Global News Podcast - Suspect due in court after shooting at Trump press dinner

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

The Californian man suspected of trying to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington attended by President Trump and other senior administration figures is due in court to face charges of assaulting a federal officer and using a firearm during a violent crime. King Charles and Queen Camilla are preparing to arrive in the US capital for a state visit amid heightened security. Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, has had talks in Russia with President Putin, as Tehran suggests postponing the resolution of the issue of its nuclear programme. The feud between X owner Elon Musk and Open AI boss Sam Altman is reaching court. Nedra Talley Ross, the last surviving founding member of the legendary American pop group, "The Ronettes", has died. And we hear about the special shoes worn by the Kenyan, Sabastian Sawe, when he became the first person to run an official marathon in under two hours. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Ankara Desai and in the afternoon of Monday the 27th of April, these are our main stories. The man accused of an armed attack at a dinner in Washington attended by Donald Trump over the weekend is due to appear in court. Meanwhile, President Trump says Britain's King Charles will be very safe during his state visit to the US. Also, in this podcast, have you ever seen a lot of? a ghost. Well, new research suggests that if you think you have, you might be wrong. This idea that low frequency sound, and that is infrasound, it can affect us physiologically, so it can affect our bodies in such a way that we may think it's some sort of paranormal

experience. And we look back at the life of Nedra Talley Rose, the last surviving founding member of the legendary American pop group, the Renettes, who's died at the age of 80. First, the man suspected of trying to shoot President Trump or members of his administration will appear in court later, charged with using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. The FBI have been investigating Thomas Cole Allen, as well as how he managed to get so close to the White House correspondent's dinner on Saturday while heavily armed.

One Secret Service agent was shot as the part-time tutor rushed at security. causing chaos at an event normally known as a friendly mixer between the White House and the press. Chaotic scene, a gunman bursting through a security checkpoint. The D.C. police chief said the suspect appeared to be a lone actor, was believed to be staying at the Washington Hilton. The suspect now facing serious federal charges. Investigators say he traveled across the country to carry out this targeted attack. The 31-year-old is from Torrance, a quiet coastal suburb of, Los Angeles. One member of the community we spoke to knew the suspect well.

He seemed like a very ordinary person, you know. It's just you never expect it coming from this guy. He was a nice guy, down-earth guy. I got a lot of help in my physics homework and prepared for tests with him as well as one of my other buddies. So yeah, it's kind of, you know, it's just something you never expect. So. Our correspondent Shama Khalil is in Washington and told me more about Call Thomas Allen. describes himself online as a mechanical engineer, game developer and teacher. We know that he's a computer science graduate from Caltech, one of the most prestigious technical institutes in the country. We know that the investigation is continuing into his motive, but that officers who are investigating

him say that they found a document that apparently was written by him, by the alleged gunman, that included plans to target Trump administration officials, but also likely the president himself. President Trump, when speaking to Fox News on Sunday, described him as someone with hatred in his heart. He described him as a sick man and that he was anti-Christian. We also understand from authorities that before the attack on Saturday, the document was reportedly sent by the suspect to his family who alerted the police. and that Cole Allen, who is from California, had traveled by train from Los Angeles to Chicago, then to Washington, D.C., and we also know that he had stayed in the Washington Hilton Hotel in the days leading up to the events.

We're still unsure about the exact motive what led this mechanical engineer, as he describes himself, this computer science graduate, It's someone who's just been described by a university professor that has dealt with him as a decent person, someone who, you know, when people, neighbors in his area heard about this, were shocked. What led him to then storm by security services, breached the security detail, and try to storm the ballroom where Donald Trump, the first lady, the vice president, and senior cabinet members were armed. with shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. He was heavily, heavily armed and got awfully close. And Shama, do we know any more about how he's able to get so close to the president? Look, I think this is really what's at the heart of this investigation, because while the director of the Secret Service,

