Politics
Accused Washington shooter faces murder charge, Trump wants to halt ‘Third World’ migration

- Suspect Lakanwal faces first-degree murder charges, says US Attorney.
- Formal charges were not immediately filed against Afghan-origin man.
- UN urges US to honour commitments under 1953 Refugee Convention.
The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, killing one, will face first-degree murder charges for an attack that prompted US President Donald Trump to declare he would stop migrants from “Third World Countries.”
US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on Fox News on Friday that other charges would be filed against 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who she said ambushed the soldiers from the West Virginia National Guard near the White House on Wednesday.
Formal charges were not immediately filed against Lakanwal, who had been in the US since 2021 under a programme of then-President Joe Biden’s administration to resettle Afghans who helped the US during the war in their homeland. He was granted asylum under Trump.
In a call on Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday with US military service members, Trump said the shootings were a “terrorist attack.”
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds on Thursday. Her National Guard colleague, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was in critical condition, Pirro said on Friday. The two were in Washington as part of Trump’s deployment of the military in recent months to help the police fight crime in the city.
On Friday morning, following the national holiday, notably fewer National Guard members were seen patrolling the capital.
Meanwhile, the US State Department has temporarily stopped issuing visas to Afghan passport holders.
Secretary Marco Rubio confirmed the move Friday, saying the pause applies to all individuals travelling on Afghan passports.
Trump ratchets up rhetoric on immigration
Trump, whose dispatch of troops to Washington faces fierce legal challenges, took to social media late on Thursday to escalate his rhetoric on immigration. Since taking office this year, he has stepped up arrests of immigrants, including some in the US legally, and cracked down on unlawful border crossings while stripping legal status from hundreds of thousands of people.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” Trump said in his social media posts, referring to his predecessor in the White House.
Trump did not say which countries he considers “Third World,” nor what he meant by a permanent pause. It echoed the sweeping “Muslim ban” Trump tried to enact in his first term before it was diluted by successful legal challenges.
On Friday, Trump posted again on social media to say he was rescinding any document that Biden signed using an autopen, a tool that US presidents, including Trump, have used for decades, often to answer mail or sign checks, or sometimes to meet authorisation deadlines while travelling outside the capital.
After taking office in 2021, Biden reversed many of the restrictive immigration policies of Trump’s first term, saying they blocked people in need of humanitarian protection and were discriminatory.
Asked about Trump’s comment on “Third World” countries, the US Department of Homeland Security referred Reuters to 19 countries listed in a June travel ban.
On Thursday, Homeland Security officials said Trump had ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under the Biden administration and permanent-residency green cards issued to citizens of the 19 countries, which include Afghanistan.
Jorge Loweree, the managing director of programmes and strategy at the American Immigration Council, said the president does not have authority through executive action to make permanent changes to the immigration system, which is codified by Congress. He warned of chaos and disarray in the US immigration system even if Trump is ultimately blocked by federal courts.
Shooting prompts sweeping immigration reviews
Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 through Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome. More than 70,000 Afghans have been resettled in the US under the program for those fearing reprisal by the Taliban forces, who seized control of Afghanistan after the US military’s withdrawal. Officials said Lakanwal was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan before coming to the US.
He was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a US government file on him seen by Reuters.
Investigators said Lakanwal drove across the country from his home in the state of Washington and shot the two Guardsmen with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, before being wounded in an exchange of gunfire with other troops.
Less than 24 hours after the shooting, Trump officials began ordering widespread reviews of immigration policies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday he would be proposing regulations to ensure that people he referred to as “illegal aliens” do not receive certain credits on income tax they have paid. The tax code is set by Congress, which already limits what kind of benefits, if any, non-citizens are eligible to seek.
Lakanwal lives in Washington state with his wife and five children, according to investigators. Asked whether he was planning to deport the suspect’s family, Trump said: “We’re looking at the whole situation with family.”
International groups defend asylum seeker rights
United Nations agencies urged the US on Friday night to continue allowing asylum seekers access to the country, including due process rights, in keeping with international law.
“We expect all countries, including the United States, to honour their commitments under the 1953 Refugee Convention,” said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary general.
Jasmin Lilian Diab, director of the Institute for Migration at the Lebanese American University, said freezing Afghan applications or reconsidering thousands of approved asylum claims would disrupt families and local communities.
