A potential running mate for Donald Trump in the US election has continued to defend shooting dead her family’s puppy after saying the animal was “extremely dangerous”.

South Dakota governor Kristi Noem has told Fox News the 14-month-old wirehair pointer, who was named Cricket, was a “working dog” and “not a puppy”.

She said in the interview that the female dog had “come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive”, adding that the animal had “massacred” a neighbour’s livestock on the day she shot it dead around 20 years ago.

The Republican governor continued: “At the time, I had small children, a lot of small kiddos that worked around our business and people, and I wanted to make sure that they were safe.”

Ms Noem, who is being vetted as the Republican candidate for vice president in this year’s US election, also said the dog was “extremely dangerous”.

The account of Ms Noem killing the wirehair pointer was first reported by The Guardian last week after it obtained a copy of her book, named No Going Back: The Truth On What’s Wrong With Politics And How We Move America Forward, which is due for release this month.

She has since defended her behaviour multiple times.

The mother-of-three writes in her book that she had taken Cricket on a bird hunting trip with older dogs in the hopes of calming her down.

However, she claims the dog attacked a family’s chickens and then “whipped around to bite me”.

Ms Noem says she therefore led the dog to a gravel pit and shot it dead.

Political rivals have criticised Ms Noem since the story emerged as experts who work with hunting dogs said she could have trained the animal rather than killing it.

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Democratic Minnesota governor Tim Walz posted on X: “Post a picture with your dog that doesn’t involve shooting them and throwing them in a gravel pit. I’ll start.”

The post included a photo of him feeding ice cream off a spoon to his Labrador mix named Scout.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has shared a photo of the US leader strolling on the White House lawn with one of his three German Shepherds.

Mr Biden’s dogs that have reportedly bitten members of staff have been given away or removed from the president’s Washington household.

Ms Noem has been trying to frame her actions as an example of her willingness to make tough decisions.

On Sunday, she wrote on the X social media platform that the decision to kill the dog “wasn’t easy, but often the easy way isn’t the right way”.

South Dakota Democratic Senate minority leader Reynold Nesiba believes Ms Noem’s decision to share the details in her book is calculated, claiming a story has circulated among politicians for years that the governor had killed her dog in a “fit of anger”.

“She knew that this was a political vulnerability, and she needed to put it out there, before it came up in some other venue,” Mr Nesiba said.

“Why else would she write about it?”

Iran is willing to “expend every Arab life” in its efforts to end Western influence in the Middle East and destroy Israel, a former US national security adviser has said.

HR McMaster, who held the position between 2017 and 2018 during the Trump presidency, told Sky News that there is still a risk of escalation between Iran and Israel after the two nations carried out attacks on each other in April.

Iran said its attack on Saturday 13 April was a retaliation after two of its generals were killed in a strike Tehran blames on Israel.

Israel responded to the Iranian attack by carrying out a strike on Isfahan – home to both a military base and nuclear site in Iran.

Asked whether there could be further escalation between the two regional rivals, Mr McMaster said: “Iran is pursuing a strategy in which they hope we continue to pretend like we don’t understand what the return address is for all this violence.

“And in a horrible, cynical way, Iran is willing to expend every Arab life, if necessary, to accomplish its objectives of pushing the United States, the United Kingdom and and our allies out of the region as the first step in establishing hegemonic power in the region and destroying Israel.

“That’s really what they want to do. And I think the longer that we act as if we don’t know what the return address is, Iran is going to continue to escalate these horrible actions to create horrible human suffering not only on the part of the Israelis, but on the part of the Palestinians too.”

Asked whether the West could be drawn into leading a response to any future Iranian aggression in the region, Mr McMaster said: “Absolutely, I think it’s coming because Iran seems to be emboldened, even though they have all sorts of internal dissent happening now… They seem to be emboldened internationally… I think we to need tell the Iranians we’re going to begin to impose severe costs on you.

“And these don’t have to be military right away.

“I think there’s tonnes of room to enforce the sanctions that are already on the books, the sanctions that the Biden administration chose not to enforce.”

Mr McMaster also said that the reduction in capacity of the UK’s armed forces “broke my heart” as military sources and Cold War veterans have warned Britain is increasingly vulnerable to the threat of missiles and drones after decades of cost-saving cuts.

He added that it would be “difficult for the UK to sustain operations” for “ample duration to fight and win” in a future conflict.

