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The judge overseeing former President Trump's criminal case for hoarding classified documents in Mar-a-Lago has dismissed the charges against him.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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In the wake of a failed assassination attempt at a rally on Saturday, former President Donald Trump says he's torn up the speech he originally planned to deliver at the Republican National Convention.
"It is a chance to bring the country together," Trump told the Washington Examiner. "I was given that chance."
Trump is scheduled to deliver his speech in Milwaukee on Thursday, when he formally accepts the GOP nomination for President of the United States.
Historically, Trump has been known to give pugnacious speeches, tearing into his political foes while making grandiose claims about his own accomplishments and attributes.
But in interviews with both the Examiner and the New York Post, the former president said that he plans to cast that approach aside.
"I had all prepared an extremely tough speech, really good, all about the corrupt, horrible administration," Trump told the Post. "But I threw it away."
He added that he wanted "to try to unite our country" but that he doesn't "know if that's possible."
Speaking with the Examiner, Trump said that his Thursday address will be a "whole different speech now."
While Trump himself may be aiming to give a more unifying speech, it's far from clear that the rest of the convention's speakers will follow suit.
Some Republican lawmakers have publicly blamed Democrats and the media for the assassination attempt, though the motive of the shooter appears unclear as of Monday.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, just hours after the shooting, wrote on X that Democrats "wanted this to happen."
Rich Fury/Getty Images for LA Pride.
TikTok is an essential promotional tool for music artists and record labels.
Songs can rise up organically on the app even if they've been outside the mainstream for decades. Marketers can also hire influencers to help a song take off, sparking a wave of user-generated posts from their fans. And some artists even set up private listening sessions with TikTok influencers in the hope that it will help new songs gain steam on the app.
The company has a global team that works with artists and record labels, negotiates licensing deals with rights holders, and builds new ways for TikTok to convert its cultural influence into recurring revenue. It showcases charts of "Hot 50" and "Viral" songs in its app and partnered with Billboard in September to rank its most popular songs on the media site. It's testing a dedicated music-streaming service called TikTok Music in five countries. And in December, it organized its first live, in-person concert in Mesa, Arizona, featuring TikTok-famous artists like Cardi B, Charlie Puth, and Niall Horan.
Read Business Insider's dispatch from TikTok's live-music event, where the smartphone was the star, and brands like Paramount and Coca-Cola courted young fans
TikTok's relationship with the music industry isn't always rosy. At the start of 2024, the company butted heads with global record label Universal Music Group over licensing rights and AI, removing the company's vast catalog of songs for several months before the pair reached an agreement in May.
As TikTok breaks into business lines that overlap with record labels, such as artist services, it could also ruffle some feathers. For instance, the company has done direct deals with artists and courted staffers to "identify, sign, and develop new artists"; to help "supervise the production of records and oversee all aspects of the recording process"; and to "design live show and merchandise strategies for artists globally."
Read more about how TikTok's push into artists services could end up 'pissing off' its music partners
TikTok could avoid tension with the industry by showing its partners how its various experiments in music will lead to paydays for all. Its ability to maintain close relationships with the major rights holders is critical as the parties negotiate over catalog access.
"If they want to be a long-lasting platform, they need to kind of lock arms with artists in the music industry," Jonny Kaps, cofounder and CEO of the independent label +1 Records, told BI. "There's money to be made all over the place here if it's done in collaboration."
Read more about the 'complicated' and codependent relationship between TikTok and music rights holders
For artists, the hyper-focus on TikTok can be draining. Performers like Halsey and Charli XCX have posted videos expressing frustration at being asked to make TikToks by their labels. One performer, the artist Taylor Upsahl, told BI it can be "really stressful" to be expected to balance social promotion with touring and writing and recording new music.
Steve Jennings/Getty Images.
TikTok's former global head of music partnerships and programming told BI that the company's goal is to release products and services that make artists' lives easier.
