Suspect Left Note Saying he Planned to Kill Charlie Kirk, Later Confessed in Texts, Prosecutor Says

Headline USA Editor
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Suspect Left Note Saying he Planned to Kill Charlie Kirk, Later Confessed in Texts, Prosecutor Says

(Headline USA)  Prosecutors brought a murder charge Tuesday against the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk and outlined evidence, including a text message confession to his partner and a note left beforehand saying he had the opportunity to kill one of the nation’s leading conservative voices “and I’m going to take it.”

DNA on the trigger of the rifle that killed Kirk also matched that of Tyler Robinson, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said while outlining the evidence and announcing charges that could result in the death penalty if Robinson is convicted.

The prosecutor said Robinson, 22, wrote in one text that he spent more than a week planning the attack on Kirk, a prominent force in politics credited with energizing the Republican youth movement and helping Donald Trump win back the White House in 2024.

“The murder of Charlie Kirk is an American tragedy,” Gray said.

Kirk was gunned down Sept. 10 while speaking with students at Utah Valley University. Prosecutors allege Robinson shot Kirk in the neck with a bolt-action rifle from the roof of a nearby building on the campus in Orem, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.

Robinson appeared briefly Tuesday before a judge by video from jail. He nodded slightly at times but mostly stared straight ahead as the judge read the charges against him and said he would appoint an attorney to represent him. Robinson’s family has declined to comment to The Associated Press since his arrest.

Authorities have not revealed a clear motive in the shooting, but Gray said that Robinson wrote in a text about Kirk to his partner: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”

Robinson also left a note for his partner hidden under a keyboard that said, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it,” according to Gray.

The prosecutor declined to answer whether Robinson targeted Kirk for his anti-transgender views. Kirk was shot while taking a question that touched on mass shootings, gun violence and transgender people.

“That is for a jury to decide,” Gray said.

Robinson was involved in a romantic relationship with his roommate, who investigators say was transgender, which hasn’t been confirmed. Gray said the partner has been cooperating with investigators.

Robinson’s partner appeared shocked in the text exchange after the shooting, according to court documents, asking Robinson “why he did it and how long he’d been planning it.”

While authorities say Robinson hasn’t been cooperating with investigators, they say his family and friends have been talking.

Robinson’s mother told investigators that their son had turned left politically in the last year and became more supportive of gay and transgender rights after dating someone who is transgender, Gray said. 

Those decisions prompted several conversations in the household, especially between Robinson and his father. They had different political views and Robinson told his partner in a text that his dad had become a “diehard MAGA” since Trump was elected.

Robinson’s mother recognized him when authorities released a picture of the suspect and his parents confronted him, at which time Robinson said he wanted to kill himself, Gray said.

The family persuaded him to meet with a family friend who is a retired sheriff’s deputy, who persuaded Robinson to turn himself in, the prosecutor said.

Robinson was arrested late Thursday near St. George, the southern Utah community where he grew up, about 240 miles (390 kilometers) southwest of where the shooting happened.

In a text exchange with his partner released by authorities, Robinson wrote: “I had planned to grab my rifle from my drop point shortly after, but most of that side of town got locked down. Its quiet, almost enough to get out, but theres one vehicle lingering.”

Then he wrote: “Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven’t seen anything about them finding it.” After that, he sent: “I can get close to it but there is a squad car parked right by it. I think they already swept that spot, but I don’t wanna chance it.”

He also was worried about losing his grandfather’s rifle and mentioned several times in the texts that he wished he had picked it up, according to the texts shared in court documents, which did not have timestamps. It was unclear how long after the shooting Robinson was texting.

“To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you,” Robinson wrote in another text to his partner.

Robinson discarded the rifle and clothing and asked his roommate to conceal evidence, Gray said.

Robinson was charged with felony discharge of a firearm, punishable by up to life in prison, and obstructing justice, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

He also was charged with witness tampering because he had directed his partner to delete their text messages and told his partner to stay silent if questioned by police, Gray said.

FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday that agents are looking at “anyone and everyone” who was involved in a gaming chatroom on the social media platform Discord with Robinson. The chatroom involved “a lot more” than 20 people, he said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington.

