William O’Connor | (TNS) Bloomberg News

If you’ve planned a vacation of late, you’ll have no trouble believing the eye-watering figure from Virtuoso—a consortia of some 20,000 luxury travel agents—that luxury hotels are 85% more expensive this summer than they were in 2019. In Paris alone, prices have gone stratospheric, up 300 percent over last summer’s rates, as hoteliers try to capitalize on the Olympic Games.

This new world order has normalized spending $1,000 a night for an entry-level room in most major cities — never mind the cost of a five-star stay in a seasonal resort destination like the Amalfi Coast or the south of France. At the former, iconic spots such as Belmond’s Caruso can command last-minute rates of $3,250 for a standard, 452-square-foot room.

To that, we say: The most expensive resorts may often be the most luxurious ones, but that doesn’t necessarily make them the best choices.

If what you’re after is a great value — a stay that offers appropriate pampering, exquisite décor and a sense of seclusion from the general public, and even some bragging rights — the answer may be to avoid the top spots entirely.

In most major destinations, boutique hotels now offer style and sophistication comparable to their more luxurious counterparts — albeit usually with a less favorable staff-to-guest ratio — at a fraction of the cost and to an oftentimes cooler crowd. If you’ve already come to terms with spending upward of $1,000 per night, getting a large suite at one of these more intimate venues will likely make you feel more like royalty than taking up residence in an entry-level room at a larger and more recognizable resort. And even if there are fewer staff to cater to your whims, you’ll be a big fish in a small pond.

Here are four case studies of just how well this strategy can play out, supersizing your lodging without adding a penny to your budget.

A flaneur’s fantasy in Paris

The fanciest hotels in town carry the government-given “palace” status. There are 12 of these, including Le Bristol, the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, Hotel Lutetia and Cheval Blanc.

They’re fabulous. But in the middle of the week in June, an entry-level superior room at the Plaza Athénée will run you $2,986 a night. For that price, you’ll get 325 square feet and a view of the landscaped inner courtyard.

At the LVMH-owned Cheval Blanc, which sits on the Seine overlooking the Pont Neuf, the prices are similar: $2,823 a night for a starter “deluxe” room, clocking in at 485 square feet.

You’ll spend half that amount — $1,400 — on a corner suite at the new and already buzzy Château des Fleurs, around the corner from the Plaza Athénée in the 8th arrondissement. The vibe, both in its common spaces and its 37 rooms, is art nouveau with a splash of surrealism: think trippy curvy doors in the hallways and elongated silverware in its Korean-French restaurant, Oma, where a mirrored ceiling is crisscrossed with playful spherical molding.

Further along in the 16th is the St. James, which lays claim to being the only “château hotel” in Paris. Rooms in this majestic mansion start at $2,500 a night—less than the palaces, if not by much. But for that sum you get your own small villa facing the estate’s manicured gardens, with with a private hot tub and sauna. It’s a taste of the French countryside, but within a 20-minute walk of the Arc de Triomphe.

A selective sanctuary in Madrid

For all the fuss over the Olympics in Paris, it’s Madrid that has emerged as the hottest city this summer. (See here for our obsessively curated guide to the city.) At the edge of its preppy Salamanca neighborhood you could sleep off the tapas and tintos at the Rosewood Villa Magna, where the least expensive Deluxe Room offers 323 square feet for $1,500 a night. It’s the same price you’d pay just south on the Paseo del Prado, at the recently refurbished Mandarin Oriental Ritz, which bears the Midas touch in its opulence.

Alternatively, you could book into the Hotel Santo Mauro, which is exclusive for different reasons. One of Madrid’s more discreet properties, it’s the former palace of the Duke of Santo Mauro and part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection. Its 49 opulent rooms in the elegant but low-key neighborhood of Almagro, near the Museo Sorolla, feel like urban oases, and king suites that are nearly twice the size of Rosewood’s entry-level rooms go for around $1,340.

All its rooms have been recently redone by famed Spanish interior designer Lorenzo Castillo, who added rich textiles and vibrant wallpapers so that it feels like you’re the guest of a duke. No two suites look alike, but they all come with a well-curated minibar with Spanish wines and snacks, marble bathrooms, and have a turndown service that includes treats from La Pajarita, a nearly 200-year-old candymaker.

