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Attack is likely to fortify sense of grievance his supporters already feel toward political elites as campaign seizes on opportunity to fuel narrative of persecutionIt will be the new must-have for every Donald Trump acolyte. The indelible image of the former US president, ear bloodied and fist raised as Secret Service agents try to rush him away from a would-be assassin's bullets, has already been turned into a $35 T-shirt with a simple legend: Fight! Fight! Fight!"The words are taken from Trump's entreaty as he was bundled off stage in the aftermath of the shooting which left one man dead at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. His supporters responded with chants of USA! USA!" and by angrily turning on the media, pointing fingers of blame at journalists. Continue reading...

The USA Olympic men's basketball coach Steve Kerr called the assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump a 'demoralizing day' for America highlighting a dangerous gun culture. Kerr said 'It's yet another example of not only our political division but also our gun culture, a 20-year-old with an AR-15 trying to shoot the former president. It's hard to process everything and it's scary to think about where this goes.' USA point guard Stephen Curry called for tighter gun control following the news. He said '[It] invokes a lot of emotions around things that we need to correct as a people, obviously gun control first and foremost'.Kerr and Curry call Trump assassination attempt sad day for America Continue reading...

From Lincoln to Reagan, here are the stories of eight major US political figures killed or threatened on the job

Semi-automatic version of military M-16 rifle has increasingly become symbol in US gun control debate

It's impossible to predict UK weather, but who can deny the pleasure of seeing a row of sunshine icons at a journey's end?Now I'm in my 30s, I like to think I've left the stuff of make-believe behind. Tooth fairy? Pfft, I saw through her by seven. Fad weight-loss drink that tastes like suffering? Couldn't fool me past 25. Yet when it comes to the little icon of the sun behind the cloud - that is, my phone's weather app - I continue to suspend my critical faculties, choosing to fulsomely believe in its ability to do what we know to be impossible: predict British weather.As it turns out, I'm not alone. This week it was revealed by the children's writer Francesca Simon, of the Horrid Henry series, that Queen Camilla is teased over her obsession with weather apps. Simon had met Camilla at a literacy charity event that was due to take place in the gardens at Clarence House, and the two had a good laugh about watching weather in various places where they weren't. She mentioned it was raining in France, where I'm meant to be today, and I said, Yeah, I know,'" said Simon.Coco Khan is a freelance writer and co-host of the politics podcast Pod Save the UKDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Law enforcement agents are investigating a suspected assassination attempt on the former president Donald Trump. A man with a rifle fired several shots towards Trump during a campaign rally in Butler country, Pennsylvania.Secret Service agents leapt on Trump amid the ensuing panic. Footage shows the former president clutching his right ear with blood splattered on his face.One spectator was killed and two others were critically wounded. The FBI later identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, according to the Associated Press

Security plans at Republican convention will be re-examined and Biden campaign will also be on high alertThe shocking assassination attempt against Donald Trump is likely to lead to a ramping up of security across the American political landscape as the 2024 presidential election continues to play out against a backdrop of rising political violence.In the immediate future there are set to be increased efforts to prevent any violence of disruption at the Republican convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this week which now will unfold against a backdrop of the attempt on Trump's life. Continue reading...

Thomas Matthew Crooks, aged 20, named as person involved in shooting at Butler Park Showgrounds in Pennsylvania on Saturday eveningThis blog is closed. Follow the latest on our new live blogPennsylvania's Democratic governor Josh Shapiro rejected political violence in a statement posted on X following the apparent shooting of Donald Trump at a rally in his state today:Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung tells me in a statement that the former president is being assessed at a local medial facility: Continue reading...

Uruguay needed a late equaliser and penalties to beat Canada in Saturday's Copa America third-place playoff match, with head coach Marcelo Bielsa insisting the South American side had performed well below their level.Uruguay, ranked 14th in the world, were on the verge of a shock defeat to the 48th-ranked Copa America debutants before Luis Suarez scored a stoppage-time goal to force a penalty shootout, which Bielsa's side won 4-3. Canada made several changes to their lineup for the match and looked the fresher side as they caused Uruguay a number of problems. Continue reading...

