UN says Pentagon plan to livestream execution of Fort Hood shooter would amount to torture – US politics live

Utah senator John Curtis says decision to broadcast execution of Nidal Hasan ‘risks feeding the appetite’ as Vance says he won’t watch if livestream goes ahead

‘Medieval’ and ‘disturbing’: US plan to livestream execution elicits global condemnation

Key events13m agoZelenskyy denounces Trump's decision to lift diesel sanctions on Russia as 'weak'19m agoAs Republican senators met Zelenskyy to discuss tougher sanctions on Russia, Trump struck deal with Putin to buy diesel49m agoTrump says he struck a deal with Putin for Russia to sell diesel to US, weeks after signing Russia sanctions law1h agoTrump confirms rightwing commentator Katie Zacharia as new White House press secretary2h agoHere's a recap of the day so far3h agoVance says he's doesn't know if execution live stream 'is actually going to happen'3h agoMore Republicans decry Pentagon's plan to livestream military execution3h agoKatie Zacharia, a former DHS spokesperson, offered role as White House press secretary4h agoTrump administration announces new sanctions on International Criminal Court6h agoTrump establishes committee to investigate Fed governor Lisa Cook7h agoMullin says Mamdani's comments after New York ICE shooting are 'dangerous and incite hostility'8h agoNo ‘regulation or precedent’ for military execution to be livestreamed, says death penalty expert8h agoHasan set to be the first service member executed in more than 60 years10h agoLivestreaming US execution would amount to torture, says UN11h agoPentagon's 'disgusting' livestreamed execution plan provokes fierce backlash across political divide Army soldiers after the memorial service for the 13 victims of the shooting rampage by Nidal Malik Hasan, on 10 November 2009 in Fort Hood, Texas. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenArmy soldiers after the memorial service for the 13 victims of the shooting rampage by Nidal Malik Hasan, on 10 November 2009 in Fort Hood, Texas. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesFrom 3h agoVice-President JD Vance said he didn’t know if the decision to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, that defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced would take place on 3 December in front of a firing squad, “is actually going to happen”.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Vance was asked about how he squares his Christian faith with the Pentagon’s decision to broadcast the execution – for the first time in history.

“First of all, I’ve seen these announcements. I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” Vance said. “What I try to remind people is, look, this is a guy who committed, in my view, the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11 … So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people.”

However, Vance said that if the decision is made to livestream Hasan’s execution, he was “not going to be watching it”.

Key events13m agoZelenskyy denounces Trump's decision to lift diesel sanctions on Russia as 'weak'19m agoAs Republican senators met Zelenskyy to discuss tougher sanctions on Russia, Trump struck deal with Putin to buy diesel49m agoTrump says he struck a deal with Putin for Russia to sell diesel to US, weeks after signing Russia sanctions law1h agoTrump confirms rightwing commentator Katie Zacharia as new White House press secretary2h agoHere's a recap of the day so far3h agoVance says he's doesn't know if execution live stream 'is actually going to happen'3h agoMore Republicans decry Pentagon's plan to livestream military execution3h agoKatie Zacharia, a former DHS spokesperson, offered role as White House press secretary4h agoTrump administration announces new sanctions on International Criminal Court6h agoTrump establishes committee to investigate Fed governor Lisa Cook7h agoMullin says Mamdani's comments after New York ICE shooting are 'dangerous and incite hostility'8h agoNo ‘regulation or precedent’ for military execution to be livestreamed, says death penalty expert8h agoHasan set to be the first service member executed in more than 60 years10h agoLivestreaming US execution would amount to torture, says UN11h agoPentagon's 'disgusting' livestreamed execution plan provokes fierce backlash across political divideUkraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denounced Donald Trump’s decision to suspend sanctions on Russia, to let the US buy diesel fuel from the nation that kills Ukrainian civilians daily, in an interview with Axios on Friday.