"When we think about certain features like artist verification or certified artists, it is all in the spirit of just trying to make it easier for artists to understand their community on the platform and understand the best ways to grow it," said ex-TikTok exec Paul Hourican, who left the company in February. "We want to maximize the amount of time artists have to do what artists do and make it as easy for them as possible."
Read more about how TikTok is building products for artists to make it easier for them to promote work on the app
The industry's attention on TikTok isn't unfounded. Songs that trend on TikTok often end up charting on the Billboard 100 or Spotify Viral 50. And 67% of the app's users are more likely to seek out songs on music-streaming services after hearing them on TikTok, according to a November 2021 study conducted for TikTok by the music-analytics company MRC Data. Nothing showcases the app's critical role in marketing better than Taylor Swift's decision to bring her music back to the platform amid her label UMG's licensing fight with TikTok, seemingly undermining its bargaining position.
TikTok is a hub for labels to promote both new releases and back catalog tracks. And, a new cohort of social-media music marketers has sprung up to support promotional efforts on the app and other short-video platforms like Instagram reels and YouTube shorts.
Check out BI's list of 13 innovative music-marketing agencies boosting artists, labels, and brands on social media
"TikTok has really become a critical part of artist storytelling," Kristen Bender, SVP of digital innovation strategy and business development at Universal Music Group, told BI during a webinar on TikTok's impact on the music industry. "Our labels have been extremely leaned into the platform."
Watch a full replay of BI's webinar on TikTok's impact on the music industry, featuring execs from TikTok, Universal Music Group, and UnitedMasters
The blending of short-form video with music has spread well beyond TikTok onto other apps like Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram. YouTube's top music exec Lyor Cohen told GQ in November 2022 that short-form video is one of his biggest focuses when it comes to the company's music strategy.
"Every short-format platform's got music on it now," Ted Suh, global head of music partnerships at Snap Inc., told BI. "All this engagement on these types of services is really leading to the music industry finding incremental business value, whether it's leveraging this data to help them get radio play, or more spins on Pandora, to even kicking off national tours."
Read BI's list of 15 music innovators at TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms who are shaping the future of the industry on social media
Elissa Ayadi/Meta/SoundCloud/Roblox/Sydney Bradley/Getty.
Song promo deals between music marketers and influencers have become an important source of income for TikTok creators. Some users can earn hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a single video where they promote an artist's track.
"Music marketing on TikTok is huge," Jesse Callahan, founder of the upstart marketing firm Montford Agency, told BI. "It's a big way that labels have brought artists into the spotlight the last couple of years. It's also a big way that creators have made a lot of money."
Read more about the different rates for song promos for TikTok creators who have a few hundred thousand followers or up to 10 million fans
As TikTok's user base has grown and content has become more saturated, marketers are turning more to micro influencers over superstars for song campaigns.
"The price point for mega stars is extremely high," Zach Friedman, a cofounder at the upstart record label Homemade Projects, which was acquired by 10K Projects, told BI. "The way the TikTok algorithm works, it's hard to know what's going to be successful. Instead of paying a premium for a D'Amelio, you could pay a micro influencer $200, and their TikTok could get 10 million views. Because of this, it's better to cast a wider net."
Read more about why some marketers are choosing micro influencers to promote new tracks
While the strategy of hiring influencers to spark a music trend is tried and true, record labels also regularly pay general-interest accounts to put songs in the background of videos.
Working with a non-influencer account, like a creator who uploads close-up shots of slime or films a hydraulic press crushing random objects, can be an equally effective way to drive interest in a song, music marketers told BI.
"Using these accounts like the hydraulic press accounts are helpful with giving the song a chance to sort of work outwards first, and just kind of get in front of people and make the algorithm aware of it," Acrophase Records' founder Dan Asip told BI.
Read about why TikTok music marketers are turning to general-interest accounts to promote songs
Some marketers are opening the door for social-media users who wouldn't traditionally be considered influencers to get paid to promote music.