the president himself will tell you that the way that the events unfolded have meant that the security plan actually worked, that he was apprehended really quickly, that he wasn't allowed to get in and that he was taken away, albeit after shooting one officer who is expected to recover well because he was wearing a bulletproof jacket, it's still the fact that he got so close. It's still the fact that he has managed to breach the security detail

in a room and in an area that was described to me as one of the most, if not the most secured, sealed-off rooms, not just in Washington, D.C., but in the country because of how high profile it is. Shama Khalil in Washington. Well, the attack on that event in Washington, D.C. has raised concerns about the security of officials in the U.S. Just as King Charles and Queen Camilla

head there for a state visit to mark 250 years of American independence. The British monarch is keeping calm and carrying on with the planned state visit. As Britain's ambassador to the U.S. has said all appropriate security measures are in place. And Buckingham Palace has said the visit to... will go ahead as planned. The BBC senior rule correspondent Daniela Ralph reports from Washington, D.C. Ready to welcome a king and queen.

Events last night have caused all security plans for this already challenging trip to be reviewed, led by the UK government alongside the White House and Buckingham Palace. After discussions, the palace confirmed the visit would go ahead. In a statement, it said, following discussions on both sides of the Atlantic

through the day, and acting on advice of government, we can confirm the state visit by their majesties will proceed as planned. The king and queen are most grateful to all those who've worked at pace to ensure this remains the case and are looking forward to the visit getting underway.

Earlier, the president had spoken on the phone to Fox News and was confident the visit would not be postponed as he praised the king. And he's been amazing, actually. He's very brave, actually. and he's a friend of mine for a long time. So he's coming and we're going to have a great time and he represents his nation like nobody else can do it.

Thank you very much, everybody. Well, it's a great gentleman. A great gentleman and a great king. When President Trump visited the UK last September, the level of security was unprecedented. The usual elements of a state visit were abandoned and the president's schedule kept him within the walls of Windsor Castle. This week, the King does have some public-facing events.

They have been the focus of the security review. There will be some modest adjustments made, but they will not significantly impact events over the next four days. Daniel Ralph, reporting from Washington, D.C. As diplomatic efforts continue to jumpstart the stored negotiations between the United States and Iran, the Iranian foreign minister Abbas Sarakshi, has moved on to Russia for talks with President Putin in St. Petersburg.

In recent days, he's had meetings in Pakistan and Iran's Gulf neighbor, Oman, arriving in Russia. He said peace talks with the U.S. early this month had failed because of what he called Washington's excessive demands. Reports from the U.S. suggest Tehran is now proposing ending the war by reopening the strait of Hormuz, while delaying talks on its nuclear program till later. President Trump has insisted any deal must involve of Iran renouncing a nuclear weapon. Our Middle East correspondent, Yuland Nell, told me more.

This is a report that's from the US news site Axios, and it's quoting an unnamed US official and other sources, basically saying that Iran's latest proposal focuses on reopening the strait of Hormuz, ending the war, and postponing nuclear talks. But the commentary there is really saying that if that was to happen, if the US was to accept that, it would leave it with a lot less leverage in any nuclear talks. and what Israeli media analysts are saying is that they don't believe that, you know,

Israel is in favor of that at all. It worries that the U.S. would lose in that kind of a deal. And it's weighing up different scenarios the Israeli security cabinet met yesterday in case things, you know, do really sort of fall apart there, and there is a return to war with Iran. How would Donald Trump feel about the fact that the production of nuclear weapons is still something that Iran want to postpone and talk about later? Yeah, I mean, there is a report from the Iranian fast news agency saying that Iran has sent these written red lines via mediators on the nuclear program and on the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump was very clear when he was speaking to Fox News on Sunday. He said, if they want, we can talk, but we're not sending people. And he said on social media, all they have to do is cool. And his point was that Iran must make this commitment to having no nuclear weapon. That that was, you know, really what the U.S. required before it was going to return. turn to any kinds of direct talks. I mean, while Israeli strikes on Lebanon are continuing, Lebanese officials say at least 14 people were killed on Sunday,

