International

Gunman lurked for hours before shooting around Trump’s golf game – Report

Published

2 days ago

September 17, 2024

Suspect Ryan Routh

Gunman lurked for hours before shooting around Trump’s golf game – Report

A gunman hid for nearly 12 hours in bushes before Donald Trump played an unscheduled game of golf at his oceanfront club in Florida – leaving locals stunned at what authorities say appears to be the second attempt to assassinate the former president in as many months.

It was hot and cloudy on Sunday afternoon when Trump and his good friend, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, arrived on the course of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

The former president was on the fifth fairway at 13:31 EDT (17:31 GMT), an area adjacent to busy roads near Palm Beach International Airport, when a member of his protection detail spotted a rifle poking out of foliage by the sixth hole.

Trump – who was evacuated unharmed – recounted on Monday night that he heard “probably four or five” shots ring out in the near-distance.

A quick-thinking Secret Service agent had opened fire in the direction of the suspect, who was about 300-500 yards away and did not have a clear line of sight to Trump, federal investigators said.

“Secret Service knew immediately it was bullets, and they grabbed me,” said Trump during a live-streamed event on X, formerly Twitter, from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

“We got into the carts and we moved along pretty, pretty good. I was with an agent, and the agent did a fantastic job.”

The gunman – who investigators say did not fire any shots – was concealed by the well-manicured shrubbery and tall palm trees that line the perimeter of the 27-hole course.

He had been lurking there on the public side of a fence since 01:59 local time on Sunday morning, according to mobile phone records, cited by federal officials.

The suspect was equipped with two digital cameras, a black plastic bag of food, an SKS-style semi-automatic rifle – a weapon with a range of nearly 440 yards – and a scope to magnify its lens.

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The Republican presidential candidate’s last publicly scheduled campaign event had been on Saturday evening, on the other side of the country, in the state of Utah.

Residents say Trump spends almost every Sunday at the West Palm Beach golf club when he is not on the campaign trail.

But Secret Service director Ronald Rowe said on Monday that the former president was “not even really supposed to go there”, so agents had to put together a security plan at the last minute.

The foiled plot has left Trump’s neighbours in Palm Beach with pressing questions.

Did the suspect know the former president would be coming to play golf, or was it a guess?

How could he have gone undetected for so long, hiding in the bushes with a rifle?

The gunman escaped the scene in a black Nissan, ditching his backpack of goods and weapon.

A civilian woman was able to take a picture of his licence plate and pass it to investigators, Trump said on Monday night.

The gunman made it about 40 minutes before officers pulled over his vehicle on Interstate 95 and ordered him out.

Bodycam footage shows he seemed calm as officers shouted at him to step to the side before handcuffing him without incident.

On Monday, the suspect Ryan Routh, 58, appeared in a crowded Palm Beach court, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit and smiling as he chatted with his attorney.

He was charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. More charges could follow.

Routh, a Hawaii resident with a criminal history, had come across the FBI’s radar in 2019 for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The bureau tipped off law enforcement in Honolulu at the time.

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While his motive for allegedly planning to target Trump has not been revealed, the suspect had said in the past on social media that he voted for the Republican in 2016 before souring on him.

On the perimeter of Trump’s golf course on Monday, bright orange cones, barricades, police cars and officers shielded all corners of the club.

The incident has shocked West Palm Beach and neighbouring towns.

Shelby Stevens, a 52-year-old Trump supporter from West Palm Beach, told the BBC: “No matter how much security you have and everything else, if someone is willing to give their life to take someone else’s, it can happen.”

Cosme Blanco has lived just a few blocks away from the course for most of his life, where he said Trump comes as often as twice a week when he’s not campaigning.

The 61-year-old Trump supporter said the security presence around the golf club is typically not overwhelming. But all that changed on Sunday, when Blanco ran outside five minutes after shots were fired to see helicopters circling the neighbourhood.

“I was concerned. I’m going to be 62 years old and I’ve never seen America change this much,” said the Cuban immigrant.

Blanco said it would not be hard for a suspect to target Trump at his golf course.

