Trump receives enough delegate votes to officially be Republicans’ nominee

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MILWAUKEE — The top of Republicans’ presidential ticket came together suddenly Monday, as Donald Trump swept a majority of votes from national convention delegates and announced Ohio Senator JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate.  After receiving the votes of enough delegates to clinch the nomination, former President Trump will lead the GOP in a third consecutive election. The winner in 2016, he lost to current President Joe Biden in 2020. He will face Biden again in November.  Trump has been the presumptive nominee for months. But it was the vote of RNC delegates in Milwaukee that made it officialmore

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New Biden TV interview to air as campaign gingerly advances after Trump attack

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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden was sitting for yet another high-stakes interview at another key moment for his candidacy as his reelection team gingerly determines how to resume full-blown campaigning after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.  Biden was being interviewed by Lester Holt of NBC News, a session set to air on the network Monday evening. The interview, scheduled before the attempt on Trump’s life at a rally in Pennsylvania, is part of Biden’s broader strategy to prove his fitness for office after angst grew among Democrats because of his disastrous June 27 debate performance.  The Biden campaignmore

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Who is JD Vance? Things to know about Trump’s running mate

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former President Donald Trump on Monday chose U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio to be his running mate as he looks to return to the White House. Here are some things to know about Vance, a 39-year-old Republican now in his first term in the Senate: Vance rose to prominence with memoir ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Vance was born and raised in Middletown, Ohio. He joined the Marines and served in Iraq, and later earned degrees from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He also worked as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. Vance made a name for himselfmore

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Biden orders Secret Service to protect RFK Jr. after Trump assassination attempt

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Washington — President Joe Biden has directed the U.S. Secret Service to protect independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the Homeland Security secretary said Monday. Kennedy is a longshot to win Electoral College votes, much less the presidency. But his campaign events have drawn large crowds of supporters and people interested in his message. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Biden had directed the protection for Kennedy “both prior to and after the events of this past weekend.” The Secret Service is legally required to protect major party presidential and vice-presidential candidates andmore

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From basement to battlefield: Ukrainian startups create low-cost robots to fight Russia

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Northern Ukraine — Struggling with manpower shortages, overwhelming odds and uneven international assistance, Ukraine hopes to find a strategic edge against Russia in an abandoned warehouse or a factory basement. An ecosystem of laboratories in hundreds of secret workshops is leveraging innovation to create a robot army that Ukraine hopes will kill Russian troops and save its own wounded soldiers and civilians. Defense startups across Ukraine — about 250 according to industry estimates — are creating the killing machines at secret locations that typically look like rural car repair shops. Employees at a startup run by entrepreneur Andrii Denysenko can putmore

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Trump rally shooting becomes hot topic on China’s social media

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Taipei, Taiwan — The shooting at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday quickly became a trending topic on China’s social media platforms Sunday. The Chinese foreign ministry released a statement on its website Sunday, indicating that the country is closely following the incident involving Trump. “President Xi Jinping has expressed sympathies to former President Trump,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in its statement. The FBI said Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was the suspect in the attempted assassination of Trump. As of noon, Beijing time Sunday, the Weibo entry “Trumpmore

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A defiant Trump equals a defiant base

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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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GOP convention protests are on despite shooting at Trump rally

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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,” saidmore

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Biden, in somber Oval Office address, calls for unity, peace after Trump shooting

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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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