Lording over London

London has long been known for hotels with staggering nightly rates, and the new Raffles London at the OWO continues that tradition. Here, rooms measuring a mere 333 square feet start in the low $1,000s. Few spots worldwide have the stature of The Connaught, but a Contemporary Deluxe Room with dimensions of 377 square feet commands $1,992 a night in mid-June. Starting prices are even higher at The Emory, which just opened, though there at least you’re guaranteed to get a suite (and lots of extras) for the $2,000-and-up price tags.

Further east on a cobble street in Shoreditch is one of the city’s more eccentric and adored boutique properties – Batty Langley’s. The whole experience in this 18th century mansion feels like something out of a maximalist period drama with its tapestries, velvet upholstery, and antique furnishings. Modernity is often hidden in its 29 rooms–televisions and minibars are tucked away in wardrobes and some bathrooms behind bookcases.

In the deep blue 710-square-foot Earl of Bolingbroke suite, you can sleep in an immense gold-accented canopy bed originally built for a bishop and decompress in an antique tub from Tuscany carved from a single block of marble. The two-story suite can be found for $896 in July, a bargain when you discover its terrace with views that stretch all the way east to Olympic Park.

Wheeling and dealing in Manhattan

Across the pond in New York City, hotel prices have soared, in part due to a crackdown on short-term rentals. At the brand-new Fifth Avenue Hotel, a kaleidoscopic perch by hotshot designer Martin Brudnizki, a 285 square-feet King room in mid-June was going for $1,045 a night. A room at the Aman New York, just below Central Park, is $2,475 per night. And a Premier King at the Carlyle easily tops $1,000.

In lower Manhattan, one of the coolest hotels of the last few years is Nine Orchard. A former bank, its Swan Room cocktail lounge is a good bet for people watching later in the week. The 400-square-feet Supreme View King Suites, named for the skyline views from the hotel’s top floors, have summer rates of $850. A rare perk for New York, this type of room has a soaking tub inset in a marble-arched alcove that’s decked out with pricey Takamichi hair products. And all guests gain access to the East Room, a stunning urban oasis with a fireplace and coffered ceiling.

A breezy break in the Balearics

Ever since United Airlines introduced direct flights from New York last summer, Mallorca has perfected the one-two punch of glamour and convenience. Paradisiacal Deia on its northern shores remains one of the most magical places in the Med. For the A-list, it’s also known as home to La Residencia, part of the Belmond group. Here at this complex of golden ochre stone accented with pale green shutters, a 376-square-foot double room with a queen-size bed starts at $2,214 a night. Up in the hills southwest of Deia in a restored 16th century estate is Son Bunyola, a new jewel in the crown of Richard Branson’s Virgin Hotels. Here, a charmingly rustic 330-square-foot Mountain View room will set you back $1,200 a night.

But a quick ferry ride away – or by a connecting flight from almost any major European airport – is the much more under-the-radar island of Menorca. On its south shore, not far from its ancient city of Ciutadella, is Vestige Son Vell, which opened last fall. Set in a neoclassical country villa on hundreds of acres, it features multiple pools, extensive flower-filled gardens, and 34 elegantly restored rooms.

Most importantly in this era of overcrowding, at the end of its long southern drive is a secluded sandy cove, a unique asset on an island where the luxury stays tend to be in the countryside. Here, a 500-square-foot Garden Junior suite carved out of a former outbuilding comes with an enormous Balinese bed, a private walled-off garden, and temperature-controlled wide-brick floors. The price tag? $1,100.

___

Memorial Blood Centers has issued an urgent call for type O+ and O- blood donations. A shortage has been affecting local hospitals, according to officials with Memorial Blood Centers, with Type O blood shortages being reported across the nation. Currently, inventory of Type O blood is the lowest it’s been since the Covid-19 pandemic.

There also has been a recent surge in blood usage. In the past several days, seven massive transfusion protocols — which includes administering 10 or more units of blood to a patient within 24 hours — has occurred across the region. The local Memorial Blood Centers serve Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin.

