All posts tagged: assassinations

Mexico’s Sheinbaum Denies Reports of CIA Operations There While CNN Stands by Report

Mexico’s Sheinbaum Denies Reports of CIA Operations There While CNN Stands by Report

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday denied a CNN report that the CIA was carrying out deadly operations in Mexican territory, accusing the U.S.-based news organization of attempting to “hurt the government and the people of Mexico.” CNN reported Tuesday that the CIA facilitated a targeted assassination of a member of the Sinaloa cartel on a highway outside Mexico City, fueling a firestorm in Mexico. The New York Times later reported that Mexican forces carried out the attack and the CIA provided planning and support. Sheinbaum called the CNN report a “lie.” Asked about the New York Times report during her morning press briefing, she called it “a fiction the size of the universe.” Liz Lyons, a spokesperson for the CIA, also lambasted the CNN report, posting on X that “this is false and salacious reporting that serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk.” A CNN spokesperson said the CIA had been presented with details of the report prior to publication …

Democrats Vow to Fight  Billion Senate Security Proposal for White House Ballroom

Democrats Vow to Fight $1 Billion Senate Security Proposal for White House Ballroom

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans returning to Washington on Monday are facing questions about a $1 billion Senate security proposal that could help pay for President Donald Trump’s ballroom as Democrats say they will try to defeat it. Senate Republicans added the money for White House security to a spending bill that would restore funding for immigration enforcement agencies that Democrats have blocked since February. The steep security proposal was put forward after a man was charged with trying to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last month. Republicans are using a partisan budget maneuver to push the spending legislation through Congress without any Democratic votes. But in a letter to colleagues Monday morning, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will fight it in other ways, including by pushing the Senate parliamentarian to strike the ballroom security money from the budget bill and offering amendments forcing Republicans to vote on it. “The Republican-controlled Congress is preparing to answer this moment with a deficit-busting, party-line bill that pours billions more taxpayer dollars into …

Era of Political Violence Means Higher Costs for Candidate Security, a New Report Says

Era of Political Violence Means Higher Costs for Candidate Security, a New Report Says

Security spending for congressional and presidential campaigns has jumped fivefold over the past decade as an increasingly hostile political environment has led to escalating threats against public officials, ranging from doxing to assassination plots, according to a report released Thursday. Federal political committees spent more than $40 million on expenses labeled as security during the 2023-24 campaign cycle, the most recent one for which data is publicly available, according to the report from the Public Service Alliance, a nonpartisan group that focuses on security for public officials. The report did not specify which candidates spent the most on security. The tally also did not count the escalating security costs of the federal government, which includes augmented Capitol Police services for members of Congress and heightened U.S. Secret Service protection for presidential candidates, as well as former and current presidents and their families. “This is not a good place to be as a country,” said Justin Sherman, the report’s author. The report calculated security costs by looking at publicly available filings with the Federal Election Commission …

Iranian authorities taunt US, Israel, EU amid strikes and assassinations | US-Israel war on Iran News

Iranian authorities taunt US, Israel, EU amid strikes and assassinations | US-Israel war on Iran News

Tehran, Iran – Military and political authorities in Iran are projecting a message that “victory” is near as war with the United States and Israel continues to escalate, and air strikes and assassination attempts are reported across the country. Massive joint US-Israeli air raids were recorded in multiple areas of the capital Tehran overnight into Sunday, and in central Iran’s Isfahan city in the morning, a day after Dezful and Andimeshk in western Khuzestan and several other cities were hit. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Israeli warplanes also conducted two separate sets of precision strikes on privately-owned residential units located in small towns in the green provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran to the north on Saturday, which appeared to be assassination attempts on officials. Local authorities confirmed that several people were killed, but did not elaborate. Israeli and US media said a senior drone commander is believed to have been killed. Nevertheless, top officials in Tehran said they were unyielding and focused on retaliatory attacks. Parliament speaker and former Islamic Revolutionary Guard …

Who leads Iran? Assassinations leave leadership and command in question | US-Israel war on Iran News

Who leads Iran? Assassinations leave leadership and command in question | US-Israel war on Iran News