while Israel says one of its soldiers was killed by a Hezbollah drone strike in southern Lebanon. All this, I guess, despite ongoing ceasefire, what is the current state of that right now, Your Land? Extremely shaky, in short. I mean, Hezbollah fired drones and rockets at Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and into northern Israel after that extension of three weeks was announced by President Trump, saying that both Israel and Lebanon had agreed to that. The Israeli Prime Minister then over the weekend came out and said that he had given the Israeli military this directive to powerfully target Hezbollah. Then he told his cabinet meeting that Hezbollah was dismantling the ceasefire.

Hezbollah has been accusing Israel of ceasefire violations too and saying that it is reacting to its continuing occupation of southern Lebanon. Yelannell reporting. Still to come in this podcast, after Kenya, Sebastian Saoay made history in the London Marathon, we ask why the country produces such good distance runners. People start running from as early as primary school and also people see it as an opportunity to get out of poverty. This is the Global News podcast. The feud between ex-owner Elon Musk and Open AI boss Sam Altman has so far. far perhaps fittingly played out largely on social media. But that's about to change. A case brought

by Musk against Altman, reaches court in Oakland, California later. Over the course of the trial, some of the biggest names in tech are expected to give evidence. And it could have big implications for the AI boom as a whole. Our reporter, Will Chalk, told me more. Elon Musk and Sam Altman, they worked together back in 2015 to found Open AI. And that was back one of time when, you know, the AI-driven world we live in now was still just a dream for them. And the company was founded with quite kind of benevolent purposes, at least on the, on the surface of it. It was supposed to save the world from a dystopian future. I've got their first mission statement in front of me. It said, our goal is to advance digital intelligence in the way

that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return. Now, since then, the company has restructured. It's launched ChatGPT, and it's also launched a for-profit arm, which is valued around $850 billion, the company as a whole. Now, Elon Musk left in 2018 after relations turned sour, and in this court case, he's alleging that he was conned, that the $40 million he put in at the start was basically taken under false pretenses, and essentially that OpenAI were dishonest by starting to make money. Now, his original complaint contains some quite powerful language. It describes the case as a textbook case of altruism versus greed.

It says that Musk's humanitarian nature was preyed on and that the deceit here is of Shakespearean proportions. Now, he's pushing for more than $130 billion in damages, but he says that will be reinvested into the not-for-profit arm of the business, and he also wants the removal of Sam Altman from the board. So that's Elon Musk's side. As for Open AI, they say Musk knew about these plans to make money all along, and this is just a smear campaign, motivated by jealousy and regret for walking away,

as well as a desire to derail a competing AI company. They also say that their non-profit arm still exists and is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. And what is at stake here exactly? Well, I think on one level, a lot of people will just be invested in this for the drama at the heart of it. You know, these are huge characters who've been trading insults for years in public. And there are also two men who, like it or not, could have huge impacts on the whole world as AI gets better. On top of that, we're expecting diary entries, texts and emails to be read aloud in court.

But there are practical implications, too, should Musk win the case. it will have a huge effect on OpenAI. However, Rose Chan Loy from the School of Law at the University of California doesn't think that will be easy. I think for fraud, he has to show that the Open AI defendants deceived him at some point in time, and that's what led him to become one of their, if not their most significant donor.

Now, we're expecting both Musk and Altman to testify in court, and given the personalities, I think one thing we can, can be certain of is that it's going to be dramatic. I'll leave you with an ex post from Elon Musk back in January. He said, can't wait to start the trial. The discovery and testimony will blow your mind. Will Chalk reporting. Nedra at Talley Ross, the last surviving founding member of the legendary American pop group

The Renettes, has died at the age of 80. The group were known for a string of hits, as well as their trademark beehive hairdos and toured alongside other legendary acts of their era, including the beat, and at one stage had the Rolling Stones as their support act. Lucy O'Brien, a music journalist and author of the book, Shebop, the definitive history of women in popular music, has been speaking to Rebecca Kesby. They were absolutely huge, and it's partly because they were,

along with the Supremes, they were seen as the pioneering girl group, really pioneering this new sound, quite garage pop, released on a small independent label, kind of quite gritty. and Billy Joel called them the toughest, they have the toughest sound of all the girl groups and the real classic songs like Be My Baby and Baby I Love You which really exemplify that Phil Specter wall of sound. Yeah, they had quite complex harmonies as well, didn't they?

