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    Trump threatens to call national emergency in Washington DC over Ice cooperation – US politics live

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    Welcome to our live coverage of US politics.Donald Trump has threatened to call a national emergency and federalize Washington DC after the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said its police would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), whose agents have been taking illegal suspects into custody and have been accused of racially profiling people in doing so.The US president took charge of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) on 11 August for 30 days, activating the National Guard and deploying federal officers in what he framed as a crackdown on crime and homelessness but what was widely seen as another example of federal overreach.It is true that Washington DC has struggled with the scourge of gun violence, but its violent crime rate is at a 30-year low, much lower than that of cities in many red states.Trump’s 30-day emergency declaration has expired but over 2,000 national guard troops are patrolling the district – reportedly including several hundred sent from Republican-run states. It is unclear when their mission will end.Bowser issued an executive order at the beginning of the month requiring ongoing coordination between local law enforcement and various federal partners, though Ice was notably excluded.Trump blamed “Radical Left Democrats” for pressuring Bowser to inform the government about the non-cooperation with Ice, adding that if the police halted cooperation with Ice, “Crime would come roaring back.”He said: “To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”We will have more on this and other US politics stories throughout the day so stick with us.In mid-June, Donald Trump extended a deadline for TikTok to find a (non-Chinese) buyer or face a ban in the US. That extension is due to expire on Wednesday.The US is “very close” to a deal with China to settle their dispute over TikTok, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said earlier today.“On the TikTok deal itself, we’re very close to resolving the issue,” he told reporters as he arrived at Spain’s foreign ministry for the second day of talks with Chinese officials.Congress has approved a US ban on the popular video-sharing platform unless its parent company, ByteDance, sold its controlling stake.After initially calling for TikTok to be banned during his first term, Trump has so far extended the deadline three times during his second term.A federal law requiring TikTok’s sale or a ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.But the Republican president, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media and who has said he is fond of TikTok, put the ban on pause.China and the US – the world’s two biggest economies – have agreed to several 90-day pauses on a series of increasing reciprocal tariffs, staving off an all-out trade war.Donald Trump said on Friday he’ll send the National Guard to address crime concerns in Memphis, Tennessee, his latest test of the limits of presidential power by using military force in American cities.Speaking on Fox News, Trump said “the mayor is happy” and “the governor is happy” about the pending deployment. Calling the city “deeply troubled,” he said “we’re going to fix that just like we did Washington.”Paul Young, the Democratic Memphis mayor, had signaled the intervention was coming. “Earlier this week I was informed that the government and the president were considering deploying the national guard,” he said on Thursday, while requesting “financial resources for intervention and prevention” rather than military deployment.“I did not ask for the National Guard and I don’t think it’s the way to drive down crime,” Young, who ran for office on a tough-on-crime platform, told a news conference the following day.The Guardian US’ democracy editor, Kira Lerner, has explored the ways in which Trump’s Washington takeover led to the indiscriminate detention of immigrants, the rise of racial profiling and the arrests of large numbers of people for low-level crimes. Here is an extract from her story, published on 10 September 2025, the day Trump’s direct control of Washington DC’s police force ended:
    A White House official said on Monday that 2,120 people have been arrested since the start of Trump’s takeover, 20 known gang members had been arrested and 214 firearms had been seized. Although violent crime has decreased during this period, Washington residents say the impact has not been worth the overbearing law enforcement presence.
    Federal agents with numerous agencies, including Immigrations and customs enforcement (Ice), Customs and Border Protection, Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Park Service, Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the US marshals service have all been activated across the city. Often a single arrest will involve officers from multiple agencies and the local Metropolitan police department (MPD).
    Though the deployment of national guard troops from six states was the most high-profile aspect of the 30 days, the camo-clad troops, who are now armed, were largely focused on patrolling tourist sites and Union Station, the city’s main train station. With little work to be done, some were instructed to do landscaping and other “beautification” tasks …
    Washington DC residents have pushed back against what many call an occupation, which is deeply unpopular in the largely Democratic city. On Saturday, thousands marched from Malcolm X park in Northwest DC to the White House in an event organized by Free DC, a community organization working to protect the city’s Home Rule that has trained thousands of people since 11 August.
    Welcome to our live coverage of US politics.Donald Trump has threatened to call a national emergency and federalize Washington DC after the city’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said its police would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), whose agents have been taking illegal suspects into custody and have been accused of racially profiling people in doing so.The US president took charge of the city’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) on 11 August for 30 days, activating the National Guard and deploying federal officers in what he framed as a crackdown on crime and homelessness but what was widely seen as another example of federal overreach.It is true that Washington DC has struggled with the scourge of gun violence, but its violent crime rate is at a 30-year low, much lower than that of cities in many red states.Trump’s 30-day emergency declaration has expired but over 2,000 national guard troops are patrolling the district – reportedly including several hundred sent from Republican-run states. It is unclear when their mission will end.Bowser issued an executive order at the beginning of the month requiring ongoing coordination between local law enforcement and various federal partners, though Ice was notably excluded.Trump blamed “Radical Left Democrats” for pressuring Bowser to inform the government about the non-cooperation with Ice, adding that if the police halted cooperation with Ice, “Crime would come roaring back.”He said: “To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”We will have more on this and other US politics stories throughout the day so stick with us. More

