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Trump stakeout, European deluge and Diddy arrest

 
Today's NATIONAl story

Suspect lurked 12 hours at Trump course, fired no shots

What happened
The suspect accused of pointing a rifle toward Donald Trump on Sunday camped out at the perimeter of Trump's golf course for nearly 12 hours before he was seen by Secret Service agents, according to cellphone data cited in court documents. Ryan Routh, 58, never had Trump in his line of sight and didn't fire any shots before he was spotted, fired at and fled the scene, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said yesterday.

Who said what
The Secret Service's "protective methodologies" were "effective" and the "agents' hypervigilance" and "swift action" were "textbook," Rowe told reporters in Palm Beach. Agents "are rising to this moment" and "meeting the challenges," but "we are redlining them," and Congress should provide more funding for personnel, overtime and facilities. President Joe Biden agreed, telling reporters the Secret Service "needs more help" and lawmakers "should respond to their needs."

Rowe said the Secret Service had to come up with a protective plan quickly on Sunday because Trump "wasn't even really supposed to go there," meaning golf "was not on his official schedule." Rowe "did not clarify" if he meant "agents did not have time to sweep the golf course," The New York Times said, but it's public knowledge that "Trump frequently plays golf at one of his Florida courses on Sundays." Routh probably didn't need to do "very sophisticated surveillance" to discern Trump's location on a Sunday afternoon in Palm Beach, former Secret Service agent Bill Gage told The Washington Post, and that predictability "gives a bad guy time to prepare."

What next?
Routh, appearing briefly in federal court yesterday, was detained until his next hearing on Sept. 23. He is expected to enter his plea at a Sept. 30 arraignment. The two counts Routh was charged with — owning a gun as a felon and obliterating the weapon's serial number — carry up to 20 years in prison, though additional charges are expected as the investigation continues. "Charging him with an attempted assassination could be complicated by the fact that the suspect never fired his weapon," the Post said.

 
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Today's international story

Flooding in Central Europe leaves at least 17 dead

What happened
At least eight people died yesterday in flooding throughout Central Europe, bringing the death toll to at least 17 in Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria since slow-moving Storm Boris hit the region Friday. Swollen rivers have swamped towns, broken through dams and destroyed bridges. In the Polish city of Nysa, the BBC said, the mayor urged all 44,000 residents to head to higher ground.

Who said what
"Please evacuate your belongings, yourselves, your loved ones," Nysa Mayor Kordian Kolbiarz said yesterday. If the embankment fails, "the whole town will be flooded." In eastern Romania, the mayor of Slobozia Conachi, Emil Dragomir, said any visitor "would cry instantly, because people are desperate, their whole life's work is gone." The mayor of Budapest said the Hungarian capital is preparing for the worst flooding in a decade.

Boris, which "unleashed several months' worth of rain in just a few days," was spawned by a "rare combination" of unusually cold air from Western Europe mixing with unseasonably warm, humid air from the east, The Washington Post said. "Human-caused climate change probably intensified the ensuing deluge," because warm air holds more moisture.

What next?
Conditions have "stabilized" in some areas, while other parts of Europe are "bracing themselves for more disruption and danger" from the storm, the BBC said. Rain is likely to continue through Tuesday in Austria, the Czech Republic and southeast Germany before moving south to Italy, where heavy downpours are expected in Emilia-Romagna.

 
 
Today's CRIME Story

Sean 'Diddy' Combs arrested on federal charges

What happened
Federal agents arrested Sean "Diddy" Combs in Manhattan last night on a sealed indictment his lawyer said is probably tied to sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Combs, one of hip-hop's biggest stars and producers, was accused of sexual assault in at least eight lawsuits filed since last November. Homeland Security Investigations agents raided his Los Angeles and Miami Beach mansions in March, offering a first indication he was under federal scrutiny. 

Who said what
"We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. Combs' lawyer Marc Agnifilo said his client was cooperating with authorities but "disappointed" with the "unjust prosecution." Combs "is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal," Agnifilo said, and "he looks forward to clearing his name in court."

After the March raid, Combs' attorney Aaron Dyer said the warrants were based on "meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits." CNN said it learned that the investigation's scope was "much larger, focusing on sex trafficking, money laundering and illegal drugs." In the #MeToo era, The New York Times said, "prosecutors have increasingly turned to sex trafficking laws to try sexual assault accusations" in federal court, including the successful prosecution of R&B singer R. Kelly.

What next?
Combs was expected to be "held overnight and then arraigned on Tuesday," the Times said.

 
 

It's not all bad

A 6-year-old British girl named Seren and her father, Glyn, climbed to the top of Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa, to raise money for the hospital that treated her as a baby. Seren was born prematurely with breathing issues, and the staff at Birmingham Children's Hospital saved her life, Glyn said. It took two days to summit Mount Toubkal, and Seren and Glyn said they are already planning their next fundraising trek to the top of Mont Blanc.

 
 
Under the radar

Earth is going to have a second moon for two months. A small asteroid named 2024 PT5 will be incorporated into our planet's orbit from September 29 to November 25 before heading back into outer space, according to a study published in the journal Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society. The asteroid is approximately 33 feet long and was discovered in August through NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.

Mini-moons are often hard to identify. "Every time an object with an orbit so earthlike is discovered, there is a chance that we are just recovering space debris," Raúl de la Fuente Marcos, a co-author of the study, said to The New York Times. However, upon investigation, 2024 PT5 "is a natural object, no doubt about that." 

There's no guarantee 2024 PT5 will qualify as a moon. "It certainly won't complete one full revolution in the Earth-moon system this fall," Lance Benner, the principal investigator of the asteroid radar research program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, told the Times. And if it does qualify, it wouldn't be our first mini-moon — two asteroids recently orbited Earth.

Scientists are often monitoring near-earth objects for resources and planetary defense. Mini-moons like this could "contain precious metals, which one day might be mined," said Futurism. Researchers are also always on the lookout for large asteroids capable of colliding with Earth and causing widespread damage. "There's a pretty busy highway around the Earth," Federica Spoto, an asteroid dynamics researcher, said to the Times.

 
 
On this day

September 17, 1925

Frida Kahlo was severely injured in a bus accident. While bedridden during her recovery, Kahlo decided to forgo a career in medicine in favor of pursuing her passion for art. The choice turned out to be a good one, as the Mexican painter would become one of the most famous artists of the 20th century.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

The "suspected gunman waited hours" for Donald Trump at his golf course Sunday, The Wall Street Journal says on Tuesday's front page. But the "'would-be assassin' never got a shot off," USA Today says. The New York Times, taking a step back, analyzes "the anger that defines and threatens Trump" in the outrage-dominated political landscape he fueled. The "toll of dead and injured hovers near one million in Ukraine War," the Journal says. But "in east Ukraine, land for peace is nonstarter," The Washington Post says. 

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Foot-collie

Footvolley, a cross between soccer and beach volleyball, has an unlikely star: a 3-year-old border collie named Floki. The sporty canine has become "something of an internet sensation in Brazil," The Associated Press said, sparking "wonder among bystanders" on the beaches of footvolley mecca Rio de Janeiro. Floki, who boasts hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, has an exceptional command of the difficult sport and "does things that even some professionals don't do," his owner, footvolley coach Gustavo Rodrigues, said.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Martin County Sheriff's Office / Handout / Anadolu via Getty Images; Helmut Fohringer / APA / AFP via Getty Images; MEGA / GC Images; Jose A. Bernat Bacete / Getty Images