REUTERS—A man was taken into custody on Sunday at a Rhode Island hotel and held as a “person of interest” in the Brown University shooting that left two students dead and nine wounded amid year-end final exams at the Ivy League school, authorities said. Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said at a midday news conference that the person detained in connection with Saturday’s violence was in his 20s but declined to share further details. Perez said earlier on Sunday that authorities were not seeking other suspects at this time. Detectives anticipated that the person in custody would be formally charged Sunday night, city public safety spokesperson Kristy DosReis said. Other news media outlets, including the Washington Post and NBC News, cited unnamed sources identifying the man as military veteran Benjamin Erickson, 24, who previously resided in Wisconsin. A person by the name of Benjamin W. Erickson served as a U.S. Army infantryman from May 2021 to November 2024, leaving the service with the rank of specialist without ever being deployed, military officials told Reuters. But they could not confirm whether he was the man detained over the Brown University shooting. FBI Director Kash Patel earlier Sunday said in a post on X that the person of interest had been detained in a hotel room in the Rhode Island town of Coventry, a 30-minute drive from the Brown campus. An FBI team specializing in cellular data analysis used geolocation information to track the suspect, Patel said. An update on the @FBI response at Brown University:@FBIBoston established a command post to intake, develop and analyze leads, and run them to ground. We activated the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team, to provide critical geolocation capabilities. As a result, early… pic.twitter.com/KONDEbrduR— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) December 14, 2025 The mass shooting shook the community at the university, one of the oldest in the United States. The school canceled exams, and classes, for the rest of the year and the campus was quiet on Sunday as a light snowfall blanketed the city. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said that authorities, as of midday on Sunday, had not yet contacted all of the victims’ family members because some were traveling. He invited residents to a previously planned event on Sunday to light a Christmas tree and a menorah to mark the first night of Hanukkah. “It is quite clear that if we can come together as a community and shine a little bit of light tonight, I think there’s nothing better that we could be doing,” Smiley said. Authorities Release Video of Suspect Seven people injured at Brown University were in stable condition, Smiley said. One remained in critical but stable condition, while another had been discharged, he added. Shelter-in-place orders at the university and nearby areas were lifted on Sunday. Smiley said earlier in the day that residents should expect a visible police presence across the city. The gunman fled after shooting students in a classroom in Brown’s Barus & Holley engineering and physics building, where outer doors had been left unlocked while exams were taking place, officials said on Saturday. Authorities on Saturday released a short video clip of a person of interest dressed in black walking near the engineering building. Providence Deputy Police Chief Timothy O’Hara said on Saturday the individual may have worn a mask, but officials were not certain. Brown President Christina Paxson told reporters that all or nearly all of the victims were students, adding: “This is the day one hopes never happens, and it has.” Students Caught by Surprise Ref Bari, 22, a graduate student at Brown, said he was inside the Barus & Holley building when he heard a series of loud popping sounds that appeared to be gunfire. Bari ran out of the building and asked another student running in the street if he could hide with her and her friends and she agreed. They returned to her basement apartment and hid in the bathroom. “She trusted me,” he said. “The only connection between us is we’re both students at Brown but beyond that, we don’t know each other.” Teaching assistant Joseph Oduro, 21, told CNN he was in a classroom that was attacked. “The first couple of gunshots went straight to the chalkboard right where I was standing,” Oduro said. “Who knows, if I didn’t duck, maybe I’m not here today.” A student next to him took two bullets to the leg and was due to undergo surgery on Sunday, he said. Jack DiPrimio, another graduate student at Brown, said he was initially not concerned when the university went on lockdown because he had experienced many active-shooter drills. The drills have become more common in the U.S. as attacks targeting students have increased. “I had faced so many lockdowns in high school and even a few at my undergrad, so I wasn’t that worried at first,” DiPrimio said in a TikTok video after coming out of a five-hour lockdown. “Maybe I was desensitized.” (Reporting by Maria Alejandra Cardona in Providence and Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Additional reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru, Katharine Jackson, Douglas Gillison and Jason Lange in Washington, Jessica DiNapoli and Chris Prentice in New York, Keval Singh in Singapore and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Writing by Ted Hesson and Steve Gorman; Editing by Sergio Non, Christina Fincher, Bill Berkrot and Diane Craft) The post Person of Interest Detained in Fatal Mass Shooting at Brown University appeared first on The Daily Signal.

