Cody Balmer appears in a booking photograph after his arrest on suspicion of an attack on Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro’s official residence, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 14, 2025. Photo: Dauphin County District Attorney/Handout via REUTERS.

A 38-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to attempting to murder Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro in an April arson attack on the governor’s residence in which he scaled a fence and ignited part of the house with gasoline-filled beer bottles as Shapiro and his family slept inside.

Cody Balmer also pleaded guilty to terrorism, 22 counts of arson, 21 counts of reckless endangerment, burglary, aggravated assault, and loitering, according to records from the Dauphin County Court in Pennsylvania.

A Pennsylvania judge sentenced Balmer to 25 to 50 years in state prison, according to Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo, who prosecuted the case.

The April attack was part of a surge in political violence in the United States. There were about 150 politically motivated attacks in the first half of 2025, nearly double the number from that period last year, according to political violence researchers.

In an emotional press conference on Tuesday, Shapiro said the attack had taken a profound toll on him and his family, and that despite rising levels of political violence in the US, nobody should “grow numb” to it.

“We need real accountability for acts of political violence, and today is real accountability for the violence that came here to Pennsylvania,” said Shapiro, who is seen as a potential candidate for his party’s presidential nomination in 2028.

After the attack, Balmer told police he “harbored hatred” toward Shapiro and would have beaten him with a hammer if he had encountered the governor inside the residence.

According to a police search warrant released in April when Balmer called 911 to confess, he told police he believed Shapiro, who is Jewish, was encouraging the war in Gaza, and that he “needs to stop having my friends killed,” and “our people have been put through too much by that monster.”

Since the attack on Shapiro’s residence, other acts of political violence in the United States have targeted figures on the right and left.

In June, a Christian nationalist murdered a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota, and wounded a second Democrat.

In July, a group of at least 11 militants in black military-style clothing attacked an immigration detention center in Texas. The group set off fireworks, spray-painted “traitor” and “ICE Pig” on vehicles, and shot a responding police officer in the neck, wounding him, while another sprayed gunfire at detention guards, according to the FBI.

Trucks carrying aid move, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hussam Al-Masri

Hamas has informed mediators it will begin transferring bodies of four deceased Israeli hostages to Israel at 10 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) on Tuesday, an official involved in the operation told Reuters.

Earlier, Israeli officials said the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would stay closed at least through Wednesday and the flow of aid into the Palestinian enclave would be reduced to put pressure on the terrorist group to hand over the bodies of the hostages it is holding.

Hamas fighters on Feb. 22, 2025. Photo: Majdi Fathi via Reuters Connect

i24 News – Hours after the release of the final Israeli hostages under the US-brokered ceasefire, Hamas gunmen executed more than 30 Palestinians accused of treason and collaboration, in what security sources and witnesses described as a brutal bid to reassert control over the war-torn Gaza Strip.

According to various reports and videos, at least 33 people were shot dead across several neighborhoods after being accused of spying for Israel or belonging to rival armed groups.

Videos shared on social media showed masked fighters forcing men to kneel before executing them at close range, as crowds gathered, chanting “Allahu Akbar.” Reuters and other outlets were unable to independently verify the footage or its location.

The wave of executions comes as Hamas, weakened by months of Israeli military strikes, cautiously redeploys members of its Qassam Brigades into Gaza’s streets.

The executions took place just hours after US President Donald Trump, en route from Jerusalem to Sharm el-Sheikh for ceasefire talks, said he had authorized Hamas to “manage internal security in Gaza as it sees fit” under the current agreement.