US President Donald Trump said his administration will “permanently pause” migration from all “Third World countries”, following an attack on two National Guard members near the White House, as he attributed the assault to Biden-era immigration vetting failures.
Mr Trump did not identify any countries or explain what he meant by a “permanent” pause. He said the plan would include cases approved under former president Joe Biden's administration.
Later on Friday, his administration halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people travelling on Afghan passports.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department paused “visa issuance for ALL individuals travelling on Afghan passports".
Mr Trump said earlier on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he would "permanently pause migration from all Third World countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States".
He had announced that Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her injuries and fellow guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “fighting for his life”, as investigators conducted what officials said was a terrorism probe after Wednesday's shooting.
Ms Beckstrom was shot near the White House in an ambush that investigators say was carried out by an Afghan national.
The suspected gunman has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29.
Charges against Mr Lakanwal were upgraded to first-degree murder after Ms Beckstrom's death, the US attorney for the District of Columbia announced on Friday.
The FBI searched several properties in a widening investigation, including a home in Washington state linked to the suspect, who officials said was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan before he came to the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme.
Agents seized numerous electronic devices from Mr Lakanwal's resident, including mobile phones, laptops and iPads, and interviewed his relatives, FBI director Kash Patel said at a news conference.
Trump-appointed US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the suspect drove cross-country and then ambushed the National Guard members while they were patrolling near the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
“I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation about the terrorist attack in our nation's capital, in which a savage monster gunned down two service members in the West Virginia National Guard, who were deployed as part of the DC Task Force,” Mr Trump said in a Thanksgiving call with US military service members.
Casting blame on the administration of his White House predecessor, President Biden, Mr Trump said the alleged gunman, who he described as having gone “cuckoo”, was among thousands of Afghans who came in unvetted as the US carried out a chaotic withdrawal in 2021. He provided no evidence to support his assertion.
President Trump said the suspect's “atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring we have full control over the people who enter and remain in our country”.
Armed with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, the gunman shot Beckstrom and Wolfe before being wounded in an exchange of gunfire with other troops. He was in hospital in serious condition, Mr Trump said.
“My baby girl has passed to glory,” Gary Beckstrom, father of the National Guard member who died, wrote on social media, adding that his family were grappling with the “horrible tragedy.” Mr Trump later spoke to Beckstrom's parents over the phone, a White House official said.
Suspected assailant acted alone
The alleged assailant, who lives in Washington state with his wife and five children, appears to have acted alone, said Jeffery Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.
Asked whether he was planning to deport the suspect's wife and five children who live in Washington state, Mr Trump said: “We're looking at the whole situation with family.”
The programme under which the suspect entered the US allowed in more than 70,000 Afghan nationals, according to a congressional report, and was designed with vetting procedures, including by US counterterrorism and intelligence agencies. But the large scale and rushed nature of the evacuations led critics to say the background checks were inefficient.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News the US government planned to bring terrorism charges against the gunman and seek a sentence of life in prison “at a minimum”. Following Beckstrom's death, she suggested she would seek the death penalty.
At the press conference, Mr Patel described the shootings as a “heinous act of terrorism”, but neither he nor Ms Pirro offered a possible motive.
- with Reuters
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Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
MATCH INFO
Fixture: Thailand v UAE, Tuesday, 4pm (UAE)
TV: Abu Dhabi Sports
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Results
2pm: Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (Dirt) 1,200m, Winner: Mouheeb, Tom Marquand (jockey), Nicholas Bachalard (trainer)
2.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh68,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Honourable Justice, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
3pm: Handicap (TB) Dh84,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Dahawi, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
3.30pm: Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: Dark Silver, Fernando Jara, Ahmad bin Harmash
4pm: Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Dark Of Night. Antonio Fresu, Al Muhairi.
4.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh68,000 (D) 1,600m, Winner: Habah, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
Ukraine
Capital: Kiev
Population: 44.13 million
Armed conflict in Donbass
Russia-backed fighters control territory
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: SimpliFi
Started: August 2021
Founder: Ali Sattar
Based: UAE
Industry: Finance, technology
Investors: 4DX, Rally Cap, Raed, Global Founders, Sukna and individuals
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