In apparent reference to some NATO countries not meeting their defence spending targets, Mr McCaster continued: “I think we have to realise that we have been over-optimistic for too long about the geostrategic conditions and the need to demonstrate strength to prevent further conflict.”

His comments come after UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps called for the new NATO target for defence spending to increase from the current 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) to 2.5%.

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Mr Shapps warned the world could be engulfed by wars involving China, Russia, North Korea and Iran in the next five years.

Asked whether the recent $61bn military aid package for Ukraine will have an impact on the war there, Mr McMaster said: “It’s a game-changer… I hope it’s not too late…

“Ukraine is are fighting as best they can with what they’ve got. We’ve got to get them the ammunition now.”

He added that the “halting” and “inconsistent” manner in which the US has provided aid has denied Ukraine the ability to protect its people and stop the Russian offensive.

About 300 people have been arrested during police crackdowns on protests at US universities.

In the early hours of Wednesday, police were called into Columbia University in New York, and also broke up protests at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as demos over the Israel-Hamas war reached boiling point.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said about 300 people were arrested at Columbia and nearby City College.

Columbia’s Hamilton Hall was occupied by protesters and Mayor Adams said this particular group was “led by individuals who were not affiliated with the university”.

“There is a movement to radicalize young people,” he said. “And I’m not going to wait until it is done to acknowledge the existence of it.”

On the west coast, all classes at UCLA were cancelled on Wednesday due to “distress” caused by the overnight violence, according to a notice on its website.

Students and staff have been advised to avoid Royce Quad, the area where clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters resulted in police wielding pepper spray being drafted in.

Pro-Palestinian protesters had erected barricades and plywood for protection, which counter-protesters tried to pull down.

The protesters shoved and kicked one another, sometimes beating people with sticks or throwing chairs.

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Sky News US correspondent Martha Kelner, reporting from UCLA, said: “Just look at this scene on a US university campus – California highway patrol wearing riot shields, riot masks, gas masks underneath their helmets.”

She said they were wearing gas masks “because throughout the course of the evening from inside this encampment, or at least the vicinity, a substance was released, I think, probably, pepper spray”.

“But the police here are not taking any chances, wearing gas masks – preparing, I guess, potentially to access this encampment.”

She said a protester appeared to pray at the feet of officers, adding: “She’s a pro-Palestinian protester. She’s refusing to move for the California Highway Patrol.

“She appears to be kneeling down, perhaps in prayer, at the feet of the patrol.

“It is a remarkable sight to see. These are scarcely fathomable scenes on a US university campus.”

By 5am local time, Kelner said the “volatile” situation at the campus had calmed down.

‘Occupied, vandalised, and blockaded’

On the other side of the country, police in riot gear raided Columbia University and arrested pro-Palestinian protesters occupying one of its buildings.

About 30 to 40 people were removed from the Manhattan university’s Hamilton Hall, according to police.

Those behind the protest said they had renamed the building “Hind’s Hall” in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl killed in a strike on Gaza in February.

The raid came hours after Mayor Adams said the demonstration at the Ivy League school “must end now”.

University bosses said they called in police after protesters “chose to escalate the situation through their actions”.

“After the university learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalised, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” a spokesman said.

“The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing.

“We have made it clear that the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law.”

Demonstrators said they had planned to remain at the hall until the university conceded to the Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s (CUAD) three demands: divestment, financial transparency and amnesty.

“Columbia will be proud of these students in five years,” said Sweda Polat, one of the student negotiators for CUAD.

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A large group of officers dressed in riot gear entered the campus late on Tuesday evening.

Officers were also seen entering the window of a building via a police-branded ladder vehicle nicknamed “the bear”.

Protests have also spread to other campuses around the country.

Dozens were arrested on Monday at universities in Texas, Utah, Virginia, and New Jersey.

The president of the University of Southern California, also based in Los Angeles, issued a statement on Tuesday after a swastika was drawn on campus.

“I condemn any antisemitic symbols or any form of hate speech against anyone,” Carol Folt said.

“Clearly it was drawn there just to incite even more anger at a time that is so painful for our community.

“We’re going to work to get to the bottom of this immediately, and it has just been removed.”

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby has said President Biden believes students occupying buildings was “absolutely the wrong approach” and “not an example of peaceful protest”.