Tributes paid to 2 Israeli embassy employees killed in Washington DC as world leaders condemn taking pictures – newest

My colleagues have put collectively this video the place witnesses recount the taking pictures of engaged couple Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky as they had been leaving an occasion on the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington final night time. The suspect approached a gaggle of 4 folks and opened hearth. Recognized as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, he was seen pacing outdoors the museum earlier than the taking pictures. He walked into the museum after and was detained by occasion safety. Social media footage exhibits the suspect shouting: “Free, free Palestine” after being arrested.

The CIA stated its safety personnel took an individual into custody early this morning after an engagement outdoors the intelligence company’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, Reuters studies.

A CIA spokesperson confirmed safety employees “engaged a person” outdoors the primary gates, including the person was in custody.

The spokesperson declined to say whether or not gunfire struck the suspect or to reveal every other particulars.

NBC Information reported earlier that the particular person was shot, citing an individual with information of the matter.

A CIA spokesperson earlier advised NBC there was a “security incident” outdoors CIA headquarters, however didn’t affirm the taking pictures.

There was a safety incident that regulation enforcement responded to outdoors CIA Headquarters.

The primary gate is at the moment closed, staff ought to search various routes. Further particulars shall be made obtainable as applicable.

Fairfax county police advised NBC that they responded round 4am ET to the 900 block of Dolley Madison Boulevard to assist the CIA with visitors management after the taking pictures. There are at the moment no street closures, the police division stated.

In a put up on X, the Israeli international ministry stated that following the killings of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lichinsky, Israeli flags on the international ministry and all over the world have been lowered to half-mast in mourning.

Israel’s minister of economic system and business, Nir Barkat, arrived on the scene the place two Israeli embassy employees had been shot useless close to the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC bearing flowers:

Lee Zeldin, Trump’s Environmental Safety Company chief, has stated he was “heartbroken” to study of the dying of Sarah Milgrim, one of many two Israeli embassy staffers killed final night time in Washington.

Zeldin, who’s Jewish, wrote on X:

I simply met Sarah two weeks in the past in my workplace at EPA HQ. She struck me as a younger lady crammed with life and positivity.

The US vice-president, JD Vance, has stated “antisemitic violence has no place in the United States” following the killings of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington final night time. He posted on X:

My coronary heart breaks for Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who had been murdered final night time on the Capital Jewish Museum. Antisemitic violence has no place in america. We’re praying for his or her households and all of our pals on the Israeli Embassy, the place the 2 victims labored.

Controversial Israeli thinker Ronen Shoval has posted a tribute to Yaron Lischinsky, one of many two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington final night time, who he says was as soon as a pupil of his.

Shoval, the founding father of the Zionist motion Im Tirtzu and dean of the Argaman Institute for Superior Research in Jerusalem, wrote on X:

The beloved Yaron Lishansky was my pupil on the Argaman Institute, a graduate of the Exodus program. He was a Christian, a fantastic lover of Israel, who immigrated to Israel, served within the military, and determined to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and Zionism. An exquisite life story of a person with ethical readability, a Righteous Among the many Nations in our technology, who determined to tie his life to the destiny of the Jewish folks.

Israel’s international minister, Gideon Sa’ar, has accused unnamed European officers of “toxic antisemitic incitement” he blamed for a hostile local weather by which the deadly taking pictures of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington befell, Reuters studies.

Israel has confronted a blizzard of criticism from Europe of late because it has intensified its navy marketing campaign in Gaza, the place humanitarian teams have warned that an 11-week Israeli blockade on assist provides has left the Palestinian territory on the point of famine.

Sa’ar didn’t identify any international locations or officers however stated the local weather of hostility in direction of Israel was behind the taking pictures of the embassy staffers outdoors a Jewish museum in Washington yesterday.

Sa’ar, at a information convention in Jerusalem, stated the assault was a direct final result of “toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world” since Hamas militants’ cross-border assault on Israel on 7 October 2023.

“There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement to this murder,” he stated. “This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and organisations, especially from Europe.”

Saar declined to determine which chief or officers he had in thoughts.

However his remarks got here after more and more robust phrases from western allies of Israel together with France and Britain, which joined Canada this week in warning of potential “concrete action” towards Israel over its battle in Gaza.

