Category: U.S. News

A Utah judge is now reviewing evidence after a weeklong preliminary hearing concluded today in the case against the person accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The purpose of the hearing was to determine whether prosecutors have sufficient evidence to bring the accused to a full trial. Over the course of the week, the courtroom heard what was described as dramatic testimony.

The judge will now consider everything presented before making a decision on whether the case moves forward to trial.

Low-income counties throughout the South are preparing for major reductions in food assistance as President Trump’s tax and spending legislation introduces new requirements for the program.

The changes are placing pressure on some of the nation’s poorest communities, which depend heavily on federal food aid to support residents in need. Local administrators are now working to figure out how to manage the impact of the funding cuts.

The new law brings added requirements that are expected to reshape how food assistance is distributed and managed at the county level across the region.

A grieving mother broke down in tears Friday, urging anyone with information to come forward about the mysterious death of her teenage son, whose body was recovered on a Mississippi barrier island after he traveled there over the Fourth of July holiday with three white friends.

“We just want to know what happened and why our baby didn’t come home,” said Christine Wonsley, struggling to hold back tears during a press conference. The death of her son, Nolan Wells, has ignited a firestorm on social media, with many raising questions about race in America.

Wells, 18, was found dead on July 6 at the northwestern end of Horn Island, a narrow barrier island along the Gulf of Mexico. He had gone to the island on the Fourth of July with a group of friends he had known from high school in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. At Friday’s press conference, a lawyer representing the Wells family raised several troubling questions — including why Wells’ phone was not found near his body, but instead was in the possession of one of the friends who had accompanied him.

Social media users have been circulating videos and piecing together timelines, though authorities say those videos have not been verified. For many Black Americans, the case has reopened painful conversations about racism and about long-standing disparities in how much attention missing persons cases involving Black individuals receive compared to others.

While many have called for a full and transparent investigation, some voices have urged the public to wait for official findings before drawing conclusions.

ABC News has reported that investigators believe Wells may have drowned, though no cause of death has been officially ruled out. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the investigation, confirmed to Reuters on Friday that the case remains active and ongoing, but declined to share further details.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family and assisting with an independent investigation that includes a private autopsy, spoke at Friday’s press conference in New York alongside Rev. Al Sharpton and Wells’ parents. Crump outlined several key concerns about the case.

Chief among them: the three friends who were with Wells say he told them he wanted to remain on the island with a young woman when they departed on the afternoon of July 4 — but that young woman has told a different story, saying Wells actually got on the boat with the boys when they left. Crump also noted that videos circulating online appear to show Wells in a heated dispute with his friends, though Reuters was unable to independently verify those videos.

Adding to the family’s suspicions, Wells’ phone was not recovered with his body. His mother located it using the Life360 tracking app and found it in the possession of one of the young men who had been with Wells on the island. She also said it appeared that several social media messages had been deleted from the phone by someone.

On July 7, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office issued a public statement asking anyone who may have witnessed anything involving Wells on Horn Island on July 4 — or who has relevant photo or video evidence — to come forward and assist with the investigation.

Three men taken into custody during an immigration enforcement operation in Houston are pushing back against the account provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surrounding a shooting that left someone dead.

The detainees are challenging ICE’s version of events, specifically the agency’s assertion that its agents felt threatened during the incident that turned fatal. Their dispute puts the official narrative at odds with what those who were present say actually happened.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Mall in Washington transformed into a sprawling celebration of American culture as the Great American State Fair ran for 16 days, drawing visitors to experience the sights and traditions of states and territories from across the country.

The event, held as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary festivities, featured a 110-foot Ferris wheel as one of its centerpiece attractions. Visitors also explored state pavilions and watched cowboy demonstrations among the many offerings on display.

The fair served as a showcase for the rich history, diverse cultures, and longstanding traditions that define the United States and its territories.

This story is accompanied by a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A rural Ohio county is being pushed to its financial limits after 16 children were discovered living in deplorable conditions, forcing local officials to seek outside help both for prosecuting the accused family members and for providing care to the children.

Vinton County, the smallest and one of the poorest counties in Ohio, is stretched thin handling the case of the Siders family. The county covers 415 square miles of isolated Appalachian terrain and has just one traffic light and a single grocery store — serving roughly 12,600 residents with the smallest budget of any of Ohio’s 88 counties.

State officials have called the situation “an unprecedented child welfare crisis” for the county.

On Tuesday, 73-year-old Gary Siders Sr. was released from jail after a judge adjusted his bond so he no longer had to pay upfront. He was then transferred out of the county for medical treatment.

Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer Jr. explained that Siders had fallen while in jail and it became clear he was dealing with a serious health issue requiring specialized care — care that would have been billed to the county if he remained in the regional jail.

“Based on the information the county was provided, his medical care could potentially bankrupt Vinton County,” Archer told reporters Wednesday. “We were not going to put that burden also on our local taxpayers.”

Vinton County Common Pleas Judge Laina Fetherolf Rogers specified in her order that if Siders recovers enough to leave the hospital, the GPS monitoring device he’ll be required to wear will also be covered by the state.

Siders Sr. faces a felony child endangerment charge. Three other family members are also charged: his 67-year-old wife Christina Siders; their 36-year-old son Gary Siders Jr.; and Gary Jr.’s 33-year-old wife Elizabeth Siders, who is the children’s mother. All four have entered not guilty pleas, and some of their defense attorneys have urged the public not to jump to conclusions before all the facts come out.

To ease the burden on the prosecution, the judge approved Archer’s request to bring in three special prosecutors — Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson, Assistant Attorney General Kara Keating, and Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins, who specializes in child abuse cases — all working without additional pay, meaning their own offices will absorb the costs.

The Vinton County Sheriff has also asked for assistance from the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Mike Davis, the prosecutor for neighboring Pike County — another financially struggling southern Ohio county — said the dilemma is common for small counties.

“A lot of small counties like us, we’re in the same boat as Vinton,” Davis said. “If a person has a medical issue, do we pay the medical bills and keep them in jail and blow our budget, or do we let them out and risk something happening that’s worse?”

Davis, who dealt with a major case of his own when Pike County handled the 2016 Rhoden family murders, said large criminal cases ripple through every corner of a small county’s government — shifting workloads among offices that may have just one or two employees, while also requiring larger spaces and reliable internet access for outside investigators and media.

“Money’s green and it’s absolute. You either have it or you don’t,” Davis said.

Archer said officials carefully evaluated the decision to release Siders Sr. and determined it posed no risk to the public, given his health condition and the fact that the alleged crimes involved only family members.

When the 16 children were removed from the home, the number of children in temporary county custody instantly more than doubled. On Monday, a state legislative panel is expected to vote on a $1 million emergency funding request from the Ohio Department of Children and Youth to help Vinton County manage what the agency described as an “emergent and developing child protection crisis.”

The state estimates placement costs for the siblings will run between $150 and $250 per child each day — adding up to roughly $850,000 annually, which is more than three times what Vinton County’s levy generates for combined children’s and senior services.

The funding would also help cover additional costs such as court expenses and police overtime connected to the case.

The children ranged in age from 18 months to 18 years old. Some were described as “feral” and unable to speak. Authorities allege the children had been confined to a room approximately 12 feet by 12 feet for several years. Two of the children required emergency hospital transport by air.

Archer said this week that all the children are currently “safe and being cared for,” though he offered no further details.

Court records show the eldest child was born in May 2008, about two months after Gary Siders Jr. — then 18 years old — and Elizabeth, who was 15 at the time, crossed into West Virginia to marry at the Mason County Courthouse. Her parents had given their consent. Records indicate she has been pregnant most years since, including several sets of twins.

HOUSTON — Three men who were present when a U.S. immigration agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on Tuesday are contradicting the account given by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the attorney representing two of them.

The three witnesses, one of whom is Salgado’s brother, are currently being held at the Montgomery Processing Center in Conroe, Texas. All of them were riding in Salgado’s white van on their way to work Tuesday morning when ICE officers pulled the vehicle over. Their attorney, Hugo Baldero-Ybera, told reporters at a Friday press conference that his clients have given him a “completely different” version of events from what the agency has described.

Baldero-Ybera called for the men’s immediate release, saying it was necessary to “ensure the integrity” of the ongoing investigation. He also voiced concern that federal authorities might pressure the witnesses into signing documents that would allow them to be deported.

The killing set off demonstrations in Houston’s predominantly Hispanic East End neighborhood. More than 1,000 people marched peacefully through the area on Wednesday, and residents have gathered at the scene to leave flowers and candles in Salgado’s memory.

Shortly after Tuesday’s incident, ICE released a statement saying Salgado — a Mexican national who had been living in the United States without legal status for more than 30 years — used his van to ram a law enforcement vehicle and tried to run over one of the officers, who then fired in self-defense. The agency has not released any evidence to back up that version of events.

Baldero-Ybera offered a starkly different picture based on what his clients told him. “At no point was there ever an agent directly in front of the vehicle, nor was an agent ever placed in the line of danger,” he said, summarizing their accounts. He added that the men also told him the fatal shots came from the side of the van, not the front.

ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had not responded to requests for comment as of the time of reporting.

A DHS official also told reporters Friday that Salgado was not even the intended target of the ICE operation. Weeks earlier, agents conducting surveillance had spotted two white vans at the property of the person they were actually looking for. On Tuesday morning, as agents were heading back to that location, they spotted a white van with someone who “resembled the target” and initiated the traffic stop.

“His only crime was he fit the description of another man they were looking for,” Baldero-Ybera said.

Salgado was a father of three and a construction worker who had lived in Houston for 35 years. Relatives said Wednesday that he had been in the process of obtaining a work permit at the time of his death. Family members, community activists, and members of Congress have all called for an independent investigation into the shooting.

The full sequence of events surrounding the fatal encounter has not yet been established. Surveillance footage first reported by local CBS affiliate KHOU11 shows an unmarked ICE vehicle appearing to cut off Salgado’s van in traffic before the van pulls to the side of the road. Additional verified videos from the aftermath show agents standing over a man clutching his chest, and in another clip, a man can be heard crying out in pain. No video capturing the actual moment of the shooting has surfaced.

The Trump administration moved last year to scale back a pilot program that would have equipped ICE officers with body cameras, urging Congress to slash funding for the effort by 75%, according to a January Reuters report. DHS confirmed Thursday that none of the agents involved in Tuesday’s incident were wearing body cameras. Texas Rep. Sylvia Garcia said at Friday’s press conference that there were also no dashboard cameras in the ICE vehicles that would have recorded the shooting, and that no clear timeline has been set for the investigation, which ICE said will be led by DHS.

The Harris County District Attorney has asked the public to submit any videos, photos, or firsthand accounts related to the incident, while making clear that federal authorities are in charge of all aspects of the case.

HOUSTON — Federal immigration authorities are declining to identify the ICE officer who fatally shot a Mexican man during a traffic stop in Houston, and questions surrounding the incident are mounting — particularly after officials acknowledged the victim was not the person they were actually pursuing.

