BROWN SHOOTING SUSPECT DEAD: The suspect in the shooting at Brown University that claimed the lives of two students and wounded nine others has been found dead, authorities announced Thursday night.
Officials said 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente, a former Brown student, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. They believe Valente was also responsible for the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor that happened two days after the Brown shooting.
Police said they tracked down Valente after someone came forward with information about him. Authorities reportedly found him with a satchel, two firearms and evidence matching the crime scene in Salem, N.H.
“That person led us to the car, which led us to the name, which led us to the photographs of that individual renting the car, which matched the clothing of our shooter here in Providence, that matched the satchel,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said.
A manhunt carried on for days to find the suspect in the shooting. Officials initially detained one person of interest before releasing them and gradually closing in on the suspect.
Authorities said Neves Valente was a permanent legal resident from Portugal and attended Brown as a physics graduate student more than two decades ago and was living in Miami before the shooting.
He reportedly attended the same academic program with MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in Portugal in the late 1990s. Loureiro was shot at his home in Brookline, Mass., on Monday and died the next day.
▪ The New York Times: A Reddit post led to a breakthrough in the Brown shooting investigation.
▪ The Providence Journal: What to know about the shooting victims.
▪ CBS News: Why the manhunt was unusual.
TRUMP MOVE BLOWS UP FUNDING DEAL: A potential deal that could have greatly reduced the chances of another government shutdown happening next month fell apart Thursday over Democratic objections to the president’s attempt to gut a key climate agency.
The so-called minibus, made up of five appropriations bills, was set to fund the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, Justice, Interior, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development.
Senators on the Appropriations Committee estimated that if the legislation passed, it would have funded about 85 to 90 percent of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year, essentially eliminating the possibility of a government shutdown at the end of January.
But Democratic Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper objected to moving forward over Trump’s plan to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a top research institution specializing in climate science, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports.
A Democratic senator involved in negotiations told Bolton that the attempt to dismantle the agency based in Boulder, Colo., was a “stick of dynamite” that doomed any breakthrough on government spending.
“It blew everything up,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, while acknowledging the research center is "a big deal" for her home state, where fishing and tourism are major industries.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) had embarked on a major effort to get the spending package passed before Christmas, and the legislation had seemed to be on a path toward success earlier in the day.
But Bennett and Hickenlooper took the lead in objecting to it moving forward.
▪ The Hill: GOP keeps the door open on health care deal.
▪ The Hill: Five takeaways from the surprising inflation decline.
HEGSETH’S WINGS TRIMMED: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget is officially limited after Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday.
The annual defense policy bill includes a provision withholding a quarter of Hegseth’s travel budget until he provides lawmakers with the unedited footage of the military’s multistrike attack on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in early September.
Hegseth has refused to release the video despite the scrutiny on the strikes, which killed two survivors clinging to the boat’s wreckage following an initial strike.
▪ The Hill: Senate Republican says ‘no evidence’ of war crimes in boat strikes.
KENNEDY CENTER CHAOS: Members of former President John F. Kennedy’s family and Democrats are pushing back against the move to rename the Kennedy Center as the Trump-Kennedy Center.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that the center’s board, which was handpicked by Trump, voted unanimously to rename the center that had been established as a living tribute to the country’s 35th president following his assassination.
Trump told reporters that he was “surprised and honored” upon hearing of the name change.
“The board is a very distinguished board, the most distinguished people in the country. We saved the building because it was in such bad shape, physically, financially, and in every other way, and now it’s very solid, very strong,” he said.
Trump ushered in sweeping changes to the center after returning to office, firing several members of the board and replacing them with loyalists including Wiles, Bondi and Vice President Vance. The board named Trump the center’s chair, and Trump appointed his special envoy Richard Grenell as the interim executive director.
The shifts led to multiple resignations from the center and backlash from members of the Kennedy family at the time.
Several high-profile members of the family spoke out again Thursday against the name change push.
“The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law,” former Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) said in post on the social platform X. “It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.”
“President Kennedy proudly stood for justice, peace, equality, dignity, diversity, and compassion for those who suffer,” Kerry Kennedy, the niece of the former president, wrote on X. “President Trump stands in opposition to these values, and his name should not be placed alongside President Kennedy’s.”
Some also raised questions about Leavitt’s assertion that the vote was unanimous.
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the board, said she was on the call when the vote happened but was muted every time she tried to speak, preventing her from raising questions or voicing opposition.
“Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns,” she said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) also argued the name change could only happen through an act of Congress. Federal law establishing the center designates it as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, possibly opening the window to a legal battle.
▪ Axios: Democrats rage over renaming.
GOP REJECTS MARIJUANA MOVE: Almost half of the Senate Republican Conference sent a sternly worded letter to the president on Thursday pushing back on his move to downgrade marijuana, or cannabis, in the federal drug classification.
Trump signed an executive order earlier in the day to order the rescheduling of marijuana from the Schedule I category, which includes substances not considered to have any accepted medical uses, to the Schedule III category. Substances in the latter category are considered to have potential medical benefits and are believed to have a “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”
The move doesn’t legalize marijuana or have any effect on criminal penalties for its use, but it opens the door to more research on the substance and allows marijuana businesses to deduct expenses or add credits to their annual federal taxes.
The order directs the attorney general to expedite the completion of the rescheduling process that begun during the Biden administration but was left unfinished when former President Biden left office.
But Republican senators argued in the letter that marijuana should remain a Schedule I drug, in line with drugs such as heroin, because of its “high potential for abuse” and lack of approval from the Food and Drug Administration. They noted studies show the substance has been linked to depression, anxiety, suicide planning and psychotic episodes.
They also cited warnings that marijuana users are more likely to be involved in car accidents as studies show it impairs motor skills.
North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd (R) spearheaded the letter along with members of Republican leadership such as Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (Wyo.), conference Chair Tom Cotton (Ark.) and Policy Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.).
▪ Reuters: Trump sparks cannabis industry hopes with order.
TRUMP VS. GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE: The Trump administration is seeking to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors nationwide with a new plan from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The proposal from the department would require hospitals and doctors that perform gender-affirming care for minors to forgo federal Medicare and Medicaid funding, even in states where the procedure is legal.
“The Trump administration will not stand by while ideology, misinformation and propaganda push vulnerable young people into decisions they cannot fully understand and that they can never reverse,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a press conference. “This is not medicine. It is malpractice.”
Trump made cracking down on gender-affirming care a key campaign promise on the trail last year.
One rule under the proposal would prohibit Medicaid from covering any medical care provided to transgender patients younger than 18 years old and prevent reimbursements through the Children’s Health Insurance Program for gender-affirming care for patients younger than 19.
Because almost every hospital in the country relies on Medicare funding, the rule would likely make this treatment inaccessible nationwide if finalized.
The proposed rules are subject to a 60-day public comment period and would likely face legal challenges.
But it has a better chance of going into effect than the bill from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that the House passed Wednesday to criminalize the procedure nationwide. The bill is unlikely to advance in the Senate, with Democratic votes needed to reach the 60-vote threshold.
