Biden meets national security chiefs as Mideast war fears grow
Biden meets national security chiefs as Mideast war fears grow/node/2563341/world
Biden meets national security chiefs as Mideast war fears grow
US President Joe Biden walks toward the Oval Office as first Lady Jill Biden walks toward the residence upon their return from Wilmington to the White House in Washington, US, August 5, 2024. (REUTERS)
Biden meets national security chiefs as Mideast war fears grow
Hopes of a ceasefire between key US ally Israel and Hamas in Gaza have suffered a major blow with the assassination of Haniyeh and the killing of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut hours earlier
Updated 06 August 2024
AFP
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden held crisis talks with his national security team on Monday as fears grew that an Iranian counterattack on Israel could spark an all-out war in the Middle East.
Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken engaged in frantic diplomacy to try to ease tensions sparked by a suspected Israeli attack that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
The 81-year-old Biden flew back to the White House from a weekend in Wilmington, Delaware, and after a kiss for First Lady Jill Biden, he headed straight into the Oval Office without commenting to reporters.
The meeting in the heavily-secured situation room with officials including Vice President Kamala Harris would “discuss developments in the Middle East,” the White House said.
Earlier, Biden called King Abdullah II of Jordan while Blinken called the prime minister of Qatar and foreign minister of Egypt, the two key players in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
“It’s important that all parties take steps over the coming days to refrain from escalation and calm tensions,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, describing Blinken’s calls with officials in the region.
Biden and the Jordanian king meanwhile “discussed their efforts to de-escalate regional tensions, including through an immediate ceasefire and hostage release deal,” the White House said in a readout of the call.
Hopes of a ceasefire between key US ally Israel and Hamas in Gaza have suffered a major blow with the assassination of Haniyeh and the killing of Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in Beirut hours earlier.
The United States has deployed extra fighter jets and warplanes to the region to support Israel, as reports suggested Iran could respond militarily as soon as Monday.
Iran has blamed the Tehran assassination on Israel, which has not directly commented on the attack.
Blinken told his counterparts from the G7 nations on Sunday that any attack, which he expected to be a joint undertaking between Hezbollah and Iran, could happen within 24 to 48 hours, as early as Monday, US news site Axios reported.
Blinken asked his counterparts to place diplomatic pressure on Tehran, Hezbollah and Israel to “maintain maximum restraint,” it added.
Blinken also emphasized the need to calm regional tensions in a call with Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani of Iraq, where some Iran-aligned groups targeted US troops earlier in the Gaza war, the State Department said.
White House Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer said on Sunday that the United States was “doing everything possible to make sure that this situation does not boil over.”
But the turmoil has deepened as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Biden are increasingly at odds, despite a meeting at the White House less than two weeks ago.
Biden has backed Israel since Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel.
But Biden said on Thursday that he had a “very direct” call with Netanyahu urging him to reach a ceasefire deal, adding that the assassination of Haniyeh had “not helped” tensions.
The conversation became heated, with Netanyahu pushing back against suggestions that he was deliberately trying to sabotage efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal, The New York Times and Axios said.
A list of mass killings in the United States this year
At least 127 people have died this year in mass killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period
Updated 7 min 49 sec ago
AP
The latest mass killing in the US happened Wednesday in Winder, Georgia, where four people were fatally shot at Apalachee High School, was the country’s 29th mass killing this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
At least 127 people have died this year in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.
Last year ended with 217 deaths from 42 mass killings in the US, making 2023 one of the deadliest years on record.
Here is a look at other US mass killings this year:
FOREST PARK, ILLINOIS: Sept. 2
Four people sleeping on a Chicago-area train were fatally shot on Labor Day morning. Police were called to a Chicago Transit Authority station just outside the city. A 30-year-old man was arrested. The victims were a woman and three men. A motive wasn’t immediately disclosed.
IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y.: Aug. 31
Four people were found dead after firefighters extinguished multiple blazes at a home in upstate New York, though authorities said they likely were killed by something else. Firefighters found the bodies of two adults, a 2-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl.
