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Putin aimed to reset the world order when his forces invaded. Russians must be persuaded he can’t – maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger can helpRussia needs to stop being a threat: to its neighbours, to its own people, to the world. Minimising that threat should be the goal of our policies and the only way to face up to the reality of the Kremlin’s boot stamping on so many faces. The hope that the current iteration of Russia is ready to recognise that other states have rights is gone. Putin’s Russia is not an ordinary country seeking some rational security guarantees. It’s a predator that works according to its own logic of internal oppression and external aggression. With such a state there is no going back to “normal”. No clever “deal” that can be cut to restore previous relations.As we work out what minimising Russia’s threat means in practice, we may also get to something bigger: a set of security, humanitarian and economic interconnections that redefine how we reduce aggression in an interconnected age. Russia’s aim in its invasion of Ukraine was to reset the world order, tilt it towards dictatorships, impunity and the right of great powers to crush the small. Instead, it may produce a desire to strengthen rights, sovereignty and democracy. In pushing for the worst, it might produce something better. Continue reading...

It was a very steep learning curve for the Instagram-shy judgeMy jaw is aching slightly, from clenching through the bits of the Wagatha Christie trial that involved educating the judge in matters of Instagram. Whole days in an oak-panelled room turned on nuance previously reserved for teenagers at bus stops. What it means when someone unfollows you, for your ego, for your social standing, for who you are as a human. Who follows whom and why, the shade when someone messages you and you know they’re only pretending to be a mate and on and on, millions of pounds turning to dust as the internet is explained piece by piece, like grandchildren giving a lesson in how to use the new telly remote at Christmas.It’s funny, but it’s also shocking, the fact that the next generation lives in a new and different world, with its own language, laws and rules of beauty. And that, for all the mapping of said world, for all the Duolingo lessons in its grammar, dialect and phrasing, those who have not grown up there are destined to forever remain tourists, squinting at the view. Continue reading...

Joe Biden welcomes ‘good news’ as Bubs Australia increases production and reassures local customersAn Australian company is planning to ship at least 1.25m cans of its baby formula to the US to help ease a nationwide shortage.The US Food and Drug Administration said some of it was now in stock for transport and more would be produced by Bubs Australia in the coming weeks and months. Continue reading...

The industry has been ‘OK looking away’ from tragedies, says an ex-insider. Change will only come with huge pressureEven the murder of 19 elementary school children in Texas could not deter America’s gun industry from enjoying its annual celebration of the weapons that slaughtered them.Ahead of its three-day convention in Houston this weekend, the National Rifle Association offered its “deepest sympathies” to the families of the eight- to 11-year-old students, and two of their teachers, killed in a “horrific and evil crime” in the small town of Uvalde on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Teenager displayed worrying behavior in the months before the Uvalde attack, schoolmates tell news outletsWarning signs were reportedly mounting in the months before the 18-year-old gunman in Uvalde, Texas, opened fire on a classroom of young children and their teachers four days ago in what would become America’s deadliest school shooting in a decade.The teenager had used the social media app Yubo to threaten school shootings and rape, as well as to show off a rifle he had bought, CNN reported on Saturday. Continue reading...

Vice-president demands action after speaking at funeral for Ruth Whitfield, oldest person killed in Buffalo shootingKamala Harris called for a ban on assault weapons in the US and the passage of much-delayed gun control legislation after speaking on Saturday at a funeral for the oldest victim of the Buffalo mass shooting earlier this month.After giving remarks at the service for Ruth Whitfield, the oldest person killed during the grocery store shooting two weeks ago, Harris called upon lawmakers to pass an assault weapons ban, while speaking with reporters. Continue reading...

Al Sharpton calls on ‘all good people’ to stand up for justice at last funeral for victims of racist attackThe last funeral for victims of a gunman’s racist attack on a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, two weeks ago took place on Saturday afternoon, as the oldest person to die in the mass shooting was laid to rest.Ruth Whitfield, 86, was shot and killed along with nine other people, all of them Black, when a white supremacist and self-declared “eco-fascist” extremist allegedly traveled far from his home to wreak violence and tragedy. Continue reading...

Timeline suggests about 78 minutes passed from when the gunman entered school to when officers breached the classroomJoe Biden lamented “too much violence, too much fear, too much grief” in the latest US mass shooting as he prepared to visit Uvalde, where authorities said police had made “the wrong decision” not to storm a classroom where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers.The US president and first lady, Jill Biden, will travel to the small southern Texas city on Sunday, five days after it was plunged into horror when an 18-year-old with a military-style rifle attacked an elementary school. Continue reading...

