The first presidential pardon granted by President Trump went to a sheriff convicted of criminal contempt for failing to heed a federal court order to cease a discriminatory practice of detaining suspected illegal immigrants.

The second went to a turkey named Drumstick.

“Over the past 10 months Melania and I have had the pleasure of welcoming many, many special visitors to the great White House,” Trump said in a ceremony in the Rose Garden on Tuesday. “We have hosted dozens of incredible world leaders, members of Congress and, along the way, a few very strange birds. But we have yet to receive any visitors quite like our magnificent guest of honor today, Drumstick.”

He extended his arm toward the fowl with a grand flourish.

“Hi, Drumstick,” he said. “Oh, Drumstick, I think, is going to be very happy.”

The president was taking part in one of the White House’s longest-running holiday traditions: the presentation — and more recently, the pardoning — of a turkey. This year’s bird was a 47-pound male raised in western Minnesota. He was gifted the name Drumstick and, after winning a social media contest against the backup bird named Wishbone, was declared the National Thanksgiving Turkey.

Rather than become Thursday dinner, Drumstick and Wishbone will live out their predictably short lives at a facility at Virginia Tech, along with last year’s pardoned birds, Tater and Tot.

“As many of you know, I have been very active in overturning a number of executive actions by my predecessor,” Trump said. “However, I have been informed by the White House counsel’s office that Tator and Tot’s pardons cannot under any circumstances be revoked. So, we’re not going to revoke them.”

Barron Trump, left, greeted his father’s turkey-pardon humor much as past White House children have. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The audience chuckled; Barron Trump, who stood beside his father, did not. When everyone clapped for the young women from the 4-H chapter who helped raise the birds, Barron kept his arms at his sides. Like Malia and Sasha Obama before him, he seemed unimpressed with his father’s jokes and with this nonsense entirely.

His father, however, appeared to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

“Wow, wow, big bird! That’s a big bird,” Trump said as he approached the turkey, perched on a cloth-covered table. “Are we allowed to touch? Wow. I feel so good about myself doing this.”

Trump has, in recent days, shown a fondness for not killing animals. On Friday, he halted a decision that would have lifted a ban on importing hunted elephant carcasses as trophies from two African nations. His administration had already lifted a ban on importing lion carcasses last month — but, well, not a lot of people noticed. The elephants, in contrast, were showered with bipartisan outrage, after which the lifting of the ban was paused. Trump tweeted Sunday that he will make a decision about “this horror show” later in the week.

That decision will apparently be issued from Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach where the Trump family was headed later Tuesday. Trump, who is said to prefer his meat well-done and doused in ketchup, will enjoy his turkey in “the Winter White House” on Thanksgiving and will stay in South Florida through the weekend.

The presentation of a Thanksgiving turkey has been a presidential tradition for 70 years. Wars, recessions, elections, natural disasters — no matter the moment in history, the birds have made it to the White House. Until George H.W. Bush made the pardon an official ritual in 1989, the vast majority of the birds succumbed to the fate that some 46 million American turkeys meet every Thanksgiving: They were eaten.

Tiffany Trump, right, checks out Drumstick, post-pardoning. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Ivanka Trump urged her children, Arabella and Joseph Kushner, to greet the fowl as well. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

On Drumstick’s day in the spotlight, Trump had plans to speak on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his administration was likely to be reviewing the latest message from North Korea, published earlier in the day, which called Trump “an old lunatic, mean trickster and human reject.”

One could envision Drumstick’s forefathers looking down from a palatial sawdust pile in the sky, remembering their own ­places in history: The very first turkey gifted to a president by the National Turkey Federation that Harry S. Truman ate in 1947 at the dawn of the Cold War. The turkey that ended up in the stomach of Richard M. Nixon in 1973, the week after he told America “I am not a crook.” The 1995 bird Bill Clinton called “the most multicolored best-looking turkey we’ve had here since I’ve been president,” the same month his relationship with Monica Lewinsky began.

Could those birds have imagined what was to come?