Nearly 40% of the U.S. population has Type O+ blood — the most common blood type. Type O- is a universal blood type and is commonly used in emergency situations.

During the summer months, more blood supply is needed due to seasonal travel, school breaks and a general rise in traumatic accidents.

Donors can give every 56 days, and platelet donors can give twice per month. To view donation eligibility or to make an appointment, visit mbc.org or call 1-888-448-3253.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bob Newhart, the deadpan accountant-turned-comedian who became one of the most popular TV stars of his time after striking gold with a classic comedy album, has died at 94.

Jerry Digney, Newhart’s publicist, says the actor died Thursday in Los Angeles after a series of short illnesses.

Newhart, best remembered now as the star of two hit television shows of the 1970s and 1980s, launched his career as a standup comic in the late 1950s. He gained nationwide fame when his routine was captured on vinyl in 1960 as “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” which went on to win a Grammy Award as album of the year.

While other comedians of the time, including Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Alan King, and Mike Nichols and Elaine May, frequently got laughs with their aggressive attacks on modern mores, Newhart was an anomaly. His outlook was modern, but he rarely raised his voice above a hesitant, almost stammering delivery. His only prop was a telephone, used to pretend to hold a conversation with someone on the other end of the line.

In one memorable skit, he portrayed a Madison Avenue image-maker trying to instruct Abraham Lincoln on how to improve the Gettysburg Address: “Say 87 years ago instead of fourscore and seven,” he advised.

Another favorite was “Merchandising the Wright Brothers,” in which he tried to persuade the aviation pioneers to start an airline, although he acknowledged the distance of their maiden flight could limit them.

“Well, see, that’s going to hurt our time to the Coast if we’ve got to land every 105 feet.”

Newhart was initially wary of signing on to a weekly TV series, fearing it would overexpose his material. Nevertheless, he accepted an attractive offer from NBC, and “The Bob Newhart Show” premiered on Oct. 11, 1961. Despite Emmy and Peabody awards, the half-hour variety show was canceled after one season, a source for jokes by Newhart for decades after.

He waited 10 years before undertaking another “Bob Newhart Show” in 1972. This one was a situation comedy with Newhart playing a Chicago psychologist living in a penthouse with his schoolteacher wife, Suzanne Pleshette. Their neighbors and his patients, notably Bill Daily as an airline navigator, were a wacky, neurotic bunch who provided an ideal counterpoint to Newhart’s deadpan commentary.

The series, one of the most acclaimed of the 1970s, ran through 1978.

Four years later, the comedian launched another show, simply called “Newhart.” This time he was a successful New York writer who decides to reopen a long-closed Vermont inn. Again Newhart was the calm, reasonable man surrounded by a group of eccentric locals. Again the show was a huge hit, lasting eight seasons on CBS.

It bowed out in memorable style in 1990 with Newhart — in his old Chicago psychologist character — waking up in bed with Pleshette, cringing as he tells her about the strange dream he had: “I was an innkeeper in this crazy little town in Vermont. … The handyman kept missing the point of things, and then there were these three woodsmen, but only one of them talked!”

The stunt parodied a “Dallas” episode where a key character was killed off, then revived when the death was revealed to have been in a dream.

Two later series were comparative duds: “Bob,” in 1992-93, and “George & Leo,” 1997-98. Though nominated several times, he never won an Emmy for his sitcom work. “I guess they think I’m not acting. That it’s just Bob being Bob,” he sighed.

Over the years, Newhart also appeared in several movies, usually in comedic roles. Among them: “Catch 22,” “In and Out,” “Legally Blonde 2” and “Elf,” as the diminutive dad of adopted full-size son Will Ferrell. More recent work included “Horrible Bosses” and the TV series “The Librarians,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Young Sheldon.

Newhart married Virginia Quinn, known to friends as Ginny, in 1964, and remained with her until her death in 2023. They had four children: Robert, Timothy, Jennifer and Courtney. Newhart was a frequent guest of Johnny Carson’s and liked to tease the thrice-divorced “Tonight” host that at least some comedians enjoyed long-term marriages. He was especially close with fellow comedian and family man Don Rickles, whose raucous insult humor clashed memorably with Newhart’s droll understatement.