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      Kathy Hochul backs Zohran Mamdani in race for New York City mayor

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      Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani in his run for mayor of New York City, a major boost for the democratic socialist.Writing in a New York Times opinion piece, Hochul said: “In the four years since I took office, one of my foundational beliefs has been the importance of the office of New York governor working hand in hand with the mayor of New York City for the betterment of the 8.3 million residents we both represent.”“The question of who will be the next mayor is one I take extremely seriously and to which I have devoted a great deal of thought. Tonight I am endorsing Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.”In a post on X linking to the column she wrote: “New York City deserves a mayor who will stand up to Donald Trump and make life more affordable for New Yorkers. “That’s @ZohranKMamdani.”Mamdani welcomed the endorsement in a post on X. “I’m grateful for the Governor’s support in unifying our party, her resolve in standing up to Trump, and her focus on making New York affordable. I look forward to the great work we will accomplish together. Our movement is only growing stronger,” he wrote.The endorsement suggests that centrist Democrats, some of whom have been wary of Mamdani’s campaign, may be willing to back the 33-year-old.Mamdani won the Democratic primary in June, overcoming the establishment candidate Andrew Cuomo with progressive promises to freeze rent, introduce a $30 minimum wage and increase rent on the wealthiest New Yorkers.With a message of change and a savvy social media presence, Mamdani turned out thousands of new voters, and polling on the mayoral election shows him comfortably ahead of Cuomo, who is now running as an independent candidate. Mamdani also has a large lead over Eric Adams, the unpopular incumbent mayor who is also running as an independent, and the Republican Curtis Sliwa.Yet Hochul, the most powerful Democrat in New York, had resisted endorsing Mamdani or any other candidate for mayor, telling journalists in June: “Obviously, there’s areas of difference in our positions.”The governor appears to have come round, however, having met with Mamdani in recent weeks. Hochul, who is running for re-election next year, released her first campaign ad in late August, casting herself as a straight-talking “fighter” who will stand up to Donald Trump.Mamdani’s victory has inspired more than 10,000 progressives to consider a run for office, the Guardian reported in August, and earned big-name endorsements from progressive Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during the campaign.Yet the center of the party has appeared wary. Senior Democratic figures in the state, including the senator Kirsten Gillibrand and the House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, are yet to endorse anyone for mayor.Chuck Schumer, the influential Senate majority leader who represents New York, has also yet to endorse in the race. Schumer is a staunch supporter of Israel, while Mamdani has repeatedly criticized the country’s war on Gaza, and described the situation there as a genocide, as have many human rights groups, including some from Israel. More