Zelenskyy, who had traveled to Washington to plead with US lawmakers to pass tougher sanctions on Russia last month, reportedly told Axios on Friday that Trump’s decision, was “not fair and not honest,” and “looks like a happy birthday present for Putin.”

“It looks absolutely terrible,” he added.

Ukraine’s president also criticized Trump’s decision in a statement on social media, in which he wrote:

double quotation markPeace never comes through weakness. Today, representatives of the U.S. Congress were in Kyiv – a bipartisan delegation – and I am grateful to them for visiting Ukraine at such a difficult time. They asked: what is needed to end the war? The answer must be strong. There must be sanctions under the Lindsey Graham bill, there must be support for Ukraine in protecting lives, and there must be pressure on Russia for its war. And today, there was a conversation between the leaders of America and Russia. A conversation that leads to something different. …

Any easing of sanctions against Russia without a clear and lasting de-escalation agreement with Russia is an obvious weakness. It plays into Russia’s hands – allowing it to kill more, wage war for longer, have even less respect for America, and inflict even greater losses and damage on the world. …

Gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilized world. Russia will “repay” the diesel with further terror and perfidy. Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended, not prolonged. What is needed is real de-escalation with Russia on a reciprocal basis. We count on America’s fair support for our defense of life, for our defense of people in Ukraine – and on the United States having a correspondingly strong conversation with Russia. A strong one, not a weak one.

Donald Trump’s surprise announcement on Friday, that the US will buy diesel from Russia, and is lifting sanctions for six months to enable Russia to export diesel freely, came as two Republican senators, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, were in Kyiv meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to discuss implementing the tough new Russia sanctions law signed by Trump just three weeks ago.

“We can only protect ourselves from this terror by working together, and we discussed how the United States can help save lives,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media, with video of the meeting also attended by two Republican congressmen, Dan Crenshaw and Marc Veasey, both of Texas.

“Of course, we expect the Lindsey Graham Act to be implemented,” Zelenskyy added. “This is a matter of political will, and it is now important to show leadership and fully cut off the financial flows sustaining Russia’s war machine.”

Just weeks after signing a new law that gave him the authority to impose tariffs on countries that buy fuel from Russia despite US sanctions, Donald Trump announced on Friday that the US will now be buying fuel from Russia.

Writing on social media, Trump said that he stuck a deal with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, “wherein it was agreed that Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace,” to be followed by another 4.5m tons of diesel fuel exports.

A short time later, the US treasury’s office of foreign assets control announced that, at Trump’s direction, it had lifted sanctions on the sale of Russian diesel to the global market, “including importation into the United States for six months.

Trump claimed that the deal, which suspends an effort to punish Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, would soon drive down the cost of fuel in the US, which has been a concern to voters casting ballots in the midterm elections.

The Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, signed into law on 18 September, authorized the president to impose tariffs on countries “facilitating Russian oil sanctions evasion”, but also gave him broad authority to waive any sanctions or tariffs. Those provisions had led some Democrats to oppose the legislation, arguing that it delegated too much authority to Trump.

Writing on social media, Donald Trump confirmed on Friday that he has appointed a rightwing commentator, Katie Zacharia, as the new White House press secretary.

Trump noted that Zacharia, a current spokesperson for his Truth Social platform is a frequent commentator on rightwing outlets, including Fox News and Newsmax.

“She has an unblemished record of support, and has been a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning. She is, likewise, a devoted fan and member of MAGA!”

Vice-President JD Vance said he didn’t know if the decision to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, that defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced would take place on 3 December in front of a firing squad, “is actually going to happen”. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Vance was asked about how he squares his Christian faith with the Pentagon’s decision to broadcast the execution – for the first time in US history. He went on to say that if the decision is made to livestream he was “not going to be watching it”.

