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One person has been arrested and an assault rifle recovered after “an apparent assassination attempt” on Donald Trump, according to the FBI.

Mr Trump was believed to have been taking part in a round at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach when shots were heard at 2pm local time.

According to Sky’s US partner NBC, Secret Service agents saw someone they suspected of aiming a gun at the former president, so they opened fire.

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Secret Service move Trump to safety after shots heard

It is not yet known whether the suspect fired first or fired a round at all or if only the Secret Service fired.

One person is currently being questioned by local police and a gun was found in the bushes near where the former president was playing.

Police vehicles are pictured near Trump International Golf Club after gunshots were reported in the vicinity of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump. Pic: AP
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Police vehicles are pictured near Trump International Golf Club. Pic: AP

Afterwards, a statement from Mr Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumors start spiraling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!

“Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER! I will always love you for supporting me.

“Unity. Peace. Make America Great Again. May God bless you.”

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told reporters his officers followed the suspect vehicle for a while before making a “felony stop”.

“Our road units picked the vehicle up and we waited a while. We didn’t stop him right away. We didn’t want a high-speed chase.

“So we were able to wait until we had adequate units, surrounded the vehicle, and forced it to a stop.”

He added that due to good tactics, they managed to take the suspect into custody peacefully.

A witness said he saw “20 or more cop cars flying from nearby streets” as he described the emergency response outside Mr Trump’s golf course.

“From what I saw, five black unmarked SUVs blocked in a grey Mercedes in front of the golf course,” Max Egusquiza told the AP news agency.

“There were about 20 or more cop cars flying from nearby streets,” he said.

Mr Trump has since returned to his Mar-a-Lago resort.

A White House statement said: “The President and Vice President have been briefed about the security incident at the Trump International Golf Course, where former President Trump was golfing.

“They are relieved to know that he is safe. They will be kept regularly updated by their team.”

It comes two months after the Republican presidential nominee was shot during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.

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Titan submersible: New coastguard video shows wreckage on seafloor

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Titan submersible: New coastguard video shows wreckage on seafloor

New video has been released of the remains of the Titan submersible – more than 3700m down on the seafloor.

The US Coast Guard said it shows “the aft dome, aft ring, remnants of the hull and carbon fiber debris”.

It comes shortly after images of the sub’s tail were released.

A hearing is currently taking place in the US about the Titan’s fatal implosion on a trip to the Titanic in June 2023.

Undated handout file photo issued by American Photo Archive of the OceanGate Expeditions submersible vessel named Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. A hearing about the deaths of five people who were killed when a submersible imploded while diving to the wreck of the Titanic will open on Monday. Issue date: Sunday September 15, 2024.
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Titan is believed to have suffered a rapid implosion. Pic: PA

OceanGate’s former operations boss told the panel earlier this week the sub was a huge risk and the company was only focused on profit.

David Lochridge also painted an unflattering picture of the firm’s founder, Stockton Rush, saying he would “fly off the handle” and had a “total disregard for safety”.

In one incident, he said Mr Rush crashed the sub into a wreck site and threw the PlayStation controller used to pilot the vehicle at his head.

Three Britons died in the incident – adventurer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood

Mr Rush and Frenchman Paul-Henri Nargeolet were also killed instantly when the craft was crushed by the pressure of the ocean.

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Tail cone pictured at bottom of Atlantic

OceanGate’s scientific director Steven Ross is expected to give evidence on Thursday, as is Renata Rojas, a mission specialist for the American company.

The firm suspended operations after the disaster and now has no full-time staff but is being represented by a lawyer during the US Coast Guard hearing.

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Titan lost contact with its support ship on 18 June last year, prompting a search in the Atlantic that made global headlines.

However, the wreck was found four days later 300m from the Titanic’s bow. The sub had been making voyages to the site of the legendary shipwreck since 2021.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs refused bail a second time as he faces sex trafficking charges

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs refused bail a second time as he faces sex trafficking charges

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been refused bail a second time as he faces several charges including sex trafficking, drug possession and firearms offences.

US district judge Andrew L Carter said the government had proved “by clear and convincing evidence that there is no condition or set of conditions” that will ensure the safety of the community and that the rapper and music mogul will not tamper with witnesses.

The 54-year-old pleaded not guilty after he was first arrested by officers at the Park Hyatt hotel in Manhattan, New York, on Monday.

Combs and his defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo in a courtroom sketch. Pic: Reuters
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Sean Combs (right) and his defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo in a courtroom sketch. Pic: Reuters

He was originally denied bail and told he would be detained after pleading not guilty to three felony counts during an initial court appearance on Tuesday.

Lawyers representing Combs asked a judge on Wednesday to let him await his trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, as opposed to in jail in Brooklyn.

But prosecutors argued against the proposal, saying there was too great a risk that Combs could threaten or harm witnesses.