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      Trump insists foreign workers are ‘welcome’ days after arrest of hundreds of South Koreans

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      President Donald Trump has said foreign workers sent to the United States are “welcome” and he doesn’t want to “frighten off” investors, 10 days after hundreds of South Koreans were arrested at a work site in Georgia.In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “I don’t want to frighten off or disincentivize investment.“I want them to bring their people of expertise for a period of time to teach and train our people how to make these very unique and complex products, as they phase out of our Country, and back into their land,” he wrote.About 475 people, mostly South Korean nationals, were arrested at the construction site of an electric vehicle battery factory, operated by Hyundai-LG, in the south-eastern US state of Georgia on 4 September.Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials alleged South Koreans had overstayed their visas or held permits that didn’t allow them to perform manual labor.The Georgia raid was the largest single-site operation conducted since Trump launched a sweeping immigration crackdown across the country.Though the US decided against deportation, images of the workers being chained and handcuffed during the raid caused widespread alarm in South Korea. Seoul repatriated the workers on Friday.The South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, called the raid “bewildering” and warned on Thursday that the raid could discourage future investment.In his post, Trump described the circumstances for temporarily allowing foreign experts into the US to build “extremely complex products”.“Chips, Semiconductors, Computers, Ships, Trains, and so many other products that we have to learn from others how to make, or, in many cases, relearn because we used to be great at it, but not anymore,” Trump wrote.“We welcome them, we welcome their employees, and we are willing to proudly say we will learn from them, and do even better than them at their own ‘game,’ sometime in the not too distant future,” the president added.Korea’s trade unions have called on Trump to issue an official apology. More

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      Trump news at a glance: president claims people on ‘the left’ are under investigation after Kirk shooting

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      As officials continue to investigate the motives of Tyler Robinson – the 22-year-old accused of shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk – many Republicans have been quick to lash out at the political left.Allies of Donald Trump have accused liberals of fomenting anti-conservative vitriol that would encourage violence – even as the president and his allies have often invoked violent imagery against their opponents.“The problem is on the left,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “A lot of people that you would traditionally say are on the left … [are] already under investigation.”It comes after Trump declined to call for the US to come together as a way of fixing the country’s divisions, preferring to cast “vicious and horrible” radicals on the left of US politics as the sole problem.Shooting suspect had ‘very different ideology’ than conservative family, says CoxThe Utah governor, Spencer Cox, has told national talkshows that the man suspected of killing Kirk was living with and in a relationship with a person “transitioning from male to female”.Cox stopped short of saying that officials had determined the suspect’s partner’s alleged status was a factor in Kirk’s killing.Cox said on Sunday that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson – Kirk’s accused killer – was not cooperating with authorities. But authorities were gathering information from family members and people around him, Cox said.Read the full storyTrump officials reportedly ask Congress for $58m in security after Kirk shootingThe Trump administration is asking Congress to approve an additional $58m for security services to protect the members of the executive and judicial branches after the killing of Charlie Kirk, multiple outlets report.The government also supported adding more money to protect members of Congress, but they deferred to the legislative branch on further steps.Read the full storyRubio in Israel for talks to limit diplomatic damage over Qatar strikesThe US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has held talks in Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu aimed at limiting the diplomatic fallout to both countries by Israel’s attempt to assassinate Hamas leaders in Qatar, its continued demolition of Gaza and the accelerated expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.“This alliance has never been stronger,” Netanyahu told reporters. “It’s as strong, as durable as the stones in the Western Wall that we just touched.”Part of Rubio’s mission on this two-day visit is to convey Donald Trump’s irritation at Tuesday’s Israeli missile strike on Doha that was aimed at Hamas leadership but killed their aides and a Qatari security officer.Read the full storyFlorida vaccine mandate rollback falters after Trump criticismFlorida’s health department is walking back the scale of the state surgeon general’s commitment to eliminate all vaccine mandates.After surgeon general Joseph Ladapo said mandates were akin to “slavery”, Florida’s Republican-dominated legislature have so far shown reluctance to get involved. Donald Trump denounced the edict as “a tough stance” less than 48 hours after it was issued and there was a furious backlash from medical experts to the plan for Florida to become the first state not to require vaccinations for school-age children.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      A sense of apprehension hung over Los Angeles this week in the wake of a supreme court ruling that paved the way for federal agents to conduct warrantless raids and target people based on their skin color, accent or job.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened 13 September 2025. More