Platforms like Pearpop and Preffy allow labels and artists to create user-generated video challenges that invite users with any size following to get paid on a sliding scale for participating in a song or artist campaign. TikTok has tested its own in-app challenges product, as well.
"The initial way influencer marketing would work would be you would go and pay a few people with big followings, but it would be like throwing a few big logs onto a nonexistent fire," Pearpop cofounder Cole Mason told BI. "With challenges, there's a way to actually start the fire."
Read more about how music marketers are using a new TikTok strategy to make song 'challenges' go viral
In addition to creating music challenges and working with influencers and general-interest accounts, marketers are also building custom AR filters that feature a particular song in order to boost plays for that track in user-generated videos.
Unlike influencer campaigns centered on a dance challenge or comedy skit, adding AR effects to videos is a low-lift way to get users to engage with a song, marketers told BI.
"There's not always a dance trend or a storyline that makes sense to seed with a song," said Johnny Cloherty, Songfluencer's CEO. "If you do come up with a cool AR filter, it's easier for the regular user to create a TikTok with than to create a dance."
Read more about how marketers are using AR effects to promote songs on TikTok and other apps
Many record labels have teams dedicated to monitoring TikTok so they can help fan the flames on a trending song when it starts to take off.
"Our entire music catalog is effectively tracked on a daily basis," said Andy McGrath, the senior vice president of global catalog marketing at Sony Music focused on the label's older releases dating back decades. "We're constantly monitoring actions, reactions, and trends that happen on TikTok."
Read more about how Sony's marketing team jumps into action when an old song begins to trend
RCA Records' SVP of Digital Marketing, Tarek Al-Hamdouni, said the label relies on a series of signals like an increase in streams on Spotify or shifts in audience numbers on YouTube to track the efficacy of a TikTok song campaign.
"If I see that in the course of a week our audience [on YouTube] went from being primarily 25- to 34-year-old male and a week later the majority is 13-to-24 female, then that's a pretty easy bridge to connect between those two platforms," Al-Hamdouni told BI.
Read more about RCA Records' strategy for promoting songs on TikTok
John Arano/Epic Records.
While TikTok is often a go-to platform for promoting a newly released track, some artists incorporate the app even earlier in their creative process.
The Canadian rapper Tiagz (Tiago Garcia-Arenas) has grown a following of around 6.2 million fans on the app by writing songs that directly referenced the app's popular memes and trends, effectively gaming its search and content recommendation algorithms.
"I tried to understand the platform," Tiagz told BI. "I kept doing these memes because I saw that it worked."
Read more about how Tiagz used TikTok to land a record deal with Epic Records
Remixes are wildly popular on TikTok. In 2023, the top four trending songs in the US on the app were all sped-up versions of tracks.
Whether sped up, slowed down, layered with a clap track, or mashed up with another track, songs are constantly being remixed on the app.
To tap into the trend, record labels and marketers are collaborating with remix and mashup artists as part of their song release strategies on TikTok. The tactic expands on what artists have long done to get their songs in front of a wider audience.
"Back in the day, you'd go get a bunch of club DJs to remix your records so that you could appeal to the drum-and-bass market, to the techno market, to the underground market," said Nima Nasseri, the former A&R lead for UMG's music strategy and tactics team who manages producer Hit-Boy. "You want to be able to have your record get discovered in spaces that it normally wouldn't be discovered in."
Read more about the growing business behind TikTok song remixes, which are transforming the way music is discovered on the app
Not all performers are thrilled about spending time on TikTok.
The app's grip on the music industry has led some artists to speak out about the pressure they feel to be content creators.
"TikTok has now become a whole other part of our job that takes up such a significant amount of time," performer Taylor Upsahl told BI. "As artists, we're all still in a transitional phase of like, 'Okay, cool, how do we find time and energy to now be essentially content creators and influencers?'"
