Trump rally shooting is being investigated as an assassination attempt, officials say
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump was the target of an apparent assassination attempt Saturday at a Pennsylvania rally, days before he was to accept the Republican nomination for a third time. A barrage of gunfire set off panic, and a bloodied Trump, who said he was shot in the ear, was surrounded by Secret Service and hurried to his SUV as he pumped his fist in a show of defiance.
Trump’s campaign said the presumptive GOP nominee was doing “fine” after the shooting, which he said pierced the upper part of his right ear.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place,” he wrote on his social media site.
Rallygoers screamed in panic. Shouts of “Get down!” rang through the crowd. At least one attendee was dead and two spectators were critically injured, authorities said. The Secret Service said it killed the suspected shooter — who it said attacked from an elevated position outside the rally venue, a farm show in Butler, Pennsylvania — and that Trump was safe.
The attack was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It came in a deeply polarized political atmosphere, just four months from the presidential elections and days before Trump is to be officially named the Republican nominee at his party’s convention — which his campaign said would proceed as planned.
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The Latest: After apparent assassination attempt, Trump says he was shot in the ear but is fine
Donald Trump’s campaign says he is “fine” after what law enforcement officials are treating as an apparent assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In a social media post, Trump said he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.” The former president was quickly whisked from the stage by Secret Service agents, his ear covered in blood.
A prosecutor said the suspected gunman and at least one attendee are dead, and the Secret Service said two spectators were critically injured.
President Joe Biden and political leaders of all stripes condemned the attack. “There’s no place in America for this type of violence,” Biden said. “It’s sick. It’s sick.”
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A few short minutes after Trump took the stage, shots rang out
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — At 6:02 pm Saturday, to the strains of “God Bless the U.S.A.,” former President Donald Trump took the stage at fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, waving at the cheering crowd and settling into his regular rally speech under a scorching midsummer sun.
A few short minutes later, Trump pointed to a projection of a chart that showed a spike in illegal border crossings under the man he's running against, President Joe Biden. “That chart's a couple of months old,” Trump told the crowd. “And if you want to see something really sad —”
That's when the shots rang out, at least five. Trump clutched his ear as dark-suited Secret Service agents dashed toward him. He dropped to the ground as the agents yelled, “Get down!” The thousands of rallygoers packed into the field in front of him moved as one, dropping down as silence spread across the grass, punctuated only by an occasional scream.
Moments later, Trump stood as the Secret Service agents crowded around him, covering his body with their own. They tried to usher the former president offstage to his left as blood trickled from his ear. “Wait, wait, wait,” Trump said. He pumped his fist as the crowd cheered, and seemed to mouth the word “fight” before agents hustled him down the stairs and to a waiting black SUV. Trump pumped his fist one more time before getting inside.
The local district attorney said the shooter and one rallygoer were dead. In a statement issued shortly after the attack, which officials say was an apparent assassination attempt, Trump's campaign said he was “fine.”
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Biden says 'everybody must condemn' attack on Trump, hopes to speak with ex-president soon
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden said Saturday that “everybody must condemn” the suspected assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, adding that he hoped to speak with his 2024 presidential rival soon.
Addressing the nation about two hours after the shooting, Biden said he was relieved that Trump is reportedly “doing well.” He said he had been unable to reach Trump before his remarks and pledged to update the public later Saturday on whether they speak as well as additional details about the investigation.
“We cannot allow this to be happening,” Biden said. “The idea that there’s violence in America like this is just unheard of."
Biden, speaking without a teleprompter, said he was waiting for additional information before formally calling the attack an attempted assassination on the former president.
“I have an opinion, but I don’t have any facts,” he told reporters, pledging to provide updates as he learns more.
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Israeli strike targets the Hamas military commander and kills at least 90 in southern Gaza
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel said it targeted Hamas’ shadowy military commander in a massive strike Saturday in the crowded southern Gaza Strip that killed at least 90 people including children, according to local health officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “there still isn’t absolute certainty” that Mohammed Deif and a second Hamas commander, Rafa Salama, were killed.
Hamas rejected the claim that Deif was in the area, saying “these false claims are merely a cover-up for the scale of the horrific massacre.” The strike took place in an area Israel's military had designated as safe for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Deif and Hamas’ top official in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, are believed by Israel to be the chief architects of the Oct. 7 attack that killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and triggered the Israel-Hamas war. Not seen in public for years, Deif has long topped Israel’s most-wanted list and is believed to have escaped multiple Israeli assassination attempts. On Oct. 7, Hamas issued a rare voice recording of Deif announcing the “Al Aqsa Flood” operation.
The strike came at a delicate time in cease-fire efforts. Deif's death would hand Israel a major victory and Hamas a painful psychological blow. It also could give Netanyahu a possible opening. Again on Saturday, the prime minister said Israel will not end the war until Hamas’ military capabilities are destroyed. Deif’s death would be a significant step in that direction.
All Hamas leaders are marked for death and "we will reach them all,” Netanyahu said. He added that no hostages had been nearby when the strike occurred, without explaining how he knew that.
