AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Trump holds first rally after assassination attempt with his new running mate, Vance, by his side

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Donald Trump held his first campaign rally since he survived an assassination attempt Saturday, returning to the battleground state of Michigan alongside his newly named running mate.

“It was exactly one week ago, even to the hour, even to the minute,” Trump told the crowd, reflecting on the July 13 shooting in Pennsylvania that left him with a bloodied ear, killed one of his supporters and left two others injured.

“I stand before you only by the grace of almighty God,” he said, the white gauze on his ear now replaced by a skin-colored bandage. “I shouldn’t be here right now,” he went on.

Trump was joined by Ohio Sen. JD Vance at the pair’s first event together since they became the GOP’s nominees at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

“I find it hard to believe that a week ago, an assassin tried to take Donald Trump’s life, and now we have got a hell of a crowd in Michigan to welcome him back on the campaign trail,” Vance said before Trump’s arrival.

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Beyond Biden, Democrats are split over who would be next —VP Harris or launch a ‘mini primary’

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Democrats churn over whether President Joe Biden should stay in the 2024 race, the party turmoil is deepening over whether his Vice President Kamala Harris is next in line for the job or if a “mini primary” should be quickly launched to choose a new nominee before the party’s August convention.

Harris hit the campaign fundraising circuit Saturday in breezy Provincetown, Massachusetts, and picked up a nod from the state’s prominent Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who said before the visit that if Biden were to step aside, his vice president is “ready to step up.”

At the event, which organizers said raised $2 million and was attended by 1,000 guests, Harris did not mention the calls for Biden to leave the race or for her to replace him, instead repeating one of her regular campaign lines: “We’re going to win this election,” she said.

“Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in equality? Do we believe in the promise of America? Then are we ready to fight for it?” she called to a cheering crowd. “When we fight, we win.”

But installing Harris to the top of the ticket, which would be a history-making moment for the party elevating the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent as its presidential nominee, is not at all certain. Officials from the highest ranks, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, prefer an open process, some believing it would strengthen any Democratic nominee to confront Republican Donald Trump.

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Gunman in Trump rally attack flew drone over rally site in advance of event, official says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The gunman in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is believed to have flown a drone around the Pennsylvania rally site ahead of time in an apparent attempt to scope out the site before the event, a law enforcement official said Saturday.

The drone has been recovered by the FBI, which is leading the investigation into last Saturday’s shooting at the rally by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Crooks fired multiple rounds from the roof of a building adjacent to the Butler Farm Show grounds, where Trump was speaking, before being fatally shot by a Secret Service counter sniper. The existence of the device and its use at some point before the shooting could help explain why Crooks knew to fire from the point.

The official who described the drone was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. Details of the drone were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Trump said this week that one bullet clipped his right ear. A memo released Saturday by the Trump campaign and authored by Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as the GOP nominee’s White House physician, said that Trump sustained a gunshot wound to the right ear from a high-powered rifle that came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear.”

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Trump campaign releases letter on his injury, treatment after last week’s assassination attempt

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s campaign released an update on the former president’s health Saturday, one week after he survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The memo, from Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, a staunch supporter who served as Trump’s White House physician, offers new details on the nature of the GOP nominee’s injuries and the treatment he received in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

It is the most thorough accounting to date of the former president’s condition since the night of the shooting, which also left one rally-goer dead and injured two others.

According to Jackson, Trump sustained a gunshot wound to the right ear that came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear.”

The bullet track, he said, “produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear. There was initially significant bleeding, followed by marked swelling of the entire upper ear.”

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Israeli military says it has struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to attacks

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — The Israeli army said Saturday it has struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day.

The Israeli strikes appeared to be the first on Yemeni soil since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, and they threatened to open a new front in the region as Israel battles proxies of Iran.

A number of “military targets” were hit in the western port city of Hodeidah, a Houthi stronghold, the Israeli army said, adding that its attack was in response to “hundreds of attacks” against Israel in recent months.

“The Houthis attacked us over 200 times. The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement.

The Ministry of Health in Sanaa said that 80 people were wounded in a preliminary toll of the strikes in Hodeidah, most of them with severe burns.

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Malicious actors trying to exploit global tech outage for their own gain

As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain.

Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage.

“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives.”