Read more about how TikTok's influence on music is exhausting artists and marketers alike as the industry grapples with the pressure to go viral
Not all song trends on TikTok happen serendipitously or via external music marketing campaigns.
TikTok also has an internal music division dedicated to monitoring music trends on the app. The company's music team handles artist and record label relations, licensing deals, and newer products such as SoundOn and Resso.
BI in 2022 mapped out the 25 music execs and staffers at TikTok and its parent company ByteDance who are driving the strategy
Rita Franca/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
TikTok's music operations team has a series of "promo levers" that it uses to boost the popularity of songs. The company can add new tracks to playlists in the "Sounds" section of its app and apply keywords on the back end to optimize song discoverability in the app's search interface.
TikTok's editorial team even overrode its own algorithm to boost views for Taylor Swift and Beyoncé when they first joined the platform.
Read more about how TikTok's music team shapes trends on the app
Some artists and labels work with TikTok's team to host private listening sessions with creators in order to promote a song ahead of its release.
In the summer of 2020, as Miley Cyrus was preparing to release her single "Midnight Sky," her team partnered with TikTok to schedule two private Zoom calls with around 15 creators to give them an early listen to the track.
"These creators are needed in the process," Olivia Rudensky, founder and CEO of Fanmade, a marketing and fan engagement upstart that works on digital strategy with clients like Cyrus and Hailey Bieber, told BI. "They're just as important as all the relevant stops when you're doing promo or when you're going to tastemakers because they really are the audience that's making or breaking music right now."
Guillermo Legaria/Getty Images for MC.
Other artists like Khalid, Demi Lovato, and Marshmello have joined similar events. Running a listening session with creators can help an artist's marketing team understand the types of videos or snippets of a song that might break through on TikTok.
Read more about TikTok's private listening sessions
In July 2023, TikTok stepped deeper into the music business by launching its own dedicated music-streaming app, TikTok Music, in Brazil, Indonesia, Australia, Mexico, and Singapore.
ByteDance had already piloted an app called Resso in India, Brazil, and Indonesia for a few years. Swapping Resso for a TikTok-branded product could help the company better link its main app, known for song discovery, to a full audio-streaming subscription service.
BI tested TikTok Music in Singapore, where it launched in a closed beta, to learn more about how it works. Like TikTok, TikTok Music includes a "For You" feed of recommended content and a variety of social features that set it apart from incumbents like Spotify and Apple Music.
"We find in our consumer surveys that younger consumers are more interested in having a more social streaming experience," Tatiana Cirisano, a music-industry analyst and consultant at the research firm MIDiA Research, told BI. "Spotify is starting to offer more things in that vein, but I just see it as an opportunity that's ripe for TikTok's taking."
Read our review of TikTok Music here
TikTok has yet to launch its dedicated music app in other markets like the US, though its owner filed a trademark application for the name in May 2022.
The company is also exploring an AI chatbot called Tonik that can help users learn about artists and songs, discover or generate custom playlists, and get news about upcoming concerts within the music app.
Get an early look at TikTok Music's AI chatbot Tonik
In December, TikTok stepped deeper into the music business by throwing a live concert in Mesa, Arizona.
The event, which was also livestreamed on TikTok's app, sold around 17,000 in-person tickets and cumulatively drew in tens of millions of views via its livestream and replays, per the company.
Its first big push into live music served as a celebration for its partners and a way to highlight some of the up-and-coming artists that TikTok works with through its artist incubator program, Elevate.
Read more about the live concert, 'TikTok In The Mix', here
For decades, the radio industry has had to adapt to shifts in how music is consumed, as platforms like MTV, Spotify, and YouTube have changed user habits.
With the arrival of TikTok, many radio stations and their talent have embraced short-form video as both a promotional tool and a resource for discovering new music.
"I wound up on TikTok because I was looking for another way to connect with the listeners of my show, [and] I was looking for a way to expand the listenership of my show," Jeffrey Ramsay, an on-air personality at iHeart's Denver station HITS 95.7, told BI.
