News of the World

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SHOOTINGS

Person of interest ID’d in Brown University shooting that killed two, injured 9

The person of interest in the deadly mass shooting at Brown University has been ID’d as a 24-year-old man from Wisconsin who served in the Army and supported statehood for DC, law-enforcement sources told The Post.

Benjamin Erickson was nabbed before dawn Sunday at a Hampton Inn in Coventry, RI, after an 11-hour manhunt following a gunman opening fire at the Ivy League institution’s Providence campus during a final-exam study session Saturday.

Erickson, who is originally from Wisconsin, has lived in an apartment in Washington, DC, since 2024, with his voter registry showing a “statehood” party affiliation, according to public records.

He served as an infantryman in the US Army from May 2021 to November 2024, leaving the military with the rank of specialist, an Army rep told The Post.

The shooter was armed with a handgun and fired more than 40 .9mm rounds during the Saturday’s chaos, which left two students dead and nine more wounded, law-enforcement officials said.

Sources said Erickson was not a current student at the school but that they are investigating whether he studied there or had other potential ties to it.
Probers also are investigating whether he has had long-standing mental-health issues, sources said.

Witnesses said the gunman shouted something as he was firing at students, but they were not sure exactly what.

Erickson did not immediately appear to have any criminal history, according to public records.

A motive for the shooting is still unclear.

A revolver — and a small handgun equipped with a special laser light — were found in Erickson’s hotel room, according to sources and CNN.

Sources told The Post that the unique laser light on his handgun helped lead them to the person of interest.

The man told authorities he had been in his room the entire time Saturday when the shooting took place, CNN said.

The officers were able to track down the man to the hotel with the help of the FBI, whose Cellular Analysis Survey team geolocated the man to the Coventry hotel, according to agency director Kash Patel. 

Police also made use of video evidence, tips from the public, an examination of license plate readers and other leads to track the individual to Coventry, according to CNN. 

Footage from the university showed the alleged gunman walking calmly on the campus’s Hope Street dressed in full dark attire, with his face covered. 

Police stressed on Sunday that no one has been charged yet in connection with the shooting and that the man was being held as a person of interest.

Brown University instructor describes horror inside classroom after gunman burst in and started shooting

A Brown University instructor who was leading a final exam review has described the moment of horror that a masked gunman burst into his lecture hall and started shooting.

Joseph Oduro, a 21-year-old teaching assistant, told the New York Times that the gunman shouted “something” before opening fire, but he could not tell what.

Oduro was wrapping up a review session around 4 pm for Principles of Economics when he heard the shooter outside in the hall.
“All of a sudden, we heard gunshots and people screaming,” he said.

Within moments, a masked man with a rifle appeared in the doorway and opened fire.

Oduro said he and police are still trying to figure out what the attacker said during the shooting.

“That’s what the students and I — and the detectives — have been trying to piece together,” he said.

Oduro quickly hid behind a desk with around 20 others students. One of them was wounded in the leg.

The layout of the lecture hall meant the students in the middle section could not quickly escape the bullets.

“The students in the middle were impacted the most,” he said. “Many of them were lying there and they were not moving. I have no idea how many.”

Oduro is a senior at Brown studying applied mathematics, economics, and computer science. He told the Times that Principles of Economics is a prerequisite for many upper-year courses at Brown and estimates 80 percent of the students enrolled are freshmen.

The review session was one of five Oduro offered to students before Tuesday’s final exam. Right before the shooting began, Oduro remembers saying goodbye to his students.

“I was telling my students that I am so grateful for them,” he said.

A suspect is now in custody after an 11-hour manhunt that involved over 400 law enforcement officials, according to Fox News. Officials told NBC that the rifle used in the shooting had specific characteristics, tying the suspect to the shooting.

Security footage of the suspect was released on Saturday, showing a tall figure dress in all black, calmly exiting an academic building onto Hope Street.

