Tuesday Briefing: Suspect is charged in apparent Trump shooting attempt

September 17, 2024

	By Gaya Gupta

Good morning. We’re covering the latest on the apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump and what went wrong aboard the Titan submersible.

Plus, “Shogun,” the Emmys’ big winner.

Police cars parked in front of a row of trees down a road. Red police tape runs across the start of the road.

Roads to Donald Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., were closed off yesterday. Saul Martinez for The New York Times

A suspect was charged in the apparent assassination attempt of Trump

A man who appeared to have been planning to assassinate Donald Trump was charged with two firearm counts yesterday in Florida. Investigators said the man, Ryan Wesley Routh, waited near Trump’s golf course for roughly 12 hours before a Secret Service agent spotted him and opened fire.

Trump was a few hundred yards away and he was not injured. Routh, 58, did not have Trump in his sightline and did not fire his semiautomatic rifle during the confrontation with the Secret Service on Sunday, the agency’s acting director, Ronald Rowe, said at a news conference. Routh fled the scene and was arrested later. Here’s the latest.

The fact that a gunman was able to get so close to Trump for the second time in two months raised questions about the Secret Service. President Biden told reporters that the Secret Service “needs more help” and that Congress should take action.

Who is Routh? My colleague Thomas Gibbons-Neff, The Times’s Ukraine correspondent, interviewed Routh for a 2023 article about American volunteers fighting in Ukraine. Routh had spent some time in Ukraine and was seeking recruits among Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban. Routh, Thomas wrote, “was in way over his head.”

Political violence: The shooting underscored how much American politics has been shaped by anger stirred by and against Trump, my colleague Peter Baker wrote in an analysis.

More on the U.S. election

Americans head to the polls in less than 60 days.

Elon Musk wrote on his social media site — and then deleted — a post suggesting it was odd that nobody had tried to kill Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris.
The first few polls taken since the presidential debate suggest that Harris might be poised to gain, our chief political analyst, Nate Cohn, writes.
With Harris at the top of the ticket and two Senate seats open, Democrats hope they could for the first time send two Black women to the chamber.

Do you have questions about the election? Send them to us, and we’ll find the answers.

A submersible is just under the surface of the water.

The Titan submersible. Imago/OceanGate Expeditions, via Alamy

What happened to the Titan?

The U.S. Coast Guard yesterday began two weeks of hearings on what went wrong last year during the Titan submersible’s trip to view the Titanic shipwreck. The submersible that imploded, killing all five people on board, was plagued with equipment problems, according to testimony.

Tony Nissen, an engineering director at OceanGate, the company that operated the Titan, was fired in 2019 after he refused to approve a deepwater expedition. In his testimony, Nissen said that he had deemed the Titan’s hull to be unsafe but that OceanGate had lied about the problems and blamed the cancellation of that mission on problems with a support ship.

Final hours: A transcript of the final communications from the vessel indicates that the crew may have tried, in the moments before the disaster, to abandon the trip and resurface. The crew told the vessel’s support ship in a final message that the Titan had dropped two of the weights that were helping it descend.

People walking out of a courthouse. A couple hold hands as lawyers walk next to them with briefcases.

Linda Sun, a former aide to the New York governor, is accused of working to further the interests of the Chinese government. Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times

Cases of Chinese foreign meddling are on the rise

A former senior aide in the New York governor’s office was charged this month with using her position to benefit the Chinese government. Similar cases of suspected Chinese political interference have also recently surfaced in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Analysts say China recruits members of the Chinese diaspora to infiltrate halls of power or to silence Chinese dissidents and other critics of Beijing. My colleague David Pierson took a closer look at the covert operations.

MORE TOP NEWS

Two men carrying a third, older man through chest-high floodwaters.

