Charlie Kirk emboldened a new generation of conservatives. His killing Wednesday as he addressed a crowd on a college campus has left those he brought into politics grieving — and vowing to continue his mission.
Nearly every young conservative staffer in Washington was involved with Kirk’s enormous youth organizing group Turning Point USA, whether through a college campus chapter or its national and regional conventions. That created a pipeline of young conservatives, who are now looking to cement his legacy in next year's midterms and beyond.
“I was passionate before and this movement was important, but now it’s personal,” said 19-year-old commentator Brilyn Hollyhand, who met Kirk when, at 11 years old, he asked Kirk to appear on his podcast. “We have a martyr.”
Kirk was divisive — beloved by a generation that is shifting rightward; castigated for controversial and antagonistic remarks that critics deemed hate speech.
But that divisiveness helped him gain national attention and turn out young voters for Trump, particularly Republicans in Arizona, which flipped to Trump in 2024. In 2020, Trump lost young men by 11 points, according to Catalist data. In 2024, he won them by 1 point. And his vote share among young women improved too — from a 35-point deficit in 2020 to a 23-point gap four years later.
Kirk’s killing this week “has awakened an army of believers,” said 25-year-old activist Isabella DeLuca, who was arrested in 2024 for her role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and pardoned by Trump in January.
“We are at war for the soul of this nation. I will not retreat. I will advance,” DeLuca said. “Charlie’s voice did not die with him. It will live through us.”
Hollyhand, who has worked closely with Turning Point, said he hopes to return to Utah and continue the “American Comeback” tour, which kicked off the day Kirk was shot. On Friday, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced that law enforcement had apprehended a suspect in the shooting, 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson, who a judge ordered to be held without the option of bail. Formal charges against Robinson are expected to be announced next week.
The rightward shift among young people is largely credited to Kirk’s megaphone, as well as his grassroots political organization, which he founded at 18. It quickly grew to more than 800 chapters on college campuses, with more than 250,000 student members nationwide.
Turning Point “is what got me interested in politics,” said 24-year-old White House assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers, who founded Clemson University’s first chapter in the fall of 2020.
“That’s what truly guided my career in politics and where I am now,” Rogers added. “It was really Turning Point and their resources that were able to jumpstart the career of a young conservative like me.”
Kirk has a huge social media platform — he posted TikTok videos of him debating college students to more than eight million followers and hosted a popular podcast. It is likely to be hard for the movement left in his wake to replicate the charisma and political organizing skills of Kirk, who also had a direct line to Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
Kirk’s critics noted he utilized provocative language to roil national debate and normalize fringe theories. Some of his most memorable exchanges come from clips of his inflammatory back-and-forths with liberals over LGBTQ+ rights, restrictions on firearms and gender roles.
Harry Sisson, a prominent online figure in Democratic circles who has drawn the ire of conservatives online, is one of those who commended Kirk’s legacy as an influential defender of open debate.
“Charlie Kirk did welcome debate from anybody,” Sisson, 23, said in an interview. “Do I think he did it in good faith? No. … But he did encourage debate.”
For college student Matthew Kingsley, his father’s Fox News-informed conservatism didn’t appeal to him while growing up in North Carolina. But he commended how Kirk encouraged young people to do their own research when forming their own political views, and joined his local chapter while in college at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he now serves as chapter president as a rising senior.
Kirk’s impact on the young conservative movement has been “astronomical,” Kingsley said. “I really don't think this is going to stop it at all,” he said. “I think it is actually going to accelerate it.”
At an annual fund-raiser in Iowa, the Maryland Democrat said he supported Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City and said people were sick of “spineless politics.”
Senator Chris Van Hollen isn’t alone in suggesting that it is time for the national Democrats to get behind Zohran Mamdani, but many party leaders have not.
