Ethel Kennedy, the widow of assassinated US politician Robert F. Kennedy, died Thursday at the age of 96, her family said.

“It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother,” former congressman Joe Kennedy III said on social media.

Ethel Kennedy, who died of complications from a stroke, was a key figure in a family that counted former president John F. Kennedy — also assassinated — and senator Ted Kennedy among its ranks.

She was also the mother of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine conspiracy theorist whose failed third-party presidential bid and endorsement of Donald Trump cast a shadow over the family’s dynastic status in American politics and the Democratic Party.

Born Ethel Skakel in Chicago in 1928, she met her future husband at the age of 17.

Robert Kennedy — known as Bobby or RFK — would go on to serve as US attorney general in his brother John’s administration, serving from 1961 to 1964. He was later a senator representing New York.

Five years after JFK’s assassination, Robert Kennedy was himself shot dead while running for president in 1968.

Six months after his death, Ethel Kennedy gave birth to the couple’s 11th child.

She went on to found Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, an advocacy organization notable for its work on freedom of expression around the world.

In 2014, then-president Barack Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian distinction in the United States.

Praising her “lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights,” Joe Kennedy III said, “we are comforted in knowing she is reunited with the love of her life, our father, Robert F. Kennedy.”

She is survived by nine children, 34 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren, the former congressman said.

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

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
| Photo Credit: AP

President Joe Biden has directed the U.S. Secret Service to protect independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Homeland Security secretary said on June 15.

Mr. Kennedy is a longshot to win Electoral College votes, much less the presidency. But his campaign events have drawn large crowds of supporters and people interested in his message.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Mr. Biden had directed the protection for Mr. Kennedy “both prior to and after the events of this past weekend.”

The Secret Service is legally required to protect major party presidential and vice presidential candidates and their families 120 days out from a general election, but third-party candidates are on an as-needed basis.

The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged in its 2024 budget overview that recent requests for candidate protection were coming in earlier than in the past.

Threats to political candidates are common, but law enforcement officials have said that there has been an uptick in violent rhetoric since the weekend attack at the Trump rally. Mayorkas said both Biden and Trump are “constantly the subject of threats.”

“We are in a heightened and very dynamic threat environment,” he said.

With a famous name and a loyal base, Mr. Kennedy has the potential to do better than any third-party presidential candidate since Ross Perot in the 1990s. But he didn’t participate in the first presidential debate on June 27. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns, who fear he could be a spoiler, bypassed the nonpartisan debate commission and agreed to a schedule that essentially left out Mr. Kennedy.

Mr. Kennedy, who last year challenged Mr. Biden for the Democratic nomination before launching an independent bid, has argued that his relatively strong showing in a few national polls gives his candidacy heft. Polls during the 2016 presidential campaign regularly put libertarian Gary Johnson’s support in the high single or low double digits, but he ultimately received only about 3% of the vote nationwide.

Trump became the official Republican presidential nominee on Monday after receiving the votes of enough delegates at the Republican National Convention. He was not seriously injured in the shooting over the weekend in Pennsylvania. There is an independent review of the attack.

Mayorkas said Trump’s protection has been enhanced based on the “evolving nature of the threats to the former president” and his shift from presumptive nominee to nominee.

New Delhi:

Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk has advised against the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), citing concerns about their potential vulnerabilities to hacking. His remarks come amidst growing debates over the security of EVMs worldwide, especially following allegations of irregularities in Puerto Rico’s recent primary elections.

“We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high,” Musk posted on X.

We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high. https://t.co/PHzJsoXpLh

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 15, 2024

The spotlight on EVM security has intensified due to recent controversies in Puerto Rico. The primary elections there were plagued by numerous irregularities linked to EVMs. However, a paper trail allowed election officials to identify and correct vote tallies.

Musk’s remark was in response to, Robert F Kennedy Jr, nephew of former US President John F Kennedy and an independent hopeful for the 2024 US Elections, who wrote, “Puerto Rico’s primary elections just experienced hundreds of voting irregularities related to electronic voting machines, according to the Associated Press. Luckily, there was a paper trail so the problem was identified and vote tallies corrected. What happens in jurisdictions where there is no paper trail?”

Kennedy Jr advocated for a return to paper ballots to prevent electronic interference in elections, ensuring that every vote is counted and elections remain secure.

While concerns over EVMs are gaining traction in the United States, the scenario in India presents a contrasting picture. India uses the third generation of EVMs, known as M3 EVMs, which are designed to be tamper-proof. These machines enter a ‘Safety Mode’ and become inoperable if any tampering attempts are detected.

A dedicated team of professors from three prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has been instrumental in the latest upgrades of Indian EVMs. The Election Commission of India (ECI) is supported by an eminent Technical Expert Committee (TEC) on EVMs, ensuring that the devices are robust and secure.

READ | Top Experts From IIT Who Helped Design India’s Most Tamper-Proof EVMs

Professor Dinesh K Sharma, a specialist in microelectronics and solid-state electronics from IIT Bombay, told NDTV, “Indian EVMs are different from other EVMs in the world. The M3 EVMs have no connection to any other device, not even mains power supply.”

The Supreme Court this year addressed the issue of cross-verification of votes cast on EVMs through paper slips generated by Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta rejected petitions seeking 100 per cent cross-verification, maintaining the current practice of verifying five randomly selected EVMs per Assembly constituency.

READ | “Blindly Doubting System…”: Big Supreme Court Order On VVPAT Verification

However, the court issued two directives to the Election Commission. Firstly, after symbols are loaded into an EVM, the symbol loading unit must be sealed and secured in containers signed by the candidates and their representatives. Secondly, these sealed containers, along with the EVMs, should be kept in storerooms for at least 45 days after the declaration of results.