The killing has reignited criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement approach, coming at a time when ICE arrests across the country climbed to 10,000 over a five-day stretch, driven in part by large-scale Congressional funding.

The Department of Homeland Security says that early Tuesday, officers were chasing a white van driven by Lorenzo Salgado Araujo when he rammed an ICE vehicle, prompting an officer to open fire in self-defense. But so far, no evidence has surfaced to back up that account.

Three men who were passengers in the van have told an attorney that officers are not telling the truth about what occurred, saying Salgado Araujo never struck an ICE vehicle and that he was shot through the passenger-side window instead.

The officers involved were not equipped with body cameras, and neither ICE nor DHS has made any photos, video footage, or other physical evidence from the scene available to the public.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia confirmed that Salgado Araujo — a 52-year-old homebuilder who was on his way to a construction job with his crew when he was shot — was not the individual ICE had been looking for. His family said he had lived in the United States for more than 35 years, had no criminal history, and was nearly finished with the lengthy process of obtaining legal immigration status at the time of his death.

ICE took the other three men in the van into custody. Attorney Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, who said he has spoken with them, described the DHS version of events as “completely false.”

“At no point did they ever use the van to ram into the ICE agents and at no point were these ICE agents lives ever in danger,” Balderas-Ibarra said in an Instagram post.

One of the men detained is Salgado Araujo’s brother. ICE has not released their names, though family members say they have been allowed brief contact with them.

ICE is reportedly pressuring the detained men to voluntarily leave the country, a move that could limit their ability to share their accounts with investigators. One of the men, Daniel Tirado Pantoja, does not have legal immigration status but has no criminal record, according to his stepdaughter.

“We just told him not to sign anything, that we’re going to fight this case,” his stepdaughter Juana Degollado told the Associated Press.

DHS called those allegations “categorically false.”

When asked Thursday whether officers had specifically targeted Salgado Araujo, DHS said that weeks before the shooting, investigators received a tip and observed two white vans at a target’s address. On the day of the shooting, officers spotted a white van and someone inside who they believed resembled the person they were seeking, the department said.

DHS said it will not name the officer involved, citing concerns that doing so could put the officer and their family at risk of threats or violence.

The department has also declined to answer questions about how long the officer has been employed by ICE or whether anyone involved in the shooting has been placed on administrative leave. This approach is consistent with how DHS has handled previous fatal shootings involving its officers — a stance that stands in contrast to many state and local agencies that routinely release details about officers involved in serious incidents.

Unlike some past cases involving federal immigration officers, very little visual evidence from the scene has become publicly available in the days following Salgado Araujo’s death.

The League of United Latin American Citizens announced a $5,000 reward for any video or other evidence from the scene. However, officials said the positioning of the vehicles meant that nearby surveillance cameras did not capture the shooting.

CONCORD, N.H. — Two transgender girls who were among the first to legally challenge President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” have dropped their lawsuit in New Hampshire. Their attorney says the decision was driven by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding state-level bans on transgender athletes in girls’ sports, as well as significant personal struggles the girls and their families have faced.

“This case was always about two courageous young girls who simply wanted the same opportunities as their peers to participate in school life,” said their attorney, Chris Erchull of GLAD Law, in a statement issued Thursday. “Their willingness to stand up to extraordinary hostility made clear the human cost of laws that target transgender youth.”

The two teenagers, Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle, originally filed a complaint in 2024 against New Hampshire’s law prohibiting transgender girls from participating in school sports. They later updated that complaint to also challenge Trump’s executive order. A federal judge had issued a court order permitting them to continue playing sports while the case moved forward.

For Tirrell, that meant she could remain on her high school girls’ soccer team. For Turmelle, it gave her the opportunity to try out for various sports.

Both legal teams agreed to put the case on hold while the Supreme Court weighed similar laws from Idaho and West Virginia that barred transgender girls and women from competing on school and college athletic teams. Last month, the high court upheld those laws and ruled that excluding transgender girls and women from sports does not violate Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education.

Turmelle and her family left New Hampshire last summer, citing a wave of proposed legislation targeting transgender people. Among those measures, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a law prohibiting medical professionals from prescribing puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy to new transgender patients under the age of 18.

“Though there may be a carve-out for people already receiving gender-affirming care, that is way too close a call for us to risk staying,” Turmelle’s mother, Amy Manzetti, wrote in an opinion piece at the time. “Other New Hampshire laws also seek to erase her.”

Over the past five years, most Republican-led states have enacted laws or policies restricting gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, limiting bathroom access, and banning transgender youth from certain sports. The Williams Institute at UCLA estimates that roughly 3% of young people between ages 13 and 17 identify as transgender.

“The challenges with relocation are significant and burdensome — this includes having to find new employment, buying and selling homes, packing and moving possessions, integrating kids with a new school system, losing access to longstanding family and friends, and potential loss of income,” said Corinne Goodwin, executive director of the Eastern PA Trans Equality Project in Pennsylvania, in an email statement.

“But these families do so because they love their kids and know that supporting them with the care and opportunities they need is critical to their long-term success and happiness,” Goodwin added.

Tirrell, 17, started her junior year last fall playing on her school’s girls’ junior varsity soccer team. Early in the season, things seemed to be going well — each time she scored a goal, her parents would celebrate with a round of ice cream. But within a few weeks, she made the decision to stop playing.

“With all of the political stuff going on, soccer wasn’t just about the game anymore,” her mother, Sara Tirrell, told The Associated Press.

The atmosphere had shifted from one of sport to one of bracing for potential conflict. “Were there any local Facebook groups where they were sort of agitating about potential protests and how do we prepare, and what are we walking into, and we never kind of knew,” Sara Tirrell said. “We were on a lot of pins and needles, especially after the previous season.”

She referenced an earlier incident at an away game in which two fathers from an opposing team were removed from school grounds for wearing pink wristbands marked “XX” — symbolizing female chromosomes. Those men sued the school district, a judge ruled against them, and they have since appealed.

During last fall’s season, school administrators were more visibly present at games, and bus drivers parked closer to the field so students would not have to walk through the parking lot, Sara Tirrell said.

“Parker didn’t talk about it a lot, but I think she could see that stress for everybody — for her, for her teammates, for her coaches,” Sara Tirrell said. “She felt kind of bad about pulling them all into that circus again. And so she ultimately said, ‘This isn’t fun anymore and I don’t want to do it.’”

Parker’s father described the environment as one of “palpable tension.” Even at home games, “there would typically be a couple of police officers at the home games where there weren’t previously,” said Zach Tirrell.

Parker’s parents are hopeful she will return to soccer one day. For now, her mother said, “she plans to be around and use her voice to continue standing up to discrimination. In some ways she’s had to grow up a lot faster than some of her peers.”

Kia America has announced a new recall affecting close to 463,000 of its Telluride SUVs, asking owners to keep their vehicles parked outside and away from any structures after a number of customers reported fires even after a previous repair was performed.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the recall this week, noting it replaces an earlier recall Kia put in place in 2024. The affected vehicles include certain Telluride models from the 2020 through 2024 model years. According to the NHTSA, the front power seat motor in these SUVs can overheat when the seat’s slide knob becomes stuck.

That overheating creates a risk of fire whether the vehicle is parked or in motion. Although Kia introduced a fix in 2024, recall documents show that multiple customers later filed complaints about fires breaking out beneath the passenger seat. After investigating vehicles that had already received the earlier repair, the automaker found what it described as “sporadic dealer workmanship issues” — and ultimately decided a new recall was necessary.

From October 2024 through April 2026, Kia North America’s safety office documented 18 incidents involving either localized fires in the seat area or melting of the seat motor, according to recall documents. No injuries or crashes have been linked to the defect.

The solution under the new recall will involve dealers installing an electronic fuse assembly at no cost to the owner. This component is designed to cut power to the seat motor if its switch becomes dislodged or damaged, preventing the overheating issue from occurring. A dealer notice published by the NHTSA indicates the repair will be available beginning in early August, and letters notifying owners are scheduled to be sent out starting August 13.

Until that repair is available, the NHTSA is advising owners to “park outside and away from structures until the recall repair is complete.”

Representatives for Kia America, which is headquartered in Irvine, California and operates as a subsidiary of the larger South Korean automaker, did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

The recall covers 462,869 Tellurides from model years 2020 to 2024 that were built between January 9, 2019 and May 29, 2024. Kia America estimates that roughly 1% of those vehicles actually have the defect. Owners can check whether their specific vehicle is included by visiting the NHTSA website or Kia’s own recall lookup tool.

An investigation is ongoing into the death of a Black teenager in Mississippi after his body was found following reports that he had been left on an island.

The case centers on Nolan Wells, whose death has prompted continued scrutiny from law enforcement. An undated photo of Wells was provided to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office on July 4, 2026.

Authorities have not yet released details about the findings of the investigation, but the case remains active as officials work to uncover what led to the teenager’s death.

The family of an 18-year-old Mississippi college student who was discovered dead following a July 4 boat excursion to an island off the Gulf Coast is preparing to speak out Friday alongside civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton, demanding greater transparency and a more thorough investigation into the young man’s death.

Crump, who was hired by the family of Nolan Xavier Wells earlier this week, has voiced the family’s concerns about how the investigation has been handled and announced plans for an independent autopsy. Wells had traveled by boat with a group of friends to Horn Island, Mississippi on July 4, but he did not return with them that afternoon. His body was discovered early Monday morning, more than a day after he was last seen.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office has stated that investigators do not believe foul play was involved in the death of the Black college student. However, the sheriff has publicly called on anyone who witnessed events on the popular beach island — located roughly 10 miles off the Mississippi coast — or who captured video there, to come forward and help piece together the circumstances surrounding Wells’ disappearance and death.

Family members have raised serious questions, saying they have seen footage of an alleged fight involving their son. They have also pointed out that Wells was a strong swimmer and an elite athlete. Wells, who would have celebrated his 19th birthday next month, was enrolled at Southwest Mississippi Community College, where he played wide receiver on the football team.

A photo circulating on social media, reportedly taken during the boat ride to the island, shows Wells with his arms around three white male friends. Online speculation about the circumstances of his death has been widespread, with many people drawing on the state’s history of racial tension and reflecting on what it means to be a Black person in a predominantly white environment.

Crump released a statement earlier this week making clear the family’s position: “We will not rest until every fact about what happened to Nolan on Horn Island is brought into the light, and we call on investigators to pursue this case with the urgency and transparency this family deserves.”

This marks the second case in recent months that Crump has taken on in Mississippi. He was also recently retained by the family of a 1-year-old who was killed after police fired into a moving vehicle.

Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said Wells’ mother called to report him missing around midnight on the morning of July 5. A large-scale search involving crews from multiple local and state agencies got underway Sunday across the island and surrounding waters. Family members confirmed his body was recovered early Monday.

An official autopsy was completed Tuesday, though authorities have indicated it could take several weeks before the results are made available.

