Alleged Trump Golf Course Gunman Charged with Assassination Attempt

The Washington Post,

The gunman accused of bringing a rifle to Donald Trump’s golf course in Florida was indicted Tuesday and charged with attempting to assassinate the former president. Ryan Routh, 58, had initially faced two federal firearms charges, but prosecutors said during a court hearing Monday that they would ask a grand jury to charge him with attempting to assassinate Trump, who is also the 2024 Republican nominee. That charge — attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate — carries a potential sentence of life in prison.

Routh was also charged with assaulting a federal officer and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. The new counts mark a significant escalation in the federal case against Routh, which Trump had criticized Monday, saying the initial counts were “a slap on the wrist.”

“Violence targeting public officials endangers everything our country stands for, and the Department of Justice will use every available tool to hold Ryan Routh accountable for the attempted assassination of former President Trump charged in the indictment,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Routh was accused by law enforcement officials of bringing the rifle to Trump’s West Palm Beach, Fla., golf course while the former president was golfing on Sept. 15. A Secret Service agent working on Trump’s security detail spotted him in the brush and opened fire after seeing the rifle.

Evacuations Begin in Florida as the State Faces a Major Hurricane Strike from Helene
 CNN,

Evacuations are underway and time is running out for Floridians to prepare for Tropical Storm Helene, which threatens to hit as the strongest storm to make landfall in the United States in over a year.

Helene formed in the northwestern Caribbean Sea Tuesday morning and will set off on a breakneck pace of strengthening. It could take Helene just 48 hours to go from a 45 mph tropical storm to a Category 3 major hurricane as it rapidly intensifies over the extremely warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

A hurricane warning was issued for parts of Florida’s Gulf Coast, from Anclote River to Mexico Beach, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 11 p.m. ET advisory. The Mexican government has also issued a hurricane warning from Cabo Catoche to Tulum.

Bitcoin Bulls Are Laying the Path to $66K, but Will They Make It?
CoinTelegraph,

Bullish Bitcoin traders are making progress by attempting to retake the 200-day moving average, but a close above $66,000 could kickstart a rally to BTC’s all-time high.

Traders are attempting to push the price through the current resistance cluster to hit a two-month high above $66,000. To pull this off, the market needs to see either an uptick in spot volumes or futures open interest, where leveraged longs pile in to bust through a thick wall of asks at $65,000.

Asks are solidly represented at $66,000, $67,900, and $70,000, but sentiment-wise, recapturing the 200-MA ($64,000) as support and trading above the channel resistance will be viewed as progress. This would give bulls the opportunity to start breaking the pattern of lower highs by securing a weekly candle close above $65,000 by Sept. 29.

Such a move could possibly accelerate the liquidation of short traders in the $64,200 to $65,000 range and bring the price to the long-term descending trendline resistance at $66,200.

Caught on Camera: Satellite Tracker Photographs Secret Spacecraft
 Space.com,

In the hush-hush, secretive world of space-based spy satellites, few details are publicly available — and groups like the U.S. Space Force, National Reconnaissance Office, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency like it that way.

There’s an armada of classified spacecraft assigned an array of vigilant duties. Some intercept radio waves or detect missile launches. Others yield close-up looks at select areas using sharp-eyed optical systems or scan Earth with powerful radar technology.

These high-flying satellites are tempting targets for amateur astrophotographers. Such is the case for space watcher veteran Felix Schöfbänker in Upper Austria. “My images have certainly revealed a few things that either were not known, or only were speculated before,” Schöfbänker told Space.com .

Zoo to Send Giant Pandas Back to China Because They’re Too Expensive to Keep
 Reuters,

Finland will return two giant pandas to China in November, more than eight years ahead of time, as the zoo where they live can no longer afford their upkeep, the chair of the zoo’s board told Reuters on Tuesday.

The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, were brought to Finland in January 2018, months after Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the Nordic country and signed a joint agreement on protecting the animals.

Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has sent pandas to foreign zoos to strengthen trading ties, cement foreign relations, and boost its international image.

The Finnish agreement was for a stay of 15 years, but instead, the pandas will soon go into a month-long quarantine before they are shipped back to China, according to Ahtari Zoo, the pandas’ current home.

The zoo, a private company, had invested over 8 million euros (about $9 million) in the facility where the animals live and faced annual costs of 1.5 million euros for their upkeep, including a preservation fee paid to China, Ahtari Chair Risto Sivonen said.

The zoo had hoped the pandas would attract visitors to the central Finland location, but last year said it had instead accumulated mounting debts as the pandemic curbed travel, and that it was discussing a return.

Rising inflation had added to the costs, the zoo said, and Finland’s government in 2023 rejected pleas for state funding.

In all, negotiations to return the animals had lasted three years, Sivonen said. “Now we reached a point where the Chinese said it could be done,” Sivonen said.

The return of the pandas was a business decision made by the zoo, which did not involve Finland’s government and should not impact relations between the two countries, a spokesperson for Finland’s foreign ministry said.

Despite efforts by China to aid the zoo, the two countries in the end jointly concluded after friendly consultations to return the pandas, the Chinese embassy in Helsinki said in a statement to Reuters.