MILWAUKEE: Two days after surviving an attempted assassination, former President Donald Trump appeared triumphantly at the Republican National Convention’s opening night with a bandage over his right ear, the latest compelling scene in a presidential campaign already defined by dramatic turns.
GOP delegates cheered wildly when Trump appeared onscreen backstage and then emerged in the arena, visibly emotional, as musician Lee Greenwood sang “God Bless the USA.” That was hours after the convention had formally nominated the former president to head the Republican ticket in November against President Joe Biden.
Trump did not address the hall — with his acceptance speech scheduled for Thursday — but smiled silently and occasionally waved as Greenwood sang. He eventually joined his newly announced running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, to listen to the night’s remaining speeches, often with a subdued expression and muted reactions uncharacteristic for the unabashed showman
The raucous welcome underscored the depth of the crowd’s affection for the man who won the 2016 nomination as an outsider, at odds with the party establishment, but now has vanquished all Republican rivals, silenced most GOP critics and commands loyalty up and down the party ranks.
“We must unite as a party, and we must unite as a nation,” said Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley, Trump’s handpicked party leader, as he opened Monday’s primetime national convention session. “We must show the same strength and resilience as President Trump and lead this nation to a greater future.”
But Whatley and other Republican leaders made clear that their calls for harmony did not extend to Biden and Democrats, who find themselves still riven by worries that the 81-year-old question is not up to the job of defeating Trump.
“Their policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people,” said Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, welcoming the party to his battleground state, which Trump won in 2016 but lost to Biden four years ago.
Saturday’s shooting at a Pennsylvania rally, where Trump was injured and one man died, were clearly in mind, but the proceedings were celebratory — a stark contrast to the anger and anxiety that had marked the previous few days. Some delegates chanted “fight, fight, fight” — the same words that Trump was seen shouting to the crowd as the Secret Service ushered him off the stage, his fist raised and face bloodied.
“We should all be thankful right now that we are able to cast our votes for President Donald J. Trump after what took place on Saturday,” said New Jersey state Sen. Michael Testa as he announced all of his state’s 12 delegates for Trump.
When Trump cleared the necessary number of delegates, video screens in the arena read “OVER THE TOP” while the song “Celebration” played and delegates danced and waved Trump signs. Throughout the voting, delegates flanked by “Make America Great Again” signs applauded as state after state voted their support for a second Trump term.
Multiple speakers invoked religious imagery to discuss Trump and the assassination attempt.
“The devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle,” said Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. “But an American lion got back up on his feet!”
Wyoming delegate Sheryl Foland was among those who adopted the “fight” chant after seeing Trump survive Saturday in what she called “monumental photos and video.”
“We knew then we were going to adopt that as our chant,” added Foland, a child trauma mental health counselor. “Not just because we wanted him to fight, and that God was fighting for him. We thought, isn’t it our job to accept that challenge and fight for our country?”
“It’s bigger than Trump,” Foland said. “It’s a mantra for our country.”
Another well-timed development boosted the mood on the convention floor Monday: The federal judge presiding over Trump’s classified documents case dismissed the prosecution because of concerns over the appointment of the prosecutor who brought the case, handing the former president a major court victory.
The convention is designed to reach people outside the GOP base
Trump’s campaign chiefs designed the convention to feature a softer and more optimistic message, focusing on themes that would help a divisive leader expand his appeal among moderate voters and people of color.
On a night devoted to the economy, delegates and a national TV audience heard from speakers the Trump campaign pitched as “everyday Americans” — a single mother talking about inflation, a union member who identified himself as a lifelong Democrat now backing Trump, a small business owner, among others.
Featured speakers also included Black Republicans who have been at the forefront of the Trump campaign’s effort to win more votes from a core Democratic constituency.
US Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas said rising grocery and energy prices were hurting Americans’ wallets and quoted Ronald Reagan in calling inflation “the cruelest tax on the poor.” Hunt argued Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t seem to understand the problem.
“We can fix this disaster,” Hunt said, by electing Trump and sending “him right back to where he belongs, the White House.”
Scott, perhaps the party’s most well-known Black lawmaker, declared: “America is not a racist country.”
Republicans hailed Vance’s selection as a key step toward a winning coalition in November.
Trump announced his choice of his running mate as delegates were voting on the former president’s nomination Monday. The young Ohio senator first rose to national attention with his best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which told of his Appalachian upbringing and was hailed as a window into the parts of working-class America that helped propel Trump.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who had been considered a potential vice presidential pick, said in a post on X that Vance’s “small town roots and service to country make him a powerful voice for the America First Agenda.”
Yet despite calls for harmony, two of the opening speakers at Monday’s evening session — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson — are known as some of the party’s most incendiary figures.
Robinson, speaking recently during a church service in North Carolina, discussed “evil” people who he said threatened American Christianity. “Some folks need killing,” he said then, though he steered clear of such rhetoric at the convention stage.