Sheriff Ledbetter noted that Wells’ friends have been cooperating with investigators. “From the people we’ve talked to, it sounds like he chose to stay on the island with the assumption that he was going to ride back to the mainland with someone else,” Ledbetter told the Associated Press earlier this week.

Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, took to social media to ask for videos and other documentation from the island. In an emotional post, she remembered her son: “My heart is broken for our sweet son who was always willing to cheer and uplift others. Nolan was a special soul, God took his time creating our son.”

The final day of a weeklong preliminary hearing is underway Friday for Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old man charged in connection with the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Prosecutors are working to demonstrate they have sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial.

Robinson faces an aggravated murder charge stemming from the September 10 shooting death of Kirk on the campus of Utah Valley University. Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty in the case.

Defense attorneys are calling a final witness Friday as they attempt to undermine the prosecution’s evidence. Throughout the week, Robinson’s legal team has questioned the reliability of ballistics testing performed on a bullet fragment recovered from Kirk’s body. They have also challenged the release of a recorded interview with Robinson’s roommate, Lance Twiggs, along with chat room messages Robinson allegedly posted on the platform Discord.

Public interest in the hearing has been intense, with people lining up well before the courthouse opens — some even sleeping outside overnight — hoping to secure one of just 14 daily wristbands that grant access to a courtroom seat. The wristbands are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

Court security director Chris Palmer issued a warning Thursday morning that tents and camping gear would not be permitted outside the courthouse on the final day of the hearing. He also cautioned against cutting in line or holding spots for others. Earlier in the week, security personnel discovered that some individuals had obtained colored wristbands in an attempt to gain unauthorized entry.

Defense attorney Michael Burt worked to raise questions about the ballistics analysis conducted on a bullet fragment found in Kirk’s body. Investigators had hoped to connect the fragment to the suspected murder weapon, but test results proved inconclusive. Samantha Karner of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified on the matter, stating: “Saying anything but inconclusive was inappropriate.”

Earlier in the week, the defense also challenged DNA evidence that investigators said placed Robinson at the scene of the shooting. Scientific experts maintained that DNA testing methodology is reliable.

Robinson’s legal team plans to have a second ATF representative take the stand Friday. The prosecution concluded its portion of the hearing Thursday afternoon.

Once testimony wraps up, State District Judge Tony Graf will determine whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence to send the case to trial — though that ruling will not come right away. Both sides have indicated they want to review the full court transcript and submit written legal briefs before Graf makes his decision. Oral arguments on the evidence from the preliminary hearing have been scheduled for September 1. Graf is known for taking time before issuing rulings.

Eight South Carolina National Guard helicopter pilots are back in the cockpit after the Pentagon stepped in to lift their suspension, which had stemmed from a low-altitude flyover of packed beaches during a Fourth of July military tribute event.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell made the announcement Friday morning via social media, writing, “Effective immediately, the suspension of all involved South Carolina pilots has been lifted. Carry on Patriots.”

The controversy centered around “Salute from the Shore,” an annual July 4 tradition in South Carolina that has honored military servicemembers since 2010. The event sends both vintage and modern military aircraft along the full 187-mile stretch of the state’s coastline, aiming to inspire patriotism among the thousands of holiday beachgoers watching from below.

This year’s event featured F-16s from the South Carolina Air National Guard’s 169th Fighter Wing at McEntire Joint Base, along with a C-17 from the 437th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Charleston. Apache helicopters joined the aerial parade for the first time, alongside privately owned vintage aircraft including T-34s and T-6s.

As is typical with the event, attendees shared video footage on social media — but this year, clips of the Apache helicopters appearing to fly at a very low altitude over crowded beaches raised red flags with the South Carolina National Guard. The Guard launched a safety review and temporarily grounded the eight pilots involved. Officials later clarified the suspension was “a routine, non-punitive safety measure, not a disciplinary action.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth weighed in late Thursday night on social media, signaling the Pentagon’s intention to get involved: “We’ll fix this. Carry on, Patriots.”

South Carolina Republican lawmakers also pushed back against the suspension. Rep. Russell Fry, who represents the Myrtle Beach area, said Thursday that the pilots “should be celebrated, not sanctioned.”

Less than two hours before Parnell’s announcement, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster — who holds the title of commander-in-chief of the state’s National Guard — posted his own statement on social media expressing confidence in the pilots’ skills and judgment. “Surely, they know how to safely navigate the coast of South Carolina — and her scores of cheering residents and tourists on our 250th anniversary,” McMaster wrote.

Representatives from McMaster’s office and the South Carolina National Guard had not responded to requests for comment by Friday, including questions about whether McMaster — a longtime ally of President Donald Trump — had directly intervened in the matter. The Pentagon said it had nothing further to add beyond Parnell’s statement.

Eight men are now facing federal murder and terrorism conspiracy charges following their alleged involvement in a foiled plot to carry out a drone and sniper attack on a UFC cage-fighting event that took place at the White House in June.

Court documents do not make clear how close the suspects may have gotten to actually executing the plan before it was stopped by authorities.

In a separate but significant development Thursday, the United States launched new airstrikes against Iran. Tehran responded by striking U.S.-allied nations in the Middle East. The scale of Thursday’s military exchange appeared larger than previous back-and-forth attacks between the two sides — exchanges that have increasingly put a fragile ceasefire at risk.

Also Friday, the White House confirmed that the president removed members of the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission, a federal body that distributes grants to states, oversees the testing of voting equipment, and manages national voter registration forms. The ousted members had resisted the president’s push to require people to prove U.S. citizenship before registering to vote.

The move is part of a broader effort by the Republican president to extend White House influence over how American elections are run. It follows a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that granted the president expanded authority to remove members of independent agency boards.

Adding to the confusion overseas, a series of airstrikes hit Iran on Thursday — strikes that have not been claimed by any party — just as the country prepared to hold burial services for late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The attacks struck areas across southern Iran. While Iran’s government has not officially blamed any specific nation, one Iranian lawmaker issued a warning to the United Arab Emirates, accusing it of providing support to the United States during its campaign against Iran.

Gulf Arab nations, which have repeatedly been targeted by Iran since the war began on February 28, had not responded to requests for comment as of Friday. Both those nations and the United States have stressed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to maritime traffic.

NEW YORK — A frightening structural incident at a major Manhattan construction site this week has put a spotlight on the engineering hurdles involved in converting office buildings into apartments — a trend that has gained momentum across the country as cities struggle with housing shortages.

Two steel columns buckled inside the former Pfizer headquarters in midtown Manhattan, triggering evacuations and bringing work to a standstill on one of the largest office-to-residential conversion projects in the United States.

The ambitious project involves transforming two office buildings — one dating back to 1909 and another built in the 1960s — into roughly 1,600 apartments. The plan includes adding more than a dozen floors on top of the older structure and significantly redesigning and expanding the newer one. The column failure occurred on the 21st floor of the newer building, and crews have since installed temporary supports while an investigation is underway.

Structural engineering experts say the project is extraordinarily complex, requiring careful attention to whether older buildings can handle new weight loads and how office floor layouts can be reconfigured for people to actually live in.

Despite the setback, none of the experts interviewed said the incident should shake public confidence in engineers’ ability to carry out such work.

“I don’t think it really brings into question our understanding of how to do something like this,” said Ben Schafer, a structural engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University.

According to adaptive reuse firm Collaborative Construction Management’s website, the nine-story 1909 building will be “threaded through” with a new concrete addition of roughly 30 stories.

Schafer, who has no involvement in the project, explained that the likely approach is to keep the century-old building bearing its own weight while constructing an entirely new structural system to carry the added floors above it.

“My interpretation would be that they’re going to leave that building carrying its own load, and they’re just going to poke holes in it so that they can take the load from the building that they’ve put above it and bring it all the way down to the foundation,” Schafer said.

For the newer tower, Schafer said the challenge is different — cutting openings in existing floor plates to allow natural light into apartments, while also making sure the steel frame can handle the additional weight being placed on it.

City officials have not yet identified the cause of the column failure. However, both Schafer and Emily Guglielmo, a structural engineer based in San Francisco, believe the buckled columns were most likely caused by the increased load placed on the structure.

Spokespersons for MetroLoft, the project’s developer, did not respond to requests for comment. However, Nathan Berman, the firm’s founder, acknowledged in a Wall Street Journal interview that the extra weight from widening the top 15 or so floors of the building likely caused the damage.

Guglielmo believes the failure may have stemmed from incorrect original design assumptions, an error during the design or construction phase, or construction crews inadvertently overloading or weakening the structure.

She noted that adding floors to existing buildings is a common practice in densely built cities where land is limited, but it demands a thorough review of original construction documents and a careful inspection of the building before any additional stories are attempted.

“In cities and towns that don’t have that available geography, you’re going to see a lot more of this type of a design where there’s an adaptive reuse to an existing building,” Guglielmo said.

Many structural engineers view demolition as a last resort, pointing to both environmental and financial costs.

“Tearing buildings down is a terrible waste,” Schafer said, noting that buildings and the broader construction industry account for roughly 40% of the world’s energy-related carbon emissions. “From a sustainability standpoint, that’s a disaster.”

In addition to the environmental impact, tearing down and removing the debris from large buildings is especially costly in densely packed cities like New York.

James LaFave, a structural engineering professor at the University of Illinois, said a steel-framed building from the 1960s — like the former Pfizer structure — would typically be a “very good” candidate for a conversion project.

In recent years, cities nationwide have looked to office-to-housing conversions as a way to breathe new life into downtown areas that have struggled since the pandemic. New York City has been especially aggressive in this push, making zoning changes and offering tax incentives to encourage housing production. A report from the city comptroller’s office last year found 44 adaptive reuse projects in New York that, as of early 2025, had been completed, were underway, or had been cleared to move forward.

Pfizer vacated the building in 2023 after relocating to a new office near Penn Station, leaving the property empty. Construction on the conversion began in 2024.

Joshua Harris, director of Fordham University’s Real Estate Institute, said office-to-residential conversions remain a critical piece of addressing housing shortages in New York and beyond, even though they carry real risks.

“In a certain sense, it’s not terribly surprising that this happened, and we should have a little bit of grace,” he said. “These are very, very complicated surgical procedures being done to very old buildings.”

“This is part of the reality of fixing the housing crisis,” Harris added. “Things like this can happen. It doesn’t look as complex as putting a rocket into space, but, in a real estate sense, construction in an environment like Manhattan on 42nd Street and Second Avenue is very complex.”

Guglielmo said that strong building codes, regular inspections, and experienced construction crews make structural failures like this uncommon in the United States.

“We’re very fortunate here in the United States that we are not seeing these types of failures on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “We’re privileged to have really robust building codes that explain to us as engineers how to do our designs in a way that’s safe.”

Harris said the incident will likely serve as a wake-up call for the industry, prompting developers to take a closer look at similar projects already in progress.

“If this building has a problem, all the other projects that have been sort of greenlit, they’re going to want to review to make sure that it’s not something similar,” he said.

