Former President Donald Trump expressed his frustration over a fly that approached his lecturn in a bizarre moment during a rally speech.

Trump was on stage at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, making a point about a hat, when he appears to get distracted by the creature.

“Oh there’s a fly,” the former president said. “I wonder where the fly came from?”

One audience member shouted out “Kamala.”

Trump continued: “See, two years ago, I wouldn’t have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. We can’t take it any longer.” It wasn’t clear who the president was referring to before changing the subject.

The internet was quick to react to Trump’s unexpected outburst, with MSNBC host and legal analyst Katie Phang saying “this is not normal.”Meanwhile, American Bridge 21st Century, who describe themselves an a Republican accountability group, said: “Trump is exhausted and struggling to stay on track. He begins a story about a hat, but gets distracted by a fly and never finishes. He starts a entirely new story and struggles with the word “unique.”Many others drew the comparison between Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, after a fly landed on the latter’s head and remained there for almost two minutes during his 2020 debate with Kamala Harris.

In separate remarks made during his speech, Trump leveled harsh rhetoric against Harris, who he called “mentally disabled” and “mentally impaired”. Harris visited the US-Mexico border earlier this week and most of Trump’s speech took aim at migrants who have entered the US illegally.

Posters of migrants who have been charged with murder and other violent crimes surrounded Trump on stage. Some of them read: “End Migrant Crime” and “Deport Illegals Now.” He referred to those who had been charged as “monsters,” “stone-cold killers” and “vile animals.”

He continued to blame Harris and President Joe Biden for the influx of migrants coming into the country, and claimed some of them wanted to “rape, pillage, thieve, plunder and kill the people of the United States of America.” In fact, a 2024 study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University found immigrants have never been incarcerated at a greater rate than people born in the United States over an 150-year period.

While speaking at her own news conference from the border, Harris vowed to fix the country’s “broken immigration system” and accused the former president of “fanning the flames of fear and division”.

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On October 18, 2023, NPR and the Climate Investigations Center (CIC) brought attention to the health risks linked to using gas stoves. Both reports discussed the gas industry’s long strategy to sweep this information under the rug, using public relations programs modeled after Big Tobacco’s infamous spin campaigns in the ‘50s and ‘60s. NPR and CIC’s joint investigation discovered documents revealing the industry was made aware of these health risks as early as 1970 and that, along with the American Gas Association (AGA), gas utilities funded studies that countered the emerging research into safety concerns.

Following the two original sources, Grist published an article by Kate Yoder a day later that strongly stated the gas utility industry has been actively downplaying the health risks of gas stoves since the 1970s. Gas stoves have been linked to the same health issues associated with smoking, including increased risks of cancer and respiratory illnesses such as asthma.

More than one-third of Americans still use gas stoves, which studies are starting to show pollute homes with toxic chemicals, including benzene and nitrogen dioxide. Gas utilities intentionally hid this explosive problem with the help of Richard Darrow, the architect of Big Tobacco’s PR strategies, who advised these companies to “mount the massive consistent, long-range public relations programs necessary to cope with the problems.”

The deceptive practices of the gas industry have influenced the efforts to bring issues to the surface. Yoder reported that one study, published in June 2023, found that “using a single gas stove burner on high can raise levels of cancer-causing benzene above what’s been observed from secondhand smoke.” Yet, studies from 1974-1982 found no significant evidence to show that gas stoves increased the risks of respiratory illness.

In fact, the industry secretly funded many research efforts in order to keep the truth from coming out. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, not only was the public confused, but so was the government. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviewed five studies and found no sufficient evidence of health risks posed by gas stoves. 

However, four of the five studies reviewed by the EPA were directly funded by the gas industry, as the Climate Investigations Center’s study revealed. Indeed, for the past fifty years, the American Gas Association has made astonishing efforts to minimize the health effects of gas stoves, characterizing peer-reviewed studies that linked gas stoves to asthma as “reckless.” In response to the NPR and the Climate Investigations Center findings, the American Gas Association’s CEO, Karen Harbert, claimed that present science “does not provide sufficient or consistent evidence demonstrating chronic health hazards from natural gas ranges.”

