Connect with us

Published

on

Sign up for The Decision, a newsletter featuring our 2024 election coverage.

Updated at 2:00 p.m. ET on March 26, 2024

Last weekend, I stood among thousands of Donald Trump supporters in a windy airfield, watching them watch their candidate. I traveled to the former presidents event just outside Dayton, Ohio, because I couldnt stop thinking about something that had happened one week earlier, at his rally in Georgia: Trump had broken into an imitation of President Joe Bidens lifelong stutter, and the crowd had cackled.

Mocking Biden is not the worst thing Trump has ever done. Biden is a grown man, and the most public of figures. He does not need to be babied by other politicians or members of the media. Trump disrespects all manner of people, but he had notably avoided mocking Bidens stutter throughout the 2020 campaign. No more.

Read: Trump finds another line to cross

This is bigger than Biden, though. Stuttering is a genetic neurological disorderone that can be covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act, one that 3 million Americans have. Trump may or may not know that, but he certainly knows that having a disability is something both Democrats and Republicans experience. Scores of Trump supporters are older, and are therefore more likely to be disabled themselves. Most everyone can think of at least one disabled friend or family member, a person they wouldnt want taunted by a bully on the dais.

On Saturday, as we awaited Trumps arrival by private plane, my colleague Hanna Rosin and I spent the day wandering the grounds of Wright Bros. Aero Inc., asking rally attendees uncomfortable questions about what theyre comfortable with. Virtually everyone was bothered by specific examples of Trumps recent bullying. But as they unpacked their thoughts, they continually found ways to excuse their favored candidates behavior. Many interviewees repeatedly contradicted themselves, perhaps because of a particular variable: Im a person who stutters, and that day, I was asking real people how they felt about Trump making fun of stuttering.

A married couple from Dayton, Todd and Cindy Rossbach, were waiting in a long, snaking line to take in their sixth Trump rally. Hes the best president Ive ever seen in my lifetime, Todd said. Probably Reagan comes in second. I asked him if he had seen Trumps comments during the Georgia rally, and specifically, if he had seen Trump imitate Bidens stutter. He saw it all. I think hes got every right to do whatever he wants to do at this point, Todd said. The level of, uh, cruelness, may seem tough, but theyre being very cruel with him, so it seems justified.

His wife spoke up. I disagree, because I think when you make fun of people, it just makes you look bad, Cindy said. Its not the Christian way to be, she added a little later. I just feel like it makes Trump look bad, when hes probably not a bad person. But he is just stooping to their level, and I dont like it. Nevertheless, neither of them felt that Trump could do anything between now and November to make him lose their vote.

Farther back in line was Cheryl Beverly, from Chillicothe, Ohio, who said she works locally trying to get children out of homelessness. Beverly shared that she has a learning disability and has trouble spelling. Even as an adult, shes regularly ridiculed. It does hurt my feelings at times, she said. She acknowledged that its hard to see a lot of people make fun of people with disabilities, and pointed to the risk of suicide and addiction among members of the community. Well just go in a dark secret hole and not come out, Beverly said. Yet she also said she still planned to vote for Trump this fall. She was able to separate Trumps taunts from her personal feelings by chalking his behavior up to politics. If a child asked her about Trumps belittlement, she imagined that she would liken it to playing a game: Youre just finding a way for you to become the winner and they become the loser, she offered. Its just trash-talking.

Near a food truck inside the venue, I struck up a conversation with a woman from Cincinnati named Vanessa Miller. She was wearing a T-shirt that read Jesus Is My Savior, Trump Is My President , and a dog tag inscribed with the serenity prayer. She hadnt seen, or heard about, the clip of Trump mimicking Biden. Trump is a good man, Miller said. Hes not perfect. Biden is not handicapped. Hes just an ass, and he does not care about this country. She went on, If Trump made fun of Biden, well, like I said, hes not perfect, but it wasnt about a disability. It was about how he has made this country dysfunctional, not disabled.

From the January/February 2020 issue: What Joe Biden cant bring himself to say

A bit later, she told me that Biden doesnt stutter; hes mentally incapable of running this country. But then she did something surprising: She reached out and grabbed my arm in a maternal fashion. And I feel what youreI feel what youre saying, she said, acknowledging my own stutter. People that are unkind to people with disabilities, its shameful. Its awful. Absolutely disgusting. And I guess I understand that, like, in an election, you know, it gets ugly, and elections get competitive, and people say things, people do things.