“We are investigating Charlie’s assassination fully and completely and running out every lead related to any allegation of broader violence,” Patel said in response to a question about whether the Kirk shooting was being treated as part of a broader trend of violence against religious groups.

The charges filed Tuesday carry two enhancements, including committing several of the crimes in front of or close to children and carrying out violence based on the subject’s political beliefs.

Gray declined to say whether Robinson’s partner could face charges or whether anyone else might face charges.

Kirk, a dominant figure in conservative politics, became a confidant of President Donald Trump after founding Arizona-based Turning Point USA, one of the nation’s largest political organizations. He brought young, conservative evangelical Christians into politics.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

Headline Geopolitics: Why Michael Rectenwald Created the Anti-Zionist America PAC

Jose Nino
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Headline Geopolitics: Why Michael Rectenwald Created the Anti-Zionist America PAC

(José Niño, Headline USA) In this Headline Geopolitics episode, José Niño interviews Michael Rectenwald, author, former NYU professor, 2024 Libertarian presidential candidate, and founder of the Anti-Zionist America Political Action Committee (AZAPAC).

Rectenwald discusses why he launched AZAPAC, the pushback he has faced, the ideological foundation of the PAC, and his political journey from conventional libertarianism to outspoken anti-Zionism. He also outlines the challenges of building a counterweight to entrenched pro-Israel lobbies in Washington and explains the broader significance of this movement in a rapidly shifting political landscape.

Listen now for one of the most candid discussions yet on the future of American foreign policy and political activism.

Follow Michael Rectenwald’s work below:
Twitter: https://x.com/RecTheRegime
Website: https://www.aza-pac.com

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino 

Report: Trump Spoke With Netanyahu Before Israel Bombed Qatar and Didn’t Oppose the Strikes

Headline USA Editor
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Report: Trump Spoke With Netanyahu Before Israel Bombed Qatar and Didn’t Oppose the Strikes

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed President Trump that Israel planned to launch airstrikes against Hamas officials in Qatar shortly before the attack took place, and Trump didn’t oppose the plan, Axios reported on Monday, citing several Israeli officials.

In the wake of the Israeli bombing of Qatar, a major non-NATO ally of the US, the White House claimed that by the time it learned about Israel’s plans to strike Doha, it was too late to stop it. Trump himself also claimed that he was not notified about Israel’s plans and that he was “very unhappy” about the attack.

The Israeli officials speaking to Axios said that while Netanyahu informed Trump of his plans to bomb Doha relatively late in the game, there was still time for the strikes to be called off. Three Israeli officials said Netanyahu notified Trump at about 8:00 am Washington, DC time and that the strikes hit Doha at 8:51W“Trump knew about the strike before the missiles were launched. First there was a discussion on the political level between Netanyahu and Trump, and afterwards through military channels. Trump didn’t say no,” a senior Israeli official told Axios.

A second senior Israeli official said that if Trump “had wanted to stop it, he could have. In practice, he didn’t.” Both officials claimed that if the US opposed the attack, Israel would have called it off.

The claims from Israeli officials align with Israeli media reports on the day of the strikes that said the US had given Israel a green light to go ahead with the bombing, which killed five lower-level Hamas officials and one Qatari security officer. A report from Middle East Eye, which cited US and regional officials, said that Trump had “blessed” Israel’s attack on Doha.

Israeli officials speaking to Axios said that Israel had decided to go along with the US claims that it wasn’t informed about the plan to strike Doha. “On our side, it was decided to help them with that for the sake of the US-Israel relationship,” one official said.

Following the bombing, Netanyahu released a statement claiming that the airstrikes were “a wholly independent Israeli operation. Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.”

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

Rubio Says Diplomatic Solution for Gaza May Not Be Possible

Headline USA Editor
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Rubio Says Diplomatic Solution for Gaza May Not Be Possible

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a diplomatic solution for Gaza may not be possible, comments that came as Israel’s genocidal war in the Strip continues to rage with full US backing. 

Rubio blamed the lack of a deal on Hamas, even though Israel just bombed Hamas officials in Qatar, the country that has been mediating the ceasefire talks. Hamas officials said the strikes hit while they were gathered to discuss the latest ceasefire proposal from the US.

Israeli media has also reported that Netanyahu has been the impediment to a deal and has thwarted a potential ceasefire deal at least seven times.

