The man suspected in an apparent assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump camped outside a golf course with food and a rifle for nearly 12 hours before a Secret Service agent confronted him and opened fire, according to court documents filed Monday. Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm despite a prior felony conviction and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additional and more serious charges are possible as the investigation continues and Justice Department prosecutors seek an indictment from a grand jury. Routh appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach, where he answered perfunctory questions about his work status and income. Shackled and wearing a blue jumpsuit, he smiled as he spoke with a public defender and reviewed documents ahead of the initial appearance. The lawyer declined to comment after the hearing ended. Routh was arrested Sunday afternoon after authorities spotted a firearm poking out of shrubbery on the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing. Prosecutors asked that he remain locked up as a flight risk. A federal magistrate set additional hearings for later this month. An FBI affidavit accompanying a criminal complaint shows how law enforcement officials, during their investigation, used his cellphone information to place him at the golf course from 1:59 a.m. Sunday until about 1:31 p.m. A digital camera, a loaded rifle with scope and a plastic bag containing food was recovered from the area where Routh had positioned himself, according to the affidavit. The authorities did not immediately reveal any new details about Routh or allege a particular motive. But he left an online footprint that reveals shifting political views and intense outrage about world events. “You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran in an apparently self-published 2023 book titled “Ukraine’s Unwinnable War,” which described the former president as a “fool” and “buffoon” for both the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots and the “tremendous blunder” of leaving the Iran nuclear deal. Routh wrote that he once voted for Trump and must take part of the blame for the “child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless.” He also tried to recruit fighters for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia, and he had a website seeking to raise money and recruit volunteers to fight for Kyiv. Court records obtained by The Associated Press show Routh was convicted of multiple felony offenses, including two charges of possessing stolen goods in 2002 in North Carolina. Speaking in a soft voice in court, he said that he was working and making around $3,000 a month, but has zero savings. Routh said that he has no real estate or assets, aside from two trucks worth about $1,000, both located in Hawaii. He also said that he has a 25-year-old son, whom he sometimes supports. Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away. An agent fired and Routh dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, an aiming scope and a GoPro camera, authorities said. Routh was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county. It was […]
Israeli Health Minister Uriel Busso, of the Charedi Shas party, said some Nukhba terrorists captured by Israel and treated in Israeli hospitals, entered the Gaza Strip with the IDF and aided the forces in locating and rescuing hostages.
The comments came while pushing back against criticism of Israel treating the terrorists. At a press conference on Monday, Busso said that the health ministry set up a medical facility, together with the IDF, at the Sde Teiman prison, which is housing Nukhba terrorists, and that: “We must treat anyone who comes through its doors.”
Busso added: “A doctor who’s been in the health system for 30 years told me that terrorists, once stabilized, were brought in for interrogation and that’s how we saved lives. Some of these terrorists, who were treated by our health system, were taken into Gaza and down the tunnels and helped rescue hostages. This information is saving lives now. That’s why we treat them, to stabilize them.”
Additionally, Busso discussed how medical facilities are preparing for war in the North, saying: “We’ve been ready for several months with hospital fortifications and backup for whatever is needed.”
