Foreign News
‘I will never let your legacy die’ – Charlie Kirk’s widow gives tearful address after shooting
Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, has given a tearful address in which she thanked first responders for trying to save her husband’s life after he was fatally shot on a Utah university campus.
In a livestream, standing beside her husband’s empty chair that he used during podcast tapeings, she quoted the Bible and spoke about his love for President Donald Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, the United States, and the couple’s two children.
Kirk, a right-wing activist, was shot dead on Wednesday during an open-air speaking event in Orem, Utah. His suspected killer, Tyler Robinson, was arrested on Thursday night after surrendering to police.
In her remarks, Mrs Kirk pledged: “My husband’s voice will remain”.
The broadcast from Turning Point USA’s headquarters in Arizona began with several minutes of silence, as the camera framed Charlie Kirk’s empty chair.
As his widow started speaking, she looked upwards and whispered a silent prayer.
She then thanked first responders who tried to save him, her husband’s staff, and the White House.
“Mr President, my husband loved you. And he knew that you loved him too,” she said tearfully, also thanking Vance and his wife Usha for accompanying the casket back to Arizona.
“But most of all, Charlie loved his children. And he loved me. With all his heart. And he made sure I knew that everyday.”
Addressing “evil-doers,” Mrs Kirk said: “You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife, the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.
“They should all know this: If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before you have no idea, you have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world.”
Her husband’s tour of US university campuses will continue throughout the fall, and in the years ahead, she said, without offering further details. His podcast will also continue.
Erika Kirk also spoke of their one-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, saying that she was at a loss for how to explain their father’s sudden death.
“Baby, daddy loves you so much. Don’t you worry. He’s on a work trip with Jesus,” she told their daughter.
Mrs Kirk, 36, and their children were reportedly in the audience when her husband was shot.
Erika Kirk is a businesswoman and former Miss Arizona USA winner who met her husband in 2018. The couple were engaged by 2020 and wed less than a year later.
She is currently studying for a doctorate in Bible Studies, has launched a ministry programme and hosts the Midweek Rise Up podcast focused on Biblical leadership. Mrs Kirk also acts and models, and has a faith-based clothing line.
Although the children and the couple’s home life are regular fixtures on her social media pages, they never publish images showing their children’s faces.
Charlie Kirk, 31, a controversial figure in American political discourse, has been hailed by many as the future of American conservatism with a knack for energising young conservatives.
By mobilising the youth vote, he was an instrumental organiser in Donald Trump’s Maga coalition and helped return Trump to the White House for a second term.
Kirk was a strong supporter of gun rights, vehemently opposed abortion, was critical of transgender rights and promoted false claims about Covid-19.
His views were polarising on the college campuses where he held large events, and his provocative speeches would draw crowds of vocal opponents as well as fans.
His supporters said he was relatable and understood their concerns. But his views drew fierce liberal criticism, and his critics said Kirk’s rhetoric hurt people – especially those in the LGBTQ+ community.
Kirk was speaking at Utah Valley University during Turning Point USA’s The American Comeback Tour, a speaking engagement that took him to several college campuses throughout the states.
He was shot during his viral Prove Me Wrong debate while taking a question about gun violence and transgender people in the US.
Trump has announced that he will award Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian honour a president can bestow – describing his friend and ally as a “giant of his generation and a champion of liberty”.
The president said that Mrs Kirk “is absolutely devastated.”
Turning Point USA, the organization Charlie Kirk founded when he was 18 years old, also referred to its co-founder as a “martyr” and “pioneer”.
“Charlie was the ideal husband and the perfect father. Above all else, we ask you to pray for the Kirks after the incomprehensible loss they have suffered,” the organization said in a statement to the BBC on Thursday.
Vice-President JD Vance flew to Salt Lake City, Utah, on Thursday to retrieve Kirk’s casket and transport it to Phoenix, Arizona – where Kirk’s family lives – on the vice-presidential aircraft, Air Force Two.
Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance travelled with Kirk’s family and some of his friends to Arizona.
[BBC]
A car has crashed into a crowd of rugby league supporters in the eastern Australian city of Newcastle, injuring 10 people, including three children.
New South Wales police said on Saturday that two of the injured – a five-year-old girl and a 67-year-old man – were in a critical condition and the other eight were in stable condition in hospital.
Police said they had arrested the 18-year-old man driving the vehicle and were investigating what happened. They said the crash was not believed to be related to “terrorism”.
The crowd had gathered to farewell the local rugby league side, the Newcastle Knights, ahead of their grand final against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Gavin Morris said the driver, a rugby league fan, had lost control of his vehicle and had been taken into custody.
“He was revving the car, he was excited, he was a supporter, he was there for the joy of the moment,” Morris told the national broadcaster ABC.
“Somehow he lost control of the car … and he’s gone into the crowd,” he added.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “My thoughts are with everyone injured or involved in the horrible incident this morning in Newcastle.”