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Richard Simmons, a fitness guru who mixed laughs and sweat, dies at 76
NEW YORK (AP) — Richard Simmons, television's hyperactive court jester of physical fitness who built a mini-empire in his trademark tank tops and short shorts by urging the overweight to exercise and eat better, died Saturday. He turned 76 on Friday.
Simmons died at his home in Los Angeles, his publicist Tom Estey said in an email to The Associated Press. He gave no further details.
Los Angeles police and fire departments say they responded to a house — whose address the AP has matched with Simmons through public records — where a man was declared dead from natural causes.
Simmons, who had revealed a skin diagnosis in March 2024, had lately dropped out of sight, sparking speculating about his health and well-being. His death was first reported by TMZ.
Simmons was a former 268-pound teen who became a master of many media forms, sharing his hard-won weight-loss tips as host of the Emmy-winning daytime “Richard Simmons Show” and author of best-selling books and the diet plan Deal-A-Meal. He also opened exercise studios and starred exercise videos, including the wildly successful “Sweatin' to the Oldies” line, which became a cultural phenomenon.
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Dr. Ruth Westheimer, America’s diminutive and pioneering sex therapist, dies at 96
NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive sex therapist who became a pop icon, media star and best-selling author through her frank talk about once-taboo bedroom topics, has died. She was 96.
Westheimer died on Friday at her home in New York City, surrounded by her family, according to publicist and friend Pierre Lehu.
Westheimer never advocated risky sexual behavior. Instead, she encouraged an open dialogue on previously closeted issues that affected her audience of millions. Her one recurring theme was there was nothing to be ashamed of.
“I still hold old-fashioned values and I'm a bit of a square,” she told students at Michigan City High School in 2002. “Sex is a private art and a private matter. But still, it is a subject we must talk about.”
Westheimer's giggly, German-accented voice, coupled with her 4-foot-7 frame, made her an unlikely looking — and sounding — outlet for “sexual literacy.” The contradiction was one of the keys to her success.
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Shelling kills 4 in Ukraine as a drone attack sparks fire at an oil depot in Russia
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian shelling of Ukraine killed four people on Saturday, officials said, as the two countries exchanged drone attacks, one of which set ablaze a Russian oil depot.
Two people died in Ukraine’s partly occupied Kherson region and two were wounded in the attack close to the regional capital, said Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin. Two other people died Saturday afternoon and 22 were wounded in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, according to Gov. Oleh Syniehubov.
An oil depot in the Tsimlyansky district, deep inside Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, was set ablaze in the early hours of Saturday following a Ukrainian drone attack — the latest long-range strike by Kyiv’s forces on a border region.
Ukraine has in recent months stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals in an effort to slow down the Kremlin’s war machine. Moscow’s army is pressing hard along the front line in eastern Ukraine, where a shortage of troops and ammunition in the third year of war has made defenders vulnerable.
Rostov Gov. Vasily Golubev said the drone attack caused a fire spanning 200 square meters (2,100 square feet), but there were no casualties. Some five hours after he reported the fire on the Telegram messaging app, Golubev said it had been extinguished.
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Conservative groups are pushing to clean voter rolls. Others see an effort to sow election distrust
Conservative groups are systematically attempting to challenge the legitimacy of large numbers of voter registrations across the country before the presidential election.
The strategy is part of a wider effort raising questions about the integrity of this year's election as former President Donald Trump repeatedly claims without evidence that his opponents are trying to cheat.
The voter roll tactics include mass door-knocking campaigns, using special software designed to identify voters whose eligibility could be challenged and a crush of lawsuits. Some of those have been brought by the Republican National Committee, which hosts the GOP's national convention this coming week.
Several Republican secretaries of state are combing through voter lists on their own, including in Ohio and Tennessee, or to comply with aggressive new state voting laws.
Those behind the reviews cast them as good government endeavors intended to help local election offices clean up the rolls. Voting rights groups and Democrats believe the effort aims to shake faith in the results of the 2024 election and lay the legal groundwork to challenge the results.
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Alec Baldwin's criminal case was about ammunition at its shocking beginning and its sudden end
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The criminal case against Alec Baldwin was about the handling of bullets from the beginning. And the handling of bullets brought it to an end.
When cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed nearly three years ago on the New Mexico set of the film “Rust,” one question obsessed authorities yet was never definitively answered: How was it possible that live, lethal rounds had gotten into the mix with the blanks that traditionally make movie gunfire and the inert dummy rounds that play the role of bullets on screen, then into the revolver that Baldwin, in character, was pointing at Hutchins?
Evidence that Baldwin's attorneys unearthed as part of a possible explanation — ammunition turned over by a man who walked into the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office in March — brought the actor's involuntary manslaughter trial to a swift and sudden end Friday when a judge ruled prosecutors had improperly failed to share that evidence.
One of two special prosecutors on the case, who resigned just a few hours before the dismissal, told The Associated Press on Saturday that the judge's decision was correct.
“When you step back and you think about, ‘OK, could the defense have made use of this in preparing a defense?’ And the answer is possibly, yeah. ... Then the proper remedy should be dismissal," Erlinda Ocampo Johnson said, adding that it's unfortunate that the jury “never got to hear the facts and make a decision.”
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