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After months of speculation, Donald Trump announced his vice presidential running mate. J.D. Vance joins the Republican presidential ticket as one of the youngest vice presidential candidates since Richard Nixon in 1952. The nomination puts his newcomer status and political inexperience to the test. Tina Trinh reports.
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Former President Donald Trump made a triumphant return to the public eye at the Republican National Convention late Monday, two days after he was wounded in an attempted assassination. Carolyn Presutti reports from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Presidential nominating conventions are a relatively recent tradition that progressed from lengthy party debates into a political spectacle televised for the world. Take a closer look at the history, surprises, and stakes behind the quadrennial events that, come November, will set the shape of America’s political landscape. From marathon balloting to pandemic adaptations, VOA explores how conventions have changed and why they still matter in modern elections.
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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.

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, accompanied by a wall of Secret Service agents, 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. J.D. 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 has vanquished all Republican rivals, silenced most conservative critics and now 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 prime-time 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 Saturday 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.

U.S. 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 bestselling 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 on the convention stage.

Opening night also did not pass without references to the 2020 election and Trump’s repeated lies that it was stolen from him.

Trump’s nomination came on the same day that Biden sat for another national TV interview as 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 “bull’s-eye.” 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.
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SALT LAKE CITY — Three hikers died over the weekend in suspected heat-related cases at state and national parks in Utah, including a father and daughter who got lost on a strenuous hike in Canyonlands National Park in extreme temperatures. 

The daughter, 23, and her father, 52, sent a 911 text alerting dispatchers that they were lost and had run out of water while hiking the 13-kilometer (8.1-mile) Syncline Loop, described by the National Park Service as the most challenging trail in the Island in the Sky district of the southeast Utah park. The pair set out Friday to navigate steep switchbacks and scramble through boulder fields with limited trail markers as the air temperature surpassed 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit). 

Park rangers and a helicopter crew with the Bureau of Land Management began their search for the lost hikers in the early evening Friday but found them already dead. The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office identified them Monday as Albino Herrera Espinoza and his daughter, Beatriz Herrera, of Green Bay, Wisconsin. 

Due to the jagged terrain, safety officials used a helicopter to airlift the bodies out of the park and to the state medical examiner Saturday morning, according to the sheriff’s office. Their deaths are being investigated as heat-related by the local sheriff and the National Park Service. 

Later Saturday, first responders in southwest Utah responded to a call about two hikers “suffering from a heat-related incident” at Snow Canyon State Park, which is known for its lava tubes, sand dunes and a canyon carved from red and white Navajo Sandstone. 

A multi-agency search team found and treated two hikers who were suffering from heat exhaustion. While they were treating those individuals, a passing hiker informed them of an unconscious person nearby. First responders found the 30-year-old woman dead, public safety officials said. 

Her death is being investigated by the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department. She has not been identified publicly. 

Tourists continue to flock to parks in Utah and other southwestern states during the hottest months of the year, even as officials caution that hiking in extreme heat poses serious health risks. Earlier this month, a Texas man died while hiking at Grand Canyon National Park, where summer temperatures on exposed parts of the trail can reach over 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit). 
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A defiant former President Donald Trump will attend the full Republican National Convention, just days after he survived an assassination attempt. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and tells us how his supporters, after Saturday’s shock, are now energized.
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MILWAUKEE — Activists gathering in Milwaukee for the start of the Republican National Convention say the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump won’t affect their long-standing plans to demonstrate outside the convention site this week.

A diverse range of organizations and activists is expected outside the downtown Fiserv Forum. The largest expected demonstration was slated to start Monday morning.

The Coalition to March on the RNC, comprised largely of local groups, planned to protest for access to abortion rights, for immigrant rights, and against the war in Gaza among other issues.

“The shooting has nothing to do with us,” said Omar Flores, a coalition spokesman, speaking about the Saturday evening shots fired at Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “We’re going to continue with the march as we planned.”

The U.S. Secret Service has said security plans — in the works for more than a year — remain the same after the Saturday shooting in which Trump has said his ear was pierced by a bullet and images show blood streaming from a wound. A nearby audience member was fatally shot and two others critically injured in the assault, which has prompted widespread calls to evaluate security measures.

The progressive coalition protesting the RNC has touted their Monday demonstrations as “family friendly.”

Organizers expect an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 attendees. Separately, the Philadelphia-based Poor People’s Army, which organizes for economic justice, plans an afternoon march. Smaller organizations also plan to demonstrate inside parks closer to the convention site where Trump is set to officially accept the party’s presidential nomination later this week.