{Matzav.com}
A massive fire involving a liquified natural gas pipeline was shooting a towering pillar of flame for hours over suburban Houston on Monday as first-responders evacuated a surrounding neighborhood and tried to keep more nearby homes from catching fire. The blaze involving a 20-inch pipeline carrying liquified natural gas must burn itself out, according to its operator, Dallas-based Energy Transfer. The company said the gas flow was shut off but the fire will have to burn itself out. Firefighters were dispatched at 9:55 a.m. after an explosion that rattled adjacent homes and businesses in Deer Park and La Porte, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of downtown Houston, long the energy capital of the U.S. The plume of smoke could been seen from at least 10 miles away, and nearby there was a chemical smell in the air. Geselle Melina Guerra said she and her boyfriend heard an explosion at around 9:30 a.m. as they were having breakfast in their mobile home. “All of a sudden we hear this loud bang and then I see something bright, like orange, coming from our back door that’s outside,” said Guerra, 25, who lives within the evacuation area. Her boyfriend woke up his brother and they ran to their car. “I was just freaking out, pacing around the living room, not really knowing what to do or what was happening,” Guerrea said. “I thought maybe it was an airplane that had crashed down by our house.” There was no immediate word on whether anyone has been injured. La Porte city spokesperson Lee Woodward told KTRK-TV that people in nearby schools were told to shelter in place as law enforcement blocked off a wide area. At nearby San Jacinto College, which closed its campus after the explosion, people who gathered included Evan Wyman, who had gotten word after calling police that her dog Baxter had been rescued from her home, which is in the evacuated neighborhood. “I just know that my dog is rescued,” Wyman said. At least one gas transmission pipeline and one hazardous liquid pipeline run through the area on fire, according to U.S. Department of Transportation geographic data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Another gas transmission pipeline cuts diagonally through a nearby residential neighborhood along Spencer Highway, which runs through the suburbs of Deer Park and La Porte. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Houston is the nation’s petrochemical heartland and is home to a cluster of refineries, plants and thousands of miles of pipelines. Explosions and fires are a familiar sight to residents in Texas’ largest city, including some that have been deadly. The blasts have raised recurring questions about the adequacy of the industry’s plans to protect the public and the impacts of environmental damage. Video images from KTRK showed a park near the fire had been damaged and firefighters pouring water on adjacent homes. By noon, at least a couple of homes appeared to have caught fire, with smoke pouring from their roofs. There are also several businesses nearby, including a Walmart. Sanchez said they’re used to evacuations because they live close to other plants near the highway. But in the 10 years Sanchez has lived there, he had not witnessed an explosion. “We just drove as far as we could because […]
American consumers and home buyers, business people and political leaders have been waiting for months for what the Federal Reserve is poised to announce this week: That it’s cutting its key interest rate from a two-decade peak. It’s likely to be just the first in a series of rate cuts that should make borrowing more affordable now that the Fed has deemed high inflation to be all but defeated. Consider Kelly Mardis, who owns Marcel Painting in Tempe, Arizona. About a quarter of Mardis’ business comes from real estate agents who are prepping homes for sale or from new home buyers. Customer queries, he recalls, quickly dropped almost as soon as the Fed started jacking up interest rates in March 2022 — and then kept raising rates through July 2023. As the housing market contracted, Mardis had to lay off about half his staff of 30. It was the worst dry spell he had experienced in 14 years. After the Fed begins cutting rates on Wednesday, Mardis envisions brighter times ahead. Typically, a succession of Fed rate cuts leads over time to lower borrowing costs for things like mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and business loans. “I’m 100% sure it would make a difference,” Mardis said. “I’m looking forward to it.” At the same time, plenty of uncertainty still surrounds this week’s Fed meeting. How much will the policymakers decide to reduce their benchmark rate, now at 5.3%? By a traditional quarter-point or by an unusually large half-point? Will they keep loosening credit at their subsequent meetings in November and December and into 2025? Will lower borrowing costs take effect in time to bolster an economy that is still growing at a solid pace but is clearly showing cracks? Chair Jerome Powell emphasized in a speech last month in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that the Fed is prepared to cut rates to support the job market and achieve a notoriously difficult “soft landing.” That is when the central bank manages to curb inflation without tipping the economy into a steep recession and causing unemployment to surge. It’s not entirely clear that the Fed can pull it off. One hopeful sign is that as Powell and other Fed officials have signaled that rate cuts are coming, many interest rates have already fallen in anticipation. The average 30-year mortgage rate dropped to 6.2% last week — the lowest level in about 18 months and down from a peak of nearly 7.8%, according to the mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Other rates, like the yield on the five-year Treasury note, which influences auto loan rates, have also tumbled. “That really does help lower those borrowing costs across the board,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide Financial. “That helps to give nice relief to consumers.” Businesses can now borrow at lower rates than they’ve been able to for the past year or so, potentially boosting their investment spending. “The question is if it’s helping quickly enough … to actually deliver the soft landing that everyone’s been hoping for,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities. Many economists would like to see the Fed announce a half-point rate cut this week, in part because they think the officials should have begun cutting rates at their previous meeting in July. Wall Street traders […]
Ryan Wesley Routh, the man arrested on suspicion of possibly trying to assassinate former president Donald Trump, has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Both are federal crimes.
