2025 – Page 445 – Texas Weekly Online

‘What would Jesus do?’ Utah students torn on death penalty for Charlie Kirk’s accused killer

OREM, Utah – As Utah Valley University students returned to campus following conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s assassination, those who spoke to Fox News Digital were divided over whether Tyler Robinson should face the death penalty. Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray announced on Tuesday that Utah prosecutors would seek the death penalty against Robinson on multiple charges, including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child. “I think it’s totally necessary,” Ryder Warner, a UVU student who was entering the courtyard when Kirk was shot last Wednesday, said of a potential death penalty against Robinson. Warner told Fox News Digital that, as a Christian, he didn’t believe in taking another human’s life, but “with this situation, where somebody was just here to share an opinion and lost their life because of their opinion, I think that whoever took their life should be killed, too.” “I think that’s only fair,” he said. CHARLIE KIRK’S KILLING AT UTAH UNIVERSITY PROMPTS SCRUTINY OF SECURITY MEASURES Kirk was shot and killed while speaking to UVU students last Wednesday, Sept. 10. After a 33-hour manhunt, Robinson was arrested for allegedly assassinating Kirk. Gray outlined the formal charges against Robinson during a press conference on Tuesday, which was followed by the suspect’s first court appearance. UTAH LEADERS URGE UNITY FOLLOWING CHARLIE KIRK’S ASSASSINATION: ‘TURNING POINT FOR AMERICA’ Afton Miller, a junior at UVU who said she was 5 to 10 feet away from Kirk when he was shot, said Robinson facing the death penalty “hurts a little bit.” “I’m pro-life,” Miller said. “I believe that somebody deserves to live, but in moments like this, it’s very hard that their family is also losing their son as well. It’s just as painful to lose somebody.” She said it was “extremely traumatic” to witness the assassination of one of her “greatest heroes” on her college campus. UVU student Jessie Ball, who was also on campus when Kirk was assassinated, said last week’s tragedy inspired her to use her voice and speak up like Kirk did. “It’s a hard thing to watch, and as people who probably didn’t see the signs coming, it has to be heartbreaking,” Ball said. “I know my family and I will be praying for them to feel God’s love and the peace through it, but his actions have consequences, and they have a lasting impact, and if that’s what the state agreed on…” James Whitney, another UVU student, told Fox News Digital that “they found the gun in my parents’ backyard.” According to Robinson’s charging documents, investigators found a “bolt-action rifle wrapped in a towel” in a wooded area on the northeast end of campus, but authorities have not confirmed the exact location. Whitney said it was “scary” returning to campus. He said he typically tries to stay out of politics because political violence is “becoming normalized.” “I don’t agree with what happened here,” Whitney said. “I don’t think any human being ever deserves to have that kind of hate taken out on their life, ever, including in front of their kids. With the death penalty, I mean, a lot of people here are religious. What would Jesus do?” Whitney asked. And while Whitney emphasized that he didn’t agree with what Robinson did, “especially on my own school grounds,” the UVU student said he didn’t “condone any sort of death in any sort of way,” as the Utah County attorney seeks the death penalty. Meanwhile, Trae Stevens, who is not a UVU student but said he grew up about an hour’s drive south and was visiting the campus on Tuesday to pay his respects, told Fox News Digital it’s “fair” for Robinson to face the death penalty. “I think it’s sad for anybody to die,” Stevens said. “It’s a crazy situation and just to see how it’s affected almost the entire world and that this one man could have such evil in his heart. It’s sad, but I think it’s fair, yes.” UVU classes resumed on Wednesday, one week after Kirk’s assassination. The campus began reopening on Monday as students and locals visited campus to pay their respects to Kirk by leaving flowers and posters. An American flag is now hanging in the UVU courtyard where Kirk was speaking when he was shot. The campus is planning a “Vigil for Unity” on Friday for students, faculty, staff and members of the community to gather in “remembering, healing and reaffirming shared values.” “This attack was not just on an individual, but on the spirit of free expression, civil discourse, and intellectual inquiry that sits at the very foundation of our university,” UVU President Astrid S. Tuminez said in a statement. “The violence that occurred on our campus has shaken us deeply. We remain steadfast in our commitment to learning, dialogue and the values that unite us, even in times of grief. Together we choose hope for the future, and care for each other during this time.”