SEFE全称为“欧洲能源安全有限公司”（Securing Energy for Europe GmbH），前身是俄罗斯能源巨头“俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司”（Gazprom）的德国子公司Gazprom Germania。2022年俄乌战争爆发后，为了保障德国能源供应，该公司首先被德国政府托管，随后直接被征收国有化。
Tao was part of a record-breaking wave of undocumented Chinese migrants who had made harrowing journeys through the jungles of Central America to the United States.
Have you ever seen Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler” set in the 1950s with a biracial star in a lesbian love triangle? In this new film adaptation, you will.
“There are incredible plays, but are there a million incredible parts for women? Not necessarily. And so Hedda remains one of those ones that has its own iconography and history and reputation.”
The film studio, which some say has turned rightward under its new owner, said it disagreed with thousands of Hollywood professionals pledging to boycott Israeli film institutions.
Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure over the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson
Sir Keir Starmer explicitly asked Lord Mandelson about his links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein before deciding to appoint him as the UK's ambassador to the US, the BBC understands.
The prime minister is believed to have asked Mandelson three questions relating to his friendship with the disgraced financier while he was being vetted for the influential role.
The revelation is likely to pile further scrutiny on what Sir Keir knew before the Labour peer got the job. Mandelson's friendship with Epstein was known at the time of his appointment but No 10 said new information about it only came to light this week, prompting his sacking.
Downing Street and Mandelson have declined to comment.
Mandelson was asked to leave his post on Thursday after a now notorious cache of emails was reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday evening.
These included supportive messages Mandelson sent after Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.
In one message, Mandelson is reported to have told Epstein to "fight for early release" and, the day before he began his prison sentence, another which read: "I think the world of you."
These emails did not show up in two vetting processes carried out in Whitehall around his appointment.
When Mandelson was under consideration for ambassador, the Cabinet Office's Propriety and Ethics Team (PET) prepared a file for the prime minister that contained information about Mandelson and Epstein's links, the BBC has been told.
After reviewing the file, No 10 sources say Sir Keir asked Mandelson to address three specific questions, which were sent to him via email by the prime minister's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.
EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Peter Mandelson was sacked as UK ambassador to the US this week
These questions were: why has he continued contact with Epstein after he was convicted? Why was he reported to have stayed in one of Epstein's homes while the financier was in prison? And was he associated with a charity founded by Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell that the financier had backed?
It is understood Mandelson believes that he was truthful and frank about his association with Epstein, and told No 10 that he had not stayed in Epstein's Manhattan apartment in 2009, while the paedophile was in prison. Another source confirmed Mandelson told Downing Street he had not stayed there.
Court documents in 2023 showed Epstein telling his private banker that Mandelson was planning to stay, but the peer has never explicitly denied or confirmed if he did.
No 10 sources believe Mandelson was "economical with the truth" in his answers to the three questions.
However, at the time, his answers were considered sufficient for him to be appointed which led to a second vetting process, called "developed vetting" (DV), being carried out under the auspices of the Foreign Office.
The BBC has been told the emails were not available to those in government when Lord Mandelson was appointed, as they came from a defunct email address.
A senior Whitehall figure said it would have been possible to locate those messages had more questions been asked, and forensic background digging been done.
The row has led to growing pressure on Sir Keir over his judgement in making Mandelson ambassador, and questions over the extent of what he knew about ties between Mandelson and Epstein.
Some Labour MPs in public and private are asking whether Sir Keir should resign, and some are suggesting Number 10 senior aides are to blame.
Sources have told the BBC that Mandelson was asked to resign on Wednesday, even though the prime minister had backed him at PMQs.
Mandelson refused, and after a "furious" Sir Keir read the emails on Wednesday night, a final decision to sack him was taken on Thursday morning.
The Cabinet Office has declined to comment. Mandelson has repeatedly expressed regret about his relationship with Epstein who died in jail in 2019.
The aurora dazzles when it can be viewed, sometimes - as in the case this September - with stunning displays visible across most of the country, from Scotland and Wales down to Kent.