This comes as more Republicans have criticized the Pentagon’s plan to livestream Hasan’s execution – the US army psychiatrist who was sentenced to death after he murdered 13 people at the Ford Hood army base in Texas in 2009. Senator John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, said “a civilization erodes when it cultivates an appetite for executions as a form of entertainment”. Meanwhile, Rob Bresnahan – a GOP congressman who is facing a competitive re-election battle for his central Pennsylvania district – said the victims and their families’ pain “deserves respect, not a public show”.

Katie Zacharia, a former spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, and current communications adviser for the Trump Media and Technology Group, has been offered the position of White House press secretary, a White House official confirms to the Guardian. Zacharia would replace Karoline Leavitt, who left the role at the end of August after she gave birth to her second child. It’s not immediately clear whether Zacharia – who frequently appears on conservative news and talkshows – has accepted the job. More here

Also today, the Trump administration today announced a set of new sanctions on the international criminal court (ICC), which investigates and prosecutes individuals accused of atrocities and other crimes against humanity. “America never joined the court. We don’t need that court, and we don’t want it,” said secretary of state Marco Rubio in a video on Friday. The new sanctions target the court as an institution, blocking any ICC assets in the US and giving US companies and individuals six months to wind down any business with the court. More here

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has set up a committee to investigate Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook as part of his latest efforts to fire her. The “committee of inquiry” will investigate “false statements in connection with one or more mortgage instruments” that the White House says Cook made. This latest move by Trump comes just months after the supreme court ruled that Cook, a Joe Biden appointee, was entitled to remain as Fed governor as she fights Trump’s unproved allegations against her.

Circling back to another big story today – Katie Zacharia being tapped to be the new White House press secretary.

As I noted earlier, it’s not clear whether Zacharia – a frequent guest on conservative news and talkshows as well as a communications adviser for the Trump Media and Technology group – has accepted the job.

Zacharia, a California native, graduated in 2011 from Pepperdine University’s law school. She is married to film producer Tyler Zacharia.

Before her brief stint as a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Zacharia worked as general counsel at Fix California, a conservative non-profit focused on “election integrity” in the Golden state. The organization is headed up by Trump ally and diplomat Ric Grenell.

The Guardian has reached out to Zacharia for comment.

Vice-President JD Vance said he didn’t know if the decision to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, that defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced would take place on 3 December in front of a firing squad, “is actually going to happen”.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Vance was asked about how he squares his Christian faith with the Pentagon’s decision to broadcast the execution – for the first time in history.

“First of all, I’ve seen these announcements. I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” Vance said. “What I try to remind people is, look, this is a guy who committed, in my view, the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11 … So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people.”

However, Vance said that if the decision is made to livestream Hasan’s execution, he was “not going to be watching it”.

More Republican lawmakers have criticized the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan – the US army psychiatrist who was sentenced to death after he murdered 13 people at the Ford Hood army base in Texas in 2009.

Senator John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, began his plea for defense secretary Pete Hegseth to reconsider broadcasting the execution by invoking Seneca – the ancient philosopher who warned that Rome’s “bloody spectacles corrupted the people who watched them”.

“A civilization erodes when it cultivates an appetite for executions as a form of entertainment,” Curtis said in a post on X, cautioning that livestreaming the event “risks feeding the appetite”.

He added: “The victims deserve justice administered with solemnity. Broadcasting a death diminishes us and is not an effective deterrent.”

Meanwhile, Rob Bresnahan – a GOP congressman who is facing a competitive re-election battle for his central Pennsylvania district in the upcoming midterms – said the execution “shouldn’t be a live streamed spectacle” and the victims and their families’ pain “deserves respect, not a public show”.

Katie Zacharia, a former spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, and current communications adviser for the Trump Media and Technology Group, has been offered the position of White House press secretary, a White House official confirms to the Guardian.

Zacharia would replace Karoline Leavitt, who left the role at the end of August after she gave birth to her second child. Leavitt took on a role with the Trump aligned Super Pac, Maga Inc, and this week was tapped as a new Fox News contributor.

The New York Times reported earlier that Zacharia had been chosen for the job, but it’s not immediately clear that she has accepted the role.