Bondi Beach terrorists were father and son who legally owned 6 guns —  despite tough firearms laws

The two gunmen who opened fire on Australia’s Bondi Beach where thousands of Jews were celebrating Hanukkah are believed to be a father-son duo who had a trove of legally-owned guns.

Naveed Akram, 24, and his 50-year-old accomplice are believed to be father and son, authorities said on Monday.

The father was killed at the scene during a shootout with police, while Akram is in the hospital after being critically wounded by cops.

Together they allegedly murdered at least 15 people ranging in age from 10 to 87 years old, most of whom are believe to be Jewish.

They owned at least six guns between them, each of which were fully licensed.

The shooting — which appears to have involved shotguns and a bolt-action rifle — come despite Australia cracking down on firearms following the 1996 Port Arthur mass shooting.

Semi-automatic rifles were banned and the country enacted strict registration and purchasing restrictions for all weapons.

The Bondi attack is the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since Port Arthur, which left 35 dead and 24 wounded.

Sunday’s attack went down in the evening on the popular Sydney beach, where about 1,000 people had gathered to celebrate the first day of the Jewish holiday.

Screams could be heard between loud gunshots as people struggled to wrap their heads around what was happening and then fled for cover.

The gunfire continued for 10 terrifying minutes before a local fruit seller – 43-year-old Ahmed al-Ahmed — snuck up on Akram and tackled him to the ground.

In addition to children, a rabbi and even a Holocaust survivor were among the victims so far.

Nearly 40 people were injured in addition to the fatalities so far.

Australia’s PM blamed for failing to stand up to antisemitism before Bondi Beach terror: ‘You let the disease spread’

Australia’s government missed multiple warnings of growing antisemitism and radicalism before Sunday’s deadly terror attack on a Bondi Beach Hanukkah event — including some that came from Jewish leaders shot in the attack.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among those who slammed the administration of Australia’s lefty Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in the wake of the mass shooting on Bondi Beach that left at least 15 dead and 40 wounded, including several children.

Antisemitic incidents hit a record 1,600 in 2025, according to a report from Executive Council of Australian Jewry. That’s a three-fold increase from any year before the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks.

“This is the worst fears of the Jewish community,” Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the group told Sky News. “It’s been bubbling under the surface for a long time, and now it’s actually happened.”

Albanese was one of several world leaders, along with the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who earlier this year declared his support for a Palestinian state.

“Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire. It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets,” Netanyahu said on Sunday, reading aloud from a letter he reportedly wrote to Albanese earlier this year in the wake of his declaration of support for Palestinian statehood.

“Antisemitism is a cancer. It spreads when leaders stay silent; it retreats when leaders act. I call upon you to replace weakness with action, appeasement with resolve,” Netanyahu continued.

He directly blamed Albanese for the attack.

“You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country. You took no action. You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today,” Netanyahu said.

Some of the strongest warnings, however, came from Jewish leaders in Australia — who later became victims of Saturday’s attack.

A prominent Jewish human rights lawyer, who survived the deadly Oct. 7 attacks before being wounded in Sunday’s shooting, had warned of growing and opening hostility to Jews and Israelis in the multicultural city of Sydney.

Arsen Ostrovsky, who chairs the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council in Sydney, spoke out on Dec. 1 after graffiti reading “F–k Zionist Israel,” and “Israel has blood on their hands,” appeared on Bondi Beach overnight.

“I never thought I would see this in Australia. Not in my lifetime. On Bondi Beach, of all places, this iconic place,” he added.

NYC Mayor Adams blames Bondi Beach terror attack on ‘globalization of intifada’

New York City’s outgoing Mayor Eric Adams called the devastating terror attack at Australia’s Bondi Beach an “actual application of the globalization of the intifada” as he and the city’s top cop rolled out plans to increase security for Hanukkah.

Adams, who is just over two weeks away from the end of his term, addressed the Bondi terror attack — where at least 15 people were gunned down — as he and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced boosted security for “Jewish life” events in the five boroughs, including swaths of Hanukkah celebrations.