What does Drumstick know?

For now, he seemed only passingly aware that he was being patted by Tiffany Trump, and then patted by Ivanka Trump. Barron Trump was walking away. Cameras were flashing. Ivanka urged her 6-year-old daughter, Arabella, to inch a little closer to Drumstick. It seemed, for a moment, as if he was looking her in the eyes. She did not pat him. She did not eat him. And with that, the cameras turned off and Drumstick was taken away.

VAN HORN, Texas — Authorities were scouring West Texas on Monday for those behind an apparent attack that killed one U.S. border agent and injured another.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a statement Sunday that was thin on details about what happened, saying the two agents “were responding to activity” while on patrol near Interstate 10 in the area of Van Horn, which is about 30 miles from the border with Mexico and about 110 miles southeast of El Paso.

CBP spokesman Douglas Mosier said 36-year-old agent Rogelio Martinez and his partner were transported to a hospital, where Martinez died. Martinez’s partner, whose name hasn’t been released, is in serious condition.

CBS affiliate KDBC-TV reports that Martinez went to Irvin High School in El Paso, Texas. One of his high school friends told the station Martinez graduated in 1999. The friend said Martinez was a brother and a father.

President Trump said the second officer was “brutally beaten and badly, badly hurt” but “looks like he’ll make it.”  

In a tweet Sunday, Mr. Trump said, “We will seek out and bring to justice those responsible,” and reiterated his call for a border wall with Mexico.

Border Patrol Officer killed at Southern Border, another badly hurt. We will seek out and bring to justice those responsible. We will, and must, build the Wall!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 20, 2017

Without elaborating on what happened to the officers, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the incident “an attack” in a statement. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz also referred to it as such, saying in a news release: “We are grateful for the courage and sacrifice of our border agents who have dedicated their lives to keeping us safe.”

Abbott has authorized a reward — through the Texas Crime Stoppers program — up to $20,000 “for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and the serious injury of another,” the governor’s office said Monday in a news release.

Kevin McAleenan, acting commissioner of CBP, said in a letter sent to border agents that Martinez was unconscious when agents found him, with “multiple injuries” to his head and body.

Jeanette Harper, FBI spokeswoman for the El Paso field office, told the San Antonio Express-News only that Martinez and his partner were “not fired upon.” The FBI has taken over the investigation.

Border Patrol records show that the agency’s Big Bend sector, which includes the area where Sunday’s attack took place, accounted for about 1 percent of the more than 61,000 apprehensions its agents made along the Southwest border between October 2016 and May 2017. The region’s mountains make it a difficult area for people to cross illegally into the U.S. from Mexico.

The Border Patrol website lists 38 agents, not including Martinez, who have died since late 2003 — some attacked while working along the border and others killed in traffic accidents. Martinez is the second agent to have died this year.

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Mandel Ngan, Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

The U.S. government redesignated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism Monday. The move, announced by President Trump during a brief photo op at a Cabinet meeting, was designed to put pressure on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

“It should have happened a long time ago,” Trump told reporters. “It should have happened years ago.”

This isn’t North Korea’s first time on the list. The country was designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1988 and stayed on the list until it was removed in 2008.

What is a state sponsor of terrorism?

Since 1979, the State Department has kept a list of countries that are alleged to have “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.” The designation results in a variety of unilateral sanctions, including a ban on arms-related exports and sales, prohibitions on economic assistance, and other punitive measures.

The list is determined by three laws: Section 6j of the Export Administration Act, Section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act and Section 620 of the Foreign Assistance Act.

Exactly what makes a country a sponsor of terrorism is kept relatively vague: Joseph DeThomas, a former State Department official who focused on North Korea and Iran and is a professor of international affairs at Pennsylvania State University, has called it “more of an art than a science” and noted that “political and diplomatic context plays a considerable role in such designations.”

When first released in 1979, the list included only four nations: Libya, Iraq, South Yemen and Syria. Over the years, a number of countries have been added to the list and some removed. Until North Korea was added this week, only Iran, Syria and Sudan remained on the list.