I mean, they were really proficient musicians in their own right but I guess it was quite difficult to be women in the music industry back then. Oh, yes, it was in the 60s women were seen as decoration and Ronnie Spector in particular, even though she was such an amazing talent, she was literally placed in the back seat by Phil Specter. After they got married, he was very jealous about her being in the limelight. So he kind of deliberately sat on recordings of the Ronettes. So after their initial, the initial amazing success, they kind of started to fade by the late 60s.

And Ledra did talk about that, didn't she? Because in the band it was her and her two cousins, one of whom was Ronnie Spector, of course. They're both dead now. But, you know, she did talk about that breakup and why it was so traumatic. Yeah, she said I hated the dog-eat-dog side of showbiz, and she hated the way that they were pitted against each other. She also had reservations because she became a Christian, and she felt that the Ronettes didn't quite have the Christian-inspired music

that she wanted to sing. But it was, there was so many ways that the group were frustrated. And it was mainly through Spector not releasing their records and kind of really limiting what they could do. Author and music journalist Lucy O'Brien. A day on from one of the most famous marathons in the world, it's fair to say some people in the running community are still in shock at what they saw at yesterday's London Marathon. Kenya Sebastian Sarway broke a record many had thought impossible and finish the race in under two hours. It's the first time that's ever been done in a competitive marathon. Fellow Kenyan and runner Paul Turgat knows a thing or two about long distance running.

He became the first Kenyan man to set the world record in the marathon back in 2003. And he's still getting to grips with what took place on the streets of London. Watching Saperian Sawhi go through the beautiful streets of London and cross the tip, was nothing short of breathtaking. The sense of joy and astonishment was overwhelming. Like many across the global distance, running community, I'm still absorbing what we witnessed. Even though technological advances in running

might not be as obvious as, say, Formula One, we're told that tech did still play a part in breaking this record. Nicholas Smith, an expert on trainers, says the shoes Sebastian Sarway was wearing are at the cutting edge. Well, a super shoe probably isn't the same thing that everyone's wearing when they go to the supermarket or for their Sunday jog. What makes it different is it has a thin carbon fiber plate embedded in the sole. And in some sense, this acts like a diving board.

It springs you forward. Now, you can imagine making a shoe three feet tall with all kinds of foam and springs and other things. Might make you run faster, completely legal. So this is kind of where every, Everyone has drawn the line. Everyone's shoes have to be a certain thickness. And the athletic shoe companies have to work within that thickness to make their shoes as bouncy as possible. A huge moment then for running, but also for Kenya, a nation that has produced some of the best distance runners of all time.

Our correspondent Richard Kargoi in the capital of Nairobi told me how it had gone down there. Well, I mean, there's been lots of celebrations because this was just an incredible story. It was really awesome to see him, you know, shattering the record. In Kenya, everyone has just been talking about this, you know, yesterday, going even into the night, including also in my house. My wife is a budding athlete, and so this was something that really dominated even our conversations with dinner table. The watch parties across the capital here in Nairobi, people just watching and following, you know, the marathon as it happened. It was quite an exciting moment.

