Isabella Strahan shared she is cancer-free after revealing she was diagnosed with a brain tumor earlier this year. — Isabella Strahan/YouTube
(NEW YORK) — Isabella Strahan is on her road to a full recovery!
In a new update on Thursday from a video on her YouTube channel, the 19-year-old daughter of “Good Morning America” co-anchor Michael Strahan shared that she is officially cancer-free.
Earlier this year, Isabella Strahan publicly revealed she had been diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumor.
In her latest vlog titled, “Goodbye Hospital,” Isabella Strahan shared that she was at her last appointment at the Duke Children’s Hospital & Health Center in Durham, N.C., to review results from her scans.
“It was a great, great scan,” she said with a smile on her face. “Everything was clear. Cancer-free and everything is great. I don’t have another doctor’s appointment until October.”
She continued, “I miss my doctors already and everyone who’s helped me because they’re all so nice… I feel like I’m just saddened today knowing that I wasn’t gonna be going back for awhile because I love them so much. So, that was my last hospital vlog until October!”
Isabella Strahan was a freshman at the University of Southern California when an initial MRI scan in October ultimately led to her diagnosis of medulloblastoma, a cancerous and fast-growing brain tumor that develops in the cerebellum, the back of the brain where movement and coordination are controlled, according to the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University, where she is being treated.
Medulloblastoma is a type of malignant tumor that accounts for about 20% of all childhood brain tumors, according to estimates published in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience.
The new update comes after Isabella Strahan shared on her Vlog last month that she completed her final round of chemotherapy.
“This [has been] a long journey but I made it,” she said at the time. “And now I have to recover and get back to my usual state, which is going to take a long time, but I’m done with treatments.”
She was also celebrated by friends, family and hospital staff over the accomplishment with a confetti parade at the hospital before ringing the bell to signify the end of chemotherapy.
Marking the milestone, Michael Strahan took to Instagram to celebrate the moment and gush over his daughter.
“@isabellastrahan you are a SUPERWOMAN! Ringing that bell finishing chemo and on your way!” he captioned a video of her ringing the bell. “You continue to fight with a smile on your face, strength, and determination. I am one proud Dad! Love you, Bella.”
A view of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court building prior to a hearing in the trial of US journalist Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage, in Yekaterinburg on July 18, 2024. — Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been sentenced to16 years in a Russian penal colony on charges of espionageafter a guilty verdict was announced in the American journalist’s trial on Friday.
The State Prosecutors Office in Russia were looking for a sentence of 18 years but was given 16 instead.
The trial of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich moved to closing arguments early Friday morning after only two days of hearings in a case his newspaper and the United States have denounced as a sham.
Gershkovich has already been in detention for 15 months.
The exceptional speed of the trial has prompted speculation that Russia may be hurrying to convict Gershkovich in order to conduct a prison exchange that may have been agreed. In the past, Russia has preferred to only trade people once they have been convicted. However, the State Department on Thursday said it doesn’t have any assessment of why the trial was moved up so quickly.
Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American, has spent more than a year in Russia detention since he was arrested on espionage charges that the Wall Street Journal and the United States say are fabricated. Gershkovich’s trial began in June with a one-day hearing behind closed doors in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, a city about 900 miles from Moscow.
After just a second day of hearings on Thursday, the court announced it had already completed considering all the evidence in the case and that closing arguments would now be heard on Friday.
After that, Gershkovich will be asked for his “final statement” and the court will consider its verdict, a spokesman for the court said, without giving a time frame for when those might happen.
The process is moving exceptionally fast for an espionage trial, which normally take months or even years. The second hearing was also moved up abruptly by a month, after originally being scheduled for mid-August.
If convicted Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison.
Gershkovich was arrested by Russia’s FSB intelligence agency while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg in March last year. The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. and dozens of international media organisations have vehemently denied the charges against him.
The U.S. has accused Russia of seizing Gershkovich and a number of other Americans as hostages using sham charges with the goal of exploiting them as a political bargaining chips. In recent years Russia has arrested several U.S. citizens including WNBA star Brittney Griner and later traded them for Russians imprisoned in western countries on serious charges.
Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have publicly signalled Russia wants to trade Gershkovich. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this week again confirmed negotiations for an exchange have continued with the Biden administration.
“The intelligence services of the two countries, by agreement between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden back in June 2021, have been in contact to see if someone can be exchanged for someone else,” he said.
Gershkovich’s trial is being held in secret and Russian authorities have never presented any evidence publicly to support the charges against him. Russian prosecutors have charged him with gathering secrets on the “production and repair of military equipment” for the CIA, a claim his newspaper has denied as a “transparent lies,” saying Gershkovich was doing his job as a reporter.
“Evan’s wrongful detention has been an outrage since his unjust arrest 477 days ago, and it must end now,” the Journal said in a statement. “Even as Russia orchestrates its shameful sham trial, we continue to do everything we can to push for Evan’s immediate release and to state unequivocally: Evan was doing his job as a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Bring him home now.”
Thursday’s hearing lasted for more than five hours, with a few short breaks, according to reporters sitting outside the courtroom. A local news outlet It’s My City reported that only one witness appeared in court Thursday, Vyacheslav Vegner, a lawmaker from Putin’s ruling United Russia party in Sverdlovsk’s regional parliament, who has previously said he gave an interview to Gershkovich before his arrest.
Vegner told the local website 66.ru that Gershkovich at the time had asked him about public support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, the activities of the Wagner mercenary group and how the Sverdlovsk region’s industrial enterprises were being repurposed.
Vegner on Thursday told Interfax that he had been questioned in court by the prosecution and defense for about a half-hour.
The Biden administration has said it is negotiating with Russia to try to free Gershkovich and another American, former Marine Paul Whelan, who has spent more than five years imprisoned by Russia on espionage charges the U.S. also says are fabricated. Russia freed Brittney Griner in exchange for the arms trafficker Viktor Bout, and another former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed was traded for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot convicted in the U.S. on drug smuggling charges.
Another American journalist, Alsu Kurmasheva, a reporter for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, has also spent 9 months in detention in Russia on charges relating to her coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Roger Carstens, the U.S. State Department’s special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, this week said that both Gershkovich and Whelan would make it back to U.S. soil one day, but he couldn’t say when.
“The U.S. government is going to bring both of them home,” he said, speaking at the annual Aspen Security Forum. “And when we go into negotiation with the Russians, we are intent on something that brings both people home.”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Mike Levine contributed to this report.
Catherine, Princess of Wales during the trophy ceremony for the Mens Singles Final at The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship at the All England Lawn and Tennis Club at Wimbledon, on July 14, 2024, in London. — Simon M Bruty/Getty Images
(LONDON) — Kate, the Princess of Wales, appears to be working amid her ongoing treatment for cancer.
On Thursday, the royal shared her support for the opening of the new gardens at London’s Natural History Museum, for which she is royal patron.
“I am hugely supportive of the Museum’s commitment to create a special space which encourages people of all ages to reconnect with nature and learn more about how we can protect our natural world,” Kate said in a statement shared on the royals’ official Instagram account.
The statement from Kate was accompanied by a photo of her admiring the garden with young children.
Another slide showed an image of Kate in the garden, holding a jar of honey and surrounded by children.
“I know the power of nature to support our development and wellbeing, both by bringing us joy and helping to keep us physically, mentally and spiritually healthy,” the statement from the princess continued. “I hope these gardens will be inspiring and transformative for the thousands of people who visit.”
The messages from Kate come just days after she attended the men’s singles final at Wimbledon on Sunday with her daughter, Princess Charlotte.
Kate, who is a longtime tennis fan and royal patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, sat in the Royal Box to watch Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic compete in the final.
She was also greeted with applause from spectators as she entered the stadium. When Alcaraz defeated Djokovic, she presented him with his trophy.
Wimbledon and the photos taken at the Natural History Museum gardens are recent instances that the princess has been out and about since announcing her cancer diagnosis in March.
In a pre-recorded video that was shared at the time, amid growing speculation about her health and absence from the public eye, Kate said that the cancer was discovered in post-operative tests after abdominal surgery in January. The type of cancer has not been disclosed, and she started a course of preventative chemotherapy in late February, according to Kensington Palace.
