Five Things to Know, July 15, 2024
1. It has been the Secret Service’s protocol for more than a half-century since the assassination of John F. Kennedy — survey and secure all nearby structures to prevent gunfire from reaching a president or anyone else under the agency’s protection. But somehow on Saturday, a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man was able to access a roof with a gun just 140 yards from the stage where former president Donald Trump was speaking. Now the Secret Service’s actions and the potential holes in its protective net are under intense scrutiny, with lawmakers in both parties calling on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to account for her decisions and law enforcement officials and experts expressing shock at what many said was the worst Secret Service breakdown since the assassination attempt on President Reagan in 1981.
2. Former President Donald Trump called for unity and resilience Sunday after an attempt on his life added fresh uncertainty to an already tumultuous presidential campaign and raised sharp questions about how a gunman was able to open fire from a rooftop near a Pennsylvania campaign rally. A full day after the shooting, the gunman's motive was still a mystery, and investigators said they believe he acted alone before being fatally shot by Secret Service agents. President Joe Biden ordered an independent security review of the attack, which killed a bystander and critically wounded two others. The FBI was investigating the shooting as a potential act of domestic terrorism.
3. President Joe Biden has nominated a lieutenant general with a history of command in the region to become the next leader of U.S. Army Pacific. Lt. Gen. Ronald Clark, Austin’s senior military assistant, would take over at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, when Gen. Charles Flynn’s tenure ends there. Flynn took command on June 4, 2021, from Gen. Paul LaCamera, who now leads U.S. Forces Korea. Clark, who would also pick up a fourth star, must be confirmed by the Senate.
4. China and Russia’s naval forces on Sunday kicked off a joint exercise at a military port in southern China, official news agency Xinhua reported, days after NATO allies called Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war in Ukraine. The Chinese defense ministry said in a brief statement forces from both sides recently patrolled the western and northern Pacific Ocean and that the operation had nothing to do with international and regional situations and didn’t target any third party.
5. The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed Sunday to respond to what she called a fresh South Korean civilian leafleting campaign, signaling North Korea could soon resume flying trash-carrying balloons across the border. Beginning in late May, North Korea floated numerous balloons carrying waste paper, scraps of cloth, cigarette butts and even manure toward South Korea in a series of late-night launch events, saying they were a tit-for-tat action against South Korean activists scattering political leaflets via their own balloons. No hazardous materials were found.