“We’re apples and oranges. I’m a Jew, he’s a Catholic. He’s low-key, I’m a yeller,” Rickles told Variety in 2012. A decade later, Judd Apatow would pay tribute to their friendship in the short documentary “Bob and Don: A Love Story.”

A master of the gently sarcastic remark, Newhart got into comedy after he became bored with his $5-an-hour accounting job in Chicago. To pass the time, he and a friend, Ed Gallagher, began making funny phone calls to each other. Eventually, they decided to record them as comedy routines and sell them to radio stations.

Their efforts failed, but the records came to the attention of Warner Bros., which signed Newhart to a record contract and booked him into a Houston club in February 1960.

“A terrified 30-year-old man walked out on the stage and played his first nightclub,” he recalled in 2003.

Six of his routines were recorded during his two-week date, and the album, “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” was released on April Fools’ Day 1960. It sold 750,000 copies and was followed by “The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!” At one point the albums ranked No. 1 and 2 on the sales charts. The New York Times in 1960 said he was “the first comedian in history to come to prominence through a recording.”

Besides winning Grammy’s album of the year for his debut, Newhart won as best new artist of 1960, and the sequel “The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!” won as best comedy spoken word album.

Newhart was booked for several appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and at nightclubs, concert halls and college campuses across the country. He hated the clubs, however, because of the heckling drunks they attracted.

“Every time I have to step out of a scene and put one of those birds in his place, it kills the routine,” he said in 1960.

In 2004, he received another Emmy nomination, this time as guest actor in a drama series, for a role in “E.R.” Another honor came his way in 2007, when the Library of Congress announced it had added “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” to its registry of historically significant sound recordings. Just 25 recordings are added each year to the registry, which was created in 2000.

Newhart made the best-seller lists in 2006 with his memoir, “I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This!” He was nominated for another Grammy for best spoken word album (a category that includes audio books) for his reading of the book.

“I’ve always likened what I do to the man who is convinced that he is the last sane man on Earth … the Paul Revere of psychotics running through the town and yelling `This is crazy.′ But no one pays attention to him,” Newhart wrote.

Born George Robert Newhart in Chicago to a German-Irish family, he was called Bob to avoid confusion with his father, who was also named George.

At St. Ignatius High School and Loyola University in Chicago, he amused fellow students with imitations of James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Durante and other stars. After receiving a degree in commerce, Newhart served two years in the Army. Returning to Chicago after his military service, he entered law school at Loyola, but flunked out. He eventually landed a job as an accountant for the state unemployment department. Bored with the work, he spent his free hours acting at a stock company in suburban Oak Park, an experience that led to the phone bits.

“I wasn’t part of some comic cabal,” Newhart wrote in his memoir. “Mike (Nichols) and Elaine (May), Shelley (Berman), Lenny Bruce, Johnny Winters, Mort Sahl — we didn’t all get together and say, `Let’s change comedy and slow it down.′ It was just our way of finding humor. The college kids would hear mother-in-law jokes and say, `What the hell is a mother-in-law?′ What we did reflected our lives and related to theirs.”

Newhart continued appearing on television occasionally after his fourth sitcom ended and vowed in 2003 that he would work as long as he could.

“It’s been so much, 43 years of my life; (to quit) would be like something was missing,” he said.

___

Former Associated Press writer Bob Thomas contributed to this report.

By The Associated Press

The Republican National Convention culminates Thursday with former President Donald Trump expected to accept the party’s presidential nomination, achieving a comeback four years in the making and anticipated even more in the past week in light of Saturday’s assassination attempt.

He is expected to accept his third consecutive party nod in prime time before thousands of supporters at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. Trump’s running mate JD Vance addressed the same crowd on Wednesday.

Trump’s election opponent, President Joe Biden, tested positive for COVID-19 while traveling Wednesday in Las Vegas and is experiencing “mild symptoms” including “general malaise” from the infection, the White House said.