The palace added that she would return to official duties when she is cleared by her medical team.
In June, the Princess of Wales shared an update on her health and said that she is “making good progress” as she undergoes chemotherapy but is not “out of the woods yet.”
She also joined royal family members days later for Trooping the Colour.
While Kate has limited the number of royal engagements she’s taken on, her husband, Prince William, who she shares daughter Charlotte and sons Prince George and Prince Louis with, has continued to undertake engagements and work.
Govind Sandhu, 38, is pictured finishing a half-marathon in Sydney, just prior to his cancer diagnosis. — @govindsandhu/Instagram
(SYDNEY, Australia) — Govind Sandhu said he felt he was at “peak fitness” when he came down with flu-like symptoms, including a fever, night sweats and body aches, in mid-May.
At the time he started feeling sick, Sandhu, 38, said he had recently finished a half-marathon in his hometown of Sydney, Australia, was training for an upcoming marathon and had just taken a vacation in Bali that was focused solely on health and fitness.
“I’m a CrossFit’er who runs marathons and ultramarathons. Everything from the moment I wake to the moment I go to bed is optimized for peak performance,” Sandhu, the head of global music partnerships at TikTok, told Good Morning America. “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke.”
Sandhu said he first believed his symptoms were a result of his intense training or the change of seasons in Australia, which was transitioning from summer to autumn.
Instead, five weeks after first experiencing a symptom, Sandhu said he was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that forms in the lymphatic system, part of the immune system that helps protect the body from disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.
“I think back on it now, and I ran a half-marathon with cancer running wild through my system — and stage 4 at that,” Sandhu said, adding, “I literally thought I did everything under the sun to make myself not susceptible to something like this … you realize that this could happen to anyone.”
In stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the cancer has spread beyond the lymphatic system to one or more tissues or organs, according to the NCI.
Symptoms of the disease include much of what Sandhu said he experienced including fever, night sweats, weight loss and fatigue, as well as swollen lymph nodes.
As a 38-year-old male who was otherwise healthy, Sandhu had only one of the three most common risk factors for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which include older age, being male, and having a weakened immune system, according to the NCI.
“I wasn’t educated enough at that point of [thinking] if it could be cancer, or what are the symptoms,” Sandhu said. “I’m grappling with the fact that I’m 38 years old and I have cancer, which is still a bizarre thing to say out loud.”
Following his diagnosis, Sandhu said he began treatment, which for now includes six rounds of chemotherapy.
As he goes through chemotherapy, Sandhu is sharing his journey on social media to help raise awareness of cancer, especially among young people.
“It’s the last thing I ever would have thought would happen to someone like me, and if it can happen to someone like me, it can happen to anyone,” he said. “The reality is that anything to do with the big ‘C,’ cancer, the general population is clueless, and I was clueless, because anything that has to do with one’s mortality or disease is kind of not spoken about and shared widely … and I just think there’s a lot of power in talking about this.”
Sandhu said he also hopes his story helps empower patients to speak up if they do not feel right and for doctors to listen to patients and explore all possible causes of their symptoms.
He said he also hopes that by sharing himself going through chemotherapy and grappling with a serious cancer diagnosis he can help reduce the stigma of cancer and encourage other people going through a similar battle to not feel so alone.
“I don’t want people to feel alone on this journey, because, again, if it has happened to someone like me, it can happen to anyone,” Sandhu said. “I want people to know that what they’re going through, I’m also going through.”
He continued, “If this can help anyone that’s either about to go through it, has gone through it or is supporting someone that’s going through it, that’s an absolute win for me. I want to shout about this because I think it’s a really important topic.”
Delegates, politicians, and the Republican faithful are in Milwaukee for the annual convention, concluding with former President Donald Trump accepting his party’s presidential nomination. The RNC takes place from July 15-18. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — At the Republican National Convention this week, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien delivered the type of full-throated union advocacy that one would not expect at a gathering of top conservative officials.
“We are not beholden to anyone or any party,” O’Brien, whose union boasts 1.3 million members, told the audience in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “We want to know one thing: What are you doing to help American workers?”
