'Gritty' Philadelphia pitches itself as low-cost US World Cup choice

Jewish volunteers won widespread praise Wednesday for their quick action during a stabbing attack in north London, where police have arrested a suspect.

They were part of the Shomrim neighbourhood watch group, a 60-strong, non-profit volunteer group set up in northwest London in 2008 to boost security amid a spate of crimes and break-ins.

Two Jewish men were stabbed in the morning incident in Golders Green, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer has denounced as "utterly appalling".

The volunteer group was modelled on the first Shomrim -- meaning 'Guardians' in Hebrew -- set up in New York in the 1970s. There is another one in Stamford Hill, London North and East, with some 40 members.

"Its dedicated team of unpaid male and female volunteer responders and telephone operators are made up from members of the local community regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation," the London NW group says on its website.

It has a 24-hour emergency hotline, allowing teams to be dispatched to any incidents reported to them.

The group is funded by donations, and volunteers also complete a Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism training course.

Patrolling unarmed on foot or in cars their aim is to "help the police reduce crime and help citizens feel safe within the Jewish community of North West London", the group says on its website.

"When Shomrim is dispatched to a scene of a crime, our volunteers then bridge the time gap between when police are called and when police attend. This enables Shomrim to follow suspects and preserve evidence until the arrival of police."

- Praise from mayor, PM -

Both Starmer and London mayor Sadiq Khan praised the group, as well as a volunteer ambulance charity Hatzola, for helping to get Wednesday's incident under control.

"Attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain. Thank you to Shomrim, Hatzola and the police for acting swiftly," Starmer said.

"Those responsible will be brought to justice," he vowed.

But volunteer Steven Bak, who helped found the group 17 years ago, said: "I think the government needs to do more. They know exactly what they need to do, what they should be doing."

"As an organisation, we're doing our part to protect the community. We need the government to do their part also," he told AFP.

He said they had received the call on Wednesday morning and were at the site within 90 seconds.

Mayor Khan also praised the "heroic volunteers for their response".

"London's Jewish community have been the target of a series of shocking antisemitic attacks," he wrote on X.

"There must be absolutely no place for antisemitism in society."

bur-jkb/jdg/jj

The man accused of trying to assassinate President Donald Trump took a selfie in his hotel room moments before bursting through security with a pump-action shotgun, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Cole Allen launched his attack just after 8:30 pm on Saturday, descending from his room at a Washington Hilton, then trying to get into the basement ballroom where Trump and other senior officials had joined a media gala dinner, prosecutors said.

The 31-year-old was tackled and detained in a chaotic scuffle with security guards. Shots were fired but no one was killed.

According to prosecutors, Allen spent his last minutes checking websites that covered Trump's whereabouts, arming himself, and posing for a selfie taken with a cellphone in the mirror of his room.

A copy of the photo showed him dressed in black, with a red tie, and carrying a knife, a shoulder holster for a handgun and what authorities said was a bag for ammunition.

As he left his room, scheduled emails went out to friends and family with a manifesto explaining his actions.

The details of Allen's alleged preparations for what prosecutors called an attack of "unfathomable malice" emerged in a filing asking a Washington federal court to deny bail.

"The court should detain the defendant pending trial," the filing said.

"The political nature of the defendant's crimes further counsels in favor of detention because the defendant's motivation for committing the crimes exists so long as he disagrees" with the government.

Allen is a highly educated teacher from California.

Prosecutors say he made the journey to Washington -- carrying an arsenal that included the shotgun, a handgun and numerous knives -- by a famously scenic train route via Chicago.

Along the way, the filing said, Allen recorded his appreciation for the changing landscapes, for example writing on his phone that Pennsylvania's woods resembled "vast fairy lands filled with tiny trickling creeks."

Once in his Hilton room, he wrote of surprise at what he thought was the lax security in the hotel, saying he had walked in "with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat."

In the email to friends and family, he allegedly listed his targets as members of the Trump administration "prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest."

