LAS VEGAS: Scientists are preparing to do a microscopic study of the Las Vegas gunman’s brain, but whatever they find, if anything, likely won’t be what led him to kill 58 people in the worst mass shooting in modern US history, experts said.
Stephen Paddock’s brain is being sent to Stanford University for a months-long examination after a visual inspection during an autopsy found no abnormalities, Las Vegas authorities said.
Doctors will perform multiple forensic analyzes, including an exam of the 64-year-old’s brain tissue to find any possible neurological problems.
The brain will arrive in California soon, and Stanford has been instructed to spare no expense for the work, The New York Times reported. It will be further dissected to determine if Paddock suffered from health problems such as strokes, blood vessel diseases, tumors, some types of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, degenerative disorders, physical trauma and infections.
Dr. Hannes Vogel, Stanford University Medical Center’s director of neuropathology, would not discuss the procedure with The Associated Press and referred questions to officials in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located. They also refused to provide details.
Vogel told The Times that he will leave nothing overlooked to put to rest much of the speculation on Paddock’s health as investigators struggle to identify a motive for the shooting.
The examination will come about a month after Paddock unleashed more than a thousand bullets through the windows of a 32nd floor suite at the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel into a crowd below attending an outdoor country music festival. After killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more, Paddock took his own life with a shot through his mouth, police say.
Investigators working around the clock remain frustrated by a lack of clues that would point to his motive. Authorities have resorted to putting up billboards in southern Nevada seeking tips and now the intensive brain study that medical experts say likely won’t yield definitive answers.
If a disease is found, experts say it would be false science to conclude it caused or perhaps even contributed to the massacre, even if that explanation would ease the minds of investigators and the world at large.
“There’s a difference between association and causality, and just because you have anything, doesn’t mean it does anything,” said Brian Peterson, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners and chief coroner of Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County.
The microscopic study is not a standard practice but is regularly used as needed. Families sometimes request such a detailed examination to better understand their own genetic risks.
Peterson said it’s also common in high-profile cases such as Paddock’s, where so much is riding on the results that all forensic options must be exhausted.
Douglas Fields, a neuroscientist who studies the rage circuit in brain systems, said horribly violent events, such as mass shootings and terrorism, rarely involve actual brain abnormalities but can be triggered by psychiatric problems.
Perpetrators often are suicidal psychopaths who are motivated to commit heinous crimes because they have internalized their isolation and anti-social behavior as an existential threat for themselves, he said.
“When police look for motive, it’s kind of misplaced in cases like this because they appear to be crimes of rage. There’s no motive for crimes of rage. It’s a crime of passion,” Fields said.
One such case involved the University of Texas shooter Charles Whitman, who fatally shot 13 people in 1966 from a clock tower on the Austin campus. Whitman was found to have a pecan-sized tumor in his brain, though the suggestion that it caused his rampage is still debated decades later.
Peterson, who is not involved in the Paddock case, said an initial inspection that is standard for any autopsy would generally include dissecting the brain at one-centimeter intervals to look for issues identifiable to the trained eye — infection, tumor, symmetry, bleeding and blood vessel abnormality.
A further study would involve a microscopic focus on the tissue cells, such as using stains to determine different types of dementia and other degenerative diseases, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is sometimes found in people who have suffered repetitive brain trauma.
There also would likely be a review of the brain at a molecular level though DNA, Peterson said.
Experts say the brain study on Paddock will be a worthy effort for scientific reasons.
Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, a psychiatry expert at Columbia University, said that at minimum, it might yield something even tangential that can be passed on to the public, such as awareness for psychological disorders or brain diseases.
“Are we ever going to know for certain what caused his brain to do that?” Appelbaum asked. “Probably not from a neuropathological examination, but it’s not unreasonable to ask and see whether it might contribute to our understanding of what occurred.”
Doctors prepare for deep dive into Las Vegas shooter’s brain
Doctors prepare for deep dive into Las Vegas shooter’s brain
South Korea confirms Ukraine captured 2 North Korean soldiers
- One of the captured soldiers revealed during interrogation that North Korean forces had experienced “significant losses during battle,” South Korea’s National Intelligence Service says
SEOUL: South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Sunday it confirmed Ukraine captured two wounded North Korean soldiers this week in Russia, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said they were being questioned.
“The NIS, through real-time cooperation with Ukraine’s intelligence agency (SBU) has identified battlefield situations, including the capture of North Korean soldiers, and confirmed that the Ukrainian military captured two North Korean soldiers on January 9 in the Kursk battlefield in Russia,” the NIS said in a statement.
Kyiv, the United States and South Korea have accused nuclear-armed North Korea of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.