ABC to indefinitely halt Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Charlie Kirk remarks

United States television network ABC has announced it will indefinitely cease airing Jimmy Kimmel Live due to comments made by the popular chat show’s host about the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Walt Disney-owned ABC said on Wednesday the show would be “preempted indefinitely” due to Kimmel’s comments suggesting the man charged with Kirk’s assassination in Utah last week, Tyler Robinson, is a supporter of US President Donald Trump. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said on Monday in a monologue on his long-running late-night talk show. Earlier, Nexstar Media, one of the country’s largest local TV station owners, including at least 28 ABC affiliates, announced it would stop airing the show over Kimmel’s remarks about the Kirk killing. Announcing the move, Nexstar Media President Andrew Alford said Kimmel’s comments were “offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse”. “We do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located,” he said. While Utah prosecutors have formally charged Robinson with the murder of Charlie Kirk and said they will seek the death penalty, questions remain about a possible motive. Kimmel’s comments also drew condemnation on Wednesday from Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the independent US government TV, radio and internet regulator. Advertisement In an interview with right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson, Carr described Kimmel’s comments as “the sickest conduct possible”, and he also appeared to threaten ABC affiliate licences over the presenter’s remarks. “What people don’t understand is that the broadcasters … have a licence granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest,” Carr said. Carr explicitly called on ABC affiliates to “push back” on the network’s airing of Jimmy Kimmel Live as they run the risk of “licence revocation” due to a “pattern of news distortion”. Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro said it was important to note that Kimmel is a household name in the US, where many people have watched his talk show for more than 20 years. “What he said on Monday was he suggested the suspected shooter of Charlie Kirk was a pro-Trump Republican,” Zhou-Castro said, adding that Kimmel made his remarks before authorities released text messages that appeared to confirm that the suspected killer was in fact opposed, politically, to Kirk. The fallout from Kimmel’s comment was rapid and grew until the Trump-appointed chair of the FCC, which regulates all broadcasts in the US, demanded that action be taken against the host. Kimmel is not alone in being sanctioned for comments in the aftermath of the Kirk killing. “There have been notable journalists as well as analysts and also just everyday people who have lost their jobs because of comments they made about Charlie Kirk’s death,” Zhou-Castro said. “In fact, the US Vice President JD Vance advocated for people to report on each other to their employers if anyone said something on social media, etcetera, that seemed to disparage Kirk,” she said. Following news of Kimmel’s cancellation on Nexstar, FCC Chairman Carr told The Hollywood Reporter news outlet he wanted to thank the firm “for doing the right thing”. At least one other station group had contacted ABC about the Kimmel show, suggesting that an affiliate revolt may have played a role in the decision, an unnamed source told The Hollywood Reporter. Kimmel’s cancellation is the latest in a spate of firings over the past week, brought on by a conservative backlash to public comments about Kirk’s killing that have been deemed insensitive. Conservatives have mourned Kirk as a martyr who championed patriotism, open debate and Christian values. Others have rebuked his divisive views, including on immigration and Islamophobia, with some also celebrating his death. Journalists, academics and doctors are among those who have been fired or investigated by their employers over comments made about Kirk, mirroring the much-maligned cancellation campaigns of recent years associated with America’s left and sparking debate over the limits of free speech in the US. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,302

