US authorities arrest suspect in 2021 Capitol Hill pipe bombs

Authorities in the United States have detained a suspect who they claim worked in Washington, DC, where pipe bombs were left overnight before the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

In a joint press conference on Thursday, the FBI and the DOJ named the suspect Brian Cole Jr.

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“I am aware that some people have failed to catch the killer.” But not the FBI, or our partners, according to FBI deputy assistant director Darren Cox.

He explained that “3 million lines of data” were being sorted as part of the investigation.

“We do not forget, give up, or give in,” he said. Our team continued to churn through large amounts of data and tips that we used to identify this suspect, even though it had been nearly five years, Cox said.

Officials under Donald Trump’s presidency also praised the arrest as a victory for the current Republican administration and a sign of how incompetent his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, was.

FBI Director Kash Patel stated on Thursday that “we did not discover any new information.”

A new team of investigators and experts was mobilized following a review led by the deputy director and the AIC [agent in charge] of our Washington field office, who reexamined every piece of evidence and looked through all the data, something the previous administration refused and disregarded.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was present at the news conference, stated that Cole would face charges for using an explosive device without permission.

She continued, noting that further allegations could be made at a later time.

A thorough investigation.

The arrest could bring an almost five-year mystery to light that highlighted the growing threat of US political violence.

According to law enforcement, the bombs, which did not detonate, were still effective and “could have seriously injured or killed innocent bystanders.”

Officials demanded $500,000 in additional information about the suspect, stating that he “may still pose a threat to the public.”

Authorities initially released shaky photos of the bomber’s location. The suspect, who was long thought to be a man, was seen wearing a mask, gloves, and a gray hoodie when he was captured on surveillance cameras.

The perpetrator placed the pipe bombs near the offices of the Democratic and Republican Parties as they passed through the densely populated Capitol Hill neighborhood.

The FBI reported last year that its analysts, agents, and law enforcement partners “worked thousands of hours” conducting interviews, reviewing physical and digital evidence, and weighing public suggestions about who might have planted pipe bombs on Capitol Hill.

President Trump’s supporters stormed and ransacked the US Capitol the day after the bombs were left, preventing Biden’s election victory being declared a success.

Trump continues to make false accusations that there was widespread voter fraud in the year that he lost.

More than 1, 500 people are accused or convicted of criminal offences related to the riot, and Trump granted a presidential pardon in one of his first decrees following his return to the White House in early 2025.

Right-wing conspiracy theories that the Capitol riot was an “inside job” have been fueled by the mystery surrounding the pipe bombs. Unconfirmed, some online celebrities have claimed that the potential bomber was an “deep state” government agent who sought to discredit Trump’s supporters.

Even some Trump officials, like Dan Bongino, who have previously assisted in spreading such theories, have since spoken out fiercely against them.

From Mogadishu to Minneapolis, Somalis reject Trump’s bigoted remarks

After the president of the United States called their communities “garbage,” and insulted them, Somali Americans and Somali Americans are denouncing Donald Trump’s attacks on them.

Trump’s comments this week have sparked widespread racism and outcry.

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The US president launched a torrent of hate against Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a former Somali refugee, and the Somali diaspora on Tuesday as he wrapped up his final cabinet meeting of the year.

“If we continue to import garbage into our country, we’re going to go the wrong way.” I’m a garbage person, Ilhan Omar. Trump called her friends “waste”

We don’t want them in our country when they come from hell and complain and only act as b****.”

Omar Fateh, a state senator from Minnesota and of Somali descent, described Trump’s remarks as “hurtful” and “disgraceful.”

Additionally, it was completely incorrect to refer to our congresswoman as “waste” and to the entire community as garbage, according to Fateh, according to Fateh.

It is a resilient, productive community. We are politicians, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and even politicians who work in Minnesota’s and nation’s economies.

Trump, according to the state legislator, used “political theater” to bolster his support ahead of the midterm elections in the upcoming year.

Fateh warned that Minnesota’s rhetoric could lead to even more political unrest.

A gunman killed a Democratic state legislator, her husband, and injured another lawmaker in Minnesota already in June.

Fateh, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Minneapolis last month, said, “Our community is afraid right now.”

Our mosques have been targeted, we’ve heard. We want to make sure that our neighbors are aware that we are standing up for one another and appearing in this hostile federal government because of the fact that my own campaign office was damaged earlier this year.

Owner of a cafe in Minneapolis Khadijo Warsame, said the remarks have stoked fears in the area’s Somali community.

