MAGA warrior Kari Lake and plenty of other attendees Saturday night criticized the lack of robust security at the Washington Hilton after a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with President Donald Trump in attendance.

But Lake, the senior advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media, was not alone in questioning how a gunman could have made it so close to Trump, first lady Melania, Vice President JD Vance and nearly the entire line of succession to the U.S. presidency.

“I can’t believe how lax the security was at the White House correspondents dinner tonight,” Lake posted on X. “Upon entering, nobody asked to visibly INSPECT my ticket nor asked for my photo identification.”

The tickets for the dinner, which is hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association, did not have specific names. In addition, attendees only had to go through one round of magnetometers for the actual ballroom where the dinner took place, but not for the hotel building as a whole.

Authorities named the suspected shooter as Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old resident of Torrance, California. He is in custody after being tackled to the ground while allegedly firing one of his weapons.

By contrast, to attend many of the pre-parties and after parties around DC ahead of and during the big weekend, attendees often have to be on a list, have their name checked or present a photo identification.

Similarly, Mads Campbell, CEO of Leda Health, said there was “no bag check. no real screening. no line. just thousands of people packed together, being pushed through the doors as fast as possible.”

She wrote: “It started the second we got there. every event we’ve ever been to, especially at this level, there are layers of security. bags checked, IDs checked, actual process.” She said that she left early because “my best friend literally turns to me and says, ‘I think something is going to happen.’ And then it did”

Caty Payette, a communications director for Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), echoed the sentiment.

“I was there this evening and there was no security to be admitted to the lobby of the hotel,” she said on X. “Guests had to simply flash a ticket to a pre-event party or the dinner itself to be let into the premises, which in hindsight was alarming.”

But reporter Carolina Lumetta had a different perspective.

“I was there. I had to show my ticket in the hotel lobby,” she said. “Then I went downstairs a flight of stairs and went through a security mag and had my purse searched. Then we went down one more flight of stairs (where the gunman was apprehended), and entered the ballroom.”

CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer, who was feet away from the shooter when he opened fire in the lobby, said that there had been additional security and noted how security threw him down and tackled him as the shooting began.

The banquet hall — where hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities and national leaders were awaiting Trump’s remarks — was immediately evacuated. Members of the National Guard took up position inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not immediately reenter. Security outside was also extremely tight.

Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, a guest at the dinner, said he heard a pop and “we didn’t know what the hell it was. And then you heard all sorts of things clatter.” Lawler said he gets “death threats often” and said, “I think we live in a climate where everybody recognizes it’s a problem, but I don’t think people fully appreciate how much of a problem it really is.”

Video posted by Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was tackled to the ground and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said.

Inside the ballroom, guests scurried for cover at the sound of shots while Secret Service agents, including the heavily-armed counterassault team, swarmed the stage after the incident.

Vice President JD Vance was removed from the room first, while agents initially covered Trump in place before escorting him and first lady Melania Trump from the room. Trump briefly stumbled on the way offstage, before being assisted by his security detail.

He was held for some time in a secure presidential suite at the hotel as the president and organizers initially sought to resume the event — hotel staff refolded napkins and refilled water glasses, and aides adjusted the teleprompter for the president — before Trump was returned to the White House on the advice of the Secret Service.

The shooting raises serious security concerns. Generally, the Hilton hotel, where the dinner has taken place for years, remains open to regular guests during the correspondents’ dinner, and security has typically been focused on the ballroom rather than the hotel at large, with little screening for people not entering the dinner itself. In past years, that has created openings for disruptions in the lobby and other public spaces, including protests in which security moved to remove guests who unfurled banners or staged demonstrations.

In 1981, a John Hinckley Jr. opened fire and almost killed President Ronald Reagan at the same hotel.

In addition, during the 2024 campaign, the president had two separate attempts on his life.

After the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024, where a gunman shot Trump, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle reasigned. Secret Service has long been plagued by scandal, such as in 2012, when Secret Service agents hired sex workers in Colombia.

In 2014, the agency received additional scrutiny when a man jumped the fence of the White House. Shortly thereafter, two drunk Secret Service agents would be investigated for drunkenly driving a government car into a White House barricade.

