Politics
Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk shot dead, manhunt on for suspect underway
- Manhunt launched for sniper suspected of firing from rooftop.
- Kirk co-founded largest conservative youth organisation in US.
- President Donald Trump orders US flags flown at half-staff.
US conservative activist Charlie Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at a Utah university, sparking a manhunt for a lone sniper who the governor said had carried out a political assassination.
Authorities said they still had no suspect in custody as of Wednesday night, some eight hours after the midday shooting at Utah Valley University campus in Orem, Utah, during an event attended by 3,000 people.
The lone perpetrator suspected of firing the single gunshot that killed Kirk, 31, apparently from a distant rooftop sniper’s nest on campus, remained “at large,” said Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, at a news conference four hours later.
State police issued a statement on Wednesday night saying that two men had been detained and one was interrogated by law enforcement, but both were subsequently released.
“There are no current ties to the shooting with either of these individuals,” the statement said. “There is an ongoing investigation and manhunt for the shooter.”
In a video message taped in the Oval Office and posted to Trump’s Truth Social online platform, the president vowed that his administration would track down the suspect.
“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organisations that fund it and support it,” Trump said.
Cellphone video clips of the killing posted online showed Kirk addressing a large outdoor crowd on the campus, about 40 miles (64km) south of Salt Lake City, around 12:20pm MT (1820 GMT), when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand toward his neck as he fell off his chair, sending onlookers running.
In another clip, blood could be seen gushing from Kirk’s neck immediately after the shot.
Jeff Long, chief of the university police department, said he had six officers working the event and coordinated with the head of Kirk’s private security team, which was also on site.
Trump ordered all government US flags flown at half-staff until Sunday in Kirk’s honor.
The killing was the latest in a series of attacks on US political figures, including two assassination attempts on Trump last year, that have underscored a sharp rise in political violence.
“This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation,” Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox said at the press conference. “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.”
With the suspect still at large, there was no clear evidence of motive for the act of violence.
Trump, who routinely describes political rivals, judges and others who stand in his way as “radical left lunatics” and warns that they pose an existential threat to the nation, decried violent political rhetoric.
“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” Trump said in the video.
“This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
On Capitol Hill in Washington, an attempt to observe a moment of silence for Kirk on the floor of the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting and finger-pointing.
Kirk’s appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country. He often used such events, which typically drew large crowds of students, to invite attendees to debate him live.
Asked about shootings, then shot
Seconds before he was shot, the married father of two young children was being questioned by an audience member about gun violence, according to multiple videos of the event posted online.
“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America in the last 10 years?” Kirk was asked.
He responded, “Counting or not counting gang violence?” He was shot moments later.
Kirk and the group he co-founded, Turning Point USA, the largest conservative youth organisation in the country, played a key role in driving young voter support for Trump in November.
After winning his second presidential term, Trump credited Kirk for mobilising younger voters and voters of color in support of his campaign.
“You had Turning Point’s grassroots armies,” Trump said at a rally in Phoenix in December. “It’s not my victory, it’s your victory.”
Kirk had 5.3 million followers on X and hosted a popular podcast and radio program, “The Charlie Kirk Show.” He had also recently appeared as a guest co-host on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
He was part of an ecosystem of pro-Trump conservative influencers – including Jack Posobiec, Laura Loomer, Candace Owens and others – who helped to amplify the president’s agenda. Kirk frequently attacked mainstream media and engaged in culture-war issues around race, gender and immigration, often in a provocative style.
At the White House, staff members, many of them young and admirers of Kirk, were ashen-faced as news of the shooting spread.
Political violence on the rise
Republican and Democratic politicians alike expressed dismay over the shooting.
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement: “Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values. We pray for his family during this tragedy.”
The US is undergoing its most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s. Reuters has documented more than 300 cases of politically motivated violent acts since supporters of Trump attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In July 2024, Republican Trump was grazed by a gunman’s bullet during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. A second assassination attempt two months later was foiled by federal agents, with opening arguments in that suspect’s trial set to begin on Thursday.
In April, an arsonist broke into Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence and set it on fire while the family was inside.
