17/05/2025

SATURDAY | MAY 17, 2025 9 ‘Threat’ to Trump by ex-FBI chief probed WASHINGTON: US law enforcement officials said on Thursday they were looking into a social media post by former FBI director James Comey that depicted an image of “8647”, which some Trump supporters interpreted as a threat against President Donald Trump. Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, later took down the post, saying he was unaware that the apparent political message could have been associated with violence. In US parlance, “86” can be used as verb meaning to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly and “47” is code for Trump, the 47th president. Some Trump supporters interpreted the message as one to violently remove Trump from office, including by assassination. The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the president, said it was aware of Comey’s post but did not assess its meaning. “The Secret Service vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees. We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI director and we take rhetoric such as this seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters,” said Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi. Homeland Security Department secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Secret Service, said the department and Secret Service are “investigating this threat and will respond appropriately”. Current FBI director Kash Patel said his agency is in communication with the Secret Service about the post and “will provide all necessary support”. Others were more explicit in assigning a malign meaning to Comey’s post, with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino saying it was a call to assassinate Trump. Comey posted an Instagram photo of the number 8647 formed by seashells on the beach. “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.“ But after the uproar from Trump supporters, Comey took the post down, saying he had assumed it was merely a “political message”. In May 2017, Trump fired Comey, who as FBI director had been leading an investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to help Trump get elected. – Reuters LONDON: A 21-year-old Ukrainian man has been charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life over fires at two properties and a car linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, PA Media/dpa reported. Roman Lavrynovych was arrested in Sydenham, southeast London on Tuesday and charged on Thursday. Police said officers from the Met’s Counter Terror Command led the investigation due to the connections to a high-profile public figure. On Monday, the emergency services responded to a fire at the Kentish Town home where Starmer lived before becoming prime minister and moving to 10 Downing Street. – Bernama-PA Media/dpa TIRANA: The Balkan country of Albania could become a member of the European Union (EU) before the end of the decade, said European Council President Antonio Costa on Thursday, German Press Agency reported. “If Albania continues to deliver at the same rate, it is completely possible to join the EU before 2030,” Costa said at a joint press conference with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in Tirana. The country on the Adriatic has been governed since 2013 by Rama, who recently secured a fourth term with his Socialist Party in the parliamentary election. During the election campaign, Rama promised Albanians EU accession by 2030. – Bernama-dpa MAN CHARGED WITH ARSON, CASE LINKED TO UK PM ALBANIA COULD JOIN EU BY 2030: EUROPEAN COUNCIL

US Senate rejects bid for openness on deportations

WASHINGTON: US Senate Republicans on Thursday defeated a Democratic resolution calling for a review of human rights in El Salvador, focusing on conditions at a maximum-security prison holding people deported from the United States. The measure was defeated 50-45, with senators voting along party lines. It had not been expected to pass the chamber, where President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans have a 53-47 seat majority, but Democrats said they wanted to get Republicans on the record about the high-profile issue. The resolution, whose backers included Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York, centred on the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant o Measure defeated 50-45, Democrats said wanted to get Republicans on record about high-profile issue

Hollen, urging support for the resolution. “Because if he can do it with one person, or do it to two people, he can do it to anybody in the United States.” Van Hollen, who represents Abrego Garcia’s home state of Maryland, travelled to El Salvador last month to see the imprisoned man and determine whether he was still alive. If it had passed, the resolution could have resulted in the termination of security assistance to El Salvador. Republicans accused the Democrats of backing criminals. “Senate Democrats are voting once again to defend illegal immigrant criminals. They seem to like to do that. It is hard to believe but it is true,” Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming said in a speech before the vote. The White House has repeatedly defended Abrego Garcia’s treatment, citing the unproven accusation that he is part of the MS-13 criminal gang, which the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist group. His lawyers deny gang affiliation as he left El Salvador aged 16 to escape gang violence and received a protective order in 2019 to continue living in the United States. – Reuters

who was mistakenly deported from Maryland and remains imprisoned in El Salvador. Abrego Garcia, 29, who was living in Maryland with a work permit, was detained by US immigration officers in March and questioned about alleged gang ties before being sent on a deportation flight to El Salvador with Venezuelan migrants, despite a protective order allowing him to remain in the United States. Trump, who promised an immigration crackdown and mass deportations as he ran for re-election, has said he could help return Abrego Garcia with a phone call but would not, despite the US Supreme Court’s April 10 order for his administration to “facilitate” his release. Legal experts say the case illustrates the risks to the US constitutional right to due process and raises questions about Trump’s intent to comply with rulings from courts, a third co-equal branch of government. “All of us, regardless of party affiliation, should stand up to respect the Constitution, to protect due process and to make it clear that the president of the United States cannot ignore a 9-0 Supreme Court order, which he is doing as we speak,” said Senator Chris Van

BUILDING BRIDGES ... US President Donald Trump meeting United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed Zayed Al Nahyan at Qasr Al Watan in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on Thursday. – REUTERSPIC

BR I E F S

Personalised gene-editing treats rare illness WASHINGTON: A US infant with a rare condition has become history’s first patient to be treated with a personalised gene-editing technique that raises hopes for others with obscure illnesses, doctors said on Thursday. Shortly after birth, K.J. Muldoon was diagnosed with a rare and serious condition called CPS1 deficiency. personalised treatment to fix the baby’s genome using what amounts to a pair of molecular scissors. The technique is called Crispr-Cas9 and it earned its creators the Nobel prize for chemistry in 2020. In the end, the parents agreed to have the child treated with an infusion created just for him to fix his genetic mutation.

editing the boy’s flawed gene. The results were promising for other people with genetic conditions, said the medical team, which published their study on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine . K.J. can now follow a diet that is richer in proteins, which his condition prohibited before, and does not need as much medicine as he used to. He will need to follow up long term to monitor the safety and efficacy of the treatment, the team said. Ahrens-Nicklas expressed hope that this achievement would allow the boy to get by with little or no medication some day. “We hope he is the first of many to benefit from a methodology that can be scaled to fit an individual patient’s needs.” – AFP

It is caused by a mutation in a gene which produces an enzyme that is key to liver function, and prevents people with it from eliminating certain kinds of toxic waste produced by their metabolism. “When you Google ‘CPS1 deficiency’, the results are either ‘fatality rate’ or ‘liver transplant’,” said the mother Nicole Muldoon. However, doctors suggested something that had never been done before, namely a

“The drug is designed only for K.J., so the genetic variants that he has are specific to him. It is personalised medicine,” said Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, a member of the medical team who specialises in paediatric genetics. Once the tailor-made infusion reaches the liver, the molecular scissors contained in it would penetrate cells and go to work on