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      Jim Edgar, two-term former Republican governor of Illinois, dies aged 79

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      Former Illinois governor Jim Edgar, a popular two-term Republican credited with guiding the state into a period of greater financial stability in the 1990s, died on Sunday, according to his family. He was 79.Edgar died from complications related to his treatment for pancreatic cancer, his family said in a statement. He had disclosed his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.“We are deeply grateful for the love, support and kindness so many have shown to Jim and our family over these last several months,” the statement said.A former state legislator who was Illinois secretary of state for a decade, Edgar was elected governor in 1990. The moderate Republican easily won re-election, including winning heavily Democratic Cook county, where Chicago is located.He remained a party statesman and adviser, and grew uneasy with the Republican party’s shift to the right. Edgar was among high-profile Republicans who did not support Donald Trump’s presidency, joining a campaign to support Kamala Harris’s bid for president last year called Republicans for Harris.Born in small-town Oklahoma, Edgar was much more reserved than his flashy, charming predecessor, James R Thompson, who was the longest-serving governor in state history. At the time Edgar took office, the state was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and paying its bills months late.Amid a recession, Edgar pushed legislators to cut the state budget, making layoffs and cuts in popular programs. He also managed to fulfill his campaign promise of getting a temporary income tax surcharge made permanent, guaranteeing a stable source of money for public schools.“It wasn’t always pretty how it was done, but we got a lot done,” Edgar told the Associated Press in 1998. “We went after some pretty tough issues. We didn’t get them all, but we got most of them.”He surprised many political observers when he announced in 1997 that he would not seek a third term, considering his popularity. Republicans tried to draft him to run for office again, including bids for the US Senate and again for Illinois governor. But he did not accept.Edgar went on to teach and served as president emeritus of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, among other things.“By any standard, he was a Republican whose integrity guided his time in office and who managed one of the most successful periods in Illinois state government,” Bob Kustra, who served as Edgar’s lieutenant governor, said in a statement.JB Pritzker, the Illinois governor, said on Sunday that flags in the state would fly at half-staff in Edgar’s honor.“Now more than ever, we should channel that spirit and resolve to live as Governor Edgar did: with honesty integrity, and an enduring respect for all,” Pritzker, a Democrat, said in a statement. “He will live on in the incalculable number of lives he touched and in the stronger institutions he helped build.”Edgar is survived by his wife and two children.His relatives said details on funeral plans would follow in the coming days. More

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      Shooting suspect had ‘very different ideology’ than conservative family, Utah governor says