He said he hoped not to kill Secret Service bodyguards or other law enforcement or hotel guests.

According to the court filing, Cole discarded his long coat once he reached the hotel entrance area and sprinted through one set of metal detectors, his shotgun at the ready.

Cole allegedly fired the shotgun "in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom." A Secret Service agent then fired five times, but did not hit Cole, who fell and was then restrained.

"The defendant suffered a minor injury to his knee but was not shot," the filing said.

sms/ksb

Philadelphia is presenting itself as the US World Cup host city offering fans the best value for money, with affordable transport, accommodation and food while other venues are pilloried for gouging supporters.

Fan groups have panned plans to charge $150 per person for a short roundtrip to the New Jersey stadium near New York that will host the soccer tournament's final match on July 19.

By contrast, fans travelling to the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on the US East Coast will be charged just $2.90 to reach the venue on the subway.

"We want to make sure that it is accessible and affordable for fans," Philadelphia Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley told AFP at a media event Tuesday.

"If we price the transportation at some exorbitant rate, then you have already shut out a whole class of folks." 

The United States has 11 venues holding matches at the World Cup, which it is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico. The tournament kicks off in Mexico City on June 11.

Fears of sky-high costs have led organizers FIFA to announce an extra $100 million to help the 48 participating teams cover the expense of being in North America after federations raised the alarm over potential financial losses.

Astronomical ticket prices, far exceeding those charged in Qatar in 2022, have also drawn the ire of fans already facing elevated costs, particularly in megacities New York and Los Angeles.

For the many supporters expected to travel without match tickets, the "City of Brotherly Love" says it will offer a free fan festival for the World Cup's 39-day duration.

A daily crowd of 15,000 will have space to watch matches and sample local food and entertainment at Philadelphia's Lemon Hill.

The city of 1.6 million has long grappled with high crime rates but authorities say murders have sharply declined in recent years.

There is also a rush to be ready on time, with roadworks in several areas of the city and scaffolding still packing the grand 30th Street rail hub as it prepares for an influx of visitors.

But with negative headlines about soaring hotel prices elsewhere in the country, Philadelphia is looking to capitalize.

- 'Blue-collar' background -

An investigation by The Athletic found that hotel room prices in Houston jumped 457 percent for the Texas city's first World Cup fixture, compared to 198 percent in Philadelphia. Rooms in Kansas City surged by 364 percent.

"You can still get a (mid-range) hotel in Philadelphia over July 4 for about $400 a night" -- $200 for a basic room -- said Anne Ryan, deputy secretary at the Pennsylvania Tourism Office.

She touted the low transport costs for spectators, the free fan festival and "that you're not going to be price gouged when it comes to hotels" as making Philadelphia the best value US venue. 

"There's just no other comparison," she told AFP.

Organizers say the tournament is expected to attract some 500,000 visitors to the Philadelphia region -- located between Washington and New York -- split evenly between US visitors and those from abroad.

The soccer showcase will bring a $700 million boost to the area, according to Econsult.

"Philadelphia is a hardworking, gritty city, a blue-collar city, and we take a lot of pride in that," said Meg Kane, the Philadelphia Soccer 2026 host city executive. 

"While we have the arts and culture... we also have all of the restaurants and the food and beverage experiences that can meet any price point," she added.

"It allows for so many different people, socio-economically, to be able to have a World Cup experience here."

While Philadelphia will host six games at its reconfigured NFL venue, concluding a Round of 16 match on July 4, Kane said the city was a viable fan base through the end of the tournament.

The journey from Philly to the New Jersey stadium hosting the final "is oftentimes a much... easier route to travel" than from even Manhattan, she said.

gw/msp/mlm

Seven lawsuits were filed in US court on Wednesday against OpenAI on behalf of families impacted by the February mass shooting in the small Canadian mining town of Tumbler Ridge.

