- 'Sleeper agent' bots on X fuel US election misinformation, study says
- Death toll rises to 109 after Haiti gang attack, official says
- Tigers beat Guardians and on brink of advancing in MLB playoffs
- Argentina MPs back Milei's veto of university funding
- Man City sink Barca in Women's Champions League as Bayern outgun Arsenal
- Greek international Baldock, 31, found dead in pool: state agency
- Florida seaside haven a ghost town as hurricane nears
- Pharrell Williams to co-chair Met Gala exploring Black dandyism
- Wall Street indices hit fresh records as Chinese shares tumble
- Taiwan's president to deliver key speech for National Day
- Sea row on the menu as ASEAN leaders meet China's Li
- Injured Kane won't start England's Nations League clash with Greece
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Mozambique starts tallying votes in tense election
- Zelensky moves to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- Rodgers rejects 'false' suggestions of role in Saleh dismissal
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Lebanon facing 'catastrophic' situation as 600,000 displaced: UN
- US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon
- Musk's X returns in Brazil after 40-day showdown with judge
- Call her savvy? Harris unleashes unconventional media blitz
- Lucian Freud 'masterpiece' fetches £13.9 million at London sale
- SoFi Stadium to hold next two CONCACAF Nations League finals
- McIlroy and DeChambeau set for PGA-LIV 'Showdown' in Vegas
- Fed minutes highlight divisions over rate cut decision
- Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival
- Run blitz edges India and South Africa closer to World Cup semi-finals
- Zelensky to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Israel captain says 'difficult' to focus on football in time of war
- Macron to host Ukraine's Zelensky after meeting Ukrainian troops
- Root says 'many more to get' after England Test runs landmark
- India pile up World Cup high to rout Sri Lanka
- One year later, Israeli hostage family learns of loss
- Texans receiver Collins, Pats' safety Peppers out for NFL clash
- Biden-Netanyahu talk as Hezbollah, Israeli forces clash
- Musk's X available again in Brazil after 40-day ban
- Reddy stars as India crush Bangladesh to clinch T20 series
- Nobel winners hope protein work will spur 'incredible' breakthroughs
- What are proteins again? Nobel-winning chemistry explained
- Arch rivals Ghana, Nigeria drawn together in CHAN qualifying
- AI steps into science limelight with Nobel wins
- Trump lauds India's Modi as 'total killer'
- Wall Street, Europe rise as Chinese shares tumble
- Hunkering down for Hurricane Milton at Disney -- but first, a few rides
- Reddy, Rinku power India to 221-9 in second Bangladesh T20
- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Time running out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
Five takeaways from Trump's first rally since assassination bid
Donald Trump commanded the stage for nearly two hours Saturday in his first rally since a gunman tried to kill him last week, with a fiery, rambling speech to thousands of passionate supporters.
Here are five takeaways from the vision painted by the Republican presidential nominee for the United States:
- 'Shoveling ballots into wheelbarrows' -
Last week's Republican National Convention notably downplayed Trump's persistent lie that the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, was stolen from him.
But when Trump returned to the campaign trail Saturday night he did not hold back.
"The Radical Left Democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020 and we're not going to allow them to rig the presidential election in 2024," he said, in just one of his references to voter fraud.
"We want a landslide that is too big to rig," he added later.
He warned those who voted early to "follow your vote" and insisted that 2020 saw some states "shoveling ballots into wheelbarrows, moving them around."
And the crowd cheered as he called on them to "Fight, fight, fight."
That evoked both the moments after his attempted assassination last Saturday -- when, bloodied and surrounded by Secret Service agents, he raised a fist in the air and shouted "fight" -- and his comments before the 2021 Capitol riot, when he warned supporters "if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
- 'I'm not an extremist at all' -
Trump also again disavowed Project 2025, a shadow manifesto characterized by opponents as an authoritarian, right-wing wish list.
"The other side is going around trying to make me sound extreme ... I'm not an extremist at all," he complained.
The sweeping blueprint from the hardline Heritage Foundation to remake the federal government in Trump's image was created by "the radical right... they're seriously extreme," he said, insisting "I don't know what the hell it is."
The official Republican platform ratified at the Milwaukee convention is less conservative than Project 2025 in several areas, including abortion and entitlements.
But many of the more extreme proposals in the Heritage Foundation handbook are indistinguishable from Trump's remarks at his rallies and his own video statements, while Democrats say members of his inner circle have been linked to it.
Still Trump insisted the idea that he is a "threat to democracy" is "misinformation."
"Last week, I took a bullet for democracy," he said.
- 'Stupid' Biden -
Trump also laid in to the crisis engulfing rival Biden's candidacy, as Democrats fearing that at 81 the president is too old to serve for another four years pressure him to step off the ticket.
"They have no idea who they candidate is ... Sort of interesting, this guy goes and he gets the votes and now they want to take it away. That's democracy," Trump said in Michigan.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he said, had turned on the president "like a dog."
Branding Biden "stupid" and "a low-IQ individual," he also denigrated Vice President Kamala Harris -- who, if the president steps aside, is in a strong position to take over -- as "crazy."
- 'Beautiful' note from Xi -
Trump again touted his relationships with autocrats around the globe, insisting of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un that getting along had made the United States safer.
"All he wants to do is buy nuclear weapons and make them," he said of Kim.
"I said, just relax, chill. You've got enough. You got, you got so much nuclear weapons, so much, I said, just relax... let's go to a baseball game."
He called Hungarian President Viktor Orban a "very powerful leader" and again insisted that, had he been US leader, President Vladimir Putin of Russia would never have invaded Ukraine in 2022.
And he said he received a "beautiful note" after the assassination attempt from President Xi Jinping of China, calling him a "great guy."
He said he had told reporters that Xi was "a brilliant man. He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist."
- 'Migrant crime' -
Trump also unleashed a litany of threats against illegal migrants, decrying an "invasion" over the US border and again suggesting that Democrats were allowing it to happen in hope of using their votes.
On day one of his return to the Oval Office, he promised to launch "largest deportation operation in the history of our country.
"When I return to the White House, we will stop the plunder, rape, slaughter and destruction of our American suburb cities," he continued.
"We're going to get the bad ones out. We're going to get them out immediately. It's not going to take long."
He promised to "crush migrant crime" and complained that countries such as Venezuela are "dumping their criminals into the United States of America, and we're not going to take it anymore."
O.Karlsson--AMWN