The California man who allegedly tried to assassinate President Donald Trump at a Washington gala has been indicted on a fourth charge of assaulting a US officer or employee with a deadly weapon.

The new charge comes in the wake of questions over whether a Secret Service officer – who was shot but not seriously wounded in the attack at the White House Correspondents Dinner on 25 April – was hit by crossfire from another officer.

US Attorney Jeanine Pirro signed off on the new indictment unsealed on Tuesday, which supersedes the previous charges.

Cole Tomas Allen, 31, appeared in court in Washington DC last week. He has not yet entered a plea.

According to court documents filed on Tuesday, a grand jury also indicted Allen on charges of attempting to assassinate the US president as well as two firearms offences – transportation of a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and using, carrying, brandishing and discharging a firearm during a crime.

Allen was previously charged on those counts last week via criminal complaint.

The suspect was carrying a semi-automatic handgun, a pump-action shotgun and three knives as he allegedly rushed through a security checkpoint one floor above the basement venue at the Washington Hilton hotel on 25 April, prosecutors have said.

After gunfire rang out, Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, cabinet members and other White House officials were rushed from the hotel ballroom as dinner attendees sheltered under tables.

The incident has sparked a White House security review.

The Torrance, California , man studied at the prestigious California Institute of Technology, and worshipped at the Pasadena United Reformed Church in the Los Angeles area.

Federal campaign finance records show he donated $25 to a Democratic Party political action committee in support of Kamala Harris for president in 2024.

He allegedly sent an email to his family shortly before the attack that said, “Administration officials… are targets, prioritised from highest-ranking to lowest”, according to court records.

“I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary,” he allegedly added.

Allen, who remains in custody, could face life in prison if found guilty.

[BBC]

Vivek Ramaswamy won the Republican nomination for Ohio governor on Tuesday, putting the staunch ally of Donald Trump on a path to running the Rust Belt state.

In unofficial results, he defeated Casey Putsch, a car designer with an automotive-themed YouTube channel, for a place in the general election, according to US media reports.

Ramaswamy, a health-technology entrepreneur, gained national recognition during his unsuccessful run against Trump for president in 2024. He later threw his support behind Trump.

In the Ohio primary, even as he ran against Republicans, he focused on Democratic nominee Amy Acton, the former Ohio public health director who guided the state’s response to the Covid pandemic and ran unopposed.

During a victory speech, Ramaswamy thanked Ohio voters “for getting us to this point”, adding, “The real destination is in November.”

Acton, who will face Ramaswamy in the general election, said during her own victory speech that she is running for governor to make Ohio more affordable again.

“It shouldn’t be this hard,” she said. “It is time to put working families first.”

Ohio’s current governor, Republican Mike DeWine, cannot run for re-election because of term limits.

Trump boosted Ramaswamy in a social media post on Tuesday: “I know Vivek well, competed against him, and he is something SPECIAL. He is Young, Strong, and Smart!”

Vice President JD Vance, who previously represented Ohio in the US Senate, travelled to Cincinnati on Tuesday to cast his ballot for Ramaswamy and others.

The state has shifted towards Republicans in recent years, and Ramaswamy benefitted from name recognition and shuffling in the top ranks of the state’s Republican Party caused by the ascension of Vance to the vice presidency.

Ramaswamy burst onto the national political scene in 2023 as a neophyte with a knack for using social media and podcast appearances to bolster his image. His mile-a-minute cadence and brash attacks resulted in viral moments during the 2024 Republican presidential debates, but he dropped out early due to lackluster support from voters.

Ramaswamy went on to serve as a top Trump surrogate during the 2024 presidential race and was involved in the effort to start Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, before ceding control of the project to Elon Musk.

When he announced his run for Ohio governor, Ramaswamy cleared the Republican primary field of most competitors. He has drawn on his personal fortune to help fund his campaign; The Columbus Dispatch reported he loaned his operation $25m (£18.4m).

His victory sets up a general election campaign focused on the lingering fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Acton had a highly visible role as the state’s public health director during the height of the crisis. Under DeWine’s leadership, Ohio took a more moderate approach to the pandemic response than other Republican-controlled states. Still, Ohio suspended in-person dining and postponed its presidential primary in 2020 as the virus spread.

But ongoing political backlash to Covid-19 restrictions, including masking and school closures, has opened up a path for Republicans to attack Acton six years later.

Ramaswamy recently released an ad claiming that Acton “called off Ohio’s election at the last minute, defying a judge’s order and abusing her power.”

DeWine – who has endorsed Ramaswamy – took the unusual step of defending Acton from the ad’s claims.

“I told her to issue the health order,” DeWine told NBC4 news station. “The decision was mine.”

The race promises to get more intense and expensive heading into the general election in November.

Meanwhile, seven Republican senators in Indiana who voted against Trump’s redistricting plan faced challengers in Tuesday’s primary election.