Combs’s lawyers offered a $50m (£37.8m) bail package in exchange for his release to home detention with GPS monitoring and strict limitations on who could visit him.

Arguing to keep him behind bars, prosecutor Emily Johnson told the judge that Combs had a long history of intimidating both accusers and witnesses to his alleged abuse.

Ms Johnson cited text messages from women who said Combs forced them into “Freak Offs” and then threatened to leak explicit videos of them engaging in sexual acts.

She also said that Combs’s own defence team was “minimising and horrifically understating” his propensity for violence.

The defence and prosecution were wrangling over the request before the judge passed his ruling.

“I am feeling confident. We’re going to go get Mr Combs out of jail,” Combs’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo said on his way into court on Wednesday, before the judge decided Combs would spend his time before the trial at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

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Sean Combs, centre, is flanked by his defence attorney Marc Agnifilo, left, and Teny Garagos, at Manhattan Federal Court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
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Sean Combs, centre, sits next to his defence attorneys Marc Agnifilo, left, and Teny Garagos, at Manhattan Federal Court. on Tuesday. Pic: Elizabeth Williams via AP

A legal indictment released after Combs’s arrest detailed allegations dating to 2008, accusing him of abusing, threatening, and coercing women for years “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct”.

He allegedly induced female victims and male sex workers into drug-fuelled sexual performances, dubbed “Freak Offs”, according to the report.

Combs, formerly known as Puff Daddy and P Diddy, was once one of the most influential figures in hip-hop – famous as a producer and manager of the late Notorious BIG, as well as a rapper in his own right for hits including I’ll Be Missing You, Come With Me, and Bad Boy For Life.

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However, in November, his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, filed a lawsuit accusing him of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fuelled settings.

The suit was settled in one day, but months later CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Cassie and throwing her to the floor.

He apologised after the video aired, saying: “I was disgusted when I did it.”

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Bumper US interest rate cut aims to boost flagging economy

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Bumper US interest rate cut aims to boost flagging economy

US interest rates have been slashed for the first time in more than four years – by more than many expected – amid fears the world’s largest economy is flagging.

The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, brought interest rates down by 0.5 percentage points to 4.75% to 5%.

Unlike the UK, the US interest rate is a range to guide lenders rather than a single percentage.

Read more: What next for interest rates?

Bringing down inflation to 2% is a primary goal of the Fed and it has used interest rates to draw money out of the economy by making borrowing more costly since 2022, when the Ukraine/Russia price shock hit.

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Recent figures show the Fed is not far from its inflation target – with the main measure hitting 2.5% in August, the lowest rate in three years.

But signs of a weakening economy emerged last month as data on job creation led to recession fears.

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The Fed signalled in its statement that while it was confident on both the inflation and growth outlooks, a slowdown in the pace of hiring was a cause for concern.

Only one member of its rate-setting committee dissented on the 0.5 percentage point reduction. Financial market participants had been split on whether it would go for the 0.25 option instead.

US stocks rallied in the wake of the decision, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and broader S&P 500 both up by more than 0.5% from flat positions moments before the rate decision was revealed.

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Trump criticises Harris on economy

The dollar was trading a cent lower versus sterling at $1.32.

Some market analysts said the Fed’s move showed Fed chair Jay Powell and his fellow policymakers had been too slow to react to the employment slowdown.

He told reporters: “We’re going to be making decisions meeting by meeting, based on the incoming data and the evolving outlook, the balance of risks… it’s a process of recalibrating our policy stance away from where we had it a year ago, when inflation was high and unemployment low, to a place that’s more appropriate given where we are now and where we expect to be.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Pic: AP
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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Pic: AP

“That process will time time”, he added, saying there would be no “rush”.

Michael Sheehan, fund manager of fixed income at EdenTree Investment Management, said: “Kicking off this cutting cycle with a 50 basis point reduction will undoubtedly vindicate those who had argued that the Fed had fallen behind the curve.

“Any doubts that this cutting cycle would be any less dramatic than previous ones have been firmly laid to rest.

“We expect this larger cut of 50 basis points to boost risk assets in the short term. The key for markets, and indeed the Federal Reserve, will be how far the softening of the labour market has to run.

“Powell will be hoping that taking aggressive action early will go some way to curtailing a substantial weakening and achieve the elusive soft landing.”

What about the UK?

It comes as the UK central bank the Bank of England meets on Thursday to make its own interest rate decision.

While the Bank will focus on UK economic data – and on Wednesday afternoon was expected by markets to hold rates – it could be influenced by US decision-making.

Lower interest rates tend to weaken currencies, so a big cut from the Fed could be good news for the pound.

While being able to buy more dollars is good news for people holidaying in the US and paying for imports like oil, it’s bad news for exporters who get less for their goods as a result and have a less competitive product.

Lower exports can slow inflation, meaning the Bank could be more likely to cut.

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