Why was North Korea first added to the list in 1988?

Before 1988, North Korea was implicated in a number of international plots, including hijackings, abductions, bombings and assassination attempts.

However, it was the bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 in 1987 that sealed North Korea’s place on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. In that attack, later linked to North Korean agents, a plane flying between Baghdad and Seoul was blown up over the Andaman Sea. All 115 people on board were killed.

The bombing of Flight 858, as well as a 1983 attack in Rangoon, Burma, that killed 17 South Koreans and four Burmese that was linked to Kim Jong Il, prompted the Reagan administration to decide that North Korea should be added to the list.

Why was North Korea removed from the list in 2008?

Two decades after being designated a state sponsor of terrorism, North Korea was removed from the list in 2008 by the administration of President George W. Bush. It was a controversial move; then-Sen. Barack Obama was among those who supported it, calling the decision “an appropriate response.”

For a nation to be removed from the list of state sponsors, Bush had to certify to Congress that its government had either fundamentally changed its stance on providing support to terrorism, or had not provided support for international terrorism for six months and had given assurances to the United States that it would not support international terrorism in the future.

North Korea was able to meet those criteria relatively simply: The State Department’s 2007 Country Reports on Terrorism noted that North Korea was not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since 1987, and the U.S. government later announced that Pyongyang had issued “an authoritative and direct public statement affirming that it does not support international terrorism now and will not support international terrorism in the future.”

Another major important factor in the move to drop North Korea from the list was faltering talks over nuclear disarmament with Pyongyang that the Bush administration hoped could be salvaged by the delisting move. Notably, U.S. officials said North Korea had agreed to not restart the partially disabled Yongbyon nuclear reactor, which had been producing fissile material for weapons tests.

Why is the Trump administration redesignating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism?

The 2008 decision to delist North Korea has long divided experts, some of whom have called for the country to be redesignated.

One key bone of contention is whether North Korea has committed acts of terrorism in recent years. For example, in 2015, Joshua Stanton wrote a report for the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea arguing that although it was commonly thought that North Korea had not been directly linked to high-profile terrorism plots since 1987, Pyongyang had been actively involved in suspected arms transfers to terrorists as well as other threats and assassination plots that met the legal definitions of “international terrorism” and terrorism “support.”

These arguments were bolstered in recent years by the alleged hack of Sony Pictures in 2014 and the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, half brother to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in 2017 — the latter of which was called an “act of terrorism” by South Korea soon afterward.

There is also widespread frustration that the detente the Bush administration sought in 2008 amounted to little. In fact, North Korea conducted its second nuclear weapon test less than a year after it was removed from the list. It also has repeatedly claimed that it will reopen the Yongbyon reactor.

More on WorldViews

Why haven’t sanctions on North Korea worked? Two very different theories.

North Korea appears to have a new Internet connection — thanks to the help of a state-owned Russian firm

Republicans are feeling the pressure to move quickly on tax legislation ahead of next month’s Senate election in Alabama. 

Senate Republicans already have little margin for error, as they can afford only two defections and still pass their tax-cut bill if Democrats are united against it.

But that margin would fall to one vote if the Democrat in the Alabama race, Doug Jones, defeats GOP candidate Roy Moore on Dec. 12. Polls have suggested a Jones victory is a real possibility in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against Moore.

An Alabama election official on Friday said the winner of the race could be seated as early as Dec. 26, giving Republicans a short window for action.

Republicans had already talked of getting a bill to President Trump’s desk by Christmas — and that deadline appears even more critical now, likely forcing a furious push in December. 

“They’ve got to find a way to get to 50 votes [on a tax bill] as fast as possible,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell.

The House has already passed its version of the tax bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellMcConnell expects Paul to return to Senate next week Former Hill staff calls for mandatory harassment training Gaming the odds of any GOP tax bill getting signed into law MORE (R-Ky.) is planning to start floor consideration of the upper chamber bill’s next week, when senators return from the Thanksgiving recess.