Plenty of fans of the lights head out in the wilds of the UK to take photos, armed with the latest equipment - but could we just stay at home and see them and snap a photo on our phones?
Well first of all, in the right circumstances, it is possible to see the Northern Lights from your bedroom window, according to expert Dr Maria-Theresia Walach.
She once saw the aurora by eye from Lancaster city centre in red, green and purple but admitted it was "a rare occurrence".
Chris Denning
The Lake District was on a list of places recommended to see the lights by BBC Countryfile
Dr Walach, who is from Lancaster University and is also a member of the AuroraWatch UK team, said it was possible in general to see the aurora in cities and towns - but it depended on cloud and light pollution, which could even include the moon.
It was possible you could see them from your bedroom window, she added.
"If we are in a geomagnetic storm for example, you definitely can," she said.
"Windows won't obscure the light of the aurora but, depending on street lights, it might be trickier."
Asked if aurora hunters needed to find a high place to watch the skies, Dr Walach said: "No, not at all."
Being high up just helps because it is possible to see further, she added.
The further north you are also helps, she says. Scandinavia and northern Scotland remain the best places to see the Northern Lights.
To know when the northern lights are likely to be visible in the night skies this autumn and winter, the advice first of all from the BBC's lead weather presenter, Simon King, is to keep a check on forecasts
Wait for enhanced solar activity and check the weather, because the lights will not be visible in a cloudy sky, he added.
Nicole Carr and Simon Scott, from Astro Dog, a firm which runs stargazing, photography and education events, said people who were able to travel could use weather radar apps to find gaps in the cloud.
"Perseverance can pay on cloudy nights," they said. "You never know if there may be gaps in the clouds at just the right moment."
They said they have sat in the cold and dark for hundreds of nights without seeing anything but "when you do get lucky and catch a display, it makes it all the more special".
Astro Dog
Simon Scott and Nicole Carr, from Astro Dog, said perseverance could pay off to see the lights
If you want to actively go out and find a good spot to view and photograph the lights, we have spoken to some of the country's aurora hunters.
Ian Parkes, from Wombourne, Staffordshire, said he first of all checks social media for graphs on when solar flares will hit - and then looks at one of the three free mobile apps he uses – Aurora Watch UK, Glendale and Aurora UK.
He usually visits Sheep Walks in Staffordshire and takes a DSLR camera with a tripod and remote but added that anyone could take images with a phone.
The key, he said, was always to look north and remember that the aurora could be quite low, adding that it often looks black and white - or like a cloud.
"It's a wow moment, especially the first time you see it, it's just amazing," he said. "It's just being at one with nature."
Mr Parkes said he had seen the lights seven times in two years, adding: "Every time I've gone out, I've seen it."
Ian Parkes
Ian Parkes said he had seen the Northern Lights every time he had gone out looking for them
If you want to know if you are near a good place in the UK to see the aurora or somewhere to head to, BBC Countryfile drew up a list in September of the best sites in the country to see them.
They included the UK's official Dark Sky Reserves - areas where light pollution is particularly low - and among them are:
The Brecon Beacons
Cranborne Chase in southern England
Snowdonia
Exmoor
Moore's Reserve in the South Downs
North York Moors National Park
Yorkshire Dales National Park
Hot spots also included the Northumberland coast, Lerwick on Shetland, the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District and the Antrim coast in Northern Ireland.
They have also been seen in many locations across the Midlands including in Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire.
Josh Drury
Josh Drury said a good solar storm was needed with clear skies
Dr Walach suggested in the main that people should seek out a darker area in the countryside, turn off torches and allow time for their eyes to adjust.
"It can take around 10 minutes or more for your eyes to fully adjust to darker spaces," she said.
"The aurora also moves around the sky a lot, so I also recommend a warm coat and a hot chocolate."
Nottingham photographer Chris Denning gets his aurora forecasts from Facebook where the Wil's Aurora Alerts channel gives as much advance warning as possible.
