Israeli forces have rounded up and arrested Palestinians en masse in the occupied West Bank’s Tulkarem. The operation is being described as “collective punishment” after several Israeli soldiers were injured in an attack.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to over 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after his 2022 election loss. The historic trial has deepened political divisions in the country and triggered a sharp backlash from US President Donald Trump.
In a rare move, the US backed a UN Security Council statement condemning Israel’s attack on Hamas’s political office in Doha. Members took turns to criticise the Israeli move, highlighting support for the “territorial integrity of Qatar”.
United States President Donald Trump has said that “with a high degree of certainty” the gunman in the killing of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk has been caught. The shooting was an act of violence that has reverberated across the US and underscored deep and toxic political divisions.
Trump said on Friday that a minister, who is also linked to law enforcement, turned in the suspect to authorities. “Somebody that was very close to him,” Trump said.
Trump told Fox & Friends that he hoped the suspect got “the death penalty”.
Trump also said he plans to attend Kirk’s funeral.
The FBI and state officials on Thursday released photos and a video of the person they believe is responsible. Kirk was shot as he spoke to a crowd gathered in a courtyard at Utah Valley University in Orem.
The president said he was informed of the suspect’s arrest “five minutes before I walked in” the studio, praising local authorities for their coordination. “They did a great job, everybody worked together. It all worked out,” he said.
Trump paid tribute to Kirk, calling him “the finest person” who was “like a son” to him. He said Kirk was “a brilliant guy” who helped him win the election with TikTok and energised young voters. “I’ve never seen young people go to one person like they did to Charlie,” Trump added.
The suspect is “28 or 29”, according to Trump. Investigators were due to hold a briefing later on Friday with more details.
The assassination offers the latest example of how ordinary security measures can be defeated in an era of escalating political violence, when anyone associated with the political process is a potential target.
Trump said political events must continue despite safety concerns. “You have to go forward,” he said when asked about appearances getting cancelled after Kirk’s death.
The suspect is in the custody of Utah state authorities, according to a source familiar with the case who requested anonymity, Reuters reported.
Earlier the FBI circulated grainy security images showing a man in a black long-sleeved shirt, dark sunglasses and a baseball cap. The shirt appeared to feature a bald eagle flying across a US flag. Other footage showed the shooter running across a roof before lowering himself to the ground.
“Somebody this close recognises even a little tilt of the head, which nobody else would do,” Trump said on Fox.
Trump suggested the suspect’s father had driven him to a police station and handed him over to authorities.
Kirk, a conservative commentator and close ally of Trump, was credited with boosting Republican support among younger voters. He was killed moments before leading a debate titled “Prove Me Wrong” at Utah Valley University, about 65km (40 miles) south of Salt Lake City.
A Palestinian mother filmed the panic and confusion, screaming for her son after she said an Israeli strike targeted their neighbour’s home as they were preparing to evacuate. Palestinians in Gaza City say Israel often gives only 15–30 minutes’ warning before striking buildings.
Doha, Qatar – Six coffins – five of them draped in Palestinian flags, one in a Qatari flag – were laid before the hundreds gathered for funeral prayers at Doha’s Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque.
Sitting in the front row of the congregation on Thursday was Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. He was there to honour those killed in an Israeli attack this week that has shaken Qatar.
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Among those killed was Lance-Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari, a 22-year-old member of the Internal Security Forces. In the crowd after the prayers, the emir comforted a young boy with tears rolling down his cheeks.
The sombre feeling at the funeral followed the shock of Tuesday’s attack, which targeted Hamas leaders as they were discussing a Gaza ceasefire proposal presented by the United States. The leaders survived the attack.
The attack took place on Tuesday afternoon in the city’s West Bay Lagoon area. Several blasts rang out across Doha, sending up a thick plume of smoke and uniting its residents in equal parts shock and horror. Though the nature of the incident was quickly apparent, Doha’s reputation for safety cast a shadow of doubt over whether it really could have been attacked.
Since gaining independence in 1971, the country has faced no conflicts that have escalated into direct military action on its territory. When Iran carried out its strike earlier this year, Qatar was more of a circumstantial participant – its role shaped largely by the presence of a major US military base.
Mohammed Asim, 40, who moved to Doha from Bangladesh with his wife and two children and works in the wholesale food trade, lives about a kilometre from the building that was hit and said he had never believed such a thing could happen in the city.
“I thought a house was being demolished, as the sounds of the explosions, which came one after the other, reminded me of that,” he told Al Jazeera. “It wasn’t until I saw the news that I realised.”
About 45 minutes after the strike, I arrived with my colleague, photojournalist Showkat Shafi, in the Diplomatic Area in West Bay near Doha’s coast, just as details were beginning to reach newsrooms worldwide. We parked the car a few blocks down from the site and walked about 500 metres until we arrived near the site. Before us stood a large crimson-walled compound, its facade torn open, ashen debris spilling through the wide gate, with wisps of smoke still curling from the courtyard where another strike had hit.
Two drones, one fibre optic and the other remote, hovered above the compound for hours, providing light after dusk, as emergency services dug through the rubble.
All entrances to the streets near the compound were cordoned off. Beside us were members of various branches of Qatar’s security services, civil defence teams and several ambulances on standby. As the night drew on, the police presence thinned, with families in nearby houses occasionally glancing out of their windows at the security forces and their glaring red and blue siren lights.
The building, situated in a residential area with three schools nearby, housed members of Hamas’s political bureau.
Qatar has promised to act in coordination with regional allies. In the days that followed the attack, regional leaders, crown princes, prime ministers, and ministers have visited Doha in a show of unity and solidarity, the most prominent among them the United Arab Emirates president, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Pakistan’s leader, Shehbaz Sharif.
Even US President Donald Trump joined the chorus of solidarity with Qatar, saying that such an attack wouldn’t happen again, even if he did add that “eliminating” Hamas was a “worthy goal”.
But is that enough to reassure Qatar and its people?
Trump’s words haven’t provided much reassurance to Doha’s inhabitants, whose once peaceful abode is now caught directly in the crosshairs of Israel’s wars in the region, becoming one of six countries that Israel has attacked just this week.
Billboards carried short messages to help calm nerves. At West Bay’s City Centre Mall, one of Doha’s most popular malls, the Prophet Abraham’s famous prayer – “Our Lord, make this land secure” – was emblazoned on its walls.