The artificial intelligence behemoth has faced intense criticism over its decision not to report the troubling ChatGPT usage of Jesse Van Rootselaar, the 18-year-old transgender woman who killed eight people at her home and a school.

OpenAI banned her account in June 2025 but said it did not report the account to Canadian police because it saw no evidence of an imminent attack.

The lawsuits filed in a US federal court in California allege OpenAI decided not to report Van Rootselaar "because reporting one case would mean reporting thousands," a statement from the legal team said.

The lawsuits also challenge the assertion that Van Rootselaar's ChatGPT account was actually banned.

They allege that when an account is shut down for dangerous behavior, OpenAI instructs the individual on how to resume usage, including tips on how to circumvent the 30-day suspension period.

"OpenAI also tells users that if they don't want to wait, they can open a new account immediately using a different email address," the statement said.

Van Rootselaar reportedly opened a second ChatGPT account after her first one was shut down.

The US legal team said it is working in coordination with Canadian lawyers who had previously filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on behalf of the family of Maya Gebala, a 12-year-old gravely injured in the shooting.

But the US actions will "supersede" the Canadian case, Wednesday's statement said.

"There are more cases to come. Over the next several weeks, a cross-border team... will be filing over two dozen cases on behalf of the victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting. The lawsuits will be filed in waves," it added.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman apologized to the remote community of Tumbler Ridge earlier this month, saying he "was deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June."

The company has also said that under its current security policies, which have been revised since June, Van Rootselaar's conduct would have been flagged to police.

Asked to comment on Wednesday's legal filing, an OpenAI spokesperson said: "We have a zero-tolerance policy for using our tools to assist in committing violence. As we shared with Canadian officials, we have already strengthened our safeguards, including improving how ChatGPT responds to signs of distress."

Van Rootselaar killed her mother and brother at the family's home before heading to the local secondary school, where she shot dead five children and a teacher.

She died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after police entered the building.

bs/mlm

Elon Musk faced fiery questioning Wednesday in his court showdown with OpenAI, as he insisted that the maker of ChatGPT had fooled him by turning what was an altruistic pursuit into a profit-making juggernaut.

His second day of testimony in federal court in Oakland, California grew testy at times, as OpenAI's lawyers sought to portray the Tesla tycoon as an unreliable narrator of the company's history.

Musk, who helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 with Sam Altman and other Silicon Valley figures, has called for it to be forced to revert to a pure nonprofit. He also is seeking the ouster of Altman and company president Greg Brockman.

"Your questions are not simple. They're designed to trick me essentially," Musk complained to OpenAI's lead attorney William Savitt.

"Mr. Musk, you're a bright guy. I'm asking you questions that mostly have a yes or no answer," Savitt shot back.

The cross-examination sought to dismantle the narrative Musk had built during questioning from his own attorney. 

In hours of testimony, Musk -- who left the project in 2018 -- insisted he was blindsided by OpenAI's transformation into a major tech company with a for-profit arm that has made it one of the most valuable private companies in history.

"I gave them $38 million of essentially free funding which they then used to create an $800 billion for-profit company. I literally was a fool," Musk told the court Wednesday, before cross-examination began.

- Promise broken? -

At the heart of the case is his accusation that OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman betrayed the company's original nonprofit mission. 

But on Wednesday, OpenAI's counsel used old emails to show that Musk himself, at various points, had questioned whether a nonprofit was the right model as he and the OpenAI leadership explored other corporate structures.

"You didn't respond that creating a for-profit would break any promise to you, did you?"

"No, as long as the for-profit is in service to the nonprofit, it is not breaking the promise."

On the stand Tuesday, Musk traced his motivation to help launch OpenAI to a deep distrust of Google, which he believed did not take AI safety seriously and could not be trusted to responsibly develop such powerful technology.

He told the court he backed the project on the understanding it would be a nonprofit that would put society's interests first, with any technology it developed released as open source, freely available to all.

Since Musk's exit, OpenAI has become an AI superpower valued at $852 billion, buoyed by its ChatGPT chatbot, and is preparing for a high-profile IPO.