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      The Utah governor, Spencer Cox, on Sunday told national talkshows that the man suspected of killing Turning Point USA executive director Charlie Kirk was living with and in a relationship with a person “transitioning from male to female” as investigators continue exploring a possible motive in the attack.The Republican politician’s comments came four days after Kirk – a critic of gay and transgender rights – was shot to death from a distance with a rifle during an event at Utah Valley University shortly after asserting that “too many” trans people had committed mass shootings in the US. In reality, according to what the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive said to NBC News, only about a tenth of 1% of such cases over the previous decade have allegedly been carried out by trans people.Nonetheless, Cox stopped short of saying that officials had determined the suspect’s partner’s alleged status was a factor in Kirk’s killing.In comments to NBC’s Meet the Press, Cox said that Kirk’s accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was not cooperating with authorities. Yet authorities are gathering information from family members and people around him, Cox said.Cox said that what investigators had gathered showed Robinson “does come from a conservative family – but his ideology was very different than his family”.Citing the content of investigators’ interviews with people close to Robinson, Cox said “we do know that the [suspect’s] roommate … is a [partner] who is transitioning from male to female.“I will say that that person has been very cooperative with authorities” and was “shocked” by what had happened, Cox remarked to Meet the Press host Kristen Welker, referring to the roommate. “And … the why behind this … we’re all drawing lots of conclusions on how someone like this could be radicalized. And I think that those are important questions for us to ask and important questions for us to answer.”The governor did not elaborate on the evidence that investigators were relying on to establish Robinson’s relationship to his roommate with whom he shared an apartment in Washington county, Utah, about 260 miles from where Kirk was killed.Robinson’s arrest was announced on Friday after he surrendered to authorities to end a two-day manhunt in the wake of the 31-year-old Kirk’s killing.At the time of his arrest, Robinson was a third-year student in an electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College.Utah records show both of his parents are registered Republicans who voted in the 2024 election that gave Donald Trump, their party’s leader, a second presidency. But publicly available information offers little if any insight into Robinson’s personal beliefs.Cox made it a point to tell NBC that “friends that have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark internet … culture and these other dark places of the internet” where Robinson “was going deep”. The governor did not elaborate – though on Saturday, citing the work of law enforcement, he told the Wall Street Journal that “it’s very clear to us and to investigators that this was a person who was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”Cox also warned Meet the Press’s audience of the damage that the internet and social media sites, which he said are run by “conflict entrepreneurs is doing to all of us”.“These companies … have figured out how to hack our brains, get us addicted to outrage … and get us to hate each other,” Cox said.In a separate interview on Sunday, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Cox to elaborate on his comments to the Journal.“That information comes from the people around him, from his family members and his friends – that’s how we got that information,” Cox told CNN. “There’s so much more that we’re learning, and so much more that we will learn.”Bash also asked Cox whether the roommate’s status was relevant to the investigation and a potential motive. The governor replied, “That is what we are trying to figure out right now.”“I know everybody wants to know exactly why, and point the finger,” Cox said. “And I totally get that. I do, too.”Yet Cox said he had not read all interview transcripts compiled by investigators, “so I just want to be careful … and so we’ll have to wait and see what comes out.”Cox said he expected the public would learn more when formal charges were filed against Robinson. The governor said he expected that to happen on Tuesday.After Robinson’s arrest, Utah officials said that inscriptions were found on bullet casings within a rifle found near the scene where Kirk was killed.One reportedly read: “Hey fascist! Catch!” Another purportedly read, “Oh, Bella ciao” – a reference to an Italian anti-fascist resistance song. A third reportedly said: “If you read this, you are gay, LMAO.”During his CNN appearance, Cox also said that investigators were looking into a potential note left by Robinson.Officials at the group chat app Discord recently said that they had identified an account on the platform associated with Robinson – but found no evidence that the suspect planned the incident on the platform.The spokesperson for Discord did say that there were “communications between the suspect’s roommate and a friend after the shooting, where the roommate was recounting the contents of a note the suspect had left elsewhere”.When asked about the note, Cox said that “those are things that are still being processed for accuracy and verification”. He suggested additional details about the note could be “included in charging documents”.On Saturday, the New York Times reported that Robinson joked in Discord messages after the FBI released suspect photos during the manhunt that his “doppelganger” was the one who had fatally shot Kirk. A group chat member joked about turning him over the custody of the FBI to collect a $100,000 reward being offered for information leading to an arrest in the case, to which Robinson allegedly replied: “Only if I get a cut.”The FBI director, Kash Patel, posted a link Sunday on social media to an article that the conservative Fox News network published a day earlier that first relayed details of Robinson’s alleged partner, citing senior-level agency officials. The FBI on Saturday declined to comment to the Guardian on that report and other similar ones.In an unrelated matter from three years earlier, Kirk had attacked Cox on social media over the topic of trans women in sports and called for him to be expelled from the Republican party.Members of both of the US’s major political parties on Sunday reiterated condemnations of Kirk’s killing and political violence in general.“Every American is harmed by this – it’s an attack on an individual and an attack on a country whose entire purpose, entire way of being is that we can resolve what we need to resolve through a political process,” Pete Buttigieg, a Democrat who served as the US transportation secretary during Joe Biden’s presidency, said to Welker.Republican US senator Lindsey Graham, meanwhile, told Welker: “What I’m asking everybody to do is not to resort to violence to settle your political differences.” More

