By JACK BROOK

The Utah college where conservative leader Charlie Kirk was assassinated lacked several key public safety measures and practices that have become standard safeguards for security at events around the country, an Associated Press review has found.

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Utah Valley University’s outdoor courtyard, where Kirk showed up on Sept. 10 to debate students, was surrounded by several tall buildings, leaving Kirk vulnerable. That was made all the more potent because campus police didn’t fly a drone to monitor rooftops or coordinate with local law enforcement to secure the event. It deployed only six officers from a force that was already small for a campus its size. There were no bag checks or metal detectors.

A sniper took position on a nearby roof and killed Kirk with a single shot about 20 minutes after the event began, escaping notice from campus police.

Security at Utah Valley University will come into sharper focus in the coming months as lawmakers and the public seek answers about what could have been done differently.

“Absolutely there were security failures; it left him exposed,” said Greg Shaffer, who oversaw Kirk’s security from 2015 to 2022. “It was egregious enough that someone was able to take advantage and kill him.”

In an interview, the AP asked the university president, Astrid Tuminez, if there was a security failure on campus surrounding the Kirk assassination. “Somebody was killed and that’s a tragedy, I think that’s what I would say right now,” she responded. Tuminez declined to answer more detailed questions about campus security, citing a pending external review. A university spokesperson also declined to answer questions about staffing, equipment, security planning and budgets.

No drones monitoring rooftops

The day Kirk spoke at UVU, it was clear and sunny — the perfect weather for a drone to have had a clear view of the roofs of the surrounding buildings, including where the assassin fired a deadly shot from a bolt action rifle at Kirk from about 400 feet away.

But no drone had been deployed, though security experts said rooftop sniper attacks were a clear threat. That was evident as recently as last year when a rooftop gunman in Butler, Pennsylvania, fired shots at a rally held by President Donald Trump during his campaign, killing one, injuring two and wounding Trump.

Ty Richmond, president of event services for security firm Allied Universal, said the attempted assassination Trump exposed the risk of failing to secure elevated areas. He said drones, which cost as little as $2,000, and video surveillance should be part of the tools used to assess and address threats at any outdoor event.

“It was either not done comprehensively or not done at all, because that should have been a natural ability to identify and detect any high ground risk and exposures that you would have in a situation like that,” Richmond said.

The UVU campus had numerous cameras, including at least one overlooking the buildings around the courtyard. A university spokesperson declined to say whether someone was actively monitoring it or if it was operating.

A smaller than average police force

UVU has an enrollment of 48,000 students, though Tuminez said that includes 16,000 students who are in high school and don’t take classes on campuses.

The university has 23 police officers, or one for every 1,400 on-campus students, according to a 2024 UVU report. The average public university has around one officer for every 500 students, according to a 2024 U.S. Department of Justice study.

“There is not a campus police department in this country that could provide the level of security necessary for a large scale outdoor event with 3,000 people,” said S. Daniel Carter, a campus safety consultant. “They would need help, typically from a local law enforcement agency.”

UVU had six campus police officers present at the event along with Kirk’s personal security detail, campus police Chief Jeffrey Long said after the shooting. Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray said during a news conference that a UVU police officer had been watching the crowd from an “elevated position.”

Officials at the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and Orem Police Department, both of which have drones, said they were not involved in security for the event.

A UVU spokesperson said unlike other schools with larger security staffs, they don’t have dormitories to secure. However, other Utah schools of similar size with largely commuter populations have higher ratios of officers to students.

Weber State University, a mostly commuter public school with more than 33,000 students, about half of whom are also enrolled in high school, has a public safety drone and 41 full and part-time police officers. And the University of Utah, with 36,000 primarily commuter students, has 46 officers.

Overall spending on public safety varied at those universities in 2025 — $2.3 million at Weber State and $16.2 million at the University of Utah where a 2018 murder of a student led to more spending on security. UVU officials declined to share a current budget for their department, but a legislative audit showed $1.6 million was earmarked for public safety in 2020 out of a nearly $250 million campus budget.

Safety resources didn’t match school’s growth

UVU, located between Salt Lake City suburbs and Brigham Young University in Provo, grew from a community college of less than 9,000 in the early 1990s to roughly 48,000 this year thanks to the addition of four-year degrees and campus expansions. But public safety failed to keep up, said two former campus public safety leaders. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions.

Val Peterson, UVU’s vice president for administration & strategic relations, rejected pleas for more safety resources, including hiring more officers and offering higher salaries to keep skilled personnel, the former public safety leaders said. Peterson, who is also a Republican state lawmaker leading state appropriations, oversees UVU’s public safety and has been with the university for more than 30 years.

