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Officials in the US state of Rhode Island have denounced misinformation that they said complicated their multiday search for the gunman who killed two students and wounded others at Brown University.Law enforcement identified the suspect as Claudio Neves Valente, 48, a Portuguese national who attended the Ivy League institution decades ago. They said he acted alone and was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a New Hampshire storage unit.But throughout the week, anonymous and right-wing accounts on X flooded the platform with unfounded posts claiming the shooter was a Palestinian enrolled at the school, a narrative that exploded further as university webpages mentioning the student were seemingly removed.”Criminal investigations are grounded in evidence, not speculation or online commentary,” Colonel Darnell Weaver, superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police, said at the briefing announcing Neves Valente’s identification late Thursday.”The endless barrage of misinformation, disinformation, rumors, leaks and clickbait were not helpful in this investigation,” he said. “Distractions and unfounded criticisms do not support this work. They complicate it and threaten to undermine the justice we seek.”The claims began when an anonymous X account posted photos and videos Monday of the student, Mustapha Kharbouch, beside footage police had released of the person of interest.Within hours, Kharbouch’s image and email were plastered across social media, prompting death and deportation threats as internet sleuths homed in on the individual’s pro-Palestinian activism and compared their body and gait to the suspect.Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool, billionaire Bill Ackman and US Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon were among those who amplified the narrative.”The past few days have been an unimaginable nightmare,” Kharbouch said Friday in a statement shared with AFP by their legal team. “I woke up on Tuesday morning to unfounded, vile, Islamophobic, and anti-Palestinian accusations being directed toward me online.””I received non-stop death threats and hate speech,” Kharbouch said.Kharbouch’s legal team said they had cooperated with inquiries from law enforcement and called the campaign “disturbing, racist, and hateful,” as well as a distraction to investigators.”No person should have to endure what Mustapha did, simply because of their identity.”Prior to Neves Valente’s identification, a member of a local law enforcement agency involved in the investigation told AFP that Kharbouch had never been a person of interest.- ‘Harmful doxxing activity’ -Misinformation frequently follows shooting incidents, as information gaps allow false claims -– often steered by biases -– to proliferate unchecked.As media reported the name of a military veteran initially detained and released, social media filled with his image -– and a torrent of erroneous posts sharing photos of another man with the same name.Officials tried to quiet the noise as the manhunt progressed, and also warned that AI-enhanced renderings of the visuals they were releasing could lead to more misidentifications.A Brown University statement, which a spokesman confirmed to AFP was about Kharbouch, condemned the “harmful doxxing activity” and described the steps to minimize the student’s online presence as a “safety measure.”US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pleaded during a hearing for social media users to “shut up with the speculation,” saying the rumors could overwhelm tip lines.The claims persisted anyway.Brown University President Christina Paxson said the attack and aftermath had been “devastating” for those “targeted by online rumors and accusations.”With Neves Valente named, she said: “I hope that this development also means an end to this truly troubling activity.”

The widow of murdered right-wing activist Charlie Kirk has endorsed JD Vance for president in 2028, firing an early starting gun on the White House race, and offering the backing of the influential youth organization founded by her husband.Erika Kirk, whose husband’s Turning Point USA was a major player in mobilizing young people to vote for Donald Trump in 2024, told thousands of attendees she was backing the vice president to become the 48th president.”We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” she said on Thursday night at AmericaFest, the first major Turning Point gathering since Charlie Kirk was killed.Vance is due to speak at the gathering on Sunday.The endorsement comes as the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement begins to look to a future without Trump.Vance has not yet committed to running in 2028, but he is widely expected to put himself forward.An early endorsement from a group that has become increasingly powerful within the movement could help to create momentum that makes a Vance candidacy seem inevitable.But it also comes at a time that fractures in the MAGA movement are becoming increasingly obvious, and as some key figures are starting to express frustration and disillusionment with Trump.Last month, firebrand Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene launched a blistering attack on Trump’s second-term agenda, which she said was betraying voters.Greene, until recently one of Trump’s most loyal lieutenants, has said she will leave congress in January, with some commentators speculating that she might make a tilt at 2028.Other figures on the right, including white nationalist Nick Fuentes, also appear to be trying to lay claim to the crown.Vance was close to Charlie Kirk in the months and years before he was shot dead on a Utah college campus, in a political assassination that shocked America and sent conservatives into shocked mourning.The vice president flew to Utah to console Erika Kirk and to accompany Charlie Kirk’s body back to the couple’s Arizona home.Footage showed Vance walking with the coffin as it was loaded onto Air Force Two.Charlie Kirk, 31, was a talented speaker who toured college campuses where he challenged young people to debates on hot-button issues.Edited clips of these confrontations helped build a large social media following, which he parlayed into a movement that worked to mobilize young voters on right-wing issues.A month after his death, Trump posthumously awarded him the Presidential medal of Freedom, hailing the young activist as a “martyr for truth and freedom.”