— with wires

Aries 0904 470 1141 (65p per minute)*

Taurus 0904 470 1142 (65p per minute)*

Gemini 0904 470 1143 (65p per minute)*

Cancer 0904 470 1144 (65p per minute)*

Leo 0904 470 1145 (65p per minute)*

Virgo 0904 470 1146 (65p per minute)*

Libra 0904 470 1147 (65p per minute)*

Scorpio 0904 470 1148 (65p per minute)*

Sagittarius 0904 470 1149 (65p per minute)*

Capricorn 0904 470 1150 (65p per minute)*

Aquarius 0904 470 1151 (65p per minute)*

Pisces 0904 470 1152 (65p per minute)*

*Astro line horoscopes are updated every Thursday. Calls cost 65p per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge and will last approximately five minutes. You must be over 18 and have the bill payer’s permission. Service provided by Spoke. Customer service: 0333 202 3390

A server at the Washington Hilton described the moment she saw a suspected gunman rush toward security at the White House Correspondents Dinner where President Donald Trump and other Cabinet members were present.

Flavienne, a server at the venue, told The Independent how she was pushing a service cart into an elevator with another female employee on Saturday night when a man dressed in a suit to blend in with attendees took out a long gun and opened fire at least three times.

“The lady was behind me, she was working with me. She [was trying to] push the cart [in the elevator]…The guy passed just close to her. Just like you pass like this — and then he pulled out the gun, the long gun. He shot that gun immediately, like three shots.”

A man with short brown curly hair, identified in a picture posted by President Donald Trump on Truth Social, was taken into custody by law enforcement. He was identified as a 31-year-old California man named Cole Tomas Allen by law enforcement sources. A Secret Service agent was shot in the incident, but is expected to be OK. The suspect was apprehended before getting to the ballroom where Trump was on stage. He has been detained and charged with two federal crimes.

Journalists and VIPs at Saturday night’s even were looking forward to Donald Trump’s first attendance at the annual celebration of the Washington press corps., and the performance of Oz Pearlman, the evening’s headliner.

Instead, a scene of shock, confusion and panic played out only moments after the national anthem ended and color Guard filed out of the ballroom.

Five loud, unmistakable gunshots rang out from the hallway area immediately connected to the central entrance of the main ballroom. The New York Times reported that a 31-year-old California man named Cole Tomas Allen was taken into custody at the scene.

A security guard who prevented journalists from seeing the hallway where the shooting took place was unable to describe it to reporters who clustered around the exit, eager for details about the scene.

But Flavienne told The Independent that she was mere feet from the attacker as he passed by her and another worker, headed to the main ballroom.

“I pushed my cart, and the lady behind me tried to wait for me to push. I’m trying to help the lady to push the cart, because the cart was big and heavy. So that guy just passed. He just passed like three feet. He pulled up the cart — that’s when he shot,” said Flavienne, who was visibly distraught and in shock from what she’d witnessed. “I’m just feeling like [I need] to get out. Feeling too much emotion like, I’m feeling like this is one I get to saw [like] that on the movie I never, never be [seeing it] happening, right? “

“They said he was dressed up like a server,” another worker at the venue commented as Flavienne recounted her experience.

Images of the detained man depicted him shirtless, though the sequence of the events leading up to the photos weren’t immediately clear.

A state of confusion hung over the dinner for roughly an hour following the shooting. In the very first minutes after the gunshots rang out, VIPs including Trump and Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel and Sen. John Fetterman were seen being rushed from the ballroom.

Initially, it appeared that the president and others would be returning in an attempt to make a show of bravery following the chaos. But the White House Correspondents Association’s president, CBS News White House correspondent Weijia Jang, later informed attendees that law enforcement had directed the building be cleared.

As crowds spilled out into the D.C. streets, a light drizzle rained down on some tuxedoed and gowned attendees searching for rideshare vehicles and other means of transportation. An extended security perimeter around the Washington Hilton prevented some from reaching a nearby Metro station, and halted hotel guests seeking to return to their rooms.

The president addressed reporters from the White House briefing room only minutes after the assembled White House press corps was released from the underground ballroom of the Washington Hilton complex.

Trump confirmed to reporters that one law enforcement operative was struck by a round fired by the suspect during the attack, but was “saved by the fact that he was wearing obviously a very good bulletproof vest.”

US police say the suspected gunman at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner had multiple weapons on him when he charged a security checkpoint.