Musk has since launched his own AI lab, xAI, which he merged into SpaceX in February. The rocket company is valued at $1.25 trillion, and its IPO -- expected in June -- could rank among the largest in history.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will decide by late May whether OpenAI broke its promise to Musk. 

Along with seeking to force OpenAI back to a nonprofit structure and oust Altman and Brockman, Musk has sought as much as $134 billion in damages -- which he has pledged to redirect to the OpenAI nonprofit.

bl-arp/sst

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he believes NASA has a good chance of returning astronauts to the Moon's surface before he leaves the White House at the start of 2029.

Asked if he thought the US space agency would achieve the goal during his second term, Trump said, "Oh, we have a shot at it."

"I mean, we don't like to say 'definitely,' because then you say, 'oh, we failed,'" he added.

But "I think we have a good shot," the Republican president emphasized while welcoming to the Oval Office the four Artemis II astronauts who recently returned from a trip around the Moon.

The four astronauts -- Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Jeremy Hansen -- who carried out that mission earlier this month traveled further into space than anyone before.

It was also the first crewed journey around the Moon in more than 50 years.

The United States is targeting a lunar landing in 2028. But experts have voiced skepticism that the lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin -- companies owned by billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos respectively -- will be ready in time.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, who was at the White House for Wednesday's event, told Trump that "we have an achievable plan to go back to the Moon."

China is forging ahead with its own effort, targeting 2030 to put astronauts on the lunar surface.

Trump on Wednesday meanwhile jokingly asked, "is a president allowed to go up on one of these missions?"

"We can get working on it Mr President," Isaacman replied.

mdo/sms

(The Center Square) – The Federal Reserve wrapped up what could be its last meeting under current Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday with a decision to hold rates steady, in line with market predictions.

This marks the third consecutive meeting where the board has maintained a target interest rate of 3.5%–3.75%.

The central bank often raises interest rates to tame inflation and lowers them if economic growth is too slow. While oil and gas prices have risen dramatically in the past couple months pushing inflation higher above the Fed’s target rate of 2%, other parts of the economy aren’t seeing as much movement.

“The U.S. economy has been expanding at a solid pace. While job gains have remained low, the unemployment rate has been little changed in recent months,” Powell explained Wednesday with the rate announcement. “We see the current stance of monetary policy as appropriate to promote progress toward our maximum employment and 2% inflation goals.”

Ongoing conflict at the Strait of Hormuz makes it difficult to tell when global energy prices will return to levels closer to what they were before Operation Epic Fury.

Wednesday also saw Fed Chair nominee Kevin Warsh clear the last hurdle in his confirmation process before the final Senate vote, with the Senate Banking Committee voting 13-11 to advance his nomination to the full chamber. The final vote is expected to take place within the next few weeks.

Warsh is President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Powell, whose term ends on May 15. Powell has often been the object of Trump’s wrath, as the Fed’s rate cuts have not been as aggressive or as fast as the president would like.

Trump has long talked about firing Powell before his term expired, despite the independent nature of the central bank, and the Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into Powell’s oversight of the Federal Reserve headquarters’ renovations, as there were cost overruns between $600 million and $700 million. The department handed its investigation over to the Fed’s inspector general just days ago, after opening it in January.

Warsh previously served on the Federal Reserve board from 2006 to 2011.

A divided US Supreme Court on Wednesday weighed the Trump administration's move to strip deportation protections from hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians living in the United States.

Solicitor General John Sauer told the court the Department of Homeland Security's decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians was not subject to judicial review.

Lawyers for Haitian and Syrian TPS holders countered that conditions in their home countries remained unsafe and the administration's move was motivated at least in part by racial animus.

A majority of the six conservative justices on the top court appeared to favor the government's arguments while the three liberal justices were seemingly opposed.

TPS protects its holders from deportation and is granted to people deemed to be in danger if they return home because of war, natural disaster or other extraordinary circumstances.

