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Faced with a grim outlook for 2022, some Democrats are looking ahead to 2024 and asking, is Joe Biden the best person to lead the party and the US?Joe Biden is having a rough summer. The US supreme court has overturned Roe v Wade, ending federal protections for abortion access. Although gas prices are now falling, they remain high and have driven inflation to its largest annual increase in more than 40 years. West Virginia senator Joe Manchin has finally ended any hopes that the president had of passing a climate bill in Congress. With an evenly divided Senate, Biden’s options for addressing these problems – or enacting any of his other legislative priorities – are bleak.The American people have taken note. Biden’s approval rating has steadily fallen since April and now sits in the high 30s. A recent Monmouth poll found that only 10% of Americans believe the country is heading in the right direction. Continue reading...

They’re an alarming symbol of an American crisis. Do they represent our inevitable future?A company in Fort Pierce, Florida – not far from Parkland, site of the 2018 school shooting that killed 17 – is stirring controversy with its plan to protect children from school shootings by hiding them in bullet-resistant steel enclosures.To many, the idea of directing children into stark metal boxes serves as an alarming symbol of a country that fails time and again to address the causes of its gun violence crisis. Continue reading...

Man entered centre with rifle and began firing in food court before being killed by armed bystanderThree people were fatally shot and two injured at an Indiana mall after a man with a rifle opened fire in a food court and an armed civilian shot and killed him, police said.The man entered the Greenwood Park Mall with a rifle and several magazines of ammunition and began firing in the food court on Sunday evening, said the Greenwood police department chief, Jim Ison. Continue reading...

Report that draws from interviews with family members, phone information and testimony given to lawmakers offers the most complete account yet of shooterBefore shooting 21 people to death at Robb elementary in Uvalde, Texas, the killer had threatened suicide, menaced women, stockpiled guns and accessories and made a video of himself riding around while holding a dead cat, according to a preliminary report from a committee of Texas state lawmakers investigating the massacre.The story of 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos – as portrayed in the report released Sunday – is one of red flags that caretakers and officials of all kinds largely missed until he went to his former fourth grade classroom and murdered 19 students as well as two teachers on 24 May in one of the deadliest school shootings ever in America. Continue reading...

Tom was in the army. Penny was in the navy. Liz has been abroad a lot. Rishi can be tough … and Kemi is somehow fresh but experienced

Nearly 400 officers from myriad agencies went to the school, but were stymied by a lack of coordination, report detailsThere were “systemic failures and egregious poor decisionmaking” involved in the deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, a committee of state lawmakers investigating the massacre has found.The 77-page report from the Texas legislature – released Sunday – details glaring failures in the years leading up to and during the 24 May shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead, along with 17 others wounded. Continue reading...

Our award-winning photographer has been at St Andrews for the Open and presents some of his favourite shots from 2022’s historic tournament Continue reading...

Australian Cameron Smith shot a stunning final-round 64 to win the 150th Open Championship at St AndrewsExcellent birdie-birdie-birdie start by Xander Schauffle today. Last week’s Scottish Open winner hasn’t had the week he wanted but looks to be finishing off in style. A contrast to Jon Rahm who appears ready to explode after a bogey at 3 and a double bogey at 4 when he had wedge in hand for his second. The Spaniard drops to tied 68th.Local Scot Robert MacIntyre is currently giving the galleries plenty to cheer. The left-hander has bagged two eagles today - at the 5th and 7th - and is -6 overall and tied 26th as he tees off at 13. A shame about that pesky double bogey at the 1st today. Continue reading...

Senator also rebukes Biden for Saudi Arabia trip: ‘I don’t believe we should maintain a warm relationship with a dictator like that’Bernie Sanders harshly criticized prominent fellow Democrats on Sunday, accusing his Senate colleague Joe Manchin of sabotaging the president’s agenda and rebuking Joe Biden for traveling to Saudi Arabia last week.During an appearance on ABC’s This Week, Sanders interrupted host Martha Raddatz when she said Manchin had “abruptly pulled the plug” on supporting a scaled-back version of a spending bill that is crucial to Biden’s agenda. Manchin said he would not support provisions in the bill that increase spending to combat climate change and close tax loopholes. Democrats cannot pass the bill without Manchin’s support in a US Senate that is divided 50-50, with vice-president Kamala Harris serving as a tiebreaker in the event one is needed. Continue reading...