After the horrific school shooting in Texas, some Republicans are choosing to channel their energy towards door control to deflect from gun reformIt can be hard to get your head around what rightwingers in the US actually believe. On the one hand, they claim to love babies; on the other hand, they’re against government funds going towards helping to feed babies. They claim to love freedom and hate government meddling, but then they’re frenetically trying to pass bills that would take away a woman’s freedom over her own body and allow the government to meddle in intimate reproductive choices. Like I said, they’re a complex bunch! Still, I’ve mapped their moral compass as best I can, and compiled this handy cheatsheet to help understand where conservatives stand on various issues. Here you go.ViagraGunsUterusesBooksLeggingsDisneyThe word “gay”Trans peopleCritical race theoryBirth controlDoorsArwa Mahdawi’s new book, Strong Female Lead, is available for order Continue reading...

Speaking at the gun lobby’s convention, the former US president repeated his call to arm teachersDonald Trump has said the recent US school shooting is a reason to arm law-abiding citizens, not disarm them.The former US president was a guest speaker at the National Rifle Association (NRA), which held its annual convention in Houston on Friday. Continue reading...

The president has long fought for restrictions but deep divisions have often left him hamstrungLess than two hours after returning from a five-day trip to Asia, a visit meant to signal American strength, Joe Biden walked slowly into the Roosevelt Room of the White House, visibly shaken, to address one of the nation’s greatest weaknesses.Another bloody mass shooting in America. This time in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers, making it the deadliest shooting at an elementary school since the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. Continue reading...

Schoolchildren, teachers and family members offer graphic details of day gunman killed 19 children and two adultsSurvivors of the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers are beginning to share their stories, painting a graphic and horrifying picture of the tragedy that unfolded that day.Miah Cerrillo, 11, told a CNN producer her fourth-grade class was watching Disney’s Lilo & Stitch when the gunman entered the classroom and made eye contact with her teacher and shot her dead, as well as some of her other classmates. Continue reading...

As we reach Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee, my mind is drawn to another ageing monarch’s pomp and ceremonyWhen the machine begins to break down, nobody is spared: even in the most majestic corporeality, bones ache, muscles weaken, tendons hurt, joints creak. Walking, previously a thoughtless activity, now needs deliberation and strategy. Longer lives and longer reigns merely postpone the process. Aged 96, and with “episodic mobility issues”, the Queen this week used a motor buggy to get around the Chelsea flower show; her arthritic great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, aged 78 at the time of the diamond jubilee in 1897, toured her own garden party in a horse-drawn carriage, literally talking down to everyone she met. “Drove about my guests, to many of whom I spoke,” she wrote in her diary, “but I could not see many whom I wished to.”An even bolder innovation had been planned for her. The diamond jubilee had at its heart a magnificent procession of 50,000 imperial troops, who marched or rode from Buckingham Palace by two separate routes converging at St Paul’s for a thanksgiving ceremony that praised the Lord and blessed the Queen. The procession was spectacular. Britain had seen nothing as dazzling in its grandeur and variety before, and never saw it to quite the same extent again. This was peak empire. Hussars from Canada, Hong Kong policemen in conical hats, Indian lancers, Dyaks, Maoris, cavalrymen from New South Wales: it was said to be the largest military force ever assembled in London, and behind it in her carriage rode a little old woman, bowing and smiling and dressed modestly in grey and black. Mark Twain, there to write about it, thought that “she was the procession herself” and all the rest, spurs, men, rifles, gleaming helmets and trotting horses, “mere embroidery”.Ian Jack is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com Continue reading...

The year before Roe, Michigan voters defeated a referendum to legalize abortion. Now activists are compelled to try againBeth Morris is a 63-year-old homemaker whose pink Planned Parenthood shirt and clipboard would hardly betray her as a moderate Republican.But here she is, in the middle of an abortion rights rally on the University of Michigan’s campus in Ann Arbor, collecting signatures to support a constitutional amendment to keep abortion legal in one of America’s swingy “purple” states. Continue reading...

The ex-president suffered some humiliation when his candidates lost in the Georgia primaries – but the hard-right strain of Republican politics will surviveIn his campaign heyday, Donald Trump would declare it the greatest movement in the history of politics and promise: “We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning.”What never occurred to him was that the “Make America Great Again” movement – or Maga – might get sick and tired of him first. Continue reading...