A newly released AP-NORC poll reveals that a large number of Jewish adults across the United States feel increasingly unsafe, with the majority reporting their sense of personal security has declined since Hamas carried out its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, documents a significant shift in how Jewish Americans view their own safety during a period when more Americans have grown critical of the close U.S. relationship with Israel. The ongoing war in Gaza has fueled protests across the country over Israel’s military campaign against Palestinians, and has coincided with a rise in violent incidents targeting Jewish communities in the United States.

The results paint a picture of widespread vulnerability among Jewish adults at a time when bipartisan support for Israel is weakening and sharp disagreements are emerging — even within the Jewish community itself — over what should and should not be considered antisemitism, especially when it involves protests directed at Israel.

Approximately 3 in 10 Jewish adults surveyed said that they or a member of their household had experienced some form of discrimination or attack in the past year — including physical assault, verbal abuse, online harassment, or property damage — specifically because of their Jewish identity.

Hal Guberman, a 30-year-old from New Jersey, now thinks twice before wearing a kippah in public after a stranger in a passing vehicle shouted a slur at him while he was walking down the street last year.

“That person, they don’t know anything about me. They don’t know my politics. They don’t know my beliefs. They don’t know my viewpoints,” Guberman said. “But they saw me being visibly Jewish, and they made an opinion about me.”

Roughly 6 in 10 Jewish adults consider antisemitism an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the country today. That concern is even stronger among those who describe themselves as emotionally close to Israel.

When asked about their current sense of safety, about one-third of Jewish adults say they feel “very” or “somewhat” safe as a Jewish person in the U.S., while another third say they feel “very” or “somewhat” unsafe. The remaining roughly 3 in 10 say they feel neither safe nor unsafe. Jewish adults who have a strong connection to Israel, or who identify as Jewish by religion rather than by cultural or ethnic background alone, are more likely to report feeling threatened.

About 6 in 10 Jewish adults say they feel less safe now than before the October 2023 Hamas attack, a figure that rises to about 7 in 10 among those who practice Judaism religiously. Around one-third say their sense of safety has remained about the same, and very few say they actually feel safer.

Erin Baskin, a 36-year-old from Pennsylvania, said the October 7 attacks did not change how safe she feels because she had already encountered prejudice long before that day.

“I’ve always grown up with antisemitism,” she said. “Among the rural community I’m in, they conflate Judaism with Zionism all the time. Unfortunately, that’s kind of been my experience. It’s nothing new.”

The survey also found that many Jewish adults have become more cautious about visibly identifying themselves as Jewish since the October 7 attacks. About 4 in 10 say they are less likely than before to wear, carry, or display items that might signal their Jewish identity. About half say their behavior in this regard has not changed, while roughly 1 in 10 say they are actually more likely to display their identity.

Caitlin Rosendorn, a 24-year-old from Illinois, said she used to regularly wear a Star of David necklace but now hesitates, concerned that others might mistakenly assume it signals support for Israel’s military actions against Palestinians.

“I don’t want to wear a Star of David to work if that’s going to alienate somebody who sees the Star of David as a symbol of Israel as opposed to a symbol of Judaism,” she said. “I don’t want people to get the wrong idea about my views.”

About 1 in 10 Jewish adults reported that they or someone in their household had been physically assaulted in the past year because of their Jewish background. A similar proportion reported having property damaged or destroyed. Around 2 in 10 said they or a household member had been called a slur, threatened, or verbally harassed, and a similar share reported experiencing online harassment or cyberbullying. In total, about 3 in 10 Jewish adults said they or someone in their household had faced at least one of these incidents.

Jewish adults who attend religious services at least once a month were considerably more likely than the broader Jewish adult population to report experiencing harassment or attacks. Nearly half of frequent attendees said they or a household member had faced verbal harassment, a similar share reported online harassment, and about one-quarter reported physical attacks or property damage — a finding that reflects a pattern of targeted incidents at Jewish religious spaces in recent years.

Jon Kessler, 38, of California, who was raised in the Conservative tradition of Judaism, said many non-Jewish Americans may not realize how much security planning goes into Jewish community gatherings.

“Most people when they go to church don’t have armed security, but every synagogue has an armed security guard,” Kessler said. “My son’s Jewish daycare has an armed security guard.”

Protests connected to Israel-related events — including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress and appearances by campus speakers viewed as either too supportive or too critical of Israel — became more frequent in the wake of the Gaza war.

Jewish adults themselves are split on whether anti-Israel protests amount to antisemitism. About half say such protests are not a form of antisemitism, while roughly 4 in 10 say they are.

More than 73,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since Israel launched its military response to the Hamas attack in 2023, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which does not separate civilian from militant deaths.

About two-thirds of Jewish adults say criticizing Israel’s military conduct does not constitute antisemitism, though those with a strong emotional attachment to Israel are more likely to view such criticism as antisemitic. Few Jewish adults, however, say that criticizing Israel for any reason at all is inherently antisemitic.

Non-Jewish Americans are generally less likely to label anti-Israel protests or criticism of Israel’s military actions as antisemitism — but they are also far more likely to say they simply don’t have an opinion.

There is broader agreement among Jewish adults on certain behaviors they consider clearly antisemitic: vandalizing synagogues or Jewish-owned businesses over Israel’s actions, denying the Holocaust, blaming American Jews for Israel’s conduct, arguing Israel should not exist as a Jewish state, or claiming that Jewish Americans are more loyal to Israel than to the United States. Non-Jewish Americans show less consensus on these questions, with many saying they are unsure.

Amanda Goldsmith, 53, who lives in Chicago, said she is disturbed by how openly antisemitic views are now being expressed online — content she once believed was confined to extremist corners of the internet.

“Now, it seems like there was an undercurrent, and it’s a free-for-all, and everyone is free to say what they want,” she said. “The freedom with which people say horrible things about Jewish people is appalling.”

The AP-NORC poll was conducted June 11-17 and included 3,040 adults overall, with 1,022 identifying as Jewish. Respondents were drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to represent the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points for all adults and plus or minus 5.0 percentage points for Jewish adults.

A closer look at the finances behind one of the country’s most visible white nationalist groups reveals how Patriot Front manages to bankroll its rallies and public demonstrations.

NPR domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef has been investigating how the group funds its operations, digging into the money trail that keeps Patriot Front active and organizing events nationwide.

The report examines the financial structure that allows the white nationalist organization to continue staging rallies, raising questions about where the money comes from and how it is used to support the group’s activities.

Two people who experienced the prison system from very different vantage points are now speaking out about what life is like once those prison doors close behind you for the last time.

A former corrections officer — someone who once worked inside a prison facility overseeing inmates — and a former prisoner are sharing their personal reflections on incarceration and the road that follows it.

Together, their stories offer a rare dual perspective on a system that affects millions of Americans, exploring what it means to move forward after time spent inside — whether as a guard or as someone serving a sentence.

Investigators are pressing forward in their effort to determine what happened to a Black teenager in Mississippi whose body was recovered after he was left on an island.

The case centers on Nolan Wells, a young man whose death has prompted an ongoing investigation by authorities. His body was found following reports that he had been left on the island, raising serious questions about the events that led to his death.

Details surrounding the case remain under investigation, and officials have not yet released conclusions about the cause or circumstances of his death.

PROVO, Utah — Defense attorneys representing the man charged with fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk are set to call their final witness Friday, as they work to cast doubt on the prosecution’s evidence before a judge decides whether the case should proceed to trial.

A Utah judge is weighing whether there is sufficient evidence to try Tyler Robinson on a charge of aggravated murder. Kirk, who was 31 years old, was shot and killed while addressing a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University on September 10th.

Defense attorney Michael Burt spent Thursday challenging the trustworthiness of ballistics testing conducted on a bullet fragment that was recovered from Kirk’s body. Investigators had hoped to connect that fragment to the suspected murder weapon, but the test results came back inconclusive.

Samantha Karner of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified about those results, saying, “Saying anything but inconclusive was inappropriate.”

Earlier in the week, Burt also took aim at DNA evidence that investigators claimed linked Robinson to the crime scene. Scientific experts have maintained that the underlying methods used in DNA testing are reliable.

Robinson has yet to enter a plea in the case. He turned himself in to authorities one day after the shooting. Kirk had been a close ally of President Donald Trump and was widely credited with helping energize young voters for the Republican Party during the 2024 election.

Friday marks the final day of the weeklong preliminary hearing, during which the defense planned to present one more witness. However, state District Judge Tony Graf has indicated he will not issue a ruling until after September 1st, when he has scheduled oral arguments in the matter.

On Thursday, prosecutors played portions of a recorded interview with Robinson’s roommate, Lance Twiggs. According to a recording aired in court, Robinson allegedly told Twiggs the day after Kirk was shot in the neck that “he wishes he hadn’t done it.”

Investigators also presented messages showing that roughly an hour before turning himself in — and on that same day — Robinson posted in a Discord social media chat room, writing “it was me at UVU yesterday.”

Defense lawyers had attempted to block the public release of both Twiggs’ statements and the chat room messages, arguing that prosecutors would frame the material as a confession, which they said could jeopardize Robinson’s right to a fair trial. That effort was unsuccessful.

Prosecutors are arguing that the shooting put other people at the campus event in danger — a factor that, under Utah law, could make the crime eligible for the death penalty. Robinson also faces potential sentence enhancements based on prosecutors’ claims that he targeted Kirk due to his political beliefs.

In his April interview with prosecutors and investigators, Twiggs said Robinson occasionally brought up politics, including discussions about Trump. However, Twiggs noted he had never heard Robinson mention Kirk prior to the shooting. Twiggs also said Robinson rarely discussed gender issues or LGBTQ rights.

Firefighters working to contain a small wildfire in Colorado this week found themselves with an unlikely companion — a goat who decided to join the effort and stick around for hours.

The four-legged visitor, a 4-year-old Nigerian dwarf goat named Goldie — short for Golden Oreo — shadowed crews as they battled the Rock Creek Fire in Colorado Springs and cleared away brush. She even pitched in a little herself, munching on leaves along the way.

According to Colorado Springs Fire Department Lt. Trevor Leland, the brown and white goat led firefighters down a hillside, followed them back to their trucks, watched as they wrapped up for the day, and even trotted behind one of the trucks as it pulled away.

“I don’t know that she necessarily helped with the firefighting effort, but it’s always cool to see an animal like that who doesn’t mind us being there,” Leland said.

Earlier that Thursday, Goldie spotted a U.S. Forest Service crew member eating lunch and tried to poke her head over his shoulder to snag a bite and spend some time with him, Leland added.

Goldie’s owner, Lindsey Glader, described her goat as quite the social butterfly — or, as Glader jokingly put it, a “buttergoat.”

Glader praised the firefighters, saying they did a phenomenal job on the blaze, which was 50% contained by late Friday. Crews were hoping to achieve full containment by the end of Friday, according to Ashley Franco, a spokesperson for the Colorado Springs Fire Department.