Milwaukee’s leaders reiterated their confidence in security plans Sunday as delegates, activists and journalists started arriving in town. An estimated 30,000 people are expected.

Trump arrived in Milwaukee on Sunday.

“We take this matter very, very seriously. We take public safety very, very seriously,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said Sunday. “And I have been so pleased to work in collaboration not just with the United States Secret Service but also with local law enforcement and public safety on the ground here.”

Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said law enforcement was “working around the clock” to be ready.

Before the shooting in Pennsylvania, the activist coalition had been at odds with the city and law enforcement for months over a march route. Activists lost a lawsuit over restrictions on where they could demonstrate and had raised concerns about their message being stifled.

But on Friday they announced a “handshake agreement” over their route that includes allowing a city representative to accompany their protest to “make sure things go without a hitch.”

City officials and federal authorities have repeatedly said their priority is safety and insist they’ve made free speech accommodations.

The city has allowed protests at two parks near the convention. One, Haymarket Square Park, is visible from the convention site. There is to be a city-provided stage in the vicinity and speakers will get 20 minutes apiece. A city sign-up lists more than 100 people with a wide range of agendas, including anti-abortion rights activists, veterans groups and political candidates. The other park, Zeidler Union Square, is just under a mile away.

Activists say they’ll infuse their messages with moments of levity, including costumes and a television ventriloquist who is bringing a Trump puppet.

Heavy police presence is also assured.

Many activists are using the experience in Milwaukee to prepare for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month. That event is expected to draw even more people, and Chicago police have been undergoing training on constitutional policing and preparing for the possibility of mass arrests.

Milwaukee police have done some exercises related to the convention, though not widespread training.

“With any very large gathering, people must always be on top of their toes,” said Hilario Deleon, chairman of the Milwaukee County Republican Party. “If it’s successful, the city is successful.”
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President Joe Biden on Sunday summoned the gravitas of the Oval Office to entreat Americans to unify and shun political violence after a stunning attempt on the life of rival Donald Trump a day earlier. Trump, en route to the political convention where he is expected to clinch the Republican presidential nomination, made similar calls – in a sign both men fear trouble ahead as the November election looms. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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Rima Ziuraitis, an American of Lithuanian descent, has been teaching basic first aid to military personnel and civilians in Ukraine for over a year. Ziuraitis, who first arrived in Ukraine as a volunteer in the fall of 2022, has decided to stay in the country and become a medical instructor. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story.
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Buffalo Township, Pennsylvania — The former fire chief who was killed at a Pennsylvania rally for Donald Trump spent his final moments diving down in front of his family, protecting them from gunfire on Saturday during an assassination attempt against the former president.  

Corey Comperatore’s quick decision to use his body as a shield against the bullets flying toward his wife and daughter rang true to the close friends and neighbors who loved and respected the proud 50-year-old Trump supporter, noting that the Butler County resident was a “man of conviction.”

“He’s a literal hero. He shoved his family out of the way, and he got killed for them,” said Mike Morehouse, who lived next to Comperatore for the last eight years. “He’s a hero that I was happy to have as a neighbor.”

Comperatore died Saturday during what is being investigated as an attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. At least two other people were injured: David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania State Police. Both were listed in stable condition as of Sunday.

As support for Comperatore’s family began to pour in from across the country, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden also extended their “deepest condolences.”

“He was a father. He was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired and he lost his life, God love him,” said Biden, who added he was praying for the full recovery of the wounded.

Separately, Texas U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson said in a statement Sunday that his nephew was injured but “thankfully his injury was not serious.”

“My family was sitting in the front, near where the President was speaking,” Jackson said. “They heard shots ringing out — my nephew then realized he had blood on his neck and something had grazed and cut his neck. He was treated by the providers in the medical tent.”

The Secret Service said it killed the suspected shooter, who attacked from an elevated position outside the rally venue.

The former president was showing off a chart of border-crossing numbers when at least five shots were fired. Trump was seen holding his ear and got down on the ground. Agents quickly huddled in a shield around him. When he stood, his face bloodied, he pumped his fist to cheering supporters as he was whisked off stage by Secret Service agents.

Trump later extended his condolences to Comperatore’s family.

Randy Reamer, president of the Buffalo Township volunteer fire company, called Comperatore “a stand-up guy” and “a true brother of the fire service.” He said Comperatore served as chief of the company for about three years but was also a life member, meaning he had served for more than 20 years.