Surveillance video released by Donald Trump shows the suspect running past metal detectors as security agents draw their guns.

Washington DC police chief Jeffery W Carroll said officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect and one US secret service officer was “struck in his vest”. He was taken to hospital and is said to be “in good spirits”.

The suspect, who police called a “lone gunman”, was not struck by gunfire, but has also been transported to hospital to be evaluated.

Read the latest here.

President Donald Trump was unharmed and other top White House officials were evacuated from an annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association after a man armed with guns and knives stormed the lobby and opened fire.

The shooting suspect was taken into custody and identified as Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. A motive was not immediately known, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said charges related to Saturday night’s attack will be filed shortly.

___

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

US President Donald Trump was rushed to safety from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner after gunshots rang out at the venue.

The President and First Lady Melania Trump appeared to be part way through a conversation at the Washington Hilton when he was interrupted by a commotion at the White House table.

Loud bangs could be heard and then various secret service members escorted the president away from the venue as they called out “stay down, stay down”.

The president, first lady and all other protectees are safe, the Secret Service said later, after seven to eight gunshots were fired.

Follow our live updates here.

As I sat in my pyjamas, watching the assisted dying bill fail in the House of Lords, all I could think was: ‘bother.’

I suspect I’ll be getting more requests than ever from my paying clients to euthanise them. It’s not an unusual proposition I get as a sex worker.

Men have asked me — half-playfully and half in earnest — whether I might help them exit stage left, ideally in a way that feels less clinical than a hospital bed. As one of my regulars, 72-year-old Les, put it, it might feel like a ‘bloody big sexy bang’ to end a life on.

The first time a client asked me to kill him five years ago, the request was delivered lightly, almost flirtatiously, as though he were testing the limits of what might be on offer. But he kept returning to it calmly, as if we were negotiating a service.

He wanted to know whether I’d ever take things ‘too far’ during breath play, and whether I’d know how to make sure he didn’t come back from it.

Since then, I’ve heard it enough that it no longer surprises me. I wouldn’t call it common, exactly, but it’s certainly not rare. Other sex workers I know have had similar requests, sometimes accompanied by offers of money, sometimes something more theatrical: promises of inheritance, of being written into wills, of making it ‘worth my while’.

I can’t help these men. You can’t consent to a smacked bottom in this country, still less being killed, and any sex-related death would invite immediate and intense scrutiny. These things are vanishingly rare, which makes them impossible to disguise. Just 17 Brits have had cardiac arrests during sex in three decades according to St George’s University of London.

Chemsex deaths are more frequent at a rate of about three a month in London, according to ITV, but it’s still a small number when 460 people die of cancer every day in the UK.

Then there are the tiresome practicalities: the unglamorous realities that intrude on fantasy. Disposing of a body would is quite a faff. Questions get asked, things unravel.

The men interest me more than the logistics: I’m actually quite squeamish.

All this doesn’t stop men from trying to opt-out via dominatrix. Les takes me to lunch once a month when his pension comes in. The rest of the time he lives on bread and jam.

‘I don’t want to die yet,’ he tells me. ‘Too much to do. But when I get to that age — 80, maybe — I’d like to die between your thighs. You’ve got cancer to pick from, or dementia. I don’t fancy any of that.

‘But if we do it, you must make sure I’m not quite a corpse before you get me to your car, OK? Corpse disposal — that would be the main problem.’

He makes a compelling argument. It would be more fun than cancer.

‘I asked another Mistress if she’d kill me too. We went to The Ritz last month. She said, you’re fifth in the queue,’ he adds.

A few other men have asked me to euthanise them, should they grow ill. They are not all Les, though there are plenty like him: older, alone, rationing small pleasures across the month.

Others are younger, carrying a kind of flat, persistent unhappiness. A few mention illness and a desire to avoid indignity. Not all of them want to die now. Mostly they want a sense of control over how things might end, and the hope that they won’t be alone when it does.

The overlap between sex, control and risk is hardly new. For some, the idea of dying in an intimate, heightened moment feels preferable to the slow fade of illness or the impersonality of institutional care. It’s less about death, more about rewriting the script around it.

When men suggest I euthanise them, I don’t treat it as a genuine proposition to be negotiated. But I don’t dismiss it outright either.

