Here's what happened: On Saturday evening, a man carrying a shotgun, a handgun, and knives got close to the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where more than 2,000 guests, including the president of the United States, were enjoying the appetizer course at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. 'I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,' the would-be shooter purportedly wrote in a letter that was apparently written in the lead-up to his attack. He said his targets were Trump-administration officials, 'prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.' Terrifying, for sure. But here's what happened next: The assailant was intercepted by armed agents from the Secret Service before he came anywhere close to his intended victims. He was tackled, restrained, and arrested after sprinting past a security checkpoint, through which guests passed earlier in the evening. Shots were fired. The alleged assailant, later identified as Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, hit a Secret Service agent, whose bulletproof vest and cellphone protected him. The agent is recovering. The suspect is in custody. No one died. And the president, his Cabinet, and all other dinner guests left the ballroom safely....
In the chaotic swirl of events after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, doctors feared that Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson had suffered a heart attack upon arrival at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. The signs were ominous: Johnson's face was ashen, and he was clutching his chest. 'There was the real possibility that the No. 3 in the line of succession would become president,' the historian Michael Beschloss told me. Johnson was reportedly examined and a heart attack ruled out'but not before then'House Speaker John McCormack was told that he might be the next president. The declaration prompted a severe bout of vertigo in the 71-year-old. Few moments in history have so starkly exposed the vulnerabilities of the presidential line of succession'or the lack of clarity about how it is protected. Last night provided another illustration of them. If events at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner had gone differently, a gunman who breached security at the Washington Hilton could have reached a ballroom containing an unusually dense cluster of American power. The president and the vice president were seated a few feet apart. Congressional leadership and many Cabinet secretaries were also on hand. In other words, much of the presidential line of succession was in the same spot'and subject to the same vulnerabilities....
The past few months have been disastrous for cryptocurrencies. Even after bouncing back a bit on Friday, bitcoin is now down almost 50 percent from its all-time high in October, and other cryptocurrencies'including well-established ones such as ethereum and solana'have fallen far further. Crypto winters are nothing new: The biggest drop in bitcoin's history, in 2011, knocked 99 percent off its value. But this one feels especially painful, because it came at a moment when crypto enthusiasts thought they had finally made it. Donald Trump's election finally gave the industry a president who was avowedly crypto-friendly. Trump appointed regulators who, unlike those under Joe Biden, showed no interest in limiting crypto's spread or cracking down on crypto exchanges. In October, he pardoned the founder of the biggest crypto exchange, Binance, who had been convicted of violating U.S. law by failing to adequately prevent money laundering on the site. Trump even put out a crypto coin of his own days before his inauguration'the value of which, like most meme coins, skyrocketed before collapsing....
Teskey takes charge of the $1trn platform as Flatt shifts his focus to Brookfield Corp., where he is pursuing a strategy to build an investment-led insurance business. Flatt will continue as chair of Brookfield Asset Management. The leadership transition comes as Brookfield steps up fundraising across private markets. The firm raised $112bn over the past year, lifting fee-bearing capital to $603bn. Credit strategies accounted for about 65% of inflows, while infrastructure fundraising included $7bn, much of it linked to the group's AI infrastructure initiatives. 'Today's announcement is the next step in the succession process we started four years ago. This will set up our next generation of leaders who will guide the company in the coming decades,' said Flatt in a statement. Commenting on the 2025 results, Teskey said, '2025 was another record year for our business' across each of fundraising, deployment, and monetizations. ['] Looking ahead, we will have key flagship strategies in the market and a growing suite of complementary offerings, positioning us to drive sustained growth across multiple channels. This confidence supports our decision to increase our dividend by 15%.'...