It has deserted, he says. Every company is shut down, and it’s been doing so for the past three days,” she told Al Jaeera. We are a small company in reality. I’m concerned that people won’t come in and buy from me, and I’m afraid to shut my business down.

Following the deadly shooting of two National Guard members last month in Washington, DC, Trump has increased his anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies.

An Afghan evacuee who served with allies in Afghanistan at the time of the US war has been detained and entered a not-guilty plea.

Trump has frequently attacked Congresswoman Omar and the Somali community, but his rant against them at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting was particularly troubling.

They don’t contribute anything, they say. I’ll be open to you, saying, “I don’t want them in our country.”

These people don’t actually work, they do. These people don’t say, “Let’s go, come on,” they say that. Make this place fantastic, please. These individuals only complain and do nothing. They complain, and where they came from, they don’t receive anything.

Omar has stated to reporters this week that Trump’s anti-Islam and xenophobic remarks are not uncommon. She said, “But what’s strange to me is how creepy he’s been obsessed with me and the Somali community.”

In Somalia, where many people are angry and urging their government to respond to the US president, Trump’s comments have also been rejected.

The East African nation was described as “hell” by the US president, who claimed it “stinks.”

Abdisalan Ahmed, a resident of Mogadishu, called it “intifadine.”

Trump repeatedly insults Somalis each day, using insults against us and other offensive language that we can no longer tolerate. His remarks ought to be addressed by our leaders.

Trump’s comments were condemned by several influential Democratic congressmembers on Thursday, calling them “xenophobic and unacceptable.”

The legislators’ joint statement read, “President Trump chose to attack an American immigrant community, the overwhelming majority of whom are law-abiding and have made many positive contributions to the United States,” according to the legislators’ joint statement.

Qalqilya targeted as Israel escalates raids in northern West Bank

With fresh assaults on the town of Qalqilya, Israeli forces have increased their attacks across the northern occupied West Bank.

At dawn on Thursday morning, the Israeli military stormed Qalqilya’s eastern entrance before sending soldiers through several neighborhoods and erecting what local media outlets call a tight cordon around one, Kafr Saba.

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Israeli forces reportedly raided a number of homes in the area, including some that were owned by Palestinians who had been detained or killed by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Muhammad Barahmeh’s family was one of the houses that were raided, and Israeli forces shot and killed him last year.

According to Wafa, the military also used a house as a makeshift interrogation location, posing questions on several young men there. According to Palestinian reports, 11 Palestinians were detained in Qalqilya as a result of similar raids on Thursday in Ramallah, Hebron, Jenin, and Nablus, in addition to at least two others.

Following the launch of a new Israeli military operation, violence has erupted in several towns in the northern West Bank over the past week. In Tubas and Tammun, the offensive started in late November, with later expansion to Qabatiya and Masliya, resulting in extensive arrests, curfews, and significant damage to local infrastructure.

Palestinian fighters’ arrest, according to the Israeli army, is the aim of its operations in the occupied West Bank. Since starting its genocidal war in Gaza in October 2023, Israel has carried out nearly daily raids in the area since 2022. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the raids, which have made daily life in the West Bank more difficult.

Annexation dreams come true

Local Palestinian sources claim that the recent uptick in violence in the northern West Bank is primarily aimed at imposing “new realities” in the region that runs along the West Bank’s border with Jordan, including Tubas Governor Ahmed Asaad.

In order to strengthen Israel’s hold on the occupied West Bank, senior Israeli politicians are still pushing for an expansion of illegal settlements, particularly in the Jordan Valley, which would lead to an annexation of the area. In the present, Israeli settlement expansion effectively renders a Palestinian state impossible.

Right-wing settler groups that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of supporting and relying on to sustain his coalition and his political survival are a particular focus of the annexing of the West Bank. Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right finance minister, quietly seized much of the authority that had been given to him in the territory in June 2024, adding that he himself lives in an illegal settlement.

In response to a non-binding UN resolution in September that recommended a two-state solution, Smotrich wrote on social media that Israel must assert its sovereignty over the West Bank as a preventative measure against the reckless attempt to establish a terror state in our nation.

Since the start of the Gaza War, Israeli forces and settler groups have increased their attacks, according to international observers and right-wing organizations. More than 1, 000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 10,000 have been injured across the occupied West Bank as a result of attacks by the Israeli military, settler groups, or combinations thereof, according to UN figures.

Russia’s Putin found ‘morally responsible’ for nerve agent death in UK

UN warns Sudan’s Kordofan faces mass atrocities as fighting spreads

As fierce fighting between rival armed forces threatens a humanitarian catastrophe, the UN has warned that Sudan’s Kordofan region could experience another wave of widespread atrocities.