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      Utah campus open carry permit under fresh scrutiny after Kirk shooting

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      As authorities at the federal and state levels parse the details of the fatal shooting of far-right activist Charlie Kirk at a university in Utah, a recently passed state bill that allows people with concealed-carry permits to carry firearms openly on college campuses has drawn fresh scrutiny.Utah has allowed for permitless open and concealed carry of weapons since 2021. But before the passage of HB 128, firearms had to be concealed when carried on college campuses. The law allowed people with the proper permit to carry them openly.When the law passed in August, university staff voiced concerns about what carrying could mean for classroom emergencies that might require students to act as armed responders and their presence in laboratories where harmful and potent chemicals were stored.While it’s unclear whether the suspected shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was legally allowed to own the hunting rifle used in the shooting, or have one on a university campus, the proximity between the bill’s passing and the shooting has pushed the law into headlines across the US.The bill did not come in a vacuum, but added to Utah’s already second amendment-friendly legislative landscape. The state doesn’t have extreme risk protection orders (Erpo), known as red-flag laws, which allow people such as police officers and family members to petition a judge to have someone’s firearms temporarily taken away. It is one of 29 states that allows people to carry concealed firearms without a permit. It has a law aiming to get guns out of the hands of people in crisis, but requires people to flag themselves in the federal background check system.When Utah lawmakers have addressed campus safety, their efforts have typically centered on K-12 schools, where there is a greater expectation and need for campuses to be largely closed to the public.There, in lieu of policies restricting gun access and training requirements for prospective concealed-carry permit applicants, the state has leaned into legislation meant to make it harder for shooters to enter and move freely around schools – for example, by adding doors with automatic locks, surveillance cameras and fencing. This approach, known as school hardening, is to deter shooters from entering schools and responding quickly to stop them and secure students.For example, HB 119, which passed last year, incentivizes K-12 teachers to get training so they can keep a firearm in their classroom. HB 84, a sweeping piece of legislation passed in 2024, requires classrooms to have panic devices and schools to have at least one armed person – be it a school resource officer or security guard – on campus daily.Advocates of Utah’s gun laws have argued that making sure guns are easily accessible can serve as a deterrent, whether to would-be home invaders, carjackers or shooters hoping to take advantage of “soft targets” like malls, campuses and grocery stores, and allow for armed responses if some start shooting.“We sort of take the view here that the second amendment is very broad and a permit to carry a concealed weapon is just one obstacle in being able to exercise that right. There’s a mentality that there should be as few obstacles as possible,” said Johnny Richardson, a Utah-based attorney and former editor at the Utah Law Review.“In effect, there’s a belief that gun control laws will impede access to those who are already law-abiding and put them at an unfair disadvantage to those who aren’t,” he continued.While permitless carrying may have some effect on deterring offences such as robberies, it is inadequate in the face of grievance and politically driven violence, said Brandon del Pozo, an assistant professor of medicine and health policy at Brown University.“The deterrence effect of concealed carry only applies to rational actors. And you get to a point in political extremism where you’re not dealing with rational people,” he said.Before he went to Brown, del Pozo spent 19 years in the New York police department, and four years as the chief of police for Burlington, Vermont, where, like in Utah, permits to carry and licenses to sell firearms are not required. Del Pozo says that the circulation of guns was on his mind while planning safety for rallies and the annual city marathon, which attracts thousands of people. Through these experiences, he’s found that cities and states where many residents are armed in public can fail to account for the large presence of concealed guns and to plan to provide an accompanying level of screening.“In places like Utah where there’s going to be a lot of guns in circulation, you have to decide when you’re going to carve out spaces where people are screened for guns,” he added.“And if you’re a small police department, it’s hard to secure something outdoors. But if you’re coming to a provocative political rally, you need to be screened.”In a press conference following the shooting, Utah Valley’s campus police chief, Jeff Long, told reporters that there had been six officers assigned to the Charlie Kirk event, which drew a crowd of about 3,000 people. His department coordinated with Kirk’s personal security detail, he said.Students who attended the event noted that there were no metal detectors or staff members checking attendees’ bags, according to the Associated Press.