As we continue to bring you the news about the scheduled execution of Nidal Hasan – that is set to be livestreamed – my colleague Lucy Hough has spoken with capital punishment expert Austin Sarat, the author of Life After Death: Surviving Execution, for today’s episode of Today in Focus: The Latest.

11:14‘Barbaric’: firing squad livestream ordered by Pete Hegseth – The LatestThe Trump administration today announced a set of new sanctions on the international criminal court, a global court which investigates and prosecutes individuals accused of atrocities and other crimes against humanity.

“America never joined the court. We don’t need that court, and we don’t want it,” said secretary of state Marco Rubio in a video on Friday. “They want to prosecute border patrol agents that are protecting our nation’s borders, and they want to prosecute our elected leaders that are ensuring our national security … President Trump will never allow the international criminal court to prosecute Americans.”

The new sanctions target the court as an institution, blocking any ICC assets in the US and giving US companies and individuals six months to wind down any business with the court.

“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC. And we expect our allies, many of whom are part of the ICC and that rely on American service members for their defense, to rein in this rogue court,” Rubio added.

In a statement, the ICC said the sanctions are an “assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order”.

The administration’s announcement today comes after Navi Pillay, a former ICC judge, won the Nobel Peace prize – an award that Donald Trump has long-coveted.

Pillay, who currently serves as a judge at the international court of justice (ICJ), chaired the UN commission that concluded Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza.

She joked with reporters on Friday that “if you clap a little bit more, I’m going to share this prize with Trump.” Last year’s winner, María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, drew criticism for handing her medal to Trump. However, the Nobel committee acknowledged that the honor could not be transferred.

A reminder that in 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes. A move that the Trump administration has repeatedly condemned.

Last year, Donald Trump imposed personal sanctions against ICC officials deemed to be involved in investigations of Americans or Israelis.

At the White House today, Donald Trump mentioned the upcoming execution of Nidal Hasan.

“Today you can do almost anything. Nothing happens,” Trump said. “But we’re changing that … in fact, we’re giving a man the death penalty who killed 14 soldiers a couple of years ago.”

Hasan – a former the US army psychiatrist – actually shot and killed 13 people, 12 of whom were soldiers, at the Fort Hood base in 2009.

Trump, however, did not comment on the Pentagon’s decision to livestream the execution – which is set to be the US’s first by firing squad since 1945, as well as the first military execution since 1961 and the first ever to be broadcast for people to watch online.

Jack Reed, the Senate armed services committee ranking member, has also condemned the Pentagon’s decision to livestream the execution of the Fort Hood shooter.

On Friday, Reed called the decision “a barbaric spectacle”, adding: “This is yet another stunt by Secretary Hegseth to distract from his tenure’s repeated failings which have only weakened our national security and standing in the world.”

Reed called on the Donald Trump administration to “reconsider this abhorrent move” and said that a livestream would be a “gift to anti-American terrorist recruiters”.

A survivor of the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting said that he supports the execution of the gunman but was concerned about the Pentagon’s decision to livestream it.

Speaking to the BBC on Friday, Alonzo Lunsford, a former US army sergeant who was shot seven times at the military base in Texas, said: “To show the whole thing without it being censored for the general public, for me personally, I don’t agree with that, but it’s not about my personal belief.”

He added that it was “not something you should view for entertainment purposes”.

Lunsford’s comments come after defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Thursday that the execution of US army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan by firing squad will be a public event.

The UN has condemned the Pentagon’s decision, saying that the live stream of an execution “is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture”.

Donald Trump has set up a committee to investigate Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook as part of his latest efforts to fire her.

The “committee of inquiry” will investigate “false statements in connection with one or more mortgage instruments” that the White House says Cook made.

“As president, it is my job to ensure the laws are faithfully executed, including by firing subordinates who cannot be trusted to tell the truth and follow the law,” Trump said in a statement.

