News Wrap: FBI director says Trump gunman researched JFK assassination

Geoff Bennett:

Capitol Hill is also where we start our other headlines of the day.

FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed during congressional testimony today that the gunman who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump searched for information on the killing of President John F. Kennedy a week earlier. Wray was speaking during a House Judiciary Committee hearing as lawmakers from both parties pressed for answers on why the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, had not been prevented.

He said the timing of the suspect's online search was significant.

Christopher Wray, FBI Director:

Analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter reveals that, on July 6, he did a Google search for — quote — "How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?" That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally.

Geoff Bennett:

New bodycam footage from the aftermath of the shooting shows law enforcement on the roof where the 20-year-old gunman was killed by a sniper. FBI Director Wray said the bureau believes he acted alone.

And, while his motive is unclear, Wray says the gunman was interested in public figures more broadly.

Climate scientists say this past Monday was Earth's hottest day ever, breaking the record set just a day earlier. According to the European climate service Copernicus, the global average temperature on Monday was 62.87 degrees Fahrenheit. That was 0.1 degree higher than Sunday. Scientists say the timing of these records is especially troubling, given that the El Nino climate pattern, which warms the Central Pacific Ocean ended earlier this year.

Joyce Kimutai, African Climate and Development Initiative: We have seen the signal come back to neutral and almost La Nina actually. La Nina means there's substantial cooling happening. And so then we would really expect the temperatures to come down. And so if that is not happening, then it means there's really, really, really something wrong happening in our planet.

Geoff Bennett:

The heat wave has fanned the flames of summer wildfires, especially in the West. The largest blaze in the country is in Oregon, which has burned nearly 400 square miles. Other fires are scorching parts of California, Washington and Canada.

Authorities in Nepal are investigating why a Saurya Airlines flight crashed shortly after taking off from Kathmandu Airport today; 18 people were killed. The pilot was the lone survivor. Rescuers rushed to the scene. And airport officials say most of the passengers were mechanics or airline employees.

Witnesses described the moment of the crash.

Man (through interpreter):

I came out and saw a plane had crashed and there was a huge plume of smoke and fire coming out. There was chaos and confusion. We couldn't even go near the plane to help because there was so much fire and even explosions.

Geoff Bennett:

Authorities say the aircraft was on its way to another Nepalese city for maintenance.

Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike is blaming a bug in an update for last week's global tech outage. It says the bug pushed out bad cybersecurity data to millions of Windows computers, causing crashes that disabled airlines, hospitals, retailers and more.

To prevent future outages, CrowdStrike says it will stagger rollouts of updates, give customers more control over installations and provide more details about future updates. Among the most affected was Delta Air Lines with more than 6,000 flight cancellations since last Friday. The carrier's CEO said today that operations should return to normal by tomorrow.

And on Wall Street today, stocks plummeted after some underwhelming tech earnings. The Dow industrial fell 500 points, dropping well below the 40000 point level. The Nasdaq posted its worst session since late 2022, falling more than 650 points. The S&P 500 also tumbled for its fifth drop in the last six sessions.

And Olympic officials have announced the hosts for the next two Winter Games, just days before the Summer Olympics in Paris officially kick off. The International Olympic Committee said today that the 2030 Games will be held in the French Alps. And, in Utah, crowds rejoiced after news that the Olympics will return in the year 2034. Salt Lake City hosted the Games back in 2002.

Also today:

Man:

You have the honor of wearing this jacket during the Opening Ceremony and being a flag-bearer with LeBron James.

(Cheering)

(Applause)

Geoff Bennett:

Team USA selected tennis phenom Coco Gauff to be a flag bearer at Friday's Opening Ceremony in Paris. The reigning U.S. Open champ had to sit out the Tokyo Games after testing positive for COVID. At 20 years old, Gauff will be the youngest American to carry the flag at an Opening Ceremony.