Sa’ar stated the “global atmosphere” towards Israel had worsened sharply for the reason that 7 October 2023 Hamas assault that killed 1,200 folks and noticed 251 taken as hostages again into Gaza.

Since then, Israel’s navy assault on Gaza has killed greater than 53,000 Palestinian folks (although the true quantity is estimated to be a lot greater) and laid waste to the densely populated territory, drawing mass protests the world over starting from US college campuses to the streets of European cities.

Final yr, the worldwide court docket of justice ordered Israel to take motion to stop alleged acts of genocide in Gaza after a case introduced by South Africa that stirred deep anger in Israel.

Sa’ar claimed: “These libels about genocide, crimes against humanity and murdering babies pave the way exactly for such murders.”

You possibly can comply with our newest reporting on the disaster in Gaza right here:

Two employees members of the Israeli embassy in Washington – a younger couple on the verge of turning into engaged – had been fatally shot on Wednesday night whereas leaving an occasion at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested, police stated.

The assault was seen by officers in Israel and the US as the most recent act in a rising wave of antisemitism as Israel ramps up its offensive within the Gaza Strip, and as meals safety consultants have warned that Gaza dangers falling into famine until Israel’s blockade ends.

The Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, stated the male staffer had purchased a hoop this week with the intention of proposing subsequent week in Jerusalem.

Right here’s what we all know:

The violence occurred after the American Jewish Committee’s annual Younger Diplomats reception on the museum, the Related Press reported.

“This is a shocking act of violence and our community is holding each other tighter tonight,” Ted Deutch, the American Jewish Committee’s chief government, stated in an announcement early on Thursday. “At this painful moment, we mourn with the victims’ families, loved ones, and all of Israel. May their memories be for a blessing.”

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher had been contained in the museum after they heard gunshots and a person got here inside wanting distressed, they stated. Kalin stated folks got here to his assist and introduced him water, pondering he wanted assist, with out realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a purple keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, “Free Palestine,” Kalin stated.

“This event was about humanitarian aid,” Kalin stated. “How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.”

Final week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of many native non-profits in Washington awarded funding from a $500,000 grant program to extend its safety. The museum’s leaders had been involved as a result of it’s a Jewish group and has a brand new LGBTQ+ exhibit, in line with NBC4 Washington.

“We recognize that there are threats associated with this as well,” government director Beatrice Gurwitz advised the TV station. “And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.”

World reactions poured in Thursday within the hours after two employees members of the Israeli embassy in Washington had been shot and killed Wednesday night whereas leaving an occasion at a Jewish museum.

Authorities say the suspect yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested over the deaths of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.

The violence was condemned by world leaders, with US president Donald Trump describing the killings as “horrible”.

“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” Trump posted on social media early Thursday. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Thursday that he was “shocked” by the “horrific, antisemitic” taking pictures.

“We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel,” he stated in an announcement.

In the meantime, the British prime minister Keir Starmer stated that “antisemitism is an evil we must stamp out wherever it appears. My thoughts are with their colleagues, family and loved ones, and as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.”

Starmer’s spokesperson stated the federal government has “offered its full support to the Israeli embassy in London.”

French president Emmanuel Macron stated he has reached out to his Israeli counterpart within the wake of the killings in what the French chief referred to as “an antisemitic attack.”

German chancellor Friedrich Merz, in a put up on X, stated he was “shocked” by the information.

“Our thoughts are with their families,” Merz wrote. “At this stage we must assume an anti-Semitic motive. I condemn this heinous act in the strongest possible terms.”

A fee led by US Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. and tasked by president Donald Trump with investigating continual sickness is about to ship a report outlining its findings on Thursday, Reuters studies.

Trump signed an government order in February establishing the Make America Wholesome Once more Fee to research continual sickness and ship an motion plan to struggle childhood illnesses. Thursday’s report outlining the causes was due this week and shall be adopted by a method doc due in August.

The fee is collectively run by HHS and the White Home, with Kennedy serving as its chair and the Home Coverage Council chief as government director. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and different cupboard members sit on it, as do federal well being company chiefs and senior White Home officers.

Supporters of Kennedy’s Make America Wholesome Once more, or MAHA, motion for which the fee is called, stated they anticipated it to stipulate causes that they had lengthy blamed for the decline in American well being and sum up Kennedy’s accomplishments throughout his first 100 days within the job, however that it might convey no surprises.