The Trump administration will suspend a green card lottery that allowed a man believed to be behind both a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor into the United States.Investigators said late Thursday that Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese man was the gunman who burst into a building at the Ivy League school and opening fire on students, killing two and wounding nine at the weekend. He also killed a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with whom he had previously studied, two days later, according to police.Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media on Thursday that Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program in 2017 and was granted a green card.The US green card lottery grants up to 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to people “from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States,” according to the State Department.Noem described Neves Valente, who police said Thursday was found dead by suicide after a days-long manhunt, was a “heinous individual” who “should never have been allowed in our country.””At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Noem said.In 2017, during Donald Trump’s first term, the Republican leader vowed a battery of tough measures to curb immigration, including terminating the green card lottery, after a deadly terror attack in New York. Noem pointed to this incident in her post Thursday.US attorney Leah Foley said at a press briefing on Thursday that Neves Valente studied at Brown University “on an F1 (student) visa around 2000 to 2021” and that “he eventually obtained legal permanent resident status,” but did not go into further detail.Foley added that Neves Valente had also attended the “same academic program…  in Portugal between 1995 and 2000” as the MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro, who was shot down in his home in Brookline, in the greater Boston metro area.There is no immediate indication of a motive in the shootings that rattled the elite New England campuses.Neves Valente’s body was found at a storage unit in New Hampshire along with two guns. He killed himself, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said Thursday and is believed to have acted alone.Portugal’s Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel said “it is with great dismay we learned the chief suspect, who was found dead is a Portuguese citizen.”Portuguese police said there were cooperating with US investigators.The two student victims from Brown were Ella Cook, vice president of the university’s Republican Party association, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, originally from Uzbekistan.Six of the wounded were still in hospital in stable condition, and three have been released, university president Christina Paxson said in a statement Thursday.For days, officials voiced their mounting frustration with the manhunt. The case finally blew open thanks to a trail of financial data and video surveillance footage gathered at both crime scenes.- ‘Hiding his tracks’ -“The groundwork that started in the city of Providence… led us to that connection,” Perez said. In Boston, Foley said Neves Valente had been “sophisticated in hiding his tracks.”He switched the license plates on his rental vehicle at one point and was using a phone that investigators had difficulty tracking.The US has suffered more than 300 incidents in which more than four or more people were shot this year. Attempts to restrict access to firearms still face political deadlock.

The US Justice Department will release several hundred thousand documents Friday from the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a top official said, with more files in the politically explosive case to be published over coming weeks.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an interview with “Fox and Friends,” also said that no new charges were imminent in a scandal that continues to convulse America.Prosecutors have the latitude to withhold material related to active investigations and Blanche said the documents will also be painstakingly redacted to protect the identities of Epstein’s hundreds of victims.Epstein, a wealthy financier with ties to global elites, died in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.His death — ruled a suicide — fueled conspiracy theories and demands for accountability in a case that sits at the crossroads of immense wealth, political influence and perceived impunity.President Donald Trump, once a close friend of Epstein, fought for months to prevent the release of the Epstein files held by the Justice Department.However, on November 19 he caved to pressure from Congress, including from his Republican Party, and signed a law compelling publication of the materials within 30 days.Friday is the deadline for the release of the long-awaited records.”I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today,” Blanche said. “So today, several hundred thousand and then over the next couple of weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.”As of today, there’s no new charges coming, but we are investigating,” he added.- ‘Cover up’ -Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer condemned the partial release, saying “the Trump administration had 30 days to release ALL the Epstein files, not just some.””People want the truth and continue to demand the immediate release of all the Epstein files,” Schumer said in a statement. “This is nothing more than a cover up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past.”For Trump, the moment carries enormous personal and political sensitivity.Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed that prominent Democrats and Hollywood figures were protected from accountability, framing the Epstein scandal as proof that money and influence can subvert the justice system.But the president himself once counted Epstein among his social companions, moving in the same Palm Beach and New York milieus in the 1990s and appearing together at parties for years.The president severed ties with Epstein years before the 2019 arrest and is not accused of wrongdoing in the case.After returning to office, and acquiring the unilateral authority to publish the files, Trump dismissed the years-long push for transparency that he had once encouraged as a “Democrat hoax.”He fought Congress over its drive to get the records out in public, but relented and signed the Epstein files act once a sweeping bipartisan consensus made opposition untenable.For the public and for survivors, the release of the files marks the clearest opportunity yet to shed light on the scandal.The newly released records could clarify how Epstein operated, who assisted him and whether prominent individuals benefited from institutional restraint.The law requires the unsealing of extensive internal correspondence, investigative files and court documents that have previously remained sealed or inaccessible.They may reveal new associates and clarify why prosecutors stalled for years, but expectations of a “client list” are likely misplaced, with the Justice Department saying no such roster exists.Trump recently ordered investigations into Democrats linked to Epstein, prompting speculation that those inquiries could be cited as justification for withholding records.Epstein amassed powerful allies, maintained luxury properties where abuse allegedly occurred and secured a hugely contentious 2008 plea deal in a separate case that critics say may have protected unnamed coconspirators.Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell is the only person to have been charged in connection with his activities. The former British socialite is serving a 20-year prison sentence for offenses including sex trafficking a minor.