Longtime Hells Angels president who cultivated his outlaw image and turned the motorcycle club into a global brandAs the longtime president of the Hells Angels motorcycle club, Sonny Barger, who has died aged 83, was the epitome of the outlaw biker. It was something he had earned, but also an image he cultivated with charisma and shrewdness, turning Hells Angels into a worldwide brand. Though law enforcement saw the Angels as more of a gang than a club, in the 1960s the media latched on to Barger (pronounced Bar-gurr), selling the outlaw image to the world as a form of countercultural protest that took celluloid form in films such as Easy Rider (1969).This is not surprising. The postwar image of motorcycle gangs was established by the 1953 movie The Wild One. When Marlon Brando, as the leader of the Black Rebels, is asked what he is rebelling against, he replies, “Whaddaya got?”. Early in his biking career, after having his skull fractured by police, Barger added a “1%” patch to the Angels’ outfit, in response to the head of the American Motorcyclist Association claiming “99% of motorcyclists were law-abiding”. Continue reading...

‘No one is above the law,’ says Elaine Luria in response to whether Trump could shield himself from threat of prosecution by simply announcing runDonald Trump won’t blunt the investigation by the congressional committee investigating the deadly January 6th attack on the Capitol by announcing that he’s running for the Oval Office again, a member of the panel said Sunday.Elaine Luria, a Virginia congresswoman and one of seven Democrats on the committee, told CNN’s Dana Bash, “The bottom line is that no one is above the law – whether he’s a president, former president or a potential future presidential candidate, we are going to pursue the facts.” Continue reading...

Relatives tell of loss as experts says harsher laws are forcing people to take ever more dangerous routes into USBefore he left Veracruz, Pablo Ortega asked his sister Rosa to do two things: look after his pregnant wife, and, should anything happen to him on his way to the US, make sure his body was brought home so it could be carried through the streets where he grew up. This week, Rosa found herself having to fulfil both duties to her little brother.At 6.20pm on 27 June, an abandoned trailer was discovered on a remote backroad in San Antonio, Texas. Inside were the bodies of dozens of people who had died as they tried to migrate from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Among them was Pablo, 20, whose body was found alongside that of his 43-year-old uncle, Jesús Álvarez. In total, 53 people died and more than a dozen were taken to hospital, including four children. Four people have been charged. Continue reading...

I’m sure the president is experiencing some diminution in the memory department. I know I amAt 79, Joe Biden is the oldest president in American history. Concerns about his age top the list for why Democratic voters want the party to find an alternative for 2024.I don’t think this reflects an “ageist” prejudice against those who have reached such withering heights so much as an understanding that people in their late 70s and 80s wither.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Indians will soon outnumber Chinese, threatening Beijing’s sense of superiorityLast week, the UN’s global population project announced a major shift in the way the world looks. Next year, India, not China, will be the world’s most populous country. Right now, China has 1.43 billion people to India’s 1.41 billion, but by mid-century there will be more than 1.6 billion Indians to around 1.3 billion Chinese.At one level, this development ought to delight Beijing, which compelled its population into a “one child” policy for some 40 years. Yet there may be a few disconsolate faces in Beijing. The idea of China being the most populous society in the world has long been linked to the country’s rise. Officially, China dismisses any idea that being at the top of global rankings matters: in January this year, vice foreign minister Le Yucheng declared that China had no interest in becoming the world’s biggest economy or superpower and would instead work on improving its people’s lives at home.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...

He has weaponised food, energy and refugees, spreading economic and political pain across the continent. Sanctions don’t work, a land for peace deal would be a disaster. Only the military route remains

The Fox news host spoke at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, a state that has first say in Republican presidential nomineesHe entered to rapturous applause, flattered his hosts shamelessly, told them about his political vision and sold them merchandise bearing his name.Tucker Carlson’s appearance in Iowa on Friday looked like a presidential run, walked like a presidential run and quacked like a presidential run but was most certainly not a presidential run, at least as far as anyone knows. Continue reading...

A Reuters Institute survey found that a rising number of people are avoiding the news or just don’t believe itThis might be just another negative news story. And if it is, there is evidence that many of you will turn away in despair.The Reuters Institute revealed last month that 42% of Americans actively avoid the news at least some of the time because it grinds them down or they just don’t believe it. Fifteen percent said they disconnected from news coverage altogether. In other countries, such as the UK and Brazil, the numbers selectively avoiding it were even higher. Continue reading...