Routh Routh appeared Monday in federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla.
The first charge carries a punishment of up to 15 years behind bars if he is found guilty.
(c) 2024, The Washington Post · Washington Post staff
What’s he doing here? That was my reaction when Vivek Ramaswamy, the former Republican presidential candidate, passed me at the Democratic National Convention, followed by a gaggle of reporters. I assume he didn’t agree with much of what he heard at this convention. Then I stopped to reflect on my own presence at the DNC. As a registered Republican (who occasionally votes for Democrats) representing the Torah values of Agudath Israel — did I belong here? The simple answer is that I work for Agudath Israel of America, which, as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization, can’t endorse or oppose any candidate or party for office. But our gedolim have mandated that we be effective shtadlanim, or advocates, for the Orthodox Jewish community. That means showing up on Capitol Hill and in statehouses and city halls across the country. You can’t be effective if you aren’t at the table, engaging with elected officials and influential people in both parties. While the focus of these conventions is on the presidential candidates, there are tens of thousands of local, state, and federal officials and party activists in attendance. At an Agudah event on the sidelines of the convention more than 150 elected officials and party activists mingled with Jewish leaders from across the country. The event was not an endorsement of the Democratic Party or its platform, but rather an opportunity to help educate public officials and activists about our community and engage them in important conversations. Democratic officials stood in silence as the Neutra family spoke about their son Omer, who has been held hostage by Hamas since October 7. In addition, there were banners posted around the room highlighting the need to condemn anti-Semitism by name, and not simply lump it together with ritual denunciations of “all other forms of hate,” and pointing out that a majority of anti-Semitic assaults around the country involve those who are identifiably Jewish — the Orthodox community. The elected officials who spoke at this event condemned this abhorrent trend and explained how they plan to combat it with concrete action. At a time when both major parties are accused of harboring anti-Semites in their ranks, we can’t afford to ignore either of them. For now, I’m encouraged that both parties feel that being perceived as the stronger one on the issue of anti-Semitism will get them more votes. Voters will ultimately decide who they believe. The other goal of The Agudah’s DNC event was to highlight the growth of the Orthodox Jewish community and its increasing electoral strength. Most Orthodox Jews live in blue states. Our message, delivered by elected officials, was simple — ignore the Orthodox community at your peril. Vivek Ramaswamy was also at the DNC to engage people, and his verbal exchanges went viral. I doubt that Vivek recruited anyone at the DNC to the Republican cause, but he proved that when you engage honestly and directly with people who disagree with you, you may be surprised at how they respond. As I drove home from Chicago late Thursday night, I revisited my question from a few hours earlier: Did I belong at the DNC? Like Vivek, I was there to share our agenda and not to accept theirs. How could I not have attended? Below is a recent episode of “Inside the […]
The Israel Defense Forces’ 5th Infantry Brigade has been stationed in the Netzarim Corridor that splits the Gaza Strip between north and south, the army announced on Monday.
It is the second time the reserve soldiers have operated in the coastal enclave since IDF troops entered the territory on Oct. 27, as part of the war the Hamas terrorist group started when it led a bloody assault on the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7.
The brigade’s first tour of duty entailed protecting the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip in the first days of the war and ridding them of terrorists, before months of combat in the areas of Beit Hanun and Kherbat Ahzaa and the central corridor.
The infantry brigade falls under the command of the 252nd Division, which in recent months has been operating against Hamas and working to expand the axis dividing the northern and southern Strip.
“In the last few days, the brigade’s fighters completed a series of training and exercises at the Ground Forces Training Center (GTC). The forces carried out training and exercises in warfare in open and built-up areas and raised their operational competence in preparation for their mission in the center of the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.
“In addition, the forces completed logistical preparation and held mobility, supplies and immediate medical response training in preparation for the fighting.”