Both former campus public safety officials each recalled Peterson telling them multiple times in meetings related to public safety funding about a decade ago that because a shooting had not occurred on campus in decades, it would not happen in the future. Peterson believed the sleepy campus was safe from harm, they said. UVU’s president declined to comment on Peterson’s alleged remarks.

Former UVU police Sgt. Bryan Cunningham also recalled those comments and, he said, officers warned the administration in budget discussions related to public safety that the campus could be the scene of an “active shooter nightmare” due to its layout and understaffed police department.

Peterson did not respond to requests for comment sent by phone and email to his private and public offices.

A sub-par emergency response system

At the time of the shooting, the university was without a fire marshal to help plan for safety at large events. And as recently as 2023, two of the university’s three emergency radio channels did not meet state standards for signal strength, according to an internal review shared with the AP. The review did not include information about the third channel.

FILE – Charlie Kirk hands out hats before speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP, File)

Patchy reception was a serious problem that could hamper public safety personnel from coordinating during emergencies, one of the former campus public safety officials noted.

The university boosted the signal at one building in the past year, Utah Communications Authority Executive Director Tina Mathieu said. She was not aware of any other improvements.

A university spokesperson didn’t respond to questions about campus emergency radio signal strength.

Campus safety assessments removed from proposed state law

Utah lawmakers pushed to improve public school security after the deadly 2022 elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, by creating a task force, appointing a state security chief and requiring an “armed guardian” be present at every public school. They also mandated all K-12 schools conduct rigorous safety assessments.

Rep. Ryan Wilcox, a Republican who chairs the task force, introduced legislation this year to require public universities to conduct the same assessments, but the provision was removed by the state senate.

“I don’t believe the provision in the bill would have changed the outcome of the current situation,” said Republican Sen. Ann Millner, who co-chairs the task force. She said that public universities should be entrusted to implement their own public safety practices “aligned with institutional realities” and that any assessments would likely have taken a long time to complete.

But Wilcox said the lack of mandatory security assessments can allow for vulnerabilities to go unnoticed: “Because those assessments haven’t been done, I don’t know what I don’t know about how prepared we are.”

“We’re going to learn everything we can possibly learn from that,” he said of Kirk’s death. “It’s a complete disaster.”

Associated Press reporter Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed to this report. Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

By SAMY MAGDY and MELANIE LIDMAN

CAIRO (AP) — Israeli forces killed at least 31 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, local hospitals said, as questions churned about U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan aimed at ending the nearly two-year war in Gaza.

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Hamas announced it would review the proposal with group members and other Palestinian factions before reaching a decision.

But Qatar, a key mediator with Hamas, said further talks were needed to work out the details of the proposal. It was a sign further negotiations could be ahead, even as Trump told reporters Tuesday that Hamas has “three or four days” to respond.

Arab mediators, along with Turkish officials, are scheduled to meet with Hamas representatives Tuesday in the Qatari capital Doha to discuss the plan, said the spokesman for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, Majed Al Ansari.

While the proposal offers an end to the fighting, guarantees the flow of humanitarian aid and promises reconstruction, the Palestinian group will have to disarm, something it has rejected in the past. Also, Gaza and its more than 2 million Palestinians would be put under international governance for the foreseeable future.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backs the plan, and several leaders of Arab countries have applauded it.

Palestinians are skeptical

Many Palestinians in the decimated coastal enclave are wary of the proposal. Notably, the plan sets no path to Palestinian statehood and brings a so-called “Board of Peace,” headed by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, to supervise the administration of Gaza.

To some, that smacked of the colonial British Mandate over Palestine from 1920 to 1948, when the British ran the area.

“They want to impose their own peace,” Umm Mohammed, a history teacher who sheltered with her family in Gaza City, told The Associated Press. “In fact, this is not a peace plan. It’s a surrender plan. It returns us to times of colonialism.”

Mahmoud Abu Baker, a displaced Palestinian from Rafah, said the proposal favors Israel and implements all its demands without giving concessions.

“(The proposal) tells that we, as Palestinians, as Arabs, are not qualified to rule ourselves and that they, the white people, will rule us,” he said.

Israelis bank on Trump despite doubt

With the peace proposal, families of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas were torn between heightened hopes and a realism that past signs of progress have fallen apart. Hamas is thought to be holding 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed by Israel to be alive – and under the plan, they would be freed within 72 hours of both sides’ accepting the deal.

“For two years now, I have been waiting for Elkana, my husband, in endless pain,” said Rivka Bohbot, wife of hostage Elkana Bohbot, in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

“Now I demand that these impressive words be turned into even greater and more impressive actions — actions that bring the hostages home,” she said of Trump and Netanyahu’s announcement.

Israelis visiting a memorial for the music festival where 364 people were killed during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, expressed skepticism that the proposal will end the war.

