The US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, was placed on a security lockdown on Thursday while military personnel and local law enforcement investigated reports of threats to the installation, the Navy said on the academy’s Facebook page.

There was no immediate official word on the nature of the reported threat. But Fox News, citing multiple sources inside the academy, said a former midshipman who had been expelled from the school had returned to campus armed with a weapon.

According to the Fox News report, gunshots were heard inside Bancroft Hall, which houses the midshipmen.

According to the Facebook statement from Naval Support Activity Annapolis, the “base is on lockdown out of an abundance of caution.”

 It said Navy support personnel, in coordination with local law enforcement, were “responding to reports of threats made to the Naval Academy.”

The United Nations called on Thursday for the Taliban administration in Afghanistan to lift restrictions on its local female staff coming to work, warning that aid for earthquake victims and other vulnerable Afghans is at risk.

The Taliban authorities deployed security forces at the entrances to UN compounds and field offices, preventing Afghan women staff from entering, the UN said in a statement.

Taliban’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Quake fallout, returning refugees, drought

Afghanistan is struggling to cope with the aftermath of an earthquake at the end of August that killed more than 2,200 people, the return of millions of Afghan refugees expelled from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, and a drought in the north of the country.

The Taliban has imposed more and more restrictions on women’s employment since coming to power in 2021, including at non-governmental organisations, but had previously not strictly enforced those rules for women working for the UN. 

The Taliban administration has also banned girls from high school and women from university education.

The UN said that de facto arrangements in place up to now had allowed aid to be delivered.

“Such arrangements have enabled the United Nations to deliver critical assistance across the country, through a culturally sensitive and principled approach ensuring the delivery of assistance by women, for women,” the global body said.

The Taliban has said that it respects women’s rights in line with its interpretation of Shariah law and that it would ensure women could receive aid.

But in the earthquake aid effort, female humanitarian workers have come up against Taliban rules that they must travel only with a male guardian, and access to women in need has been difficult, according to the World Health Organisation.

This week, the UN made an emergency appeal to raise $140 million to help earthquake victims. 

The UN charter does not allow discrimination against women, an issue that is also a major concern for potential donor nations. Afghanistan was already facing an aid crunch as crises elsewhere in the world, such as Ukraine and Gaza, attract more attention.

•  Authorities secure video images of suspect, not yet released.
•  FBI confirms two detained individuals had no involvement.
•  Trump blames radical left, vows sweeping response to killing.

The gunman who shot dead US right-wing youth leader Charlie Kirk in a targeted killing remained at large Thursday but authorities said they have video images of the suspect and have recovered a “high-powered” rifle.

Kirk, a 31-year-old superstar on the Republican right who was credited with helping Donald Trump return to the presidency last year, was shot while addressing a large crowd at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

The killing — described by the FBI as a “targeted event”— shocked a nation already reeling from political tensions half a year into Trump’s second term.

Authorities acknowledged the gunman remained at large after having escaped into woodland.

“We’re doing everything we can to find him, and we’re not sure how far he has gone yet, but we will do our best,” FBI Special Agent Robert Bohls told a media briefing.

Authorities said they had secured quality images of the killer, who was of university age.

“We do have good video footage of this individual. We are not going to release that at this time,” said Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety.

Bohls said the presumed murder weapon had also been found.

“It is a high powered bolt action rifle. That rifle was recovered in a wooded area where the shooter had fled,” the FBI agent said.

Two people initially detained for questioning were released after officials determined they had no connection to the shooting.

‘Dark moment’

Reflecting the intensely political nature of the incident, it was Trump, rather than law enforcement authorities, who first announced to Americans that Kirk had died from his wound.

Trump then addressed the nation in a video address on social media in which he cited a “dark moment for America.”

Despite no public information about the shooter’s identity or motive, the president went on to suggest that the left wing was responsible — and to pledge a wide-reaching response.

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world´s worst mass murderers and criminals,” he said.

“This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we´re seeing.”

“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity,” Trump said.

Shot in neck

Kirk was shot in the neck while speaking to the crowd and collapsed in his chair.

Students at the university described the ensuing panic— and their broader fears as political divisions deepen across the country.

“It makes me feel like I should be very careful about expressing my political ideas,” said Samuel Kimball, a software engineering student, told AFP.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, called the killing a “political assassination.”

Kirk, who supporters have hailed as a “martyr” for conservative ideals, had an outsized influence in US politics.

He co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 to drive conservative viewpoints among young people, his natural showmanship making him a go-to spokesman on television networks.

Kirk used his enormous audiences on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to build support for anti-immigration policies, outspoken Christianity and gun ownership, and to spread carefully edited clips of his interactions during debates at his many college events.

Three months ago, a Minnesota man shot dead a Democratic lawmaker and her husband in their home, and Trump survived an assassination attempt during his election campaign in July 2024.

Vice President JD Vance was due to travel to Utah to meet Kirk’s family Thursday, a source familiar with the plans said, after he canceled a trip to New York to mark the 9/11 attacks anniversary.