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Trump makes first appearance at Republican convention after assassination attempt

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MILWAUKEE – Donald Trump made his first public appearance since an attempted assassination with a white bandage covering his ear and roaring cheers of “We love Trump” from the crowd at the Republican National Convention Monday night.

The former president arrived in the last hour of speeches from party faithful on the first day of the convention in Milwaukee. He raised his fist to the air as a live rendition of “God Bless the USA” played and resounding applause filled the room.

Thousands of supporters arrived for a four-day event that was intended to invigorate Republicans, who formally elected Trump as their 2024 presidential nominee Monday. Trump sat beside his newly announced running mate, Ohio Sen J.D. Vance.

The 39-year-old Vance rose to fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.” Formerly a Trump critic, Vance was elected to the Senate in 2022 after becoming one of the former president’s loudest supporters.

Matthew Lebo, a specialist in U.S. politics and chair of the political science department at Western University in London, Ont., said Vance will connect to white working-class voters who are important for Trump’s chances in the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

In 2016, they swung Republican when Trump went on to win, and in 2020 they went Democrat and helped put Biden in the White House.

“Vance is a very good choice to try to win them back,” Lebo said.

The vice-presidential pick also has a Canadian connection: Jamil Jivani, the recently elected Conservative MP for Durham, has called Vance his best friend from Yale.

“We became such good friends that I eventually performed the Bible reading at his wedding,” Jivani said in a 2020 column.

As Republicans attempted to move on with the convention as planned, many were watching to see how the violence on the weekend affected the former president and his approach to the campaign.

The Washington Examiner reported Sunday that Trump had completely rewritten his convention speech to focus on national unity. In an interview with the newspaper, the former president reflected on just how close he may have come to death, saying: “That reality is just setting in.”

A gunman opened fire from a rooftop near the Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, striking the former president’s ear, killing a bystander and wounding two others. The shooter was killed.

Photographs of Trump with blood trickling down his face and his fist in the air have already imprinted on the American consciousness.

The images are likely to become the backdrop of the campaign season, said Ivan Ivanov, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa. The expert in public relations and crisis management said it shows Trump “still willing to battle, willing to fight.”

The image will be contrasted to recent performances by President Joe Biden, as questions over his age and mental competency swirl following flubs at the recent NATO summit and a disastrous showing at a debate against Trump last month.

“This will be very good for Trump,” Ivanov predicted, adding it will certainly sway undecided voters.

While a resilient Trump emerged from the shooting, it has cast a shadow over the Republican party’s convention.

The U.S. Secret Service has said it is confident with current safety plans for the convention, with about 30,000 people expected to attend.

“I feel pretty confident in what we’ve worked to establish in terms of public safety,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said Monday morning.

There was a visible police presence everywhere around the convention centre on Day 1, with police cruisers stationed on nearly every corner, helicopters circling overhead and officers patrolling the surrounding streets on foot, horseback and bicycles.

Police were keeping a keen eye on nearby rooftops. At one point during the day, several officers seemed to spot something atop a building, pointing towards it and taking photos. A helicopter that was flying overhead could be seen approaching the roof to take a closer look.

As a divisive campaign season gets underway in earnest, some people near the convention site described feeling anxious — not just about safety, but about how to manage their feelings around the violence targeted at the Republican leader.

John Miller, wearing a bright orange prison jumpsuit, handcuffs and a giant Trump mask with its eyes poked out, was among anti-Republican demonstrators marching outside the convention on Monday. Organizers estimated nearly 2,000 took part.

“President Trump did not deserve to be in an assassination attempt, but at the same time, I don’t believe he’s competent to become president,” Miller said.

Speakers at the rally delivered charged remarks directed at Republicans and Trump to cheers from the crowd.

A handful of Republican supporters stood nearby, screaming back insults about 81-year-old Biden’s age.

One speaker condemned both the Republicans and Democrats, calling for a revolution. The speaker said that fight is going to get bigger, stronger and “more militant.”

Miller said he was concerned about how violence was invading politics.

“Politics is something we should be able to discuss between ourselves and not get angry.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2024.

— With files from The Associated Press.

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Two youths arrested after emergency alert issued in New Brunswick

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MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.

Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.

A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.

Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.

Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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World Junior Girls Golf Championship coming to Toronto-area golf course

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MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.

The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.

Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.

“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.

“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”

McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.

“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”

Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.

Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.

“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.

“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”

Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.

Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.

Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.

“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.

“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”

The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.

Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.

Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.

Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.

“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.

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Purple place: Mets unveil the new Grimace seat at Citi Field

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NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.

The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”

Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.

That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.

New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.

The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.

The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.

“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”

Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.

So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?

“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.

“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”

___

AP MLB:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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