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Bomb threats made against Trump cabinet nominees
Several of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and picks for his White House team have been targeted by bomb threats.
The FBI said it was aware of “numerous bomb threats” as well as “swatting incidents”, in which hoax calls are made to attract a police response to the target’s home.
Threats were made against at least nine people chosen by Trump to lead the Departments of Defence, Housing, Agriculture and Labor, as well as his pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, among others.
Police are investigating the incidents, which happened on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition team, said the Trump appointees “were targeted in violent, un-American threats to their lives and those who live with them”.
She said “law enforcement acted quickly to ensure” the nominees’ safety.
“With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us,” she said.
Neither Leavitt nor the FBI identified any of the targets by name.
New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who Trump has named to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, was the first to say her family home had been targeted by a bomb threat. Her office said the congresswoman was informed of the threat while she was driving with her husband and three-year-old son from Washington DC to New York for Thanksgiving.
Defence secretary nominee Pete Hegseth later confirmed that he was also targeted.
On X, he said that a police officer had shown up at his home on Wednesday morning, as his seven children were sleeping inside to notify him they had received “a credible pipe bomb threat”.
“I will not be bullied or intimidated. Never,” he wrote. “President Trump has called on me to serve – and that is what I intend to do.”
Trump, who survived two assassination attempts during his campaign, was not among those who received the hoax calls, law enforcement sources told US media.
He has received genuine threats recently, according to officials in Arizona who arrested a man earlier this week for posting videos on a “near-daily basis” in which he threatened to kill Trump and his family.
None of those targeted this week were protected by the US Secret Service, according to media reports.
Lee Zeldin, who Trump has nominated to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, also confirmed he was targeted, saying a “pipe bomb threat” was sent to his home with a “pro-Palestinian themed message”. “My family and I were not home at the time and are safe,” he said. “We are thankful for the swift actions taken by local officers.”
Brooke Rollins, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Agriculture, posted on X to thank police in Fort Worth, Texas, for their “swift efforts” to investigate a threat to her family on Wednesday morning. “We were unharmed and quickly returned home,” she wrote.
Scott Turner, Trump’s pick for Department of Housing, and Lori Chavez-Deremer, his pick for Labour Secretary, also posted on social media that they had been targeted. They each vowed that they would not be deterred by the threats.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the incidents, the White House said in a statement.
“The White House is in touch with federal law enforcement and the President-elect’s team, and continues to monitor the situation closely.”
US Capitol Police, which protects Congress, said in the statement that it was working with federal law enforcement agencies on any “swatting”, but declined to provide further details “to minimise the risk of copy-cats”.
Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, who recently dropped out of the running to become US attorney general, was also targeted. The sheriff’s office in Florida’s Okaloosa County confirmed that a bomb threat targeted an address in the town of Niceville.
The home’s mailbox was cleared and no devices were located, police said, and a search of the area did not uncover anything.
New York police told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the New York home of Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, was also threatened.
Pam Bondi, who was selected to replace Gaetz as Trump’s nominee, was also targeted along with incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, according to CBS.
Fox News reports that John Ratcliffe, Trump’s nominee to be director of the CIA, also received threats.
Similar hoax tactics have been recently used against other high-profile political figures, including against the judges and prosecutors who oversaw the criminal cases against Trump.
Last year, US politicians around the country were swatted over Christmas. Most were Republican, but some Democrats were targeted as well.
[BBC]
Across the world on Wednesday night, millions of people will tune in to watch Donald Trump deliver a primetime update on the war in Iran. Many will hope for some insight on how the war ends and what might come after.
The Trump administration has signalled there may be no big announcement, but many are wondering if his hastily arranged remarks will mark the beginning of the end of the conflict or a potentially bloody escalation.
This ambiguity is, at least partly, by design. Trump often changes course or leaves his thinking a mystery to all but a small inner circle of supporters, which he has acknowledged leaves friend and foe alike wondering about his next move.
He also knows the address comes at a critical time in his presidency and amid mounting domestic pressure to find a way out of the conflict.
Poll after poll has shown that Americans have little appetite for a protracted conflict in Iran, particularly if it involves the prospect of US soldiers on Iranian soil.
A Reuters poll released this week, for example, found that two-thirds of Americans believe the US should work to swiftly wrap up its involvement in the war, even if the administration’s stated military objectives are not fully accomplished.
Closer to home, many Americans are increasingly wary of higher prices at the petrol pump, which this week crossed the average of $4 a gallon for the first time in years.
Imran Bayoumi, a geostrategy expert with the Atlantic Council in Washington DC and former policy adviser to the defence department, told the BBC that the “deep domestic unpopularity” of the war, along with the economic fall-out, “both pose a problem ahead of midterm elections” if the conflict were to drag on.
The US president will also likely present his view on how the conflict – or at least US involvement in it – will come to a close.
This has shifted repeatedly, from initial calls for an “unconditional” Iranian surrender to a potential negotiated agreement. Just yesterday, he abruptly shifted course, saying that the war could end in “two to three” weeks, even without any deal.