The centrist Democrat senator has repeatedly stood in the way of the president’s most ambitious legislative aspirations and derailed fragile negotiationsJoe Biden calls him “Jo-Jo”, an affectionate nickname for the West Virginia senator who, at critical moments during his presidency, has been the Joe holding all the cards.And this week Joe Manchin, a lonely coal state Democrat who has repeatedly stood in the way of the president’s most ambitious legislative aspirations, derailed weeks of negotiations in pursuit of a deal on a scaled-back version of Biden’s economic agenda that would win his support. Continue reading...

The president delivered his remarks on the final leg of a four-day tour, also announcing a $1bn effort to relieve hunger in the regionJoe Biden, speaking at a summit of Arab leaders, said Saturday that the United States “will not walk away” from the Middle East as he tries to ensure stability in a volatile part of the world and boost the global flow of oil to reverse rising gas prices.The president also announced $1bn in US funding to relieve hunger in the region. Continue reading...

Irishman and Norwegian decide to take on the course and share the lead going into the final round of the OpenGolf is not just about numbers, although it would be meaningless without them. What excites players and spectators alike is the occasional magic trick, something memorable to bring delight and joy to all who love the game – even the LIV renegades lurking further down the table.Such a moment arrived for Rory McIlroy and the rest of us on the 10th, the 386-yard par four named after a magician of long ago, the triple Open champion, Bobby Jones, who mastered this course twice, in 1926 and 1927. Continue reading...

Moving day at St Andrews ends with new leaders after a stunning pair of 66s, with Cameron Young and Cameron Smith four backJon Rahm almost holes his approach to the 1st for eagle and then misses the short birdie putt. That rather sums up his week. Some good, but too much loose stuff to win an Open. A bogey at 2 and at -3 he’s now outside the top 50.Another mover to tell you about. Belgian Thomas Pieters - who racked up more points than any player on either side in the 2016 Ryder Cup - is -5 for the day after 10 and -7 overall. Continue reading...

The Englishman is unhappy about the way his involvement with the LIV Series has been portrayed in the mediaIan Poulter would like to make it clear that no one has booed him at St Andrews. Well, no, that is not quite right. If we are being scrupulous about it, Poulter would like to make it clear that only one person, “some young guy”, has booed him at St Andrews and it was just bad luck that he happened to be standing “a hundred yards down the 1st where there’s conveniently a microphone positioned halfway down the stand” so that it ended up being broadcast on TV. That was it. One boo. Singular. And anything else you have heard and read about his reception on the Old Course is just lazy journalism.And Poulter does want the media to be scrupulous, that matters to him very much, as he explained at great length when he was asked a gentle question about whether he had enjoyed the amount of support he’d had from the crowd during his third round given what happened the other day. Continue reading...

The US Justice Department seized the phone of Donald Trump’s former lawyer in June; Eastman filed a motion to get it backThe US Justice Department was justified when it seized the cell phone of John Eastman, a former lawyer for Donald Trump, a federal judge in New Mexico ruled on Friday.In its investigation into a scheme by the ex-president and his lawyers to overturn the 2020 election using “fake electors”, the justice department took Eastman’s phone on 22 June as he was leaving a restaurant in New Mexico. Eastman, in turn, filed a court motion in an attempt to get his phone back, arguing that the justice department violated his constitutional rights. Continue reading...

Senator Rand Paul announced Friday he would not consent to Chad Meredith’s nomination, vetoing the president’s effortAfter weeks of criticism from fellow Democrats and abortion advocacy groups, Joe Biden has deserted plans to nominate an anti-abortion lawyer to be a federal judge in Kentucky.The White House said on Friday that Republican Kentucky senator Rand Paul would not be consenting to the nomination of Chad Meredith, effectively vetoing Biden’s move to put him on the bench. Continue reading...

US president’s attempts to ostracise Saudi crown prince were foiled by a fist bumpFor all the careful choreography of Joe Biden’s Middle East tour, the White House made a major miscalculation when the president finally came face to face with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, for the first time.Before Air Force One left Washington, the administration said that Biden would be avoiding physical contact and not shaking hands owing to a rise in Covid cases, a move widely believed to allow him to avoid creating an uncomfortable photo op with the powerful heir to the throne. Continue reading...