The tragedy in Texas reminds that while media presence can be a sign of support, it can also quickly become intrusiveThe day after the shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, hundreds of town residents filled the bleachers of the county Fairplex Arena for a vigil. Also there were dozens of local, national and international reporters, ready to record up close a town mourning the loss of 19 children and two teachers gunned down inside their classroom.Reporters were asked not to approach people in the bleachers during the vigil, but some residents still struggled to grieve amid the clicks of cameras. As two crying women held each other, a cameraman stepped in front of them to capture the moment. Looking disheartened, one woman shooed him away and shook her head. Continue reading...

At least two girls hiding in their classrooms at Robb elementary school in Texas dialled 911 during the shooting, law enforcement officials have saidThe first call came from a little girl who called multiple times on Tuesday. At 12.03pm, she identified herself and told authorities what room the shooter was in, said Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.Here is a 911 emergency call timeline McCraw outlined at a news conference: Continue reading...

Texas governor backs out of in-person appearance as protesters descend on gun-rights group’s eventThe National Rifle Association held its annual convention in Houston on Friday, three days after 19 children and two adults were shot dead at a school in Uvalde, as protesters gathered outside and high-profile speakers, including the governor of Texas, withdrew their attendance.The event took place under a cloud of controversy and put in stark relief America’s deep divisions on gun control. As demonstrations swelled in Houston, attendees inside the convention – including Donald Trump – continued to deny that guns were the problem and put the emphasis on school safety and mental health. Continue reading...

US Democrats are trying to pass legislation to improve background checks for gun buyers, but the prospects for change seem dim. We examine how previous attempts to amend gun laws in the wake of mass shootings have faredWhat was proposed: Four months after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, legislation was proposed by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania to expand background checks for commercial gun sales, including at gun shows and on the internet. Continue reading...

Hundreds rally for gun control outside the organization’s Houston meeting, calling on Americans to ‘protect kids, not guns’After two sleepless nights wondering what, if anything, she could do, Nancy Harris, 73, decided to drive four hours to Houston. Before she left, she pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down 12 names.Each name was someone she knew had been shot. She put an asterisk next to the ones who had died, including her own daughter. Continue reading...

The Republican minority leader sent an 11-page letter appearing to demand materials from the committee related to his questioningKevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House, indicated on Friday to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack that he would not cooperate with a subpoena unless he could review deposition topics and the legal rationale justifying the request.The California congressman’s response adopts an adversarial position similar to other subpoenaed Republican Congress members, and it sets a conundrum for the panel over whether to entertain the requests that also challenge the January 6 inquiry’s legitimacy. Continue reading...

The mother of the 18-year-old gunman who shot dead 19 young children and two teachers and wounded many others in an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde, Texas, this week has said: 'Forgive me, forgive my son.'Adriana Martinez looked distraught and wept as, from her car, she told CNN affiliate Televisa: 'I have no words to say … I don’t know what he was thinking'

Ominous social media posts could have alerted the authorities but sifting through possible threats is an enormous task, experts sayThe mother of the 18-year-old gunman who shot dead 19 young children and two teachers and wounded many others in an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde, Texas, this week has said: “Forgive me, forgive my son.”Adriana Martinez looked distraught as she wept in her car, telling CNN affiliate Televisa, in Spanish: “I have no words to say, I don’t know what he was thinking.” Continue reading...

The ex-president had sued attorney general Letitia James to block the three-year investigation, which is proceedingDonald Trump, the former US president, on Friday lost a bid to stop the inquiry by the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, into his business practices, allowing the three-year investigation to move forward.Trump sued James in federal court in upstate Albany, arguing the civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization misled banks and tax authorities about the valuations of its assets should be halted because he felt James, a Democrat, was using the case to further her political career. Continue reading...

There was 'no excuse' for officers not trying to break into an elementary school classroom where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers, the Texas department of public safety has said.

This devotion to the right to bear arms is horrifyingly outdated. It brought terror to Texas – and it will happen again and againAmerica’s great appeal to the world was its promise of possibility. It presented itself as virgin territory, a tabula rasa where a society could form anew, free of the past, and where individuals might do the same, reinventing themselves, renewing themselves, starting over. It was a myth, of course: it took no account of those people who were already there, and whose lives and lands were taken, or of those who had been brought to America in shackles. But it was a powerful myth all the same, one whose grip on the global imagination lives on: witness the success of the stage show Hamilton in seducing yet another generation into the romance of a new world and its revolutionary creation.But now we see something else: a country uniquely burdened with the dead weight of its past, and therefore powerless either to deal with a danger in its present or to make a better future. The land of possibility stands paralysed, apparently unable to make even the smallest change that might save the lives of its young.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Georgia-based Daniel Defense posted an ad on 16 May showing a toddler holding a rifleThe maker of the rifle used in the Texas elementary school shooting is facing fresh outrage over an advertisement featuring a young child posted days before the killings.Georgia-based Daniel Defense, which manufacturers the gun used in the Uvalde mass shooting where 21 people died, posted an ad on Twitter on 16 May showing a toddler holding a rifle, with the caption: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Continue reading...