Read more about how radio DJs are using TikTok to find new listeners as the app takes over music discovery
SiriusXM, which streams audio over satellite, digital, and via partnerships with auto manufacturers, took it one step further, launching a dedicated TikTok Radio channel in partnership with the short-video app.
"What we do at SiriusXM is very much a complement to some of the other experiences that are available with music digitally," Steve Blatter, the senior vice president and general manager of music programming at SiriusXM, told BI.
Read more about SiriusXM's TikTok Radio, a channel where creators are hosts and memes reach parents and Uber drivers
Streaming apps like Spotify and SoundCloud have also adapted to the TikTok era by introducing their own TikTok-style feeds. Both platforms also offer social tools, including user commenting, which could help them compete with TikTok's main app and music-streaming platform when it comes to music discovery.
Read more about why TikTok-style feeds are surging in music as streamers like Spotify and SoundCloud battle for young listeners
Ash Jurberg
I had to fly from Melbourne, Australia, to Dubai with only a few weeks' notice, and unfortunately, airfares for direct flights were expensive.
Emirates has three direct flights from Melbourne to Dubai a day at 9 p.m., 2 a.m., and 5 a.m. I wanted to get the 9 p.m. flight as it's the most convenient time to depart, but the airfare was more than $1,400. The 2 a.m. flight was a similar price.
The 5 a.m. flight, however, didn't seem very popular or full, and I found a premium-economy ticket for about $1,250, which was cheaper than economy seats on other flights that day.
Although my flight was expensive, it seemed as if I got a solid deal for a premium upgrade. Rates vary, but I've seen many of Emirates' premium-economy seats cost $800 to $1,500 more than ones in coach.
Plus, I was actually looking forward to my 14-hour trip since Emirates recently placed third in Skytrax's world's best airlines of 2024 — and its premium-economy class came in second.
Here's what my first premium-economy flight was like.
Ash Jurberg
Ash Jurberg
Ash Jurberg
Ash Jurberg
Ash Jurberg
Ash Jurberg
Joan Cros/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Google might be getting ready to shell out a record amount on an acquisition. The company in question is a four-year-old startup that could turn its AI empire into a fortress.
On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the search giant is seeking to buy Wiz, a New York-based startup founded in 2020 by former members of the Israeli military's Unit 8200 intelligence unit.
The deal could be worth as much as $23 billion — and would mark an extraordinary moment for Wiz.
The young company specializes in cybersecurity for cloud computing — not the AI foundation models that startups in the tech sector such as OpenAI and Anthropic have shown off to secure billions of dollars of investment.
Wiz has worked with the likes of Morgan Stanley, LVMH, Shell, Mars, and Blackstone to help them secure the operations they want to build and run in the cloud.
A deal, then, would give Wiz a chance to pull off a rare feat in tech's generative AI era: scale valuation as a company that isn't shouting about AI at every moment. Wiz, which was valued at $12 billion after announcing a $1 billion fundraising in May, puts "cloud security" front and center.
Harry Murphy/Getty Images
For Google, however, Wiz's cybersecurity services promise to bolster its cloud operations at a time when AI has made it vital to do that.
Google has lagged behind rivals including Amazon and Microsoft on cloud, but has won more business during the generative AI boom as corporate customers demand services that can help them build, host, and maintain AI services and data. That's made it more responsible than ever for the work of customers trying to make headway in the AI field.
In the first three months of the year, revenues at Google's cloud unit posted a 28% year-on-year jump to $9.6 billion, for instance. With generative AI not showing signs of going away, Google can expect that trend to continue.
Still, maintaining the upward trajectory will involve showing customers that its cloud offerings are as secure as possible. Analysts at Wedbush including Dan Ives said in a research note that a Wiz deal "would clearly bolster the Google cloud offering and value proposition to enterprises."