“While the recent incident is tragic, using an isolated incident to justify mass restrictions is inconsistent with evidence showing no link between refugee arrivals and increased crime,” Diab said in an interview.
Politics
White House briefly locked down after Secret Service shooting in Washington

The US Secret Service said on Monday it was on the scene of an officer-involved shooting in Washington in which one person was shot by law enforcement.
“US Secret Service personnel are on the scene of an officer-involved shooting at 15th Street and Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C. One individual was shot by law enforcement; their condition is currently unknown,” the Secret Service said in a statement on X. The White House was briefly locked down on Monday afternoon.
The DC Police Department said police were on the scene of the probe.
“The scene is secure. Avoid the area as roads will be closed for several hours,” police said in a statement.
Law enforcement agents have been on alert in recent days in the US capital following a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner late last month, over which a suspect has been arrested.
This is a developing story, and it is being updated with new developments.
Politics
UAE says air defences engage Iranian missiles, drones as flights diverted

- Iran denied targeting UAE.
- Attacks disrupt inbound UAE flights.
- Attacks injure three, reignite ME tensions.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said its air defences were engaging missile and drone threats on Monday evening as firefighters battled a blaze at a major oil industry zone following a drone attack which authorities said had originated from Iran.
The Gulf Arab state’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the attacks marked a serious escalation and posed a direct threat to the country’s security, adding that the UAE reserved its “full and legitimate right” to respond.
Multiple flights bound for the UAE diverted to Muscat in Oman, while other inbound aircraft circled over Saudi Arabia, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24, as the attacks caused widespread disruption to air traffic.
Iranian state media, citing a senior military official, said Iran had no plan to target the UAE, whose defence ministry said earlier on X that it had intercepted three Iranian missiles over its territorial waters and a fourth crashed into the sea.
The drone attacks shattered a period of relative calm in the region since a Pakistani-mediated ceasefire between Washington and Tehran took effect on April 8, pausing more than a month of intense fighting in the Gulf region.
Civil defence teams were deployed immediately to contain the blaze at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, the Fujairah Media Office said in a statement, adding that three Indian citizens were moderately injured in the attack and taken to hospital.
By Monday evening, the ministry said air defence systems were actively engaging further missile and drone threats.
“All airports in the UAE are closed for the time (being),” the captain on one inbound flight to Dubai told passengers, adding that aircraft would be diverted to the Omani capital.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy issued a map it said showed an expansion of areas under Iranian control near the Strait of Hormuz, encompassing the UAE ports of Fujairah and Khorfakkan as well as the coast of the Umm Al Quwain emirate, Iranian news agencies reported.
During the period of intense conflict earlier this spring, the UAE said it had intercepted and destroyed thousands of drones and missiles.
UAE authorities on Monday issued mobile phone alerts in Dubai and Abu Dhabi warning of the possibility of missile attacks.
Monday’s strike was not the first time Fujairah’s energy infrastructure had been targeted. A drone attack on March 14 had previously hit the Port of Fujairah, triggering fires and the suspension of some oil-loading operations.
Fujairah has been critical to UAE oil exports during the Iran war as it sits at the end of the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, which carries crude from inland fields to the Gulf of Oman, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.
This has allowed the UAE to continue shipping oil to global markets even as the waterway remained under threat.
Politics
Iran says it forced US warship back from Strait of Hormuz

Iran said it had forced a US warship to turn back from entering the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, although US Central Command quickly denied a report of a missile strike.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters Iran had fired a warning shot and that it was unclear whether the warship had been damaged.
Oil prices jumped 5% on renewed concerns that the vital oil route, already shut for over two months at huge cost to the global economy, would remain blocked for considerably longer, with little sign of progress towards a negotiated resolution of Washington’s conflict with Iran.
Iran’s navy said it had prevented “American-Zionist” warships from entering the Strait area by issuing a “swift and decisive warning”.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said two missiles had hit the warship near the port of Jask at the southern entrance to the strait, but Centcom denied that any warship had been struck.
It said its forces were supporting President Donald Trump’s “Project Freedom”, which aims to “guide out” commercial ships stranded in the Gulf by the US-Israeli war on Iran, and were enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports.