Follow the AP’s Election-2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024

Here’s the Latest:

Turkey’s Erdogan speaks with Trump on call, denounces assassination attempt as ‘attack on democracy’

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Donald Trump on Thursday, a conversation in which he denounced the assassination attempt against the presidential candidate as an “attack on democracy.”

During the call, Erdogan praised Trump for his “brave stance following the heinous attack,” according to a statement from the Turkish presidential communications office.

The Turkish leader also said the fact that Trump had pressed ahead with his schedule despite the attack had “strengthened democracy.”

Erdogan added that Trump had “displayed strong leadership through his comforting messages of unity that aimed at reducing polarization and tensions,” according to the statement.

Erdogan expressed hope that the elections in November would be “beneficial” to Americans and to Turkish-US relations.

Erdogan had forged a good rapport with Trump during his presidency while U.S. President Joe Biden has kept a distance from the Turkish strongman leader.

House Speaker Johnson calls on Biden to fire Secret Service director

House Speaker Mike Johnson is ramping up the pressure on U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, calling on President Biden to fire her for security failures in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Johnson had already called for Cheatle to step down but says it’s clear she has no intention of doing so.

“I think there has to be accountability and it begins at the top. This is ridiculous,” Johnson said Thursday during a Fox Business interview.

Johnson also described a telephone briefing that Cheatle and FBI Director Christopher Wray provided lawmakers on Wednesday, saying “they did not give us satisfactory answers to some very important questions” while also acknowledging that some of the information may need to be discussed in a classified setting.

Vance: ‘Social conservatives have a seat at this table and always will’

Ohio Sen. JD Vance made his first public appearance Thursday since accepting the Republican vice presidential nomination Wednesday, speaking at an evangelical Christian breakfast where he described the winding path to his faith.

He told roughly 1,000 influential social conservatives that he once considered himself an atheist, but marrying and some early influences from the devout grandmother who raised him set him on the course to his Christian faith.

Vance also addressed uneasiness stemming from the Trump campaign’s effort to streamline the Republican Party platform, which, until this month, had for 40 years called for a national abortion ban.

“There has been a lot of grumbling in the past few weeks that the Republican Party of now and the Republican Party of the future is not going to be a place that’s welcoming to social conservatives,” Vance told attendees. “And, really, from the bottom of my heart, that is not true. Social conservatives have a seat at this table, and always will so long as I have any influence in this party, and President Trump, I know.”

The breakfast was hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition at the Pfister Hotel, a late Victorian downtown monument.

Democrats make a fresh push for Biden to reconsider running in runup to their own party convention

WASHINGTON — Democrats worried about President Joe Biden’s ability to win this November are making a renewed push for him to reconsider his reelection bid, using mountains of data, frank conversations and now, his own time off the campaign trail after testing positive for COVID, to encourage a reassessment.

Biden has insisted he is not backing down, adamant that he is the candidate who beat Republican Donald Trump before and will do it again this year. But publicly and privately, key Democrats are sending signals of concern and some hope he will assess the trajectory of the race and his legacy during this few days’ pause.

▶ Read more about the push for Biden to reconsider his reelection bid

Biden dismisses idea that it’s too late for him to recover politically

President Joe Biden is dismissing the idea that it’s too late for him to recover politically, even as he faces increasing pressure to bow out of the race.

In a radio interview with Univision’s Luis Sandoval that airs Thursday, Biden says it’s still early and that many people don’t focus on the election until September.

“All the talk about who’s leading and where and how, is kind of, you know — everything so far between Trump and me has been basically even,” Biden said in an excerpt of the interview.

Some national polls do show a close race, though others suggest Trump with a lead. And some state polls have contained warning signs too, including a recent New York Times/Siena poll that suggested a competitive race in Virginia.

Convention brings an around-the-clock boat patrol to the Milwaukee River

Instead of the usual kayakers and tour boats, the Milwaukee River this week is full of around-the-clock patrol boats, some with heavily armed officers.

The 24-hour patrols will continue until the Republican National Convention wraps up Thursday night.