Kyiv on Saturday did not present direct evidence that the captured men were North Korean and AFP was unable to independently verify their nationality.
But the South Korean confirmation adds weight to Kyiv’s account, while neither Russia nor North Korea has reacted.
The NIS said one of the captured soldiers revealed during his interrogation that he received military training from Russian forces after arriving there in November.
“He initially believed he was being sent for training, realizing upon arrival in Russia that he had been deployed,” the NIS said.
The soldier said North Korean forces had experienced “significant losses during battle.”
The SBU also said the men had told interrogators they were experienced army soldiers, and one said he was sent to Russia for training, not to fight.
The NIS said it would continue to work with the SBU to share information on North Korean fighters in Ukraine.
Judge who blocked release of Trump report was ‘plainly’ wrong, special counsel tells appeals court
- The department is hoping to release in the coming days one part of its two-volume report focused on Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden
WASHINGTON: The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to move swiftly in reversing a judge’s order that had blocked the agency from releasing any part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump.
The emergency motion late Friday is the latest back and forth in a court dispute over whether any portion of Smith’s report can be made public before Trump takes office Jan. 20. The push to release it before Trump’s inauguration reflects concerns that the Justice Department under the Trump administration, which will include members of his personal legal team in key leadership roles, would be in position to prevent the report from coming to light.
The Justice Department revealed in a separate filing on Saturday that Smith resigned from the department on Friday after having submitted his Trump report to the attorney general. The move had been expected.
The department is hoping to release in the coming days one part of its two-volume report focused on Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The department has said it will not publicly disclose a separate volume — about Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after he left the White House in January 2021 — as long as criminal proceedings against two of Trump’s co-defendants remain pending.
Both investigations resulted in indictments of Trump, though Smith’s team abandoned both cases in November after Trump’s election win. Smith cited Justice Department policy that bars the federal prosecution of a sitting president.
The Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals denied an emergency defense bid Thursday to block the release of the election interference report, which covers Trump’s efforts before Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, to undo the results of the 2020 election. The appeals court left in place an injunction from a Trump-appointed lower court judge, Aileen Cannon, that said none of the findings could be released until three days after the matter was resolved by the appeals court.
Lawyers for Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case, Trump valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, then asked Cannon to extend her injunction and to hold a hearing on the merits of their request to halt the release of the report.
The Justice Department responded late Friday by asking the appeals court to immediately lift Cannon’s injunction altogether. The filing noted that in addition to temporarily blocking the release of the election interference report, Cannon’s action also prevents officials from sharing the classified documents report privately with the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees.
Cannon’s order is “plainly erroneous,” according to the department’s motion.
“The Attorney General is the Senate-confirmed head of the Department of Justice and is vested with the authority to supervise all officers and employees of the Department,” the Justice Department said. “The Attorney General thus has authority to decide whether to release an investigative report prepared by his subordinates.”
Justice Department regulations call for special counsels to produce reports at the conclusion of their work, and it’s customary for such documents to be made public no matter the subject.
William Barr, attorney general during Trump’s first term, released a special counsel report examining Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and potential ties to the Trump campaign.
Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, has also released special counsel reports, including about Biden’s handling of classified information before Biden became president.
French far-right firebrand Le Pen buried in private ceremony
- The funeral was attended by his daughter Marine Le Pen, who took over her father’s political mantle, and other family members, political allies and close friends
LA TRINITÉ-SUR-MER, France: Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founder of France’s main postwar far-right movement, was buried Saturday in a private ceremony in his native Brittany amid tight security.
His funeral followed a mass in his hometown of La Trinite-sur-Mer in the western region.
The funeral was attended by his daughter Marine Le Pen, who took over her father’s political mantle, and other family members, political allies and close friends.
Authorities beefed up security ahead of the ceremony, with barriers erected around the cemetery and dozens of police mobilized.
Security was tightened and protests banned after hundreds took to the streets in Paris and other cities to pop champagne corks and celebrate 96-year-old Le Pen’s death on Tuesday.
Marine Le Pen and one of her two sisters, Marie-Caroline, walked the few hundred meters between the family home and the small church of Saint-Joseph under blue skies in front of a small crowd of onlookers and several dozen journalists.
Among others attending the ceremony was Jordan Bardella, the leader of the party Le Pen co-founded, now called the National Rally, according to several sources.
Around 200 people were expected at the church service, after which Le Pen was buried in the vault where his parents rest.
“It’s moving for me to pay my last respects to him here and to pray for the salvation of his soul,” said one of the guests, Bruno Gollnisch, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s one-time right-hand man.
“He was a joyful comrade!“
Some locals praised Le Pen’s devotion to France.
“I came to pay tribute to a man who served France and loved France,” one mourner said.
