USA

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Videos released Thursday of this week’s deadly rampage in northwest New Mexico recorded a voice said to be the shooter urging police to “kill me” and officers rushing toward the 18-year-old gunman before fatally shooting him outside a church.

“He is yelling on the Ring footage, ‘Come kill me,’” Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said of Beau Wilson, the high school senior who authorities say killed three older women during the attack.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI employees accused the bureau of politicization in congressional testimony Thursday, a day after the agency disclosed that two of the men had seen their security clearances revoked over concerns about how their views of the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, affected their work.

The three men alleged overreach and retaliation by the FBI in testimony to a special House committee investigating what Republicans assert is the “weaponization” of the federal government against conservatives.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by at least $3 billion — an accounting error that could be a boon for the war effort because it will allow the Defense Department to send more weapons now without asking Congress for more money.

The acknowledgment Thursday comes at a time when Pentagon is under increased pressure by Congress to show accountability for the billions of dollars it has sent in weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine and as some lawmakers question whether that level of support should continue.

NEW YORK (AP) — Jordan Neely, whose chokehold death on the New York City subway set off a debate about vigilantism, homelessness and public safety, will be mourned by his family Friday at a church in Harlem.

A former Michael Jackson impersonator who had been struggling with mental illness and homelessness in recent years, Neely died May 1 when a fellow subway rider pinned him to the floor of a subway car in a chokehold that lasted several minutes.

19 May 2023; AA: The US on Thursday condemned the racist language that some fanatical Jewish groups used during a "flag day" march by extremist Jewish settlers. 

"The United States unequivocally opposes racist language of any form. We condemn the hateful chants such as 'Death to Arabs' during today’s marches in Jerusalem," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Twitter.

19 May 2023; AA: Russia and the US traded barbs at the UN on Thursday over arming Ukraine, with Moscow blaming the West for using the Eastern European country as a ''testing site'' for their weapons. 

Speaking at the UN Security Council, Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said that Ukraine was being dragged into a prolonged conflict by the West.

19 May 2023; AA: Several members of Congress gathered outside the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Thursday to call for accountability for the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. 

Democratic lawmakers Ilhan Omar, Andre Carson, Rashida Tlaib, Betty McCollum and Jamaal Bowman as well as Sharif Mansur, Program Coordinator of the Committee to Protect Journalists, issued a press statement.

18 May 2023; MEMO: Legislation has been put forward at New York's state assembly which would prevent registered charities from sending tens of millions of dollars per year to help fund illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian Territories.

19 May 2023; MEMO: Wikipedia's founder Jimmy Wales yesterday slammed Twitter over its recent decision to block certain Turkish content a day before the country's  presidential election.

Wales told BBC that his organisation has been banned in Turkiye for almost three years after it refused to delete articles that criticised the government. He stressed that the tech sector must collaborate in defending free access to information.

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) - Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis will officially enter the 2024 U.S. presidential race next week, according to two sources familiar with the decision, immediately becoming Donald Trump's biggest rival for the Republican nomination and shaking up a contest that largely has been one-sided.

DeSantis will likely file paperwork declaring his candidacy on May 25 to coincide with a donor meeting in Miami, with a more formal launch the week of May 29, according to a source.