share

Updated at 

Key events

Trump speaks to 60 Minutes about shooting

Donald Trump will make an appearance on the CBS News program 60 Minutes, according to Steven Cheung, the White House communications director.

“President Trump sits down with 60 Minutes to discuss what happened at the White House Correspondents Association dinner last night,” Cheung wrote in a post on X, accompanied by an image of the president being interviewed.

Share

Updated at 



Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

UK News

David Guetta and Sia’s song Titanium got me through my fertility treatment | Dance music

Published

on


At the end of 2011, party season was under way but I was in no mood for festivities. Two years into fertility treatment, my body was pumped full of synthetic hormones and felt like a pin cushion, while my head was filled with both the fragile hope of having a baby, and the exhaustion of failed clinical attempts to do so.

I was in my late 20s. I met my husband when I was 22; we got married when I was 25. “I want to have kids young,” I’d told him. It was a feeling I’d harboured since my teenage years. But I’d also had the nagging sense that it might not come easily to me. As it turned out, my intuition was right. Approaching 28, I was a regular on the infertility merry-go-round.

I was recovering from my second miscarriage that year when I heard Sia’s raspy voice on the car radio belting out words that sounded emotionally weighty for an electronic dance number – her David Guetta collaboration, Titanium.

It’s not a song I would have necessarily rated or listened to again – I’m more likely to play 00s R&B and hip-hop – but it came at the perfect time in my life. I had forgotten how days felt before fertility drugs and the diarised cycles of administering them. I’d been constantly wearing a brave face and cramming in hospital appointments before and after work, going about my job through a fog of longing and hormones. It had left me in a “cry on the bedroom floor” kind of a heap. I needed something to drag the hope back into me.

I turned the radio up and listened to the lyrics: “I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose / Fire away, fire away.” It felt as if it was talking to and about me, issuing a riposte to all those shots of disappointment that had been fired our way. As Sia’s vocals ascended through the chorus with Guetta’s soaring synths – “Ricochet, you take your aim” – I cried, but I felt myself gaining power with her, too. “You shoot me down, but I won’t fall / I am titanium.” Those were the words I needed to hear.

I felt like a puppet pulled upright again. I streamed it on repeat in the days that followed. I might not have been able to face the work Christmas party but I wasn’t going to languish on the bedroom floor any more.

Over the next months, I spent a lot of time in my car, travelling to work and to fertility appointments to get my blood tested, hormones measured or insides scanned. Listening to Titanium became routine. Each time, its cinematic surge had the same empowering effect and I’d turn up the volume, wind down the windows and defiantly sing along in my terrible voice so it could wash over me.

The following May, when my husband and I headed to the clinic for another IVF embryo transfer, I let it motivate me; when we drove back from scans confirming we were six weeks, then 12 weeks pregnant, I celebrated with it. As I nervously made my way through my pregnancy, I turned to it when I needed the boost.

In January 2013, our first son was born. Today, he is the eldest of three: his brother arrived 15 months later, via IVF too (the last of our fertilised embryos) and four years later, another brother, without fertility treatment. We consider ourselves unspeakably lucky; for many, the outcome is not the same.

In our family, everyone knows Titanium is my fight song. It’s the only big commercial dance hit on my playlists, and a marker of something I overcame.

My kids call me in whenever it streams or plays on TV. When I made my husband a playlist for our 15th wedding anniversary, it’s the song that represented our 2011. And the other week, when he was out with friends, he sent me a voice note from the bar: he’d recorded it playing in the background.

There’s something all-consuming about fertility treatment: you view life only through the filter of your efforts to get pregnant. If you’re lucky, the filter lifts. It did for me, but the fight song remained. So, now, elsewhere in life, when I need a shot of strength and find myself alone in the car, down goes the window and on it goes.



Source link

Continue Reading

UK News

Parents 'facing uncertainty' as SEN children left without school places

Published

on



Amy Gibney says she is one of eight families at her child’s school to find out that they don’t have a place for next year.



Source link

Continue Reading

UK News

Edinburgh airport reopens after security alert but passengers warned of ‘knock on’ effect | Scotland

Published

on


Edinburgh airport reopened on Saturday morning after parts of the terminal building were evacuated on Friday night because of a security alert.

An explosive ordnance disposal team was sent to the airport to investigate what Police Scotland described as a “potentially suspicious package” discovered at about 6.50pm on Friday.

An evacuation was ordered and a police cordon was set up, with roads closed.

Passengers faced disruption as result of the operation and the airport warned that schedules would continue to be affected on Saturday.

In a statement at about 3am on Saturday, the airport confirmed it had reopened and would work to restore normal services as quickly as possible.

“Following investigations by specialist teams, the airport has now reopened.

“This incident will have knock-on impacts throughout today and staff are working hard to address these and support passengers.

“Operational teams are continuing to work to restore normal services as quickly as possible.

“Please check with your airline for the latest information on your flight.”

The statement did not provide an update about the examination of the suspicious package.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending