A legitimate Islamic State group propaganda video posted on social media last week features brief footage of the Las Vegas Strip while calling for lone-wolf terrorist attacks, and Las Vegas police are treating it as a credible threat.
The video is about 44 minutes long, which is unusual because Islamic State group propaganda videos are often much shorter, according to a representative with SITE Intelligence Group, a nongovernmental counterterrorism organization.
Similar, shorter Islamic State group propaganda videos are posted daily, the representative said.
The video featuring the Las Vegas Strip was posted last Wednesday on Telegram, a cloud-based instant messaging service, the representative said. It showcases the Islamic State group’s newly developed weapons, and its final scene has a series of shots, including the Las Vegas Strip and New York’s Times Square, while a narrator calls for general lone-wolf attacks in America, Europe and Russia.
While terrorism may top President Donald Trump’s agenda, European leaders keep pressing him on climate change and the environment.
French President Emmanuel Macron worked on Trump during lunch Thursday, urging the U.S. president not to ditch the 196-nation Paris Agreement on climate change before getting on a plane to Sicily, Italy.
“My wish is that the United States takes no hurried decision,” Macron said Thursday after meeting with Trump in Brussels.
Trump arrived to this seaside community late Thursday for the Group of Seven conference where allies will talk about a series of issues from trade to Russia. But Trump’s position on the Paris accord—particularly his pledge to leave the accord—is one of the most urgent matters for European leaders, who are committed to keep the Americans involved.
Ever since he left the Middle East, Trump has been reminded how important the issue is to U.S. friends in Europe.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis handed Trump his 181-page encyclical, “Laudato Si” (“Praise Be”), that largely blames man for climate change.
The Paris agreement challenges countries of the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming. The accord, which went into force in November 2016, is considered the world's most comprehensive plan to date for fighting climate change.
The administration delayed its decision until after its five-country, nine-day foreign trip through the Middle East and Europe. Allies have taken the opportunity to try to take the administration’s temperature on the issue and press him during their time in this beautiful ancient city on the importance of protecting the earth.
Senate Democrats joined the push. In anticipation of the conference, 40 Senate Democrats signed a letter to the president urging him not back out of the international agreement.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters on Air Force One on Wednesday that a decision on the agreement had yet to be made.
He called it a “difficult balancing act” to address climate change while keeping the economy thriving.
“We're still thinking about that,” Tillerson said. “He hasn't made a final decision.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will also be at the G7, told supporters Tuesday at a meeting on the environment that she would press the administration.
Masked militants riding in three SUVs opened fire Friday on a bus packed with Coptic Christians, including many children, south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 28 and wounding 25, the Interior Ministry said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the fourth to target Christians since December, but it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group.
Islamic militants have for years been waging an insurgency mostly centered in the restive northern part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, although a growing number of attacks have recently also taken place on the mainland.
The assault happened while the bus was traveling on a side road in the desert leading to the remote monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Maghagha, in Minya governorate, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of Cairo.
Security officials quoted witnesses as saying they saw between eight and 10 attackers, dressed in military uniforms and wearing masks. The victims were en route from the nearby province of Beni Suef to visit the monastery.
Khaled Mogahed, the Health Ministry spokesman, said the death toll stood at 26 but feared it could rise further. According to Copts United news portal, only three children survived the attack. It was not immediately known if most or all of the victims were children.
Arab TV stations showed images of a badly damaged bus along a roadside, many of its windows shattered. Ambulances were parked around it as bodies lay on the ground, covered with black plastic sheets.
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