While the mayor stumbled through his address, and mistakenly referred to Australia as “Austria” multiple times, he did decry the “globalize intifada” movement he said laid the groundwork for the terror attack.

“That attack in Sydney is exactly what it means to globalize intifada. We saw the actual application of the globalization of intifada in Sydney,” Adams said.

“This attack did not come out of nowhere. It came out as a consequence of Islamic extremists. We have to be clear on that,” he added.

Tisch, who is Jewish, decided “to be blunt” and plainly asserted that the attack was “part of a wider assault on Jewish life.”

“An environment in which hatred far exceeds rhetoric and erupts into horrifying acts of violence. Jewish communities are being forced to confront a threat that is persistent, adaptive and is evident yet again today. Global in scope. That’s why the NYPD is acutely focused on prevention. We calibrate our presence to meet the threat,” Tisch said.

Tisch assured that the NYPD had “an early start” preparing for public Menorah lightings scheduled even ahead of the terror attack, which took place on the eve of Hanukkah.

She said people should expect to see “an enhanced uniform presence, specialized patrol, heavy weapons teams, counterterrorism resources” at many celebrations and synagogues. She grimly noted that there would also be “bomb squad deployments where appropriate.”

“We ticked it up even further following the attacks in Australia,” Tisch explained.


Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani also condemned the attack as a “vile act of antisemitic terror” in a post on X early Sunday morning.

“Too many no longer feel safe to be themselves, to express their faith publicly, to worship in their synagogues without armed security stationed outside. What happened at Bondi is what many Jewish people fear will happen in their communities too,” Mamdani wrote.

He encouraged all to “banish this horrific violence to the past” as he pledged to “keep Jewish New Yorkers safe.”

USA

Second Dem-run state hit by accusations of widespread Somali fraud... with woke lawmaker giving vile answer to voter who asked him about it

A second Democrat-run state has been hit by accusations of fraud within the Somali community, prompting a vile response from one lawmaker who was quizzed about it by a constituent.

As Minnesota grapples with one of the biggest fraud scandals in US history, a whistleblower in Maine has now stepped forward alleging state taxpayers have been defrauded out of funds meant for social services.

Christopher Bernardini told NewsNation he worked as a 'billing guru' for Portland-based Gateway Community Services for seven years until April 2025 - while they were allegedly defrauding Maine's Medicaid program.

The company's founder and CEO, Abdullahi Ali, is a Somali-American who ran for president of Jubaland, a state in Somalia, last year while juggling his role as executive director.

He came under fire at the time amid reports from The Maine Wire that he had boasted of funding the militia to 'help the troops buy weapons, bullets and food' while he was in America.

The comments sparked concerns about whether any of the $28.8million in payments his LLC received via MaineCare had been misappropriated.

The Daily Mail has contacted Gateway Community Services for comment.

Ali wrote on X: 'I make no apologies for building a successful business in Maine, working hard to earn a living, earning my PhD, giving back to my Maine community, and running for office in Jubaland.

'I am proud to contribute my hard-earned $ to support my people back home. America is a nation of laws—you cannot change facts by fabricating false stories. I am proud Somali-American.'

Bernardini's allegations have sparked outrage in the community and prompted calls for a thorough investigation among Republicans, particularly against the backdrop of fraud discovered in Minnesota.

An estimated $300million was stolen from a single federal meals program, but prosecutors believe the real total across multiple schemes could top $1billion.

Councilor Wes Pelletier, who represents Portland's District 2 in Maine, addressed what he described as 'dehumanizing and racist attacks against Somali Americans' in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

His post came just days after President Trump unleashed a tirade against Somali immigrants, calling them 'garbage' who had 'ripped off' the state.

Pelletier wrote: 'Rally behind our Somali community! Our community is hurting after the racist and dehumanizing attacks against Somali Americans.

'This moment demands courage, solidarity and love. We refuse to be silent. We refuse to allow hate to define who we are.'