The next day, vice presidential nominee JD Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, indicated a second-term Trump administration would lend such a hand to labor. “We need a leader who’s not in the pocket of big business but answers to the working man, union and non-union alike,” Vance said.
Labor experts who spoke to ABC News expressed deep skepticism about the Republican gestures of support for unions.
The pro-labor message comes at a time when Republicans are eager to win over working-class voters, experts noted, saying the sentiment belies the party’s record of policy positions that make it harder for workers to form unions and secure union contracts.
During his first term in office, Donald Trump weakened enforcement of federal labor regulations and appointed Supreme Court justices who issued rulings that limited union activity and worker protections, the experts said.
“Right now, both parties are in selling mode,” Lynne Vincent, a professor of industrial and labor relations at Syracuse University, told ABC News. “I’m hesitant to give any power to those words, without serious commitment to policies that would support labor.”
In a statement to ABC News, the Trump campaign said the former president would improve the financial conditions of union workers, especially in the auto industry.
“Union workers and all the nation’s working families are paying the price for Crooked Joe Biden’s failed economic policies. Joe Biden’s radical electric vehicle mandate will destroy the livelihoods of countless U.S. autoworkers while sending the U.S. auto industry to China. President Trump will reverse Joe Biden’s extreme electric vehicle mandate on Day One and save the U.S. auto industry for generations to come,” Trump campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The Trump campaign has proposed an escalation of its tariff policy as a means of protecting U.S. businesses, thereby ensuring a robust job market and a bolstered domestic manufacturing industry.
“Trump wants jobs here in America. He wants things made in America,” Stephen Moore, who served as an economic adviser to Trump, previously told ABC News.
Some Republicans have pointed to the selection of Vance as indication of a shift in the party, placing a priority on Vance’s oft-expressed views critical of large corporations and sympathetic toward workers.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., an ally of Vance, walked the picket line with members of the United Auto Workers during a strike last year.
Earlier this month the Republican Party platform released vows to “protect American workers.” The party must “return to its roots as the Party of Industry, Manufacturing, Infrastructure, and Workers,” the platform added. It does not mention the word “union.”
Vance exemplifies a focus on symbolism over substance characteristic of Republican gestures in support of union workers, some experts said. The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, gave Vance a 0% rating on its scorecard ranking elected officials’ voting record for union-related issues. Hawley carries a rating of 11%, the AFL-CIO says.
“The selection of Vance as vice president did disturb the traditional corporate community that is at the core of the Republican Party,” Erik Loomis, a labor professor at the University of Rhode Island and author of “A History of America in 10 Strikes,” told ABC News. “But at the same time, neither Vance nor Hawley have supported a specific kind of legislation that helps labor unions.”
In response to ABC News’ request for comment, a press representative for Hawley pointed to an op-ed this week in which he backs bipartisan labor law reform. “Thousands of Americans have voted to unionize in elections but can never get a contract done, often due to corporate tricks,” Hawley wrote in Compact. “How can we let that stand?”
ABC News has reached out to Vance’s office for comment.
The speech from O’Brien drew praise from some labor leaders and criticism from many others. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, lauded O’Brien in a post on X. “Glad that he savaged big business for their greed,” Weingarten said.
Among the critics was John Palmer, vice president at large of the Teamsters. “It is unconscionable for any Labor leader to lend an air of legitimacy to a candidate and a political party, neither of which can be said to have done or can be expected to do, anything to improve the lives of the workers we are pledged to represent,” Palmer wrote in a column for the Las Vegas Sun.
O’Brien did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When asked about O’Brien’s speech, Rebecca Pringle, president of the 3-million member National Education Association, told ABC News: “It’s everyone’s right to speak their mind and for their organization.”
Pringle added there should be no illusions about the Republican Party’s posture toward organized labor. “What we have experienced with Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans is that they don’t care about workers and they don’t support unions,” she said.
Still, polling shows a large minority of union workers support Trump. Union households prefer Biden to Trump by a margin of 50-41, an NBC News survey in February found.
The labor embrace from some speakers at the RNC this week could help Trump and his allies increase that support, some experts said.