Amit Zander, whose daughter, Noa Zander, was killed at the festival, said Trump was the only one with enough power to make a deal happen.

“Everyone pins their hopes on (Trump) … it’s up to Hamas. Israel wants it, and beyond that, it’s no longer in our hands,” he said.

Qatar says more discussion needed

While Arab countries back the plan, Arab officials told The Associated Press that the 20-point text released by the White House on Monday included changes to the draft that they had previously discussed with Trump, making the proposal more favorable to Israel.

They pointed to the vague terms about the withdrawal of Israel’s troops, the lack of a timeframe for allowing the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza and the lack of a clear pathway to a state. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes talks.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the issue of the Israeli troop withdrawal “requires clarification, and this must be discussed.”

“What was presented yesterday are principles in the plan that require detailed discussion and how to work through them,” he told the Qatar-based TV network Al Jazeera.

More than 30 Palestinians killed

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops opened fire, killing 17 Palestinians and wounding 33 others while they were attempting to access humanitarian aid in central Gaza, according to nearby Al-Awda Hospital, where the casualties were taken.

Israeli strikes in central and southern Gaza killed 14 others, according to local hospitals.

One of the strikes hit a tent housing a family that had fled Gaza City earlier this month, killing seven people, including four women and a child. Another killed a man, his 7-months-pregnant wife and their young child, Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis said.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the shooting or strikes. It said in a statement that over the past 24 hours, its troops killed several armed fighters and struck more than 160 targets of Hamas infrastructure, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts.

Hospitals overwhelmed as Palestinians flee Gaza City

Meanwhile, hospitals in southern Gaza are gearing up for a flood of displaced wounded and sick Palestinians, as tens of thousands are forced to flee Gaza City in the face of Israel’s stepped-up offensive there.

Over 450,000 people have been displaced from the north since mid-August, mostly from Gaza City, according to the United Nations. Hundreds of thousands are believed to remain in the city, where a famine has been declared.

“We don’t have enough material. We don’t have enough medications. The number of people, particularly the people coming down from Gaza … is starting to overwhelm the facilities which were already too full from before,” said Dr. Paul Ransom, an emergency doctor volunteering at UK-Med, a British aid charity which runs one of the main field hospitals in southern Gaza.

He said over the past weeks, thousands of wounded arrived from the north, many with dirty open wounds because of long road journeys. Others showed severe signs of malnutrition, he said.

The UK-Med-operated field hospital is expanding its 90-bed capacity field hospital to include over 110 beds, he said. Nasser Hospital, the main general medical facility in southern Gaza, is already overwhelmed and is trying to expand its 300-bed capacity.

At Nasser, there were often 150 wounded in just one hour over the past three months, he added.

“It is like a conveyor belt of death and injury that we are seeing coming through the bigger hospital here in Nasser,” he said.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and fighters in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half the dead.

Its campaign was triggered by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which fighters killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others. Most of the hostages have been freed under previous ceasefire deals.

Lidman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Japan’s outgoing prime minister and his South Korean counterpart underscored the need to strengthen cooperation between their nations, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s transactional approach to allies and trade wars are bringing the often-feuding Asian neighbors closer.

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Tuesday’s meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in South Korea’s southeastern port city of Busan is their third and likely final summit. Earlier this month, Ishiba offered to resign over his ruling coalition’s recent election defeat, triggering a contest to find his successor.

“I hope that (South) Korea and Japan can grow closer emotionally, economically, socioculturally, and in terms of security, just as they are in physical distance,” Lee said at the start of the meeting.

Ishiba said that it was “deeply meaningful” to conclude his diplomatic activities as prime minister with a summit with Lee. “By sharing each other’s wisdom and experience, we can strengthen relations between our two countries while addressing our common challenges,” Ishiba said through a translator.

The two leaders issued a joint statement vowing further bilateral consultations on shared issues like low birth rates, rural revitalization and enhanced disaster prevention steps. Lee’s office said the two also reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a reference to efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear program.

Relations hobbled by the past

South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies and major trading partners. But their ties have experienced constant shifts because of history disputes stemming from Japan’s past colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Relations began improving under Lee and Ishiba’s predecessors. But the impending departure of Ishiba, who has acknowledged Japan’s wartime aggression and shown empathy toward the Asian victims, could pose a foreign policy challenge to Lee.

Speaking to reporters after the summit, Ishiba acknowledged enduring differences with South Korea over wartime history but stressed the need for Tokyo to maintain “sincerity and courage” in confronting the past. He expressed hope that his successor will continue strengthening bilateral ties, which would “not only benefit the two countries but also the entire world.”

Both governments said the summit was part of earlier agreements to maintain close communication and high-level exchanges between the countries.

