Officials plead for help in finding person who assassinated Charlie Kirk on Utah college campus
OREM, Utah (AP) — A palm print. A shoe impression. And a high-powered rifle found in a wooded area. Those are among the clues authorities laid out as they pleaded for the public's help to find the person who assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk before dropping from a Utah university campus roof and vanishing.
The search continued early Friday, nearly two days later.
Federal investigators and state officials on Thursday released a series of photos and a video of the person they believe is responsible. Kirk was hit as he spoke to a crowd gathered in a courtyard at Utah Valley University in Orem.
More than 7,000 leads and tips have poured in, officials said. But authorities have yet to name a suspect or cite a motive in the killing, the latest act of political violence to convulse the United States.
“We cannot do our job without the public’s help,” Gov. Spencer Cox said during a Thursday evening news conference with FBI Director Kash Patel, who did not speak.
Brazilian Supreme Court panel sentences Bolsonaro to more than 27 years in prison for coup attempt
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison Thursday after convicting him of attempting a coup to remain in office despite his 2022 electoral defeat.
Bolsonaro, who has always denied any wrongdoing, can try to appeal the ruling. He is currently under house arrest in Brasilia.
Four of the five justices reviewing the case in the panel found the far-right politician guilty on five counts, in a ruling that will deepen political divisions and was expected to prompt a backlash from the U.S. government. It makes Bolsonaro is the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup.
The five counts are: attempting a coup after losing the 2022 race to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a plot that prosecutors alleged included plans to kill Lula; participating in an armed criminal organization; attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law; damage qualified by violence; and deterioration of listed heritage.
Bolsonaro’s co-conspirators, all of them former Brazilian officials, were also sentenced for their roles in the attempted coup. Gen. Braga Netto, Bolsonaro’s former defense minister and running mate in 2022, received 26 years. Admiral Almir Garnier got 24 years. Gen. Augusto Heleno received 21 years and Gen. Paulo Sérgio Nogueira got 19 years. Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, who cooperated with investigations, was given two years under an open regime.
Prince Harry makes surprise visit to Ukraine in support of wounded troops
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Prince Harry has arrived in Ukraine for a surprise visit in support of wounded service members.
Harry’s representatives confirmed they were in the capital, Kyiv, on Friday, though they declined to discuss the prince’s schedule for security reasons.
This is the second time Harry has visited Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full scale invasion in 2022. He made a trip to the western city of Lviv in April.
“We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process,” Harry told the Guardian newspaper while on an overnight train to Kyiv.
Harry, a British Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, is the founder of the Invictus Games, a Paralympic-style event designed to inspire military veterans around the world as they work to overcome battlefield injuries. Ukraine is bidding to host the games in 2029.
Choose your America: In the aftermath of the Kirk slaying, a snapshot of a fractured nation
The governor of Utah struggled to find the right words to describe the question so many have been asking: What is happening in America?
The silence lasted nearly 10 seconds. He looked down. He opened and closed his mouth.
“Our nation is broken,” Spencer Cox finally said, hours after the public killing of Charlie Kirk. The governor described violent attacks on both Democrats and Republicans, including the killing of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, two assassination attempts on President Donald Trump and the firebombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official residence.
His words stood out not just for the stark language about America’s troubles, but for his sober acknowledgement that the violence reaches across the political divide.
It can be hard to remember all the scenes of political violence in just the past few years: Butler, Pennsylvania, the Minneapolis suburbs, San Francisco, New York City, West Palm Beach. And more. Taken together, they are enough to make Americans wonder: Is there a way forward? What might it look like?
Kids and current events: How to help them deal with what they see around them
NEW YORK (AP) — In hardly any time at all, the footage of the horrifying moment when a bullet hit conservative activist Charlie Kirk in the neck cascaded across the internet.
Whether seeing it inadvertently or seeking it out, onlookers far from the crowd at a Utah college could be exposed to disturbingly close and potentially bloody glimpses of his shooting and the resulting chaos. It's the product of a digital-first world where the presence of smartphones and social media makes current events readily accessible and often, practically unavoidable.
And, of course, among those seeing it were kids, teens and other young people — those who live with their phones practically attached and are often far more chronically online than their parents.
It raises a question that modern-day parents are sadly having to ask more frequently: How do you talk to your kids about what's going on, what they're seeing and hearing?