“They’re trying to expand their white working-class base,” Harry Katz, a professor of collective bargaining at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told ABC News. “They’re not idiots.”
(NEW YORK) — IT outages have been reported across the globe as airlines, airports, banks and media companies have suddenly experienced ongoing disruptions that have upended the daily lives of potentially millions of people.
American Airlines, United and Delta have asked the FAA for global ground stop on all flights, according to an alert from the FAA on Friday morning.
However, at approximately 5 a.m. ET, American Airlines issued a statement that they were back up and running as normal.
“Earlier this morning, a technical issue with a vendor impacted multiple carriers, including American. As of 5 a.m. ET, we have been able to safely re-establish our operation. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” the statement read.
The FAA is telling air traffic controllers to tell airborne pilots that airlines are currently experiencing communication issues.
“No one here knows anything, the gate agents said we all know as much as they do,” Scott Sanders told ABC News, saying his flight from SeaTac Airport in Washington was delayed for two hours on the tarmac before passengers were deplaned. “I feel awful for the employees and those that have a sick loved one they need to get to or funerals, thankfully that’s not us.”
Meanwhile, flights in the air will stay in the air, but no American, United or Delta flights have been taking off.
“We’re aware of a technical issue with CrowdStrike that is impacting multiple carriers. American is working with CrowdStrike to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” American Airlines said in a statement obtained by ABC News.
“A third party software outage is impacting computer systems worldwide, including at United,” United Airlines said in a statement on Friday morning. “While we work to restore those systems, we are holding all aircraft at their departure airports. Flights already airborne are continuing to their destinations.”
It is unclear how widespread the issue is but Melbourne Airport in Australia has also said they are “experiencing a global technology issue” which is impacting their check-in procedures.
Global IT outages have also been reported in many countries across the world including Berlin Airport in Germany, the London Stock Exchange, Google Cloud, Microsoft and Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom.
“We’re investigating an issue impacting users ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services,” Microsoft said in a statement released on social media Friday morning.
Crowdstrike, the U.S. cybersecurity company, has admitted to being responsible for the error and are working to correct it.
“Crowdstrike is aware of reports of crashes on Windows 4 related to the Falcon sensor. Please monitor the status via the tech alert on our customer support portal,” says a message on the Crowdstrike technical help line on Friday morning.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Zunaira Zaki and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Former President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accepts his party’s nomination on the last day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 18, 2024. — Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
(MILWAUKEE) — Former President Donald Trump toggled between somber messages of harmony and his favorite red meat rhetoric in a lengthy and charged speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination.
Trump, just days removed from surviving an assassination attempt at a Saturday rally, had forecasted a unifying, and largely delivered at the beginning, reliving details of the shooting that had some audience members in tears. As the speech went on, however, the former president switched back to the GOP’s regularly scheduled programming, veering into unscripted tangents on everything from immigration to foreign policy, occasionally swiping at Democrats by name.
“The first half was perhaps one of the best speeches I have heard in a long time, really driven by emotion and brought a lot of people in. The second half was a rally speech that so many people love,” one GOP strategist said. “It was really two separate speeches in one.”
Trump appeared subdued at the start of the speech Thursday, pushing the country to turn the page on divisions that have ravaged the nation’s politics.
“The discord and division in our society must be healed, we must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” he told an emotional crowd.
He then recounted the details of the shooting, when a shooter grazed his right ear, injured two others and killed one rallygoer at his Pennsylvania rally. Trump said it would be the only time he would discuss the specifics of the assassination attempt because “it’s actually too painful to tell.”
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” he told an emotional crowd. “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.”
Trump also announced that $6.3 million had been raised to help the families of those killed and wounded in attack.
“Despite such a heinous attack, we unite this evening more determined than ever,” Trump declared.
The opening had less of the trappings of a classic, raucous Trump rally, though that was to be expected, given the subject matter.
Quickly, however, the speech reverted back to more typical rhetoric.
Despite his team advertising beforehand that he wouldn’t mention President Joe Biden by name, Trump shouted him out, dubbing him one of the worst presidents in American history.