The campaign continues
Trump’s nomination came on the same day that Biden sat for another national TV interview the president sought to demonstrate his capacity to serve another four years despite continued worries within his own party.
Biden told ABC News that he made a mistake recently when he told Democratic donors the party must stop questioning his fitness for office and instead put Trump in a “bullseye.” Republicans have circulated the comment aggressively since Saturday’s assassination attempt, with some openly blaming Biden for inciting the attack on Trump’s life.
The president’s admission was in line with his call Sunday from the Oval Office for all Americans to ratchet down political rhetoric. But Biden maintained Monday that drawing contrasts with Trump, who employs harsh and accusatory language, is a legitimate part of a presidential contest.
Inside the arena in Milwaukee, Republicans did not dial back their attacks on Biden, at one point playing a video that mocked the president’s physical stamina and mental acuity.
They alluded often to the “Biden-Harris administration” and took regular digs at Vice President Kamala Harris — a not-so-subtle allusion to the notion that Biden could step aside in favor of his second-in-command.
Trump, ear bandaged, appears at Republican National Convention
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Trump, ear bandaged, appears at Republican National Convention
Greek coast guards open fire on migrant smuggling boat after alleged ramming, killing 1 passenger
- The statement said the incident occurred northwest of Symi after the helmsman of the smuggling boat ignored multiple calls to stop
ATHENS, Greece: The crew of a Greek coast guard vessel opened fire on a speedboat smuggling migrants — including several children — from neighboring Turkiye killing one passenger, Greek authorities said Friday.
A coast guard statement said shots were fired, first into the air and then at the speedboat’s engine “to avert the direct threat to the patrol boat and its crew” after the helmsman rammed the Greek patrol boat in a bid to escape arrest.
When the boat came to a halt, the statement said, the passenger was found fatally wounded, “probably by a bullet.”
The remaining 13 people on the plastic speedboat — 5 children, 7 men and a woman — were unharmed and were taken to the southeast Aegean Sea island of Symi. The dead passenger was identified as a 39-year-old man. His nationality was not immediately known.
The statement said the incident occurred northwest of Symi after the helmsman of the smuggling boat ignored multiple calls to stop. It said he “repeatedly carried out extremely dangerous maneuvers, ramming the patrol boat.”
The coast guard said the migrant smuggling vessel had been heading from the nearby Turkish coast to Symi.
Two of the men on the speedboat were arrested on suspicion of belonging to a migrant smuggling gang.
Thousands of migrants try to reach Greece’s eastern Aegean islands in small boats every year. In most cases they pay smuggling rings to carry them across, and in several incidents the Greek coast guard has reported attempted rammings by smugglers seeking to escape arrest.
Greece has been roundly criticized by human rights organizations over the treatment of migrants trying to reach its shores. In June, it denied a BBC report that accused its coast guard of brutal practices resulting in dozens of deaths.
According to data from the United Nations refugee agency, nearly 30,000 migrants have arrived illegally in Greece so far this year from Turkiye, and, increasingly, from Libya in North Africa.
The number of arrivals is slightly lower than in Italy and Spain, the main destinations for migrants trying to reach Europe illegally. Most people heading for Greece are Afghan, Syrian or Egyptian nationals.
Pakistan flies home the injured and the bodies of 28 Shiite pilgrims killed in a bus crash in Iran
- Iran has one of the world’s worst traffic safety records with some 17,000 deaths annually
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan brought home Friday the bodies of 28 Shiite pilgrims killed in a bus crash in Iran this week while heading to Iraq for a pilgrimage. A Pakistani military aircraft also flew back 23 pilgrims injured in the accident, officials said.
Earlier in the day in Iran, officials handed over the bodies of the crash victims to Pakistani diplomats. Prayer services were held in both Iran and later in Pakistan.
Funeral were to take place in the victims’ home districts early Saturday. The pilgrims were from Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, according to Nasir Shah, a provincial government spokesman.
The plane, requested by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for the repatriation, landed at the airport in Jacobabad, about 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) southwest from the capital of Islamabad. The coffins, covered in Pakistan’s national flag, were handed over to the victims’ relatives for burial.
State-run PTV broadcast the ceremony at the Jacobabad airport, where relatives of the victims cried and hugged each other.
Authorities have not revealed the cause of the crash near the city of Taft, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of the Iranian capital, Tehran.
In a state TV report, Mohammad Ali Malekzadeh, a local Iranian emergency official, blamed the crash on the bus brakes failing and a lack of attention by the driver. A surveillance video later aired by the state TV showed the bus speeding past a parked car into a dirt lot just before the crash, narrowly missing bystanders.
Iran has one of the world’s worst traffic safety records with some 17,000 deaths annually. The grave toll is blamed on wide disregard for traffic laws, unsafe vehicles and inadequate emergency services in its vast rural areas.
