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Donald Trump is in Milwaukee today to make final preparations for the Republican presidential nomination later this week. Trump, 78, held a campaign rally on Saturday in Butler, PA., when a 20-year-old man with an AR-15-style rifle shot the former president from a rooftop. "I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that at that moment, well, we would not be talking today,” he told a reporter. One person was killed and two others wounded before Secret Service agents fatally shot the suspect. Trump pumped his fist in the air on Sunday after descending the stairs from his plane in Milwaukee. He will accept his party's formal nomination at the Republican National Convention with a speech on Thursday. ”This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would've been two days ago,” Trump said. https://ow.ly/URHm50SByz4

A study finds that toxic “forever chemicals” dumped into landfills are wafting from the waste into the air. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have been detected in the gas exuded by Florida landfills in quantities comparable to the liquids that seep from the waste. The chemicals have been linked to cancer, weakened immune systems, developmental problems in children and a tide of other harmful health effects. PFAS molecules contain resilient links of carbon and fluorine atoms, contributing to their resistance to heat, grease and water resistance and widespread use in consumer products such as raincoats, cosmetics and nonstick cookware. Captured landfill gas is often burned off in the flames of beacon-like gas flares, but whether that process destroys PFAS remains unknown. As for PFAS-laden gas that escapes a landfill, “You’ve got an air release that gets diluted really, really fast,” said civil and environmental engineer Morton Barlaz. “I think the levels are so low that it’s not likely to be causing a [health] impact.” https://ow.ly/UkES50SAGoh

Researchers may have found the cause of lupus, a disease arising from a body's immune system attacking its tissues and organs. A comparison of blood samples showed lupus patients have too much of a T-cell associated with damage and too little of a T-cell associated with repair. T-cells are white blood cells. At the heart of this imbalance is interferon, which combats pathogens. However, excessive amounts of type I block a receptor that hinders the production of T-cells that defend the body. “It’s very exciting research and very hopeful, but I think that it might be too early to say that it’s the root cause of the disease,” said Mara Lennard Richard at the Lupus Research Alliance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates over 200,000 Americans have lupus. However, the Lupus Foundation of America’s estimate is nearly 1.5 million. Around 90% are women. https://ow.ly/Qjrf50SzFHu

Most medical students at Johns Hopkins University will no longer pay tuition thanks to a $1 billion gift. The Bloomberg Philanthropies donation covers tuition for medical students from families earning under $300,000 and living costs and tuition for families earning under $175,000. Bloomberg Philanthropies said that almost two-thirds of all students seeking a doctor of medicine degree from Johns Hopkins qualify for financial aid. The gift will also increase financial aid for students at the university's schools of nursing, public health, and other graduate schools. Bloomberg Philanthropies gifted $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins in 2018 to ensure that undergraduate students are accepted regardless of their family's income. https://ow.ly/72cE50Sz7CV

Instead of an AI image being mistaken for the real thing, a real-life photo has done the opposite and won an AI photography contest. Photographer Miles Astray entered his photo of a Flamingo into an AI photographic competition in all its pink glory, looking as stunning as unworldly. The photo won not just one award but two: the Bronze Award in the judge’s category and the Peoples Vote Award. But he was disqualified when judges discovered it was real. Astray did not use generative AI software Stable Diffusion, as he stated, but his Nikon D750 camera and 50mm lens. The photo was taken at a beach in Aruba and entered into the AI category. The photographer said he submitted his work to take a jab at the “ethical implications” of AI. “There’s nothing more fantastic and creative than Mother Nature herself,” he said. https://ow.ly/MlVM50SuLiE

Keir Starmer has said the “sunlight of hope” is now shining in Britain again as Labour won a landslide election victory. The Labour leader officially became prime minister today, with voters giving Starmer a large mandate to bring about change in Britain. Sunak’s Conservative Party recorded its worst performance in a general election. Labour has won over 410 seats, while the Conservatives were on just 121, with some left to declare. A surge in votes for the Reform party suggested it would win at least four seats, with Nigel Farage, the party leader, becoming an MP in Clacton on his eighth attempt to enter parliament. The rise of Reform, which split the rightwing vote, could pose a major challenge for an incoming Starmer government, which will have to devise a strategy to fight the rise of the hard right, a trend mirrored across Europe. Labour has less than two weeks before presenting its first package of legislation in the king’s speech, including legislation to bolster workers’ rights and to set up Great British Energy, the energy generation company at the heart of Labour’s green plans. https://ow.ly/o84T50Sw5kj

Americans are celebrating their nation’s birth with parades, cookouts and fiery splashes of colors against the evening sky. Fireworks are expected to reach an all-time high, with an untold number of backyard displays and 16,000 professional shows lighting up the horizon. Some planned to enjoy lobster boat races off the rocky coast in Maine. In Philadelphia, descendants of the signers of the Declaration of Independence said they would ring the Liberty Bell 13 times—once for each of the original colonies. The California communities of Bolinas and Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco, will engage in their annual tug-of-war contest in which losers end up in a lagoon. In Boston, tens of thousands are expected to enjoy the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. Maestro Keith Lockhart said seeing people of different political stripes gather on the Charles River Esplanade is inspiring. “If, even for one day, we can set aside our differences and embrace our commonalities, this has to be a positive thing,” he said. https://ow.ly/jufh50Svoen

Scientists have discovered that ants in Florida perform life-saving surgery on their peers. A study says that Florida carpenter ants identify limb wounds on their nestmates and then treat them with cleaning or amputation, making them and humans the only known animals to do this. “This is the only case in which a sophisticated and systematic amputation of an individual by another member of its species occurs in the animal kingdom,” said study first author Erik Frank. They observed the ants treated femur injuries by cleaning the wound with their mouths before amputating the leg by repeatedly biting it; the tibia wounds were just cleaned. Survival rates for femur injuries improved from less than 40% to 90%–95% when amputations were performed. Survival rates for tibia injuries improved from 15% to 75% following cleaning. An amputation takes ants at least 40 minutes to complete. The researchers said that the ability of ants to identify and treat wounds selectively is innate. They found no evidence of learning. https://ow.ly/1PlB50SuKRx

Two hundred missing children were recovered in a six-week operation by the US Marshals Service and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. https://ow.ly/8ili50StVOo

France's political parties are collaborating to block the path to government of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN). The RN won the first round of a parliamentary election on Sunday with 33% of the vote, followed by a left-wing bloc with 28% and President Emmanuel Macron's centrists with 20%. The RN tally is a massive setback for Macron, who called the snap election after the RN trounced his ticket during last month's European Parliament election. Whether the anti-immigrant, eurosceptic RN can form a government depends on how other parties thwart Le Pen by rallying around the best-placed rival candidates. Leaders of the left-wing New Popular Front and Macron's centrist alliance indicated they would withdraw their candidates where another was more likely to beat the RN in next Sunday's run-off. https://ow.ly/LmKO50SsSOL