“If you took the 10 worst presidents in the history of the United States, think of it, the 10 worst, added them up, they will not have done the damage that Biden has done. Only going to use the term once, Biden. I’m not going to use the name anymore, just one time. The damage that he’s done to this country is unthinkable,” Trump said to a crowd that was visibly getting more amped up.
He went on to mention “crazy Nancy Pelosi” and downplayed the current administration’s ability to tackle the nation’s problems — though he said they were capable to fixing elections, reviving unfounded conspiracies about election fraud.
“We’re dealing with very tough, very fierce people, they’re fierce people. And we don’t have fierce people, we have people that are a lot less than fierce, except when it comes to cheating on elections and a couple of other things, then they’re fierce,” he said, mentioning another topic that was not thought to be on the agenda for Thursday night.
The rest of the speech ping-ponged between the two trends.
Trump adlibbed extensively on immigration, repeating warnings that the country was facing an “invasion” at the Southern border and vowing to “drill, baby, drill” for oil and natural gas on his first day in office.
Toward the end of the remarks, he again sprinkled in messages of unity.
“So, tonight, whether you’ve supported me in the past or not, I hope you will support me in the future, because I will bring back the American Dream,” he said. “Love, it’s about love.”
Taken together, the speech left the impression less of a candidate fundamentally changed by Saturday’s tragic events as much as one recognizing its historicity, while still eager to energize his most fervent supporters.
“He’s playing the greatest hits from 2016 — Trump has not changed, he has not moderated, he has gotten worse,” one Biden adviser said. “And he is making no appeal to moderates.”
Republicans, meanwhile, praised the speech, saying it marked a blend that could be featured in future stump speeches.
“I thought it was a good blend,” said Marc Lotter, an official on Trump’s 2020 campaign. “I think it’s one of the reasons why people like him, because he’s not just reading off the teleprompter, the perfectly prepared, well- crafted, poll-tested talking points. He’s adding that context, that commentary.”
Other Republicans swatted away Democratic criticism that the speech was more of the same old, same old from Trump.
“He united the party and country,” said another former Trump campaign official. “Same old led to one of the largest economic expansion in generations. Same old led to zero wars. Same old rebuilt the military.”
Still, some Republicans were seeking more of an emphasis on unity — and that dishing out red meat offered Democrats a chance to swing back at him and go on offense right as they’re convulsing over Biden’s place atop the 2024 ticket.
“Tone was what I expected, typically for these speeches he’s much more on teleprompter, some of his riffs were too long,” one former senior Trump administration official said. “Overall, it doesn’t change anything, but they missed an opportunity to put this out of reach.”
Former President Donald Trump accepts his party’s nomination on the last day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, in Milwaukee, July 18, 2024. — Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
(MILWAUKEE) — After formally accepting the Republican nomination, former President Donald Trump recounted surviving Saturday’s assassination attempt.
With a bandage covering his right ear, Trump addressed the crowd at the Republican National Convention on Thursday, saying it would be the only time he would share what happened at the rally.
“You’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s too painful to tell.”
During the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a gunman opened fire from a nearby roof, striking Trump in the ear, killing a rallygoer, Corey Comperatore, and wounding two others. Before Trump was hit, he had turned his head to the right to look at a screen and hit with a glancing blow.
“The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together,” Trump said.
“Behind me and to the right was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership,” he recounted. “In order to see the chart, I started to turn to my right, and was ready to begin a further turn, which I’m lucky I didn’t, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me, really hard, on my right ear.”
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet,'” the former president said.
Secret Service agents swarmed Trump as he ducked behind the podium, with blood dripping down the side of his face, “Bullets were continuing to fly.”
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump repeatedly told the crowd, to which they responded, “Yes you are!”
“Thank you. But I’m not. And I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.”
Police are investigating the incident as an assassination attempt and potential act of domestic terrorism. The motive is unknown, but officials said that the shooter searched for images of both President Trump and President Biden as well as dates for the Butler rally and the Democratic National Convention.
The shooter was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Trump held a moment of silence for Comperatore, a former fire chief who died when he “dove on his family” to protect them during the rally, his wife said.
Making his first public remarks since the shooting, Trump expressed his “gratitude to the American people for your outpouring of love and support following the assassination attempt.”