Looming over the push is Alabama’s special election, which pits Moore, a former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice, against Jones, a former U.S. Attorney.

The winner of the election will succeed Sen. Luther StrangeLuther Johnson StrangeGOP rushes to cut ties to Moore Cruz’s Democratic challenger fundraises off support of Roy Moore Moore digs in amid mounting GOP criticism MORE (R-Ala.), who was appointed to the seat after Jeff SessionsJefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsCurtis wins Chaffetz’s former Utah House seat Overnight Cybersecurity: What we learned from Carter Page’s House Intel testimony | House to mark up foreign intel reform law | FBI can’t access Texas shooter’s phone | Sessions to testify at hearing amid Russia scrutiny FBI can’t unlock Texas shooter’s phone MORE became Attorney General. Strange is expected to vote yes on the tax bill. 

Jones, on the other hand, would likely join other Democrats in voting against the tax legislation, cutting the number of GOP senators who can oppose it to one. He signaled his opposition to the measure at a rally in October.

“What I see now troubles me a lot. I don’t care about the wealthiest in this country getting huge tax cuts … while the poor suffer,” Jones said, according to AL.com.

White House aide Kellyanne Conway noted Jones’s opposition to the tax bill in a Fox News interview on Monday.

“Doug Jones in Alabama, folks, don’t be fooled. He’ll be a vote against tax cuts,” she said.

Moore would be expected to vote for the GOP’s legislation, but also has his own ideas for what an overhaul of the tax code should look like, making his vote far from assured.

“Roy Moore will work hard to pass any plan that cuts taxes but believes the Senate should be even more aggressive about bringing long-term relief to the middle class,” said Brett Doster, a paid media strategist for the Moore campaign. “He wants a national sales tax system that will equitably spread the overall burden, eliminate the IRS, and help make America the most competitive economy in the world.”

Moore also has been antagonistic toward McConnell, repeatedly calling for him to step aside.

Until several weeks ago, it seemed certain that the Alabama seat would stay in GOP hands. But that changed after several women accused Moore of pursuing them when they were teenagers, in some cases with forcible touching. 

The RealClearPolitics polling average of the race from Nov. 9 to Nov. 15 shows Jones narrowly ahead. 

“The scandal that rocked Alabama has really put Republicans and their tax bill in very difficult situation because we may actually have a Democrat coming from Alabama,” said one GOP strategist who asked not to be named.

The Alabama Senate race only adds to the sense of urgency that Republicans feel on taxes following their failure earlier this year to repeal ObamaCare. They want to be able to deliver a major legislative victory ahead of the midterm elections, and they also argue that their tax bills would help to boost the economy and increase job and wage growth.

“There is a widely held sense of necessity on tax reform,” the strategist said.

GOP lawmakers and their staffs are working to keep McConnell’s timetable on the Senate’s tax bill. The Senate Finance Committee approved the measure last week on a party-line vote and is working to turn its plain-English proposal into legislative text.

Still, turning the bill into law will be no small task.

One GOP senator, Ron JohnsonRonald (Ron) Harold JohnsonDemocratic Homeland Security members request additional DHS nominee testimony Key differences between the Senate and House tax plans Senate panel delays vote on Trump’s Homeland Security pick MORE (R-Wis.), has come out against the bill in its current form, saying it helps corporations more than other businesses, though he told a Wisconsin radio station on Monday that he’s “encouraged” by the cooperation he’s getting from the Finance Committee.

Several other senators have raised concerns about the bill’s repeal of ObamaCare’s individual mandate and its impact on the debt.

If the Senate passes a bill, it will still have to be reconciled with the bill approved by the House. The compromise measure would then need to be voted on again in each chamber. 

Negotiators from the House and Senate may have trouble reaching an agreement, given that their tax bills have significant differences.

The House bill, for example, contains a deduction for property taxes up to $10,000 while the Senate bill does not, and the Senate bill delays cutting the corporate tax rate until 2019, while the cut would take effect in 2018 under the House’s measure.