Five of the Trump-backed challengers have beat the incumbents, while one has lost. Results for the seventh race have not yet been determined.

The Indiana Republicans defied intense pressure from Trump last December by rejecting his demands to pass a voting map meant to favour their party in midterm elections, scheduled for November.

In one of the most conservative states in the US, 21 Republicans in the Senate joined all 10 Democrats to torpedo the redistricting plan last year.

Trump warned at the time that Republicans who did not support the initiative could risk losing their seats.

[BBC]

The US operation to guide stranded vessels through the Strait of Hormuz will be paused for a “short period of time”, President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday evening.

Trump said that “Project Freedom”, which began days earlier, would be halted by “mutual agreement” because “great progress” had been made toward a deal with Iran.

Iranian state media characterised it as a victory, saying the pause demonstrated that Trump “retreated” after “continued failures” to reopen the vital waterway for global shipping.

The US president’s announcement came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the initial US-Israeli offensive in Iran – Operation Epic Fury – was over after achieving its objectives.

In a post on social media, Trump said that he had made the decision “based on the request of Pakistan”, which has acted as an intermediary between the US and Iran. He added that the US blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place.

Trump’s announcement may surprise some. It undercuts a day’s worth of messaging from Rubio, defence secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Dan Caine – all of whom vowed that the operation would ensure freedom of navigation and commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf.

“We would prefer the path of peace. What the president [Donald Trump] would prefer is a deal,” Rubio told reporters on Tuesday.

What happens next is unclear. The administration had stressed that Project Freedom was a “separate and distinct” campaign from the blockade, which is meant to pressure Iran economically.

Project Freedom was meant to help restore the flow of oil from the region and the global economy’s eventual return to normalcy by guiding stranded ships out of the Gulf through the largely closed waterway. But if during the “pause”, global shipping firms and the insurance companies working with them are stymied by Iranian interference, it will be difficult for Trump to claim that objective has been achieved.

On the other hand, the administration may hope that freezing Project Freedom – which the Iranians strongly objected to – helps bring them to the negotiating table again.

Rubio’s comments earlier in the day came after a spate of attacks in the Strait of Hormuz raised fears the ceasefire between the US and Iran was in jeopardy.

Tehran did not commented on Rubio’s statement, but Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf earlier said: “We know well that the continuation of the status quo is intolerable for America, while we are just getting started.”

Ghalibaf, Iran’s top negotiator in last month’s talks with the US, said, “Shipping security and energy transit have been jeopardised by the US and its allies with the ceasefire violations and blockade. However, their evil acts will fail”.

Late on Tuesday the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a verified source had told it that a cargo vessel has been struck “by an unknown projectile” in the Strait of Hormuz. Further details were not immediately available.

Earlier in the day the UAE said its air defences were engaging missiles and drones from Iran for a second day in a row. On Monday it accused Iran of firing missiles and drones including a strike on an oil port in the emirate of Fujairah which is located outside the Strait of Hormuz, calling it a “dangerous escalation”.

Iran on Tuesday denied launching any attacks on the UAE, with a military spokesman saying that, “If such an action had been taken, we would have announced it firmly and clearly”.

Operation Epic Fury began on 28 February when the US and Israel launched a wave of air strikes on Iran. Tehran responded by blocking the crucial waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas usually passes.

In early April, the US and Iran announced a ceasefire under which Iran ended its drone and missile strikes on Gulf countries including the UAE, but few vessels have been able to transit the strait since then. The US also imposed its own blockade on Iranian ports.

On Monday, the US said it had attacked seven Iranian fast boats in the strait while Iran said it had fired warning shots at a US vessel. Both sides denied the respective claims. Two commercial ships reported attacks and one said it had successfully exited the strait under a US military escort, as part of Donald Trump’s plan to unblock the strait.

Speaking at the White House, Rubio said that while Trump wanted a deal, “That is so far not the route that Iran has chosen” adding: “What that may lead to in the future is speculative.”

He said US and Israeli attacks on Iran had caused “generational destruction to their economy” and the country’s leaders should “check themselves before they wreck themselves in the direction that they’re going”.

Hegseth said the ceasefire with Iran was “not over”.

“Right now the ceasefire certainly holds, but we’re going to be watching very, very closely,” Hegseth said during a press conference on Tuesday.

Caine said that while Iran had attacked US forces 10 times since a ceasefire began, these attacks were “below the threshold” of resuming fighting “at this point”.

Trump was later asked by reporters what would constitute a breach of the ceasefire by Iran. “You’ll find out because I’ll let you know,” he responded. He also said he believed a negotiated settlement with Iran to end the conflict was still possible.

The various comments from American officials suggest that the US has little desire or appetite to return to full-scale operations – further disturbing markets, sending prices skyrocketing and meeting opposition from large swathes of Americans.

Trump also has said he is discussing the strait’s reopening with Japan and expects to have a positive conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping about it when he visits China next week.

[BBC]