Associated Press journalists observed the effort aboard a 29-foot (9-meter) U.S. Coast Guard boat as it traveled near the secure zone of the convention site via Lake Michigan and the river that empties into it. Within an hour, the Coast Guard boat had passed vessels from Milwaukee police, state conservation wardens and a heavily armed specialty Coast Guard tactical force in camouflage gear.

The patrols are part of a massive security plan that Milwaukee police, the U.S. Secret Service and others have been detailing for more than a year.

“There is no higher level of security that can be invested in events such as this,” Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman told the AP on Wednesday.

What would make Joe Biden drop out of the presidential race? Here are the four reasons he’s cited

President Joe Biden has made it clear basically any which way you ask him: he’s definitely, assuredly, “one thousand percent” staying in the presidential race.

But in response to questions from journalists over the last few weeks, the embattled Democratic president has given some clues as to what could make him step aside — especially as the calls from his own party to end his candidacy continue unabated.

Here are the things Biden has cited — some serious, others not — that would make him reconsider his run:

Divine intervention: “I mean, if the Lord Almighty comes out and tells me that, I might do that,” Biden said in an interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Cold, hard data: No politician ever wants to lose — and it seems Biden would be willing to exit if he had numerical proof that that’s what would happen.

A fateful accident: “Unless I get hit by a train” was Biden’s response to an interviewer’s question last week about staying in the race.

A not-yet-diagnosed medical ailment: “If I had some medical condition that emerged,” Biden told BET journalist Ed Gordon. “If doctors came to me and said, ‘You got this problem, that problem.’”

▶ Read more about what Biden has said about dropping out of the race

Trump says he’s rewritten his remarks for his RNC speech tonight

Republicans throughout the week in Milwaukee have suggested the combative former president take a gentler tone in light of the shooting and have suggested the crisis provides a chance to de-escalate the divisive political rhetoric that has marked the 2024 campaign.

Donald Trump told the Washington Examiner that he had rewritten his acceptance speech in the wake of the Saturday shooting, emphasizing a call for national unity.

“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he said. “Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches,” aimed mostly at the policies of President Joe Biden.

“Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now,” he said.

Any such dialing down by Trump will come before a delegation, many of whom have been moved by Trump’s own defiant words in the grasp of U.S. Secret Service agents Saturday, and have sparked their echo in the form of chants of “fight, fight, fight.”

“I do believe that after going through that his message will be better, and I do think he will appeal to our better emotions,” Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Lawrence Tabas said. “He has an enormous compassion and empathy that doesn’t always come through.”

▶ Read more about what to watch on day 4 of the RNC

Hundreds attend vigil for man killed at Trump rally in Pennsylvania before visitation Thursday

Hundreds of people who gathered to remember the former fire chief fatally shot at a weekend rally for former President Donald Trump were urged to find “unity” as the area in rural Pennsylvania sought to recover from the assassination attempt.

Wednesday’s public event was the first of two organized to memorialize and celebrate Corey Comperatore’s life. The second, a visitation for friends, was planned for Thursday at Laube Hall in Freeport.

Outside Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, where the vigil was held for Comperatore, a sign read: “Rest in Peace Corey, Thank You For Your Service,” with the logo of his fire company.

On the rural road to the auto racing track — lined with cornfields, churches and industrial plants — a sign outside a local credit union read: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Comperatore family.”

▶ Read more about the vigil for Corey Comperatore

‘One screen, two movies’: Conflicting conspiracy theories emerge from Trump shooting

A former president is shot, the gunman quickly neutralized, and all of it is caught on camera. But for those who don’t believe their eyes, that’s just the start of the story.

For some supporters of former President Donald Trump, the failure of the Secret Service to prevent the attempted assassination points to a conspiracy orchestrated by President Joe Biden. For some of Trump’s critics, however, the details of the shooting don’t add up. They wonder if Trump somehow staged the whole thing.

Two dueling conspiracy theories are taking root online following Trump’s attempted assassination, one for each end of America’s polarized political spectrum. In this split-screen republic, Americans are increasingly choosing their own reality, at the expense of a shared understanding of the facts.