After last month’s fall of el-Fasher, Sudan’s capital, where international community warnings of impending violence were largely ignored before widespread killings occurred, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday that history was “repeating itself” in Kordofan.

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According to Turk, it is truly shocking to see history repeat itself in Kordofan so soon after the horrific events in El-Fasher, and he urged other countries to stop the area from experiencing the same fate.

At least 269 civilian deaths have been documented by the UN as a result of aerial bombardment, artillery fire, and summary killings since late October when Bara was taken by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in North Kordofan state.

The actual cost of the incident is probably much higher because of regional communication blackouts, which have led to reports of revenge attacks, arbitrary detentions, sexual violence, and child forced recruitment.

This week, the RSF took control of Babnusa, West Kordofan, with footage showing its fighters circling the military complex. The city’s fall was not claimed by the army.

The Sudan Doctors Network called on the international community to put pressure on the RSF to allow civilians to leave, and said it was “closely monitoring, with concern, developments in Babnusa.”

The area’s hospitals have been overrun, with West Kordofan’s Al-Nuhud Hospital now shut down for good.

Since the start of the conflict, according to the World Health Organization, nearly 1,700 health professionals and patients have died in Sudan.

Important cities like Kadugli and Dilling are now under siege, with Dilling and Kadugli both experiencing looming famine. All conflicting parties are preventing humanitarian aid.

As the violence has spread throughout the vast central region, more than 45, 000 people have recently fled their homes in Kordofan.

According to Turk, “we cannot stand in for another man-made catastrophe,” and demand that armed organizations provide life-saving aid to those in need.

Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF, a powerful paramilitary group, engaged in an intense fighting in April 2023. Nearly 12 million people have been displaced and tens of thousands have been killed since the war started.

Attention has turned to Kordofan in central Sudan now that it is the last major city under the army’s and its allies’ control since the fall of el-Fasher.

Due to its strategic significance, both sides are in a crucial position in Kordofan. The region serves as a crucial corridor that links the conflicting factions’ heartlands, serving as a vital link between government-held territory in the west and government-controlled Darfur in the west.

The RSF would have a direct route to Khartoum, which government forces recaptured earlier this year, if they had the support of major cities like El Obeid.

The UN issued urgent warnings about potential atrocities before El-Fasher fell in November. Those warnings were largely ignored.

Mass murders broke out after the city’s capture, with corpses emerging from satellite imagery, which prompted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to refer to it as a “crime scene.”

Since then, Amnesty International has called for the arrest of Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti, the brother of the organization’s leader, and RSF deputy Abdelrahim Dagalo, to face sanctions from the European Union.

Turk urged allies to stop the flow of arms and demand an immediate ceasefire from those who have influence over the conflicting parties.

Netanyahu will win again, because in Israel, ‘there is none like him’

Israel hasn’t spoken out about the “war” in Gaza for many weeks. After all, is there a ceasefire in place, or not? Both here and there are not accurate accounts of the deaths of more than 350 Palestinians during this alleged “ceasefire,” nor is it the death of more than 130 children. Palestinians are there to help them die because of this. Nothing can be discussed.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pardon request is yet another piece of cake. Anyone in Israel who appears to be discussing it on any one of the political spectrum seems to be saying it. Nothing more accurately reflects the age of Netanyahu (my daughter, age 22, has only recently witnessed an Israel led by Netanyahu). Netanyahu’s angry supporters point out that this is not even a pardon request. The Israeli president, who is currently Isaac Herzog, a former leader of Netanyahu’s opposition, has the legal authority to pardon “felons”. However, felons are those who have been found guilty of breaking the law in court. The trial of Netanyahu is still ongoing.

In Israel’s history, there hasn’t been more than one pardon issued before a conviction (presumably before a trial). Shin Bet employees, who stormed a bus that had been taken by Palestinians in 1984, were given the opportunity to kill two of the hijackers. The Shin Bet leadership rigged the internal investigation into what became known as the Bus 300 affair. An unprecedented agreement was reached two years later that pardoned the Shin Bet members who were detained without being charged with any wrongdoing in the extrajudicial killings as well as gave them the opportunity to step down. There were mentions of special security concerns. In essence, Netanyahu asks that the same circumstances be used.