(JNS)
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the country’s military to increase its number of troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million, as Moscow’s military action in Ukraine drags on for more than 2 ½ years. Putin’s decree, published on the official government website, will take effect Dec. 1. It sets the overall number of Russian military personnel at nearly 2.4 million, including 1.5 million troops, and orders the government to provide the necessary funding. The previous increase in Russian troop numbers came last December, when a decree by Putin set the total number of Russian military personnel at about 2.2 million, including 1.32 million troops. The most capable Russian troops have been pressing an offensive in eastern Ukraine, where they have made incremental but steady gains in the past few months. In June, Putin put the number of troops involved in what the Kremlin calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine at nearly 700,000. After calling up 300,000 reservists in the face of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the fall of 2022, Russian authorities have switched to filling the ranks of troops fighting in Ukraine with volunteer soldiers, who have been attracted by relatively high wages. Many commentators have noted that the Kremlin has been reluctant to call more reservists, fearing domestic destabilization like what happened in 2022 when hundreds of thousands fled Russia to avoid being sent to combat. The shortage of military personnel has been widely cited as a key reason behind the success of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region launched Aug. 6. The Kremlin has sought to avoid the redeployment of troops from eastern Ukraine and relied on reinforcements from other areas to stem the Ukrainian incursion. The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday reported reclaiming control of two more villages in the Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. (AP)
“Telling your wife your needs and wants” is a complete waste of time for married men who want happiness and I’ll tell you why. So many marriage experts claim they have the secret to a happy marriage and that it all comes down to communication, boundaries and bringing in more money. They tell you to help out more at home, talk about the past, go together to a marriage professional but never stop to take inventory of whether ANY of these methods are actually WORKING in creating happiness and joy! I am not saying those strategies don’t work at all, but they are the long… slow… painful way of having a happy home. And for the few that make it with these strategies, they’ve done it while he doesn’t get what he needs, and she doesn’t get what she needs. Meanwhile, we’re helping our clients connect with their wives on the highest level, living lives full of happiness and excitement and it gets more and more joyful by the day where both husband and wife feel happiness and excitement… … all without needing their wife to meet them halfway! To check out how they do this, click below to watch my free presentation where I share all the details … you’re going to thank me for it! 5 Steps Married Men Use to Get Rid of Friction and Create Happiness and Excitement… Without Needing Their Wife to Meet Them Halfway!
A Jewish Israeli man sustained facial injuries on Monday in an assault near the town of Mevo’ot Yericho in the southern Jordan Valley.
Multiple men assaulted the man, a shepherd, in the Mu’arrajat area about 15 miles northeast of Yerushalayim, lightly wounding him.
Israeli troops arrested at least two men in Mu’arrajat in connection with the incident, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said. Jewish men showed the troops where the assailants hid, leading to a search of the premises.
Palestinians resisted the search, leading to an altercation with the troops in which several Palestinians were wounded and some arrested, the IDF said. The report did not say whether those apprehended were the attackers who had assaulted the shepherd.
Elisha Yered, an activist promoting Jewish presence in Yehuda and Shomron, wrote on X that the shepherd’s attackers were Arabs. Several of them assaulted the shepherd and another man in the early morning hours on Monday, Yered wrote. A photo of the victim that Yered posted on X shows blood streaming from a young man’s right ear.
The IDF said the victim sustained a head injury.
The JDN news site reported that the assailants stole the shepherd’s phone and beat him with blunt objects. He used a distress buzzer that he was carrying to alert the owner of a nearby farm, who arrived at the scene with security personnel. Several suspects fled as they saw the security forces approach, the report said.
A Magen David Adom ambulance took the victim to Hadassah Medical Center in Yerushalayim’s Ein Kerem. His injuries were defined as minor.
Mevo’ot Yericho was established in 1999, north of Yericho, which is controlled by the PA.