“Just a great all-around guy, always willing to help someone out,” Reamer said of Comperatore. “He definitely stood up for what he believed in, never backed down to anyone. … He was a really good guy.”

A crew was power-washing the front of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company on Sunday with plans to install memorial drapery to honor the slain former chief.

Assistant Chief Ricky Heasley of Sarver, who knew Comperatore for more than a decade, remembered him as very outgoing and full of life.

“He never had a bad word,” Heasley said.

And in the front yard of the Comperatores’ two-story home in Butler County, a small memorial had sprung up of a U.S. flag and small bunches of flowers.

For Morehouse, Comperatore’s death was an emotional blow — but it also has inspired political action. Morehouse says he plans on casting a ballot for the first time in his life come November and he plans on checking Trump’s name.

“As soon as I heard what happened and then learned that it was to Corey, I went upstairs as soon as I got home and I registered to vote,” Morehouse said. “This is the first time I’ve ever voted, and I think it will be in his memory.”

A GoFundMe launched to support Comperatore’s family had surpassed more than $480,000 in donations as of Sunday.
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Washington — As federal investigators try to piece together a motive for 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man identified as the would-be assassin of former President Donald Trump, at least one former classmate is speaking out. 

Jason Kohler told reporters he attended high school with Crooks in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, describing him as a loner and an outcast. 

“He was, like a kid that was always alone. He was always bullied,” Kohler told reporters Sunday. “He was bullied so much.” 

Crooks graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, according to a statement from the school district to a local media outlet. Local media reports show he was given a $500 award for math and science.

Kohler said he never had much interaction with Crooks, who would sit alone during lunch and often be targeted by other kids for the way he often wore hunting outfits or how he continued to wear a mask after COVID mask mandates ended. 

“You could look at him and you would be like, ‘Something’s a little off,’” Kohler added.  The description is just part of the picture that is starting to emerge of Crooks, who was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service agents after climbing to the roof of a building and firing five to six shots at Trump during a campaign rally Saturday in nearby Butler, Pennsylvania. 

Law enforcement officials said Sunday they found bomb-making materials in Crooks’s car and home, and that the AR-style rifle he used in the shooting had been purchased by his father. 

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the discovery of the explosives. 

Crooks’s father, Matthew Crooks, told CNN late Sunday he was trying to find out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before saying anything more. 

Public records show Crooks had no prior convictions and was a registered Republican, like Trump. But other records indicate he made a $15 political donation in 2021 to a left-leaning group that supports Democratic candidates, on the day President Joe Biden was sworn into office.  

Discord, a social media platform popular with gamers, said Sunday it had discovered an account “that appears to be linked to” Crooks. 

“It was rarely utilized, has not been used in months,” a Discord spokesperson confirmed in a statement to VOA. “We have found no evidence that it was used to plan this incident, promote violence, or discuss his political views.” 

“Discord strongly condemns violence of any kind, including political violence, and we will continue to coordinate closely with law enforcement,” the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon Sunday said it determined Crooks had no connection to the U.S. military.

“We’ve confirmed with each of the military service branches that there is no military service affiliation for the suspect with that name or date of birth in any branch, active or reserve component in their respective databases,” according to a statement from the Pentagon press secretary, Major General Pat Ryder.

Some information for this article came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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HUDSON, N.Y. — Wooden pilings beneath Hudson-Athens Lighthouse are deteriorating, and the structure, built in the middle of the river when steamboats still plied the water, is beginning to shift. Cracks are apparent on the brick building and its granite foundation.

While there are other endangered lighthouses around the nation, the peril to this one 100 miles 161 (kilometers) north of New York City is so dire the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed Hudson-Athens on its 2024 list of the country’s 11 most endangered historic places. Advocates say that if action isn’t taken soon, yet another historic lighthouse could be lost in the coming years.

“All four corners will begin to come down, and then you’ll have a pile of rock in the middle. And ultimately it will topple into the river,” Van Calhoun of the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society said during a recent visit.

The society is trying to quickly raise money to place a submerged steel curtain around the lighthouse, an ambitious preservation project that could cost as much as $10 million. Their goal is to save a prominent symbol of the river’s centuries-long history as a busy waterway. While the Hudson River was once home to more than a dozen lighthouses, only seven still stand.

Elsewhere, there’s a similar story of lost history.