Fireworks and a couple of large slices of luck keep big-hitting American’s slim chances of landing the Claret Jug aliveFrom the ridiculous to the sublime, this was just another day in the life of Bryson DeChambeau. “You know me – a lot of fireworks,” said the big American, almost apologetically, as if the only way to get around St Andrews is nurdling it in a suit, tie and R&A blazer.That, of course, is not really DeChambeau’s style. The 28-year-old has a history of going against the grain, whether that is joining the LIV tour or going into the research and development lab to work on his latest driver amendments. Continue reading...

Explanation for how the messages from 5 and 6 January 2021 were deleted has gone from software upgrades to device replacementsThe Secret Service’s account about how text messages from the day before and the day of the Capitol attack were erased has shifted several times, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security told the House January 6 select committee at a briefing on Friday.At one point, the explanation from the Secret Service for the lost texts was because of software upgrades, the inspector general told the panel, while at another point, the explanation was because of device replacements. Continue reading...

The controversial Operation Lone Star, launched in March 2021, is under federal investigation for possible civil rights violationsA Texas national guard member assigned to a border security mission helmed by the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, died this week at his unit’s hotel, leaving him as the latest of several soldiers to die while deployed on the controversial operation.Alex Rios Rodriguez, a 52-year-old sergeant, suffered a medical emergency from which first responders were unable to revive him while he was at his quarters in McAllen, Texas, said a news release Friday issued by officials with the agency that runs the state’s national guard. Continue reading...

The mother of all U-turns on dealing with a man he regards as a murderer only makes the US president look frailerWhat was Joe Biden thinking? His excruciating fist bump with Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince he and much of the world regard as a murderer, marks the low point of a presidency that is slowly dying on its feet.Maybe America’s tottering president thought he was doing it for his country’s sake. But many in his country will be dismayed that a man Biden deemed a pariah after the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is back in from the cold. Continue reading...

The Wall Street Journal called the horrifying ordeal ‘too good to confirm’, but no apologies came when a 27-year-old was arrested for the crimeHere’s a sentence nobody should ever have to write: a 10-year-old Ohio girl was raped and then had to flee her state in order to have a safe and legal abortion. Instead of reacting with horror, Republican politicians and the rightwing media’s first instinct was to claim the story, first published by the Indianapolis Star on July 1, was fake news. On Monday, for example, Ohio attorney general Dave Yost told Fox News that “Every day that goes by the more likely that this [story] is a fabrication … shame on the Indianapolis paper that ran this thing on a single source who has an obvious axe to grind.” Fox News host Tucker Carlson called the incident “not true” and his colleague Jesse Watters suggested it was a hoax. Continue reading...

Two years after the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that sent Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race to the top of the bestseller lists, its author assesses how far we’ve come, in an edited extract from an updated edition of the book25 May 2020. Minneapolis, Minnesota. George Floyd is leaving a shop after paying for a packet of cigarettes with a fake $20 bill. In line with the workplace’s policy, a member of staff has called the police. George is arrested, handcuffed, and led to the police car. It’s at this point that he begins to display severe distress. Police officers restrain him, and one of them takes up a position on top of him, placing his knee on top of George’s neck. George protests and says he can’t breathe, but he receives no reprieve from the officer killing him. Then, he seems to accept his fate. “Mom, love you,” he says. “Tell my kids I love them.” Soon after, he stops talking. It is only when paramedics arrive that the knee is lifted. George’s body is put on to a stretcher, his limbs loose and floppy. An hour later, he is declared dead at a hospital nearby.On 26 May, video footage of the murder, filmed by a teenage bystander, is uploaded to social media. Protesters gather in Louisville, Minneapolis and Glynn County, united by the same cry: Black Lives Matter. The protests quickly spread across the United States. Continue reading...

