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Taiwan Reports Second Large-Scale China Air Force Incursion This Week

A Taiwanese soldier holds a Taiwan national flag near a group of soldiers with red markings on their helmets to play the role of an enemy during the annual Han Kuang military exercises simulating an attack on an airfield at Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan, Northern Taiwan, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (AP)
A Taiwanese soldier holds a Taiwan national flag near a group of soldiers with red markings on their helmets to play the role of an enemy during the annual Han Kuang military exercises simulating an attack on an airfield at Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan, Northern Taiwan, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (AP)
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Taiwan Reports Second Large-Scale China Air Force Incursion This Week

A Taiwanese soldier holds a Taiwan national flag near a group of soldiers with red markings on their helmets to play the role of an enemy during the annual Han Kuang military exercises simulating an attack on an airfield at Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan, Northern Taiwan, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (AP)
A Taiwanese soldier holds a Taiwan national flag near a group of soldiers with red markings on their helmets to play the role of an enemy during the annual Han Kuang military exercises simulating an attack on an airfield at Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan, Northern Taiwan, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (AP)

Ten Chinese air force aircraft entered Taiwan's air defense zone on Wednesday accompanying five Chinese warships engaged in "combat readiness" patrols, the island's defense ministry said, the second such incursion this week.

Taiwan, which China claims as its territory, has repeatedly complained of Chinese military activity near it over the past three years, as Beijing steps up pressure to try to force the island to accept its sovereignty.

Taiwan's defense ministry said that starting at around 9 a.m. (0100 GMT), it detected a total of 25 Chinese aircraft engaging in operations out at sea, including J-10 and J-16 fighters, as well as H-6 bombers.

Of those aircraft, the ministry said 10 had either crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides, or entered the southwestern part of Taiwan's air defense identification zone, or ADIZ.

Those aircraft were acting in coordination with five Chinese warships engaging in "combat readiness" patrols, it said.

Taiwan's military dispatched ships and aircraft to keep watch, the ministry said.

The ADIZ is a broad area Taiwan monitors and patrols to give its forces more time to respond to threats, and Chinese aircraft have not entered territorial Taiwanese air space.

On Sunday, Taiwan reported a similar level of activity by Chinese warplanes and warships near the island.

China staged war games around Taiwan in April after President Tsai Ing-wen returned home from a visit to the United States where she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Last August, it also held war games around Taiwan to protest against a trip to Taipei by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Taiwan Vice President William Lai leaves for the United States this week on his way to Paraguay on what is officially only a transit but which has angered China.

It was China's "priority" to stop Lai from visiting the United States, Beijing's ambassador to the US said last month.

Taiwan's democratically elected government rejects China's sovereignty claim and says only the island's people can decide their future.

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Soldier who Blew Up Tesla at Trump Hotel Left Note Saying Blast Was to be a 'Wake Up Call' for US

Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 1, 2025 in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Alcides Antunes/via REUTERS
Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 1, 2025 in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Alcides Antunes/via REUTERS
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Soldier who Blew Up Tesla at Trump Hotel Left Note Saying Blast Was to be a 'Wake Up Call' for US

Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 1, 2025 in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Alcides Antunes/via REUTERS
Flames rise from a Tesla Cybertruck after it exploded outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, January 1, 2025 in this screengrab taken from a social media video. Alcides Antunes/via REUTERS

A highly decorated Army soldier who fatally shot himself in a Tesla Cybertruck just before it blew up outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas left notes saying the New Year's Day explosion was a stunt to serve as a “wake up call” for the country’s ills, investigators said Friday.
Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Colorado Springs, Colorado, also wrote in notes he left on his cellphone that he needed to “cleanse” his mind “of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.” Livelsberger served in the Army since 2006 and deployed twice to Afghanistan.
“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives,” Livelsberger wrote in one letter found by authorities and released Friday.
The explosion caused minor injuries to seven people but virtually no damage to the Trump International Hotel. According to The Associated Press, authorities said that Livelsberger acted alone.
Livelsberger's letters covered a range of topics including political grievances, societal problems and both domestic and international issues, including the war in Ukraine. He said in one letter that the US was “terminally ill and headed toward collapse.”
Tesla engineers, meanwhile, helped extract data from the Cybertruck for investigators, including Livelsberger’s path between charging stations from Colorado through New Mexico and Arizona and on to Las Vegas, according to Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren.
“We still have a large volume of data to go through,” Koren said Friday. “There’s thousands if not millions of videos and photos and documents and web history and all of those things that need to be analyzed.”
The new details came as investigators were still trying to determine whether Livelsberger sought to make a political point with the Tesla and the hotel bearing the president-elect’s name.
Livelsberger harbored no ill will toward President-elect Donald Trump, law enforcement officials said. In one of the notes he left, he said the country needed to “rally around” Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Musk has recently become a member of Trump’s inner circle. Neither Trump nor Musk was in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the day of the explosion. Both had attended Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at his South Florida estate.
“Although this incident is more public and more sensational than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues,” Spencer Evans, the FBI special agent in charge in Las Vegas, said Friday.
Livelsberger died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Investigators have not yet explained how Livelsberger shot himself inside the Cybertruck while simultaneously igniting fireworks and camp fuel packed inside, causing the explosion.
Among the charred items found inside were a handgun at Livelsberger’s feet, another firearm, fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch. Authorities said both guns were purchased legally.
In recent years Livelsberger confided to Alicia Arritt, a former girlfriend who had served as an Army nurse, that he faced significant pain and exhaustion she attributed to traumatic brain injury.
He opened up to Arritt, 39, whom he met and began dating in Colorado in 2018, about exhaustion, pain that kept him up at night, and reliving violence from his deployment in Afghanistan, Arritt said.
“My life has been a personal hell for the last year,” he told Arritt in text messages during their early days of dating that she shared with The Associated Press.
The Green Berets are highly trained US Army special forces who specialize in guerrilla warfare and unconventional fighting tactics. Livelsberger rose through the ranks and deployed twice to Afghanistan and served in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, according to the Army. He recently returned from an overseas assignment in Germany and was on approved leave when he died.
He was awarded five Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor.
Authorities searched a townhouse in Livelsberger's hometown of Colorado Springs Thursday as part of the investigation. Neighbors said the man who lived there had a wife and a baby.
Across-the-street neighbor Cindy Helwig said she last saw him when he asked to borrow a tool to fix an SUV.
“He was a normal guy,” said Helwig.
The explosion came hours after 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed a truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 14 people before being shot to death by police. The FBI says they believe Jabbar acted alone and that it is being investigated as a terrorist attack.