Midday Roundup: Trump defends donations to veterans' groups

Donation defense. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, held a news conference this morning to talk about the money he raised for veterans and where it all went. Earlier in the campaign, Trump skipped a televised GOP debate in Iowa and held a rally to raise money for veterans instead. The event netted $5.6 million, Trump announced today, reading through a list of organizations that received a share of the funds. He insisted his team had vetted all the groups and required documentation before releasing the money. Trump said he expects more money to continue coming in for the effort in the next couple of weeks. The billionaire businessman said he wasn’t closely involved in picking all of the organizations, except for the one to which he gave $1 million of his own money because he’d worked with it previously. Trump complained the press unfairly questioned his motives and said he didn’t plan to go public with the philanthropic effort until reporters speculated about the funds. He also urged the media to find out how much money Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has given to veterans’ groups.

Rally ruckus. The Secret Service jumped into action yesterday as four protesters stormed the stage at a Bernie Sanders rally in Oakland, Calif. Sanders continued to speak throughout the commotion until agents threw their arms around him and hustled him away from the microphone. Other agents arrested the unidentified protesters. An animal rights group claimed responsibility for the disruption, claiming it wanted to encourage Sanders to come out with a strong animal rights platform as part of his presidential campaign. Sanders, who continues to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, is holding rallies this week in California ahead of the state’s primary next week. Although Clinton maintains a commanding lead in the delegate count, Sanders insists he’s not giving up—a stance Clinton also took eight years ago when she faced then Sen. Barack Obama in her party’s primary contest. Clinton did not concede the primary until early June.

Human tragedy. Warmer weather and calmer waters in the Mediterranean Sea are prompting thousands of Middle Eastern and African migrants to attempt to cross into Europe. According to the International Organization for Migration, at least 1,000 people died or are missing after several shipwrecks in the last week. Greek and Italian rescue ships saved hundreds of others. The survivors helped account for the number of victims, many of whom remained trapped in the hulls of rickety, overloaded fishing boats as they sank. Meanwhile, prosecutors in several European countries are bringing charges against suspected smugglers, who are charging desperate migrants as much as $1,000 each to make the often deadly journey. Officials in Sicily arrested 16 suspected smugglers this weekend after intercepting a boat carrying about 900 migrants.

Fallujah fight. Iraqi security forces and Shiite militia pounded ISIS positions yesterday as they fought their way into Fallujah’s outer defenses, 40 miles west of Baghdad. The operation is part of a major push to retake the central Iraqi city from the Islamic terror group. ISIS responded with a wave of terror bombings that killed more than 60 civilians in Baghdad. Iraqi officials are bracing for more attacks in the coming weeks as ISIS fighters try to distract from the operation in Fallujah. Humanitarian groups warn the fight to retake Fallujah, which ISIS has held since 2014, could cause massive civilian casualties. An estimated 50,000 residents remain trapped in the city’s center. Fallujah is the last major city in the western part of the country still held by ISIS, and a victory for Iraqi and coalition forces there is seen as a prerequisite to retaking Mosul.

Deadly downpours. Six people are dead and two more are missing after torrential rains and severe flooding in central Texas. The latest victim is a woman swept away in a car by flood waters from Cypress Creek near Comfort, about 50 miles north of San Antonio. Two other people in the car survived. In the Houston area, residents are bracing for river flooding as rain that fell inland makes its way toward the Gulf of Mexico. Harris County spokesman Francisco Sanchez said the amount of water the area is dealing with is hard to believe: “Just in Houston alone there were flowing 4 billion gallons of water over the spillway. That could fill a Masterdome every five minutes.” Flash floods in rural Washington County, Texas, killed four people over the holiday weekend. The body of another unidentified victim was found near Austin.

Ape debate. More than 60,000 people have now signed an online petition protesting the killing of a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo. But Director Thane Maynard is standing by the decision to kill the endangered lowland gorilla Saturday after a 4-year-old boy fell into the gorilla’s enclosure. The 400-pound gorilla was dragging the boy around the enclosure when zoo personnel shot and killed the animal. But protesters said the zoo should have done more to protect the gorilla, rather than the child. “These are animals and they are defenseless and they trust the zoo to protect them,” protester Noelle Rooks said. The boy’s family thanked the zoo staff for acting quickly and acknowledged the emotional impact of the decision to shoot the animal. The child is expected to fully recover.

WORLD Radio’s Jim Henry, Kristen Eicher, and Carl Peetz, as well as the Associated Press, contributed to this report.