President Donald Trump campaigned for the White House on a pledge to expel millions of migrants and has pushed to dismantle the TPS program as part of his broader immigration crackdown.

A ruling in the case could have implications for more than one million beneficiaries of TPS status from more than a dozen countries.

"We're talking about the power to mass expel people who have done nothing wrong to countries that remain unsafe," said Ahilan Arulanantham, a lawyer representing the Syrian TPS holders in the case.

TPS status has been revoked for nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Venezuela, Yemen, and others in addition to Haitians and Syrians since Trump took office.

- 'Discriminatory' -

Haitians became eligible for TPS in 2010 following a devastating earthquake, and the country continues to suffer from severe poverty, rampant violence from heavily armed gangs and chronic political instability.

The State Department advises Americans not to travel to the Caribbean nation "due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest and limited health care."

TPS was extended to war-torn Syria in 2012.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal, asked Sauer whether a "discriminatory purpose may have played a part" in the decision to strip TPS status from Haitians and referred to statements by Trump.

"We have a president saying at one point that Haiti is a quote filthy, dirty and disgusting s-hole country -- I'm quoting him -- and where he complained that the United States takes people from such countries instead of people from Norway, Sweden or Denmark," Sotomayor said.

Sauer replied that the president's comments were being taken out of context and he was referring to "problems of crime, poverty and welfare dependency."

He said court review of TPS decisions was barred to prevent "judicial micromanagement" of foreign policy determinations.

- DNA sample and a will -

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, another liberal, asked to what extent country conditions are taken into account in deciding to remove TPS status.

Safety is considered, Sauer said, but so is "whether allowing the aliens to stay here would be contrary to the United States national interest."

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative, noted that TPS was granted to Syrians during the era of the "brutal" Assad regime and it has since been deposed.

Arulanantham, the lawyer for the Syrians, said the State Department's website says armed conflict in Syria "remains active."

"Their own website is saying, 'If you go to Syria, leave a DNA sample, execute a will before you go,'" Arulanantham said.

Geoffrey Pipoly, representing Haitian TPS holders, said the "true reason" for terminating their TPS status is the "president's racial animus towards non-white immigrants."

"The president has disparaged Haitian TPS holders specifically as undesirables from a quote, shithole country, and -- days after falsely accusing them of, quote, eating the dogs and eating the cats of Americans -- he vowed that he would terminate Haiti's TPS," Pipoly said.

"And that is exactly what happened," he added.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling in the case by the end of June or early July.

cl/msp

Autopsy reports into the deaths of US movie director Rob Reiner and his wife have not yet been completed, a Los Angeles court heard Wednesday, as the couple's son made a brief appearance charged with their murders.

Nick Reiner, who wore a yellow jail top and blue jail pants, faces two counts of first-degree murder over the double killing that sent shockwaves through Hollywood days before Christmas.

The 32-year-old was arrested on December 14 after the bodies of his filmmaker father and his mother, photographer Michele Singer Reiner, were discovered at their home in the upmarket Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Prosecutors said 79-year-old Rob Reiner -- who helmed huge hits including "When Harry Met Sally" and "A Few Good Men" -- and his wife, 70, were stabbed to death.

Nick Reiner appeared Wednesday for a hearing that had been intended to determine if there was enough evidence for him to stand trial.

However, attorneys said they were still gathering evidence, with a prosecutor telling the judge that autopsy reports were still pending.

Reiner, who has a history of addiction, has previously pleaded "not guilty" to the charges. He was ordered to return to court on September 15 and remains in jail in the meantime.

If convicted as charged, Reiner could face life in prison without parole, or the death penalty, although California does not typically carry out capital punishment. 

Last week, his brother paid emotional tribute to the men's parents, calling their deaths "almost too impossible to process."

"We lost more than half of our family that night in the most violent way imaginable," Jake Reiner wrote in his first detailed public remarks about the gruesome killings. 