Earlier this year, a gunman posing as a police officer in Minnesota murdered Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot Democratic Senator John Hoffman and his wife. And in Boulder, Colorado, a man used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack a solidarity event for Israeli hostages, killing one woman and injuring at least six more.
In 2022, a man broke into Democratic then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer, leaving him with skull fractures and other injuries. In 2020, a group of right-wing militia members plotted unsuccessfully to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.
- Jamaat-e-Islami says party held talks with other groups.
- JI chief says anti-corruption must be shared agenda.
- Rahman says party will decide who will be its PM candidate.
DHAKA: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), once-banned Bangladeshi party, poised for its strongest electoral showing in February’s parliamentary vote, is open to joining a unity government and has held talks with several parties, its chief told Reuters on Wednesday.
Opinion polls suggest that JI will finish a close second to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the first election it has contested in nearly 17 years, as it marks a return to mainstream politics in the predominantly Muslim nation of 175 million.
JI last held power between 2001 and 2006 as a junior coalition partner with the BNP and is open to working with it again.
“We want to see a stable nation for at least five years. If the parties come together, we’ll run the government together,” JI Ameer (President) Shafiqur Rahman said in an interview at his office in a residential area in Dhaka, days after the party created a buzz by securing a tie-up with a Gen-Z party.
Anti-corruption plank
Rahman said anti-corruption must be a shared agenda for any unity government.
The prime minister will come from the party winning the most seats in the February 12 election, he added. If JI wins the most seats, the party will decide whether he himself would be a candidate, said Rahman.
The party’s resurgence follows the ousting of long-time prime minister Sheikh Hasina in a youth-led uprising in August 2024. Hasina, whose Awami League party is now barred from the election, was a fierce critic of JI, and during her tenure, several of its leaders were sentenced to death.
JI had been banned from elections since 2013 after a court ruled its charter violated the country’s secular constitution. An interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus lifted all restrictions on the party in August 2024.
Ties with India and Pakistan
Rahman said Hasina’s continued stay in India after fleeing Dhaka was a concern, as ties between the two countries have hit their lowest point in decades since her downfall.
As New Delhi seeks to engage parties that could form the next government, Rahman confirmed meeting an Indian diplomat earlier this year after his bypass surgery.
Unlike diplomats from other countries who made open courtesy visits to him, the Indian official asked that the meeting remain confidential, Rahman said.
“Why? There are so many diplomats who visited me and it was made public. Where is the problem?” Rahman said. “So we must become open to all and open to each other. There is no alternative to develop our relationship.”
India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Rahman’s statement about the meeting or any request for it to be confidential.
An Indian government source confirmed contacts with various parties, and India’s foreign minister visited Dhaka on Wednesday to offer condolences to the family of BNP chief and former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who died on Tuesday.
Asked about JI’s historical closeness to Pakistan, Rahman said: “We maintain relations in a balanced way with all. We are never interested in leaning toward any one country. Rather, we respect all and want balanced relations among nations.”
He said any government that includes JI would “not feel comfortable” with President Mohammed Shahabuddin, who was elected unopposed with the Awami League’s backing in 2023.
Shahabuddin, the ceremonial head of the country, himself told Reuters this month that he was willing to step down midway through his term.
Shahabuddin, in a telephone conversation with Reuters on Wednesday, declined to comment on Rahman’s position, saying he did not want to “complicate the matter further”.
- New York attorney general to perform Mamdani’s swearing-in.
- Ceremonial inauguration on Thursday outside New York City Hall.
- Block party organised to enable New Yorkers watch ceremony.
Zohran Mamdani, a young upstart of the US left, was readying on Wednesday to take over as New York mayor for a term sure to see him cross swords with President Donald Trump.
After the clocks strike midnight, bringing in 2026, Mamdani will take his oath of office at an abandoned subway stop, taking the helm of the United States’ largest city. He will be New York’s first Muslim mayor.
His office says the understated venue for the oath-taking reflects his commitment to working people, after the 34-year-old Democrat campaigned on promises to address the soaring cost of living.