The Trump administration announced on Thursday it will suspend a green card lottery that allowed a man believed to be behind both a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor into the United States.Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, is accused of bursting into a building at the Ivy League school on Saturday and opening fire on students, killing two and wounding nine. He is also accused of killing a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) two days later.Homeland security chief Kristi Noem wrote on social media on Thursday that Neves Valente “entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card.”The US green card lottery grants up to 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to people “from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States,” according to the State Department.Noem described Neves Valente, who police said Thursday was found dead by suicide after a days-long manhunt, was a “heinous individual” who “should never have been allowed in our country.””At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Noem said.In 2017, during US President Donald Trump’s first term, the Republican leader vowed a battery of tough measures to curb immigration, including terminating the green card lottery, after a deadly terror attack in New York. Noem pointed to this incident in her post on Thursday saying: “President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people.”US attorney Leah Foley said at a press briefing on Thursday that Neves Valente studied at Brown University “on an F1 (student) visa around 2000 to 2021” and that “he eventually obtained legal permanent resident status,” but did not go into further detail.Foley added that Neves Valente had also attended the “same academic program…  in Portugal between 1995 and 2000” as the MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro, who was shot down in his home in Brookline, in the greater Boston metro area.There is no immediate indication of a motive in the shootings, that rattled the elite New England campuses.Neves Valente’s body was found at a storage unit in New Hampshire along with two firearms. He died by suicide, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said Thursday and is believed to have acted alone.The two student victims from Brown were Ella Cook, vice president of the university’s Republican Party association, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, originally from Uzbekistan, who had hoped to become a neurosurgeon.Six of the wounded were still in hospital in stable condition, and three have been released, university president Christina Paxson said in a statement Thursday.Investigators released images of a person of interest and an individual who was seen standing near that person in an effort to trace them.For days, officials voiced their mounting frustration with the seemingly endless manhunt.The case finally blew open thanks to a trail of financial data and video surveillance footage gathered at both crime scenes.- ‘Hiding his tracks’ -“The groundwork that started in the city of Providence… led us to that connection,” Perez said. In Boston, Foley said Neves Valente had been “sophisticated in hiding his tracks.”He switched the license plates on his rental vehicle at one point and was using a phone that investigators had difficulty tracking.Authorities initially detained a different man in connection with the shooting but later released him.The university has faced questions, including from Trump, about its security arrangements after it emerged that none of its 1,200 security cameras were linked to the police’s surveillance system.There have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot. Attempts to restrict access to firearms still face political deadlock.”Nothing can fully bring closure to the lives that have been shattered by last weekend’s gun violence,” said Paxson, Brown’s president.”Now, however, our community has the opportunity to move forward and begin a path of repair, recovery and healing.”