(JNS)
Exceptionally heavy rainfall pounding Central Europe has prompted deadly flooding in the region, with four new deaths reported Monday in Poland, three in Czech Republic and one in Romania. The flooding has swamped parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania as a low-pressure system crossing the region has unleashed record-high rains for days, and it was expected to affect Slovakia and Hungary later in the week. So far 16 people have been reported killed — seven people in Romania, five in Poland, three in the Czech Republic and one in Austria. In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk held an emergency meeting and later declared a disaster in flooded areas, a government measure to facilitate evacuation and rescues. He also said the government would provide 1 billion zlotys ($258,000) in immediate payouts to victims. The flooding in Poland has burst dams and embankments, while receding waters have left streets covered in piles of debris and mud. It prompted a hospital in the southwestern Polish city of Nysa to evacuate about 40 patients. Schools and offices in the affected areas were closed Monday and drinking water and food were being delivered by trucks. Many Polish cities, including Warsaw, have called for food donations for flood survivors. Experts warned of flood threats due to cresting Oder River in Opole, a city of some 130,000 residents, and Wroclaw, home to about 640,000 residents and where disastrous flooding happened in 1997. Firefighters in southwestern Poland said flood victims included a surgeon whose body was found Monday morning in Nysa after he was returning from hospital duty. The bodies of two women and two other men have been found in other communities in the region. Police in the Czech Republic said that a woman and two men drowned in the northeast, which has been pounded by record rainfall since Thursday. The men were found dead at different locations after water receded in the town of Krnov that was almost completely submerged on Sunday Romanian authorities said Monday that another person died in the eastern county of Galati, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to seven. One death previously was reported in Austria. Authorities in the Czech Republic declared an emergency in two northeastern regions, including in the Jeseniky mountains near the Polish border. A number of towns and cities had been submerged in the northeast, with thousands evacuated. Military helicopters joined rescuers on boats in efforts to transport people to safety. Waters were receding from the mountainous areas on Monday, leaving behind destroyed houses and bridges and damaged roads. In most parts of the country, conditions were expected to improve later Monday. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala visited the town of Jesenik, one of the hardest hit places. “The worst is behind us and now, we have to deal with all the damage,” Fiala said following the visit. In Hungary, the mayor of Budapest warned residents that the largest floods in a decade were expected to hit the capital later in the week, with the waters of the Danube River set to breach the city’s lower quays by Tuesday morning. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán canceled his planned foreign engagements, including an address to a plenary session of the European Parliament on Wednesday where heated debates were expected over his conduct since […]
On Monday, a source inside the Prime Minister’s office told KAN News that Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu plans on firing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in the immediate future.
Bibi also reportedly plans on bringing Gideon Saar, and his New Hope party into the coalition, adding four seats to his majority.
Stocks in Israel fell and gas prices spiked as the news broke that the Prime Minister plans on firing the Defense Minister in the middle of a war. The move also raises concerns among hostage families, as Saar opposed a ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Bibi and Gallant have been at odds for months over agreeing to a ceasefire deal, with Gallant, Intelligence Services, and the IDF believing Israel must prioritize returning the hostages, and then can handle the security risks associated with a deal. Reportedly, Bibi and Gallant have not met for a long time, despite the mutli-front war Israel is facing.
According to a senior member of Neyanyahu’s cabinet, bringing in Saar would enable Bibi to pass a Charedi draft bill, something Gallant opposes. The Charedi parties have threatened to not vote for the upcoming budget, essentially torpedoing the coalition, if the draft bill is not passed. Some wondered if Bibi would call their bluff, as current poling indicates Charedi parties would be unlikely to sit in the coalition if new elections were held.
The draft bill in question would exempt the vast majority of Charedi men from serving in the IDF. Currently, the Charedi population is vulnerable to penalties if they do not enlist, as the Supreme Court has ruled the legal basis for the Charedi draft exemption has expired.
According to sources familiar with the communication between Bibi and Saar, the two have agreed in principle to the wording of a draft bill that would have the approval of the Charedi parties, and the coalition. However, Saar has denied negotiation a draft bill, with his allies saying any bill he agrees to would be based on the needs of the IDF.
Gallant has refused to back such a draft bill unless it received wide support, including from the opposition. Such a draft bill would be very controversial in Israel, with some reservists threatening to refuse to serve if the laws pass and ‘Israel steps away from being a democracy.’
US officials are concerned regarding the move to fire Gallant, with the US reportedly believing he is the ‘only adult in the room’ in Bibi’s coalition.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu put out a statement denying that Saar was going to replace Gallant, but he did not deny his intention to fire Gallant.