It's a basic parental impulse to want to protect kids, to shield them from harsh realities or complicated situations, to think they're too young to know about the ways in which the world can be unsafe or terrible.
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Israeli soldiers, and their mothers, increasingly reject calls to return to Gaza
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — As Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists for its invasion of Gaza City, a growing number of soldiers — and their mothers — are saying no.
There are no official figures, but newly formed groups are broadcasting their refusal to serve despite the risk of imprisonment. It's a new phenomenon in the nearly two-year war sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack, though so far it has had no apparent effect on military operations.
The defiance is emerging as Israelis have joined mass protests accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the war for political purposes instead of reaching a deal with Hamas to bring back the remaining 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Many opponents, including former senior security officials, fear that the latest offensive will achieve little and put the hostages at risk. Israel also faces heavy international criticism over the humanitarian catastrophe unleashed by the war and its blockade.
One group calling on Israel's leaders to stop sending their children into war is comprised of mothers who fear their sons will die in vain.
Appeals court allows Trump's administration to block Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood
BOSTON (AP) — A U.S. appeals court panel on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to block Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood while legal challenges continue.
A federal judge in July ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.
Medicaid is a government health care program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.
A provision in Trump’s tax bill instructed the federal government to end Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, even to those like Planned Parenthood that also offer medical services like contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah filed a lawsuit in July against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
South Korean workers return home after days of detention in Georgia following immigration raid
INCHEON, South Korea (AP) — More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in the United States last week were brought back home on a charter plane and reunited with their loved ones on Friday.
They were among about 475 people detained during the Sept. 4 immigration raid at a battery factory under construction on the campus of Hyundai’s sprawling auto plant west of Savannah. Their roundup and the U.S. release of video showing some Korean workers shackled with chains around their hands, ankles and waists have caused public outrage and a sense of betrayal in South Korea, a key U.S. ally.
After their charter plane, a Boeing 747-8i from Korean Air, landed at Incheon International Airport, just west of Seoul, they appeared in an arrivals hall, with senior officials including presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik clapping hands.
“We feel sorry that we failed to bring them back home much earlier, though we did our best,” Kang later said in televised comments.
Hundreds of journalists gathered at the airport to cover their arrival, with many ordinary citizens shouting “Welcome back!” One protester unfurled a huge banner with a photo of U.S. President Donald Trump and a message criticizing U.S. immigration crackdowns before security officials persuaded him to stop. The South Korean Foreign Ministry asked media to blur the workers’ faces in video and photos at the airport, citing requests by the workers who worried about their privacy.
As AI tools reshape education, schools struggle with how to draw the line on cheating
The book report is now a thing of the past. Take-home tests and essays are becoming obsolete.
Student use of artificial intelligence has become so prevalent, high school and college educators say, that to assign writing outside of the classroom is like asking students to cheat.
“The cheating is off the charts. It’s the worst I’ve seen in my entire career,” says Casey Cuny, who has taught English for 23 years. Educators are no longer wondering if students will outsource schoolwork to AI chatbots. “Anything you send home, you have to assume is being AI’ed.”
The question now is how schools can adapt, because many of the teaching and assessment tools that have been used for generations are no longer effective. As AI technology rapidly improves and becomes more entwined with daily life, it is transforming how students learn and study and how teachers teach, and it’s creating new confusion over what constitutes academic dishonesty.
“We have to ask ourselves, what is cheating?” says Cuny, a 2024 recipient of California’s Teacher of the Year award. “Because I think the lines are getting blurred.”
Judge temporarily blocks US effort to remove dozens of immigrant Guatemalan and Honduran children
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A federal judge in Arizona temporarily blocked the Trump administration from removing dozens of Guatemalan and Honduran children living in shelters or foster care after coming to the U.S. alone, according to a decision Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez in Tucson extended until at least Sept. 26 a temporary restraining issued over the Labor Day weekend. Márquez raised concern over whether the government had arranged for any of the children's parents or legal guardians in Guatemala to take custody of them.
Laura Belous, attorney for the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, which represents the children, said in court that the minors expressed no desire to be repatriated to their native countries of Guatemala and Honduras amid concerns they could face neglect, possible child trafficking or hardships associated with individual medical conditions.
Lawyers for the children said their clients fear going home and the government is not following laws designed to protect migrant children.
Belous' organization filed a lawsuit in Arizona on behalf of 57 Guatemalan children and another 12 from Honduras between the ages 3 and 17.
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