Trump gave few details of his plan to aid ships and their crews who have been confined to the vital waterway and are running low on food and other supplies. Shipping companies gave no sign of being ready to resume sailings.
“We have told these Countries that we will guide their Ships safely out of these restricted Waterways, so that they can freely and ably get on with their business,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Sunday.
Iranian military’s warning
In response to Trump’s announcement, Iran’s unified command told commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any movement that was not coordinated with Iran’s military.
“We have repeatedly said the security of the Strait of Hormuz is in our hands and that the safe passage of vessels needs to be coordinated with the armed forces,” Ali Abdollahi, head of the forces’ unified command, said in the statement.
“We warn that any foreign armed forces, especially the aggressive US Army, will be attacked if they intend to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran has blocked nearly all shipping into and out of the Gulf apart from its own since the start of the war, cutting off around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas shipments and sending oil prices soaring by 50% or more.
Centcom said it would support Trump’s “Project Freedom” with 15,000 military personnel and more than 100 land- and sea-based aircraft, plus warships and drones.
“Our support for this defensive mission is essential to regional security and the global economy as we also maintain the naval blockade,” Admiral Brad Cooper, the Centcom commander, said in a statement.
‘Convoys not a solution’
Hundreds of commercial vessels and as many as 20,000 seafarers have been unable to transit the strait during the conflict, the International Maritime Organisation says.
Container shipping group Hapag-Lloyd said on Monday its risk assessment was unchanged and that transit through the strait was still not possible.
Numerous executives from the shipping and oil industries have said they need an end to hostilities and some form of peace deal because military convoys alone are not enough to allow normal traffic to resume safely.
The United Arab Emirates accused Iran of attacking an empty crude oil tanker belonging to the Abu Dhabi state oil firm ADNOC with drones as it attempted to pass through the strait.
In a rare piece of good news, Pakistan said the US had handed over 22 crew from an Iranian container vessel that American forces had seized last month.
Islamabad, which has been trying to broker a peace deal, described the US move as a “confidence-building measure”.
The Trump administration has been seeking help from other countries to secure shipping in the Strait. Centcom said the latest effort announced by Trump would combine “diplomatic action with military coordination”.
It was not immediately clear which countries the US operation would aid or how the operation would work. It will not necessarily include US Navy ships escorting commercial ships, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said in a post on X.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump said any interference with the US operation would have to be “dealt with forcefully”.
Iran reviews US response to peace proposal
The United States and Israel suspended their bombing campaign against Iran four weeks ago, and US and Iranian officials held one round of face-to-face talks. But attempts to set up further meetings have failed.
Iranian state media said on Sunday Washington had conveyed its response to a 14-point Iranian proposal via Pakistan, and that Tehran was now reviewing it. Neither side gave details.
A senior Iranian official has confirmed that Tehran envisages ending the war on all fronts — including Israel’s attacks on Lebanon — and resolving the shipping standoff first, while leaving talks on Iran’s nuclear programme for later.
Washington wants Tehran to give up its stockpile of more than 400kg (900 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, which the United States says could power a bomb.
Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful, although it is willing to discuss some curbs in return for the lifting of sanctions. It had accepted such curbs in a 2015 deal that Trump abandoned.
Trump is under pressure to break Iran’s hold on the Strait of Hormuz to try to prevent soaring gasoline prices, causing a voter backlash against his Republican Party in midterm congressional elections in November.
-
Tech1 week agoA Brain Implant for Depression Is About to Be Tested in Humans
-
Business1 week agoPakistan’s oil market is fuelling the crisis | The Express Tribune
-
Tech1 week agoAlmost 90% of women leave tech industry within 10 years | Computer Weekly
-
Business1 week ago‘I had £20,000 stolen and had to fight a 13-month fraud reporting rule to get it back’
-
Sports7 days agoPro wrestling star Steph De Lander reveals how colleague’s advice helped lead her to title triumph at ACW
-
Entertainment1 week agoNorway joins Type 26 Frigate Programme to boost NATO naval power
-
Entertainment1 week agoMelania Trump says ABC should ‘take a stand’ on late-night host Kimmel
-
Tech7 days agoThis Ambitious Laptop Doesn’t Leave Much Room for Your Hands