The Trump administration announced on Thursday it will suspend a green card lottery that allowed a man believed to be behind both a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor into the United States.Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national, is accused of bursting into a building at the Ivy League school on Saturday and opening fire on students, killing two and wounding nine. He is also accused of killing a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) two days later.Homeland security chief Kristi Noem wrote on social media on Thursday that Neves Valente “entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card.”The US green card lottery grants up to 55,000 permanent resident visas annually to people “from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States,” according to the State Department.Noem described Neves Valente, who police said Thursday was found dead by suicide after a days-long manhunt, was a “heinous individual” who “should never have been allowed in our country.””At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program,” Noem said.In 2017, during US President Donald Trump’s first term, the Republican leader vowed a battery of tough measures to curb immigration, including terminating the green card lottery, after a deadly terror attack in New York. Noem pointed to this incident in her post on Thursday saying: “President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people.”US attorney Leah Foley said at a press briefing on Thursday that Neves Valente studied at Brown University “on an F1 (student) visa around 2000 to 2021” and that “he eventually obtained legal permanent resident status,” but did not go into further detail.Foley added that Neves Valente had also attended the “same academic program…  in Portugal between 1995 and 2000” as the MIT professor, Nuno Loureiro, who was shot down in his home in Brookline, in the greater Boston metro area.There is no immediate indication of a motive in the shootings, that rattled the elite New England campuses.Neves Valente’s body was found at a storage unit in New Hampshire along with two firearms. He died by suicide, Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said Thursday and is believed to have acted alone.The two student victims from Brown were Ella Cook, vice president of the university’s Republican Party association, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, originally from Uzbekistan, who had hoped to become a neurosurgeon.Six of the wounded were still in hospital in stable condition, and three have been released, university president Christina Paxson said in a statement Thursday.Investigators released images of a person of interest and an individual who was seen standing near that person in an effort to trace them.For days, officials voiced their mounting frustration with the seemingly endless manhunt.The case finally blew open thanks to a trail of financial data and video surveillance footage gathered at both crime scenes.- ‘Hiding his tracks’ -“The groundwork that started in the city of Providence… led us to that connection,” Perez said. In Boston, Foley said Neves Valente had been “sophisticated in hiding his tracks.”He switched the license plates on his rental vehicle at one point and was using a phone that investigators had difficulty tracking.Authorities initially detained a different man in connection with the shooting but later released him.The university has faced questions, including from Trump, about its security arrangements after it emerged that none of its 1,200 security cameras were linked to the police’s surveillance system.There have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot. Attempts to restrict access to firearms still face political deadlock.”Nothing can fully bring closure to the lives that have been shattered by last weekend’s gun violence,” said Paxson, Brown’s president.”Now, however, our community has the opportunity to move forward and begin a path of repair, recovery and healing.”

TikTok said Thursday it has signed a joint venture deal with investors that would allow the company to maintain operations in the United States and avoid a ban over its Chinese ownership.The move caps a lengthy tussle over the hugely successful video-sharing app in the world’s largest economy, where TikTok says it has more than 170 million users.According to an internal memo seen by AFP, TikTok CEO Shou Chew told employees that the social media company and its Chinese owner ByteDance had agreed to the new entity.Oracle, Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX are on board as major investors, the memo said. Oracle’s executive chairman Larry Ellison is a longtime ally of US President Donald Trump.”The US joint venture will be responsible for US data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance,” Chew said in the memo.”It will also have the exclusive right and authority to provide assurances that content, software, and data for American users is secure.”Chew told staff that half the US venture will be held by a consortium of new investors including Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX — which will have 15 percent each.Affiliates of existing ByteDance investors will own a touch over 30 percent of the venture, with Bytedance retaining just shy of 20 percent, the maximum ownership allowed for a Chinese company under the terms of the law.TikTok Global’s US entities will manage global product interoperability, and certain commercial activities, including e-commerce, advertising, and marketing, according to the memo.Chew noted that there is more work to be done ahead of the January 22 closing date for the deal.- Ellison amassing media? -The new set-up is in response to a law passed under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, that forced ByteDance to sell TikTok’s US operations or face a ban in its biggest market.US policymakers, including Trump in his first presidency, warned that China could use TikTok to mine data from Americans or exert influence through its state-of-the-art algorithm.Trump has delayed enforcement through successive executive orders, most recently extending the deadline into January.The deal largely confirms a September announcement by the White House that said a new venture had been agreed with China and would meet the requirements of the 2024 law.”If I could make it 100 percent MAGA I would, but it’s not going to work out that way unfortunately,” Trump told reporters after the TikTok announcement in September.Trump in September had specifically named Oracle boss Ellison, one of the world’s richest men, as a major player in the arrangement.Ellison has returned to the spotlight through his dealings with Trump, who has brought his old friend into major AI partnerships with OpenAI.Ellison has also financed his son David’s recent takeover of Paramount and is involved in his son’s bidding war with Netflix to take over Warner Bros.- Bytedance impact -Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun did not directly address reports of the deal, reiterating Friday that “China’s position on the TikTok issue is consistent and clear”.Bytedance did not immediately comment, but experts said it was a compromise that had averted the blow of losing access to the lucrative US market.”Keeping the US operation live is itself a victory” for Bytedance, Li Chengdong, founder of Chinese technology consultancy Dolphin, told AFP.Settling the issue allows Bytedance to focus on new ventures including artificial intelligence projects, and could help it move towards an initial public offering (IPO), Li said.Zhang Yi of technology research firm iiMedia said the US market was of “paramount importance to TikTok” but warned the deal did not guarantee smooth sailing going forward.”The US side could still leverage its regulatory power… to impose unfair demands on TikTok,” Zhang said.