However, he is not just requesting a pardon. In order to promote “national unity” and the “stupendous developments” expected by Netanyahu in the Middle East, he is asking the president to stop the trial (a largely ceremonial role). The trial should have never have begun, in the eyes of his devoted supporters. Due to the “weakness” of the indictments he faces, they have argued for both a mistrial and a prosecution immunity. His supporters now claim that his full-time leadership role is necessary in the midst of a never-ending conflict (at Netanyahu’s instigation and orchestration). They attribute his trial to the Israeli legal system’s “crucial” legal and judicial reform, which Netanyahu initiated long before October 7, 2023, as a personal vendetta by the Israeli government. The uproar in response to Netanyahu’s request is a perfect illustration of the Israeli “deep state”‘s hatred for Netanyahu and Israel in general, according to these supporters in parliament and media. They have responded to Netanyahu’s request with gusto, from environmental protection minister Idit Silman’s warning that Donald Trump will be “forced to intervene” against Israel’s judicial system to Amit Hadad, Netanyahu’s personal attorney, who has vowed to get the trial to stop so that he can “get on with the business of healing the nation” and take over the country’s current crisis.

The persistent “compromisers,” who assert at every turn that the truth can only be found in the middle, exist between the two camps. These infamous Israeli centrists are urging a plea deal or some other major agreement. The majority of people want a political settlement that would require Netanyahu’s defection from politics in exchange for avoiding conviction. Others prefer a “moderate” approach that would focus on Netanyahu’s role in the events of October 7, 2023, particularly the dysfunctional behavior of the Israeli military and other governmental authorities, but not as much on a solution as the general framing of the issue. The desirable narrative must always be one of unity, and unity only becomes possible when both “sides” come to terms with less than 100% of their initial desires.

These seemingly contradictory approaches all focus entirely on Netanyahu, which is the common denominator. Consider the centrists, for instance. In his favor, Netanyahu wrote a never-before-seen letter that essentially demanded that institutional norms and state law be suspended. The justification was vague at best, with references to “interests,” “stupendous developments,” national unity, and, at worst, cynical manipulation. One might assume that Netanyahu’s request would be dubious by those who swore “moderation” would be. These centrists immediately accepted the letter as legitimate and sought to place their compromise in relation to it when Netanyahu made it public.

The liberals are also in the same boat. The largest demonstration before the ceasefire became effective was attended by US Presidents Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner before it was officially enacted. These protesters consolidated their differences with Netanyahu into one issue, namely his failure (and lack of desire) to release the hostages. The audience booed when Kushner mentioned Netanyahu. Israeli media consumed with the boos for three days, which is much longer than the Israeli attention span for, say, a Palestinians’ documented execution. They were they authorized. Because he was the prime minister, were they improper? Did they demonstrate that the protests against him were merely motivated by his supporters’ hatred for him? Was Netanyahu the definition of evil that no one should be ashamed of? In those days, hundreds and hundreds of people perished. Both the Israeli economy and the infrastructure were destroyed. Netanyahu, Netanyahu’s response, Netanyahu’s positioning, all these liberal Israelis wanted to talk about.

No one but Netanyahu is available to Netanyahu’s supporters. He is “their” representative in the face of the ruling class who believes the nation belongs to them. Through his audacity and cunning, he alone brought Israel’s enemies to their knees. He was the one who overturned the paradigm that made Israel a victim of global disarmament. Israel is now free to express its desires, which it does only for the time being. Because of his dedication to his historic cause and saving the Jewish people, no rule or law should apply to him. Why vote for someone else if he doesn’t do all of that and declares his overt supporters (thereby echoing the thoughts of his covert ones)? They do, however, hardly ever differ from him in any way. No leader of the Jewish “opposition” has ever proposed a strategy that was in line with what Netanyahu has already accomplished. They all support Israel’s right to “destroy” Hamas and use its absolute discretion to attack any other “enemy.” Palestinian Israeli parliamentarians are prohibited from attending “coordination” meetings by them, and Netanyahu will be replaced by a “Zionist” (read “fully Jewish”) government. Netanyahu may be to blame for Israel’s declining international standing, but none of them agree with Israel’s handling of the genocide and destruction of Gaza. Less than 18 months apart, the two “opposition” leaders who served as prime ministers also did so. Netanyahu has served as prime minister for almost 20 years. He has a bit of a cad and may be a little crazy, but overall, he’s pretty good. He is still superior to any self-styled heir to his business acumen.

The conclusion is straightforward. Netanyahu is not just Israel’s most effective politician. In Israel, he is the only politician. Expect him to lead the largest party and serve as prime minister if an election is called in the upcoming months if he is not charged with any crime. God was the first to use the phrase “there is none like Him.” Netanyahu is the only one available to Israelis of all political stripes.