“We have to remember who we’re dealing with here, and that is a group of people that have dedicated their lives to violence and barbarism,” Rubio said. “And when you’re confronting that hard reality, as much as we may wish that there be a sort of a peaceful, diplomatic way to end it, and we’ll continue to explore and be dedicated to it, we also have to be prepared for the possibility that that’s not going to happen.”

Rubio offered no criticism of the Israeli bombing of Qatar during the ceasefire negotiations. 

When asked about the strikes, Rubio said, “We are focused on what happens now, what happens next, what role could Qatar play possibly in reaching an outcome here that leads not just to the end of this hostility, not just to the release of all of the hostages both living and deceased, not just the disarmament and elimination of Hamas, but also a better future for the people of Gaza, which isn’t possible as long as Hamas exists.”

A day earlier, Rubio visited the Western Wall in the Old City of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. “I think his visit here is a testament to the durability, the strength of the Israeli-American alliance,” Netanyahu told reporters at the wall. “It’s as strong, as durable as the stones in the Western Wall that he just touched. Under President Trump and Secretary Rubio and their entire team, this alliance has never been stronger.”

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

 

US Bombs Another Boat Near Venezuela

Headline USA Editor
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US Bombs Another Boat Near Venezuela

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The US military on Monday bombed a boat near Venezuela and killed three people, according to a statement released by President Trump on Truth Social.

President Trump claimed without providing evidence that the boat was carrying drugs and that the three people who were killed were “narcoterrorists.” He made similar claims about the first US military strike on a boat near Venezuela that occurred on September 2, which he said killed 11 “narcoterrorists.”

The president also posted a video that purported to show the Monday strike. It showed what appeared to be a boat that was drifting at sea, followed by an explosion.

“This morning, on my Orders, US Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump said. “The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the US.”

The president also signaled that more US strikes on boats in the region were coming. “BE WARNED — IF YOU ARE TRANSPORTING DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU!” he wrote.

The second US bombing in the region came after the Venezuelan government said that personnel from a US warship boarded a Venezuelan tuna boat that was in Venezuelan waters. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil said 18 armed US troops were on the vessel for 18 hours, a claim that hasn’t been confirmed by the US military.

“Those who give the order to carry out such provocations are seeking an incident that would justify a military escalation in the Caribbean,” Gil said.

While Trump and other US officials claim the military action and pressure on Venezuela’s government is about drug trafficking and a response to overdose deaths in the US, fentanyl doesn’t come from or through Venezuela, and the majority of the cocaine that is transported to the US comes through the Pacific, not the Caribbean. Gil said that the real purpose of the US operations was for the US to “persist in their failed policy” of regime change in Venezuela.

The Venezuela policy is being largely driven by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has long pushed for regime change in Venezuela. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday called out Rubio in response to the US boarding the tuna boat, calling him a “lord of death and war.”

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

 

Scientists Figure Out How to Get Silver Using Cooking Oil

Money Metals News Service
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Scientists Figure Out How to Get Silver Using Cooking Oil

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Want some silver? You might be able to get some with your phone, some hydrogen peroxide, and a bottle of cooking oil.

Mind you, you won’t be able to use your phone ever again.

But you’ll have silver!

Researchers from the University of Helsinki and the University of Jyväskylä have discovered a way to recover silver from electronic waste using cooking oil.

This is an important discovery given the tight silver supply.

According to the researchers, when heated slightly, olive oil, sunflower oil, or other cooking oil mixed in a solution of hydrogen peroxide dissolves silver from old circuit boards and other e-waste. The silver is then pulled out in solid form using ethyl acetate.

Scientists say the process is much more environmentally friendly because it doesn’t require toxic industrial solvents, and they call it a “sustainable, scalable method.”

The secret to the process is the fatty acids in the cooking oil.

According to Fox News, researchers used computer modeling to study how fatty acids interact with silver ions. The method targets silver and leaves other metals behind. Scientists say the process stabilizes the silver and allows for easy recovery using “light and simple solvents.”

“In testing, even silver-coated keyboard connectors were cleanly processed into pure elemental silver powder using this system.”

As a bonus, the recovery materials can be reused, eliminating chemical waste and holding down costs.