When Lee traveled to Tokyo in August for his second summit with Ishiba, he became the first South Korean leader to pick Japan as their first destination for a bilateral summit since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1965. In Tokyo, Lee said he intended to pursue pragmatic diplomacy and build future-oriented relations with Japan.

South Korea and Japan have sought ways to tackle together challenges like North Korea’s expanding nuclear arsenal and supply chain vulnerabilities. They are now being pushed closer together by Trump’s push to reset global trade.

Trump’s tariffs rattle both nations

Lee’s national security director, Wi Sung-lac, earlier told reporters that Tuesday’s summit would provide a venue to expand discussions in the midst of “the rapidly changing geopolitical environment and trade order.” He said that the meeting would also discuss Ishiba’s possible active role in developing bilateral ties even after his departure.

South Korea and Japan have pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. industrial investments in hopes of avoiding the Trump administration’s highest tariffs. But South Korean officials acknowledge they remain at odds with Washington over how Seoul’s proposed $350 billion package would be structured and operated.

South Korean officials have proposed delivering the investment through loans and loan guarantees and have balked at U.S. demands for upfront payments, which they say would put the country at risk of a financial crisis given the size of its foreign-currency reserves.

Unlike Seoul, Tokyo has already put its trade deal with Washington in writing. Trump earlier this month signed an order to lower tariffs on Japanese automobiles and other critical imports, from the initially proposed 25% to 15%, while the two governments also signed a joint statement in Washington confirming $550 billion in Japanese investment in U.S. projects.

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A two-year-old girl chosen as Nepal’s new living goddess was carried by family members from their home in a Kathmandu alley to a temple palace Tuesday during the country’s longest and most significant Hindu festival.

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Aryatara Shakya, at 2 years and 8 months, was chosen as the new Kumari or “virgin goddess,” replacing the incumbent who is considered by tradition to become a mere mortal upon reaching puberty.

Kumaris are chosen from the Shakya clans of the Newar community, indigenous to the Kathmandu valley, and revered by both Hindus and Buddhists in the predominantly Hindu nation.

The girls are selected between the ages of 2 and 4 and are required to have unblemished skin, hair, eyes and teeth. They should not be afraid of the dark.

During the Indra Jatra festival earlier this month, the former Kumari was wheeled around on a chariot pulled by devotees. The Kumari always wears red, pins up her hair in topknots and has a “third eye” painted on their forehead.

The weeklong Indra Jatra festival was the first of a series of celebrations including Dashain, the main festival, and Tihar or Diwali, the festival of lights, in October.

Tuesday marked the eighth day of Dashain, a 15-day celebration of the victory of good over evil. Offices and schools were closed as people celebrated with their families.

Nepal’s newly appointed living goddess, Kumari Aryatara Shakya, is carried by her family member as they get ready to walk towards Kumari Ghar, the temple palace where she will be residing in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Family, friends and devotees paraded the new Kumari through the streets of Kathmandu before entering the temple palace which will be her home for several years.

Devotees lined up to touch the girls’ feet with their foreheads, the highest sign of respect among Hindus in the Himalayan nation, and offered her flowers and money. The new Kumari will bless devotees including the president on Thursday.

“She was just my daughter yesterday, but today she is a goddess,” said her father Ananta Shakya.

Nepal’s newly appointed living goddess, Kumari Aryatara Shakya, is carried toward Kumari Ghar, the temple palace where she will be residing in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

He said there were already signs she would be the goddess before her birth.

“My wife during pregnancy dreamed that she was a goddess and we knew she was going to be someone very special,” he said.

The former Kumari Trishna Shakya, now aged 11 years old, left from a rear entrance on a palanquin carried by her family and supporters. She became the living goddess in 2017.

Families of the Shakya clan who qualify for this prestigious seat compete to have their daughters selected. The family of the Kumari gains an elevated position in society and within their own clan.

But Kumaris live a sequestered life. They have few selected playmates and are allowed outside only a few times a year for festivals.

Tourists watch as Nepal’s newly appointed living goddess, Kumari Aryatara Shakya, is carried toward Kumari Ghar, the temple palace where she will be residing in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Former Kumaris face difficulties adjusting to normal life, learning to do chores and attending regular schools. According to Nepalese folklore, men who marry a former Kumari will die young, and so many girls remain unmarried.

Over the past few years, there have been many changes in tradition and the Kumari is now allowed to receive an education from private tutors inside the temple palace and even have a television set.

The government also now offers retired Kumaris a small monthly pension of about $110 which is slightly above the minimum wage fixed by the government.

Nepal’s newly appointed living goddess, Kumari Aryatara Shakya, is carried by her father and mother as they pose for photographs at their personal residence in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)