{Matzav.com}
It’s noisy, smelly, shy — and New Zealand’s bird of the year. The hoiho, or yellow-eyed penguin, won the country’s fiercely fought avian election on Monday, offering hope to supporters of the endangered bird that recognition from its victory might prompt a revival of the species. It followed a campaign for the annual Bird of the Year vote that was without the foreign interference scandals and cheating controversies of past polls. Instead, campaigners in the long-running contest sought votes in the usual ways — launching meme wars, seeking celebrity endorsements and even getting tattoos to prove their loyalty. More than 50,000 people voted in the poll, 300,000 fewer than last year, when British late night host John Oliver drove a humorous campaign for the pūteketeke — a “deeply weird bird” which eats and vomits its own feathers – securing a landslide win. This year, the number of votes cast represented 1% of the population of New Zealand — a country where nature is never far away and where a love of native birds is instilled in citizens from childhood. “Birds are our heart and soul,” said Emma Rawson, who campaigned for the fourth-placed ruru, a small brown owl with a melancholic call. New Zealand’s only native mammals are bats and marine species, putting the spotlight on its birds, which are beloved — and often rare. This year’s victor, the hoiho — its name means “noise shouter” in the Māori language — is a shy bird thought to be the world’s rarest penguin. Only found on New Zealand’s South and Chatham islands — and on subantarctic islands south of the country — numbers have dropped perilously by 78% in the past 15 years. “This spotlight couldn’t have come at a better time. This iconic penguin is disappearing from mainland Aotearoa before our eyes,” Nicola Toki, chief executive of Forest & Bird — the organization that runs the poll — said in a press release, using the Māori name for New Zealand. Despite intensive conservation efforts on land, she said, the birds drown in nets and sea and can’t find enough food. “The campaign has raised awareness, but what we really hope is that it brings tangible support,” said Charlie Buchan, campaign manager for the hoiho. But while the bird is struggling, it attracted a star billing in the poll: celebrity endorsements flew in from English zoologist Jane Goodall, host of the Amazing Race Phil Keoghan, and two former New Zealand prime ministers. Aspiring bird campaign managers — this year ranging from power companies to high school students — submit applications to Forest & Bird for the posts. The hoiho bid was run by a collective of wildlife groups, a museum, a brewery and a rugby team in the city of Dunedin, where the bird is found on mainland New Zealand, making it the highest-powered campaign of the 2024 vote. “I do feel like we were the scrappy underdog,” said Emily Bull, a spokesperson for the runner-up campaign, for the karure — a small, “goth” black robin only found on New Zealand’s Chatham Island. The karure’s bid was directed by the students’ association at Victoria University of Wellington, prompting a fierce skirmish on the college campus when the student magazine staged an opposing campaign for the kororā, or little blue penguin. The […]
Salvagers have successfully towed a Greek-flagged oil tanker ablaze for weeks after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels to a safe area without any oil spill, a European Union naval mission says. The Sounion reached waters away from Yemen as the Houthis meanwhile claimed that they shot down another American-made MQ-9 Reaper drone, with video circulating online showing what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile strike and flaming wreckage strewn across the ground.
Former President Donald Trump stated on Monday that the individual accused of attempting to assassinate him during a golf game on Sunday was driven by the “rhetoric” of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump, the 78-year-old Republican presidential contender, told Fox News.
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out.”
Trump pointed to Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, the suspect in the attack, suggesting that Routh’s language closely mirrored that of Biden and Harris when they referred to Trump as a danger to American democracy if he were to return to power.
Routh was found hiding in the shrubbery near Trump’s West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course, where the former president was playing a round. Authorities also uncovered a tactical rifle, a scope, and a GoPro camera at the scene.
“These are people that want to destroy our country,” Trump said, referring to Biden and Harris. “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”
Routh had shared numerous political opinions on social media, and he had been featured in interviews with major news organizations regarding his work to recruit Afghans to support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
In April, Routh posted, “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”
Biden, 81, often used the phrase “democracy is on the ballot” before concluding his campaign for a second term on July 21, at which time he endorsed Harris as his preferred successor.
Harris, 59, has likewise claimed that Trump presents a danger to democracy — both before and after the former president was grazed by a bullet on July 13 during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle for reasons still not fully understood.
“Donald Trump wants to turn our democracy into a dictatorship,” Harris stated on July 9 in Las Vegas — just four days before the first attempt on Trump’s life.
Less than a month later, on July 31, Harris resumed her remarks, stating, “our fundamental freedoms are on the ballot and so is our democracy,” repeating these words twice that day.