That fire is one of several burning across the western United States, with conditions worsened by a record lack of snowfall, elevated temperatures, and unpredictable winds. The Colorado Springs crew was also called to assist with the Aspen Acres Fire southwest of Denver, which forced thousands of residents to evacuate earlier this month.

Glader said Goldie seemed to sense that the crews could use an “extra boost of support” and showed up to deliver it.

“She was able to give some comedic relief and offer some necessary levity for these guys and gals who have worked really, really hard and creating a break for this fire, and keeping a lot of people and a lot of things safe,” Glader said.

The federal agents involved in a deadly ICE shooting in Houston were not equipped with body cameras at the time of the incident, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Thursday.

An ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican homebuilder, during an attempted vehicle stop early Tuesday morning in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in Houston. Salgado Araujo had been driving a work van when agents tried to pull him over.

In a separate development, the Harris County District Attorney’s office announced it is opening an investigation into the shooting. A spokesperson for the office, Rafael Lemaitre, said prosecutors are consulting with counterparts in Minneapolis, where federal agents previously fatally shot two U.S. citizens, to learn how to handle investigations involving federal immigration officers.

“Although access to key evidence remains under federal control, we are pursuing investigative avenues available to us and will conduct a review of any information we collect within our reach,” Lemaitre said in a written statement.

DHS, which oversees ICE, said the agents had not yet been issued body cameras, attributing the delay to Democratic opposition during a record-length government shutdown tied to President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement push. The department said those agents are expected to receive body cameras within the next 60 days.

According to DHS, agents had been watching a property where they had previously spotted two white vans as part of a targeted operation to detain someone in the country without legal status. “On July 7, officers were almost at the target’s address when they observed a white van with an individual who resembled the target. Officers then initiated the vehicle stop,” the department said.

DHS has maintained that Salgado Araujo rammed an ICE vehicle and that an agent fired in self-defense. However, Salgado Araujo’s family has disputed that account and is demanding the agency release all available evidence. The family says he had no criminal record and was on the verge of receiving a work permit after living in the United States for more than 35 years without legal status.

Three men, including Salgado Araujo’s brother, were detained by ICE during the traffic stop, according to Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, who has been in contact with the families involved.

Proaño told The Associated Press that LULAC has not been able to obtain clear video footage showing what happened during the shooting and has offered a $5,000 reward for witness information. He said security camera footage the organization has reviewed was partially blocked by the positions of Salgado Araujo’s van and ICE vehicles. “It’s going to make it even more difficult to find the truth in all this,” he said.

The family of Salgado Araujo, along with Democratic lawmakers, is calling for an independent investigation into the shooting. In the wake of the fatal Minneapolis shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Democrats had refused to approve funding for ICE and the Border Patrol without accountability reforms. Republicans in Congress ultimately passed legislation providing three years of funding solely for ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

A man facing charges in the shooting deaths of a National Guard soldier near the White House has been rushed to a hospital after refusing to eat while awaiting trial, federal prosecutors disclosed in a court filing Thursday.

Justice Department prosecutors said they learned Thursday morning that Rahmanullah Lakanwal had been transported to a hospital overnight to receive care for a condition that could threaten his life. The U.S. Marshals Service had already warned prosecutors last month that Lakanwal faced serious health risks — including the possibility of death — because he had gone without adequate food for an extended period of time.

The court filing did not explain the specific reasons behind Lakanwal’s refusal to eat. However, prosecutors pointed out that courts have previously upheld the authority of prison officials to force-feed inmates who are on hunger strikes in order to keep them alive.

The federal judge overseeing the case called an emergency hearing to address the defendant’s medical situation while he remains in federal custody. At the close of that hearing, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta directed prosecutors to draft a proposed court order that would allow them to obtain Lakanwal’s recent medical records.

Defense attorney Shelli Peterson and a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office both declined to speak with reporters following the hearing.

Lakanwal, a citizen of Afghanistan, has entered a not guilty plea to charges that include first-degree murder in connection with a November 2025 shooting that claimed the life of West Virginia National Guard Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, who was 20 years old, and left Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, critically injured.

Both Beckstrom and Wolfe had been deployed from West Virginia to Washington, D.C., as part of an expanded federal law enforcement presence in the nation’s capital ordered by President Donald Trump that began last summer.

Lakanwal is accused of traveling from Bellingham, Washington, to the nation’s capital while carrying a stolen firearm, then ambushing the two Guard members outside a subway station just three blocks from the White House. According to a police report, another National Guard member witnessed the attack — watching Beckstrom and Wolfe fall to the ground as Lakanwal fired his weapon and shouted, “Allahu Akbar!”

Lakanwal himself was shot during the confrontation. He appeared at his first court hearing in December via video from a hospital bed. No trial date has been set in the case.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Eight men now face federal murder and terrorism conspiracy charges after a grand jury in Ohio indicted them Thursday for their alleged involvement in a foiled plot to attack a UFC cage-fighting event held at the White House back in June.

The indictment lays out two separate conspiracies: one involving the alleged provision of material support to terrorists, and another involving plans to commit murder on federal government property and to kill a federal government official.

Court records do not make clear how close the alleged attackers may have come to actually carrying out the plan before it was stopped by law enforcement.

According to the indictment, the plot began taking shape in May, when members of the group started gathering money, firearms, ammunition, body armor, explosives, drones, medical supplies, communications gear, and other materials.

Authorities first became aware of a potential threat to President Donald Trump’s UFC event on June 10 — four days before the mixed martial arts show, known as Freedom 250, was set to take place.

Last month, the Justice Department announced a series of criminal complaints filed in several districts across the country in connection with the alleged plot, including cases originating in Ohio, Missouri, Washington, Nebraska, and California. Thursday’s indictment is an effort to consolidate those cases into a single conspiracy prosecution in Ohio.

Officials have said the individuals involved held fringe conspiracy theories and believed the attack would destabilize the U.S. government.

One defendant told investigators the group intended to fly drones loaded with explosives into the event and then open fire on crowd members as they fled in panic, according to a federal affidavit.

Tycen C. Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, along with four others, was arrested and charged in Missouri, Nebraska, and California during the same weekend as the UFC event. Two additional defendants were arrested about a week later by the FBI in Washington and Missouri.

The Justice Department announced this week that an eighth suspect has been charged: 21-year-old Chandler D. Scaggs of Chapmanville, West Virginia, who was taken into custody in that state. Scaggs is alleged to have been designated as one of the snipers in the planned attack, according to an affidavit.

That same affidavit states that Scaggs was reportedly supposed to be picked up by Proper and transported to Washington, but lost contact after Proper was arrested. Scaggs allegedly signaled to other members of the group that he was still willing to go through with the attack and made arrangements to travel to the event with another co-conspirator.

Federal prosecutors allege the group planned to murder President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, other federal officials, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, businessman Elon Musk, and what they described as “other high value targets” at the event.

A conviction on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Conspiring to commit murder can result in a sentence of up to life in prison.

GRAPEVINE, Texas — Wally Funk, a groundbreaking figure in aviation history who held the record as the oldest woman to travel to space, has passed away at the age of 87.

Funk died Wednesday at her apartment inside an assisted living facility in Grapevine, Texas, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Grapevine City Councilwoman Duff O’Dell, who described herself as Funk’s caregiver, confirmed the death on Thursday and said she was at Funk’s side when she passed. O’Dell noted that Funk had experienced several falls in recent weeks and was battling an infection in her leg.

“It took its toll,” O’Dell said in a phone interview.

Funk was among 13 female pilots who underwent the same rigorous testing as NASA’s all-male astronaut corps in the early 1960s through the Mercury 13 program — yet none of them were permitted to become astronauts. Decades later, in 2021, Funk finally got her moment in space when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos personally selected her as an “honored guest” aboard his Blue Origin rocket for a brief up-and-down flight from West Texas.

At the time of the flight, Funk was 82 years old, making her the oldest person to have ever traveled into space. That record was later surpassed by “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and Ed Dwight, America’s first Black astronaut candidate, both of whom were 90 when they made their flights.

Following news of her death, Blue Origin posted a tribute on X, calling Funk “a pioneer in every sense of the word” and adding, “We were humbled to be part of her journey.”

O’Dell remembered Funk as someone who refused to be discouraged, no matter how many times she was turned away.

“She was told by many, many, many men, ‘No, you can’t do this. No you can’t do that,’” O’Dell said. “And she never got mad about it. She just was more determined.”

O’Dell described Funk as the “most eternally optimistic person” she had ever known.

According to a brief biography released by the City of Grapevine, Funk was also the first woman to serve as an inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration and the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman shared a tribute on X on Thursday, writing: “Wally Funk never stopped believing that one day she would reach space. Her passion for flight, perseverance, and love of exploration will continue to inspire generations of Americans. Godspeed, Wally.”

PROVO, Utah — Folding chairs, sleeping pads, and blankets have become a familiar sight outside a Utah courthouse each morning, as people line up — sometimes through the night — hoping to secure one of just 14 public seats inside a courtroom where a preliminary hearing is underway for the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The hearing for defendant Tyler Robinson has drawn intense national attention and even significant interest from abroad. Continuous livestreams and round-the-clock media coverage have stoked public curiosity, driving spectators to compete fiercely for the limited courtroom access available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The proceeding is expected to conclude Friday. At that point, State District Judge Tony Graf will determine whether prosecutors have presented sufficient evidence to send Robinson to trial on a charge of aggravated murder.

On Thursday morning, Chris Palmer, the court’s director of security, announced that people would no longer be permitted to bring tents or camping gear to the courthouse steps. He also made clear that cutting in line or holding spots for others would not be allowed.

Rules inside the courtroom go beyond basic decorum. Palmer addressed those waiting outside, saying the people attending the hearing deserve to feel comfortable. “These people come here to get justice,” he said. “They don’t need to feel like they’re under a microscope when somebody’s sitting behind them or ahead of them.”

Each morning, sheriff’s deputies and court staff distribute wristbands amid what can only be described as organized disorder. Reporters and bloggers position themselves near the entrances, phones ready, hoping to capture the arrival of Kirk’s family, Robinson’s family, or notable figures such as Donald Trump Jr.

Earlier in the week, court officials announced that wristbands for public seating would be individually labeled after security found that some individuals had purchased matching colored wristbands in an attempt to sneak inside.

Joshua Carr, a local man who described himself as an independent journalist, was first in line Thursday. A friend had arrived at 9 p.m. the previous evening to hold his place until Carr showed up at 2:30 a.m. Carr said he has been following the case and the conspiracy theories surrounding it for several months.

“Being in the courtroom is a different thing because you’re able to actually feel the emotions, see the expressions on people’s faces that aren’t shown in the public feed,” Carr said.