Partisans on the left and the right are weaponizing the attack and spreading lies faster than journalists can offer facts to counter them

In tony Democratic stronghold, campaign merchandise sales track same trend with Trump outselling Biden 10 to oneFor every election since 2004, the Monogram Shop in New York's East Hampton has sold political cups" featuring the names of the presidential candidates. The cups can be seen at fundraising events across the Hamptons, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country, where high-dollar donors mingle in the summer homes of the rich, the famous and the powerful. The cups aren't looking good for Joe Biden.The shop keeps count of how many cups are sold for each candidate, a very selective poll of the political climate each election. The cup count has only been wrong once, in 2016, when Donald Trump won. Continue reading...

Speaker after speaker will line up in Milwaukee to pay tribute to their nominee - who they are likely to hail as literally bulletproof after an apparent assassination attemptThe political iconography was instant and indelible. His face bloodied, his fist raised, Donald Trump stood defiant as Secret Service agents scrambled around him against the backdrop of the Stars and Stripes and a brilliant blue sky.The apparent attempt to assassinate the former president at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday shook the American political kaleidoscope once again. It cast a shadow over the Republican national convention, due to start in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday - but potentially handed Trump and his allies a political opportunity. Continue reading...

Wealth is a privilege, and with it comes the obligation of paying tax to benefit societyLet me tell you aboutthe very rich. They are different from you and me," wrote FScott Fitzgerald in 1925. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different." The delusions of entitlement - that the rich deserve their wealth, privilege and the right to transgress social mores as they choose - are ever-present. In their eyes, wealth can't just be a by-product of luck, can it? It must, one way or another, be deserved.Among the great deformations of the four neoliberal decades through which we have lived are not just the policy catastrophes - monetarism, financial deregulation, austerity, Brexit, the Truss budget - but also the way that wealth generation and entrepreneurship, so crucial to the capitalist economy, have been ideologically framed. Instead of being recognised as a profoundly social process - in which great universities, the financial ecosystem and the runway provided by large and sophisticated markets support entrepreneurship - enterprise, and the wealth it produces, has been characterised as wholly attributable to individual derring-do in which luck plays little part. Hence the obsession with shrinking the state to reduce burdensome" tax. Continue reading...

The positive messages from Sir Keir Starmer's team are being accompanied by a doleful drumbeat about the direness of the situation they've inheritedFor a man whose first speech to the new parliament expressed disdain for the politics of performance", Sir Keir Starmer is putting on quite the show. His first 10 days at Number 10 have been choreographed to relentlessly convey the impression that the fresh-minted prime minister and his team have arrived in office not with a whimper, but a bang.Downing Street released footage of Sir Keir taking the customary congratulatory call from the White House: Mr Prime Minister, congratulations! What a hell of a victory!" Hail to the chief. The cameras were also invited into the cabinet room. Grinning new ministers were told, rather superfluously, that they had a huge amount of work to do". Then there was the shock-and-awe photo ofthe supreme leader with his huge cohort of Labour MPs fanned around him like peacock feathers. Continue reading...

It seems Angela Rayner has forgotten her place, sartorially, but at least it lets Meghan off the hookAfter their first full week as national style influencers, some senior Labour women may be wondering what, if anything, could get them recognised as politicians. Will their only respite come when the Duchess of Sussex, the traditional target for instant media bitching, again wears something herUK adversaries find too costly, too quasi-royal" or, if all else fails, too warm?Here's an idea: could they not try to look more Boris Johnson? After some initial revulsion, his glutton-meets-vagrant outlandishness became so unremarkable that he was finally reduced, when starved of attention, to running about in a formal shirt, shorts and dress shoes. And even then no headlines chastised him, like the recent one illustrated with a full-length picture of Sue Gray, Keir Starmer's chief of staff, in clothes the Mail disliked:Sue, you work for the Labour party... not the pyjama party!"Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Speculation grows that senior figures including Barack Obama could step in and ask president to throw in the towelWhat can we say to make you go, Joe? It is the question that more and more Democrats - elected members and ordinary voters - are asking as the rumbling crisis over Joe Biden's presidential candidacy, sparked by a pitiful display in the debate in Atlanta, degenerates into a war of attrition.Last Thursday, the president's fate appeared perched on the edge of an abyss, as Congress members deserted him, senators poured out their heartfelt fears at a tearful meeting with White House staff, and even his own close aides and advisers briefed reporters that he should stand aside. Continue reading...