But I think just to paint the picture, especially for Sawa's family, you know, the dad and the mom just came from church and got home. And this is basically what they were just doing, you know, watching the London Marathon as it happened on live television. They were joined by a few neighbors and relatives. And they really broke into song, into dance. And this went also into the night. A lot of people joining in in celebration. So it was quite a bright spark, even just a mid, you know, the doom and gloomy, all the news from around the world. world. Absolutely. Look, football is in the heart of Brazilians. It feels as though long-distance running is

very similar for Kenyans. How is it that they're able to produce just so many incredible long-distance runners over the years? I'm sure that's really been the lingering question of the minds of many people who have been following, you know, Kenya's and Ethiopia's dominance, especially in athletics. But just in the case of Kenya, if you look at where Sawe hails from, so this is on the west of the Rifty Valley. So this is towards the western Kenya. So it's a bit elevated. You would say it's about 8,000 feet above sea level. The weather is temperate, you know, very hilly terrain. But it's sort of like a culture that has been adopted by people living within,

especially the Kalenjin tribe from where he comes from. So it comes from this area called in Gishu. So the weather is really good. So people say that probably it sort of like forces your body to adapt and increase, you know, your red blood cells and your EPO production. So the temperature and the altitude has also been. a factor. It's a culture. It's something that people have grown up seeing because it's something that's been passed on from one generation to the other. People start running from as early as

primary school. It's something that they've been doing. And so this really sort of builds on that capacity. And also people see it as an opportunity to get out of poverty. Richard Kagoy reporting from Nairobi. Right. Brace yourselves because we're about to get spooky. Have you ever walked into a building and immediately gone an uneasy feeling. As if you're not alone, like you're being watched. Do you believe in ghosts? Well, if you do, bad news.

Because research, just released by a group of Canadian scientists, proves that often those feelings can be attributed to infrasound. Now, a sound that we humans can't hear, but can feel on a vibrational level, which triggers other psychological and physiological effects. Parasicologist Kieran O'Keefe, Explain more to my colleague Rebecca Kesby. First of all, I'm genuinely excited by the research

because it supports an area of study that I've been looking at now for over 25 years. This idea that low-frequency sound, and that is infrasound, it's below 20 hertz, but it can affect us physiologically, so it can affect our bodies in such a way that we may think it's some sort of paranormal experience, especially if you put that in a context.

The research idea is, not new. It's been around for about 25 years, but the lovely thing about this recent experimental work in Canada is a controlled way of showing that not only our mood can be affected, that we can actually get more irritable and even kind of increased sadness as a result of presence of infrasound, but it also increases our levels of cortisol, which is the stress hormone. Okay, so that would explain maybe why you get a sense of doom or fear when you're in a building where you can hear infrasound, but only on a physical level? Yes, exactly. A lot of people will be familiar with ultrasound, which is at the very top of our hearing. We can't hear it, but of course, if you blow

a dog whistle, that's ultrasonic. We can't hear it, but a dog can hear it. Way at the bottom of our hearing spectrum is infrasound, and it's only if it's incredibly loud, could you then actually hear it. It's obviously a natural source for it that can come from thunder and volcanoes, but in modern world, there are man-made sources of it. And that clues old types, boilers, ventilation systems, air conditioning units, anything like that, basically. Now, you said earlier that it's also the context where you're hearing these infrared sounds. I mean, I guess if you go into, let's say, an old spooky church or something like that, are we already kind of picking up other signals that might make us feel a bit spooked? Absolutely. There's this idea.

of psychological priming. So if you walk into a big cathedral, for example, there's an expectation of the sort of experience you might have. If you walk into a spooky looking, you know, dilapidated, haunted house, there's an expectation. So you're primed to have a sort of experience. Now, in both of those different environments, you can be exposed to infrasound, but your interpretation of what's happening to you will vary. Parasicologist Kiran O'Keefe there. And if this is the type of thing, you're into, Kieran is a regular contributor to the podcast Uncanny, which is available wherever you get your BBC podcast from.

And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.com. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. And don't forget ask this to podcast, the global story which goes in depth and beyond the headlines on one big story. This edition of the Global News podcast was mixed by Zabuyla Karush and the producer was Will Chalk. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Ankara Desai.

Until next time, goodbye.