REUTERS—Two alleged gunmen who killed 15 people at a Jewish celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach were a father and son, police said on Monday. The father, a 50-year-old, was killed at the scene, taking the number of dead to 16, while his 24-year-old son was in a critical condition in hospital, police said at a press conference on Monday. Officials have described Sunday’s shooting as a targeted antisemitic attack. Forty people remain in hospital following the attack, including two police officers who are in a serious but stable condition, police said. The victims were aged between 10 and 87. Witnesses said the attack at the famed beach, which was packed on a hot evening, lasted about 10 minutes, sending hundreds of people scattering along the sand and into nearby streets. Police said around 1,000 people had attended the targeted Hanukkah event, which was held in a small park off the beach. President Donald Trump called the attack “horrible” and “purely antisemitic.” ? PRESIDENT TRUMP: "We're here to celebrate Christmas and today – we can say LOUDLY, we celebrate Hanukkah. Because that was a horrible, purely antisemitic attack." pic.twitter.com/dRj88EXRCP— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 14, 2025 “Please say a prayer for all of the victims of the terrible terrorist attack in Australia. May their memory be a blessing,” posted Vice President JD Vance on X. Wishing all of my Jewish friends in America a very Happy Hanukkah as they begin their celebration this evening.Please say a prayer for all of the victims of the terrible terrorist attack in Australia. May their memory be a blessing.— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 15, 2025 A bystander captured on video tackling and disarming an armed man during the attack has been hailed as a hero whose actions saved lives. 7News Australia named him as Ahmed al Ahmed, citing a relative, who said the 43-year-old fruit shop owner had been shot twice and had undergone surgery. A fundraising page for the man had raised more than A$350,000 ($233,000) by Monday afternoon. Police did not release the shooters names or disclose if they were Australian citizens, but said the father had held a firearms license since 2015 and had six licensed weapons. Police did not provide details about the firearms, but videos from the scene showed the men firing what appeared to be a bolt-action rifle and a shotgun. “We are very much working through the background of both persons. At this stage, we know very little about them,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters. Bondi local Morgan Gabriel, 27, said she had been heading to a nearby cinema when she heard what she thought were fireworks, before people started running up her street. “I sheltered about six or seven. Two of them were actually my close friends, and the rest were just people that were on the street. But people, their phones had been left down the beach, and everyone was just trying to get away,” she said. “It’s a very sad time this morning… Normally, like on a Monday or any morning, it’s packed. People are swimming, surfing, running. So this is very, very quiet. And there’s definitely a solemn sort of vibe.” A makeshift memorial with flowers and Israeli and Australian flags was set up at the Bondi pavilion and an online condolence book was established. Police and private Jewish security guards wearing ear pieces were positioned around as mourners paid respects and laid flowers. World Leaders Condemn the Attack Authorities said they were confident only two attackers were involved in the incident, after previously saying they were checking whether a third offender was involved. Police raided the home of the alleged attackers, who they did not name, late on Sunday. At the suspects’ home in Bonnyrigg, a suburb around 36 km (22 miles) west of the CBD, there was a heavy police presence on Monday, with a cordon wrapping around several neighbouring houses. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Bondi Beach on Monday morning and laid flowers near the scene of the attack. “What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism on our shores in an iconic Australian location,” Albanese told reporters. “The Jewish community are hurting today. Today, all Australians wrap our arms around them and say, we stand with you. We will do whatever is necessary to stamp out antisemitism. It is a scourge, and we will eradicate it together.” Albanese said several world leaders including Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron had reached out and he thanked them for their solidarity. Sunday’s shootings were the most serious in a string of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars in Australia since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had warned Albanese that Australia’s support for Palestinian statehood would fuel antisemitism. In