For a reading of Wall Street’s shifting mood on the artificial intelligence investment boom, take a look at the daily fluctuations of Oracle stock, analysts say.Shares of the software giant slumped more than five percent Wednesday following a news report of financing troubles with one of the company’s giant AI projects.But they recovered on Thursday and finished up around one percent at $180.03 as tech companies rallied following blowout results from Micron Technology, another big AI player.”Oracle is probably the poster child” for the AI investment boom, said B. Riley Wealth Management’s Art Hogan, who points to questions about “circular financing” arrangements that have made Oracle and OpenAI dependent on each other for billions of dollars in business.On Thursday, Oracle — along with Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX — was also named in a new deal with TikTok, according to an internal memo seen by AFP from the social media company’s CEO Shou Chew. “The US joint venture will be responsible for US data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance,” Chew said in the memo. The deal would allow TikTok to maintain US operations and avoid a ban threat over its Chinese ownership.Oracle stock rose more than five percent to $190.81 in after-hours trading on Thursday.The firm’s stock peaked at $345.72 in September after it unveiled a massive inventory of AI work, a surge that briefly vaulted co-founder Larry Ellison above Tesla CEO Elon Musk as the world’s wealthiest person.But its shares have since fallen more than 45 percent as investors have begun to question the risk of AI infrastructure overbuilding and scrutinized the financing of individual projects.Ellison, a close ally of President Donald Trump, is currently fifth on the Forbes real-time billionaire list with $230 billion.- Michigan project ‘limbo’ -This week’s gyrations in Oracle shares followed a Financial Times story Wednesday that described a $10 billion AI data center project in Michigan as “in limbo” after a key partner declined to join the project.The company, Blue Owl Capital, a backer of other major Oracle projects, pulled back after other lenders pushed for stricter terms “amid shifting market sentiment around enormous AI spending,” said the FT, which cited people familiar with the matter.Oracle, which is taking on billions of dollars of debt in the building spree, described the FT story as “incorrect.””Our development partner, Related Digital, selected the best equity partner from a competitive group of options, which in this instance was not Blue Owl,” said Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert.”Final negotiations for their equity deal are moving forward on schedule and according to plan.”OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said the Chat GPT-maker has committed to some $1.4 trillion in investments in AI computing, with some $300 billion reportedly going to Oracle. But AI stocks have been volatile in recent weeks as the market scrutinizes the profit outlook for the data centers.”Investors are starting to ask questions about the sustainability of the AI trade and the profitability,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.The enthusiasm for AI “makes sense” when considering that manufacturing and services companies could see profits enhanced by the technology, Sosnick said, before pointing to doubts over lofty AI equity valuations.Oracle’s price drop on Wednesday followed a selloff last week after the firm’s quarterly results sparked worry over its massive capital spending.Analysts bullish on the stock have emphasized its huge growth potential with the AI boom.On Thursday, Morningstar trimmed its price target on Oracle to $277 from $286, pointing to greater uncertainty around the projects.Oracle’s elevated debt “leaves little room for error, meaning the new data centers have to generate cash flow as soon as possible to service debt and lease obligations,”  Morningstar said in a note. “However, we view recent events, including delays in some data centers’ completion dates, as minor setbacks that should not alter Oracle’s overall capacity ramp-up.”

