The US Justice Department has revealed criminal charges relating to a thwarted Iranian plot to kill Donald Trump before this week’s presidential election; the president-elect has started appointing people in his top team.
Saturday 9 November 2024 07:28, UK
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Iran has rejected a report it was behind an alleged plot to assassinate Donald Trump after the US Justice Department charged a man in connection with the plan.
The man told investigators that an official in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard instructed him in September to put together a plan to watch and ultimately kill the president-elect, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei called it a plot by Israel-linked circles to make Iran-US relations more complicated, the IRNA news agency reported.
Similar accusations in the past were rejected by Iran as their “erroneousness” was proved, he said.
Investigators learned of the plot to kill Mr Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who authorities say has a web of criminal associates who participate in Tehran’s assassination plots.
Shakeri, who is at large and remains in Iran, claimed the Iranian official said that “we have already spent a lot of money” and that “money’s not an issue”.
Two other men who were allegedly recruited to participate in other assassinations, including of a prominent Iranian American journalist, were arrested yesterday.
Mr Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, says the president is “aware of the attempted assassination plot” but “nothing will deter him”.
Dozens of black Americans have received text messages telling them they had been “selected” to pick cotton “at the nearest plantation”.
The message is an offensive reference to past enslavement of black people in the US.
Many of the message recipients were university students from colleges including Ohio State University, Clemson University in South Carolina, the University of Southern California and Missouri State University, according to Sky’s US partner network NBC News.
But other black men, women and children were sent messages in several other states including New York, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Tennessee.
The first messages were sent the morning after the US election, with some referencing President-elect Donald Trump.
You can read more here…
Former US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said if Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement.
In an interview published by the New York Times, Ms Pelosi said: “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race.
“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary.”
Ms Pelosi said she thought Kamala Harris, “would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen.”
She said that since Biden endorsed Harris immediately, “that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”
“I don’t think that any review of the election should be predicated on weaknesses, but strengths of Kamala Harris. She gave people hope. She caused a great deal of excitement in all this,” Pelosi added.
Donald Trump has named Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff in his first major appointment as president-elect.
She will be the first female in history to take up the role – one of the most important non-elected posts in Washington.
In his victory speech, Trump described her as an “ice maiden” and has credited her with his “best-run” campaign.
Here’s what we know about her so far…
It’s just hit 3am here in the UK, here are the key lines from the last 24 hours:
Prominent investors Scott Bessent and John Paulson have emerged as the leading candidates for the key role of US Treasury Secretary, two people close to Trump have told Reuters.
Bessent and Paulson are among several names that have been reported in the media as potential candidates for the role in recent days.
A final decision rests with Trump.
Yesterday, the president-elect made the first official hire of his incoming administration, announcing Susie Wiles as his chief of staff.
Donald Trump is the first convicted felon to win a US presidential election – and he is currently facing more legal cases.
Here, our US correspondent James Matthews explains what could happen to them…
By Tom Clarke, science and technology editor
After a year of ever more extreme weather and continually rising global temperatures, it’s no wonder this year’s UN climate summit has been called – once again – the “last-chance saloon”.
Yet swaggering out through its swing doors goes president-elect Donald Trump.
The timing of his election win, with its promise to withdraw the US from the global climate process, couldn’t be worse.
Next year is forecast to exceed 1.5 degrees of warming for the first time – something the Paris Agreement is designed to prevent from becoming the norm.
Despite that and nearly 30 years of talks, man-made emissions of greenhouse gases are still rising.
Tim Walz has been addressing supporters in Minnesota tonight.
Addressing the crowd, he said: “It’s hard to understand why so many of our fellow citizens, people who we have fought so long and hard for, wound up choosing the other path.
“It’s hard to reckon with what that path looks like for the next four years.”
Walz also said Americans wanted the freedom to live their lives as they see fit, a message that had been a cornerstone of the Harris-Walz campaign.
To that end, Walz promised to make Minnesota a bulwark against a second Trump administration’s potential attacks on abortion rights, immigrants and labour unions.
“Look, we know what’s coming down the pike. We know it because they told us,” Walz said.
“The moment they try and bring a hateful agenda in this state, I’m going to stand ready to stand up and fight.”
A man was arrested on a trespassing charge at Mar-a-Lago yesterday, our partner network NBC News reports.
According to an affidavit, Zijie Li, from El Monte, California, was previously issued a trespass warning by Palm Beach Police on 19 July for “attempting to enter Mar-a-Lago in an effort to speak with the former president”.
He then came into the town of Palm Beach four additional times, driving up to the north check point but not attempting to enter Mar-a-Lago.
Police say Li placed paperwork about Trump on cars around the area on 19 July.
Li appeared in Palm Beach County court this morning and bond was set at $100,000.
He’s currently being held at Palm Beach County Jail.
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