“Nobody’s talked about any bombshells coming out or anything like that,” stated Jeff Hutt, who was nationwide discipline director of Kennedy’s presidential marketing campaign and now runs a gaggle supporting his meals and well being targets.

The report is more likely to define efforts Kennedy has already introduced, stated Hutt, together with finding out the security of vaccines, making modifications to the meals security course of, and eradicating some dyes and petroleum-based merchandise from the meals provide.

A former FBI counterintelligence agent turned whistleblower has claimed he tried to realize entry to Elon Musk in 2022 to warn the billionaire that he was the goal of a covert Russian marketing campaign looking for to infiltrate his interior circle, presumably to realize entry to delicate info.

Johnathan Buma, who was arrested by the FBI earlier this yr on a misdemeanor cost of exposing confidential info, stated in an interview that he tried – however in the end failed – to realize entry to Musk to personally transient and “inoculate” him towards “outreach from the Kremlin”.

Buma, who’s on bail and dwelling in Arizona after his 17 March arrest at New York’s Kennedy airport, spoke to each ZDF, the German broadcaster, and the Guardian. He has additionally not too long ago filed paperwork to run as a Democratic candidate for a congressional Home seat in Arizona.

The 48-year-old didn’t present particular particulars about why he believed Musk was being focused by Russian operatives, however stated it concerned people he believed had been being “placed” in Musk’s interior circle on the time and had been gaining affect with him.

“Those efforts were intense and they were ongoing,” he stated. “I can’t go into too much more detail.”

Musk, the world’s richest man, was not beneath investigation and was not suspected of wrongdoing, Buma stated.

Reporting by the Wall Road Journal signifies that Buma was not the one one who was involved about people who had been having access to Musk at the moment.

The Kremlin stated on Thursday {that a} report within the Wall Road Journal which stated US president Donald Trump had advised European leaders that President Vladimir Putin didn’t need to finish the battle in Ukraine contrasted with its personal information.

The Journal stated Trump had briefed European leaders after speaking to Putin by telephone on Monday and stated Putin wished to maintain preventing in Ukraine as a result of he thought he was successful.

“We know what Trump stated to Putin. We don’t know what Trump stated to the Europeans after that phone call. We know president Trump’s official statement. What we know contrasts with what was written in the article you mentioned,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov advised reporters.

Here’s a little bit extra element on Trump’s tax reduce invoice passing within the Home.

It handed in a 215-214 vote, with all the chamber’s Democrats and two Republicans voting towards it. A 3rd Republican voted “present.”

The package deal should additionally win approval within the Republican-controlled Senate earlier than Trump can signal it into regulation. The vote got here after a marathon push that stored lawmakers debating the invoice by means of two successive nights.

The 1,000-page laws would prolong company and particular person tax cuts handed in 2017 throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace, cancel many green-energy incentives handed by Democratic former president Joe Biden and tighten eligibility for well being and meals packages for the poor.

It additionally would fund Trump’s crackdown on immigration, including tens of hundreds of border guards and creating the capability to deport as much as 1 million folks every year.

Reuters studies:

With a slim 220-212 majority, Home Speaker Mike Johnson couldn’t afford to lose greater than a handful of votes from his aspect.

Republicans on the occasion’s proper flank had pushed for deeper spending cuts to minimize the funds affect, however they met resistance from centrists who fearful they might fall too closely on the 71 million low-income People enrolled within the Medicaid well being program.

Johnson made modifications to handle conservatives’ issues, pulling ahead a brand new work necessities for Medicaid recipients to take impact on the finish of 2026, two years sooner than earlier than. That may kick a number of million folks off this system, in line with CBO. The invoice additionally would penalize states that increase Medicaid sooner or later.

Johnson additionally expanded a deduction break for state and native tax funds, which was a precedence for a handful of centrist Republicans who characterize high-tax states like New York and California.

Democrats blasted the invoice as a disproportionately benefiting the rich whereas slicing advantages for working People. CBO discovered it might scale back earnings for the poorest 10% of US households and increase earnings for the highest 10%.

“This bill is a scam, a tax scam designed to steal from you, the American people, and give to Trump’s millionaire and billionaire friends,” Democratic Consultant Jim McGovern stated.

