- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Thousands march for Palestinians ahead of Oct 7 anniversary
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Toddler crushed to death in migrant Channel crossing
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Pogba says 'nightmare is over' after drug ban cut to 18 months
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
Trump returns to site of failed assassination
Donald Trump supporters gathered Saturday for a major rally at the same site where he narrowly avoided an assassin's bullet in July -- a profoundly shocking moment in a White House race still clouded by the threat of political violence.
Trump's defiant and much-hyped return to Butler, Pennsylvania, comes exactly one month before the November 5 presidential election, and a day after President Joe Biden voiced concerns about whether the outcome would be peaceful.
The assassination attempt three months ago that left Trump bloodied and the entire country stunned was seen -- at the time -- as a pivotal moment that could tip the race in the former president's favor.
He was riding a clear poll lead after crushing Biden in a TV debate and entered the Republican convention in Milwaukee as a political martyr -- backed by the image of himself with a blood-streaked face and pumped fist, shouting "fight, fight, fight" as he was bundled off the stage by Secret Service agents.
Saturday's rally is clearly aimed at recovering some of that momentum as a bitter and bruising campaign enters its final stretch.
And much has changed since his last visit.
- A whole new race -
Barely a week after the failed assassination bid, the presidential race was turned on its head by another stunning development when Biden dropped out and was replaced as the Democratic nominee by Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Harris campaign has clawed back the poll deficit -- or in some states even reversed it -- and the extraordinary events in Butler have largely dropped from the political discourse.
The Trump campaign has sought to bring them back by heavily promoting Saturday's event as a triumphant return to the site where their candidate "took a bullet for democracy."
Vice President Harris, meanwhile, travelled to North Carolina on Saturday to meet with emergency responders and residents impacted by Hurricane Helene that cut a swathe of destruction through half a dozen US states and left more than 200 people dead.
The storm has become something of a political issue, with Trump criticizing the federal response and alleging -- without any evidence -- that relief funds had been misappropriated by the Harris-Biden administration, and redirected towards migrants.
- Election violence -
In his convention speech in Milwaukee in July, Trump had vowed never to talk about the assassination attempt again -- but he has often returned to the subject in detail and now talks about Butler as a sacred "monument" for his supporters.
Trump will speak behind protective glass on Saturday -- a stark reminder of the security concerns around the 2024 campaign that were underscored by another incident with a gunman last month, when Trump was playing golf.
It will be a stressful day for the Secret Service, whose agents were subjected to scathing criticism for failing to secure the building -- just a few hundred feet away -- from where the Butler shooter managed to fire eight shots at Trump before being shot dead himself.
Along with Trump, two supporters were wounded and one -- firefighter Corey Comperatore -- was killed.
Ten days later the director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned and the agency remains under heavy pressure to prevent any further incidents.
Trump and his campaign have tried to argue that dire Democrat warnings about the former president representing an existential threat to US democracy amounted to incitement to violence.
In the immediate aftermath of the Butler shooting, all sides urged a lowering of the political temperature, but the respite was short-lived and Trump in particular was quick to revert to the highly inflammatory rhetoric and personal attacks that have always marked his campaign style.
The former president still rejects his defeat to Biden in 2020 and has so far refused to commit to accepting the eventual result in November.
This despite being indicted over what prosecutors allege was a "private criminal effort" to subvert the 2020 election that culminated in his supporters storming the Capitol.
Asked on Friday about the possibility of further election-related violence, Biden made his doubts clear.
"I'm confident it will be free and fair. I don't know whether it will be peaceful," he told reporters.
Ch.Kahalev--AMWN