A manhunt is underway for the shooter who killed the conservative activist Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Kirk founded the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA when he was just 18 years old, and played a crucial role in President Trump’s 2024 victory. Kirk was speaking outside, taking questions from the crowd, when he was killed by a single shot fired from a nearby rooftop on campus. Utah Governor Spencer Cox said, “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.” Here’s Scott Robbins, who witnessed the shooting.

Scott Robbins: “Absolute horrible event. You know, Charlie Kirk, he goes up there. He even has security to protect him from other extremists that have attacked him before from just debating them civilly. And so, people didn’t expect that kind of thing to happen.”

President Trump blamed the “radical left” for Kirk’s death before a suspect had been identified, and even tied the shooting to his own assassination attempt.

President Donald Trump: “From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.”

Trump neglected to mention attacks on Democrats, including the former Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House, Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated in June.

Kirk was shot in the midst of talking about mass shootings. He was asked by an audience member about the number of transgender shooters in the country compared to the overall number of mass shooters, when a bullet hit him in the neck. In the past, Kirk repeatedly praised the Second Amendment and downplayed the seriousness of gun violence. Here’s what he said back in April 2023.

Charlie Kirk: “You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won’t have a single gun death. That is nonsense. It’s drivel. But I am — I think it’s — I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”

Kirk’s killing comes after the former FBI special agent in charge of Salt Lake City, Mehtab Syed, was forced out last month, after just six months on the job. The FBI field office of Salt Lake City is in charge of coordinating activities in the region. We’ll have more on this story later in the broadcast.

In Colorado, a student opened fire at a high school, injuring two of his classmates. The gunman died of self-inflicted injuries. Authorities are currently investigating a motive for the attack. On social media, Colorado Governor Jared Polis posted, “We are all praying for the victims and the entire community.”

Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen on Wednesday, killing 35 people and injuring 131. The strikes on the capital Sana’a and the northern province of al-Jawf come a day after Israel’s strike on Qatar targeting senior Hamas leadership. Yemen’s Health Ministry said that Israel attacked civilian and residential areas in Sana’a, as well as a government compound in al-Jawf province. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the strikes were in response to a Houthi drone attack that struck an airport in southern Israel earlier this week.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani said Wednesday that the Israeli strike on Qatar “killed any hope” for the hostages in Gaza. Speaking with CNN, he also called the deadly strike that killed six people Tuesday an “act of state terror” and said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “needs to be brought to justice.” 

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that President Trump had a tense phone call with Netanyahu about the attack on Qatar. Trump reportedly told Netanyahu that the decision to target Hamas leaders in Qatar wasn’t wise and that he was angry that he learned about the attack from the U.S. military instead of Israel. 

Israeli military reservists and family members of hostages protested and marched toward Israel’s military headquarters in Tel Aviv Wednesday. Here’s Viki Cohen, the mother of Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli hostage held in Gaza.

Viki Cohen: “It is not only a march. It’s also a protest that was organized by IDF soldiers that are against the war. And they say, like we, the families of the hostages, that our prime minister needs to stop the war and sign a deal that will bring all of the hostages back home.”

Israeli forces have killed 22 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn, including 16 in Gaza City; five Palestinians were killed while seeking food. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera is reporting that Israel arrested seven fishermen off the coast of Gaza City, holding them in an unknown location. Israel also bombed three homes in the densely populated Shati refugee camp in Gaza. This comes as Israel continues to bombard Gaza City, ordering the evacuation of nearly 1 million people. 

On Wednesday, Palestinians searched through rubble and debris at the site of a Gaza City residential tower building that was hit by an Israeli strike. Here’s Maged Sukkar, who was sheltering in a tent near the tower.

Maged Sukkar: “Four tons of explosives hit the tower. Our belongings flew in the air. Our tents are gone. Our money is gone. Our conditions have gotten worse. There is no shelter for us. What does Trump want? What does Netanyahu want?”

Members of the Global Sumud Flotilla are vowing to continue their efforts to break Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip, after two of the group’s ships came under fire from apparent drone attacks while docked in Tunisia. After initially downplaying the attacks, Tunisia’s Interior Ministry said Wednesday they were “premeditated” acts — but did not name a suspect. Activists have directly implicated Israel, with a spokesperson saying, “There is no other authority that would do such an attack.” On Wednesday, thousands of Tunisians rallied at a beach near Tunis to support the group’s efforts to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Joelle Tichawzer: “We cannot commit ourselves to Palestine without committing ourselves to all the other oppressed. But it begins with Palestine, because Palestine crystallizes all the complicities of our governments. All the complicities of our governments. And that is why we, the people, must take the place of our governments, because they do not do it. And we, people who have never sailed, commit ourselves on boats and are going to achieve the impossible.”

Later in the broadcast, we’ll go to Tunisia for an update on the Global Sumud Flotilla.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog says he argued with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a “tough” meeting at 10 Downing Street in London Wednesday. Speaking at the Chatham House think tank after the talks, Herzog said Israel’s war in Gaza is aimed at “defending Western values.”

