World leaders condemn ‘horrible’ and ‘antisemitic’ DC shootings
Global reactions poured in Thursday in the hours after two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum.
Authorities say the suspect yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested over the deaths of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.
The violence was condemned by world leaders, with US president Donald Trump describing the killings as “horrible”.
“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” Trump posted on social media early Thursday. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he was “shocked” by the “horrific, antisemitic” shooting.
“We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the British prime minister Keir Starmer said that “antisemitism is an evil we must stamp out wherever it appears. My thoughts are with their colleagues, family and loved ones, and as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.”
Starmer’s spokesperson said the government has “offered its full support to the Israeli embassy in London.”
French president Emmanuel Macron said he has reached out to his Israeli counterpart in the wake of the killings in what the French leader called “an antisemitic attack.”
German chancellor Friedrich Merz, in a post on X, said he was “shocked” by the news.
“Our thoughts are with their families,” Merz wrote. “At this stage we must assume an anti-Semitic motive. I condemn this heinous act in the strongest possible terms.”
Key events
Israel accuses Europe of ‘antisemitic incitement’ after Washington shooting
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, has accused unnamed European officials of “toxic antisemitic incitement” he blamed for a hostile climate in which the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington took place, Reuters reports.
Israel has faced a blizzard of criticism from Europe of late as it has intensified its military campaign in Gaza, where humanitarian groups have warned that an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid supplies has left the Palestinian territory on the brink of famine.
Sa’ar did not name any countries or officials but said the climate of hostility towards Israel was behind the shooting of the embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington yesterday.
Sa’ar, at a news conference in Jerusalem, said the attack was a direct outcome of “toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world” since Hamas militants’ cross-border attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
“There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement to this murder,” he said. “This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and organisations, especially from Europe.”
Saar declined to identify which leader or officials he had in mind.
But his remarks came after increasingly tough words from western allies of Israel including France and Britain, which joined Canada this week in warning of possible “concrete action” against Israel over its war in Gaza.
Sa’ar said the “global atmosphere” against Israel had worsened sharply since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken as hostages back into Gaza.
Since then, Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed more than 53,000 Palestinian people (though the true number is estimated to be much higher) and laid waste to the densely populated territory, drawing mass protests across the world ranging from US university campuses to the streets of European cities.
Last year, the international court of justice ordered Israel to take action to prevent alleged acts of genocide in Gaza after a case brought by South Africa that stirred deep anger in Israel.
Sa’ar claimed: “These libels about genocide, crimes against humanity and murdering babies pave the way exactly for such murders.”
You can follow our latest reporting on the crisis in Gaza here:
Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington – a young couple on the verge of becoming engaged – were fatally shot on Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested, police said.
The attack was seen by officials in Israel and the US as the latest act in a growing wave of antisemitism as Israel ramps up its offensive in the Gaza Strip, and as food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless Israel’s blockade ends.
The Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said the male staffer had bought a ring this week with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem.
Here’s what we know:
The violence occurred after the American Jewish Committee’s annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum, the Associated Press reported.
“This is a shocking act of violence and our community is holding each other tighter tonight,” Ted Deutch, the American Jewish Committee’s chief executive, said in a statement early on Thursday. “At this painful moment, we mourn with the victims’ families, loved ones, and all of Israel. May their memories be for a blessing.”
Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, “Free Palestine,” Kalin said.
“This event was about humanitarian aid,” Kalin said. “How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.”
Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local non-profits in Washington awarded funding from a $500,000 grant program to increase its security. The museum’s leaders were concerned because it is a Jewish organization and has a new LGBTQ+ exhibit, according to NBC4 Washington.
“We recognize that there are threats associated with this as well,” executive director Beatrice Gurwitz told the TV station. “And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.”
World leaders condemn ‘horrible’ and ‘antisemitic’ DC shootings
Global reactions poured in Thursday in the hours after two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum.
Authorities say the suspect yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested over the deaths of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.
The violence was condemned by world leaders, with US president Donald Trump describing the killings as “horrible”.
“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” Trump posted on social media early Thursday. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he was “shocked” by the “horrific, antisemitic” shooting.
“We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the British prime minister Keir Starmer said that “antisemitism is an evil we must stamp out wherever it appears. My thoughts are with their colleagues, family and loved ones, and as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.”
Starmer’s spokesperson said the government has “offered its full support to the Israeli embassy in London.”