But it remains to be seen if Mamdani — virtually unknown a year ago — can deliver on his ambitious agenda, which envisions rent freezes, universal childcare and free public buses.
Once an election is over, “symbolism only goes so far with voters. Results begin to matter a whole lot more,” New York University lecturer John Kane said.
What Trump does could be a decisive factor.
The Republican, himself a New Yorker, has repeatedly criticised Mamdani, but the pair held surprisingly cordial talks at the White House in November.
Lincoln Mitchell, a political analyst and professor at Columbia University, said that the meeting “couldn’t have gone better from Mamdani’s perspective.”
But he warned their relationship could quickly sour.
One flashpoint might be immigration raids as Trump wages an expanding crackdown on migrants across the United States.
Mamdani has vowed to protect immigrant communities.
Before the November vote, the president also threatened to slash federal funding for New York if it picked Mamdani, whom he called a “communist lunatic.”
The mayor-elect has said he believes Trump is a fascist.
Block party
Mamdani’s private swearing-in at midnight to start his four-year term will be performed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully prosecuted Trump for fraud.
A larger, ceremonial inauguration is scheduled for Thursday with speeches from left-wing allies Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Around 4,000 ticketed guests are expected to attend the event outside City Hall.
Mamdani’s team has also organised a block party that it says will enable tens of thousands of New Yorkers to watch the ceremony at streetside viewing areas along Broadway.
The new job comes with a change of address for Mamdani as he swaps his rent-controlled apartment in the borough of Queens for the luxurious mayor’s residence in Manhattan.
Some had wondered if he would move to the official mansion given his campaigning on affordability issues. Mamdani said he is doing so mainly for security reasons.
Born in Uganda to a family of Indian origin, Mamdani moved to New York at age seven and enjoyed an elite upbringing with only a relatively brief stint in politics, becoming a member of the New York State Assembly before being elected mayor.
Compensating for his inexperience, he is surrounding himself with seasoned aides recruited from past mayors’ offices and former US president Joe Biden’s administration.
Mamdani has also opened dialogue with business leaders, some of whom predicted a massive exodus of wealthy New Yorkers if he won. Real estate leaders have debunked those claims.
As a defender of Palestinian rights, he will have to reassure the Jewish community of his inclusive leadership.
Recently, one of his hires resigned after it was revealed she had posted antisemitic tweets years ago.
Russia’s defence ministry published a video on Wednesday of a downed drone that it said Ukraine launched at President Vladimir Putin´s residence in northwest Russia this week — a claim Kyiv has branded a “lie”.
Moscow made the allegation shortly after Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky held talks with US President Donald Trump in Florida and Kyiv has called it a “fabrication” intended to “manipulate” the peace process.
The European Union also said the video was an attempt to “derail” peace efforts.
But Russia has called it a “terrorist attack” and a “personal attack” against Putin, saying it will toughen its negotiation stance in Ukraine war talks.
The video, shot at night in the dark, showed a damaged drone lying in snow in a forested area. The ministry said the alleged attack was “targeted, carefully planned and carried out in stages”.
Russia has not said where Putin was at the time, claiming the attack was launched on the night of December 28-29 at Putin’s home in the Novgorod region. His residences are normally kept a close secret.
The defence ministry said the attack started around 7pm on December 28 and was a “mass” drone launch at Putin’s residence, but said the longtime leader’s home was not damaged.
It also published a video with a man it called a witness, saying he was a local villager from the settlement of Roshchino.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which documents the Ukraine-Russia conflict, said Tuesday it had not seen any “footage or reporting that typically follows Ukrainian deep strikes to corroborate the Kremlin’s claims of Ukrainian strikes threatening Putin’s residence in Novgorod Oblast”.
Russian officials have rallied around Putin since the claim. The Russian leader, in power since December 1999, has told Russians in recent weeks that Moscow intends to seize the rest of Ukrainian land he has proclaimed as Russian by force if diplomacy fails.
“Kremlin officials are using the alleged Ukrainian strike against Novgorod Oblast to justify Russia´s continued insistence that both Ukraine and the West capitulate to Russia´s original demands from 2021 and 2022,” the ISW said this week.
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