After the assassination of Ali Larijani, the powerful secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, questions have emerged over who will lead the country. Larijani was one of the government’s most prominent faces, who had stepped into the spotlight after the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top military and political figures by Israel and the US, which began attacking Iran on February 28. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Mojtaba Khamenei has been announced as his father’s successor as supreme leader. But US officials claim that he is wounded, and analysts say he has never held an executive role. That has left observers wondering what the chain of command looks like in Tehran, and who the most powerful figures in the country are. Influential figures For now, analysts said it wasn’t completely clear who would succeed Larijani. Historian Reza H Akbari, who is also an analyst on Iran at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, said that while there are mechanisms and constitutional processes in place, specific …

Iran launches ‘revenge’ missile attack on Israel after assassinations | US-Israel war on Iran News

Iran launches ‘revenge’ missile attack on Israel after assassinations | US-Israel war on Iran News

Iran continues to face a daily onslaught of US and Israeli air attacks in Tehran and across the country. Iran has fired deadly cluster missiles at central Israel in what it says is “revenge” for Israel’s assassination of its security chief Ali Larijani, as the war the United States and Israel triggered against Iran rages towards a third week. The attack overnight on Tuesday used multiple-warhead missiles that can better evade defence systems, killing two people in Israel’s Ramat Gan area near Tel Aviv. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Falling shrapnel injured several others and caused significant property damage, including at a Tel Aviv train station, according to Israeli media reports. In a statement, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the attack exacted “revenge for the blood of martyr Dr. Ali Larijani and his companions”. Iran will hold funerals on Wednesday for Larijani as well as Gholamreza Soleimani, head of the Basij paramilitary force, who were both killed in Israeli air strikes. Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Ramallah in the …

Armed man killed trying to enter Trump Mar-a-Lago club

Armed man killed trying to enter Trump Mar-a-Lago club

A Secret Service agent guards the Mar-a-Lago home of former President Donald Trump on March 21, 2023 in Palm Beach, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images Authorities fatally shot a man who was carrying a shotgun and a gas cannister as he tried to enter President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida early Sunday morning, the Secret Service said. Trump was at the White House at the time of the incident. The president maintains a residence at Mar-a-Lago, and frequently dines and hosts events at the Palm Beach club. The man, who was in his early 20s, was shot by Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County Sheriff deputy at around 1:30 a.m. ET after entering the secure perimeter around Mar-a-Lago near its north gate and then raising the shotgun at an officer, authorities said. Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw told reporters at a press conference on Sunday that “a deputy and two Secret Service agents on the detail went to that area to investigate.” “They confronted a white male [who] was carrying …

Armed Man Shot and Killed After Entering Secure Perimeter of Mar-A-Lago, Secret Service Says

Armed Man Shot and Killed After Entering Secure Perimeter of Mar-A-Lago, Secret Service Says

WASHINGTON (AP) — An armed man drove into the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida, before being shot and killed early Sunday morning, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service. Although Trump often spends weekends at his resort, he was at the White House when the breach occurred around 1:30 a.m. The man had a gas can and a shotgun, authorities said. Investigators identified him as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina, according to the FBI, and authorities said his family had recently reported him missing. He’s believed to have purchased his shotgun while driving south, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, and a box for the weapon was later discovered in the man’s vehicle. Investigators have not identified a motive. However, Trump has faced threats to his life before, including two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign. The investigation is ongoing The man entered the north gate of the property as another vehicle was exiting and was confronted by two Secret Service agents and a …

4 Takeaways From Melania Trump’s New Movie

4 Takeaways From Melania Trump’s New Movie

WASHINGTON (AP) — The new documentary “Melania” opens on a close-up of the trademark stilettos of first lady Melania Trump as she walks the halls of Mar-a-Lago, her Palm Beach home, in early January 2025, following her as she climbs into a dark SUV for the short drive to the airport and a flight aboard her husband’s personal plane to New York and their Trump Tower penthouse home. The movie, which stretches nearly two hours, is a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the first lady’s life during the 20 days before she resumed the role last year. The first lady, who is known to fiercely protect her privacy, had film crews follow her in Palm Beach, Florida; New York City and Washington, during that window to show her transition from a private citizen to public figure to an audience that mostly regards her as kind of a mystery. “With this film, I want to show the American people my journey,” she says in the documentary, which opened Friday in theaters in the U.S. and around the world. …