An Afghan man accused of shooting two members of the National Guard near the White House, killing one, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to murder charges.Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, who was injured during last month’s attack, entered the plea by video feed from a hospital bed, US media reported.Lakanwal is charged with first-degree murder for the death of Sarah Beckstrom, 20, a National Guard member from West Virginia, as well as assault with intent to kill and firearms offenses.Andrew Wolfe, another National Guardsman from West Virginia, was wounded in the November 26 attack and is in critical condition.Magistrate Judge Renee Raymond ordered Lakanwal detained until the next hearing in the case on January 14.- Death penalty sought -Attorney General Pam Bondi has said she plans to seek the death penalty for Lakanwal, who entered the United States as part of a resettlement program following the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.Lakanwal had been part of a CIA-backed “partner force” fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to US officials.According to a criminal complaint filed on Tuesday, Lakanwal ambushed Beckstrom and Wolfe while they were on a routine patrol outside a metro station in downtown Washington.Another National Guard member who was on the scene was quoted in the complaint as saying that he saw Lakanwal open fire and scream “Allahu Akbar!”The National Guard soldier drew his weapon, shot and wounded Lakanwal and then restrained him as he attempted to reload his gun, the complaint said.US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said over the weekend that Lakanwal may have been radicalized after entering the United States.A resident of the western US state of Washington, he allegedly drove cross-country to carry out the shooting — an attack that shocked Americans on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday. President Donald Trump’s administration suspended visas for all Afghan nationals following the attack and froze decisions in all asylum cases.Lakanwal was granted asylum in April 2025, under the Trump administration, but officials have blamed what they called lax vetting by the government of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden for his admission to US soil during the Afghan airlift.The Justice Department announced meanwhile that an Afghan man has been charged in Texas with threatening to build a bomb and carry out a suicide attack on Americans.Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, 30, of Fort Worth, allegedly praised the Taliban and made the threats in a November 23 video that he shared on TikTok, X and Facebook, the department said in a statement.”Thanks to public reports of a threatening online video, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force apprehended this individual before he could commit an act of violence,” FBI Dallas special agent in charge Joseph Rothrock said.Alokozay faces up to five years in prison if convicted of making a threatening interstate communication.

The American at the forefront of negotiating an end to the Ukraine war is not a veteran diplomat or the US secretary of state but a billionaire real estate developer, Steve Witkoff.Much like President Donald Trump — for years his friend and golfing partner — Witkoff came to the world stage without traditional experience. Instead, he relies on what the two men believe is a successful instinct in human relations and deal-making.For Trump, the 68-year-old Witkoff brings the quality the president most cherishes: personal loyalty. But Witkoff has drawn wide criticism from those who believe he is out of his depth and has shown too much deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he met in Moscow on Tuesday.”I liked him. I thought he was straight up with me,” Witkoff said in March after meeting Putin, who has ruthlessly targeted opponents at home and abroad.”I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it,” Witkoff said.More recently, Bloomberg News reported a telephone conversation in which Witkoff offered advice to one of Putin’s advisors on the best way to present to Trump a plan to end the Ukraine war.According to the transcript, Witkoff said during the call that he believes Russia — which started the war in Ukraine by launching a full-scale invasion in February 2022 — “has always wanted a peace deal” and that he has “the deepest respect for President Putin.”Witkoff flew to Moscow with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, after meeting Ukrainian negotiators in Florida. An initial version of the plan would ask Ukraine to cede territory that Russia has not won on the battlefield in return for security promises to Ukraine that fall well short of Kyiv’s hopes to join NATO.Trump has fumed about billions of dollars in US assistance to Ukraine and mused in the past that time was on Russia’s side.- Unorthodox approach -It was the latest trip this year to Russia by Witkoff, who was tapped after Trump’s election victory last year as his special envoy on the Middle East and quickly expanded his remit beyond negotiating two ceasefires in Gaza.Witkoff quickly showed he was willing to break traditions to get deals. He worked alongside the outgoing administration of Joe Biden for the first of the ceasefires.At one point, Witkoff flew from the discussions in Qatar to Israel to personally press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept. It was an unusual meeting held on Saturday, when official Israel is closed due to the Jewish Sabbath — Witkoff is also Jewish.In another break with protocol, Witkoff has met directly with representatives of Hamas, which the United States bans as a terrorist group, to push them on a deal.After Israel targeted Hamas leaders meeting in September in Qatar, a close US partner, Witkoff personally offered condolences in Cairo to the top Hamas negotiator, Khalil al-Haya, whose son was killed in the Israeli strike.”I told him that I had lost a son, and that we were both members of a really bad club, parents who have buried children,” Witkoff later told CBS News program “60 Minutes.” Witkoff often speaks of his son Andrew, who died of an opioid overdose at age 22 in 2011.Witkoff was born in the Bronx and made his fortune in real estate, first as a lawyer and later as head of a property group. Forbes estimates his wealth at $2 billion.

Computer tycoon Michael Dell and his wife Susan said Tuesday they were giving $6.25 billion to children’s trust funds under a scheme set up by US President Donald Trump.So-called “Trump accounts” containing $1,000 for all children born after January 1, 2025 were part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that the Republican president pushed through Congress in July.But the Dell donation will now fund $250 deposits in saving accounts for at least 25 million children aged 10 and under, who were born before the cut-off point for the original program.”This will give millions of children a stake in American prosperity, a benefit from the rising stock market, and a better shot at the American dream,” Trump said in a ceremony at the White House.”This is truly one of the most generous acts in the history of our country.”The Dell Technologies founder and CEO, 60, said he hoped the accounts would teach children to save for their own futures.”We kind of started with a smaller amount to be honest” but then decided to donate more money, Michael Dell said.”We believe this is the greatest investment we can possibly make in children,” added Susan Dell.The “Trump accounts” will be available to children once they turn 18.The Dells’ gift will reach nearly 80 percent of children aged 10 and under, particularly targeting those in areas with the lowest income, their charitable foundation said in a fact sheet.The “Trump accounts” for newborns were part of the unpopular tax and spending bill that Trump pushed Republicans to get through a reluctant Congress and cement his second term agenda.The bill also included massive new funding for Trump’s migrant deportation drive, while gutting health and welfare support and sparking concerns that it would balloon the US national debt.