The former president travelled there in a motorcade that would have taken about 12 minutes to go from Mar-a-Lago across a bridge overlooking the Lake Worth Lagoon.

“If they see the motorcade coming, I’m sure at that point they know he’s going to play golf – it’s common sense,” Blanco said.

But Anka Palitz, a Palm Beach resident who says she has known Trump personally for years, said Routh’s timing was suspicious.

“He doesn’t play golf every Sunday,” she said. “I think there’s a conspiracy.”

“How was he [the gunman] not seen?” she added.

Palitz, who said she used to go skiing with Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana, said she believed someone must have alerted the suspect that the former president was going to the course that day.

Patricia Pelham, a United Kingdom native who has been living in Florida for 30 years, wondered where the suspect was able to park his car close enough to quickly make a getaway.

“How come there’s not security around the outside?” asked the Briton, who added that she was no supporter of Trump.

Pelham said security measures have increased around Mar-a-Lago on the island of Palm Beach since Trump was injured when a 20-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.

On Monday, police cars lined the roads of the island nearly every half mile, with the 17-acre resort blocked off to visitors.

Authorities have said that the entire golf course would have been surrounded had it been a sitting president of the United States on the green.

After blaming White House rhetoric for the latest alleged attempt to kill him, Trump said on Monday night that he had had a “very nice call” with President Joe Biden about boosting Secret Service protection.

President Biden, a Democrat, asked Congress on Monday to approve more money for the agency in the coming weeks, saying the Secret Service “needs more help”.

Michael Matranga, a former Secret Service agent who worked for former President Barack Obama, said Trump has had better security than many other former presidents, who typically receive less protection than White House incumbents.

For example, he said, former presidents aren’t typically offered counter-sniper teams like Trump.

The Secret Service has faced intense scrutiny since the first attempt on Trump’s life, with the leader of the agency, Kimberly Cheatle, resigning less than two weeks after the rally.

Agency officials have said the Secret Service is short on resources.

But even with the extra resources, Matranga said agents are forced to contend with a delicate balance of protecting Trump while allowing him to engage with constituents on the campaign trail and “enjoy a round of golf”.

They can’t just “keep him in a bullet proof box”, Matranga said.

Nor does Trump seem to want to be put in one.

In a fundraising email sent on Monday afternoon, he told his supporters: “My resolve is only stronger after another attempt on my life!”

It’s the kind of “tough” attitude that Stevens expects Trump to maintain as he continues to court voters in the weeks leading up to November’s general election.

“The way I see him, he’s not going to want the American people to know that he’d be afraid of going out,” Stevens said.

“I think he’ll still make a presence, not just here but everywhere. I don’t think that’s something he’s going to be shying away from.”

Gunman lurked for hours before shooting around Trump’s golf game – Report

BBC

International

American govt approves Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip to restore vision

Published

38 mins ago

September 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Elon Musk

American govt approves Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip to restore vision

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that Neuralink, his brain-chip startup company, has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an experimental implant device that will “enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see”.

“The Blindsight device from Neuralink will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see. Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time,” the tech billionaire tweeted early Wednesday.

In the tweet on X (formerly Twitter), Musk posted a photo of Geordi La Forge, a character from the sci-fi TV series Star Trek, who is blind from birth but uses different technological devices that allows him to see.

“To set expectations correctly, the vision will first be at low resolution, like Atari graphics, but eventually it has the potential to be better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet, or even radar wavelengths, like Geordi La Forge”.

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Co-founded by Elon Musk in 2016, Neuralink specialises in developing innovative brain-computer interfaces to transform treatments for neurological disorders.

Neuralink’s technology includes a brain implant that reads neural signals and wirelessly transmits them to external devices, including computers and mobile devices.

Business World reported that Neuralink is also developing an implant that enables paralysed individuals to control digital devices with their thoughts.

Neuralink is also reported to be conducting a clinical trial with three participants to evaluate the device’s effectiveness in aiding individuals with spinal cord injuries.