This latest move by Trump comes just months after the supreme court ruled that Cook, a Joe Biden appointee, was entitled to remain as Fed governor as she fights Trump’s unproved allegations against her.

View image in fullscreenLisa Cook, governor of the US Federal Reserve, outside the US supreme court in Washington DC on 21 January 2026. Photograph: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesLast August, Trump fired Cook on social media, accusing her of mortgage fraud, which involves misrepresenting a property as a primary residence to secure better loan terms. Cook denied the allegations and sued the administration, arguing she was fired without cause.

Trump’s establishment of a committee to investigate Cook also comes just days after the Federal Reserve’s inspector general found that there was no basis for the justice department to reopen its criminal investigation into the central bank’s renovations in Washington DC.

Read moreAt a press conference today, Markwayne Mullin – the Department of Homeland Security secretary – addressed the shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent of a man in the Marble Hill neighborhood of the Bronx, New York during an enforcement operation on Thursday.

The man was conscious and hospitalized, authorities said, but the shooting quickly sparked angry protests from local residents and elected officials.

Officials on Friday identified the man as Oscar Belgal, 28, who they said was the subject of an ongoing DHS investigation and was allegedly involved in the shooting of border patrol officer two years ago. On Thursday federal immigration agents attempted to arrest Belgal, officials said, but he allegedly refused orders to exit his vehicle, before accelerating toward the officers who fired shots that struck Belgal “superficially in the neck”. After he stopped his vehicle officers administered first aid and took him to the hospital, an Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) director.

Early reports indicated that there was a five-year-old child in Belgal’s car, in the residential area where agents fired multiple rounds, according to the city’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani. The child was physically unharmed, he said.

Later at a press conference, Mamdani demanded from the Trump ‌administration that ICE stop its enforcement actions in New York City. “ICE is rotten to its core,” he said.

Today, however, Mullin said that agents weren’t aware there was a child in the car, but placed blame on Belgal. “He knew he had a child in his car,” Mullin said. “That outrage should be with him for endangering the five-year-old.”

He added that body cameras were worn by the ICE agents, and officials will release more information as the investigation moves forward.

Speaking today, Mullin also slammed the mayor’s comments, adding that his words were “dangerous and incite hostility”.

The homeland security secretary said that he spoke to the Mamdani several times on Thursday night, and said they mayor wanted official to release Belgal.

“President Trump actually got involved and said that we would release him to New York’s finest,” Mullin said. “If you abolish ICE, who’s going to take the criminals off the streets of your own town?”

Broadcasting an execution could cause post-traumatic stress disorder in the viewing public, mental health experts have said after Hegseth’s announcement that the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan – the former US army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood – would be livestreamed.

Dr Simon Duff, a forensic psychologist at the University of Nottingham in the UK, said that while there was not a lot of research into the impact of watching an execution, studies examining journalists’ experiences of witnessing violence suggested evidence of trauma response.

“Certainly if people are not resilient they probably shouldn’t [watch], but if they have some underlying psychological driver towards viewing an execution they will likely do so regardless of the potential for harm,” Duff said.

“Recent events suggest that executions do not always go to plan,” he said, referring to the failed execution by lethal injection of Christa Pike in the US. “That possibility needs to be acknowledged, and the likelihood that this would increase the trauma for viewers.”

Neil Greenberg, a professor of defence mental health at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, said trigger warnings did not routinely lead to people avoiding media they may find distressing.

“Instead they are likely to suffer anticipatory anxiety before the ‘trauma’ is shown and some people will then become distressed,” he said.

“It is likely that people who have pre-existing mental health problems will be especially at risk of becoming distressed or experiencing a deterioration in their mental health.

“My advice would be not to watch the event at all and I would hope that mainstream media would not transmit highly traumatic images [or] sounds,” Greenberg said.

Public executions were once common around the world, including in the UK, but only two out of 17 countries that carried out executions last year did so publicly.