But when a voter responded to his post asking whether he was 'concerned about all the corruption in the Somali community that has been revealed lately', Pelletier offered a vile response.

'lol hey man... shut the f**k up. please,' he wrote.

The crisis in Minnesota has reached fever pitch this week after Matt Bryden –⁠ who for four years ran the UN Security Council's monitoring mission for Somalia and Eritrea –⁠ told the Daily Mail he believes al-Shabaab militants likely skimmed off a slice of cash that was siphoned from Minnesota's pandemic-era feeding program and wired to the Horn of Africa.

‘Squad’ Rep. Ilhan Omar claims her son was pulled over by ICE

“Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar claimed her son was pulled over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Saturday to probe his citizenship.

“Yesterday, after he made a stop at Target, he did get pulled over by [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents, and once he was able to produce his passport ID, they did let him go,” Omar (D-Minn.) told WCCO, a local radio station.

She noted that her son “always carries” his passport as a precaution.

ICE’s alleged questioning of her son took place amid the agency’s crackdown in Minnesota, which was inspired by a $1 billion fraud scandal that had roiled the state.

President Trump harped on the fact that the massive fraud scandal involves members of the Somali community and has railed against their presence in the US, insisting “we don’t want them.”

In addition to the Saturday incident, Omar claims ICE previously went into a mosque where her son and others were praying, before exiting.

“I had to remind him just how worried I am, because all of these areas that they are talking about are areas where he could possibly find himself in and they are racially profiling, they are looking for young men who look Somali that they think are undocumented,” she added.

Omar was born in Somalia but immigrated to the US in the mid-1990s, becoming a US citizen in 2000. She has since become a favorite target of President Trump, with the Republican calling her “garbage.”

She has blamed the fraud scandal in Minnesota on a failure to put up sufficient guardrails on social safety net programs in the state.

The Minnesota Democrat has also denounced the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in her home state.

“Operation Metro Surge is state-sanctioned racial profiling used as a tool of political intimidation,” she posted on X Sunday. “But Somali Minnesotans aren’t intimidated, we’re brave and resilient, and our neighbors have our back.”

“We don’t cower to bullies.”

NYC airports facing 6-hour delays as massive snowstorm turns holiday travel into nightmare

Airports across the New York City area — and the northeast — are facing horrendous delays after a snowstorm dumped up to eight inches of snow on the tri-state.

LaGuardia Airport was under a ground stop, with delays of nearly six hours as of noon Sunday.

JFK International Airport was also placed under a ground delay Sunday morning, and was facing delays of just over three hours.

A ground stop means all flights headed to the airport could be held at their departure airports until clear to fly – which leads to delays fanning out across the entire country.

Newark’s ground stop during the storm resulted in delays of just over four hours.

New Jersey’s Teterboro airport was also placed on a ground stop by Sunday afternoon.

Philadelphia was faring better than its neighbors, with delays just over an hour.

Other airports across the region – from Boston down to Washington DC — were forced to dedicate time to de-icing their planes before departure.

Sunday’s snowfall brought between 1 and 4 inches to parts of the city – the Big Apple’s first major snowfall of the season.

Parts of Long Island and New Jersey saw up to 8 inches, according to National Weather Service findings.

Pennsylvania also saw widespread snow dumps of 6 to 8 inches, as well as pockets where between 8 and 12 inches fell, according to the National Weather Service.

UKRAINE WAR

2 dead in Russia following drone attack as millions in Ukraine lose power

A Ukrainian drone attack in southwestern Russia killed two people and parts of Ukraine went without power following Russian assaults on energy infrastructure, authorities said Saturday, as US-led peace talks on ending the war press on.

The drone attack damaged a residential building and several windows were also blown out at a kindergarten and clinic, said Saratov regional Gov. Roman Busargin. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had shot down 41 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.

In Ukraine, Russia launched overnight drone and missile strikes on five Ukrainian regions, targeting energy and port infrastructure. Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said that over a million people were without electricity.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had sent over 450 drones and 30 missiles into Ukraine overnight.