In August 2024, it was widely reported that Neuralink successfully implanted its brain-computer interface in a second patient, who is now able to control video games and create 3D designs using just their thoughts.

American govt approves Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip to restore vision

International

Major US labour union declines to endorse Harris, Trump

Published

2 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Trends Admin

Former President Donald Trump and United States Vice President Kamala Harris

Major US labour union declines to endorse Harris, Trump

One of America’s most influential labour unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has declined to issue a US presidential endorsement for the first time since 1996.

The union, which boasts some 1.3 million members across the US and Canada, said it had received “few commitments on top Teamsters issues” from either Democratic nominee Kamala Harris or Republican nominee Donald Trump.

It also claimed that polling of its rank-and-file members found “no definitive support” for either candidate, though two of its recent polls indicated lopsided support for Trump.

The move is a major blow to the Harris campaign’s efforts to win over working-class voters with less than 50 days before election night.

An endorsement had the potential to mobilise thousands of Teamsters who live, work and vote in the crucial battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Shortly after the announcement, some Teamsters regional councils representing more than half a million members in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and California, said they would be endorsing Harris.

In a statement, the Harris campaign touted its support from “the overwhelming majority of organised labour” and noted that many Teamsters locals have gotten behind her candidacy.

“While Donald Trump says striking workers should be fired, Vice-President Harris has literally walked the picket line and stood strong with organized labour for her entire career,” campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said.

The union’s rank-and-file – a coalition of members that includes freight drivers, warehouse workers and airline pilots – has long been considered politically diverse.

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General President Sean O’Brien has sought to build inroads with Republicans since he took over leadership of the executive board in 2022.

He has reached out to more populist figures within the party, such as US senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and JD Vance of Ohio, who is now Trump’s running mate.

Mr O’Brien also met privately with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in January, shortly before the former president attended a roundtable with the union’s board at its headquarters in Washington DC.

Following that meeting, Trump said he believed he had a “good shot” at receiving the union’s endorsement.

The board also met with President Joe Biden before he stepped aside as the Democratic nominee, as well as third-party candidates Robert F Kennedy Jr and Cornel West.

But the union alarmed Democrats when it made its first financial contribution to their opponents in years, donating $45,000 (£34,000) – the maximum allowed contribution – each to both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in February.

Mr O’Brien also became the first Teamsters boss ever to address the Republican National Convention (RNC).

Invited to deliver a prime-time address at the event in Milwaukee, the union head praised Trump as “one tough SOB” but declined to endorse him.

He also later criticised Trump and top campaign surrogate and billionaire businessman Elon Musk over comments in which the two discussed firing workers who threaten to go on strike.

After his decision to speak at the RNC, Mr O’Brien did not receive an invitation from Democrats to address their party convention last month.

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The party instead invited rank-and-file members to represent the organisation and to speak from the convention stage.

Some members of the Teamsters have expressed anger with Mr O’Brien over his right-wing outreach.

Last month, the Teamsters National Black Caucus and six union locals defied national leadership by endorsing Harris on their own and urging members to get behind her.

On Monday, Harris met with the Teamsters board in a long-delayed roundtable that lasted an hour and a half.

A New York Times report described the sit-down as “sometimes tense”, but a Teamsters spokesperson disputed this characterisation when asked by the BBC.

During their meeting, the Times added, Harris told Teamsters leaders: “I’m confident I’m going to win this. I want your endorsement, but if I don’t get it, I will treat you exactly as if I had gotten your endorsement.”

Speaking to reporters after Harris had made her pitch, Mr O’Brien noted that “there wasn’t a whole lot of difference” between the answers she and her predecessor, Biden, had provided.

Biden has routinely touted himself as “the most pro-labour president ever”, pointing to policies that have made it easier for US workers to organise and that have prioritised union labour for federal government projects.

Last September, he made history as the first US president to walk a picket line, when he joined the United Autoworkers in Michigan in a strike against the Big Three US auto companies: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis.

The Biden administration also shored up the Teamsters pension fund to the tune of $36bn, which it says prevented cuts to the retirement incomes of over 600,000 members.