The pilgrims had been on their way to Iraq’s holy city of Karbala, to commemorate Arbaeen — Arabic for the number 40 — marking the end of the annual 40-day mourning period after the date of the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hussein, a central figure in Shiite Islam.
Hussein died at the hands of the Muslim Umayyad forces in the Battle of Karbala, during the tumultuous 1st century of Islam’s history.
Knife attack leaves several people dead and wounded in German city of Solingen
BERLIN: Several individuals were killed on Friday night when a man stabbed passers-by at random with a knife at a city festival in the western German city of Solingen, local media reported.
Bild reported that the event occurred around 9:45 p.m. (1945 GMT) and that at least three people were dead and multiple people were wounded.
The local Solinger Tageblatt newspaper reported that authorities called on people to leave downtown Solingen and that one of the festival organizers, Philipp Müller, said on a stage that emergency workers were fighting for the lives of nine people.
Germany's news agency dpa cited unidentified police sources as saying the weapon was believed to be a knife and no one had yet been arrested. The attack happened on a central square, the Fronhof.
The festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary began on Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday.
Solingen has about 160,000 inhabitants and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
Local police said they were not yet able to comment.
(Developing story)
UN fears repeat of 2017 atrocities against Rohingyas
GENEVA: The United Nations said Friday it fears a repeat of the 2017 atrocities committed against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, warning a human tragedy was unfolding in Rakhine State.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk voiced grave alarm about the sharply deteriorating situation across Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine where, he said, hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed while trying to flee fighting.
Clashes have rocked Rakhine since the rebel Arakan Army attacked forces of Myanmar’s ruling junta in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since a military coup in 2021.
Turk blamed both sides for abuses against the Rohingya including extrajudicial killings, abductions and indiscriminate bombardments of towns.
The AA says it is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population in the state, which is also home to around 600,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Rakhine in 2017 during a crackdown by the military that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.
“Thousands of Rohingya have been forced to flee on foot, with the Arakan Army herding them repeatedly into locations that offer scant safe haven,” Turk said in a statement.
“As the border crossings to Bangladesh remain closed, members of the Rohingya community are finding themselves trapped between the military and its allies and the Arakan Army, with no path to safety.”
Bangladesh is now home to around one million Rohingya refugees.
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“This month marks seven years since the military operations which drove 700,000 across the border into Bangladesh. Despite the world saying ‘never again’, we are once more witnessing killings, destruction and displacement in Rakhine,” said Turk.
In a statement released by his office, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all parties in the conflict “to end the violence and ensure the protection of civilians.”
He also urged the strengthening of “regional protection efforts, to provide access to conflict-affected communities and further support host countries,” especially in Bangladesh.
Turk said parties to the armed conflict were denying responsibility for attacks against the Rohingya, which “stretches the bounds of credulity.”
The UN Human Rights Office said that according to its information, the military and the Arakan Army have both committed serious human rights violations and abuses against the Rohingya.
These include extrajudicial killings, some involving beheadings; abductions, forced recruitment, indiscriminate bombardments of towns and villages, and arson attacks.
“Both the military and the Arakan Army bear direct responsibility for the human tragedy that is unfolding in Rakhine,” said Turk.
“These atrocities demand an unequivocal response: those responsible must be held accountable, and justice must be pursued relentlessly.
“Recurrence of the crimes and horrors of the past must be prevented as a moral duty and a legal necessity.”
Turk called on both parties to cease attacks on civilians and urged the ASEAN regional bloc to take all necessary measures to protect the Rohingya.
Guterres voiced hope “for sustainable peace and national reconciliation that are important steps to create conditions conducive to the voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable return of the Rohingya people to Myanmar.”
At least 5 Secret Service agents have been placed on modified duty after Trump assassination attempt
At least 5 Secret Service agents have been placed on modified duty after Trump assassination attempt
- Trump was struck in the ear but avoided serious injury
At least five Secret Service agents have been placed on modified duty after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in July, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
They include the special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office and three other agents assigned to that office, which was responsible for the security planning ahead of the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to the law enforcement official who had direct knowledge of the matter. One of the five agents was assigned to Trump’s protective detail, the official said.
The official was not authorized to publicly disclose details of the personnel investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The agents are on administrative leave, meaning they cannot do investigative or protective work.
Multiple investigations have been launched as officials probe a complicated law enforcement failure that allowed a man with an AR-style rifle to get close enough to shoot and injure Trump at the rally.
Trump was struck in the ear but avoided serious injury. One spectator was killed and two others were injured.
The shooting was a devastating failure of one of the agency’s core duties and led to the resignation of the Secret Service’s then-director, Kim Cheatle.
At a congressional hearing after the assassination attempt, Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting. She also revealed that the roof from which Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr., who took over after Cheatle’s resignation, has said he “cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”