“We’ve come to pay tribute to a great man who had the courage to say things,” said another. “He was a visionary. He loved France and its people and they had values that are being lost, like love of the nation.”
On Friday, regional authorities issued an order banning demonstrations to avoid “the risk of disruption and counter-demonstrations likely to provoke clashes.”
Separately, a ceremony will take place on January 16 at the Notre Dame du Val-de-Grace church in Paris that will be open to the public.
Opponents on the left said they could not mourn the death of a “fascist.”
But the government condemned rallies celebrating Le Pen’s passing. Prime Minister Francois Bayrou described him as a “fighter” and “figure of French political life,” comments that caused consternation on the left.
Le Pen’s staunchly anti-immigration National Front (FN), founded in 1972, won its first seats in the National Assembly in 1984.
Then, in 2002, Le Pen burst onto the frontline of French politics by edging Socialist Lionel Jospin in presidential elections to make the run-off against right-winger Jacques Chirac.
Nicknamed “the devil of the Republic” by opponents, he was often openly racist, made no secret of anti-Semitic views — for which he received criminal convictions — and boasted of torturing prisoners during France’s war against Algeria.
His politician daughter Marine Le Pen rapidly took steps toward making the far right an electable force, renaming it the National Rally (RN) and embarking on a policy known as “dediabolization” (de-demonization).
She threw her father out of the party for his anti-Semitism but the pair had reconciled in recent years.
President Emmanuel Macron did not make any personal comment on Le Pen’s death. His office issued a terse written statement saying history would judge Le Pen and adding that the president sent his condolences to the family.
But Le Pen’s death marked a sign of his political rehabilitation among senior RN figures who rushed to hail his contribution.
“He always served France and defended its identity and sovereignty,” RN party chief Bardella, 29, said in a tribute mentioning none of the controversies that surrounded his life.
Australia state premier calls synagogue attack an escalation in anti-Semitic crime
- Australia has seen a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the last year, including graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney
SYDNEY: The premier of Australia’s New South Wales state Chris Minns said on Sunday that an attack on a Sydney synagogue on Saturday marked an escalation in anti-Semitic crime in the state, after police said the attack was attempted arson.
Australia has seen a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the last year, including graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney, as well as an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne that police ruled as terrorism.
In the latest incident, police were notified of anti-Semitic graffiti on a synagogue in the inner suburb of Newtown early on Saturday. An arson attempt was also made on the synagogue, police later said.
“This is an escalation in anti-Semitic crime in New South Wales. Police and the government remain very concerned that an accelerant may have been used,” Minns, the leader of Australia’s most populous state, said on Sunday in a televised media conference alongside state police commissioner Karen Webb.
“In the last 24 hours, these matters have now been taken over by counter-terrorism command,” Webb said.
A house in Sydney’s east, a hub of the city’s Jewish community, was also daubed with anti-Semitic graffiti, police said on Saturday, adding they were also probing offensive comments on a street poster in the suburb of Marrickville.
On Friday, a special police task force was set up to investigate an attack on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah in the early hours of Friday morning.
David Ossip, president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, said on Sunday he welcomed extra resources promised by the government to probe the recent incidents.
“The New South Wales government has also provided us with additional funding to enhance Jewish communal security,” Ossip added in a statement.
On Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, referring to the Southern Sydney Synagogue incident, said that there was “no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity.”
The number of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents have increased in Australia since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war on Gaza. Some Jewish organizations have said the government has not taken sufficient action in response.
Biden honors Pope Francis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Biden is preparing to leave office Jan. 20 and has doled out honors to prominent individuals, including supporters and allies, in recent weeks
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Saturday honored Pope Francis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the highest civilian award given by the president, saying the pontiff was “a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world.”
Biden had been scheduled to present the medal to the pope in person on Saturday in Rome on what was to be the final overseas trip of his presidency, but Biden canceled his travel plans so he could monitor the wildfires in California.
The White House said Biden bestowed the award to the pope during a phone call in which they also discussed efforts to promote peace and alleviate suffering around the world.
It’s the only time Biden has presented the honor with distinction during his presidency. Biden himself is a recipient of the award with distinction, recognized when he was vice president by then-President Barack Obama in a surprise ceremony eight years ago. That was the only time in Obama’s two terms when he awarded that version of the medal.
The citation for the pope says “his mission of serving the poor has never ceased. A loving pastor, he joyfully answers children’s questions about God. A challenging teacher, he commands us to fight for peace and protect the planet. A welcoming leader, he reaches out to different faiths.”
Biden is preparing to leave office Jan. 20 and has doled out honors to prominent individuals, including supporters and allies, in recent weeks.