French president Emmanuel Macron said he has reached out to his Israeli counterpart in the wake of the killings in what the French leader called “an antisemitic attack.”
German chancellor Friedrich Merz, in a post on X, said he was “shocked” by the news.
“Our thoughts are with their families,” Merz wrote. “At this stage we must assume an anti-Semitic motive. I condemn this heinous act in the strongest possible terms.”
A commission led by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. and tasked by president Donald Trump with investigating chronic illness is set to deliver a report outlining its findings on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Trump signed an executive order in February establishing the Make America Healthy Again Commission to investigate chronic illness and deliver an action plan to fight childhood diseases. Thursday’s report outlining the causes was due this week and will be followed by a strategy document due in August.
The commission is jointly run by HHS and the White House, with Kennedy serving as its chair and the Domestic Policy Council chief as executive director. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and other cabinet members sit on it, as do federal health agency chiefs and senior White House officials.
Supporters of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement for which the commission is named, said they expected it to outline causes they had long blamed for the decline in American health and sum up Kennedy’s accomplishments during his first 100 days in the job, but that it would bring no surprises.
“Nobody’s talked about any bombshells coming out or anything like that,” said Jeff Hutt, who was national field director of Kennedy’s presidential campaign and now runs a group supporting his food and health goals.
The report is likely to outline efforts Kennedy has already announced, said Hutt, including studying the safety of vaccines, making changes to the food safety process, and removing some dyes and petroleum-based products from the food supply.
Stephanie Kirchgaessner
A former FBI counterintelligence agent turned whistleblower has claimed he tried to gain access to Elon Musk in 2022 to warn the billionaire that he was the target of a covert Russian campaign seeking to infiltrate his inner circle, possibly to gain access to sensitive information.
Johnathan Buma, who was arrested by the FBI earlier this year on a misdemeanor charge of disclosing confidential information, said in an interview that he tried – but ultimately failed – to gain access to Musk to personally brief and “inoculate” him against “outreach from the Kremlin”.
Buma, who is on bail and living in Arizona after his 17 March arrest at New York’s Kennedy airport, spoke to both ZDF, the German broadcaster, and the Guardian. He has also recently filed paperwork to run as a Democratic candidate for a congressional House seat in Arizona.
The 48-year-old did not provide specific details about why he believed Musk was being targeted by Russian operatives, but said it involved individuals he believed were being “placed” in Musk’s inner circle at the time and were gaining influence with him.
“Those efforts were intense and they were ongoing,” he said. “I can’t go into too much more detail.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, was not under investigation and was not suspected of wrongdoing, Buma said.
Reporting by the Wall Street Journal indicates that Buma was not the only person who was concerned about individuals who were gaining access to Musk at that time.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that a report in the Wall Street Journal which said US president Donald Trump had told European leaders that President Vladimir Putin did not want to end the war in Ukraine contrasted with its own knowledge.
The Journal said Trump had briefed European leaders after talking to Putin by phone on Monday and said Putin wanted to keep fighting in Ukraine because he thought he was winning.
“We know what Trump stated to Putin. We don’t know what Trump stated to the Europeans after that phone call. We know president Trump’s official statement. What we know contrasts with what was written in the article you mentioned,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Here is a little bit more detail on Trump’s tax cut bill passing in the House.
It passed in a 215-214 vote, with all of the chamber’s Democrats and two Republicans voting against it. A third Republican voted “present.”
The package must also win approval in the Republican-controlled Senate before Trump can sign it into law. The vote came after a marathon push that kept lawmakers debating the bill through two successive nights.
The 1,000-page legislation would extend corporate and individual tax cuts passed in 2017 during Trump’s first term in office, cancel many green-energy incentives passed by Democratic former president Joe Biden and tighten eligibility for health and food programs for the poor.
It also would fund Trump’s crackdown on immigration, adding tens of thousands of border guards and creating the capacity to deport up to 1 million people each year.
Reuters reports:
With a narrow 220-212 majority, House Speaker Mike Johnson could not afford to lose more than a handful of votes from his side.
Republicans on the party’s right flank had pushed for deeper spending cuts to lessen the budget impact, but they met resistance from centrists who worried they would fall too heavily on the 71 million low-income Americans enrolled in the Medicaid health program.
Johnson made changes to address conservatives’ concerns, pulling forward a new work requirements for Medicaid recipients to take effect at the end of 2026, two years earlier than before. That would kick several million people off the program, according to CBO. The bill also would penalize states that expand Medicaid in the future.