One spectator and suspected shooter both confirmed dead after incident at Pennsylvania campaign event

Former US president Donald Trump is reportedly fine' after he was rushed offstage by the Secret Service after gunshots were heard during a rally in Pennsylvania. Trump has said he was hit by a bullet that pierced his ear.

On Saturday, a shooting at a Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania was followed by the former president being rushed off the stage with blood around his ear. Joe Biden called for widespread condemnation of political violence following the shooting. Asked whether he believed Trump had been the victim of an assassination attempt, the US president said: I don't know enough ... I have an opinion, but I don't have any facts"

Senator hails most effective president in modern history' and says Biden is strongest bet to beat demagogue' TrumpBernie Sanders has offered his backing to Joe Biden, dismissing calls for the man he described as the most effective president in the modern history of our country" to stand down in the upcoming US presidential election.Sanders, the totemic progressive US senator, used an opinion piece in the New York Times to endorse Biden, who has come under increasing fire from fellow Democrats over his ability to beat Donald Trump following a disastrous televised debate between the two. Continue reading...

Longlegs, released last week, is a beautiful and complex film that highlights how far the genre has evolvedThere's nothing I find so cheering, these days, as the rise of the horror movie. Take its intrusion into this year's summer blockbusters. We have the usual soulless franchises and deadly repeats - Despicable Me 4, Deadpool3, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Bad Boys: Ride or Die - and then we have a flicker of light in the dark. Turns out that audiences do want new stories, they do want new characters, and they do want inventive film-making after all. Because a genuinely imaginative - arthouse, even - movie is predicted to draw in big audiences and make a great deal of money. It has come in the form of a horror film: Longlegs.Just released on Friday and starring Nicolas Cage as a serial killer, Longlegs has been reviewed, variously, as the scariest film of the decade", and a film in which every frame is a nightmare". But it is also starkly beautiful - starting from the opening shot, as we follow a small girl's progress through a snowy landscape. We move through claustrophobic basements and misty woods, our eyes flicking to layers of shadow in the background, to wherever the characters have last omitted to look. The film is thick with references for film buffs; flashbacks are indicated through texture and ratio changes; there are arty bursts of absurdity. Continue reading...

The 75-year alliance is at a perilous crux after a summit that failed to deliver for Kyiv or confront the threat Putin poses to Europe's eastWas this the week Ukraine lost the war? Or to put it another way, the week the west lost Ukraine? Heroic battlefield resistance continued, Ukrainian citizens struggled on in the teeth of pitiless atrocities such as the missile strike on Kyiv's Okhmatdyt children's hospital - butin Washington, risk-averse Natoleaders stuck stubbornly to aroute map to defeat.Ultra-cautious US president JoeBiden, whose political weakness grows by the day, says the 32-country alliance is the strongest the world has ever seen. But what use is an alliance that is afraid of a fight? Rarely has the gap between the rhetoric of solidarity and a dismaying political refusal to directlyconfront Russian brutality yawned so wide. Continue reading...

There is much to do to restore trust in politicians but branding Labour as supporters of genocide won't help understandingLabour's thumping majority has transformed the end-of-days atmosphere in the House of Commons under the clapped-out Conservatives into one of buzzy optimism.It's a much more diverse parliament, with the highest number of Muslim MPs ever. As one such MP, back for a fourth term, I was sufficiently emboldened to swear my oath of allegiance on the Qur'an, having previously chosen the atheist affirmation. Continue reading...

With 50,000 visitors estimated to visit the city, most restaurants are hoping for a boost, but some are shunning the event entirelyFor Ricky Ramirez, posting stupid shit" on the Facebook page of his bar, the Mothership, is one way he draws in customers to taste the clever cocktails he crafts in Milwaukee's trendy Bay View neighborhood.Yet a March post that Ramirez wrote in his typically profanity-laced, punctuation-free style declaring that the bar would close over the period of the Republican national convention, which begins in Wisconsin's most populous city next week, brought him the sort of attention he never wanted. Continue reading...

On the surface the US conservative obsession with porn doesn't seem overly problematic - but the word has been weaponized to attack LGBTQ+ rightsThe lines between art and obscenity aren't always clear; pornography can be hard to define. I know it when I see it," the late US supreme court judge Potter Stewart said in his famous non-definition of the term. Continue reading...