An attack on the Black Sea city of Odesa caused grain silos to catch fire at the port, Ukrainian deputy prime minister and reconstruction minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. Two people were wounded in attacks on the wider Odesa region, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.

Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter, in what Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing” the cold.

On the front lines, Ukrainian forces said Saturday that the northern part of the critical city of Pokrovsk was under Ukrainian control, despite Russia’s claims earlier this month that it had taken full control of the city. The Associated Press was not able to independently verify the claims.

Russia plans to keep control over Donbas

The latest round of attacks came after Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said Friday that Russian police and national guard will stay on in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas and oversee the industry-rich region, even if a peace settlement ends Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine. It underscores Moscow’s ambition to maintain its presence in Donbas postwar. Ukraine is likely to reject such a stance as US-led negotiations drag on.

Moscow will give its blessing to a ceasefire only after Ukraine’s forces have withdrawn from the front line, Ushakov said in comments published in Russian business daily Kommersant.

Kushner, Witkoff travel to Germany for pivotal talks with Zelensky, European leaders in search of Ukraine peace deal

US officials are headed to Berlin for a high-stakes sit-down Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders – as Washington presses for an elusive peace deal to end the deadly war in Ukraine.

The White House said this week it would only send officials to talks if enough progress had been made, indicating President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and US envoy Steve Witkoff’s visit to Germany could be a step closer toward a truce.

Talks between the UK, France, Germany and Ukraine scheduled for Saturday in Paris were canceled with no explanation given. The US had indicated it was unsure whether it planned to send a delegation to the meeting.

Kyiv and European leaders delivered their revisions to Washington’s proposed peace plan this week, after a draft leaked last month — widely viewed as favorable to Russia — had Ukraine cede territory, renounce its NATO ambitions and limit the size of its military.

Territorial concessions remain the biggest sticking point — with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin demanding the entire mineral-rich Donbas region, including portions of Donetsk and Luhansk that he hasn’t been unable to seize in nearly four years of fighting — something Zelensky has called unacceptable.

The Ukrainian leader said Washington has floated a “compromise vision” that would see both Ukrainian and Russian troops withdraw from eastern Donetsk, where Moscow occupies roughly 80% of the region, according to reports this week.

“They discussed the issue of a ‘free economic zone.’ The Americans call it that, while the Russians refer to it as a ‘demilitarized zone,'” Zelensky said, adding that “serious” questions persist about who would manage and police such a zone and assure that Russian troops actually withdraw from it.

The idea of establishing some sort of demilitarized zone was also included in Ukraine’s latest peace proposal, according to reports.

Zelensky reveals Ukraine ready to make this major concession to end war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said his country is willing to drop its push to join NATO if it gets other security guarantees to end the war, marking a critical concession to the Russians.

The Ukrainian leader — speaking to reporters ahead of further discussions with US envoys in Berlin later Sunday and Monday — said, “From the very beginning, Ukraine’s desire was to join NATO, these are real security guarantees.

“Some partners from the US and Europe did not support this direction.”

“Bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the US, Article 5-like guarantees for us from the US, and security guarantees from European colleagues as well as other countries — Canada, Japan — are an opportunity to prevent another Russian invasion,” he said when talking about alternatives.

“And it is already a compromise from our part,” he said.

But Ukraine’s leader griped that overall, the negotiations aimed at ending Kremlin’s deadly aggression aren’t about giving his people a “fair” deal.

“The conversations taking place right now are not about a fair deal — they’re about power,” Zelensky said during a WhatsApp press conference, according to a translation by journalist Kateryna Lisunova.

“If these were truly fair negotiations, the focus would be on punishing Moscow for its war crimes,” he said.
The Ukrainian leader said a cease-fire will be a central part of the upcoming talks.

Zelensky has been careful about publicly casting aspersions on the negotiations over concern about alienating President Trump, who has been dead-set on brokering an end to the brutal war.