Sometimes I’ll gently steer them elsewhere — towards a GP, a counsellor, a helpline — though I don’t always feel it’s my place to intervene beyond that.

I’m not a therapist. What I am, occasionally, is a sounding board for things they don’t feel able to say anywhere else. Sometimes I jokingly suggest they rewrite their wills and we’ll consider the killing later. So far no one’s been daft enough to fall for that.

Orgasm has long been called ‘la petite mort’ – the little death. A safe, reversible one. But no one is dying between my thighs. Not permanently.

Do you have a story to share?

Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.

MORE: I was in the LDS church — it’s nothing like The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives

MORE: ‘We won’t give up on assisted dying until Parliament is willing to make change’

MORE: The disrespectful pre-wedding tradition that can ‘undermine’ a marriage before it begins

The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was thrown into chaos after a lone gunman opened fire at the high-profile event Saturday night.

While the motive remains a question, the suspected shooter has been identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, California, according to The New York Times.

President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and other members of the administration were rushed from the Washington Hilton’s ballroom as guests scrambled for cover during the shocking incident at the Washington Hilton. Allen had rushed security guards and fired a shot, hitting one Secret Service Agent. The suspect was then subdued by officers and taken into custody.No guests at the dinner were hurt and the event was later canceled.

Here’s what we know so far about the man police said fired shots at the dinner:

Who is the suspected gunman?

The New York Times, citing multiple law enforcement sources, identified the suspect Allen, a 31-year-old from Torrance, California.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said that the assailant had been apprehended and posted a photo of a man lying down on the ground at the hotel.

“They seem to think he’s a lone wolf, and I feel that too,” Trump said at a press briefing after the event.

The president also posted surveillance footage of the suspect running past the hotel’s security checkpoint. Trump said he did so for “transparency” and to highlight the speed with which agents reacted to the threat.

At a press briefing later at the White House, Trump called the suspect “a sick person” and said investigators were on their way to his apartment.

How did he get a gun into the facility?

How the suspect got the gun near the facility remains unclear.

DC Metro Police Chief Jeffery W. Carroll said they believe Allen was staying at the Washington Hill hotel, where the event was being held.

“We have secured a room here in the hotel, and again, we’ll go through the appropriate procedures to determine what was inside there,” Carroll told the media.

Officers had secured the room and investigators believe the suspect acted alone in the incident. Video showed Allen running toward a security checkpoint when he fired at least one shot. A Secret Service agent was hit and Carroll continued his sprint. He was apprehended off camera, but police say he was not shot. He was stopped before he got to the ballroom where Trump and other cabinet members were in attendance.

What is he being charged with?

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C, said the suspect was being charged with two counts: using a firearm during a crime of violence, and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.

Pirro said that the defendant would be arraigned in federal court on Monday.

Salah walked off slowly and soaked up the adulation of an adoring Anfield crowd, applauding all four stands amid fears that the Liverpool icon – who will leave the club on a free transfer in the summer – may now have played the final game of his illustrious nine-year career on Merseyside, with only four matches left to go this term.

Emergency services were called to the junction of Burnthouse Lane and Long Lane at rush-hour on Friday.

A male is being treated in hospital.

Here is everything we know about the incident so far:

Where did the crash happen?

The crash happened at the junction of Burnthouse Lane and Long Lane between Cockfield and Staindrop.

A bike and a car were involved in the incident, which was first reported at 5.44pm on Friday.

Did emergency services attend?

Both the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) and Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) were called to the scene.

A NEAS spokesperson said: “We received a call to 999 on Friday, April 24, at 5.44pm to reports of a road traffic collision between a bike and a car at the junction of Burnthouse Lane and Long Lane in the Staindrop area. 

“We sent a rapid response paramedic, an emergency ambulance crew and the air ambulance.

“One male patient was taken by GNAAS to James Cook hospital for further treatment.”

GNAAS confirmed they attended the scene.

A spokesperson said: “We were activated at 5.47pm on Friday, April 24, to a road traffic collision in Cockfield.

“We had a doctor and two paramedics on board our aircraft who, upon arrival on scene, assessed and treated a patient and airlifted them to hospital.

“The flight from scene to hospital took 12 minutes.”

Were police called?

It is not yet known if police were called to the scene.

The Northern Echo contacted Durham Police for comment.