President Isaac Herzog: “We are defending Europe. We are defending Western values and the free world with the blood and the tears of our sons and daughters and families. That’s what we’re doing.”

As Herzog spoke, protesters gathered outside Chatham House holding signs reading “Stop the Slaughter” and “Don’t Listen to War Criminals.” Meanwhile, the front-page headline of the Scottish newspaper The National read “Starmer rolls out red carpet for genocide.” According to Middle East Eye, the Crown Prosecution Service’s counterterrorism division appointed a prosecutor to “urgently” review an application for an arrest warrant for President Herzog. Palestinian rights groups cited Herzog’s remarks in October 2023 stating all Palestinians in Gaza were “unequivocally” responsible for the October 7 Hamas attacks. Despite the investigation, U.K. authorities made no attempt to arrest Herzog. 

Poland has invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, calling for consultations with fellow NATO members, including the United States, after at least 19 Russian drones flew deep into Polish territory overnight Tuesday. The incursion prompted Polish and NATO forces to scramble fighter jets as authorities closed major airports. On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told Parliament, “This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II.” In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Western leaders for what he called a “lack of action” against Russia, calling the drone incursion another provocation by Moscow.

President Volodymyr Zelensky: “From the first hour of the night, our military recorded Russian drones moving toward the Polish border. And this movement was not an accident or mistake, but deliberate movement. The Russians used both our territory and Belarusian territory to push them into Polish airspace.”

This weekend, Belarus is set to play host to major joint military drills of Russian and Belarusian forces. They’re the first such war games since early 2022 — right before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Trump administration is considering military strikes on Venezuela if President Nicolás Maduro doesn’t step up pressure on drug cartels. That’s according to independent investigative reporter Ken Klippenstein, citing military sources who said the Pentagon is drafting plans to attack Venezuela’s military aircraft or to bomb its airfields. This comes just days after Venezuelan F-16 fighter jets buzzed U.S. Navy ships gathering north of Venezuela.
 
Meanwhile, The Intercept is reporting that the 11 people on board the boat in the Caribbean that was destroyed by the U.S. military last week were said to have survived an initial strike and were killed shortly after in follow-up attacks. The boat reportedly turned back toward shore after people on board apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it. Republican Senator Rand Paul revealed that the attack was carried out by a drone. Paul criticized the strike as a breach of long-accepted rules of engagement. The Trump administration has claimed, without evidence, it targeted Venezuelan drug traffickers. Legal experts called the extrajudicial killings acts of murder and a war crime. 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has fired U.K. Ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson over his ties to the disgraced, now-dead sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. A senior Foreign Office official told members of Parliament Mandelson had failed to disclose the extent and depth of his friendship with Epstein when Starmer appointed him as ambassador. This comes after the tabloid newspaper The Sun published a trove of emails revealing Mandelson urged Epstein to fight for early release from prison after his 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution, writing, “Your friends stay with you and love you.”

In Washington, D.C., Republican House Oversight Chair James Comer has rejected calls to hear testimony from a forensic handwriting expert about Donald Trump’s signature on a letter in Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday book. The note features a nude sketch of a woman and concludes with the words, “may every day be another wonderful secret.” On Wednesday, Comer told reporters the letter has “absolutely nothing to do with the overall investigation.” This comes a day after the White House said it would support a forensic analysis of the signature, amid Trump’s repeated denials that he’d signed it.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bid by Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files. 

Three former senior FBI officials, who were fired last month, are suing FBI Director Kash Patel and the Trump administration, alleging they were let go as part of a “campaign of retribution” for refusing to demonstrate loyalty to President Trump. Brian Driscoll, the former acting FBI director; Steven Jensen, who ran the Washington field office; and Spencer Evans, who led the Las Vegas field office, are all alleging that Patel chose to follow orders from the White House rather than federal law. According to the lawsuit, Driscoll and other top officials tried to stop attempts to fire and punish FBI officials for working on criminal probes of Trump.

In Texas, immigrant rights groups and supporters are demanding the release of an El Paso DACA recipient after a federal judge terminated her deportation proceedings. Catalina “Xóchitl” Santiago is a longtime community organizer who was seized by Border Patrol agents at the El Paso airport in early August as she was about to board a domestic flight for work. Santiago remains in an ICE jail even after Immigration Judge Michael Pleters ruled Monday that her DACA status remains valid and that she cannot be deported or moved until federal judges can review her case. 

More than 300 South Korean workers who were rounded up by ICE at a Hyundai plant in Georgia last week are expected to depart for South Korea today. At a news conference Wednesday, South Korea’s president said the incident makes South Korean companies more hesitant to invest in the U.S.

New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani is calling on FIFA to abandon dynamic pricing for the 2026 Men’s World Cup, as part of his “Game Over Greed” petition. Here’s Mamdani yesterday.

Zohran Mamdani: “It hurts because we know that while New York City is proud to be one of the hosts of the World Cup final next year, so many of our neighbors will not afford to be able to be there. They will not afford to be able to be there because FIFA is quadrupling the max ticket price that it will charge in order to be in attendance. They will not afford to be able to be there because FIFA is now deciding to use dynamic pricing for the first time in its history.”