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Thomas Matthew Crooks shot former US president Donald Trump in the ear at a rally in July. Photo: AFP / HANDOUT The gunman who tried to assassinate former United States president Donald Trump had encrypted messaging accounts on platforms based in New Zealand, an investigation has shown. Republican representative Michael Waltz, a member of a congressional taskforce investigating the assassination attempt carried out by 19-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, revealed the link to media this week. Waltz said Crooks used encrypted messaging accounts on various platforms located in Belgium, New Zealand and Germany. According to the New York Post, the "overseas accounts" piqued Waltz's suspicion immediately. "Why does a 19-year-old kid who is a health care aide need encrypted platforms not even ba...

Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi looks at a large diamond discovered in Botswana at his office in Gaborone on 22 August 2024. Photo: MONIRUL BHUIYAN / AFP A 2492-carat diamond has been recovered from Botswana's Karowe Mine, marking potentially the second largest sample of the stone ever found. Mining company Lucara Diamond Corp hailed the discovery as "exceptional", and highlighted the many precious diamonds its mine has yielded over the years. One of the world's largest-ever diamonds has been unearthed in Botswana. The 2492-carat gemstone mined by Canadian company Lucara Diamond Corp this week is believed to be the largest found in a century and the second-largest ever mined. Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi showed off the stone in his office, with the government confirmi...

By Tom Sims, Reuters Police on the scene after three people were killed in an attack at the 650th anniversary celebrations of the German city Solingen. Photo: Gianni Gattus / DPA / AFP German police said on Saturday that they were still searching for an unknown assailant hours after he killed three people and wounded others in a stabbing attack at a festival in the western city of Solingen. Eight were injured, five of them seriously, the police said in a statement early on Saturday. That was up from the four serious injuries the police reported earlier. "Both victims and witnesses are currently being questioned. The police are currently searching for the perpetrator with a large team," police said. The incident occurred around 9:40pm on Friday (7.40am Saturday NZT), when the man atta...

Ukrainian servicemen operate a Soviet-made T-72 tank in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, on 12 August, 2024. Photo: AFP / Roman Pilipey The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on more than 400 entities and individuals for supporting Russia's war effort in Ukraine, the State Department said, including Chinese companies that US officials believe are helping Moscow skirt Western sanctions and build up its military. Washington has repeatedly warned Beijing over its support for Russia's defence industrial base and has already issued hundreds of sanctions aimed at restricting Moscow's ability to exploit certain technologies for military purposes. Friday's sanctions include measures against companies in China involved in shipping machine tools and microelectronics to Russia,...

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump embraces former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena on 23 August 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. Photo: REBECCA NOBLE / AFP Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr abandoned his campaign on Friday and endorsed Republican Donald Trump, ending a run that he began as a Democrat trading on one of the most famous names in American politics. Hours after announcing the endorsement in a press conference, Kennedy joined Trump at a campaign event in Arizona, where the crowd cheered the independent loudly. "His candidacy has inspired millions and millions of Americans, raised critical issues that have been too long ignored in this country," Trump said of Kennedy. S...

A UNRWA employee provides a polio vaccine in a clinic in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on 21 January, 2024. Photo: NurPhoto via AFP By Tala Ramadan, Reuters The WHO has announced two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign are set to begin in late August and September 2024 across the densely populated Gaza Strip. Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP A 10-month-old baby in war-shattered Gaza has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday, with UN agencies appealing for urgent vaccinations of every baby. The type 2 virus (cVDPV2), while not inherently more dangerous than types 1 and 3, has been responsible for most outbreaks in recent years, especially in areas with low vaccination rates...

Police stand near the scene of fatalities and injuries in an attack at the 650th anniversary celebrations of German city Solingen. Photo: Gianni Gattus / DPA / AFP Three people have been killed and others wounded in a stabbing attack at a festival on Friday night in the western German city of Solingen, police confirm. Bild newspaper reported a man knifed passers-by at random at the festival at around 9.45 pm and that at least three people were dead and multiple wounded. Witnesses said the perpetrator was at large, the paper added. German police said they assumed the stabbings was the result of a single perpetrator. The mayor of the city confirmed there were dead and injured due to an attack, but did not go into details. "It tears my heart apart that there was an attack on our city. I ha...

By Daniel Trotta, Reuters A photo of Tyre Nichols is positioned prior to a press conference on 27 January, 2023 in Memphis, Tennessee. Photo: AFP A second former Memphis police officer pleaded guilty on Friday to federal charges in the death of Black motorist Tyre Nichols, whose videotaped beating by five Black officers in January 2023 shocked the United States. Emmitt Martin III, one of five fired officers facing criminal charges, was also expected to plead guilty to related Tennessee state charges, the Shelby County District Attorney's Office said in a statement. Martin pleaded guilty to two of the four federal counts against him - one for depriving Nichols' civil rights, and another for witness tampering - and agreed to cooperate with the investigation, according to his plea agree...