(WASHINGTON) — Two people were killed and two others — including a toddler — were injured in a mass shooting in broad daylight in Washington, D.C., authorities said.
At about 11:22 a.m. Thursday, three people got out of a car with what authorities believe were rifles and “shot up the block,” Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.
Three men who were in the intersection at the time were shot, Smith said. Two of the men were killed and the third was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, she said.
A 2-year-old girl was also shot and hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, Smith said.
When the gunfire broke out, the 2-year-old was exiting a day care with a group for their morning walk, Smith said. No other children were hurt, she said.
“This is another example of gun violence that we cannot have in our communities,” Smith said, appearing exasperated. “We’re sick and tired of this.”
The suspects are at large, Smith said.
Police are searching for a blue Dodge Charger with heavy tinted windows, Smith said. It appears the suspects ditched one car and then jumped into the blue Charger after the shooting, Smith said.
“We urge anyone, anyone with information that can help our detectives, to call us right away at 202-727-9099,” Smith said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is still experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms and continues to take Paxlovid, after testing positive for COVID-19 this week, according to the president’s physician.
Biden doesn’t have a fever and his symptoms remain mild, Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a statement Thursday.
Biden, 81, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, following his first event in Las Vegas, the White House said.
UnidosUS CEO Janet Murguía had also announced the diagnosis from the podium where the president was set to speak at the organization’s conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
“He is vaccinated and boosted and he is experiencing mild symptoms,” the White House said in a statement Wednesday night. “He will be returning to Delaware where he will self-isolate and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time.”
First lady Jill Biden is in Rehoboth, Delaware, as well, as the president self-isolates following his COVID diagnosis. Jill Biden was already in Rehoboth prior to the president’s diagnosis, her office said on Thursday. No additional family is in Rehoboth, according to her office.
When asked if she has been tested for COVID or was showing any symptoms, her office said, “She is tested as determined appropriate by her doctor — she is not symptomatic and up to date with her vaccines.”
President Biden is being “kept up to speed” on national security matters while he isolates, national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters Thursday afternoon.
“I think we can all understand that while he’s certainly focused on getting better, as anybody who’s had COVID would want to do, he is — he’s being kept up to speed as appropriate, by his leadership team, and certainly that includes on the national security front,” Kirby said in an audio-only gaggle.
Kirby didn’t have any specific briefings to speak to, but said that the president is being “kept updated and up to speed as he normally would.”
The White House said it will provide regular updates on the president’s status “as he continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.”
The White House had shared a note Wednesday from Biden’s doctor, who said the president had upper respiratory symptoms — including a running nose and cough — and “general malaise” Wednesday afternoon.
“He felt OK for his first event of the day, but given that he was not feeling better, point of care testing for COVID-19 was conducted, and the results were positive for the COVID-19 virus,” his doctor said, according to the White House.
The president gave a thumbs-up to reporters as he prepared to depart Las Vegas on Wednesday when asked how he was feeling and responded, “Good. I feel good,” according to the pool.
He was seen maskless boarding Air Force One in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon to head to Rehoboth.
Biden also shared his COVID-19 diagnosis on X later Wednesday night, writing, “I am feeling good and thank everyone for the well wishes.”
“I will be isolating as I recover, and during this time I will continue to work to get the job done for the American people,” he said.
Biden previously tested positive for COVID-19 in 2022 and took Paxlovid then, the White House said at the time.
The president was slated to deliver remarks Wednesday afternoon at the annual conference for UnidosUS, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, when Murguía announced from the stage that he would no longer be able to appear.
“Regrettably, I was just on the phone with President Biden and he shared his deep disappointment at not being able to join us this afternoon,” Murguía told the crowd. “The president has been at many events as we all know, and he just tested positive for COVID. So, of course, we understand that he needs to take the precautions that have been recommended, and he did not obviously want to put anybody at risk.”
“He said to tell my folks that you’re not going to get rid of him that quickly,” Murguía continued. “We’re going to have a chance to hear from him in the future directly. He’s just really sorry he couldn’t be with us.”
ABC News’ Mary K. Bruce, Molly Nagle and Justin Ryan Gomez contributed to this report.