The Democrats frequently point to Trump’s unwillingness to concede his 2020 election loss, which culminated in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Criticism has been aimed at Biden and Harris for allegedly misrepresenting Trump’s words to support this narrative. This includes a claim earlier this year that Trump had threatened a “bloodbath” if he were to lose, though Trump had actually been talking about the potential impact on the auto industry in the event of an election.
Neither Biden’s nor Harris’s spokespeople have responded to reports of Routh echoing their language.
Routh had also shared various other political views online, including his 2020 claim that he was a disillusioned former Trump supporter who had backed the populist leader in the 2016 election.
In addition, this year Routh wrote that he believed former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and GOP businessman Vivek Ramaswamy should run as an independent presidential ticket.
{Matzav.com}
The man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Florida golf course may have had inside information on his movements, according to a former FBI official. Chris Swecker, a former FBI assistant director, told Newsweek that investigators will need to determine how Ryan Wesley Routh knew Trump’s exact whereabouts during the incident. Shots were fired at Trump National Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, where Trump, the leading candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, was golfing. No injuries were reported, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. The FBI has since joined the investigation into the shooting, with Swecker describing Routh as a “wingnut” with a deep disdain for authority. “The biggest question to answer is: ‘How did the would-be assassin know to be at that location at that time?’” Swecker said. “There are only three possible answers: He guessed and got very lucky; he conducted surveillance on Trump and followed him to the golf course; or he had inside information about Trump’s schedule. The last answer is scary and has implications that another person was involved.” The West Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office said at a press conference that a U.S. Secret Service agent noticed a rifle barrel sticking out of the fence surrounding the golf course and quickly “engaged” with the suspect. Law enforcement officials stated that the gunman may have gotten as close as 300 yards to Trump before being apprehended. Swecker, who retired from the FBI in 2006 and now practices law in Charlotte, North Carolina, commented on the broader context of the attack, suggesting that the heightened rhetoric around Trump may be influencing unstable individuals. “There is little doubt that the demonization of Trump is resonating with the fringe elements who are mentally unstable and highly impressionable, so it may be time to tone it down a bit,” he said. Routh, whose background is described as erratic, had reportedly been involved in “strange quests,” including attempting to recruit Afghan fighters to join Ukraine in its fight against Russia. “We know this suspect has posted about Trump being a danger to democracy, and he has been active on some strange quests: visiting Ukraine to round up Afghan fighters. So motive is coming into focus—he is a wingnut who dislikes authority, based on his arrest record for resisting arrest in a two-hour standoff,” Swecker added. That incident refers to a 2002 arrest where Routh was stopped by police for driving without a valid license. He fled the scene, barricading himself inside his roofing company for three hours before surrendering. He was later charged with carrying a concealed weapon, resisting an officer, and driving without a valid license. Swecker further noted that Routh appeared to have been influenced by claims that Trump was an existential threat to democracy, allegedly deciding to take matters into his own hands. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Rav Gershon Ribner, rosh kollel of Kollel Nesivos Hatorah and son-in-law of Rav Shneur Kotler, has succeeded in applying classical Talmudical analysis and methodology to understanding all areas of Yiddishkeit, bringing out its profundity and sense.