Massachusetts lawmakers formally exonerate Elizabeth Johnson Jr, who was sentenced to death in 1693It took more than three centuries, but the last Salem “witch” has been officially pardoned.Massachusetts lawmakers on Thursday formally exonerated Elizabeth Johnson Jr, clearing her name 329 years after she was wrongly convicted of witchcraft in 1693 and sentenced to death at the height of the Salem witch trials. Continue reading...

Authorities confirm gunman stayed locked in a classroom for up to an hour with officers massed outside

Golden State have a shot at their fourth championship in less than a decade. It’s easy to forget they were the worst team in the NBA just two seasons agoWith their 120-110 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, the Golden State Warriors clinched the Western Conference championship and booked a sixth NBA finals appearance in the last eight years. History will remember this season as a continuation of the Golden State dynasty, especially if they go on to claim their fourth NBA title in less than a decade.But the Warriors have been through a lot in the 1,079 days since their last finals appearance. Continue reading...

The solution to mass shootings isn’t increased policing or an expanded surveillance state or runaway anti-terrorism legislation. It’s making it harder to buy a gunThe mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers, was a reminder of all the ways the United States has failed its people. A nation that still retains promise, America is now held captive by political polarization and a fanatical gun lobby. There are more firearms than people.It’s important to remember, as these mass shootings continue to occur, that the problem is guns: all of them, not just assault rifles, but handguns too. The assault weapon ban, which lapsed in 2004, should be renewed. Somehow, it must become much harder in this country to purchase a weapon. No 18-year-old, especially one with such a deeply troubled history as the alleged Texas gunman, should be able to buy a firearm.Ross Barkan is a journalist based in New York City. He is the author of Demolition Night, a novel, and The Prince: Andrew Cuomo, Coronavirus, and the Fall of New York Continue reading...

Supply chain disruptions, including production plant closures and 2017 embargo on Qatar, have caused shortage of rare substanceA global helium shortage has been affecting celebrations with balloons and even the National Weather Service.Helium is a rare substance produced when uranium decays. Already difficult to mine, there are only a few sources in the world that produce the gas. Currently, the United States is one of the world’s largest helium producers, along with Qatar and Algeria. However, due to supply chain disruptions, including production plant closures and the 2017 embargo on Qatar, the global supply of helium has been severely affected. Continue reading...

Amber Heard tells jurors that she suffers minute-by-minute harassment, including death threats, describing the highly publicised defamation trial with her ex-husband Johnny Depp as 'the most humiliating' thing she has had to go through. 'I just want him to leave me alone,' she says tearfully as the court hears the last of the testimonies

As America comes to terms with the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, readers explain what they think should be done to prevent future mass shootingsAs America comes to terms with its worst school shooting since Sandy Hook, a decade ago, the nation is mourning the killing of 19 children and two adults at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.Here people from across the United States explain what they think should be done to prevent future mass shootings in the country. Continue reading...

A new ESPN documentary sparkles thanks to the charisma and humor of the basketball players at the heart of its storyMake A Splash is a new sports film about a team of women in their 80s and 90s – not from the 1980s or 1990s – who play real basketball, with off-ball picks and turnaround jumpers.It would be tempting to watch the players and say: Wow, look at those old ladies make cuts and sink those shots! Aren’t they just so … cute? It would also, like an air ball, miss the point. Continue reading...

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes celebrate the restoration of lands they had stewarded for thousands of years• This piece was first published by Montana Free PressThe sound of drumming filled the rolling hills of the National Bison Range.Members of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes (CSKT) and neighbors gathered under a large tent to sing and dance in celebration of a historic event: the tribes’ reclamation of management of the bison range after more than a century of federal management and nearly two decades of negotiations. Continue reading...