But the pressure on the conference committee negotiators to reach a deal will be intense, particularly if Jones wins in Alabama. 

“This Jones guy’s not going to help us on anything that Trump wants to do,” Sen. Lindsey GrahamLindsey Olin GrahamCNN to air sexual harassment Town Hall featuring Gretchen Carlson, Anita Hill Trump wrestles with handling American enemy combatants Flake: Trump’s call for DOJ to probe Democrats ‘not normal’ MORE (R-S.C.) said Monday.

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — UCLA fired football coach Jim Mora on Sunday with one regular-season game left in his sixth season.

Athletic director Dan Guerrero announced the shocking move one day after rival Southern California’s 28-23 victory over UCLA (5-6, 3-5 Pac-12). Offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch will coach the Bruins in their regular-season home finale against California on Friday night.

UCLA must pay more than $12 million to buy out the remainder of Mora’s contract, which runs through 2021. The school announced that Mora’s contract will be “honored by UCLA Athletics, exclusively using department-generated funds.”

The extraordinary buyout indicates the depth of frustration in Westwood with Mora, whose tenure got off to an outstanding start before a precipitous decline. The Bruins even fired Mora on his 56th birthday.

“Jim helped re-establish our football program, and was instrumental in so many ways in moving the program forward,” Guerrero said in a statement. “While his first four seasons at UCLA were very successful, the past two seasons have not met expectations.”

Guerrero said his coaching search will be aided by wealthy Bruins booster Casey Wasserman and Hall of Famer and former UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman.

Mora went 46-30 in his first significant collegiate coaching job, but the Bruins are on the brink of their second consecutive losing season despite a roster filled with elite recruits led by quarterback Josh Rosen.

Mora won at least eight games in each of his first four seasons, giving the Bruins four straight winning seasons for the first time since 1988 under Terry Donahue. But UCLA finished 4-8 last year with one of the nation’s worst offenses, and its record hasn’t improved significantly this season despite getting a full season from Rosen, who missed the second half of 2016 with a shoulder injury.

UCLA still could become bowl-eligible with a season-ending victory over the Golden Bears (5-6) under Fisch, who joined the program from Michigan this season and immediately rebuilt the Bruins’ offense into a solid unit. The Bruins haven’t lost at the Rose Bowl all season, going 5-0.

The Bruins won 10 games in Mora’s second and third seasons, tying the modest school record for victories in a season. Mora, the former coach of the Atlanta Falcons and the Seattle Seahawks, was the widespread subject of NFL speculation at the time, but he repeatedly vowed to stay with the Bruins.

UCLA is 17-19 since 2015 with Rosen in the program, including 10-16 in the Pac-12. The Bruins won just 10 of Mora’s last 27 games.

Former Oregon coach Chip Kelly is likely to be a top target for the Bruins, who had an incompetent offense last season before Fisch fixed it this fall. The defense has let down the Bruins this season, with particularly awful run defense under veteran coordinator Tom Bradley and Mora, a longtime defensive coach.

The Bruins are third-worst among the Power Five conference with 37.6 points allowed per game, and second-worst in the FBS with 288.7 yards rushing allowed per game. UCLA is tied for 110th in the FBS with just 11 takeaways in 11 games.

UCLA outgained USC 421-264 in the rivals’ crosstown showdown on Saturday night, but Trojans coach Clay Helton improved to 3-0 against Mora.

___

More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_Top25

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Investigators in Pennsylvania are looking for the man who they say killed a police officer after a traffic stop Friday night.

Officer Brian Shaw, a 25-year-old patrolman, was shot just after 8 p.m. in New Kensington, Pa., about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Authorities said the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmael Sal Holt, got out of his car and ran away after Shaw pulled him over. He shot the officer during the chase, New Kensington Police Chief James Klein said at a news conference.

Shaw died at a hospital. He had been with the police department for less than a year.

A visibly upset Klein addressed reporters for just less than a minute, taking a deep breath before he started speaking. He did not take questions.

