Washington, United States:

US President Donald Trump ordered the declassification Thursday of the last secret files on the assassination of president John F. Kennedy, a case that still fuels conspiracy theories more than 60 years after his death.

Trump signed an executive order that will also release documents on the 1960s assassinations of JFK’s younger brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

“That’s big one, huh? A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House.

“Everything will be revealed.”

After signing the order, Trump passed the pen he used to an aide, saying “Give that to RFK Jr.,” JFK’s nephew and the current president’s nominee to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The order Trump signed requires the “full and complete release” of the JFK files, without redactions that he accepted back in 2017 when releasing most of the documents.

“It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay,” the order said.

Trump had previously promised to release the last of the files, most recently at his inauguration on Monday.

‘Overwhelming evidence’

The US National Archives has released tens of thousands of records in recent years related to the November 22, 1963 assassination of president Kennedy but held thousands back, citing national security concerns.

It said at the time of the latest large-scale release, in December 2022, that 97 percent of the Kennedy records — which total five million pages — had now been made public.

The Warren Commission that investigated the shooting of the charismatic 46-year-old president determined that it was carried out by a former Marine sharpshooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.

But that formal conclusion has done little to quell speculation that a more sinister plot was behind Kennedy’s murder in Dallas, Texas, and the slow release of the government files has added fuel to various conspiracy theories.

Trump’s move is partly a gesture to one of the most prominent backers of those conspiracies — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. himself.

RFK Jr. said in 2023 there was “overwhelming evidence the CIA was involved” in his uncle JFK’s murder and “very convincing” evidence the agency was also behind the 1968 assassination of his own father, Robert F. Kennedy.

The former attorney general was killed while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for president. Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian-born Jordanian, was convicted of his murder.

Anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. was rewarded with the health nod in Trump’s cabinet for dropping his independent presidential bid and backing the Republican, but he faces a rocky nomination process.

Conspiracy theories

Thousands of Kennedy assassination-related documents from the National Archives were released during Trump’s first term in office, but he also held some back on national security grounds.

Then-president Joe Biden said at the time of the December 2022 documents release that a “limited” number of files would continue to be held back at the request of unspecified “agencies.”

Previous requests to withhold documents have come from the CIA and FBI.

Kennedy scholars have said the documents still held by the archives are unlikely to contain any bombshell revelations or put to rest the rampant conspiracy theories about the assassination of the 35th US president.

Oswald, who had at one point defected to the Soviet Union, was shot to death two days after killing Kennedy by a nightclub owner, Jack Ruby, as he was being transferred from the city jail.

Hundreds of books and movies such as the 1991 Oliver Stone film “JFK” have fueled the conspiracy industry, pointing the finger at Cold War rivals Russia or Cuba, the Mafia and even Kennedy’s vice president, Lyndon Johnson.

Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee.

James Earl Ray was convicted of the murder and died in prison in 1998 but King’s children have expressed doubts in the past that Ray was the assassin.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Atlanta, United States:

US President Joe Biden said Sunday he heard the voice of Gaza war protesters as some students turned their backs on his graduation ceremony speech at the former university of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

A small number of graduates carried out the silent protest, with some holding Palestinian flags and one holding up a fist as Biden spoke at Morehouse College, a historically Black university in Atlanta, Georgia.

Others wore keffiyeh scarves over their gowns in a sign of solidarity with the protests that have roiled campuses across the United States over Israel’s offensive on Gaza after the Hamas October 7 attacks.

“I support peaceful, non-violent protest. Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them,” said Biden, who wore a maroon and black gown in the colors of the all-male university.

Tune in as I deliver Morehouse College’s 2024 Spring Commencement Address. https://t.co/tY7w3LzLCh

— President Biden (@POTUS) May 19, 2024

The speech was Biden’s most direct encounter with US students since the Gaza protests engulfed campuses nationwide, causing him political troubles with an election rematch against Donald Trump just over six months away.

“This is one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world. There’s nothing easy about it,” added Biden about Gaza.

“I know it angers and frustrates many of you, including my family, but most of all, I know it breaks your heart. It breaks mine as well.”

He did not elaborate, but First Lady Jill Biden reportedly urged the president in April to “stop it now” as the toll of Palestinian civilians mounted from Israel’s offensive.

A number of Morehouse students had called for Biden’s speech to be canceled over the Gaza war but the ceremony went ahead without disruption.

Biden told the students that Gaza was enduring a “humanitarian crisis” and that he was working for an “immediate ceasefire to stop the fighting, bring the hostages home.”

The 81-year-old Democrat added that he was pushing for a “lasting, durable peace” in the wider Middle East that would lead to an independent Palestinian state, which he called the “only solution.”

The president’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is in Saudi Arabia and Israel this weekend trying to push for a ceasefire as well as a normalization deal between the two countries.

Biden had earlier applauded as the college’s valedictorian, DeAngelo Jeremiah Fletcher, also called for an immediate ceasefire in his own speech.

“It is important to recognize both sides have suffered heavy casualties since October 7,” said Fletcher.

Morehouse College president David Thomas — who had earlier this week threatened to shut down the ceremony if it was disrupted — told Biden after the speech that “you’ve been listening.”

“You spoke to the hard issues confronting our nation and the world at this moment,” said Thomas.

The speech at the alma mater of rights hero King was part of a series of Biden events this week aimed at winning over Black voters, amid polls showing that their support for him is flagging.

Biden did not specifically mention his rival Donald Trump but leaned heavily into themes of democracy and racism that he has previously invoked while talking about the twice-impeached Republican former president. 

“This is what we’re up against — extremist forces aligned against the meaning and message of Morehouse,” said Biden.

The desire to know what freedom is and what it can be is the heart and soul of this college.

Proving that a free nation is born in the hearts of men spellbound by fearlessness and freedom.

That’s the magic of Morehouse.

That’s the magic of America. pic.twitter.com/mUmRBCkrOj

— President Biden (@POTUS) May 19, 2024

His outreach efforts to Black voters and Gaza protesters were two sides of the same coin as Biden tries to shore up support among the coalition that helped him beat Trump in 2020.

Later Sunday Biden traveled to Detroit in the key swing state of Michigan where he visited a cafe owned by two former NBA players, brothers Joe and Jordan Crawford.

“The guy we’re running against wants to back up all the progress we made,” Biden said.

A New York Times/Siena poll last week showed that, in addition to trailing Trump in several key battleground states, Biden is also losing ground with African Americans.

Trump is winning more than 20 percent of Black voters in the poll — which would be the highest level of Black support for a Republican presidential candidate since the Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1964, it said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)