Billie Webb traveled from Salt Lake City to attend. She has followed the investigation since Kirk was shot on September 10 and has been present at earlier hearings on motions filed by both prosecutors and defense attorneys. Webb arrived at 5 a.m. Wednesday and found herself eighth in line, but the afternoon start time meant she still made it inside. On Thursday, despite arriving at 3 a.m., she missed the cutoff — but said she was “absolutely determined” to get in on Friday.

Among the things drawing Webb’s interest was a recorded law enforcement interview with Robinson’s roommate and romantic partner, Lance Twiggs. Attorneys spent much of Wednesday debating whether that recording should be made public.

Webb said she also intends to be present if the case advances to trial. “If I have to camp for 24 hours, I will,” she said.

Massive public and media interest in high-profile court cases is not a new phenomenon. It is typically driven by celebrity, politics, race, or the sensational nature of the crime itself.

One early example dates back to 1935, when a New Jersey trial for the man charged with kidnapping and killing the infant child of legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh drew enormous crowds and press coverage. Decades later, the O.J. Simpson double murder trial in the 1990s became so widely followed it was dubbed the “Trial of the Century.”

More recently, large public gatherings and media attention surrounded the 2021 trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer convicted and sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. That same year, lines formed outside a Manhattan federal courthouse for the trial of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was ultimately convicted of recruiting teenage girls to be sexually abused by American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it is seeking to relax emissions standards for heavy trucks and engines that were established under former Democratic President Joe Biden back in 2023.

As part of the proposal, the EPA is looking to reduce emissions warranty requirements and push back the timeline for when more stringent regulatory useful life standards would kick in.

The agency acknowledged that some manufacturers working on 2027 model-year medium and heavy-duty engine development have run into technical hurdles. In response, the EPA is proposing to let those manufacturers continue selling their existing products while they finish developing engines that meet the 2027 compliance standards.

HOUSTON — A Mexican national was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer while driving his construction workers to a job site in Houston, sparking outrage from his family, civil rights groups, and the Mexican government.

ICE identified the man as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. The agency said officers targeted him on Tuesday because he had entered the country without authorization and, when they attempted to pull him over, he did not stop and instead drove his van into their vehicle. ICE, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security, has released no video footage or photographs to support its account of what happened.

Salgado Araujo’s family painted a very different picture. They said he had spent 35 years living and working in the United States and was nearly finished with the lengthy process of obtaining legal immigration status. The family also suggested that ICE officers were using unmarked vehicles and that Salgado Araujo may have believed he was about to be robbed — not confronted by law enforcement.

The family, alongside civil rights advocates, is calling for a thorough and independent investigation into his death.

Bystander Juliet Martinez captured video of the scene after the shooting. The footage shows a black vehicle positioned at an angle near a white van, with both vehicles’ doors open. A bleeding, handcuffed man can be seen on the ground groaning, his leg trembling. Federal officers are seen standing over at least three other men who are also handcuffed.

ICE has not released the names of the other men taken into custody. However, Salgado Araujo’s family identified one of them as his brother. Families of the other two detained men said they were briefly able to speak with them on Wednesday and confirmed they remain in custody.

His son, Ronaldo Salgado, described his father as a hardworking family man who came to America as a young adult with his wife after the two met as teenagers in Mexico. The couple wanted to build a better life for their family. Salgado Araujo went on to work in home construction in the Houston suburbs, eventually starting his own business and leading his own crew. He had no criminal record, according to his family.

Ronaldo, the eldest son, became a teacher. He said one of his brothers works as an engineer, while another is currently studying engineering in college.

Ronaldo described his father as a quiet, gentle man whose wife packed his lunch every morning before he left at sunrise and had a warm dinner waiting when he returned at sunset. He enjoyed sitting on his porch, petting his dog, and listening to music.

“That’s how I want the world to know my father. Not as someone who got shot and killed, but as a family man, a man who understood that good things come to those who put in hard work,” Ronaldo said at a news conference Wednesday.

Salgado Araujo is believed to be at least the eighth person to die during the current administration’s immigration enforcement campaign. No immigration officers have faced criminal charges in any of these deaths, and in several prior cases, video evidence has contradicted the accounts given by federal officers.

Among the most high-profile prior deaths were those of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot and killed during protests in Minnesota during a winter crackdown. Another shooting death involved Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, who was killed during a traffic stop in Texas in March 2025 — a death that was not publicly disclosed for nearly a year. A farmworker also died after falling from the roof of a greenhouse in California and breaking his neck, and two additional deaths involved men who were struck by vehicles while attempting to flee.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded forcefully to Salgado Araujo’s killing, saying it is time for Mexico to move its complaints beyond standard diplomatic channels.

“We are going to do everything in our power, because we cannot stand silent” in the face of the deaths of Mexicans “whose only crime is working honestly in the United States,” Sheinbaum said.

Mexican Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco announced Thursday that Mexico will file criminal charges in U.S. courts related to the alleged killings of three Mexican nationals during ICE operations, as well as the deaths of 14 others while in ICE custody. Those complaints will be directed at whoever is found responsible and submitted to state prosecutor offices and the U.S. Department of Justice. Civil actions against companies running detention facilities will also be pursued, Velasco said, with the goal of ending what he described as human rights violations.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Tuesday that its Inspector General’s office has opened an investigation into the shooting.

Salgado Araujo’s family and civil rights leaders are pushing for an independent probe separate from any internal federal review. The League of United Latin American Citizens announced a $5,000 reward for videos or other evidence related to the incident, and warned that turning any such material over to ICE could result in it being hidden or destroyed.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said the family and community deserve answers but acknowledged that federal authorities are currently in sole control of the investigation. Houston Mayor John Whitmire confirmed that city police had no involvement in the pursuit or the shooting and have no authority over federal officers.

New York’s attorney general took legal action Thursday against a group of major chemical and agricultural companies, claiming they deliberately sold dangerous so-called forever chemicals that ended up in everyday products ranging from cosmetics to non-stick cookware.

The suit names 3M, DuPont de Nemours, The Chemours Company, and Corteva, among other manufacturers. It represents the latest in a growing wave of legal battles over PFAS chemicals, which researchers have connected to a higher risk of certain cancers and developmental problems in children.

New York Attorney General Letitia James made clear where she stands: “Big companies like 3M and DuPont knowingly sold toxic products that threatened New Yorkers’ health and polluted our environment for decades. It’s time for them to pay for the damage they caused.”

The case was filed in state court in Albany and demands that the companies help pay for environmental cleanup across New York and provide consumers with proper warnings about their products. The lawsuit contends that, in certain instances, the companies already knew the chemicals were toxic or capable of causing environmental harm.

Representatives for DuPont, 3M, Corteva, and Chemours had not responded to requests for comment as of Thursday.

This isn’t the first time these companies have faced financial consequences over PFAS. Last year, DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva reached an agreement to pay New Jersey as much as $2 billion to resolve environmental claims tied to the same class of chemicals.

PFAS — short for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are a broad category of man-made chemicals that have been in use for decades and have gradually worked their way into the air, water, and soil across the country.

These chemicals were once considered highly valuable. They made firefighting foam more effective at smothering flames and helped clothing repel water, among countless other applications. The problem is that they don’t break down naturally, meaning they linger in the environment indefinitely and accumulate to harmful levels over time.

Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn stood before a D.C. Superior Court judge on Thursday and entered a not guilty plea to a charge of destruction of property.

Hearn is accused of causing more than $1,000 in damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.

After his arraignment concluded, Hearn walked out of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia with his attorney, Norman Eisen, where a group of reporters and protesters had gathered to hear from them.

A video interview featuring the roommate of Tyler Robinson, the man charged with killing Charlie Kirk, is scheduled to be shown in a Utah courtroom on Thursday as part of an ongoing preliminary hearing into the September 2025 assassination.

Robinson’s legal team attempted Wednesday to block prosecutors from playing the recorded interview with Lance Twiggs, in which prosecutors say Twiggs describes Robinson allegedly telling him he was responsible for Kirk’s death. That effort failed.

The footage will be presented on the fourth day of the preliminary hearing, where the prosecution is attempting to persuade Utah District Court Judge Tony Graf that there is enough evidence against Robinson to move forward with a trial.

The week-long proceeding marks the first time prosecution evidence in Kirk’s assassination has been tested in a public forum. The killing is among a string of attacks that have heightened alarm about political violence in the United States.

Investigators allege Robinson shot Kirk, who was 31 years old, in front of thousands of onlookers while the prominent ally of President Donald Trump was engaged in a debate with students at Utah Valley University.

An attorney representing Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, called Wednesday for the complete video to be shown, saying it should be played in full “to let the world see what happened.”

Judge Graf ruled that certain portions of the interview could not be played after Robinson’s attorney argued that prosecutors would present the clips as “confessions” and undermine the defendant’s right to a fair trial. Prosecutors agreed to make the edits requested by Graf and proceed with showing the video.

Prosecutor Lauren Hunt said Wednesday that Twiggs agreed to record the April 20 interview with prosecutors and law enforcement instead of appearing as a witness at the preliminary hearing, and was granted immunity for anything he said during that interview.

Robinson, who was training to become an electrician at the time of the shooting, has not yet entered a plea. During this week’s proceedings, his attorneys have suggested that investigators may have overlooked evidence pointing to another person’s involvement in the killing.

Prosecutors have indicated they intend to introduce text messages exchanged between Robinson and Twiggs, as well as messages from a Discord group chat. While some of that material has already appeared in court documents, Robinson’s defense team has argued that broadcasting it poses a serious threat to his constitutional rights.

According to text messages cited by prosecutors, Twiggs asked Robinson after the shooting whether he had shot Kirk, and Robinson said he had. When asked why, Robinson allegedly replied: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

Prosecutors argue the messages show Robinson targeted Kirk because of his conservative political beliefs. The defense disputes that interpretation and has moved to limit the use of any evidence suggesting a political motive — a factor that could potentially be used to argue for the death penalty.

A structural emergency in Midtown Manhattan is still causing major disruptions as workers carry out repairs and conduct inspections at an affected building.

The area around the building was cleared out earlier this week after authorities determined the structure was in danger of collapsing. Officials have been working to address the problem since the evacuation was ordered.

Traffic in the surrounding area remains heavily impacted as the repair and inspection work continues at the site.

A decision by President Donald Trump to eliminate a key government food security survey could leave the nation flying blind when it comes to measuring hunger — particularly as millions of Americans lose access to food stamp benefits.

Trump’s tax and spending legislation, signed into law last July, made sweeping changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps. The law shifted a significant portion of SNAP costs to individual states and broadened work requirements for recipients, among other changes.

Since those changes took effect, approximately 4.7 million people — roughly 11% of all SNAP participants — have lost their benefits. That number is expected to climb as states continue rolling out the new rules.

Last September, Trump canceled a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey that had been tracking household food security for three decades. The survey measured whether families had reliable access to enough food to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

At the time of the cancellation, the USDA described the survey in a press release as “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous.”

But Craig Gundersen, an economist at Baylor University, described that same survey as the “gold standard” for understanding food access in America.

