President Joe Biden has said he will ensure the Secret Service has “every resource” to keep Donald Trump safe after a second “assassination attempt” on his life.
The president said he was “relieved” Mr Trump was “unharmed” after 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested in connection with shots being fired near to where the former president was playing golf at his Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
It is believed the gunman didn’t fire any shots but was “lying in wait” for Mr Trump when a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle barrel coming out of a perimeter fence surrounding the course, Palm Beach State’s attorney Dave Aronberg told MSNBC.
An AK-47 type assault rifle weapon with a scope, two backpacks and a GoPro device were later recovered hidden in the shrubbery.
In a statement after the scare, Mr Biden said he “commends” the work of the Secret Service but said he has “directed [his] team to continue to ensure that the service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former president’s continued safety”.
It comes after some hit out at the service, questioning how the gunman was able to get within approximately 500 yards of Mr Trump – the second apparent bid on Mr Trump’s life in nine weeks, after the Republican presidential nominee was injured during an assassination attempt at a rally in July.
Secret Service needs to ‘step up protection’
Ron DeSantis, Florida governor and Republican, wrote on X saying the state would be conducting its own investigation into the incident as people “deserve the truth about the would-be assassin” who got so close to Mr Trump.
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Fellow Republican and former rival of Mr Trump for this year’s presidential candidacy Vivek Ramaswamy called for the Secret Service to “step up its protection”.
Describing Sunday’s incident as “unacceptable and un-American”, he said: “I’m calling on [the] Secret Service to IMMEDIATELY step up its protection for President Trump to the same level they provide to Biden, there’s no excuse not to at this point.
“America is skating on thin ice, and I thank God we’ve now averted tragedy twice this summer.”
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Speaking to Sky News, Julia Manchester, political reporter for The Hill, said there will be “quite a lot of questions” about the Secret Service and federal law as people wonder how the former president’s life has been threatened for a second time.
“We don’t yet have a motive from the suspect, we don’t know what was behind this,” she said. “We have seen an increasing just nasty rhetoric across the board in the United States. It has really been building up.
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“I think you are going to hear calls for more gun control. Overall, there is going to be a larger conversation about political rhetoric and how it can lead to political violence.”
The Secret Service came under increasing scrutiny following the first assassination attempt on Mr Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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Ronald Rowe has since stepped up as the head of the service. He is understood to be on his way to West Palm Beach following the events in Florida, officials have told Sky News’s US partner network NBC News.
Officers ‘pre-empted’ attack
Despite pressure from some, the Trump campaign credited the “great work” of agents for keeping everyone safe, including Mr Trump.
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Senior Democrats also defended the actions of the service.
The secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who serves under Mr Biden and Kamala Harris, said the safety and security of presidential candidates was “the highest priority” for the service, and that officers had managed to “pre-empt” the attack and protect Mr Trump.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “applauded” the Secret Service “for their quick response to ensure former President Trump’s safety”.
“There is no place in this country for political violence of any kind,” he added. “The perpetrator must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
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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0:20
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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 footageshowing 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.”
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 0.5percentage points to 4.75% to 5%.
Unlike the UK, the US interest rate is a range to guide lenders rather than a single percentage.
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.
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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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12:20
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.
“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.