The deceptive nature of gas utilities has gotten some coverage by smaller nonprofit news outlets,  notably Grist, but not much attention from national corporate media. The establishment press, including the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post, has long reported on the health risks and environmental impact of gas stoves but has neglected to address how gas utilities have purposefully deceived the public for decades.

Sources:

Jeff Brady, “How Gas Utilities Used Tobacco Tactics to Avoid Gas Stove Regulations,” NPR, October 17, 2023.

Kate Yoder, “To Obscure the Risks of Gas Stoves, Utilities Borrowed from Big Tobacco’s Playbook,” Grist, October 18, 2023.

Rebecca John, “Burning Questions: A History of the Gas Industry’s Campaign to Manufacture Controversy over the Health Risks of Gas Stove Emissions,” Climate Investigations Center, October 17, 2023.

Student Researcher: Grace Harty (North Central College)

Faculty Evaluator: Steve Macek (North Central College)

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — President Joe Biden on Saturday called the Israeli strike that killed Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah a “measure of justice” for his four-decade reign of terror.

The comments came after Lebanon’s Hezbollah group confirmed earlier Saturday that Nasrallah, one of the group’s founders, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut the previous day.

Biden noted that the operation to take out Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a ‘northern front’ against Israel,” Biden said in a statement.

He also noted that Hezbollah under Nasrallah’s watch has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans.

Read More: Hezbollah Confirms Its Leader Hassan Nasrallah Was Killed In an Israeli Airstrike

The White House sees the death of Nasrallah as a huge blow to the group. At the same time, the administration has sought to tread carefully as it has tried to contain Israel ‘s war with Hamas, which, like Hezbollah, is backed by Iran, from exploding into an all-out regional conflict.

The White House and Pentagon were quick on Friday, shortly after the strike, to say publicly that Israel offered it no forewarning of the operation.

The confirmation of Nasrallah’s death comes during a week that began with Biden’s top national security aides working on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to build support for a 21-day Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire that they hoped might also breathe new life into stalled efforts to secure a truce in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant speech Friday to the United Nations, vowing to keep up operations against Hezbollah until tens of thousands of Israeli citizens displaced by rocket attacks can return home. Shortly after, Israel carried out the strike killing Nasrallah.

Biden reiterated on Saturday that he wants to see cease-fires both in Gaza and between Israel and Hezbollah.

“It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability,” Biden said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the United States of supporting the killing that took out Nasrallah and dozens of others.

“The world community will not forget that the order of the terrorist strike was issued from New York and the Americans cannot absolve themselves from complicity with the Zionists,” Pezeshkian was quoted as saying in a statement read on Iranian state television.

The State Department on Saturday ordered the departure of the families of U.S. diplomats who are not employed by the embassy in Beirut and authorized the departure of those who are, as well as nonessential employees because of “the volatile and unpredictable security situation” in Lebanon’s capital.

The move comes after an Israeli strike on Friday killed the leader of the Hezbollah militant group, intensifying the fighting along another front of war, this time between Israel and Hezbollah.

The State Department has previously advised American citizens to consider leaving Lebanon and reiterated its warning against all travel to the country.

“Due to the increased volatility following airstrikes within Beirut and the volatile and unpredictable security situation throughout Lebanon, the U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to depart Lebanon while commercial options still remain available,” the department said in a statement Saturday.

The State Department routinely orders or authorizes the departure of nonessential embassy staffers and the families of diplomats when security conditions deteriorate in the country where they are posted.

An ordered departure is not technically an evacuation but does require those affected to leave. An authorized departure allows those affected to leave the country voluntarily at government expense.

SPAIN’S Costa Daurada simply translates as the Golden Coast.

It’s named after the colour of the sand when the sun shines along its 50 miles of Mediterranean beaches, running south- west from Barcelona.

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I hadn’t taken the time to explain its meaning to my children while sitting in the departures lounge at Stansted Airport.