Floodwaters in the Romanian village of Slobozia Conachi. Daniel Mihailescu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Europe: Floods in Central Europe have left at least 17 people dead. Heavy rains were continuing, and officials feared there could be more destruction ahead.
Typhoon Bebinca: The strongest storm to hit Shanghai in 75 years made landfall yesterday, bringing the city to a virtual standstill.
Middle East: Israel’s defense minister told a U.S. envoy that “military action” was “the only way” to end cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah.
Ukraine: The authorities said that they had repelled a “massive” Russian attack on Kyiv, the eighth on the capital in just over two weeks.
TikTok: Lawyers for the Chinese-owned app faced tough questioning in a U.S. court as they fought against a ban set to go into effect in mid-January.
E.U.: France’s commissioner to the E.U. resigned, criticizing the European Commission president for what he called “questionable governance.”
Mexico: A constitutional amendment remaking the entire judiciary was passed, with a large portion of country’s 7,000 judges up for election in 2025.
China: A pastor who had been imprisoned in China for nearly 20 years was released unexpectedly and has returned home to the U.S.
Georgia: The leader of the governing party ignited a political firestorm by saying that his country should apologize for a 2008 war with Russia.

Business

Tech: China’s ability to outrace the U.S. technologically hinges on SMIC, the Asian nation’s sole maker of advanced chips.
A.I.: A group of influential scientists called for an international authority to oversee artificial intelligence.

Sports

The exterior of a soccer stadium with the words "Etihad Stadium" on the side of the building and a large sign that says "Champions 4-in-a row."

Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium. Jason Cairnduff/Action Images, via Reuters

Soccer: A hearing began on whether Manchester City broke 115 of the Premier League’s financial rules. The case will have seismic repercussions for English football.
Olympics: Sebastian Coe and Kirsty Coventry are on the shortlist of candidates to succeed Thomas Bach as I.O.C. president.
N.F.L.: The Athletic breaks down what it has learned from Week 2 of football action.

MORNING READ

Two ballet dancers jump across a rehearsal room while practicing their routine. The room is painted yellow and has big windows that are covered with drapes. There are also small windows near the ceiling that send additional light into the room.

The National Ballet of Ukraine rehearsing Alexei Ratmansky’s “Wartime Elegy” in Kyiv. Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

The National Ballet of Ukraine will perform in New York this week. For the dancers, international tours provide relief from the constant stress of incoming fire in Kyiv. “Even though we’re working very hard, it’s like taking a break,” Nataliia Matsak, the principal dancer, said, “because we can finally sleep.”

Lives lived: Tito Jackson, a member of the Jackson 5 and the third of nine Jackson children, died at 70.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Pack your needles: Our writer brushed up on her knitting during a driving trip in Iceland, a journey about wool, from sheep farms to yarn shops.
Mouse fight: In Paraguay, people love Mickey, the cartoon mascot of a 90-year-old food packaging company. Disney doesn’t.

The allure of black: Why do so many people wear all black? Our fashion critic explains.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

Hiroyuki Sanada in “Shogun.” Katie Yu/FX, via Associated Press

‘Shogun’ won so many awards. Is it really that good?

“Shogun,” FX’s big-budget epic about feudal Japan, racked up a record 18 Emmy Awards on Sunday, including for best drama. It’s the most awards a show has won in a single year, representing a major breakthrough for a foreign-language series.

“Shogun” expands on the 1975 novel of the same title with emotional and cultural depth. Its leading performances garnered Emmys for best actor and best actress in a drama (Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai). With gripping action sequences involving enemy samurai and ninja assassins, as well as a forbidden love affair, “Shogun” is worth your next binge-watch.

See the full list of the Emmy Award winners and enjoy these 16 notable looks from the red carpet. Read about the best and worst moments of the Emmys.

RECOMMENDATIONS

David Malosh for The New York Times

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Watch: From the “Joker” sequel to a Bob Dylan biopic, the new film season is jampacked. Here are 39 movies on the calendar.

Read: Six titles were nominated yesterday for this year’s Booker Prize. Here’s the shortlist.

Organize: We have tips on how to pack away your seasonal clothes.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Gaya

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