August, Australia accused Iran of directing at least two antisemitic attacks and gave Tehran’s ambassador a week to leave the country. ‘Saw Bodies on the Ground’ Mass shootings are rare in Australia, one of the world’s safest countries. Sunday’s attack was the worst since 1996, when a gunman killed 35 people at the Port Arthur tourist site in the southern island state of Tasmania. Rabbi Mendel Kastel, whose brother-in-law Eli Schlanger was killed in Sunday’s attack, said it had been a harrowing evening. “You can very easily become very angry and try to blame people, turn on people but that’s not what this is about. It’s about a community,” he said. “We need to step up at a time like this, be there for each other, and come together. And we will, and we will get through this, and we know that. The Australian community will help us do it,” he added. Local woman Danielle, who declined to give her surname, was at the beach when the shooting occurred and raced to collect her daughter, who was attending a bar mitzvah at a function centre near where the alleged shooters were positioned. “I heard there was a shooting so I bolted there to get my daughter, I could hear gunshots, I saw bodies on the ground. We are used to being scared, we have felt this way since Oct. 7.” Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. The attack precipitated Israel’s war in Gaza. Australia’s Jewish diaspora is small but deeply embedded in the wider community, with about 150,000 people who identify as Jewish in the country of 27 million. About one-third of them are estimated to live in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, including Bondi. Major cities including Berlin, London and New York stepped up security around Hanukkah events on Sunday following the attack at Bondi. ($1 = 1.5044 Australian dollars) ($1 = 1.5035 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Renju Jose, Scott Murdoch, Christine Chen, Kirsty Needham, Alasdair Pal, Pete McKenzie, Stella Qiu in Sydney, Peter Hobson in Canberra and Lucy Craymer in Wellington; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Nia Williams, Diane Craft and Michael Perry) The post Father and Son Behind Bondi Jewish Festival Shooting That Killed 15, Australian Police Say appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The United States is confronting an existential threat—but not the kind defined by ships on the horizon or missiles in the air. The danger instead stems from a waning sense of national purpose and a growing doubt about America’s global role. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the emerging geopolitical alignment linking China, Russia and Iran. This threat does not imply that China is preparing a direct attack on the United States. Rather, it reflects what will happen as America retreats from the world stage. Russia will expand its influence throughout Eastern Europe. China will widen its reach across the Far East, Africa, Asia and even South America. And with America no longer guaranteeing the freedom of the seas, its own network of economic alliances will weaken. A nation relegated to “secondary partner” status will inevitably face economic contraction and a turn inward. Yet for some on the American right, the idea has taken hold that the United States should withdraw from the world, become an autarky, and redirect foreign or military spending toward domestic needs—as if global interconnectedness were an optional luxury. But the affordable goods, efficient supply chains and economic dynamism Americans enjoy are possible only because of robust international trade backed by U.S. economic and military strength. Still, neither political flank has articulated a coherent strategy for dealing with China. On the left, there is a reluctance to acknowledge China as a serious threat. On the right, there is a resistance to the diplomatic, economic and military commitments required to counter Beijing effectively. Calls to slap tariffs not just on China but on allied nations ignore the strategic importance of deepening—not weakening—ties with partners in Asia and beyond. To meet the China challenge, the United States must strengthen trade and security relationships with nations surrounding China: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and India. Better ties with these countries can help contain Beijing’s ambitions. If China insists on cheating or pursuing mercantilist policies, let it. History shows that autarky yields early gains but ultimately leads to inefficiency, stagnation and, often, expansionist aggression. Japan, South Korea and pre-WWII Germany all followed this pattern; Germany, in particular, turned to territorial conquest when its autarkic model collapsed. Free trade, by contrast, reduces the need for expansionism. It allows nations to exchange resources instead of fighting for them. Thus, containing China