DALTON, GEORGIA: Aug. 24
Four males, ages 17 to 21, were shot to death at a park. A teenager was charged with murder in what police said was a robbery that turned violent. Multiple weapons were involved.
PLANT CITY, FLORIDA: July 31
Police said an intentional fire killed four people near Tampa. A 25-year-old man who lived in the house was charged with murder while engaged in arson. Three dogs also died.
NEW YORK CITY: July 19
A grandmother, a mother and her two children, ages 5 and 4, were fatally stabbed at an apartment in Brooklyn. A 24-year-old man who knew the four was arrested.
WEST BLOCTON, ALABAMA: July 18
A man was charged with killing his wife and four children, ages 2 to 9, in a rural community in Bibb County. The man didn’t say anything about a motive when taken into custody. “Even seasoned officers told me it is the worst thing they’ve ever seen,” Sheriff Jody Wade said.
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA: July 13
The victims were shot at a nightclub. One man died on a sidewalk while two women were killed inside the club. Another man was pronounced dead at a hospital. Investigators believed some shots were fired from outside the club.
ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA: July 10
Police arrested a man in the shootings of his wife, two children and his wife’s parents in the San Francisco Bay area. The man’s father-in-law went to a neighbor for help and spoke to police before he died.
FLORENCE, KENTUCKY: July 6
A birthday party turned deadly in the wee hours when four people were shot. The 21-year-old suspected gunman crashed his car in a ditch during a police chase and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.
NORTH LAS VEGAS, NEVADA: June 24
A 48-year-old man barred from possessing guns because of a criminal record killed himself after fatally shooting five people, police said. The violence began after the man had an argument with a former girlfriend. The victims at the apartment complex included a neighbor who tried to help and the neighbor’s mother and grandmother.
FORDYCE, ARKANSAS: June 21
A 44-year-old man shot people in the parking lot before shooting more inside the Mad Butcher grocery store, killing four. Police said he did not appear to have a connection to the victims. The shooting occurred in the middle of the day in Fordyce, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Little Rock.
HUDSON, FLORIDA: June 12
A landlord was accused of killing a family of four and burning their bodies. The two children were ages 6 and 5. The family was reported missing by relatives. Police say a backyard fire pit was smoldering when they searched the property in Pasco County.
MARION, IOWA: June 5
Police said a metal pipe was used to kill four people in an outbuilding of a rural home near Cedar Rapids.
CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA: April 29
Four officers were shot in the deadliest attack on US law enforcement since 2016. They were killed when a task force of officers from different agencies tried to capture a 39-year-old man for illegally possessing a firearm and fleeing to elude in a different county.
YUKON, OKLAHOMA: April 22
A 10-year-old boy awoke to find his parents and three brothers dead in their home near Oklahoma City, all fatally shot by his father, police said. Authorities believe the 42-year-old man killed his wife and three sons — ages 18, 14 and 12 — then turned the gun on himself. Police said they did not immediately know why the fourth child was spared or have a motive for the shootings.
ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS: March 27
A frenzied stabbing and beating rampage left four people dead in a matter of minutes and at least seven people injured. Authorities said a 22-year-old man was charged. Police didn’t immediately know his motive. Rockford’s mayor said the victims were 63, 23, 49 and 15.
IRELAND, WEST VIRGINIA: March 11
The bodies of four people, ages 3 months to 90 years, were found inside the remains of a burning home. A fifth person with an apparent gunshot wound was discovered dead behind a chicken coop nearby, authorities said. A 45-year-old male suspect was found dead by suicide about 110 miles (180 kilometers) away, parked in a vehicle outside his relatives’ home. Authorities did not immediately share details about a motive.
HONOLULU, HAWAII: March 10
Authorities said a woman and three children ages 10, 12 and 17 were fatally stabbed in a Manoa home. The woman’s husband was also found dead. Police said a preliminary investigation shows the husband fatally stabbed his wife and children. Authorities did not immediately share a motive. Police said the five deaths mark the state’s worst mass killing since 1999. They said there was no history of domestic calls to the residence.