“I’m asking anybody, anybody with any information, as minute as they think it might be, please, please give us a call. We need to find the person that did this. Thank you very much,” Klein said before he walked away with a few uniformed officers.

Authorities have remained tight-lipped about the investigation. Police have not said why Holt was pulled over, or why he ran away. It also remains unclear how many shots were fired, or whether one of them came from the officer’s gun.

Nicole Drum told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review that she was sitting in her living room Friday night when she heard gunshots just outside her New Kensington home. She looked outside and saw Shaw fall to the ground and ran out to help him. Drum said she heard at least six shots, two of which hit her house.

[ Parolee’s anger at police may have led to shooting ]

“I was trying to talk to him,” Drum said. “He wasn’t responding.”

The Drum home had a surveillance camera mounted under the second-story eave, Wayne Drum told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. He said investigators had taken his hard drive to see what the camera had captured.

Another neighbor, Brad Larocca, said he looked out the window after hearing gunshots and saw the officer struggling to sit up.

“I don’t know if he was trying to talk,” Larocca told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. “He was gasping for air.”

Multiple law enforcement agencies and several residents have offered a total of $43,500 to anyone who can provide information leading to Holt’s capture.

Holt has a lengthy criminal history that stretches to at least 2007. Court records show he had pleaded guilty on drug and gun charges, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Shaw began working for the New Kensington Police Department in June, the Associated Press reported. He had also worked as a part-time officer for three other towns.

Shaw left behind not only his parents, but also his brother, a grandmother and his girlfriend, according to his obituary. He loved working out, hunting and playing with his dogs, Satie May and Gus. He was also a fan of sports and enjoyed playing soccer and football.

[ ‘Thank God you missed one’: Bodycam records cop mistakenly shooting photographer he knows ]

He graduated from Burrell High School and attended Slippery Rock University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and played football for four years. He also graduated from the Allegheny County Police Academy.

“Our hearts are broken this morning as we mourn the loss of former Rock football player Brian Shaw, who was killed last night while serving as a police officer in New Kensington,” the university’s athletics department said Saturday on Twitter. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Shaw family and The Rock football brotherhood.”

A procession to move Shaw’s body to the Rusiewicz Funeral Home in Lower Burrell, Pa., where the officer lived, took place Saturday morning. Residents, many of whom carried American flags, and firefighters, all wearing their gear, waited on the streets to pay their respects.

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Malcolm Young, guitarist and co-founder of AC/DC, died Saturday at the age of 64. Young had been suffering with dementia for the past three years, an illness that forced his retirement from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band he founded with his brother Angus Young in 1973.

“Today it is with deep heartfelt sadness that AC/DC has to announce the passing of Malcolm Young,” AC/DC wrote in a statement.

“Malcolm, along with Angus, was the founder and creator of AC/DC. With enormous dedication and commitment he was the driving force behind the band. As a guitarist, songwriter and visionary he was a perfectionist and a unique man. He always stuck to his guns and did and said exactly what he wanted. He took great pride in all that he endeavored. His loyalty to the fans was unsurpassed.”

Angus Young added, “As his brother it is hard to express in words what he has meant to me during my life, the bond we had was unique and very special. He leaves behind an enormous legacy that will live on forever. Malcolm, job well done.”

The Young brothers lost their older brother George Young, the Easybeats guitarist and AC/DC’s longtime producer, in October at the age of 70.

In an additional statement from Malcolm Young’s family, the band said that Malcolm Young died peacefully Saturday with his family by his side.

“Renowned for his musical prowess, Malcolm was a songwriter, guitarist, performer, producer and visionary who inspired many,” the statement said. “From the outset, he knew what he wanted to achieve and, along with his younger brother, took to the world stage giving their all at every show. Nothing less would do for their fans.”

As rhythm guitarist for the legendary rock band, Malcolm Young served as an indispensable foil to Angus Young’s arena-stuffing riffs. After forming AC/DC in 1973, the Young brothers would be credited as co-writers on every song the band recorded from their 1975 debut High Voltage through 2014’s Rock or Bust. That final album marked AC/DC’s first without Malcolm, who announced in September 2014 that he would permanently leave the band due to dementia.