Although talks seem to be at an "advanced" stage, per the Journal, there are no details yet on how Wiz would be integrated into Google following an acquisition, or the extent to which Wiz's cybersecurity services would run across the AI applications hosted in Google Cloud. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
A potential deal may face intense scrutiny from regulators. Antitrust concerns from the FTC have weighed on deal activity in the tech sector in recent years, leading Big Tech firms in particular to tread with caution.
On Sunday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal pointed on X to a report on the looming deal as one that would be "for the antitrust textbooks" — an example, he said, of "how to enrage enforcers & elude law & logic in pursuing monopoly power."
A decision from Google to push on regardless will show just how important it thinks cybersecurity is for the AI-cloud future.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
Donald Trump may be alive due to the shooter's bad wind estimate, according to a former Navy SEAL officer.
In an X post on Sunday, Erik Prince joined those criticizing the Secret Service's handling of the fatal shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, saying Trump may only be alive due to a "bad wind estimate by an evil would-be assassin."
Prince pointed to a map of the rally site, which he said was from an unnamed SEAL sniper instructor at Red Sky LLC. The map shows a 5mph wind blowing westward in the bullet trajectory.
"As the graphics show, the full-value wind of just 5 mph was enough to displace the unconfirmed but likely light 55-grain bullet two inches from DJT's intended forehead to his ear," he said, using Donald John Trump's initials.
"DJT was not saved by USSS brilliance," he added.
Prince and representatives for the Secret Service didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The former President was shot in the upper part of his right ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
The gunman "fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position," according to a statement shared by Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.
The shooter, armed with an "AR-style" rifle, was only about 450 feet (roughly 137 meters) away from the former US president, satellite imagery shows.
Yasin Demirci/Anadolu via Getty Images
Videos of the shooting show the former president clutching his hand to his bloodied face and later raising his fist triumphantly while being escorted off the stage by the Secret Service.
Trump later thanked the US Secret Service and law enforcement for their "rapid" response.
But the assassination attempt raised questions about why the US Secret Service didn't spot Trump's shooter sooner, with former intelligence officers criticizing the Secret Service's procedure.
Prince, who reportedly served as a Navy SEAL from 1992 to 1996, pointed to several of the USSS' alleged shortcomings, including letting a rifle-armed shooter within 150 meters of a pre-planned event and failing to kill the shooter immediately.
"The only positive action was an apparent 488yd shot by one USSS sniper, which dispatched the assassin, but after the assassin launched at least 5 rounds, wounding DJT and killing and severely others in the crowd," he wrote on X.
In his former role as CEO of Blackwater, a security firm that played a major and controversial role in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Prince said they were "expected to execute the basics, or we would be fired."
"Clearly, USSS failed at the basics of a secure perimeter, and once shots were fired, their extraction was clumsy and left DJT highly exposed to follow-on attacks," he said.
On Sunday, Guglielmi said claims that the agency had turned down a request from Trump's team for additional security were "absolutely false".
"In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo," Guglielmi said on X.
Evan Vucci via AP
Donald Trump praised the Secret Service for its response to his shooting on Saturday, saying the agency rushed in like "linebackers" to whisk him to safety.
His comments were made in an interview with the New York Post, in which he recounted the moment he was shot as "very surreal."
'"They took him out with one shot right between the eyes," he said. "They did a fantastic job. It's surreal for all of us."
Trump's praise stands out among a sea of criticism against the agency following the incident.
Kenneth Gray, a retired FBI special agent and now a professor at the University of New Haven, told the Financial Times that the incident showed a breakdown in the security plan for the rally.
"The fact that this shooter was able to get off an attack like this here looks like they needed additional resources," he said.
Pressure is now mounting on the Secret Service, from both Republicans and Democrats, to explain why it allowed a shooter to come so close to Trump at a pre-planned event.
The shooter crawled onto an open rooftop at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania about 150 meters away from the former president and fired off multiple rounds.