KING CITY, CALIFORNIA: March 3
Police said three men with dark masks got out of a silver Kia and opened fire at an outdoor party in central California, killing three men and a woman and wounding seven others. The shooting happened on a street with modest homes facing a commercial district in King City, close to Pinnacles National Park.
FERGUSON, MISSOURI: Feb. 19
Authorities said a 39-year-old woman intentionally set a fire at home to kill herself and her four children, ages 2, 5, 9 and 9. Investigators believe the mother set fire to a mattress, and left a note saying she intended to kill herself and her children, police said. Responding firefighters found the home engulfed in flames. Neighbors tried to save the family, but the fire was too intense.
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA: Feb. 16
Officials said four men were killed in a drive-by shooting. Dozens of shots were fired outside a Birmingham home, police said. People were standing outside a house as they got their cars washed when someone drove by and opened fire. No arrests were immediately reported.
HUNTINGTON PARK, CALIFORNIA: Feb. 11
Shootings over several hours left four people dead: a man in Bell, a man in a Los Angeles shopping center parking lot, a 14-year-old boy in Cudahy, and a homeless man in Huntington Park, authorities said. At least one other juvenile was wounded. Two suspected gang members were arrested in connection with the shootings, authorities said.
EAST LANSDOWNE, PENNSYLVANIA: Feb. 7
Six sets of human remains were recovered from the ashes of a fire that destroyed a home near Philadelphia, according to the county district attorney’s office. Authorities suspect those who died — including three children — were killed by a 43-year-old male relative who also died after shooting and wounding two police officers, the office said. A motive was not immediately identified.
EL MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA: Jan. 23
Authorities found the bodies of six men in the Mojave Desert outside the sparsely populated community of El Mirage after someone called 911 and said he had been shot, according to sheriff’s officials. The men were likely shot to death in a dispute over marijuana, authorities said. The bodies were found about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles in an area known for illegal cannabis operations. Five men were arrested and charged with murder.
JOLIET, ILLINOIS: Jan. 21
Authorities said a 23-year-old man shot eight people — including seven of his relatives — and injuring a ninth person in a Chicago suburb. He fatally shot himself later during a confrontation with law enforcement in Texas. Authorities believe he was trying to reach Mexico. Police said the victims included his mother, siblings, aunt, uncle and two men he might not have known. They were found in two homes, outside an apartment building and on a residential street.
TINLEY PARK, ILLINOIS: Jan. 21
A 63-year-old man in suburban Chicago killed his wife and three adult daughters a domestic-related shooting, police said. The man allegedly shot the four family members — ages 53, 24 and two 25-year-old twins — after an argument at their home. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
RICHMOND, TEXAS: Jan. 13
A 46-year-old man fatally shot his estranged wife and three other relatives, including his 8-year-old niece, at a home in suburban Houston before killing himself, authorities said. Authorities said the man had told his estranged wife that he wanted to reunite but she refused. In addition to killing his niece and estranged wife, he also killed her brother and sister, ages 43 and 46.
REEDLEY, CALIFORNIA: Jan. 6
A 17-year-old boy was charged with killing four members of a neighboring family in central California. He lived next door to the victims — ages 81, 61, 44 and 43 — in Reedley, a small town near Fresno. Three bodies were found in their backyard, including one buried in a shallow grave, while another was found in the detached garage of the teenager’s home, police said.
US accuses Russia of using state media to spread disinformation before the November election
Much of the concern around Russia centers on cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns designed to influence the November vote
Updated 04 September 2024
AP
WASHINGTON: The Biden administration announced wide-ranging actions Wednesday meant to call out Russian influence in the upcoming US presidential election, unsealing criminal charges against two employees of a Russian state-run media company and seizing Internet domains used by the Kremlin to spread disinformation.
The measures represented a US government effort at disrupting a persistent threat from Russia that American officials have long warned has the potential to sow discord and create confusion among voters. Washington has said that Russia remains the primary threat to elections even as the FBI investigates a hack by Iran of Donald Trump’s campaign and an attempt breach of the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign.
