By MEG KINNARD

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump recognized nearly 100 recipients of the Purple Heart at the White House on Thursday, including three service members who gave him their own medals after an attempt on his life at a Pennsylvania campaign rally.

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Trump opened the event marking National Purple Heart Day by noting that dozens of the award’s recipients were at the ceremony in the East Room. The Republican president offered “everlasting thanks to you and your unbelievable families.”

But he had special words for the trio of veterans who sent Trump their medals after the 2024 shooting in Butler. Trump said the trio, “showed me the same unbelievable gesture of kindness.”

“What a great honor to get those Purple Hearts. I guess, in a certain way, it wasn’t that easy for me either, when you think of it,” Trump said of the attempt on his life. “But you went through a lot more than I did, and I appreciate it very much.”

After a shooter’s bullet pierced the upper part of Trump’s right ear in Butler just days before the 2024 Republican National Convention, the then-Republican presidential candidate was gifted medals from some Purple Heart recipients. The medals were presented to him at campaign events during the race’s closing months.

According to the White House, some of those Purple Heart recipients were brought to Trump’s campaign stops so that he could return their medals to them.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also attended, along with Chris LaCivita, Trump’s former campaign co-manager and a Marine veteran who is also a Purple Heart recipient.

National Purple Heart Day is marked annually on Aug. 7.

The Purple Heart, the oldest military award still in use and is awarded to service members who are killed or wounded while engaging in enemy action or resulting from acts of terrorism. According to the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor, more than 1.8 million medals have been presented since the award’s inception in 1782.

Trump also highlighted the stories of valor of other Purple Heart recipients, including Army Spc. Kevin Jensen whose Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2008. Jensen pulled fellow Purple Heart recipient, Capt. Sam Brown, from the flames.

“He flew 10 feet up in the air, exploded in flames. The whole place was in flames, including, unfortunately, Kevin,” Trump said of Jansen. “He suffered deep, third-degree burns all over his body. He was in trouble, big trouble. Despite the agony, he selflessly ran to the aid of his platoon leader.”

Trump also used the ceremony to gloat about having authorized a 2020 U.S. drone strike, during his first term, that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Trump derided Soleimani on Thursday as “father of the roadside bomb.”

“Where is he? Where is he?” Trump scoffed to attendee laughter. “Where is Soleimani?”

Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP. Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed reporting.

By LEA SKENE

BALTIMORE (AP) — The founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring with his girlfriend to plan an attack on Maryland’s power grid in furtherance of their shared racist beliefs.

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Brandon Russell, 30, was convicted by a jury earlier this year. Prosecutors presented evidence detailing his longstanding affiliation with white supremacist causes and his recent efforts to organize “sniper attacks” on electrical substations around Baltimore.

During a sentencing hearing Thursday afternoon in federal court in Baltimore, U.S. District Judge James Bredar excoriated the defendant for his reprehensible views, saying Russell was clearly the brains behind the operation, which sought to precipitate societal collapse by targeting the energy infrastructure of a majority-Black city.

In the aftermath of the planned attacks, Russell and his co-defendant, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, intended to “create their own bizarre utopia populated by people who only look and think like they do,” Bredar said.

“Well, that’s not how it works,” the judge continued. “The law doesn’t permit that. We don’t change course in this country via violent overthrow.”

Bredar imposed the maximum sentence allowed for Russell’s conviction of conspiracy to damage an energy facility. The judge also ordered a lifetime of supervised release, including close monitoring of Russell’s electronic devices.

Bredar previously sentenced Clendaniel to 18 years behind bars after she pleaded guilty to her role in the plot. He said Russell should receive a longer sentence because he was more culpable and contributed the “intellectual horsepower” that propelled the plot closer to fruition.

The two were arrested in February 2023 — before their plans were executed.

Russell’s attorney, Ian Goldstein, has argued that Clendaniel posed a greater threat because she was taking steps to obtain a firearm and shoot up electrical substations. Meanwhile, Russell was living in Florida with absolutely no plans to travel to Maryland, according to his attorney.