The Senate, the place Republicans maintain a 53-47 majority, will not be anticipated to take the invoice up till early June. Prime Senate Republicans have stated that chamber could make vital modifications to the invoice earlier than passing it.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending invoice handed the Republican-controlled Home of Representatives on Thursday, in a political victory for the president after months of Republican infighting over spending cuts and tax insurance policies.

The measure will now be scrutinised by lawmakers within the Senate. Extra as we get it.

Whats up and welcome to the US politics dwell weblog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I shall be bringing you the most recent information strains over the subsequent few hours.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending invoice cleared a vital hurdle on Thursday, because the Home of Representatives voted roughly alongside occasion strains to start a debate that will result in a vote on passage later within the morning.

The laws would prolong his signature 2017 tax cuts, create new tax breaks for tipped earnings and auto loans, finish many green-energy subsidies and increase spending on the navy and immigration enforcement, Reuters reported. It could additionally tighten eligibility for meals and well being packages that serve thousands and thousands of low-income People.

The proposed laws – which Trump nicknamed “one big beautiful bill” – would additionally add $3.8tn to the $36.2tn US debt burden over the subsequent decade, in line with the nonpartisan Congressional Finances Workplace.

Lawmakers voted 217-212 to start a ground debate on the laws throughout a uncommon pre-dawn session that featured choruses of cheers and boos between occasion members. A single Republican lawmaker, fiscal hawk Thomas Massie, joined Democrats in opposition.

They had been as a consequence of vote once more to cross the measure later within the morning and ship it on to the Republican-led Senate, which might most likely take weeks to behave.

For our most up-to-date story, see right here:

In different information:

• Donald Trump ambushed the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, by enjoying him a video that he falsely claimed proved genocide was being dedicated towards white folks beneath “the opposite of apartheid”. Ramaphosa – who earlier stated that he had come to Washington to “reset” the connection between the 2 international locations – refused to take the bait and advised that they “talk about it very calmly”.

• Ramaphosa expects Trump to go to South Africa throughout G2o assembly. His spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, advised South African TV station Newzroom Afrika that the Oval Workplace assembly was “an orchestrated show for the cameras” and that the “real business” of the journey was the bilateral closed-door assembly.

• Trump stated he’ll decide within the close to future about taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public, a transfer which he stated he’s giving “very serious consideration”. In a put up on Fact Social, Trump stated he’ll communicate with treasury secretary Scott Bessent; commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick; and federal housing finance director, William Pulte, about doing so.

• The Trump administration formally accepted the controversial present of a Boeing 747 jetliner from the federal government of Qatar, and directed the air drive to evaluate how shortly the aircraft might be upgraded for potential use as a brand new Air Drive One. The provide of the jet has set off a firestorm of bipartisan criticism of Trump, notably following the president’s go to to the nation final week to rearrange US enterprise offers.

• A federal decide dominated that the Division of Homeland Safety’s try to deport migrants to South Sudan was “unquestionably violative” of an injunction he had issued earlier. US district decide Brian E Murphy made the comment at an emergency listening to he had ordered in Boston following the Trump administration’s obvious deportation of eight folks to South Sudan, regardless of most of them being from different international locations. On Tuesday, Murphy dominated that the administration couldn’t let a gaggle of migrants being deported to South Sudan depart the custody of US immigration authorities.

• The justice division moved to cancel a settlement with Minneapolis that referred to as for an overhaul of its police division following the homicide of George Floyd, in addition to an identical settlement with Louisville, Kentucky, after the dying of Breonna Taylor, saying it doesn’t need to pursue the instances. The transfer exhibits how the civil rights division of the justice division is altering quickly beneath Donald Trump, dismantling Biden-era work and investigating range packages. It additionally comes amid strain on the suitable to recast Floyd’s homicide, undermine range efforts and outline liberal-run cities like Minneapolis as crime-ridden.

• The US military stated it has no plans to acknowledge Trump’s birthday on 14 June when he presides over a part of the military’s celebrations of its 250th anniversary. Trump, who is popping 79 on the identical day, will play an enormous function within the celebrations, which can value between $25m and $45m, will see the military maintain a parade down Washington’s Structure Avenue, one of many most important thoroughfares that cuts by means of the capital. The parade was not a part of the unique planning for the 14 June celebrations and was added this yr, stoking criticism from Democratic lawmakers and others that Trump has hijacked the occasion.