Until then, Trump promised, the US will be “blasting Iran into oblivion, or as they say, back to the Stone Ages”.
According to a White House official, the speech will mostly focus on military successes of the operation, such as degrading Iran’s navy, missile capabilities and nuclear programme.
Trump is expected to reiterate that he believes the operation will be over in two or three weeks.
It is unclear, however, what any US exit from the conflict will look like.
According to Bayoumi, what constitutes victory for Trump is “loosely defined”, which provides the president with some flexibility.
“Not having clearly defined goals going into the conflict allows Trump to declare victory at any time,” he said. “[He] has mentioned that he’s halted the nuclear threat from Iran, but it’s not clear he actually has.”
While on a tactical level the US-Israeli operation has been successful in severely degrading Iran’s military, Trump’s assertion that the war is winding down soon leaves a very narrow window for more complex military options, such as seizing control of Iran’s highly enriched uranium or opening the Strait.
On the latter point, we are likely to hear the president dismiss the Nato alliance as one that he believes has proven itself unwilling to help advance US interests.
What he says tonight will be carefully scrutinised by US allies and adversaries, some of whom will wonder whether it constitutes a ruse.
In Tehran, the country’s remaining leadership will remember that Trump had publicly endorsed negotiations he said were ongoing and positive nearly until the moment US bombers struck Iranian nuclear facilities during Operation Midnight Hammer.
(BBC)
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Heat Index at Caution Level in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district
Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 01 April 2026, valid for 02 April 2026.
The Heat index, the temperature felt on human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district.
The Heat Index Forecast is calculated by using relative humidity and maximum temperature and this is the condition that is felt on your body. This is not the forecast of maximum temperature. It is generated by the Department of Meteorology for the next day period and prepared by using global numerical weather prediction model data.
Effect of the heat index on human body is mentioned in the above table and it is prepared on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.
ACTION REQUIRED
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Indoors: Check up on the elderly and the sick.
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It was the Amelia Kerr show at Basin Reserve on Wednesday as she played the sort of innings that would go into cricket folklore if it were played at a World Cup instead of a bilateral series, to completely hog the limelight in a match with three other knocks of note and a total of 696 runs in 99.4 overs. Amelia scored 179 not out in 139 balls. And as New Zealand crossed South Africa’s 346 with two balls left, it became the highest successful chase in women’s ODI history.
The result hardly seemed like when New Zealand, faced with a chase of 347, lost Suzie Bates in the fifth over, bowled by Ayabonga Khaka. Amelia settled in fast, but by the midway stage, New Zealand were four down, Kayla Reyneke striking twice and Sune Luus once as Georgia Plimmer, Maddy Green and Brooke Halliday all fell without making a significant contribution.
Amelia finally found the partner she needed in Isabella Gaze, the wicketkeeper-batter at No. 6. Together, the two of them 120 runs in 82 balls, Amelia scoring 47 of those runs in 34 balls to Gaze’s enterprising 68 in 48, studded with 11 fours.
By the time Gaze fell, becoming the first of two wickets in the game for Masabata Klaas, New Zealand had bounced right back and were in with a strong sniff. Amelia, by then on 113 off 97 balls, looked in the mood.
And then, with the lower-order batters for company, Amelia did what she had to: speed up. She scored a-run-a-ball 23 in a 40-run stand with Izzy Sharp, then 25 in 12 balls with her sister Jess, Rosemary Mair came and went, and then Amelia finished the job in the company of debutant Kayley Knight with two balls left. Amelia had reached her century – her fifth in ODIs, which includes a double-century – off 90 balls, and the 79 she scored after that came off just 49 more.
Earlier, South Africa would have felt happy with their performance with the bat after New Zealand had won the toss and asked them to bat, having lost the first game batting first, though not out of choice.
New Zealand struck early, removing Tazmin Brits in the eighth over, but then had to wait till the 28th before they got lucky again. In between, Laura Wolvaardt (69 in 74 balls) and Anneke Bosch (91 in 90) had added 132 runs in 124 balls, and South Africa were clearly on top.
South Africa continued to get strong partnerships with many of their batters settling in and showing form: 44 between Bosch and Luus (40), 34 between Luus and Sinalo Jafta (37), 40 between Jafta and Chloe Tryon (52*), 36 in just 18 balls between Tryon and Nadine de Klerk (18), and 25 in 12 balls for the unbroken seventh wicket between Tryon and Reyneke (9*). All of that added up to a very healthy total despite Bree Illing’s 3 for 60 and Knight’s 2 for 65, and South Africa would have expected the finish the night with the series in the bag, till Amelia decided otherwise.
Brief scores:
New Zealand Women 350 for 8 in 49.4 overs (Amelia Kerr 179*, Isabella Gaze 68; Ayabonga Khaka 3-51, Kayla Reyneke 2-54, Masabata Klaas 2-61) beat South Africa Women 346 for 6 (Anneke Bosch 91, Laura Wolvaardt 69, Chloe Tryon 52*, Sune Luus 40; Bree Illing 3-60, Kaylee Knight 2-65) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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