Governments alone can’t keep the public safe. People must feel able to speak out – and our laws must protect themThis week, more than 124,000 documents disclosed by the whistleblower Mark MacGann, Uber’s former chief lobbyist for Europe, detailed how Uber flouted laws, duped police, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments in order to aggressively build its global empire.Last year, I disclosed thousands of documents to the US government revealing Facebook’s negligence about the harm its products were doing. As with the documents supplied by MacGann, the public would have never known this information even existed had a whistleblower not tipped them off.Frances Haugen is a former Facebook product manager and an advocate for accountability and transparency in social mediaDo 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

Bannon, according to Jonathan Lemire’s Big Lie, said Trump lies ‘to win whatever exchange he [is] having at that moment’The former White House strategist Steve Bannon has publicly claimed Donald Trump does not lie. But according to a new book, Bannon told aides: “Trump would say anything, he would lie about anything.”The former president lies “to win whatever exchange he [is] having at that moment”, Bannon said. Continue reading...

Republicans are odds-on to take back the House and Senate in November, and the last thing the party needs, experts say, is a Trump distractionOn Thursday the Trump campaign sent out a begging-bowl email to hundreds of thousands of supporters, previewing the former president’s rally in Arizona this weekend and teasing the recipients with a portent of momentous things to come.Donald Trump “wants to make sure it’s one of his best rallies yet”, his loyal followers were told. “He is preparing the speech that he will give in front of the American people.” Continue reading...

Weather conditions with ‘zero visibility’ believed responsible for crash involving 20 or more vehicles near Hardin, authorities saidAt least six people have died after a dust storm fueled by wind gusts topping 60mph caused a pileup on the Interstate 90 freeway in Montana, authorities said.At least 20 vehicles were involved in the crash on Friday evening. Sgt Jay Nelson of Montana highway patrol said authorities believed weather was the cause. Continue reading...

The former Czech national team skier and model, who has died aged 73, was married to Donald Trump Continue reading...

The subpoena is the first to an executive branch agency in investigation focused on possible erasure of communicationsThe House select committee investigating the Capitol attack has issued a subpoena to the US Secret Service for text messages from 5 January and 6 January 2021 understood to have been erased, pursuing what investigators suspect might be an instance of corruptly destroyed records.The subpoena issued late on Friday – the first to an executive branch agency – compelled the production of messages and after-action reports concerning the attack as part of a sweeping records demand aiming to establish the circumstances around the erasure of some communications and obtain any that remain. Continue reading...

Caitlin Bernard of Indiana is named on an extreme anti-abortion website linked to Amy Coney BarrettThe Indiana doctor who recently provided an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim whose story has garnered national attention faced serious threats in the past and is named on an extreme anti-abortion website linked to Amy Coney Barrett before she was a supreme court justice.Dr Caitlin Bernard testified last year, in a case involving abortion restrictions in Indiana, that she was forced to stop providing first-trimester abortions at a clinic in South Bend. She stopped the procedures after she was alerted by Planned Parenthood – who in turn had been alerted by the FBI – that a kidnapping threat had been made against her daughter. Continue reading...

Two people were killed and three wounded in the six robberies that occurred on 11 July in Orange county locationsAuthorities said on Friday that two suspects have been arrested in a series of deadly robberies at southern California 7-Eleven convenience stores where two people were killed and three wounded.The Orange county district attorney’s office announced the arrests on social media. A press conference is scheduled for 5pm. No other details were immediately available. Continue reading...

Oil markets top of the agenda for US president who receives subdued welcome three years after Jamal Khashoggi commentsThree years after Joe Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah state over the assassination of a prominent dissident, the US president greeted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump as his administration attempts to reset relations and stabilise global oil markets.Donald Trump was personally welcomed to the conservative Gulf kingdom on his first presidential visit by King Salman. Biden, however, was met on the tarmac on Friday evening by the governor of Mecca and the Saudi ambassador to the US in a subdued ceremony. He then travelled to the city’s al-Salam palace, where he held talks with the 86-year-old king and his powerful heir, Prince Mohammed, before a working meeting. Continue reading...

Donald Trump’s first wife died aged 73 at her Manhattan home and the fatal injuries are believed to be unintentionalIvana Trump, the first wife of Donald Trump and the mother of his three oldest children, died from blunt force injuries to her torso that she suffered after an accidental fall, New York City’s chief medical examiner said Friday.The former president announced that Ivana Trump died aged 73 a day earlier at her Manhattan home but didn’t include any details about the cause or manner of her death. On Friday, a spokesperson for the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner confirmed reports that Ivana Trump apparently fell inadvertently and was found at the bottom of her home’s stairs. Continue reading...

Australia’s Cameron Smith leads by two from America’s Cameron Young, with Rory McIlroy and a host of big names lurking behind