Johnson also expanded a deduction break for state and local tax payments, which was a priority for a handful of centrist Republicans who represent high-tax states like New York and California.
Democrats blasted the bill as a disproportionately benefiting the wealthy while cutting benefits for working Americans. CBO found it would reduce income for the poorest 10% of US households and boost income for the top 10%.
“This bill is a scam, a tax scam designed to steal from you, the American people, and give to Trump’s millionaire and billionaire friends,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern said.
The Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority, is not expected to take the bill up until early June. Top Senate Republicans have said that chamber may make significant changes to the bill before passing it.
Trump tax cut bill passes US House in win for president
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday, in a political victory for the president after months of Republican infighting over spending cuts and tax policies.
The measure will now be scrutinised by lawmakers in the Senate. More as we get it.
Trump’s massive tax and spending bill clears hurdle to advance to House vote in coming hours
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill cleared a crucial hurdle on Thursday, as the House of Representatives voted roughly along party lines to begin a debate that would lead to a vote on passage later in the morning.
The legislation would extend his signature 2017 tax cuts, create new tax breaks for tipped income and auto loans, end many green-energy subsidies and boost spending on the military and immigration enforcement, Reuters reported. It would also tighten eligibility for food and health programs that serve millions of low-income Americans.
The proposed legislation – which Trump nicknamed “one big beautiful bill” – would also add $3.8tn to the $36.2tn US debt burden over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Lawmakers voted 217-212 to begin a floor debate on the legislation during a rare pre-dawn session that featured choruses of cheers and boos between party members. A single Republican lawmaker, fiscal hawk Thomas Massie, joined Democrats in opposition.
They were due to vote again to pass the measure later in the morning and send it on to the Republican-led Senate, which would probably take weeks to act.
For our most recent story, see here:
In other news:
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Donald Trump ambushed the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, by playing him a video that he falsely claimed proved genocide was being committed against white people under “the opposite of apartheid”. Ramaphosa – who earlier said that he had come to Washington to “reset” the relationship between the two countries – refused to take the bait and suggested that they “talk about it very calmly”.
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Ramaphosa expects Trump to visit South Africa during G2o meeting. His spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told South African TV station Newzroom Afrika that the Oval Office meeting was “an orchestrated show for the cameras” and that the “real business” of the trip was the bilateral closed-door meeting.
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Trump said he will make a decision in the near future about taking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public, a move which he said he is giving “very serious consideration”. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he will speak with treasury secretary Scott Bessent; commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick; and federal housing finance director, William Pulte, about doing so.
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The Trump administration formally accepted the controversial gift of a Boeing 747 jetliner from the government of Qatar, and directed the air force to assess how quickly the plane can be upgraded for possible use as a new Air Force One. The offer of the jet has set off a firestorm of bipartisan criticism of Trump, particularly following the president’s visit to the country last week to arrange US business deals.
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A federal judge ruled that the Department of Homeland Security’s attempt to deport migrants to South Sudan was “unquestionably violative” of an injunction he had issued earlier. US district judge Brian E Murphy made the remark at an emergency hearing he had ordered in Boston following the Trump administration’s apparent deportation of eight people to South Sudan, despite most of them being from other countries. On Tuesday, Murphy ruled that the administration could not let a group of migrants being deported to South Sudan leave the custody of US immigration authorities.
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The justice department moved to cancel a settlement with Minneapolis that called for an overhaul of its police department following the murder of George Floyd, as well as a similar agreement with Louisville, Kentucky, after the death of Breonna Taylor, saying it does not want to pursue the cases. The move shows how the civil rights division of the justice department is changing rapidly under Donald Trump, dismantling Biden-era work and investigating diversity programs. It also comes amid pressure on the right to recast Floyd’s murder, undermine diversity efforts and define liberal-run cities like Minneapolis as crime-ridden.
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The US army said it has no plans to recognize Trump’s birthday on 14 June when he presides over part of the army’s celebrations of its 250th anniversary. Trump, who is turning 79 on the same day, will play a big role in the celebrations, which will cost between $25m and $45m, will see the army hold a parade down Washington’s Constitution Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares that cuts through the capital. The parade was not part of the original planning for the 14 June celebrations and was added this year, stoking criticism from Democratic lawmakers and others that Trump has hijacked the event.