“We miss Malcolm, obviously,” AC/DC singer Brian Johnson said in July 2014. “He’s a fighter. He’s in [the] hospital, but he’s a fighter. We’ve got our fingers crossed that he’ll get strong again… Stevie, Malcolm’s nephew, was magnificent, but when you’re recording with this thing hanging over you and your work mate isn’t well, it’s difficult. But I’m sure [Malcolm] was rooting for us.”

Malcolm Young last performed live with AC/DC when their tour for 2008’s Black Ice concluded in June 2010 with a concert in Bilbao, Spain.

Malcolm Young, like his older brother George and younger brother Angus, was born in Glasgow, Scotland before the whole Young family emigrated to Sydney, Australia in the early Sixties.

Malcolm and Angus’ first brush with rock stardom came courtesy of their brother George, who found global fame thanks to his band the Easybeats and their song “Friday on My Mind.” Although Malcolm’s two older brothers found success in the music industry, their father still made Malcolm work as a mechanic in a bra factory after leaving school at 15.

“I’ve never felt like a pop star – this is a nine-to-five sort of gig,” Malcolm told Rolling Stone in 2008. “It comes from working in the factories, that world. You don’t forget it.”

In 1973, Malcolm recruited Angus to form a new band, which the brothers named after the “AC/DC” electrical current marker they spotted on their sister’s sewing machine. After a few lineup changes, the Young brothers were introduced to singer Bon Scott by their brother George, who would serve as AC/DC’s producer on their early albums.

Throughout AC/DC’s tenure, Malcolm and Angus Young served as the band’s main creative force, crafting the unmistakable riffs that would make AC/DC one of the biggest bands in music. Together, the brothers would create the music for hits like “Back in Black,” “Hells Bells,” “Highway to Hell,” “Thunderstruck,” “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You),” “You Shook Me All Night Long” and dozens more rock staples.

However, Malcolm’s time in AC/DC was not without strife: A heavy drinker, he briefly left AC/DC in 1988 during the Blow Up Your Video Tour – his only absence from the band up to and until his dementia diagnosis – to go to rehab to curb his drinking problem. After a few months, Malcolm returned to the band and remained sober ever since. “I was not surprised,” George Young said of his younger brother’s sobriety. “When Malcolm puts his mind to something, he does it.”

E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt said in a statement to Rolling Stone, “Malcolm was the essential rhythm guitarist of the world’s greatest working class Hard Rock band. An irreplaceable loss.”

Guns N’ Roses’ Slash told Rolling Stone, “Malcolm Young was one of the best ever rhythm guitarists in Rock n Roll. He was a fantastic songwriter and he had a great work ethic too. I toured with AC/DC on their ‘Stiff Upper Lip’ tour. I found Malcolm to be a really cool, down to earth fellow. The entire rock n roll community is heartbroken by his passing.”

Eddie Van Halen wrote following Young’s death, “It is a sad day in rock and roll. Malcolm Young was my friend and the heart and soul of AC/DC. I had some of the best times of my life with him on our 1984 European tour. He will be missed and my deepest condolences to his family, bandmates and friends.”

Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, who regarded Malcolm as one of rock’s greatest rhythm guitarists, tweeted Saturday following Young’s death, “I have to go…I am losing it that Malcolm is gone. I hate this…” Kiss’ Paul Stanley added, “The driving engine of AC/DC has died. A tragic end for a sometimes unsung icon. One of the true greats. RIP.” Tom Morello praised Young as “#1 greatest rhythm guitarist in the entire history of rock n roll.”

The Young brothers and AC/DC were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. With over 110 million albums sold, AC/DC is also the best-selling Australian act of all time.

When Rolling Stone asked the Young brothers in 2008, Who runs AC/DC?,” Malcolm replied, “We both do, because we were there from the start.”