      This article was amended on 14 September 2025 to clarify the distinction between open carry and concealed carry on Utah college campuses. More

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      Teen Colorado school shooting suspect reportedly fixated on Columbine attack

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      A teenager suspected in a shooting attack at a suburban Denver high school that left two students in critical condition appeared fascinated with previous mass shootings including Columbine and expressed neo-Nazi views online, according to experts.Since December, Desmond Holly, 16, had been active on an online forum where users watch videos of killings and violence, mixed in with content on white supremacism and antisemitism, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism said in a report.Holly shot himself following Wednesday’s shooting at Evergreen high school in Jefferson county. He died of his injuries. It is still unclear how he selected his apparent victims. The county was also the scene of the 1999 Columbine high school massacre that killed 14 people.Holly’s TikTok accounts contained white supremacist symbols, the Anti-Defamation League said, and the name of his most recent account included a reference to a popular white supremacist slogan. The account was unavailable on Friday. TikTok said accounts associated with Holly had been banned.Holly’s family could not be reached. The Associated Press left a message at a telephone number associated with the house that police searched after the shooting.A spokesperson for the Jefferson county sheriff’s office, Mark Techmeyer, declined to comment on the ADL’s findings or discuss its investigation into the shooting. The office previously said Holly was radicalized by an unspecified “extremist network” but released no details.Two recent suspects in school shootings were active on the so-called “gore forum” that Holly used called Watch People Die, according to the ADL. Holly appears to have opened his account in the month in between shootings in Madison, Wisconsin, and Nashville, Tennessee, the ADL said.A few days before Wednesday’s shooting, Holly posted a TikTok video posing in a similar way to how the Wisconsin shooter posed before killing two people during in December. He included a photo of the Wisconsin shooter in a post in which Holly wore black T-shirt with “WRATH” written on the front.He also posted videos showing how he made the shirt that was like the one worn by a gunman in the Columbine shooting, the ADL said.“There is a through-line between those attacks,” said Oren Segal, the ADL’s senior vice-president of counter-extremism and intelligence. “They’re telling us there is a through-line because they are referencing each other.”Watch People Die administrators said in an email that Holly lied about his age in order to access the site and was a not a very active user of it, with only seven comments. The email said the site is “adamantly pro-Israel” but does not silence opposing viewpoints. It referred to Holly and the shooters in Wisconsin and Tennessee as “unhinged losers”.Holly was also active on TikTok’s “True Crime Community”, where it says users have a fascination with mass murderers and serial killers, the ADL said.Some TikTok posts shared by the ADL show one user encouraging Holly to be a “hero”, a term it says white supremacists use to refer to successfully ideologically motivated attackers.The person also told Holly to get a patch with a Nazi-era symbol that was worn by the men who carried out the 2019 attack on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the 2022 attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.Holly posted a photo of two patches that he had but said the Velcro on the back had fallen off.“I’m gonna use stronger glue when I fix it,” he said.The Colorado school shooting happened on the same day that the far-right political activist, Charlie Kirk, was shot dead during an event in Utah.Kirk’s alleged killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was similarly an avid internet user.Robinson – whose motives are still unclear – grew up in a gun-loving Republican home. He is reportedly not yet cooperating with law enforcement. Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, said on Sunday that “friends that have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark internet … culture and these other dark places of the internet” where Robinson “was going deep”.Ammunition left at the scene of Kirk’s death had engravings related to internet memes, including lyrics from an anti-fascist Italian song, the words “hey fascist! CATCH!” and an obscure sexual meme.José Olivares contributed reporting More

