Good morning.
Police have arrested a suspect after two Israeli embassy employees were shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night.
The gunman, named by police as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, is being held in custody. He opened fire on a group of four people leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, killing two embassy staff members, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.
After killing the pair, the suspect entered the building and was detained by event security. Police said he shouted: “Free, free Palestine” after they arrested him.
What do we know about the suspect? He was not on any security watchlists and there were no increased security threats before the attack, according to officials.
Trump hectors South Africa’s president with white genocide conspiracy theory
Donald Trump on Wednesday hectored South Africa’s president with false claims of a “white genocide” taking place in his country, while Cyril Ramaphosa quietly but firmly pushed back on his US counterpart’s espousal of the far-right conspiracy theory.
In the most awkward Oval Office meeting since Trump’s bullying of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February, Trump said there were “thousands of stories talking about” white genocide in South Africa after Ramaphosa told him no such thing was occurring. The idea, which has been amplified by Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, is a point of fixation for the far right.
Trump played footage of the former South African president Jacob Zuma and the radical opposition politician Julius Malema singing an apartheid-era struggle song called Kill the Boer, which means farmer or Afrikaner. Ramaphosa pointed out that these views were not government policy.
What else did Ramaphosa say? He explained that while crime is a problem in South Africa, most victims are Black.
House to vote on Trump’s massive tax and spending bill
Republicans in the House of Representatives will try to pass Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill in the early hours of Thursday, even as the legislation has deeply divided the party.
The bill aims to increase spending on the military and on immigration enforcement, and to extend tax cuts, at the cost of green-energy subsidies and food and health programs, which moderate Republicans worry will hurt voters whose support they will need for the 2026 midterms.
Democrats have protested against the bill, arguing that it will mean millions of lower-income Americans losing access to healthcare benefits and food programs in order to help billionaires.
How much will it cost taxpayers? The nonpartisan congressional Budget Office estimates it will grow the US’s $36.2tn debt by $3.8tn over the next decade.
In other news …
The New Orleans archdiocese said it has agreed to a settlement on decades’ worth of sexual abuse claims, but lawyers say the deal falls short by around $100m.
Israeli soldiers fired “warning shots” at 25 diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank on Wednesday after accusing them of “deviating from the official route”. The delegation included members from Italy, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, the UK, China and Russia.
Finland is “preparing for the worst”, the head of strategy of its defence forces has said, as it expects Russia to increase its number of troops along their shared frontier when its war in Ukraine ends.
The detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was barred from holding his newborn son after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials refused to permit him a contact visit, his lawyers have said.
Stat of the day: Nearly three-quarters of Kenya risks being taken over by an invasive species
Mathenge, an inedible shrub native to South America, was introduced to Kenya in 1948, and became widespread in east Africa in the 1970s. It was hoped the plant would prevent desertification and soil erosion, while offering tree cover. Instead, it has turned into an environmental nightmare: the plant, which has deep roots that suck up moisture, is spreading by 15% each year, and threatens to invade three-quarters of Kenya. “The spread is so fast that it has caused entire communities to be displaced, schools to close, and even disrupted river flows,” according to one expert.
Don’t miss this: ‘I’m less apologetic now’ – Kelly Macdonald on Trainspotting and her admiration for today’s young women
Kelly Macdonald has one word for the auditioning process for Trainspotting: “excruciating”. “Especially when Ewan McGregor was in the room. He says he couldn’t even see what I looked like because I was holding my script covering my face,” she says in an interview where she also reflects on developing as an actor and why she finds younger women today so impressive.
Climate check: European farmers struggle through driest spring in a century
Farmers across north-western Europe are anxiously hoping for rain as they struggle through what may be the region’s driest spring in a century. “There are questions, such as how you’ll pay back the bank, that does keep you up at night,” one farmer in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, said. Some are trying to adapt, including by planting more drought-resistant crops and investing in large-scale rainwater storage.
Last Thing: Scientists solve the mystery of ginger cats – helped by hundreds of cat owners
Researchers have cracked the mystery of what gives ginger cats their orange hue, thanks largely to citizen scientists who collected hundreds of DNA samples. It wasn’t difficult, given that – in news that will surprise no one who has ever owned a cat, or met someone with a cat – owners “are very interested in their cats, and they’re very interested in talking about their cats and sending pictures”.
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