Across the United States, there were around 1,500 lighthouses at the beginning of the 20th century. Only about 800 of them remain, said U.S. Lighthouse Society executive director Jeff Gales. He said many of the structures deteriorated after they were automated, a process that became more common by the 1940s.

“Lighthouses were built to have human beings taking care of them,” Gales said. “And when you seal them up and take the human factor out, that’s when they really start falling into disrepair.”

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse began operating in 1874 offshore from the city of Hudson and was eventually co-named for the village of Athens on the other side of the river. It was built to help keep boats from running aground on nearby mud flats, which were submerged at high tide.

“There were shipwrecks because they couldn’t see the sandbar. And so that’s why this lighthouse was put in the middle of the river, unlike most that are on the shoreline,” said preservation society president Kristin Gamble.

The lighthouse is still in use, though now with an automated LED beacon. The preservation society owns the building and maintains it as a museum.

The last full-time keeper, Emil Brunner, retired in 1949 when the lighthouse became automated. He lived there with his family for much of his tenure. One of his daughters recalled rowing to school and, in the winter, walking across the ice on a safe path marked by her father’s tobacco juice stains on the frozen surface. Brunner also is portrayed on a 1946 Saturday Evening Post cover painting rowing with a child, Christmas presents and a tree in tow, as his wife and other children await their arrival on the lighthouse landing.

Visitors who are ferried to the lighthouse today can explore the keeper’s quarters, which are modest but feature river views from every window. And they can climb up the tight spiral staircase to the tower to take in a unique panorama view of the river and the Catskill Mountains to the west.

Roof work on the lighthouse is underway this summer, but repairs to the building will ultimately mean little unless workers address damage to some of the 200 wood pilings packed in mud that hold the lighthouse above water. The support structure has weathered 150 years of currents and ice. But large commercial ships of the modern era — with their big propellors — introduce new problems.

“They create a turbulence that’s like being inside a washing machine. And that turbulence actually comes underneath and pulls — churns up — the soil underneath us and sucks it away,” Calhoun said. “In fact, there are boulders as big as your car that are 100 feet out in that river that used to be right next to us.”

The underwater agitation washes away mud around the pilings, leaving them exposed to water. And that accelerates decay of the wood. Engineers estimate the structure could begin to tilt in three to five years, which Gamble said would be “the beginning of the end.”

The proposed ring of corrugated steel would shield the structure from that turbulence. The 100-foot (31-meter) diameter circle, which would project above the water line, would be filled in and covered by a deck, enlarging the area around the lighthouse.

The preservation group is optimistic about getting federal money to help pay for the project. Both of New York’s U.S. senators, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, support the effort, as does local Republican U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro.

Though the project is pricey, Gamble said, it would not only save the lighthouse from being lost to time, but it would also protect the 19th-century beacon for generations to come.

“We need, basically, the 100-year fix,” she said.
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The U.S. Republican Party is expected to formally nominate Donald Trump for president this week, days after he survived an assassination attempt at a political rally. Already tight security is expected to be heightened in Milwaukee, which is hosting the Republican National Convention. VOA’s Jorge Agobian and William Gallo spoke with convention delegates and Milwaukee residents, who are concerned about the possibility of more unrest.
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NEW YORK — The nearly complete fossilized remains of a 161-million-year-old stegosaurus discovered in Colorado in 2022 will be auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York next week, auction house officials said.

The dinosaur that Sotheby’s calls Apex stands 3.3 meters tall and measures 8.2 meters nose to tail, according to Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture.

The stegosaurus, with its distinctive pointy dorsal plates, is one of the world’s most recognizable dinosaurs.

Apex, which Hatton called “a coloring book dinosaur,” was discovered in May 2022 on private land near the town of Dinosaur, Colorado. The excavation was completed in October 2023, Sotheby’s said.

Though experts believe stegosauruses used their fearsome tail spikes to fight, this specimen shows no signs of combat, Sotheby’s said. The fossil does show evidence of arthritis, suggesting that Apex lived to an advanced age.

Hatton said Apex was found “with the tail curled up underneath the body, which is a common death pose for animals.”

The dinosaur will be auctioned on July 17 as part of Sotheby’s “Geek Week” series.

Sotheby’s is estimating that it will sell for $4 million to $6 million, but that’s just an educated guess.

“This is an incredibly rare animal,” Hatton said. “A stegosaurus of this caliber has never sold at auction before, so we will find out what it is actually worth.”
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