I unlocked my phone and showed her a video of Trumps stuttering impression. She turned her focus to the mainstream media in general. She said that for the press to inflame and use disabilities to get people riled up is exactly what they want. Nothing would stop her from voting for Trump.

This pattern continued in nearly every interaction that day: skepticism, a momentary denouncement, then an eventual conclusion that Trump was still a man worth their vote. A woman named Susie Mikaloff, who runs a Mathnasium tutoring center, told me, I dont appreciate the making-fun-of part, but he doesnt have to be my best friend. He just has to do the best job for the country and for me. So I have to overlook that, because everybody has their good points and their bad points.

Shana, a special-education teacher from Indiana who did not give her last name, told me, ?I would still support him because I feel like people make mistakes. They say things they shouldnt say. And I feel like God is the judge on that, you know, and that were to forgive him. She noted that if Trump were to mock Bidens stutter at this rally, shed be inclined to write him a letter saying that everybody was born of God and that we shouldnt be making fun of anybody.

Saturdays event was hosted by the Buckeye Values political-action committee, ostensibly in support of the U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno. But Trump, of course, was the real draw. Moreno, who last night won the Ohio Republican primary, was merely among the presidents list of warm-up speakers, alongside South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Senator J. D. Vance of Ohio, and Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio.

When Trumps plane touched down on the runway behind the stage, the dramatic electric-guitar instrumental from Top Gun played over the loudspeakers. Because of the wind, the teleprompters were swaying, making it nearly impossible for Trump to read his prepared remarks. So he went off script and rambled for about 90 minutes. Hey, its a nice Saturday, what the hell, we have nothing else to do, Trump said. Most of Trumps rhetoric vacillated between aggrieved and menacing. He called migrants animals and warned of a bloodbath next year. (The latter comment came after Trump was talking about the auto industry, though some intuited the remark to refer to political violence.) Trump didnt bust out his schoolyard mimic of Bidens stutter this time, but he did repeatedly attack the way Biden speaks. He cant talk, Trump said.

People began filing out long before Trump finished speaking. When the event was finally over, I loitered by one of the merch tables. (A selection of that days T-shirt and sticker offerings: Joe and the Hoe Gotta Go , Jihad Joe , Trumps face on Mount Rushmore, a cartoon Trump urinating on Biden la Calvin and Hobbes.) Oneman, a union worker named Joseph Smock, told me that hed been red pilled eight years ago after seeing the effects of illegal immigration in his native California. (He now lives in Dayton.) Unlike many other attendees I spoke with, Smock fully acknowledged Bidens history with stuttering, rather than dismissing it as a media invention or a political ploy for sympathy. He characterized Trump as someone with a hard slant. When, like Biden, youre in the big leagues, he said, Trumps going to hit you, and if he sees a weakness, hes gonna go for it. Some people like that; some people dont.

Read: You should go to a Trump rally

A man on an electric scooter, Wes Huff, rolled by with a big grin and his wife, Lisa, by his side. Wes told me that this was their first Trump rally, and that they thought it was awesome. Wes is disabledhe has dealt with diabetes and kidney failure, and is missing five toes. He shared that all of his siblings are also disabled. He hadnt seen Trumps clip from a week earlier. I asked Huff a hypothetical question: If Biden made fun of a rival for using a wheelchairsomeone like Texas Governor Greg Abbottwould he find that offensive? Yeah. Oh yeah, he said.

But then our conversation migrated back to stuttering in particular. I actually used to stutter, he said. He was bullied for it as a kid. He also told me about an old colleague of his who stuttered, who was ridiculed as an adult. Huff was kind and sensitive as he described their friendship, how he would look out for him. You shouldnt make fun of disabled people, he said. He also said he still planned to vote for Trump this fall.Related PodcastListen to John Hendrickson discuss this article with Hanna Rosin on Radio Atlantic:Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts

This story previously misstated Susie Mikaloff’s last name.

Continue Reading

World

‘At least 59 killed’ in Gaza after Israeli military opens fire near aid centre and carries out strikes

Published

on

By

'At least 59 killed' in Gaza after Israeli military opens fire near aid centre and carries out strikes

At least 59 Palestinians have reportedly been killed after the Israeli military opened fire near an aid centre in Gaza and carried out strikes across the territory.

The Red Cross, which operates a field hospital in Rafah, said 25 people were “declared dead upon arrival” and “six more died after admittance” following gunfire near an aid distribution centre in the southern Gazan city.

The humanitarian organisation added that it also received 132 patients “suffering from weapon-related injuries” after the incident.

The Red Cross said: “The overwhelming majority of these patients sustained gunshot wounds, and all responsive individuals reported they were attempting to access food distribution sites.”