requires the United States to reinforce its global economic network—not dismantle it. Part of that effort involves Europe. The United States should pressure European nations—through targeted tariffs, if necessary—to dismantle protectionist non-tariff barriers and pay their fair share, particularly in areas such as pharmaceutical costs. But ultimately American policy must emphasize freer trade and stronger alliances. As Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has argued, Washington needs both carrots and sticks for Beijing—but mostly carrots for its friends. America must also diversify its supply chains, reduce reliance on Chinese manufacturing, and cut off China’s allies where possible. Supporting nations targeted by Russian aggression is essential—not only to contain Moscow but because Russia and China increasingly coordinate their geopolitical strategies. Likewise, deepening trade and security ties with India can help pull New Delhi further from Beijing’s orbit, particularly given the longstanding border disputes between the two. Yet Washington continues to send critical technologies—including advanced U.S.-produced microchips—into China. Even if such transfers provide only marginal boosts to China’s capabilities, it is difficult to justify strengthening a geopolitical adversary already stealing intellectual property, violating trade rules, and pressuring its neighbors. China, for all its size, is not an unstoppable juggernaut. It faces a shrinking population, massive debt and extensive misallocation of resources. Its gleaming megaprojects obscure the waste and failure typical of centralized economic systems. Capitalism is messy, but it more reliably directs investment toward good ideas; mercantilist systems simply mask their failures until they can’t. The United States still has the tools to contain China and preserve a stable, free global order. The question— looming larger each year—is whether the United States still has the will to do it. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post What Do We Do About China? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Wikipedia is “Wokepedia,” complains Elon Musk. That’s because it’s become so left-wing. “It’s designed to push an ideological agenda that you can’t see,” says journalist Ashley Rindsberg in my new video. He runs “Neutral Point of View,” a Substack publication that exposes Wikipedia bias. “So what if its’ biased?” I ask. “It’s just one website.” “Wikipedia’s information spreads into everything online,” he replies, “ChatGPT, … Siri, Alexa. Ask a question, it is all Wikipedia.” As a result, “a few thousand powerful editors determine what gets counted as information.” Those editors sure hate President Donald Trump. When he put undocumented immigrants in what people called “cages” at detention centers, Wikipedia editors listed the centers under “concentration camps.” Since Wikipedia says, “anyone can edit,” I tried to put that in perspective, adding, “President Obama built these cages.” Within a day, my edit was taken down. “Wikipedia has definitely been taken over by woke activists,” says Rindsberg. An editor of my page even posts pictures of Lenin and Che on his website profile! To make sure the content stays leftist, Wikipedia labels conservative media “unreliable.” Editors should not cite Fox News, The Federalist, The Daily Wire, the New York Post … By contrast, Wikipedia labels CNN, and even MSNBC, VOX, Slate, The Nation and Mother Jones, “reliable.” That’s nuts. Fox sometimes gets things wrong, but MSNBC and Slate don’t? Another example: After years of leftist media labeling the claim that COVID-19 leaked from a lab a “conspiracy theory,” most eventually acknowledged on the new evidence. “COVID-19 likely originated from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China,” summarized the “Today” show. But Wikipedia still says there’s “no evidence supporting laboratory involvement.” My own Wikipedia page is filled with not just mistakes but smears. Wikipedia editors make me look cruel. They claim that when I anchored “20/20,” I complained that AIDS research gets “too much funding.” But all I’d said was that AIDS research gets disproportionate funding compared to other diseases—diseases that kill more people. Former President Bill Clinton said the same thing: “We’re spending 10 times as much per fatality on people with AIDS!” They don’t trash him, just me. Wikipedia’s socialists sure hate libertarians. It’s not fair. “There’s no recourse, there’s no accountability,” says Rindsberg. “Nobody for you to talk to and say, ‘This is wrong.’ If this was a news organization, there would be an avenue or a channel for you to at least address it. In Wikipedia’s case, that is not true.” At least things may be changing now, because there are new options, like SciencePedia and Justapedia covering science and law. “Justapedia,” says Rindsberg, “was founded by a veteran Wikipedia editor who couldn’t handle the left-wing bias. … This is exactly what we need … people to be able to choose among different sources, so we’re not all forced into the Wikipedia information funnel.” Most important, since he has an extraordinary track record of success, is Elon Musk’s Grokipedia. It’s new and AI, so it makes mistakes, but Grok currently leads AI intelligence tests. When it comes to topics I checked out, such as the probable origins of COVID-19, and my page, Grokipedia does better. “Is there any way to fix Wikipedia?” I ask Rindsberg. “The best chance we have is for dedicated people who are really interested in these topics to get in there and become an editor that can make those kinds of changes. We only need a few dozen, maybe even fewer, to make an impact … If enough people say … ‘I’m going to give it a go.’ … they actually can make an impact. The question is, are enough people going to take that leap?” I hope you who read this column will! COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Wikipevil? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

People magazine and former Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi have made separate lists of insults President Donald Trump has recently lobbed at female reporters. It doesn’t matter how the journalists behaved because apparently, women can’t possibly be ill-mannered in press conferences. Or they think you can’t possibly be as rude as Trump. The list of outrages started with “Quiet, piggy” to Bloomberg’s Catherine Lucey. She was hogging the spotlight and asking more than one question. Trump could have said something without an animal insult, like, “You’re done” or “Enough,” but when reporters are “on a roll,” what works? There were more. Trump told ABC’s Mary Bruce she was “a terrible person and terrible reporter.” We can state, based on years of evidence, that Bruce consistently polished Joe Biden’s apple, asked sappy questions, and was willing to be manipulated so her questions could go on to one of those infamous note cards for the feeble Biden. Now she’s a relentless shark by comparison. So she’s a certain kind of reporter—a female George Stephanopoulos, working to help one political party win the day. Likewise, ABC’s senior political reporter Rachel Scott pestered Trump about a video of a drug-boat strike, and he said, “You are the most obnoxious reporter in the whole place … a terrible reporter.” Scott is also a raging partisan on a daily basis. Some of the insults came in Truth Social posts. New York Times reporter Katie Rogers was part of a team writing a preposterous article about how Trump could be losing his grip as president—not comparing Trump to Biden, but comparing Trump’s first term to his second. He called her “ugly, both inside and out.” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who’s a White House reporter and a prime-time host, was called “always stupid and nasty” at “Fake News CNN.” At a ceremony where Trump was awarded a “peace prize” by an international soccer federation, she asked if Trump’s actions in Venezuela suggested he didn’t deserve the award. When I tweeted back at Farhi that calling someone “piggy” or “stupid” is not as vicious as cable news jerks comparing him to Hitler, he shot back: “You think a bunch of talking heads on a basic cable network is the same as the president of the United States?” Jonah Goldberg offered me a similar reply: “Thank God MSNOW isn’t president of the United States … I just don’t get this argument. Some media outlet says something rude/stupid so (the) President of the United States should behave as bad or worse.” He suggested it was “comparing apples to cinder blocks.” So let’s compare apples to apples. Did Goldberg lament when Biden called Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a b—-h” in 2022? Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., tweeted at the time, “Have we ever seen a President attack and malign the free press like Joe Biden has??” Goldberg shot back: “You don’t have to be a troll. You have a real job, you know.” At least he seemed to acknowledge Banks was mocking the liberal insistence that one must never “malign the free press”—unless they’re Fox News, of course. I think it’s fine to wish for a president to set the tone of civility. But the Bushes and Romneys did that and they were still compared to Hitler and slaveholders and what not. That’s why Republicans want a leader who pushes back on the press for pushing hostile narratives on behalf of the Democrats. Many Republicans like the JD Vance approach, shaming the reporter more gently, asking them if they realize that they sound silly. But partisan reporters deserve more than a little … resistance. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Trump Can’t Insult Reporters When They Go After Him? appeared first on The Daily Signal.