“Rugby league brings people together, and this should have been a weekend of excitement and pride for Newcastle fans,” he wrote in a social media post.
[Aljazeera]
Polls have opened in Latvia for an election taking place against the backdrop of perceived security threats from Russia and a nationwide cost-of-living squeeze.
Saturday’s vote is the first electoral test for Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs after coming to power in May this year when his predecessor resigned due to a backlash from stray drone incursions from Ukraine.
Kulbergs, whose right-wing United List party is currently polling at about 20 percent, is expected to hold onto his position, but the decline of two allies in his current coalition means he is set for a complicated negotiation over the makeup of any future government.
Polls opened at 05:00 GMT and will close at 17:00 GMT. The results are not expected to change Latvia’s pro-European and pro-Ukrainian course.
About 1.5 million people are eligible to vote in the country’s 11th parliamentary election since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Latvian politics are highly fragmented, with parties rarely seeing above 20 percent vote share and coalitions being the norm.
This year, 14 electoral lists are contesting the election, but polls indicate only seven are likely to enter parliament, with the rest expected to fail to meet the minimum 5 percent vote threshold.
Rising living costs, low wages, strains on the healthcare system and long-term population decline have all featured prominently in campaign debates.
Most parties in Latvia are pro-Ukraine; however, the populist Sovereign Power party – which says it wants Ukraine to win but argues money spent supporting Kyiv would be better spent at home – looks likely to become the country’s second-biggest party, with more than 9 percent of the vote. Most other parties have ruled out forming a coalition with Sovereign Power.
Latvia First, a pro-Ukraine and populist nationalist party currently polling at about 9 percent, could be a potential coalition partner for PM Kulbergs.
The Progressives, a pro-European social democratic party, are polling at 6 percent.
Ethnic Russians make up roughly one in four Latvian citizens, but their vote, which has traditionally been cast along identity-based lines, looks set to be made according to economic and social issues.
Latvia is the poorest of the Baltic states, and it has sharply increased its defence spending since Russia invaded Ukraine, now allocating nearly 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to defence.
[Aljazeera]
A flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel was diverted to Saudi Arabia after issuing a distress signal, in what appeared to be a hijacking attempt, on Wednesday.
The Flydubai flight FZ1073 was diverted as it flew from Dubai to Tel Aviv through Jordanian airspace, prompting Israel to deploy warplanes, the Reuters news agency reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one of the pilots had stabbed the other and then tried to crash the plane. He added that Israel was preparing for other “potential threats” after the incident.
There has been no official confirmation of a hijacking attempt, however.
Flydubai said an altercation had occurred on the flight deck and that all passengers were safe and accounted for. The plane was secured by on-duty crew travelling onboard, it added.
At Saudi Arabia’s Tabuk airport, where the plane landed, officials said both the plane’s captain and the first officer had been hospitalised after sustaining injuries. Both were taken to the hospital, according to a statement from the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Tabuk carried by the Saudi state-run Alekhbariya television.
The UAE has become a popular vacation destination for Israeli tourists since the countries normalised ties in 2020. Here’s what we know about what happened.
Footage taken onboard the plane appears to show the captain of the aircraft lying on the ground with several stab wounds, and a passenger with a bloody wound to the head.
In another video, passengers weep and cry out in distress as the aircraft shakes.
Yasmin Abukasis, the mother of one of the passengers onboard, said her daughter Miriam thought she was going to die. “The plane started to lose control,” she told journalists at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, before other pilots onboard took control of the aircraft.
Flight tracking data indicated the plane descended over 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds around two and a half hours after leaving Dubai. Flightradar24 said on X that an initial general emergency signal designated by code 7700 was issued at around 05:31 UTC and was later changed to another emergency signal with code 7500 declaring “unlawful interference”.
Passenger Dalia Shpigel told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that some people seated towards the front of the plane broke into the cockpit after the plane began to descend and they realised something was wrong.
“An hour before landing, we felt that there was no control over the plane, that it was starting to jump,” she said. “The guys saw that the plane had begun to dive and broke into the cockpit.”
Netanyahu said he later spoke to one of the Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit and overpowered one of the pilots who was reportedly trying to sabotage the aircraft’s systems.
“I salute these heroes who demonstrated extraordinary resourcefulness and courage,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “They saved many lives and prevented a major disaster.”
Timeline of events
03:05 – Flight FZ1073 takes off from Dubai05:21 – Altitude fluctuations begin05:22 – Aircraft drops more than 14,000 ft in under 30 seconds05:31 – Signal from aircraft changes to 7700 (general emergency)05:38 – Signal changes to 7500 (unlawful interference)06:45 – Aircraft lands at Tabuk Regional Airport
[Aljazeera]
Landslide Early Warnings issued to the Districts of Kandy, Kegalle, Matale and Ratnapura
No handshakes and a delayed ceremony as India beat Pakistan at Asian Games
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