One criminal case accuses two employees of RT, a Russian-state-funded media organization that was forced by the Justice Department to register as a foreign agent, of covertly funding a Tennessee-based content creation company to publish nearly 2,000 videos containing Russian propaganda. The defendants, who remain at large, used fake identities and the company was unaware it was being used by Russia.
In the other action, officials announced the seizure of 32 Internet domains that were used by the Kremlin to spread Russian propaganda and weaken global support for Ukraine.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the actions relate to Russia’s use of state media to enlist unwitting American influencers to spread propaganda and disinformation.
Intelligence agencies have previously charged that Russia was using disinformation to try to interfere in the election. The new steps show the depth of US concerns and signal legal actions against those suspected of being involved.
“Today’s announcement highlights the lengths some foreign governments go to undermine American democratic institutions,” the State Department said. “But these foreign governments should also know that we will not tolerate foreign malign actors intentionally interfering and undermining free and fair elections.”
In a speech last month, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Russia remained the biggest threat to election integrity, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin and “his proxies are using increasingly sophisticated techniques in their interference operations. They’re targeting specific voter demographics and swing-state voters to in an effort to manipulate presidential and congressional election outcomes. They’re intent on co-opting unwitting Americans on social media to push narratives advancing Russian interests.”
Much of the concern around Russia centers on cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns designed to influence the November vote. The tactics include using state media like RT to advance anti-US messages and content, as well as networks of fake websites and social media accounts that amplify the claims and inject them into American’s online conversations. Typically, these networks seize on polarizing political topics such as immigration, crime or the war in Gaza.
In many cases, Americans may have no idea that the content they see online either originated or was amplified by the Kremlin.
“Russia is taking a whole of government approach to influence the election including the presidential race,” an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said this summer during a briefing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity under rules worked out with that office.
Groups linked to the Kremlin are increasingly hiring marketing and communications firms within Russia to outsource some of the work of creating digital propaganda while also covering their tracks, the officials said during the briefing with reporters.
Two such firms were the subject of new US sanctions announced in March. Authorities say the two Russian companies created fake websites and social media profiles to spread Kremlin disinformation.
The ultimate goal, however, is to get Americans to spread Russian disinformation without questioning its origin. People are far more likely to trust and repost information that they believe is coming from a domestic source, officials said. Fake websites designed to mimic US news outlets and AI-generated social media profiles are just two methods.
Messages left with the Russian Embassy were not immediately returned.
Honduras hands drug suspect to US amid diplomatic row
The former local deputy mayor is accused by US authorities of conspiring to import large quantities of cocaine into the United States and using machine guns to protect shipments
Updated 04 September 2024
AFP
COMAYAGUA, Honduras: Honduras handed an ally of imprisoned former president Juan Orlando Hernandez over to the United States on Wednesday to face drug trafficking charges, police said.
The move comes amid a diplomatic dispute with Washington that saw President Xiomara Castro, Hernandez’s successor, announce the end of an extradition treaty between the two countries.
Mario Jose Calix was handed over to US agents at an airport north of the capital Tegucigalpa and put on an airplane headed for the United States, authorities said.
“The plane is already in the air,” police spokesman Edgardo Barahona told AFP.
Calix, 42, was taken to the airport in handcuffs under heavy guard from the police special forces headquarters where he had been held since June.
The former local deputy mayor is accused by US authorities of conspiring to import large quantities of cocaine into the United States and using machine guns to protect shipments.
The extradition was the last to be processed before Castro announced the cancelation of the treaty with the United States, according to judiciary spokesman Melvin Duarte.
Fifty Hondurans accused of drug trafficking have been extradited to the United States over the past decade, including Hernandez, who was sentenced in June in New York to 45 years in prison.
In a surprise move, Castro announced on August 28 the end of the extradition treaty in response to what she called interference by US Ambassador Laura Dogu, who criticized a meeting of senior Honduran officials with Venezuela’s defense minister.
Dogu told reporters that she was surprised to see then Honduran defense minister Jose Manuel Zelaya — Castro’s nephew — and military chief General Roosevelt Hernandez sitting next to a “drug trafficker” in Venezuela.