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Among the last words heard from the crew of an experimental submersible headed for the wreck of the Titanic were “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation of the journey of the Titan before it imploded, killing all five on board. The U.S. Coast Guard presented the animation Monday on the first day of what is expected to be a two-week hearing on the causes of the implosion. Crew aboard the Titan were communicating with staff aboard the support ship Polar Prince via text messages, according to the presentation. The crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the submersible’s depth and weight as it descended. The Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display. One of Titan’s final responses, which became spotty as it descended, was “all good here.” The Titan imploded on June 18, 2023, killing all five on board and setting off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration. In other testimony Monday, Coast Guard officials said the Titan was left exposed to weather and elements while in storage for seven months in 2022 and 2023. The hull was also never reviewed by any third parties as is standard procedure, they said. The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. When the hearing concludes, recommendations will be submitted to the Coast Guard’s commandant. The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting an investigation. “There are no words to ease the loss endured by the families impacted by this tragic incident,” said Jason Neubauer of the Coast Guard Office of Investigations, who led the hearing. “But we hope that this hearing will help shed light on the cause of the tragedy and prevent anything like this from happening again.” Among those killed was Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate, the Washington state company that owned the Titan. The company suspended operations after the implosion. The first witness to testify Monday was OceanGate’s former engineering director, Tony Nissen. Also scheduled to speak were the company’s former finance director, Bonnie Carl; and former contractor Tym Catterson. Some key OceanGate representatives are not scheduled to testify. They include Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, who was the company’s communications director. The Coast Guard does not comment on the reasons for not calling specific individuals to a particular hearing during ongoing investigations, said Melissa Leake, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard. She added that it’s common for a Marine Board of Investigation to “hold multiple hearing sessions or conduct additional witness depositions for complex cases.” Scheduled to appear later in the hearing are OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein; former operations director, David Lochridge; and former scientific director, Steven Ross, according to a list compiled by the Coast Guard. Numerous guard officials, scientists, and government and industry officials are also expected to testify. The U.S. Coast Guard subpoenaed witnesses who were not government employees, Leake said. OceanGate has no full-time employees at this time but will be represented by an attorney during the hearing, the company said in a statement. The company has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board investigations since they began, the statement said. The Titan became the subject of scrutiny in […]
Amid fresh rocket fire from Lebanon, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday told his American counterpart Lloyd Austin that time was running out for an agreed-upon de-escalation with Hezbollah.
“The possibility of a settlement in the north is passing. Hezbollah continues to tie itself to Hamas. The direction is clear,” Gallant told Austin in an overnight phone call, Israel’s Defense Ministry said.
The call follows an escalation in the hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, which have exchanged fire since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah began offensive action in solidarity with Hamas’s invasion of the northwestern Negev. Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets into Israel on Sunday and more rockets on Monday. Israel struck terrorist targets in Southern Lebanon both times.
The Defense Ministry’s report on the call did not include quotes by Austin, whose U.S. Department of Defense did not immediately provide a readout of the conversation.
The call between Austin and Gallant, who have spoken dozens of times by phone since Oct. 7, comes at a time of tension between Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, according to reports in the Israel media, is interested in firmer military action in Israel’s multi-arena conflict.
On Sunday, Netanyahu pledged to not allow a continuation of the status quo vis-à-vis Hezbollah. Austin has called repeatedly for regional de-escalation, including in his conversation with Gallant last week.
The defense minister reiterated in his latest call with the secretary of defense Israel’s commitment to dismantling Hamas and returning the hostages from Gaza “in any way possible.” JNS
{Matzav.com Israel}
The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the U.N. said Monday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress. Afghanistan is one of two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. The other is Pakistan. It’s likely that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions for other countries in the region and beyond. News of the suspension was relayed to U.N. agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment. A top official from the World Health Organization said it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead have immunizations in places like mosques. The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. “The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussions on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari from the WHO. “Partners are in the process of discussing and understanding the scope and impact of any change in current policy.” Polio campaigns in neighboring Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. As recently as August, the WHO reported that Afghanistan and Pakistan were continuing to implement an “intensive and synchronized campaign” focusing on improved vaccination coverage in endemic zones and an effective and timely response to detections elsewhere. During a June 2024 nationwide campaign, Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, the WHO said. But southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, used site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccination campaigns, which are less effective than going to people’s homes. Kandahar continues to have a large pool of susceptible children because it is not carrying out house-to-house vaccinations, the WHO said. “The overall women’s inclusion in vaccination campaigns remains around 20% in Afghanistan, leading to inadequate access to all children in some areas,” it said. Any setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement, the WHO warned last month. Pakistani health official Anwarul Haq said the polio virus would eventually spread and continue affecting children in both countries if vaccination campaigns aren’t run regularly and in a synchronized manner. “Afghanistan is the only neighbor from where Afghan people in large numbers come to Pakistan and then go back,” said Haq, the coordinator at the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication. “People from other neighboring countries, like India and Iran, don’t come to Pakistan in large numbers.” There needs to be a united effort to eliminate the disease, he told The Associated Press. The campaign suspension is the latest obstacle in what has become a problematic global effort to stop polio. The initiative, which costs about $1 billion every year, […]
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