News Wrap: Prosecutors say Routh left note saying he intended to kill Trump

In our news wrap Monday, prosecutors say Ryan Routh engaged in a premeditated plot to kill Donald Trump and left behind a pre-written note, the Biden administration is proposing a ban on Chinese software and hardware in autonomous vehicles, Alabama officials are asking for information related to a mass shooting in Birmingham and FBI data shows that violent crime dropped across the U.S. last year.

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Amna Nawaz: We start the day’s other headlines with the latest on the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump at his golf course earlier this month.

Prosecutors said today that the suspect, Ryan Routh, had engaged in a premeditated plot to kill the former president. They say the 58-year-old left behind a prewritten note that he addressed to the world, appearing to say he may not succeed in killing Trump and offering a reward to anyone willing to — quote — “complete the job.”

Routh appeared at a West Palm Beach courthouse today. He will remain in jail awaiting trial on two gun-related charges. Prosecutors will seek a more serious charge of attempted assassination of a major political candidate.

The Biden administration is proposing a ban on Chinese software and hardware in autonomous vehicles operating on U.S. roads. The Commerce Department cites national security concerns for the move and says Russian technology would also be prohibited. Under the proposal, the software would be banned from vehicles starting with model year 2027 and hardware in 2030.

The move comes after a similar ban on communications equipment from Huawei in 2022 and amid a push by U.S. lawmakers to ban TikTok if its Chinese owners don’t sell their state.

Officials in Alabama are urging members of the public to come forward with any information related to a weekend mass shooting in Birmingham. The search is still on for the gunmen who opened fire outside a nightclub on Saturday night, killing four people and injuring 17 others. Police have described it as a targeted hit, but say that innocent bystanders were among those shot.

Today, authorities said they’re offering rewards totaling $100,000 for credible information that helps lead to an arrest or conviction.

Randall Woodfin (D), Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama: We cannot give safe harbor or shelter to people who want to just simply kill people. We can’t give them cover. They should not feel safe in our community. They should not feel safe anywhere.

Amna Nawaz: Saturday’s shooting was the city’s third quadruple homicide of the year. In fact, according to an Associated Press database that tracks shootings, three of the nation’s 31 mass killings this year have taken place in Birmingham.

Murder and other violent crime dropped across the nation last year. That’s according to an annual report from the FBI. Overall, violent crime fell by an estimated 3 percent compared to 2022. Murders and manslaughter dropped nearly 12 percent, and reports of rape fell more than 9 percent. However, reports of hate crimes rose last year by 2 percent.

Public safety has been a central issue in this year’s presidential race, with the Republican ticket claiming, despite evidence to the contrary, that crime is out of control under the Biden administration.

Two Russians and one American returned from the International Space Station today, ending a record-breaking stay for the Russians.

Man: Touchdown.

Amna Nawaz: Their capsule landed in a cloud of dust in Kazakstan about 3.5 hours after it undocked from the station. Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub were aboard the ISS for 374 days, a new record for the longest continuous stay.

American astronaut Tracy Dyson was there for six months. Eight astronauts are still on board, including Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Those Americans won’t return until next year following tech problems with Boeing Starliner.

Two new reports on the state of book banning in America paint a mixed picture of the practice as the annual Banned Books Week begins nationwide. The American Library Association reported 414 complaints in the first eight months of 2024. That’s compared to 695 challenges over the same period last year. The meantime, data from PEN America shows the number of books actually being pulled from shelves tripled over the previous year to more than 10,000.

Experts say the two surveys don’t necessarily contradict each other, and taken together they point to an ongoing surge in book bans in recent years.

And on Wall Street, small gains across the board helped build on recent record highs. The Dow Jones industrial average added around 60 points, well above that 42000-point level. The Nasdaq added about 25 points on the day, and the S&P 500 tacked on 16 points to close at a new record.