The organisation said the number of deaths marks the hospital’s “largest influx of fatalities” since it began operations in May last year.

The IDF has said it fired “warning shots” near the aid distribution site but it was “not aware of injured individuals” as a result.

It said in a statement: “Earlier today, several suspects were identified approaching IDF troops operating in the Rafah area, posing a threat to the troops, hundreds of metres from the aid distribution site.

“IDF troops operated in order to prevent the suspects from approaching them and fired warning shots.”

Palestinians mourn a loved one following the incident near the aid centre. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Palestinians mourn a loved one following the incident near the aid centre. Pic: Reuters

Mother’s despair over shooting

Somia Alshaar told Sky News her 17-year-old son Nasir was shot dead while visiting the aid centre after she told him not to go.

She said: “He went to get us tahini so we could eat.

“He went to get flour. He told me ‘mama, we don’t have tahini. Today I’ll bring you flour. Even if it kills me, I will get you flour’.

“He left the house and didn’t return. They told me at the hospital: your son…’Oh God, oh Lord’.”

Asked where her son was shot, she replied: “In the chest. Yes, in the chest.”

Somia Alshaar, pictured with her daughter, says her son was shot dead. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Somia Alshaar, pictured with her daughter, says her son was shot dead. Pic: Reuters

‘A policy of mass murder’

Hassan Omran, a paramedic with Gaza’s ministry of health, told Sky News after the incident that humanitarian aid centres in Gaza are now “centres of mass death”.

Speaking in Khan Younis, he said: “Today, there were more than 150 injuries and more than 20 martyrs at the aid distribution centres… the Israeli occupation deliberately kills and commits genocide. The Israeli occupation is carrying out a policy of mass murder.

“They call people to come get their daily food, and then, when citizens arrive at these centres, they are killed in cold blood.

“All the victims have gunshot wounds to the head and chest, meaning the enemy is committing these crimes deliberately.”

Israel has rejected genocide accusations and denies targeting civilians.

Boys cry following the incident near the Rafah aid centre. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Two boys mourn their brother at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters

‘Lies being peddled’

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial US and Israeli-backed group which operates the distribution centre near Rafah, said: “Hamas is claiming there was violence at our aid distribution sites today. False.

“Once again, there were no incidents at or in the immediate vicinity of our sites.

“But that’s not stopping some from spreading the lies being peddled by ‘officials’ at the Hamas-controlled Nasser Hospital.”

The Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah has recorded more than 250 fatalities and treated more than 3,400 “weapon-wounded patients” since new food distribution sites were set up in Gaza on 27 May.

Read more:
‘At least 798 killed’ at Gaza aid points
’10 children killed’ waiting for Gaza health clinic to open
Israel says permanent ceasefire ‘questionable’

Palestinians inspect the wreckage of a gas station destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, July 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Image:
Palestinians inspect the wreckage after an Israeli airstrike in Deir al Balah. Pic: AP

It comes after four children and two women were among at least 13 people who died in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli strikes pounded the area starting late on Friday, officials in Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the territory said.

Fifteen others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not responded to a request for comment on the reported deaths.

Follow The World
Follow The World

Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday

Tap to follow

Israeli has been carrying out attacks in Gaza since Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages on 7 October 2023.

Hamas still holds 50 hostages, with fewer than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

US President Donald Trump has said he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war.

But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there were no signs of a breakthrough.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

The latest fatalities in Gaza comes as a 20-year-old Palestinian-American man was beaten to death by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, the Palestinian Health ministry said.

Sayafollah Musallet, also known as Saif, was killed during a confrontation between Palestinians and settlers in Sinjil, north of Ramallah, the ministry said.

A second man, Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, died after being shot in the chest.

Mr Musallet’s family, from Tampa Florida, has called on the US State Department to lead an “immediate investigation”.

A State Department spokesperson said it was aware of the incident but it had no further comment “out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones” of the reported victim.

The Israeli military said the confrontation broke out after Palestinians threw rocks at Israelis, lightly injuring them.

Continue Reading

Environment

This new wireless e-bike charger wants to be the future of electric bikes

Published

on

By

This new wireless e-bike charger wants to be the future of electric bikes

Forget fumbling with cables or hunting for batteries – TILER is making electric bike charging as seamless as parking your ride. The Dutch startup recently introduced its much-anticipated TILER Compact system, a plug-and-play wireless charger engineered to transform the user experience for e-bike riders.