Researchers say the discovery could lead to the development of safe do-it-yourself silver recycling kits you can use at home.

However, don’t imagine that you’re going to get rich pulling the silver out of that baggie of old phones sitting in your junk drawer. Your phone generally contains less than 0.35 grams of silver.

However, if you have a lot of old electronics, those fractions of a gram add up. According to the Silver Institute, about 193.9 million troy ounces of silver were recycled last year.

You will find silver in virtually every electronic device, from phones to computers to televisions. However, only about 20 percent of that silver is currently recovered through recycling.

If the process can be scaled up, it could provide additional silver for a market suffering from extremely tight supply.

Mine output has flatlined in recent years. Silver mine output peaked in 2016 at 900 million ounces. Up until last year, silver production had dropped by an average of 1.4 percent each year. In 2024, mine output grew by a modest 2 percent.

Meanwhile, industrial demand has surged, setting a record for the fourth consecutive year.

Demand outstripped the silver supply for the fourth consecutive year in 2024. The structural market deficit came in at 148.9 million ounces. That drove the four-year market shortfall to 678 million ounces, the equivalent of 10 months of mining supply in 2024.

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

What Happened to that “Robust” Job Market?

Money Metals News Service
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What Happened to that “Robust” Job Market?

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) For months, we’ve been hearing that the labor market is strong. As recently as July 30, the Federal Reserve claimed, “The unemployment rate remains low, and labor market conditions remain solid.”

Now, suddenly, there are all kinds of handwringing about jobs. A recent Scripps News report claimed, “Rising inflation and weakening job market raise fears of stagflation.”

What happened over the last few weeks to drastically change everybody’s outlook?

Nothing.

The fact is, the employment market has been weakening for months. It was merely obscured by bad data and overoptimistic analytic spin rooted in wishful thinking.

We can see the softening in the labor market when we look at the BLS data (suspect as it may be) over time.

Note that job openings fell below pre-pandemic levels in early 2024.

Math Kills Jobs

Meanwhile, the BLS job creation data has been subject to substantial downward revisions.

The BLS has erased nearly 1 million (911,000) jobs that it initially claimed were created since March 2024.

The problem is that revisions generally aren’t widely reported.

The June data provides a great example of this phenomenon. The BLS initially reported 147,000 new jobs that month. When the agency released the July data in August, it revised that number all the way down to 14,000. Then, in the latest release, they revised the June number down again. As it stands, the economy shed 13,000 jobs in June.

These revisions are nothing new. +The BLS has a long history of reporting rosy job numbers only to quietly come back and revise them downward down the road.

In 2023, job numbers were revised down in 10 of the 12 months.

Looking back over time, it’s clear that revisions have always been part of the process. The thing that’s striking is that the revisions are almost always down. Since 2003, the final BLS numbers were lower than the initial report 14 times compared to seven upward revisions.

You would think there would be as many upward revisions as downward.

One could argue that calculating job data is a difficult process, and revisions are to be expected. I accept that argument, but when the error almost always occurs in the government’s favor, one has to wonder… It’s almost as if the agency is trying to make the government look good.

If that’s the strategy – it works.

Given that revisions basically happen in a dark alley when nobody is watching (the recent months being an exception because they were too big to ignore), people get the illusion that the labor market is much stronger than it is.

This month, the government reports good news. Everybody celebrates. Markets move. The following month, the government quietly revises everything downward and reports that the good news was really bad news.

And nobody pays attention.

A Forbes article pointed this pattern out.

“Some experts say it’s [the 1 million job revision] a wake-up call for workers who thought the job market was hotter than it really was.”

Worker’s rights attorney Eric Kingsley told Forbes that he was struck by “the amplitude of this year’s revision.”

“It indicates the labor market is colder than many people realized.”

Indeed, it is.

Kingsly offered some words of wisdom.

“The revision serves as a cautionary reminder not to overstate the job market’s resiliency.”

And it might be a good idea to pay attention – to the revisions too. And this is true no matter who is running the BLS.

The bottom line is that the economy has been shaky for months. It is laboring under a mountain of debt, and we still haven’t cleaned up all of the malinvestments incentivized for nearly two decades of easy money during the Great Recession and then the pandemic. They just hid it from you with faulty data and rosy assumptions.