He advised people though to manage their expectations because many aurora events were only visible by camera.
The most important thing was to "enjoy the chase", he said, adding: "Sometimes you'll win and sometimes you won't, but that's half the fun."
Chris Denning
Chris Denning captured a shot of the aurora over the University of Nottingham's Trent Building
James Rowley-Hill, in Norfolk, recommended coastal areas and fields in the middle of nowhere, to escape strong light pollution.
He said "expectation vs reality" is the biggest problem, adding: "Many folks think this is the normal, when it really isn't."
While for Josh Drury, a photographer based in Somerset, catching an aurora often depended on forecasting.
"You need a good storm. You need clear skies," he said.
"When we have an aurora kicking off, you have to drop absolutely everything and go out and try to catch it.
"A lot of it is pot luck."
James Rowley-Hill
James Rowley-Hill recommended coastal areas and fields in the middle of nowhere
Chris Denning
Auroras have been seen further south recently, including in the Cotswolds
Soldiers standing amid a coca crop in Cúcuta, Colombia, in 2020. Colombia is the world’s top producer of cocaine, but it has also been a key ally of the United States in trying to combat the drug trade.
The diplomat will consult with Israeli officials about their coming military offensive in Gaza City, as President Trump’s efforts to end the Gaza war appear stalled.
Pacific island nations have seen American pledges and attention come and go with geopolitical winds. Recent U.S. pullbacks are met with disappointment but not surprise.
Israeli air strikes hit Beach camp in western Gaza City on Sunday
Israeli forces have stepped up their assault on Gaza City with a wave of heavy air strikes, marking a sharp escalation from previous military operations.
Unlike earlier phases of the war, the current offensive has relied heavily on aerial bombardments, with entire apartment blocks and large concrete structures reduced to rubble.
The intensification of strikes in recent days has triggered a surge in civilian displacement.
Israel has warned all residents of Gaza City to leave immediately in anticipation of a huge ground offensive.
On Sunday, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said about 250,000 people had left the city and moved south. It also said it had destroyed a high-rise building that it said had been used "to advance and execute terrorist attacks" against its troops.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the city is Hamas's last major stronghold. But the plan to occupy Gaza City has brought international criticism.
The UN has warned an intensification of the offensive on an area where a famine has already been declared will push civilians into an "even deeper catastrophe". Gaza City is the largest urban centre in the territory and a historic heart of Palestinian political and social life.
Residents say the Israeli military has been targeting schools and makeshift shelters, often issuing warnings only moments before bombardments.
Many families have been forced to flee in darkness toward western Gaza.
"We escaped certain death, my husband, our three children and I," said Saly Tafeesh, a mother sheltering in the city. "My brother died in my arms after being shot by a quadcopter drone. We ran in the dark to the west of Gaza."
The Israeli military has told residents to evacuate to the south of the territory - but many families say they cannot afford the journey, which costs up to $1,100 (£800). Hamas, meanwhile, has intensified its calls for residents to stay put and resist leaving the city.
Rubein Khaled, a father-of-nine preparing to move south, expressed frustration.
"The Hamas preacher at Friday prayers accused anyone leaving Gaza City of being a coward running from the battlefield," he said.
"But why doesn't he tell Hamas leaders to surrender and release the Israeli hostages so this war can stop? We don't want to leave either, but we have no choice."
Israeli forces have not yet reached some eastern neighbourhoods that have remained largely intact since earlier raids in January, but the current campaign suggests they may now be seeking to dismantle entire districts.
About quarter of a million people have left Gaza City, the Israeli military says
Meanwhile, a Qatari foreign ministry spokesman strongly criticised Israel's prime minister in an interview with the BBC following this week's Israeli strike on Hamas officials in the Qatari capital Doha.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told the BBC that the international community had "to deal with a Netanyahu problem".