At the heart of the new system is a clever combo: a charging kickstand that mounts directly to almost any e‑bike, and a thin charging mat that you simply park over. Once you drop the kickstand and it lands on the mat, the bike begins charging automatically via inductive transfer – no cable required. According to TILER, a 500 Wh battery will fully charge in about 3.5 hours, delivering comparable performance to traditional wired chargers.

It’s an elegantly simple concept (albeit a bit chunky) with a convenient upside: less clutter, fewer broken cables, and no more need to bend over while feeling around for a dark little hole.

TILER claims its system works with about 75% of existing e‑bike platforms, including those from Bosch, Yamaha, Bafang, and other big bames. The kit uses a modest 150 W wireless power output, which means charging speeds remain practical while keeping the system lightweight (the tile weighs just 2 kg, and it’s also stationary).

Advertisement – scroll for more content

TILER has already deployed over 200 charging points across Western Europe, primarily serving bike-share, delivery, hospitality, and hotel fleets. A recent case study in Munich showed how a cargo-bike operator saved approximately €1,250 per month in labor costs, avoided thousands in spare batteries, and cut battery damage by 20%. The takeaway? Less maintenance, more uptime.

Now shifting to prosumer markets, TILER says the Compact system will hit pre-orders soon, with a €250 price tag (roughly US $290) for the kickstand plus tile bundle. To get in line, a €29 refundable deposit is currently required, though they say it is refundable at any point until you receive your charger. Don’t get too excited just yet though, there’s a bit of a wait. Deliveries are expected in summer 2026, and for now are covering mostly European markets.

The concept isn’t entirely new. We’ve seen the idea pop up before, including in a patent from BMW for charging electric motorcycles. And the efficacy is there. Skeptics may wonder if wireless charging is slower or less efficient, but TILER says no. Its system retains over 85% efficiency, nearly matching wired charging speeds, and even pauses at 80% to protect battery health, then resumes as needed. The tile is even IP67-rated, safe for outdoor use, and about as bulky as a thick magazine.

Electrek’s Take

I love the concept. It makes perfect sense for shared e-bikes, especially since they’re often returning to a dock anyway. As long as people can be trained to park with the kickstand on the tile, it seems like a no-brainer.

And to be honest, I even like the idea for consumers. I know it sounds like a first-world problem, but bending over to plug something in at floor height is pretty annoying, not to mention a great way to throw out your back if you’re not exactly a spring chicken anymore. Having your e-bike start charging simply by parking it in the right place is a really cool feature! I don’t know if it’s $300 cool, but it’s pretty cool!

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Politics

‘Shameful’ that black boys in London more likely to die than white boys, says Met Police chief

Published

on

By

'Shameful' that black boys in London more likely to die than white boys, says Met Police chief

It is “shameful” that black boys growing up in London are “far more likely” to die than white boys, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has told Sky News.

The commissioner told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that relations with minority communities “is difficult for us”.

Sir Mark, who came out of retirement to become head of the UK’s largest police force in 2022, said: “We can’t pretend otherwise that we’ve got a history between policing and black communities where policing has got a lot wrong.

“And we get a lot more right today, but we do still make mistakes. That’s not in doubt. I’m being as relentless in that as it can be.”

He said the “vast majority” of the force are “good people”.

However, he added: “But that legacy, combined with the tragedy that some of this crime falls most heavily in black communities, that creates a real problem because the legacy creates concern.”

Sir Mark, who also leads the UK’s counter-terrorism policing, said it is “not right” that black boys growing up in London “are far more likely to be dead by the time they’re 18” than white boys.

“That’s, I think, shameful for the city,” he admitted.

The Met Police chief’s admission comes two years after an official report found the force is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Police chase suspected phone thief

Baroness Casey was commissioned in 2021 to look into the Met Police after serving police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.

She pinned the primary blame for the Met’s culture on its past leadership and found that stop and search and the use of force against black people was excessive.

At the time, Sir Mark, who had been commissioner for six months when the report was published, said he would not use the labels of institutionally racist, institutionally misogynistic and institutionally homophobic, which Casey insisted the Met deserved.

However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who helped hire Sir Mark – and could fire him – made it clear the commissioner agreed with Baroness Casey’s verdict.

After the report was released, Sir Mark said “institutional” was political language so he was not going to use it, but he accepted “we have racists, misogynists…systematic failings, management failings, cultural failings”.

A few months after the report, Sir Mark launched a two-year £366m plan to overhaul the Met, including increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing to rebuild public trust and plans to recruit 500 more community support officers and an extra 565 people to work with teams investigating domestic violence, sexual offences and child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.

Continue Reading

Trending