Experts say that without the data the survey provided, determining whether Trump’s SNAP reductions are pushing more people into hunger will be extremely challenging.

“It’s definitely going to be a void in information on prevalence of food insecurity,” said Michele Ver Ploeg, a senior fellow at the nonprofit National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, who previously served at USDA’s Economic Research Service, including as head of its food assistance branch.

A USDA spokesperson responded that both the federal government and certain states continue gathering hunger-related data through other means, and argued that the number of SNAP recipients does not directly reflect food insecurity levels.

However, previous USDA-supported research found that increases in SNAP benefits reduced food insecurity among low-income households, while benefit cuts were linked to higher rates of food insecurity. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Nothing Quite Comparable

From 1995 through 2025, the USDA paid the Census Bureau to conduct an 18-question food security survey as part of its broader Current Population Survey. The questionnaire asked things like whether anyone in a household had skipped meals in the past year due to lack of food, or whether they couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals.

While organizations like the Urban Institute and the University of Southern California collect some food security data, Ver Ploeg said “the bottom line is there’s nothing quite comparable” to what the USDA survey provided.

Parke Wilde, a food economist at Tufts University, noted that food banks and nonprofits may release their own survey findings, but those won’t carry the same weight. “It’s not like nobody is going to be reporting relevant statistics; it’s just that the statistics that they report won’t be as good,” Wilde said.

Hunger Already on the Rise

The final edition of the USDA survey, published last December, found that 13.7% of U.S. households experienced food insecurity at some point during the year — the highest level in a decade, capping several years of worsening numbers. The report did not identify causes for the increase, though other research has pointed to the end of pandemic-era food assistance programs and rising inflation.

Matthew Rabbitt, a visiting scholar at Cornell University who worked on the survey at USDA and oversaw its final three years of publication, said policymakers have now lost a critical tool for responding to hunger.

“If we don’t have measures of food insecurity at this point, we can’t make informed policy decisions,” Rabbitt said.

He added that tracking child hunger will be especially difficult going forward, since other available surveys don’t capture comparable data on children. “We’re no longer monitoring child food insecurity in the U.S.,” he said.

States and Congress Push Back

Some states and lawmakers are working to fill the gap. In March, Maine became the first state in the country to pass a law requiring an annual statewide food insecurity survey.

Maine had previously relied on the USDA survey to measure its progress toward a goal of ending hunger by 2030. Jackie Farwell, a spokesperson for Democratic Governor Janet Mills, said the cancellation of the federal report means states can no longer compare their progress to national figures or other states.

“The Trump Administration’s cancellation of the report means states are no longer able to measure progress against the national average and fellow states,” Farwell said in an email.

Farwell said the governor’s office is collaborating with nonprofits and national experts to produce a statewide hunger report by early 2027.

At the federal level, Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation to bring the USDA survey back. Democratic Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester, a co-sponsor of a Senate bill to revive the survey, said Trump’s SNAP cuts combined with the survey’s elimination “have weakened federal efforts to address food insecurity and made it more difficult to understand where service gaps exist.”

“Accurate data is critical to ensure we target resources where they’re needed most,” she said.

A coalition of immigrant rights organizations is demanding an independent investigation after an ICE agent fatally shot an unarmed man in Houston.

Several advocacy groups have raised serious concerns about the circumstances surrounding the deadly encounter and are calling for a thorough, impartial review of what took place.

PROVO, Utah — Prosecutors in Utah intend to play audio recordings in open court Thursday of law enforcement officials questioning the roommate of the man accused of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Defense attorneys pushed back against releasing the statements made by Lance Twiggs, who was both the roommate and romantic partner of defendant Tyler Robinson. They argued that prosecutors would frame the statements as a confession, which could jeopardize Robinson’s right to a fair trial if the recordings were picked up by the media.

Robinson faces a charge of aggravated murder and has yet to enter a plea. He turned himself in to authorities one day after Kirk was shot and killed. Kirk was a close ally of President Donald Trump and was widely credited with helping energize young voters in support of Trump during the 2024 election.

According to prosecutors, Robinson left a note for Twiggs that read: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.” Robinson also allegedly sent Twiggs a text message stating he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred.”

Twiggs sat down with investigators on September 12 — two days after Kirk was shot and killed while addressing a crowd of thousands at Utah Valley University — and spoke with them again on April 20. In exchange for his cooperation, Twiggs was granted immunity, meaning his statements cannot be used against him in any potential criminal proceedings.

State District Judge Tony Graf will determine at the end of this week’s preliminary hearing whether prosecutors have presented sufficient evidence to move Robinson’s case forward to trial.

Robinson’s defense team has not addressed his guilt or innocence publicly but has made unsuccessful attempts to remove the death penalty as a possible punishment.

Attorneys representing Kirk’s family and members of the media urged the judge to allow Twiggs’ statements and other evidence to be made available to the public.

“To not be transparent, to not be open and let the world see what happened will create doubt and distrust in the judicial system,” Kirk family attorney Jeffrey Neiman told Judge Graf.

According to investigators, Robinson climbed to a rooftop near the venue where Kirk was speaking and fired a single shot that struck Kirk in the neck while the activist was fielding questions from the large crowd gathered below. Kirk was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities recovered what they believe to be the murder weapon — a bolt-action rifle with one spent casing — wrapped inside a towel and hidden in a wooded area close to the shooting scene.

Earlier this week, Robinson’s defense attorneys raised questions about the reliability of DNA analysis used to connect their client to the towel and the firearm. Defense lawyer Michael Burt challenged the conclusions drawn by an FBI DNA analyst, arguing that “she can’t match Mr. Robinson to the questioned samples.”

However, forensics expert Lawrence Quarino countered that law enforcement agencies rely on “extremely reliable” methods to assess the likelihood that a person’s DNA matches evidence collected at a crime scene. Quarino, a professor and director of the forensic science program at Cedar Crest College in Pennsylvania, stated that DNA testing “is the gold standard in forensic science.”

Two 15-year-olds were taken into custody in Northern California after a self-driving Waymo vehicle carried them to a parking lot — guided there remotely by the company — where police were waiting, authorities announced.

San Mateo police officers intercepted the vehicle on Monday afternoon following a tip from a Waymo company representative, according to department spokesperson Jeanine Luna.

Bystander photos shared with a local television station captured the teenagers hanging out of the moving car’s windows. Investigators determined the teens had been consuming alcohol inside the vehicle and firing Orbeez — small, soft water-absorbent polymer beads — out onto the roadway.

Waymo took control of the situation by steering the car into a parking lot and notifying officers as it did so.

“The occupants were not locked in and had every ability to exit the vehicle,” Luna stated in an email to reporters.

Throughout the traffic stop, officers were able to speak directly with a Waymo company representative using the car’s built-in communication system, Luna added.

The San Mateo Police Department shared details of the incident on social media, using the post as an opportunity to caution the public about underage drinking and the hazards associated with water bead projectile toys.

The department’s post drew more than 150 comments from the public, with several people raising questions about privacy and whether it was appropriate for Waymo to redirect the vehicle and hand the teenagers over to police.

Waymo did not answer emailed questions asking how the company became aware of the teens’ behavior or whether the passengers were told the car was being pulled over.

According to information on Waymo’s website, interior cameras in its vehicles are used to check that cars are clean, help locate items left behind by riders, and assist in emergency situations. The company states that facial recognition technology is not used to identify passengers.

“Our Support team may review video under certain circumstances, including after an issue is brought to our attention,” the company’s support page reads. “Occasionally, in more urgent circumstances, Support may access live video during a trip.”

This is not the first time a Waymo vehicle has found itself connected to a law enforcement matter. Last month in San Francisco, a burglar broke into a yoga studio, made off with athletic clothing, and then fled the scene in one of the company’s autonomous vehicles.

A Utah judge has ordered cuts to a recorded interview with the roommate of Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, ruling Wednesday that certain portions cannot be played in open court after the defense argued the clips could be presented as “confessions” and undermine the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

District Court Judge Tony Graf agreed to trim sections of the video that could be shown to the court, though he indicated he would still consider the full recording when deciding whether prosecutors have enough evidence to send Tyler Robinson, 23, to trial. Robinson faces seven criminal charges, including aggravated murder, and prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty.

Investigators say Robinson shot Kirk, 31, in front of thousands of onlookers as the well-known ally of President Donald Trump was engaged in a debate with students at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025.

The ruling concerned an interview with Lance Twiggs, Kirk’s roommate, and was issued on the third day of a key preliminary hearing in Provo, Utah. Twiggs has not been charged in connection with the case. Prosecutor Lauren Hunt told the court that on April 20, Twiggs agreed to sit for an interview with prosecutors and law enforcement rather than testify at this week’s hearing.

Robinson’s defense attorney Richard Novak pushed unsuccessfully for the video to be shown only in a closed session, arguing that public viewing could taint the jury pool and infringe on his client’s rights. “We are very concerned that the publication of what the state will call confessions at trial violates Mr Robinson’s due process rights,” Novak told the court.

Erika Kirk, the victim’s widow, was present in the courtroom for the third consecutive day. Her attorney argued the footage should be played in its entirety. “To not be transparent here, to not be open, to not let the world see what happened will create doubt and distrust in the judicial system,” attorney Jeffrey Neiman stated.

Prosecutor Hunt said her team would make the judge’s requested edits to the video and intended to play the trimmed version in court on Thursday.

Judge Graf signaled that a ruling on whether the case will proceed to trial is unlikely to come this week. “After this hearing I’ll review everything again,” he said.

The preliminary hearing, expected to run the full week, marks the first public examination of prosecution evidence in Kirk’s killing — one of a string of incidents that have heightened concern about political violence in the United States.

Robinson, who was enrolled in an electrician training program at the time of the shooting, has not yet entered a plea. His legal team has suggested this week that investigators may have overlooked evidence pointing to another person’s involvement in the killing.

Prosecutors have indicated they plan to introduce text messages exchanged between Robinson and Twiggs, as well as messages from a Discord group chat, as evidence. Some of this material has already surfaced in court documents. According to those filings, Twiggs texted Robinson after the shooting asking if he had shot Kirk, and Robinson allegedly replied that he had. When asked why, Robinson reportedly responded: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

Prosecutors argue the messages and other evidence show Robinson targeted Kirk because of his conservative political beliefs. The defense contests that characterization and has worked to limit the introduction of a political motive, which could factor into arguments for imposing the death penalty.

A member of a federal crime-fighting task force in Memphis, Tennessee shot and killed someone on Wednesday morning — the second time in four days that a task force member has been involved in a fatal shooting.

The incident took place around 8:30 a.m. while U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents were executing a drug warrant out of Shelby County. According to U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Brady McCarron, the suspect was inside a hotel room and refused to open the door, prompting agents to force their way in.

An initial statement from the Marshals Service indicated the man was killed after he pointed a handgun at task force members. However, a follow-up statement from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation — which is now investigating the circumstances — offered fewer details, saying only that “for reasons still under investigation, the situation escalated, resulting in a DEA agent firing into a room, striking a man and killing him.”