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

Suspect Arrested for Helping Charlie Kirk’s Assassin Escape

Ken Silva
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Suspect Arrested for Helping Charlie Kirk’s Assassin Escape

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) ABC4 in Utah reported Monday that a man has been arrested for helping alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson flee the scene last Wednesday.

“I shot him, now shoot me,” the suspect, 71-year-old George Zinn, said in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Zinn was initially identified online as the shooting suspect, but later cleared—though he was taken to Utah County jail and booked on suspicion of obstructing justice. Officials said he received death threats as a result.

On Monday, he was formally charged.

“According to the affidavit of probable cause that was filed today, immediately after the shooting, Zinn allegedly walked up to a police officer and started yelling, ‘I shot him, now shoot me,’” ABC4 reported.

“The officer could not see a weapon in his hands and placed him in handcuffs. The officer asked him where the gun was, and he reportedly said, ‘I am not going to tell you,’” the news outlet added.

After being taken to the Utah Valley University police department, he reportedly continued to say that he shot Kirk. After he asked for a lawyer, he then said that he didn’t shoot Kirk—but that he  said he did to draw attention away from the real shooter.

“Zinn was later taken to the hospital because of a medical condition, and Zinn reportedly told an officer that he was glad he said he shot the individual so the real suspect could get away. He also said he ‘wanted to be a martyr for the person who was shot,’” ABC4 reported.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

JD Vance: No ‘Unity’ with Groups That Want Conservatives Dead

Luis Cornelio
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JD Vance: No ‘Unity’ with Groups That Want Conservatives Dead

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Vice President JD Vance expressed a lack of interest in reconciling with radical leftist groups who celebrated the recent assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Vance specifically rejected calls for “unity” with those celebrating Kirk’s death while guest-hosting The Charlie Kirk Show on Monday. 

“There is no unity with people who scream at children over their parents’ politics,” Vance declared. “There is no unity with someone who lies about what Charlie Kirk said in order to excuse his murder. There is no unity with someone who harasses an innocent family the day after the father of that family lost a dear friend.”  

He added, “There is no unity with the people who celebrate Charlie Kirk’s assassination. And there is no unity with the people who fund these articles, who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers, who argue that Charlie Kirk, a loving husband and father, deserved a shot to the neck because he spoke words with which they disagree.” 

Vance’s remarks came in response to dismissive and at times celebratory messages from leftist social media users and radical groups following Kirk’s murder on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University, where he had been addressing a young crowd of supporters. 

Vance directly called out The Nation, a left-wing news platform repeatedly funded by George Soros, for publishing material attacking Kirk. 

One such article—titled “Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning”—read, “The white Christian nationalist provocateur wasn’t a promoter of civil discourse. He preached hate, bigotry, and division.” 

Vance also rebuked the role of funding from George Soros’s Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation, which he said has been given to groups downplaying Kirk’s death while receiving generous tax write-offs. 

“They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer. And how do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years,” Vance decried. 

Vance concluded by saying that real unity is only possible “with people who acknowledge that political violence is unacceptable.” 

James Comey’s Daughter Sues, Suggesting She’s Untouchable, Even by the President

Luis Cornelio
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James Comey’s Daughter Sues, Suggesting She’s Untouchable, Even by the President

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Former federal prosecutor Maureen Comey declared Monday that neither President Donald Trump nor the DOJ had “absolute authority” to fire her.

Comey, the daughter of disgraced former FBI Director James Comey, made the puzzling declaration in a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration over her ousting from the DOJ.

Comey was fired from her taxpayer-funded job at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on July 16.

“Neither the President nor the Department of Justice have unlimited authority to remove Assistant United States Attorneys,” Comey alleged through her attorney.

She claimed the administration gave her little explanation for her firing and simply said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton told her the order came from Washington.

She had held her federal job since 2015, the year her father led the FBI during the Obama administration.

Comey’s firing came just days after she led the botched prosecution of musician Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was charged with sex trafficking and other offenses, but was ultimately acquitted by a Manhattan jury.

She was also tied to the prosecution of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell.

In June 2024, she filed a declaration to keep the FBI’s records on Epstein secret, on the grounds that his former associate Maxwell could be granted a new trial soon.

 

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