A man believed to be behind both a mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of an MIT professor has been found dead after a days-long manhunt, authorities said Thursday. The suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, was a 48-year-old Portuguese national who had once studied physics at Brown, officials announced at press conferences in Providence and Boston.There was no immediate indication of a motive in the twin shootings at two of the top universities in the United States, which rattled the elite New England campuses.The shooter’s body was found at a storage unit in New Hampshire along with two firearms. He died by suicide, Providence police chief Oscar Perez said.Neves Valente, who had been a permanent US resident since 2017, is believed to have acted alone.”Tonight, our Providence neighbors can finally breathe a little bit easier,” Mayor Brett Smiley told reporters.On December 13, the shooter burst into a building at Brown, an Ivy League school in Rhode Island, where students were taking exams, and opened fire, killing two and wounding nine.The victims were Ella Cook, vice president of Brown’s Republican Party association, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, originally from Uzbekistan, who had hoped to become a neurosurgeon.Six of the wounded were still in hospital in stable condition, and three have been released, university president Christina Paxson said in a statement late Thursday.Then on December 15, Nuno Loureiro — a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — was fatally shot in his home in Brookline, in the greater Boston metro area.For days, investigators appeared to have little to go on, releasing images of a person of interest and an individual who was seen standing near that person in an effort to trace them.Officials had given daily media updates at which they voiced increasing frustration with the fruitless manhunt.But then the case blew open thanks to a trail of financial data and video surveillance footage gathered at both scenes.- ‘Hiding his tracks’ -“The groundwork that started in the city of Providence…led us to that connection,” Perez said. In Boston, federal prosecutor Leah Foley, the US attorney for Massachusetts, explained how Neves Valente had been “sophisticated in hiding his tracks.”He switched the plates on his rental vehicle at one point and was using a phone that investigators had difficulty tracking, but eventually the pieces started falling into place.Authorities initially detained a different man in connection with the shooting but later released him.The university has faced questions, including from President Donald Trump, about its security arrangements after it emerged that none of its 1,200 security cameras were linked to the police’s surveillance system.There have been more than 300 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot. Attempts to restrict access to firearms still face political deadlock.”Nothing can fully bring closure to the lives that have been shattered by last weekend’s gun violence,” said Paxson, Brown’s president.”Now, however, our community has the opportunity to move forward and begin a path of repair, recovery and healing.”

In Phoenix, at a meeting of an influential conservative organization, supporters of US President Donald Trump say they are keenly awaiting the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.As a Friday deadline looms for the Justice Department to publish the trove of documents related to the convicted sex offender, some were impatient, while others were eager to see Trump’s name cleared.”I think it took too long,” Mike Costarell, 58, told AFP at AmericaFest 2025, Turning Point USA’s first major event since the September killing of founder Charlie Kirk.”I think it’s important anybody that sexualizes children should be accountable for their acts. And I don’t care what side of the political aisle or how rich they are,” he said.Epstein, convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution, died in custody in 2019 awaiting trial for sex crimes against minors.For years, Trump and his acolytes stoked lurid conspiracy theories that powerful Democrats were hiding the truth about his crimes to prevent embarrassing revelations, and called for the release of all files related to the case.But since taking office in January, the Republican president — who benefitted from Kirk’s efforts to rally young voters to his camp — has repeatedly demanded the nation move on, dismissing the matter as a “hoax.”Last month, a rare bipartisan effort in Congress forced him to sign a law requiring his administration to release the case file by the end of Friday.For Georgia student Gwyn Andrews, Trump’s reluctance to release the documents was baffling, but she is hopeful the president’s name will be finally cleared.”I’m glad that it’s finally happening,” she told AFP at AmericaFest.”Kudos to Trump for finally getting it out. It scares some Republicans who voted for him to now know that he kind of changed his gears. “But we’re glad that it’s back on track, and I hope that will bring a lot of transparency to the deep state and to DC.”- New names in files? -The four-day AmericaFest — which will hear from many of the luminaries of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement — is an opportunity to test the waters among the faithful at a time that wider public trust in Trump is flagging, according to opinion polls.Despite a well-documented friendship with Epstein that includes multiple photos of the two men together over a number of years, many of those present expressed little doubt in Trump’s narrative that the files are a red herring.Photographs released Thursday showed Epstein with figures including former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, linguist Noam Chomsky and filmmaker Woody Allen.None of the photos had any context and none showed any criminal activity.”I don’t expect it’ll be some earth shattering,… but I believe that people will be on that list that people don’t assume” said Jacob Ellison, a 24-year-old Texan.”I wouldn’t be surprised if there are Republicans and Democrats alike on that list when it is released.”As for Trump’s involvement with Epstein, Ellison said: “They do say he’s close to people, but I don’t know. “I like to believe that he’s a family man. He holds certain values, and so that’s what I’m shooting for.”