No law enforcement officers were hurt in the incident. McCarron confirmed that the DEA team included at least one officer from the Memphis Police Department.

The Memphis Safe Task Force was established last year by President Donald Trump as part of an initiative to deploy National Guard troops and federal agents in Democratic-run cities he characterized as having serious crime problems. While courts blocked plans to send troops to other cities, Tennessee National Guard members have been working with the task force in Memphis since last fall.

The first of the two fatal shootings took place in the early morning hours of Sunday, when two Guardsmen shot and killed 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson. They reported that Johnson turned toward them with a gun during a pursuit in the downtown area.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is responsible for looking into both shootings and will hand over its findings to the local district attorney general.

The family of a Houston man and several immigration advocacy organizations are demanding a thorough, independent investigation after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents shot and killed him during a traffic stop.

The fatal shooting has prompted calls from both loved ones and immigrant rights groups for a full accounting of what took place during the encounter with ICE agents.

The death of a Mississippi teenager is sparking conversation across the country, and people want to know more about what happened.

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly sat down with Anita Lee, a reporter for the Sun Herald, to discuss the growing national interest surrounding the case of Nolan Wells, a student-athlete whose body was discovered off the coast of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast region.

Lee spoke about why this particular case has drawn so much attention from people well beyond the local Mississippi community where Wells lived and competed as a student-athlete.

The fatal shooting of a Houston man by a federal immigration officer on Tuesday has become at least the eighth death tied to the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement effort — and the first fatality during what officials describe as a newly intensified push toward mass deportations.

Department of Homeland Security officials released a statement identifying the victim as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national. According to DHS, Araujo refused to comply with commands while attempting to avoid arrest during an enforcement operation, and allegedly tried to use his vehicle to strike an agent. The agent fired in self-defense, officials said.

Araujo’s family, however, said he was simply on his way to a construction job when the encounter occurred. He died before reaching the hospital.

The shooting quickly sparked outrage among immigrant rights organizations and some Democratic lawmakers, who called for an independent investigation and demanded that all video footage, communications, and evidence be preserved.

This is not the first time video evidence has raised questions about federal officers’ accounts. In several earlier fatal shootings, footage emerged that contradicted what agents reported. To date, no immigration officers have faced criminal charges in any of those deadly encounters.

One of the earliest deaths in the immigration crackdown occurred during a late-night traffic stop in Texas in March 2025. It took nearly a year for records related to that shooting to become public. The victim was a 23-year-old U.S. citizen.

A Homeland Security Investigations team working alongside local police stopped Ruben Ray Martinez during a drive from San Antonio to South Padre Island. His family said he had just turned 23 and was traveling with his best friend to celebrate his birthday.

DHS officials stated that Martinez was ordered to get out of the vehicle, refused, and instead “intentionally ran over” an agent. A second agent fired through the open driver’s window, striking Martinez, who later died at a hospital. The HSI agent involved sustained a knee injury, the nature of which was not disclosed.

Martinez’s mother said investigators with the Texas Rangers contacted her and told her video existed that contradicted the federal agents’ version of events. Both federal and state authorities have refused to address the reported discrepancies.

On January 24, a Border Patrol officer shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, during a protest against the Metro Surge immigration operation in Minneapolis. Federal authorities quickly labeled Pretti, a U.S. citizen, as an armed agitator who posed a threat to officers.

Bystander video told a different story — it showed Pretti on the ground and holding a cellphone during the encounter. The footage also appeared to show an officer removing a gun from Pretti’s waistband and stepping back before the first shot was fired by a different officer, followed by additional shots. Pretti had a legal permit to carry a firearm.

State and local officials pushed back hard against the federal characterization of events. Gov. Tim Walz called the federal comments “despicable.”

Earlier that month, on January 7, an ICE officer repeatedly shot Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, in Minneapolis. Video shows Good turning her car’s wheels away from officer Jonathan Ross at the moment he opened fire. Trump administration officials have continued to defend Ross, arguing his life was endangered by the moving vehicle.

Good’s death ignited a national controversy. The U.S. Justice Department announced it would not share information about the shooting with state authorities. State and local officials later filed lawsuits in an attempt to halt the immigration sweeps, and protesters followed officers through the streets, prompting agents to deploy tear gas and chemical irritants.

On September 12, ICE agents fatally shot Silverio Villegas González during a traffic stop in a suburb of Chicago. Family members said the 38-year-old, a line cook from Mexico, had dropped a child off at daycare earlier that morning.

At the time, DHS said agents were targeting a man with a reckless driving history who was in the country illegally, and alleged that Villegas González had tried to evade arrest and dragged an officer with his vehicle. Homeland Security said the agent fired out of fear for his life and was hospitalized with “serious injuries.” Local police video, however, showed the agent moving around and describing his injuries as “nothing major.” DHS has said the case remains under investigation.

On July 10, immigration authorities were arresting dozens of farmworkers at Glass House Farms in southern California when Jaime Alanis fell from the roof of a greenhouse and broke his neck. The 57-year-old laborer from Mexico died at a hospital two days later.

Relatives said Alanis had worked at the farm in Camarillo — about an hour east of Los Angeles — for a decade. During the raid, he called family members to say he was hiding. Officials said he fell approximately 30 feet from the greenhouse roof. Homeland Security stated that Alanis was never taken into custody and was not being pursued by agents at the time.

On August 14, a man fleeing immigration officers near a Home Depot in southern California was struck and killed by an SUV while attempting to cross a freeway. Police in Monrovia, northeast of Los Angeles, said ICE agents were conducting enforcement operations when the man ran across the eastbound lanes of Interstate 210 and was hit. The man was later identified by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network as Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez, 52, of Guatemala. He died at a hospital. Homeland Security said Montoya Valdez was not being actively chased by agents when he ran.

Most recently before Tuesday’s Houston shooting, Josué Castro Rivera, 24, of Honduras, was struck and killed by a pickup truck on a highway in Norfolk, Virginia, on October 23, while trying to flee officers during a traffic stop. His brother, Henry Castro, said Castro Rivera had been heading to a gardening job with three passengers when ICE officers pulled the vehicle over. State and federal authorities confirmed he ran from the scene on foot and was hit by a pickup truck on Interstate 264. Homeland Security said the stop was part of a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation and that Castro Rivera had “resisted heavily and fled.”

HOUSTON — The family of a Mexican national killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston says the man had no criminal record after decades of living in the United States and was on his way to a home construction job when he was shot and killed.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was in the process of obtaining legal immigration status and had prepared himself for what to do if he were ever stopped by ICE, according to his son.

Ronaldo Salgado told reporters at a news conference that his father may have panicked when he saw people approaching in unmarked vehicles, fearing they were there to rob the tools he had used for 35 years to build homes — tools that helped put his three American-born sons through college.

“He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of Mexican man shot and killed by ICE. He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream,” Salgado said at the news conference.

The fatal shooting occurred Tuesday in Magnolia Park, a neighborhood that has served as a center of Houston’s Mexican American community for more than a century.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a statement Tuesday that Salgado Araujo ignored commands and tried to run over an officer, who fired in self-defense. The department said ICE was targeting him because he was in the country without legal authorization, and that his vehicle struck an ICE vehicle during the encounter.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia confirmed that Salgado Araujo had no criminal convictions on his record.

Houston firefighters reported he was shot in the abdomen. He later died at a hospital.

According to Ronaldo Salgado, three other men — one of whom was his uncle — appeared to be detained while his father lay moaning on the ground. He said no one has heard from any of those men since.

Federal officials have not released any video footage or photographs of the shooting or the claimed vehicle damage. Salgado joined civil rights organizations and Democratic officials in calling on federal authorities to make all footage and related information public.

In previous incidents involving federal officers, early accounts from immigration officials have later been contradicted by video evidence.

A bystander named Juliet Martinez captured video showing a black vehicle positioned at an angle near a white van, with both vehicles’ doors open. In the footage, a bleeding, handcuffed man can be heard groaning loudly on the ground as his leg shakes. Several federal officers stand over at least three other handcuffed individuals nearby.

League of United Latin American Citizens President Roman Palomares said at the news conference that the federal crackdown has turned the country into a place where it is “open season on Latinos” — where officers believe they can “shoot and explain later.”

Palomares said ICE’s handling of past investigations shows the agency has not earned the public’s trust to take its statements at face value without supporting evidence such as video.

“Your pattern has been one of inaccuracies of prejudicial leaks before the facts are known, of twisting the narrative to fit your version of events,” Palomares said.

The league announced a $5,000 reward for witness information and video footage, while also calling for an independent investigation. Other civil rights leaders urged anyone with video not to hand it over to ICE, warning that such evidence could be destroyed.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said the family and community deserve answers, but noted that federal authorities are currently handling the investigation exclusively.

Representatives for ICE and DHS did not respond to repeated requests for comment Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over leadership of the department in March with the stated goal of avoiding the controversies that had defined his predecessor Kristi Noem’s time in the role.

Following two fatal shootings in Minnesota that sparked significant public backlash, immigration arrests nationwide declined and ICE appeared to adjust its approach. However, in late June, arrests surged to 10,000 over a five-day period, driven in part by a major increase in Congressional funding.

This shooting is believed to be at least the eighth death resulting from an encounter with federal immigration officers since the Trump administration launched its immigration enforcement crackdown.

Ronaldo Salgado said his mother received word around 7 a.m. Tuesday that something had happened to his father. After rushing to the job site and finding his father’s empty van, he came across a video online.

“I recognized him, not from his appearance but from his voice crying for help as he lay on the street,” Salgado said.

Salgado Araujo met his future wife as a teenager in Mexico. The couple came to the United States and built their own home in Houston with the help of friends and family members from his work crew. His wife prepared his lunch each morning before he left and had a full meal waiting when he returned. He would relax on his porch listening to music and petting his dog, his son recalled.

“After nearly 35 years of working to give us the American dream, he made the choice to begin the process of obtaining his American dream through a work permit,” Salgado said. “We dotted every I, crossed every T, filled every document, attended every appointment. He was close to obtaining his legal status.”

Salgado Araujo had completed biometric scans and fingerprinting earlier this year and had carefully studied what to do if ICE pulled him over. His son said that if his father was driving away, it was likely out of fear that his tools were about to be stolen.

“Had my father seen an emblem of ICE or an emblem that says anything about a law enforcement agency, my father would have complied,” his son said.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she is weighing legal options and may call on the United Nations to intervene to stop what she described as violence against Mexicans in the United States.

“There has been another tragic death of one of our compatriots in the United States due to detention issues, even though their only ‘offense’ is not yet having proper documentation,” Sheinbaum said.

Houston has seen increased immigration enforcement activity since the crackdown began, and the efforts have not gone without resistance. The Houston City Council passed an ordinance limiting cooperation with ICE, but later reversed the decision after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, threatened to cut more than $100 million in state funding for public safety.