Mr O’Brien and other leaders have also acknowledged on several occasions that Biden has been “great for unions”.

But before he dropped out in July, some reports suggested that the Teamsters did not plan to endorse Biden’s bid for re-election.

Correction: An earlier version of this story was updated to reflect that the Teamsters are the fourth largest, not the largest, US union.

On Wednesday, ahead of its announcement that it would not endorse Harris or Trump, the union released polling data for its members.

In an electronic poll conducted after the RNC, rank-and-file Teamsters voted 59.6% for the union to endorse Trump compared to 34% for Harris.

A separate poll, commissioned in the past week, found Teamsters again backing Trump by a lopsided margin – 58% to 31%.

In spite of those results, the union said in a statement that its “extensive member polling showed no majority support for Vice President Harris and no universal support among the membership for President Trump”.

The Trump campaign quickly lauded the poll numbers on Wednesday.

“While the Teamsters Executive Board is making no formal endorsement, the hardworking members of the Teamsters have been loud and clear – they want President Trump back in the White House,” campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Major US labour union declines to endorse Harris, Trump

BBC

International

20 killed, 450 injured in second wave of blasts in Lebanon

Published

2 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Trends Admin

20 killed, 450 injured in second wave of blasts in Lebanon

BEIRUT: Explosions in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon were apparently a second wave of detonations of electronic devices, state media said on Wednesday.

The report said walkie-talkies and even solar equipment were targeted a day after hundreds of pagers blew up.

At least 20 people were killed and 450 were wounded, the Health Ministry said.

A Hezbollah official told the Associated Press that walkie-talkies used by the group exploded.

Lebanon’s official news agency reported that solar energy systems exploded in homes in several areas of Beirut and southern Lebanon, wounding at least one girl.

The new blasts hit a country thrown into confusion and anger after Tuesday’s pager bombings, which appeared to be a complex Israeli attack targeting Hezbollah members that caused civilian casualties, too.

At least 12 people were killed, including two children, and about 2,800 people were wounded as hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded wherever they happened to be — in homes, cars, at grocery stores and in cafes.

Wednesday’s blasts caused fires, injuries and a state of hysteria because some of the devices were being carried by security personnel during the funeral ceremonies for the victims of the pager explosions on Tuesday.

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Explosions were heard in the southern suburbs of Beirut and several areas in the south and the Bekaa Valley.

Many were injured outside hospitals where the wounded from Tuesday’s bombings were being treated. Several of the wounded were transferred to Baalbek hospitals.

Some devices exploded with their carriers in front of the American University Hospital in Beirut.

Four cars containing devices exploded in the town of Aabbassiyeh in the south, three people were injured when a device exploded in a car in Jdeidet Marjeyoun, and parked cars exploded in Nabatieh because there were wireless devices in them.

Ambulances rushed everywhere, and Hezbollah supporters went out on motorcycles searching for victims after abandoning all their communication devices.

The Lebanese Army Command asked citizens “not to gather in places witnessing security incidents to make way for the arrival of medical teams.”

According to initial information, the devices that exploded on Wednesday are Icom V82 models, bought in the deal for pagers last spring.

Panic increased when information circulated on social media about the explosion of solar panels connected to internet devices. There were also claims that computers exploded.

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A Hezbollah member in a video clip that showed a room with shrapnel damage, said: “This was because of the device’s battery. I removed it from the device and put it aside. Look what happened.”

Footage showed fires in residential apartments in the southern suburbs of Beirut and in the south, and casualties during funeral ceremonies after their devices exploded.

The Axios website reported that “Israel blew up thousands of wireless communication devices used by Hezbollah elements in a second wave.”

In the first wave of bombings, it appeared that small amounts of explosives had been hidden in the thousands of pagers delivered to Hezbollah and then remotely detonated.

The reports of further electronic devices exploding suggested even greater infiltration of boobytraps into Lebanon’s supply chain.

It also deepens concerns over the attacks in which hundreds of devices exploded in public areas, often with many bystanders, with no certainty of who was holding the rigged devices.