But it was the first that thing they exclaimed as they dived into the surf three hours later.

“Daddy, there’s gold in the water!”

They weren’t wrong. Tiny grains of sand floating in the crystal-clear sea shone like a golden twinkling disco ball suspended in the sun’s rays.

My two grew up paddling in the familiar dark-grey murk of the North Sea.

So they were certainly thrilled to be snorkelling in 34C sunshine off Platja dels Pilans.

The beach was just a ten-minute walk from our Eurocamp holiday home at the Playa Montroig Resort, in Miami Platja. And that was just as stunning.

Our Ultimate lodge slept six in comfort — with efficient air-conditioning that came into its own on during our scorching summer holiday.

Outside, comfy patio furniture on the shaded decking was perfect for chilling at any time of day, and the dining table and chairs were great for al-fresco meals.

The beachside resort is a 20-minute drive from Reus Airport, and around an hour from Barcelona.

And it lives up to its 5H rating, with immaculate grounds, three restaurants, a beach bar and round-the-clock entertainment for both kids and grown-ups.

On our first night, a magician sawed his glamorous assistant in half to the wonder of watching children.

The same stage hosted intense-looking exercise classes in the mornings, which were definitely not for the hungover.

And by the afternoon it had turned into a kid-friendly Ibiza foam party with huge cannons coating the dancing crowds in clouds of bubbles.

Gigs on the beach, fireworks, and a swimming pool complex with triple-flume action only added to the fun.

The poshest restaurant on site was the Espai Grill, which offered a full three courses of prime meats, with courtyard entertainment from a Beatles tribute band.

Unfussy and simple

Mid-tier was the Terrassa Restaurant, which served traditional Spanish fare and cold lagers, just a stone’s throw from the main square.

Our favourite was the Tucanamar beach bar.

Unfussy and simple, fresh fish and meat were grilled here over woodsmoke and washed down with copious Del Boy cocktails.

You can’t beat tapas and an ice-cold mojito while overlooking the waves with sand at your feet.

There was a bakery for morning baguette runs, and a decent-sized supermarket which offered the wonderful European adventures of 15 types of chocolate spread and tinned olives.

Never has the gulf between a British booze aisle, and alcohol on the Continent, been so vast.

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You could get three bottles of tip-top rioja and a slab of beers for the price of a petrol station chardonnay back home.

For a spot of offsite culture, we headed to the town of Montroig del Camp, which was famed as the rural retreat of the late Catalan painter and surrealist icon Joan Miro.

He began his painting career here at his parents’ farmhouse retreat and the landscape was the inspiration for some of his most famous works.

Montroig del Camp is overlooked by the remarkable 13th-century hermitage of Our Lady of the Rock, which is itself topped by the 19th-century Chapel of Sant Ramon.

Perched on top of a column of eroded red rock, it defies physics while also offering panoramic views all the way to the coast.

Wildlife and waterfalls

Thankfully, you can park at the top before clambering up to the chapel.

We then took the short drive to Cambrils to see the beautiful botanical gardens at Parc Sama.

It’s like a National Trust stately-home experience parachuted into the Med.

The wonderful 35-acre grounds are packed with wildlife and waterfalls.

You can feed the deer and marvel at the terrapins in the lake where fish will nibble your fingertips.

But it’s the peacocks that are the star of the show.

Chicks beside showboating grown-ups, and even their rare white- feathered cousins, strut among the tourists.

The coastal capital is Tarragona, home to the ruins of a magnificent Roman amphitheatre and an amazing 12th century Cathedral.

But it’s human structures that are the modern marvel — the city hosts the Castells competition, the world’s largest human tower contest.

The gravity-defying, centuries-old Catalan tradition sees incredible towers created from the crowds which stand up to 40ft high.

A wonderful life-size city centre-statue pays soaring tribute to their efforts.

There’s no doubt that the Costa Daurada, with all its sun-soaked family fun and Catalonian culture, delivers a gold-star break.