Strength of criticism suggests Trump and allies see vice-president as powerful electoral asset for DemocratsWith the state of Joe Biden's re-election campaign in turmoil, Donald Trump and his Republican allies are stepping up attacks on a familiar and, some say, possibly more threatening, political foe: his vice-president, Kamala Harris.In the weeks since Biden's stumbling debate performance, Republicans have intensified what many call racist and misogynistic criticism. They have questioned Harris's competency, mocked her demeanor, and accused her of concealing concerns about the president's health. Trump unveiled a new, derisive nickname for the vice-president, Laffin' Kamala", which he tested at a campaign rally in Florida this week. Continue reading...

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian and professor, on the contemporary threat of authoritarianism in the USDonald Trump has glibly remarked that he would be a dictator on day one" if elected to a second term, and experts on authoritarianism say we should take him seriously.The supreme court's ruling earlier this month giving presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution heightened the risk that Trump could follow through with that plan. Continue reading...

If Trump is re-elected, and a Republican Congress hands him a federal abortion ban, does anyone think he'd veto it?The press has pointed to the near erasure of the word abortion from the new Republican platform as evidence that the mind and soul of the Republican party now reside in the body of Donald J Trump. The document omits the right's top-priority goal of a federal abortion ban and replaces it with Trump's preference to let the states do the dirty work. Missing too is the holy grail of the antiabortion movement: a human life amendment," which would extend to fetuses and embryos the constitutional protections that were seized from pregnant people when the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in June 2022.The consensus is that the changes from the 2016 platform, which was used in the 2020 elections, to the 2024 version subordinate the Republican party's long-held principles and strategies - not just on abortion but also on trade, entitlement cuts, and same-sex marriage - to the transient political needs and desires of its leader.Judith Levine is a Brooklyn journalist and essayist, a contributing writer to the Intercept and the author of five books Continue reading...

Press briefings become flashpoint as journalists criticise culture of denial and non-disclosure around the presidentIt was the moment when long-simmering media resentment at a seemingly opaque White House broke through the surface with startling intensity.With Joe Biden's candidacy teetering in the wake of last month's alarming debate showing, journalists who had covered his presidency full-time for years suddenly asserted that it lacked that most basic political element: credibility. Continue reading...

From the prices to the endless album rereleases, I feel like a conscript in a campaign for cultural and economic dominanceYou don't have to have attended Taylor Swift's Eras tour yourself to be aware of it. After 18 months, it has become an inescapable international juggernaut, with documented effects on economies, infrastructure and policy. Perhaps the closest historical parallel is the Great Exhibition of 1851 - except, while that promised the works of industry of all nations", this spectacle showcases only those of Taylor Alison Swift.That this phenomenon boils down to just one woman is staggering, a reflection of both Swift's once-in-a-generation talent and the direct relationship she has forged with her fans. I started listening to her in 2011, sucked in by the girlish fantasy of Love Story, and never looked back. Many of my closest friendships were built on a shared appreciation: proof of the virtuous cycle started by Swift's honest expression and vulnerability.Elle Hunt is a freelance journalistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

The Spanish teenager has lit up Euro 2024 and given a reality check to ageing dreamers of what might have been'Watching the 16-year-old Spanish forward Lamine Yamal waltz across the pitch on Tuesday with the grace and composure of a 20-year veteran, shimmying one way to go the other before expertly placing the ball from well outside the box into the back of the net, completely broke my world.This was an equalising goal against France, who have Kylian Mbappe (who not long ago was football's newest wonderkid) as their talisman and won the World Cup in 2018. It was perhaps the most stunning moment so far in this year's European Championship. And it was produced by a boy - yes, a boy, all of 16 years and 362 days old when he did it (he turns 17 today). After scoring, Lamine Yamal ran to the sidelines to celebrate, only then betraying his age as he flashed a pimple-faced grin, his braces fully on show.Ben Makuch is a freelance journalist Continue reading...