Here are the key events on day 1,302 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Published On 18 Sep 202518 Sep 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is how things stand on Thursday, September 18: Fighting A Ukrainian drone has struck a car in Russia’s Belgorod border region, killing one person and injuring another, according to the region’s governor. The Ukrainian army lost more than 1,500 troops during front-line fighting over the past day, reported Russia’s state TASS news agency, citing the Ministry of Defence. Ukraine has not confirmed the claim, and both sides have engaged in what independent analysts described as unsurprising narrative warfare aimed at projecting military gains. The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said Russia had lost an estimated 1,020 people, along with 360 unmanned aerial vehicles and 36 artillery systems, in the past day. Russia has not confirmed the claim. Meanwhile, Russian forces also hit Ukrainian railway infrastructure facilities, “storage and launch sites for long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as temporary deployment sites”, the Russian Defence Ministry said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media platform X that although Russia had prepared offensives in Sumy, Novopavlivka, Pokrovsk and Zaporizhzhia this year, Russia has lost “so much manpower” that “as of now, they lack the strength for large-scale offensives.” Military Speaking at a joint news conference with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, Zelenskyy said missiles for Western air defence systems were among the first set of US weapons being sent under the Priority Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) mechanism, which allows NATO states to pay for the transfer of United States-sourced weapons and technology. Ukraine has received more than $2bn so far as part of the PURL scheme, Zelenskyy said, with the total expected to rise to up to $3.6bn in October. Lithuanian prosecutors charged 15 people in connection with detonations of DHL parcels at logistics depots in Europe last year, which prosecutors allege were organised by Russian citizens with ties to Russian military intelligence. In what Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called “a paradigm shift”, Denmark will procure “long-range precision weapons” for the first time in response to the threat posed by Russia. Moscow’s ambassador to Copenhagen said the decision was “pure madness”. Advertisement Politics and diplomacy After a birthday phone call from Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the Russian president – who he referred to as “my friend” – on X, writing that India is “ready to make all possible contributions towards a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict”. King Charles seemed to gently nudge US President Donald Trump on standing firm in Ukraine’s corner, during a lavish ceremony for Trump during his visit to the United Kingdom, when the British monarch recalled the US-UK alliance during World Wars I and II. “Today, as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace,” the king said. The comments came amid questions over whether Trump has put sufficient pressure on Putin to negotiate a peace deal. Ahead of the 80th United Nations General Assembly “high-level” week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would meet with Russian and Ukrainian delegations but was “not optimistic about the short-term progress in the peace process in Ukraine”. The two sides’ positions are too different, he said, with Ukraine driven by “a legitimate interest to preserve its territory” and Russia “determined to [do] something that would mean the occupation of large parts of Ukraine”. Russian nationalists and online bots moved quickly to sow division after the killing of conservative right-wing figure Charlie Kirk, The Associated Press news agency reported, tying his death to US support for Ukraine and even spreading the conspiracy theory that Ukraine was responsible for his death. US President Donald Trump and King Charles speak on day one of Trump’s second state visit to the UK [Yui Mok/Reuters] Economy and energy Ukraine and the US International Development Finance Corporation said they would each commit $75m to a joint investment fund that is part of Kyiv’s minerals deal with Washington. The deal – which Trump has referred to as “payback” for Ukraine aid – was signed in May and will give the US preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals and natural resources licences in exchange for post-war financial and military assistance. Ukraine has gas reserves to meet about 80 to 90 percent of its demand for the upcoming winter, but still needs up to $1bn in additional fuel stockpiled, data show. Russia’s consumer price index rose by 0.04 percent in the week ending September 15, the state statistics agency said, compared with 0.1 percent growth in the previous week. Overall price growth in the year to date stands at 4.08 percent, compared with 5.78 percent for the same period last year. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)