"He is not somebody who is listening to anybody right now, who is listening to any reason, and we have to collectively stop him in his tracks," the official said.
He argued the strike in Doha showed the Israeli leader "never intended to sign any peace deal" to end the war in Gaza and instead "believes he can re-shape the Middle East in his own image".
Five of the group's members and a Qatari security officer were killed in Tuesday's strike - though the Palestinian armed group claimed no senior leaders had been killed. Hamas members had been in Doha to discuss the latest US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel has faced widespread condemnation, including at the UN Security Council. Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel targeted the "terrorist masterminds" behind the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani earlier said that Qatar did not get advance warning of the strike, only receiving a call from a US official 10 minutes after the attack had started.
On Friday, al-Thani had dinner with US President Donald Trump and his envoy Steve Witkoff in New York, having earlier met Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House.
Rubio is travelling to Israel this weekend in a show of solidarity with Israel ahead of a UN meeting later this month at which France and the UK are expected to formally recognise a Palestinian state.
Reuters
The Israeli attack in Doha targeted Hamas officials discussing the latest US proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza
On Sunday, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said the bodies of 47 people killed by the Israeli military had arrived at its hospitals over the previous day.
Since UN-backed global food security experts confirmed a famine in Gaza City on 22 August, the ministry has reported that at least 142 people have died from starvation and malnutrition across the territory. Israel has said it is expanding its efforts to facilitate aid deliveries and has disputed the health ministry's figures on malnutrition-related deaths.
The Israeli military launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 64,803 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.
Protesters on Tuesday stormed and set fire to the Singha Durbar palace, which houses parliament and government buildings
Nepal's major political parties have demanded the country's President Ram Chandra Poudel reinstates the parliament he dissolved following deadly anti-corruption protests.
In a statement, eight parties - including the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Maoist Centre - said the president acted unconstitutionally.
Poudel dissolved the House of Representatives on Friday upon the recommendation of newly-appointed interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki - it was also a key demand from the protest movement.
More than 50 people were killed in clashes with riot police during this week's mass protests sparked by a ban on social media platforms. Karki was appointed after a deal was reached with protest leaders.
The ban was lifted on Monday - but by then the protests had swelled into a mass movement. Angry crowds set fire to parliament and government buildings in the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday, forcing then-Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign.
Saturday's statement demanding the reinstatement of the parliament was signed by the chief whips of the eight political parties.
They argued the step taken by the president was unconstitutional and against the precedents set by Nepal's judiciary.
The dissolution of the parliament was a major demand by student leaders from the so-called "Gen Z" protest movement.
But the eight parties say the protesters' demands - including new elections announced for 5 March next year - should be addressed through an institution voted by the people.
President Poudel is yet to publicly respond to the political parties' statement.
Karki, a 73-year-old former Supreme Court chief justice and the first woman to lead the impoverished Himalayan nation, was sworn in during a brief ceremony in the capital Kathmandu.
She is expected to appoint ministers to her cabinet within a few days.
She is widely regarded as having a clean image, and her leadership of the interim government is being supported by student leaders from the "Gen Z" movement.
But her cabinet will face multiple challenges, including restoring law and order, reconstructing parliament and the other key buildings that were attacked, reassuring the Gen Z protesters who want change - and others in Nepal who are fearful its young democracy and constitutional order could be derailed.
Another key task will be to bring those responsible for violence to justice.
Nepal is gradually returning back to normalcy after the worst unrest in decades.
Nepal's soldiers - who had been deployed to patrol the streets of Kathmandu - returned to their bases after Karki took the oath of office.
The protests were triggered by the government's decision last week to ban 26 social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook - but they soon widened to embody much deeper discontent with Nepal's political elite.
In the weeks before the ban, a "nepo kid" campaign - spotlighting the lavish lifestyles of politicians' children and allegations of corruption - had taken off on social media.
And while the social media ban was hastily lifted on Monday night, the protests had by that stage gained unstoppable momentum.
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