The high-stakes case, which saw the actor charged in the death of Halyna Hutchins, fell apart in a matter of hours. How it happened - and what comes nextWhen Alec Baldwin set out to make the western Rust in 2021, it was a passion project for the veteran actor. He co-created the story, served as a producer and starred as the film's lead Harland Rust, an outlaw with a bounty on his head.Nearly three years on, the 66-year-old had assumed the role of criminal defendant, standing trial in New Mexico for involuntary manslaughter in the death of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on the film's set. Continue reading...

Alec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial came to a dramatic end on Friday, after a New Mexico judge dismissed the case against the actor and found that the state had improperly withheld evidence related to how live rounds of ammunition ended up on the film set where the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot Continue reading...

Hakeem Jeffries reveals candid' talks with president about 2024 future as another top Democrat urges Biden to pull outJoe Biden delivered a defiant speech on Friday evening in the battleground state of Michigan, firmly dismissing the doubt swirling around his survival as the Democratic presidential nominee.Biden held a rally at a high school gymnasium in Detroit as part of his visit to the critical swing state that chose Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. He walked on stage to audience chants of don't you quit" and addressed the speculation head on: I am running, and we're gonna win," he said. I'm not going anywhere." Continue reading...

New Mexico judge agrees charges should be dropped after lawyers said state buried' evidence about live ammunitionAlec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial came to a dramatic end on Friday, after a New Mexico judge dismissed the case against the actor and found that the state had improperly withheld evidence related to how live rounds of ammunition ended up on the film set where the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot.Just days after courtroom proceedings had begun, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ruled in favor of the defense and agreed that the charges against Baldwin should be dropped, finding that the state had concealed evidence that would have been favorable to the actor. The dismissal, made with prejudice, puts an end to the involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin. Continue reading...

Actor's defense team at Rust film set shooting trial accuses state of concealing ammunition turned over to policeThe judge in Alec Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial is considering a motion from the defense to dismiss the case after the actor's lawyers argued that the state improperly withheld evidence.Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the Rust armorer who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year, was initially expected take the stand at Baldwin's trial on Friday. But the proceedings took a dramatic turn as Baldwin's defense team accused the state of concealing evidence that would have been favorable to the actor and asked Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to throw out the case. Continue reading...

Moderate conservative from Maine says she wanted Nikki Haley to win and will write her name on November ballotUS senator Susan Collins didn't vote for her fellow Republican Donald Trump for president in 2016 or 2020 - and the third time will not be the charm.The longtime moderate conservative from Maine told reporters on Friday that she intended to write in former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley's name on the ballot in November. The move recalls 2016, when Collins said she wrote in then-US House speaker Paul Ryan for president over Trump, who won the White House before losing to Democratic rival Joe Biden in 2020. Continue reading...

Ruling clears way for two Georgia election workers to try to recover nearly $150m Giuliani was ordered to pay themA New York judge dismissed Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy case on Friday, clearing the way for two Georgia election workers to try to recover nearly $150m Giuliani was ordered to pay them for defaming them after the 2020 election.The court finds that cause exists to convert or dismiss the case. The record in this case reflects Mr Giuliani's continued failure to meet his reporting obligations and provide the financial transparency required of a debtor in possession," US bankruptcy judge Sean Lane wrote in his ruling. Lane also barred Giuliani from filing for bankruptcy again within one year. Continue reading...

War veteran CL Daniel was in his 20s when he was killed in 1921, in one of deadliest acts of racist violence in US historyA veteran of the first world war has become the first person identified from graves filled with more than a hundred victims of the 1921 Tulsa massacre of the Oklahoma city's Black community, the mayor said on Friday.Using DNA from descendants of his brothers, the remains of CL Daniel - from Georgia - were identified by Intermountain Forensics, said Mayor GT Bynum and lab officials. Daniel was in his 20s when he was killed. Continue reading...

Butker in May railed against working women, Pride month and abortion in speech that won him support from US conservativesSerena Williams has taken a swing at the Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, saying women don't need" him after he controversially railed against Pride month, working women and abortion rights during a May graduation speech.The 23-time tennis grand slam winner took aim at Butker while she was speaking on stage at the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (Espy) awards ceremony on Thursday alongside her sister, Venus Williams - the seven-time tennis grand slam winner - and the Abbott Elementary actor Quinta Brunson. Continue reading...

Top House Democrat shared caucus's heartfelt perspectives and conclusions about the path forward' with Biden but did not endorse president's campaign