Trump took several swipes at Zelensky last week, alleging that his Ukrainian counterpart hadn’t read the latest terms of a proposed peace plan and calling for new elections in Ukraine, despite the logistical and constitutional challenges.

Zelensky is set to participate in talks with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, among other US emissaries, as well as European officials.

“The Berlin summit is important. We’re meeting with Americans and Europeans,” Zelensky said. “This alliance format matters to us, and believe me, we’ve done a lot to bring all these parties together.

“Unfortunately, this moment demands respect for strength, not values,” he said. “If we were talking about honesty, values, and international law, Russia should have been condemned ten years ago for invading Ukraine’s sovereign territory. That didn’t happen — there were only words.”

Last month, Ukrainians fretted over a Russia-friendly 28-point US-pushed peace plan that included provisions such as Ukraine committing to never joining NATO, reducing its military force and ceding the entirety of the Donbas region, which the Russians have been unable to fully conquer.

Later, negotiators drafted a 19-point plan that was friendlier to the Ukrainians but had sticking points that the Russians promptly rejected.

North Korea admits troops hunted mines for Vladimir Putin, with several returning injured, dead: ‘Absolute loyalty’

North Korea sent troops to clear mines in Russia’s Kursk region this fall, nine of which were killed during the dangerous deployment, leader Kim Jong Un said in a speech carried by state media Saturday.

In a rare admission of the kamikaze missions assigned to Pyongyang’s soldiers fighting alongside Moscow in the war in Ukraine, the hermit kingdom ruler praised their “heroic” conduct.

Kim said the men demonstrated “absolute loyalty” to the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, commending their political indoctrination, discipline and unity.

“All of you, both officers and soldiers, displayed mass heroism overcoming unimaginable mental and physical burdens almost every day,” Kim said.

Nine soldiers were killed while mine hunting, during the course of their 120-day deployment that began in early August.

The Russian border region of Kursk was overtaken in a bold surprise incursion by Ukraine last year, before tyrant Vladimir Putin’s troops regained control this spring.

Video footage released by Pyongyang showed soldiers getting off a plane as they returned Friday from their Russian mission. Several came back injured, with Kim was shown hugging a soldier in a wheelchair.

Kim’s troops destroyed more than 1.5 million explosive objects in an area approximately the size of 80 American football fields, according to Russian officials.

“This is invaluable help in our work, without which border area cannot be rebuilt,” Alexander Khinshtein, governor of the Kursk region, wrote on Telegram, referring to the North Korean troops as “our combat friends” and to their recluse leader as “comrade.”

Flashback

North Korea makes Russian a required foreign language in schools — as 2 isolated nations grow closer

North Korea has mandated Russian as a foreign language for its elementary school children – a further sign of Moscow’s increasing ties with the hermit kingdom stemming from its invasion of Ukraine.

“The Russian language has been introduced in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea schools as a compulsory language for study from the 4th grade,” said Alexander Kozlov, Russia’s minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Interfax is reporting.

Kozlov, who is co-chairman of the intergovernmental commission between Moscow and Pyongyang, said Russian is typically one of the three most popular foreign languages in North Korea, with about 600 people currently studying it.

It is unclear when the mandatory lessons in schools were expected to begin.

The Kremlin official also said more than 3,000 Russian school children are currently learning Korean.

“Most of them study Korean as a second or third foreign language,” he said this week at a meeting of the intergovernmental commission in Moscow.

The cooperation seems to go beyond elementary school, according to Kozlov, as the two allies — both facing increasing isolation from the West — are also collaborating in educating bankers, power engineers, doctors and geologists.

The two nations have been forging closer allegiances since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine in 2022, with North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un deploying more than 12,000 of his troops to fight on the front lines alongside Moscow.

In August, South Korean intelligence warned Pyongyang was planning to ship another 30,000 troops to bolster Putin’s war machine, while also estimating North Korea was now supplying almost half of Russia’s ammunition.

The two leaders signed a mutual defense pact last year, when Putin visited the reclusive state, that was hailed as their strongest connection since the Cold War.