He killed one rally-goer and critically injured two others before being shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper, who was on another rooftop.
One bullet hit Trump's right ear, leaving blood streaming down his face.
"This counter-sniper made an amazingly quick decision and clearly saved Trump's life," Bill Pickle, the former special agent in charge of Al Gore's vice-presidential Secret Service detail, told Business Insider.
However, he may have also lost crucial seconds in preventing the incident from happening in the first place.
Pickle said the extreme heat, a lack of anti-sniper backup, and a likely focus on a nearby treeline may have delayed the counter-sniper's reaction.
"Someone made a decision that that number of counter-snipers was sufficient," Pickle said.
"And obviously, in hindsight, they were wrong because there was a kid who was able to get up there on that rooftop and pull the trigger three times at least."
On Sunday, Congress said it would launch an investigation into what it described as "inexcusable security breaches" by the agency.
Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Pittsburgh Field Office, echoed the statements in a news conference on Sunday, saying: "There is going to be a long investigation into what took place."
Representatives for the Secret Service did not immediately reply to a request from Business Insider to comment.
The Secret Service's protection covers former presidents and vice-presidents, and their children under 16.
It also extends to major presidential and vice-presidential candidates within four months of presidential elections, both of which apply to Donald Trump.
The Secret Service's director, Kimberly Cheatle, is set to testify about the shooting at a hearing on Monday, July 22.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
A woman who worked for Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson has stepped down after posting an inflammatory message on social media in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, according to multiple reports.
Jacqueline Marsaw, formerly a case worker and manager in Thompson's field office in Natchez, Mississippi, posted on Facebook soon after a shooter attempted to assassinate the former president.
At a campaign rally on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, a bullet grazed Trump's ear. Another rally attendee was killed, and two others were critically injured.
According to a screenshot saved by local outlet the Clarion Ledger, Marsaw's post read: "I don't condone violence but please get you some shooting lessons so you don't miss next time ooops that wasn't me talking."
It quickly attracted criticism, with the X account of the Mississippi Republican Party calling it "despicable" and calling for Marsaw to be fired.
.@BennieGThompson should FIRE his field director for condoning the attempted assassination of President @realDonaldTrump!!!“please get you some shooting lessons so you don’t miss next time”.@msdemocrats must repudiate these despicable statements!!!@WLBT @16WAPTNews @WJTV… pic.twitter.com/QVWu4OtUI2
— Mississippi GOP (@MSGOP) July 14, 2024
The post was deleted about an hour after it appeared, the Clarion Ledger reported.
In a statement, Thompson said he was "made aware of a post made by a staff member and she is no longer in my employment," according to Fox News.
After the shooting on Saturday, Thompon had posted to X that there is "no room in American democracy for political violence."
There is no room in American democracy for political violence. I am grateful for law enforcement’s fast response to this incident. I am glad the former President is safe, and my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved.
— Bennie G. Thompson (@BennieGThompson) July 13, 2024
Even so, Mississippi's state auditor, Republican Shad White, called on Thompson to resign, telling the Clarion Ledger that the congressman had hired "nut job staffers" and noting Thompson's backing of a bill that would have denied Trump, as a felon, Secret Service protection.
Speaking to local paper the Natchez Democrat, Marsaw said that she "got overwhelmed in the moment," adding: "I am a diehard Democrat."
The posts were meant as a joke, she said.
Secret Service officers contacted local law enforcement to interview Marsaw and visit her house on Sunday morning, Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten told the outlet.
"She was very remorseful and told the agents that what she did was unwarranted and uncalled for," he said, adding: "She continued to apologize throughout the entire 45-minute interview."
Marsaw's case will be turned over to the attorney general to see if any charges will be pressed, Patten told the Natchez Democrat.
Marsaw's post may have violated US Code 879, the law that prohibits threats to former presidents, he said. The crime is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Neither Marsaw nor Thompson's office immediately responded to Business Insider's requests for comment, sent outside of working hours.