‘A script’: Texts of alleged Charlie Kirk killer fuel conspiracy theories

The deluge of conspiracy theories began almost the moment authorities revealed the text messages allegedly sent by the suspected assassin of right-wing American activist Charlie Kirk. After prosecutors in the US state of Utah published alleged text exchanges between 22-year-old Tyler Robinson and his romantic partner on Tuesday, countless social media users, including numerous prominent influencers, cast doubt on their authenticity. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Some outright claimed that the texts, in which Robinson appears to confess to killing Kirk, had been fabricated by authorities. Many of the posts suggested that the language and tone of the exchanges did not match someone of Robinson’s age, and the account of the shooting was too forthcoming and detailed to be believable. Notably, at a time of extreme political polarisation in the US, the conspiracy theorising united figures on the left and right. A screen shows Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the killing of political activist Charlie Kirk, as he attends a court appearance remotely before the 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, on September 16, 2025 [Pool via AFP] Matt Walsh, a right-wing commentator and podcast host with millions of followers on X and YouTube, suggested the exchanges had been scripted to absolve Robinson’s transgender partner of any involvement in the shooting. “This feels like a strategy they cooked up from watching too much TV,” Walsh said on X. Utah Governor Spencer Cox has said that the partner, described as a “male transitioning to female”, had no advance knowledge of the crime and has been cooperating fully with authorities. Advertisement Steven Bannon, US President Donald Trump’s former adviser, said on his podcast that he was “not buying” the texts, describing them as “too stilted, too much like a script”. On the other side of the political spectrum, Majid Padellan, a progressive influencer who goes by Brooklyn Dad Defiant on social media, said he did not believe for “one second” that the texts had been written by Robinson. “I didn’t know him personally, but I know that no 22 year old writes text messages like this,” Padellan said on X. “This feels like that Steve Buscemi skateboard meme ‘How do you do, fellow kids?”’ Liberal commentator Joanne Carducci, who posts under the moniker JoJoFromJerz, noted that the official narrative around the assassination had prompted rare agreement across the ideological divide. “No one is buying these text messages. No one on the left or the right,” Carducci said on X. “We cannot agree on a damn thing anymore. But we agree on this. If that doesn’t speak volumes, nothing does.” The Utah County Attorney did not respond to a request for comment about the claims online. Utah County Attorney Jeffrey S. Gray speaks during a press conference about the charges against Tyler Robinson in Provo, Utah, on September 16, 2025 [Jim Urquhart/Reuters] Speculation and conspiracy theories have become a routine feature of the reaction to high-profile acts of violence in the US in the polarised and trigger-happy landscape of social media and online forums. After a gunman shot dead a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband in June, right-wing conspiracy theorists claimed that the shooting had been perpetrated by a left-wing extremist or carried out on behalf of the state’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz. The alleged gunman, Vance Boelter, espoused staunchly conservative views on issues including abortion and LGBTQ rights. The 2022 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas; the 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida; and the 2017 Las Vegas shooting all spawned right-wing conspiracy theories, including the claim that the attacks had been staged to give the US government a pretext to curtail gun rights. While many conspiracy theories have been driven by a particular ideological faction, Kirk’s assassination is the latest event to fuel unfounded claims with “cross-ideological appeal”, said Eric Oliver, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who studies conspiracy theories. Claims about Robinson fit the mould of theories about the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the pharmaceutical industry, which also cut across partisan and ideological lines, Oliver said. Advertisement “People are also really emotionally charged by this, both on the left and the right, and will often gravitate to stories that rationalise their fear, rage, or feelings of powerlessness,” Oliver told Al Jazeera. The “extraordinary circumstances” of Kirk’s murder, including a relative lack of information about Robinson, had also left a vacuum that was being filled by people “already suspicious of anything either the government does or this administration does”, Oliver added. The transcripts of Robinson’s alleged texts released by prosecutors provided some of the clearest indications yet of a possible motive for assassinating Kirk, who was lauded by conservatives but seen as an inflammatory figure on the left for his right-wing stances on immigration, abortion and transgender rights, among other issues. Robinson allegedly told his partner that he had “had enough” of Kirk’s “hatred” and “some hate can’t be negotiated out”. Authorities previously announced that they recovered bullet casings inscribed with a number of politically-charged and internet subculture-influenced messages, including “Hey fascist! Catch!” Prosecutors, who allege Kirk was targeted over his “political expression”, have charged Robinson with aggravated murder and six other charges. That the released details of Robinson’s alleged communication with his partner after Kirk’s assassination have only further fuelled conspiracies is not surprising, suggest experts. “Many people have a worldview in which conspiracies are going on all the time and explain our social and political circumstances – those people believe lots and lots of conspiracy theories and exist on both the right and left,” said Joseph Uscinski, a professor of political science at the University of Miami, whose research focuses on conspiracy theories. And though conspiracy theorising has become rampant on social media, the platforms themselves are not the problem, Uscinski said. “People have worldviews; some of those worldviews make conspiracy theories easy to believe, whether those people are on social media or not,” he told Al Jazeera. “Conspiracy theories existed long before social media and may

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Air India crash pilot’s father writes to Centre, seeks probe: ‘Left with no option but…’

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Year: 2025