“For Mr. Russell, everything was talk,” Goldstein told the court.

He also pointed to Russell’s supportive family. Court papers filed ahead of sentencing included a letter from his mother, who said she believes he’s been trying to fill the void left by a largely absent father. She said some challenges arose with her son after she moved them back to the Bahamas, where she has relatives.

“Brandon Russell is an educated young man who has served this country’s military,” his attorney wrote, connecting his descent into Naziism with longstanding mental health challenges. “His family relationships speak volumes of the person he can be.”

The judge wasn’t persuaded, but he noted Russell’s “somewhat complicated psycho-social history” and recommended mental health treatment during his time in prison.

Russell declined to address the judge directly. He appeared in court wearing maroon prison attire and showed no obvious signs of emotion during the hearing.

Several years ago, Russell co-founded the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, which is German for “atomic weapon.”

This wasn’t his first run-in with law enforcement. In 2017, police responded to a 2017 double homicide at a Tampa apartment building and found Russell outside crying, dressed in military fatigues. One of his roommates had killed the other two, officials said. During a search of the house, police found a stash of highly explosive materials and a cache of neo-Nazi signs, posters, books and flags. Russell pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered destructive device and improper storage of explosives.

By MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the best picture yet of a high-speed comet visiting our solar system from another star.

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NASA and the European Space Agency released the latest photos Thursday.

Discovered last month by a telescope in Chile, the comet known as 3I-Atlas is only the third known interstellar object to pass our way and poses no threat to Earth.

Astronomers originally estimated the size of its icy core at several miles (tens of kilometers) across, but Hubble’s observations have narrowed it down to no more than 3.5 miles. It could even be as small as 1,000 feet, according to scientists.

The comet is hurtling our way at 130,000 mph, but will veer closer to Mars than Earth, keeping a safe distance from both. It was 277 million miles away when photographed by Hubble a couple weeks ago. The orbiting telescope revealed a teardrop-shaped plume of dust around the nucleus as well as traces of a dusty tail.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to halt a court order restricting immigration stops that swept up at least two U.S. citizens in Southern California.

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The emergency petition comes after an appeals court refused to lift a temporary restraining order barring authorities from stopping or arresting people based solely on factors like what language speak or where they work.

The move is the latest in a string of emergency appeals from the Trump administration to the high court, which has recently sided with the Republican president in a number of high-profile cases.

The Justice Department argued that federal agents are allowed to consider those factors when ramping up enforcement of immigration laws in Los Angeles, an area it considers a “top enforcement priority.”

Trump officials asked the justices to immediately halt the order from U.S. District Judge Maame E. Frimpong in Los Angeles. She found a “mountain of evidence” that enforcement tactics were violating the U.S. Constitution in what the plaintiffs called “roving patrols.”

Her ruling came in a lawsuit filed by immigrant advocacy groups who accused President Donald Trump’s administration of systematically targeting brown-skinned people in Southern California during the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Trump’s Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to immediately halt Frimpong’s order, arguing that it puts a “straitjacket” on agents in an area with a large number of people in the U.S. illegally.

“No one thinks that speaking Spanish or working in construction always creates reasonable suspicion … But in many situations, such factors—alone or in combination—can heighten the likelihood that someone is unlawfully present in the United States,” Sauer wrote.

Department of Homeland Security attorneys have said immigration officers target people based on illegal presence in the U.S., not skin color, race or ethnicity.

Frimpong’s order bars authorities from using factors like apparent race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, presence at a location such as a tow yard or car wash, or someone’s occupation as the only basis for reasonable suspicion for detention.

The Los Angeles region has been a battleground for the Trump administration after its aggressive immigration strategy spurred protests and the deployment of the National Guards and Marines for several weeks.

Plaintiffs on the lawsuit before Frimpong included three detained immigrants and two U.S. citizens. One was Los Angeles resident Brian Gavidia, who was shown in a June 13 video being seized by federal agents as he yelled, “I was born here in the states, East LA bro!”

He was released about 20 minutes later after showing agents his identification, as was another citizen stopped at a car wash, according to the lawsuit.