Castro’s government is a staunch ally of Venezuela, which is under pressure from Washington and other countries following the disputed reelection of President Nicolas Maduro in July.
Castro has hinted that Washington planned to use the extradition treaty against Honduran military leaders, even referring on Tuesday to a “coup d’état” brewing.
The opposition has accused Castro of ending the pact and inventing conspiracies to protect members of her government and family.
The president’s brother-in-law Carlos Zelaya resigned as a lawmaker on Saturday following accusations that he met drug traffickers in 2013 to seek campaign financing for her party.
Shortly afterward, Castro’s nephew Jose Manuel Zelaya resigned as defense minister.
A quarter century of deadly gun violence in US schools
Updated 31 sec ago
AFP AP
WASHINGTON: A shooting rampage Wednesday in the US state of Georgia that left two students and two teachers dead and nine wounded is only the latest in a tragic and relentless cycle of gun violence at US schools.
Police said the shooter, a 14-year-old male student at Apalachee High School in the city of Winder, was taken into custody.
Here are America’s deadliest classroom gun massacres of the last quarter century:
• Nineteen students and two teachers were shot dead on May 24, 2022 when an 18-year-old gunman stormed their Uvalde, Texas elementary school and opened fire.
As families mourned the victims, an uproar swelled over the slow police response. Officers eventually shot and killed the assailant responsible for America’s worst school shooting in a decade.
But it soon emerged that more than a dozen officers waited for over an hour outside classrooms where the shooting was taking place and did nothing as children lay dead or dying inside.
In October the education board that oversees schools in Uvalde suspended the police force whose bungled response to the mass shooting was widely criticized.
• Ten people, including eight students, were killed when a 17-year-old student armed with a shotgun and a revolver opened fire on his high school classmates in rural Santa Fe, Texas.
Classes had just started on the morning of May 18, 2018, when the shooting began.
Following the tragedy, Texas Governor Greg Abbott unveiled 40 recommendations, mainly focused on increasing armed security on school campuses and stepping up mental health screenings to identify troubled children.
Gun ownership can be a point of pride for many Texans, and even some Santa Fe High School students spoke out against linking the shooting to the need for tighter gun control.
• On February 14, 2018, a 19-year-old former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was expelled for disciplinary reasons returned to the Parkland, Florida, school and opened fire.
He killed 14 students and three adult staff.
Stoneman Douglas students have become crusaders against gun violence under the banner “March for Our Lives,” lobbying for tougher gun control laws and organizing protests and rallies.
Their campaign took off on social media, mobilizing hundreds of thousands of young Americans — but so far failing to bring about significant legislative action.
• A 20-year-old man with a history of mental health issues killed his mother in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, before blasting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Twenty children, aged six and seven, were shot dead, as well as six adults. The shooter then committed suicide.
The parents of Sandy Hook victims have led numerous campaigns to toughen gun control laws, but their efforts have largely failed.
Conspiracy theorists have falsely claimed the massacre was a government hoax, involving “actors” in a plot to discredit the gun lobby. The far-right agitator Alex Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in damages for making such claims.
• A South Korean student at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute opened fire on the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus on April 16, 2007, killing 32 students and professors before taking his own life.
Thirty-three people were wounded.
The gunman had apparently idolized the shooters at a 1999 school massacre in Columbine, Colorado, referring to them as “martyrs” in a video, part of a hate-filled manifesto he mailed to police during his assault.
• Two teenagers from Columbine, Colorado, armed with an assortment of weapons and homemade bombs, went on a rampage at their local high school.
Twelve students and a teacher were killed during the April 20, 1999, massacre. Another 24 people were wounded.
Columbine, whose name has become synonymous with school shootings, was one of the first — and still counts among the deadliest — such shootings in the United States.
Trump calls Georgia school shooter ‘sick and deranged monster’
Shooting killed at least four people
Updated 04 September 2024
AFP
WASHINGTON: Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump said Wednesday the perpetrator of a high school shooting in Georgia that killed at least four people was a “sick and deranged monster.”
“Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA,” the former president posted on his Truth Social platform. “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”