The UK Cyber Security Center said they have noticed an increase in phishing attempts around this event.

Microsoft said 8.5 million devices running its Windows operating system were affected by the faulty cybersecurity update Friday that led to worldwide disruptions. That’s less than 1% of all Windows-based machines, Microsoft cybersecurity executive David Weston said in a blog post on Saturday.

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Disneyland workers authorize potential strike ahead of ongoing contract negotiations

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of workers at Disney’s theme park and resort properties in California voted late Friday to authorize a potential strike, as contract negotiations drag on over wages, sick leave and other benefits.

The strike authorization was approved by an overwhelming margin, nearly 99% of the members who cast votes, according to a union statement. The election was held by a coalition of four unions, which represents 14,000 Disney ride operators, store clerks, custodians, candy makers, ticket takers, parking attendants and other employees.

The vote does not mean a strike will happen, only that union leaders now have the option to call a strike in the event that they are unable to negotiate a new contract deal with Disney. Leaders from both sides return to the bargaining table starting Monday.

“We greatly appreciate the important roles our cast members play in creating memorable experiences for our guests, and we remain committed to reaching an agreement that focuses on what matters most to them while positioning Disneyland Resort for growth and job creation,” the company said in a statement.

Elizabeth Gonzalez, a day custodial cast member at Disney California Adventure, said in the union statement that she knows colleagues who work two and even three jobs or live in a car to make ends meet.

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Blinken points to wider pledges to support Ukraine in case US backs away under Trump

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — Ukraine is on its way to being able to “stand on its own feet” militarily, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday, noting that more than 20 other countries have pledged to maintain their own military and financial aid to the country even if the U.S. were to withdraw its support under a different president.

Blinken for the first time directly addressed the possibility that former President Donald Trump could win the November election and back away from commitments to Ukraine. The U.S., under President Joe Biden, has been the most important supporter of Ukraine’s more than two-year battle against invading Russian forces.

Trump’s public comments have varied between criticizing U.S. backing for Ukraine’s defense and supporting it, while his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, has been a leader of Republican efforts to block what have been billions in U.S. military and financial assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022.

Concerns among Ukraine and its supporters that the country could lose vital U.S. support have increased as Trump’s campaign surges and Biden’s falters.

Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke on the phone Friday.

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11 dead and dozens missing after a highway bridge in China crumbles in flooding and heavy storms

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Chinese authorities say at least 11 people have died and 30 are missing in the partial collapse of a highway bridge in the northwest of the country following heavy storms and flooding. A similar number are missing in the southwest after dozens of houses were destroyed by storms.

The official Xinhua News Agency said five vehicles that fell off the bridge have been recovered after the structure in Shaanxi province crumbled at around 8:40 p.m. Friday. A photo released by Xinhua showed a section of the bridge snapped and folded down at almost a 90-degree angle into the rushing brown water below.

It said rescue operations were still underway Saturday in the province’s Zhashui county, with some 20 cars and 30 people still missing.

In Sichuan province to the southwest, an estimated 30 people were missing and around 40 houses wrecked in flooding and storms, Xinhua reported. It said roads, bridges and communication networks in hardest hit Hanyuan county had been damaged or knocked out and that rescue teams had been working since before dawn to restore communications and transport connections.

As its economy boomed over recent decades, China built a huge network of highways, high-speed railways and airports, most of which have helped fuel further growth.

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As a scholar, he’s charted the decline in religion. Now the church he pastors is closing its doors

They plan to gather one last time on Sunday — the handful of mostly elderly members of First Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon, Illinois.

They’ll say the Lord’s Prayer, recite the Apostle’s Creed and hear a biblical passage typically used at funerals, “To everything there is a season … a time to be born, and a time to die.” They’ll sing classic hymns — “Amazing Grace,” “It Is Well With My Soul” and, poignantly, “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.”

Afterward, members are scheduled to vote to close the church, a century and a half after it was created by hardscrabble farmers in this southern Illinois community of about 14,000 people.

Many U.S. churches close their doors each year, typically with little attention. But this closure has a poignant twist.

First Baptist’s pastor, Ryan Burge, spends much of his time as a researcher documenting the dramatic decline in religious affiliation in recent decades. His recent book, “The Nones,” talks about the estimated 30% of American adults who identify with no religious tradition.

The Associated Press