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      Iowa official defies governor’s order to fly flags at half-staff for Charlie Kirk

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      A local government official in Iowa has said he would refuse to comply with orders from the Republican state governor to fly flags at half-staff in honor of rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot on Wednesday.Jon Green, the chair of the Johnson county board of supervisors in Iowa, announced on Thursday on social media that he would not follow governor Kim Reynolds’s directive to fly flags at half-staff for Kirk through Sunday evening.“I condemn Kirk’s killing, regardless of who pulled the trigger or why,” Green, who is a Democrat, wrote. “But I will not grant Johnson county honors to a man who made it his life’s mission to denigrate so many of the constituents I have sworn an oath to protect – and who did so much to harm not only the marginalized – but also to degrade the fabric of our body politic.”Green told the Gazette newspaper that his stand was motivated by Reynolds’ failure to issue a similar order after other prominent cases of gun violence. For instance, Iowa did not honor Minnesota’s Democratic house speaker Melissa Hortman when she was shot to death alongside her husband, Mark, at their home in June in what investigators suspect was an act of political violence.The announcement from Green did say that Johnson county flags would fly at half-staff on Friday in remembrance of those killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks 24 years earlier. And he also paid tribute to two students at a high school in Evergreen, Colorado, who were shot and wounded at their campus, apparently by a peer who died by suicide on the same day of Kirk’s killing.“Johnson county flags will fly as usual,” Green added. “I will accept any consequence, whether legal or electoral, for my decision. It is mine alone.”Reynolds responded by criticizing Green’s decision on social media, saying that it was “disgraceful that a locally elected official has chosen to put politics above human decency during a time like this”.In a statement given to the Des Moines Register, Democratic Iowa state senator Zach Wahls, who represents parts of Johnson county, said he disagreed with Green’s decision to not lower the flags.“I don’t think that’s the appropriate decision,” Wahls said, adding: “I think they should comply with the governor’s instructions on this topic.”However, supervisor Mandi Remington, another Democratic member of the Johnson county board of supervisors in Iowa, supported Green’s decision. She told the Des Moines Register: “While I condemn political violence, lowering our county’s flags is an honor that should reflect our community’s values.”“Charlie Kirk spent his career working to marginalize LGBTQ+ people, undermine women’s rights, and divide our country along lines of hate and exclusion,” Remington said.“Johnson county is home to a diverse community, including many who were the direct targets of Kirk’s rhetoric. To honor him with our flags would be to dismiss the harm he caused to our neighbors and constituents.“Supervisor Green’s stance affirms that our county will not elevate voices that work to strip others of dignity, freedom, and belonging. I believe this decision is a principled one, rooted in respect for the people of Johnson county and the constitutional values we are sworn to protect.”Green’s defiance of Reynolds came amid a coordinated effort to clamp down on critical commentary about Kirk, leading people across the US to either be fired from or disciplined at their jobs.According to what Green told HuffPost, he is “entirely confident” he has acted within his rights, saying has not satisfied any of the conditions under Iowa state law which could enable Reynolds to oust him from his post.“The governor has no authority to remove me from office,” Green remarked to the outlet. “I’m sure if she thought she had some legal basis to do anything to me, she wouldn’t have posted on [social media]. She would’ve sent the law for me.”On Saturday, the Kirk-founded Turning Point USA announced that a memorial service would be held for him on 21 September at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals play their home games. More