"Any loss of a parent is devastating, but nothing compares to losing both of them at the same time and, on top of that, having your brother be at the center of it," he wrote in a Substack post titled "Mom and Dad."

Rob Reiner, the son of legendary comedian Carl Reiner, started his showbiz career in acting.

He won fame as the oafish son-in-law Michael "Meathead" Stivic on groundbreaking 1970s sitcom "All in the Family," before transitioning to directing. 

As a director, he struck Hollywood gold.

His output included classic films like 1984's rock music mockumentary "This is Spinal Tap," fantasy gem "The Princess Bride" from 1987, and seminal coming-of-age movie "Stand By Me."

"A Few Good Men," starring Hollywood heavyweights Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

hg/msp

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical of immigrant’s challenges to the Trump administration’s termination of temporary protected status in Haiti and Syria.

Justices on the high court heard arguments in Trump v. Miot and Mullin v. Doe, cases that challenge the special immigration status for immigrants from Syria and Haiti, respectively. A coalition of immigrants from both countries brought the challenges after the administration eliminated the protected status in 2025.

Temporary protected status is granted to immigrants from countries that have experienced a national disaster or war. The justices were charged with determining whether a lower court judge could strike down a designation made by the executive branch.

Lawyers for the Haitian and Syrian immigrants said the Trump administration did not properly consult other executive agencies or issue a notice before former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem terminated the status.

Congress requires the DHS Secretary to consult other agencies, including the Department of State, before it ends temporary protected status. The law does not specify what those consultations must look like.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett questioned whether the consultation would need to be specifically related to ending TPS, since Congress did not specify in the law.

Ahilan Arulanantham, a lawyer representing Syrian nationals, said the contents of a review discussion are significant, but not necessarily reviewable by a judge.

“Why would Congress permit review of the procedural aspect when everyone cares more about the substance?” Barrett asked.

Justice Samuel Alito appeared deeply skeptical of the Syrian and Haitian immigrant’s arguments. He cited concerns that federal judges across the country could strike down determinations from the executive branch based on little compelling evidence.

“If we accept your arguments it will create a hole in the judicial review bar that you can drive a convoy of trucks through,” Alito said, citing a phrase from Solicitor General John Sauer.

Solicitor General John Sauer argued that ending temporary protected status for Syrian and Haitian immigrants would project messages of confidence in the political systems of both countries. He pointed to the end of civil war in Syria in 2024 as an example.

"If we don’t terminate TPS, it will send a sense of doubt about that decision,” Sauer said.

He also argued that Haitian immigrants that come to the United States are among the most well educated in the country and would be doing a disservice to the nation’s future prosperity by allowing them to continue coming into the United States.

Geoffrey Pipoli, a lawyer arguing for the Haitian migrants, argued that the determination to end TPS for Haiti was discrimination on the basis of race.

Justices on the court did not appear to be convinced of Pipoli’s arguments, and argued that the administration has appeared to indiscriminately target TPS in all countries the U.S. still operates it in.

Alito cautioned against making determinations based on the majority race that lives in a certain country. He said it would be difficult to see how race plays a factor in the determinations when looking at certain countries.

“You have a really broad definition of who is white and who is not white,” Alito said. “I don’t like dividing the people of the world into these groups.”

However, several justices appeared sharply critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to end the temporary protected status. Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the past statements from Trump about countries like Haiti show a racial bias in eliminating TPS.

“I don’t see how that one statement is not a prime example in showing a discriminatory purpose in making this decision,” Sotomayor said.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also argued that the Trump administration did not proceed through the proper channels of consideration before eliminating the protected status. She said Noem should have a more substantive conversation with the State Department and other executive agencies.

“Congress has directed this secretary in this statute, in contrast with the prior regime, to make certain findings, make certain determinations,” Jackson said.

Justices on the high court will likely deliberate whether to keep TPS for Syria and Haiti intact over the next few months. The court is expected to issue a decision by July.