Telegram/Ministry of Defense of Russia/Business Insider
Russia's defense ministry on Sunday shared a video of what is said was one of its Su-34 jets dropping a FAB-3000 glide bomb on a Ukrainian military position.
FAB-3000 bombs weigh 6,600 pounds or 3.3 tons.
A Russian pilot in the video bragged that "it is difficult to imagine a target that would not be destroyed by an aerial bomb of this size," according to a translation of his remarks by Ukrainian news outlet Pravda.
The video shows a bomb being attached to the underside of a plane, and then a similar-looking bomb is seen traveling through the air before aerial video of an explosion among a group of buildings is shown.
Russia has increasingly been using glide bombs in its invasion of Ukraine. The bombs are older munitions that have been upgraded with new guidance systems, allowing them to be launched at a distance.
This is a huge advantage and has allowed Russia to use them to a devastating effect: aircraft can launch the bombs from a far enough distance that Ukraine often can't shoot the planes down.
Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, said in March that Russia dropped 700 glide bombs on Ukraine between March 18 and March 24 alone.
And the bombs have been getting bigger. A video last month captured what appeared to be the first time Russia used a three-ton glide bomb on Ukraine.
Experts say the only way Ukraine can properly defend against these types of bombs is by intercepting Russian aircraft before they launch the bombs, or by hitting the aircraft while they're still on the ground.
But the US says that Ukraine cannot use the long-range equipment it has given to Ukraine to hit military targets deep inside Russia, which means that Ukraine cannot target many Russian airfields.
Hitting the bombs while they're in the air is also hugely challenging.
The bombs have short flight times, small radar signatures, and non-ballistic trajectories — all of which make them very difficult to intercept, Business Insider's Jake Epstein previously reported.
Ukraine also says it doesn't have enough air defense systems.
Ukraine is developing its own glide bombs and is also requesting more air defense systems from its allies.
Ollie Upton/HBO
Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "House of the Dragon" season two, episode five.
Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) dreamed that he slept with his mother, Alyssa Targaryen (Emeline Lambert) in the latest episode of "House of the Dragon" season two, in a surprising incest scene that shocked fans.
In episode five, "Regent," Daemon is still in the haunted castle, Harrenhal, while he tries to rally an army for Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy).
So far, he's endured strange dreams and visions given to him by Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin). Alys is accused of being a witch in the book the series is based on, "Fire and Blood," but she hasn't been identified as one yet in "House of the Dragon."
These dreams are about Daemon facing his own demons, like the guilt of ordering a child's death in the season premiere, and his jealousy that Rhaenyra is the heir to the throne and not him.
In episode five, Daemon dreamed that he slept with an unknown woman with long white hair. The pair enjoyed themselves, and the woman told him, "Viserys was unsuited for the crown, but you, Daemon, you were made to wear it."
She continued: "If only you'd been born first, my favorite son." At that point, Daemon realized that the woman was his mother, Alyssa.
In "Fire and Blood," Daemon was three when Alyssa died giving birth to his brother, Aegon II, who also died several months later.
Although Daemon is obviously struggling with some complicated maternal issues, the dream is mainly about his insecurities regarding his role as a Targaryen prince.
The scene feels like another attempt from the show's writers to capture the controversial spirit that made "Game of Thrones" unique and different when it originally aired in 2011.
This season has already included the murder of a Targaryen toddler, new illegitimate children, raunchy sex scenes, and several brutal deaths.
The tactic seems to be working because fans were completely taken by surprise by the scene, which isn't in the book. And many took aim at the show's recurring theme of "mommy issues."
Some fans are also desperate for Daemon's Harrenhal subplot to end, which is understandable since the main storyline is about the war between the Greens and Blacks.
Meanwhile, Daemon is staying in a haunted castle, like he's in an episode of "Scooby-Doo."
"House of the Dragon" season two airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and is streaming on Max.