“One screen, two movies,” is how Ron Bassilian describes the online reaction to Saturday’s shooting. Bassilian is a prolific user of social media and has used X to broadcast his conjecture about the shooting. “People have their beliefs, and they’re going to come up with theories that fit their beliefs.”

▶ Read more about the conspiracy theories surrounding the Trump shooting

Families of service members killed during Afghanistan withdrawal criticize Biden at GOP convention

Relatives of some of the 13 American service members killed during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention Wednesday in an emotional moment that revived one of the low points of President Joe Biden’s presidency.

Many of the Gold Star families have criticized Biden for never publicly naming their loved ones. On stage Wednesday, one of the family members named each of the 13 service members, and the crowd echoed back each name as it was read aloud.

“Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice,” Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, told the crowd. “Donald Trump knew all of our children’s names. He knew all of their stories.”

The crowd chanted “Never forget!” and “U.S.A.!” as Trump and the entire convention hall stood.

▶ Read more about the Gold Star families featured at the RNC

JD Vance mad

e a direct appeal to his native Rust Belt in his VP nomination speech

JD Vance introduced himself to a national audience Wednesday after being chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate, sharing the story of his hardscrabble upbringing and making the case that his party best understands the challenges facing struggling Americans.

Speaking to a packed arena at the Republican National Convention, the Ohio senator cast himself as a fighter for a forgotten working class, making a direct appeal to the Rust Belt voters who helped drive Trump’s surprise 2016 victory and voicing their anger and frustration.

The 39-year-old Ohio senator is a relative political unknown, having served in the Senate for less than two years. He rapidly morphed in recent years from a bitter critic of the former president to an aggressive defender and is now positioned to become the future leader of the party and the torch-bearer of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” political movement.

The first millennial to join the top of a major party ticket, Vance enters the race as questions about the age of the men at the top — 78-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President Joe Biden — have been high on the list of voters’ concerns. He also joins Trump after an assassination attempt against the former president — in which Trump came perhaps millimeters from death or serious injury — underscoring the importance of a potential successor.

▶ Read more about Vance’s RNC speech

It was (sort of) JD Vance’s night … but it’s still Trump’s convention

The third nights of conventions are traditionally about the running mate and how they round out a presidential ticket. Certainly, Vance has become a presence at the convention — mentions from the podium, his name now on signs together with Trump, appearances with the former president on the first two nights of the convention.

But Trump is a dominant figure — even when measured against other U.S. presidents and world leaders. Pick any speaker Wednesday and their most passionate pitches were not about “Donald Trump and JD Vance.” They were about Trump.

“This is a man I know and the president we need for four more years,” said Kellyanne Conway, a former Trump adviser. “He will always stand up for you.”

Trump’s former White House physician, Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, called Trump “the greatest president this country has ever had” and “a president who even took a bullet for our country.”

It’s Trump’s party and his alone. No running mate can change that, especially not a freshman senator who has yet to celebrate his 40th birthday.

▶ Read the AP’s takeaways from night 3 of the RNC.

Day 3 of the convention has ended

The convention is gaveling out after a benediction from Rev. Packy Thompson of Houma, Lousiana.

Thompson thanked God for Trump. “I also thank you for protecting him from the evil that was perpetrated last Saturday,” he said.

And the gathering is adjourned until Thursday.

Biden campaign issues a blistering statement immediately following Vance’s speech

“Tonight, J.D. Vance, the poster boy for Project 2025, took center stage. But it’s working families and the middle class who will suffer if he’s allowed to stay there,” Michael Tyler, Biden campaign communication director, said.

“Backed by Silicon Valley and the billionaires who bought his vice presidential selection, Vance is Project 2025 in human form – an agenda that puts extremism and the ultra wealthy over our democracy.”

Vance ends VP nomination speech: ‘I will give you everything I have’

Vance made a pledge to voters: “I pledge to every American, no matter your party, I will give you everything I have.”

He added, “To serve you and to make this country a place where every dream you have for yourself, your family and your country will be possible once again.”

After the speech, Vance’s extended family flooded the stage to an unusual song for a Republican convention – Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.”

The song became a political staple in 1992 when a very different young politician from a humble background ran for national office. That was Bill Clinton, who is, of course, a Democrat.