There is no generous interpretation for the past 23 years of inaction. We all bear some of the blameIf you want to ponder how deeply broken and dysfunctional our system of governance is, all you have to do is to reflect upon the fact that our nation experiences regular mass murders of schoolchildren by gunmen, and these mass murders are followed by no meaningful political action. To sit with that basic fact for even a few moments is to feel like you are beginning to lose your grip on reality. It sounds like the gut-roiling reveal from a horror movie, or a dystopian novel about the wealthiest country in the history of the world, which has at its heart a horrible secret. We are that country, and our wealth is soaked in blood. Our learned helplessness on the issue of guns is so deeply rooted that many people – including, unfortunately, our elected leaders – cannot even see how much of our system must be ripped apart, if we ever want to stop seeing massacres.It should make all of us queasy that we are still here, wringing our hands. The school shooting at Columbine happened 23 years ago. There is no generous interpretation for the past 23 years of inaction. We all bear some of the blame, in the sense that we have acquiesced to a cycle in which many of the people in charge today have failed over and over again to make serious gun control a reality, as thousands and thousands of Americans have lost their lives. But that’s a little too pat to get at the heart of what is really happening.Hamilton Nolan is a writer in New York City. He is currently writing a book about the labor movement Continue reading...

The US suicide rate is the highest of any wealthy country and the pandemic highlighted work stress’s effect on mental healthAt about 4.30am on 18 January this year, 27-year-old Michael Odell, a travel nurse who was working at Stanford hospital in Stanford, California, walked off the job during a night shift. Two days later, after his roommate reported him missing, Odell’s body was found by the Alameda county sheriff office’s dive team in the water near the Dumbarton Bridge in San Francisco, along with his car.His roommate, Joshua Paredes, said he witnessed Odell’s declining mental health. Odell was working long hours, had recently moved to the area after the death of his mother and was having trouble finding a new therapist after a lapse in his health insurance coverage. Continue reading...

The powerful lobbying groups spent nearly $5m million last year to expand gun rights while limiting restrictions on who can have a firearm and how they can carry itIn Texas, where guns are already a deeply ingrained part of the cultural landscape, a powerful political force is helping to stifle regulations aimed at limiting access to high-powered firearms.The National Rifle Association (NRA) is one of America’s most powerful lobbying groups, spending nearly $5m last year to expand gun rights while limiting restrictions on who can have a firearm and how they can carry it. Continue reading...

The Texas school killings have touched nearly everyone in the small town, from friends and neighbors to shopkeepers and coachesThe grief is visible on almost every corner in Uvalde, Texas: in the faces of the school-aged kids who are no longer in the classroom and the mournful messages written on the backs of vehicles: “Annabell Rodriguez, daddy missing u”.Three days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb elementary, a loss and a sense of deep confusion hangs over this small ranching town like a shadow. “I feel a big heavy cloud right now,” said Jose Cazares, the uncle of Jackie Cazares, who died in the shooting. “It’s not the same.” Continue reading...

New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern received multiple standing ovations as she gave the commencement address at Harvard University. After warming the crowd up with a few jokes, Ardern warned of the threats currently posed to democracy around the world, and touted New Zealand as a country that has been able to overcome political divides to pass significant legislation. Ardern received a standing ovation when she talked about her country's ability to come together and ban 'military style semi-automatics and assault rifles' and to legalise abortion

She has been denied parole 14 times for the killings of actor Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969A California parole panel recommended the release of Patricia Krenwinkel, a follower of Charles Manson for the first time in more than five decades.Krenwinkel and other followers of the cult leader terrorized the state and she wrote “Helter Skelter” on a wall using the blood of one of their victims. Continue reading...

Senator Chris Murphy has spoken with confidence on 'finding that common ground' with Republicans to support gun laws following the Uvalde school shooting on Tuesday.Murphy called for a 'popular uprising of citizens' to put pressure Republicans when he attended a Thursday gun safety rally and press conference on Capitol Hill.

Joe Garcia, 48, died just two days after his wife, Irma Garcia, 46, a teacher at Uvalde’s Robb elementary school, was killedThe death toll from the Uvalde school shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers reached the campus’ extended family Thursday, when the husband of one of the slain teachers died of a heart attack.Guadalupe “Joe” Garcia – the husband of 46-year-old Irma Garcia, who was shot and killed while sheltering children in her classroom – died two days after the mass killing that shattered his family, a cousin of his wife confirmed on a verified GoFundMe page. Continue reading...

Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden founded Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit organization to protect kids from gun violenceThe parents of children who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting – the deadliest school shooting in US history that left 26 people dead, 20 of whom were children under the age of eight – on Thursday spoke out against inaction on gun violence after a mass shooting at Robb elementary in Uvalde, Texas, this week.In the wake of the tragedy that killed their children, Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden co-founded Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting American children from gun violence. Continue reading...