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There were “systemic failures and egregious poor decision-making” 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, and 17 others wounded.
Nearly 400 law enforcement officers from myriad agencies went to the school after the killings started, but they were stymied by a lack of coordination, according to the report.
Law enforcement officers told investigators they assumed the former Uvalde school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, was in charge at the scene, but Arredondo has said publicly he did not believe himself to be in charge. Law enforcement waited more than an hour before eventually confronting and killing the shooter.
What does the report say? The report details a chaotic scene and severe lack of communication at Robb elementary school the day of the shooting.
What does the report conclude? Having a clear commander outside the schools, investigators concluded, could have helped end the deadly incident faster by figuring out a better way to communicate and charting a path for law enforcement to breach the classroom where the shooter was.
Too old to run again? Biden faces questions about his age as crises mount
Joe Biden is having a rough summer and with an evenly divided Senate, Biden’s options for addressing the 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.
In addition to his sinking approval rating, Biden is facing increasingly pointed questions about his age. At 79 years old, Biden is already the oldest president in US history, and if re-elected, he would be 86 when his second term ended.
Amid this pessimism, Democrats are bracing for a potential shellacking in the midterm elections, as Republicans appear poised to regain control of the House of Representatives. Faced with a grim outlook for 2022, some Democrats are already looking ahead to 2024 and asking, is Joe Biden the best person to lead the party and the nation?
What does the White House say about his age? The White House has publicly dismissed concerns about Biden getting older. “That is not a question that we should be even asking,” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said last month.
What do aides say privately? According to a recent New York Times report, White House staffers have expressed hesitation about scheduling long international trips for Biden, out of concern that they are too taxing for him. They also worry that Biden’s slower, more shuffling gait could cause him to fall, and they fret over his tendency to jumble words in speeches.
Steve Bannon’s criminal contempt of Congress trial set to begin Monday
A federal criminal trial is set to begin today to determine whether Stephen Bannon, the influential former adviser to Donald Trump, broke the law by refusing to comply with a subpoena for documents and testimony by the panel investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Last fall, the congressional committee investigating the deadly Capitol riots subpoenaed Bannon to sit for a deposition and to provide a wide range of documents related to the events of January 6. Bannon refused to comply. The committee cited him for contempt and referred him to the US justice department for prosecution last October.
The justice department pursued the referral, and a federal grand jury indicted Bannon on two counts of contempt of Congress, both misdemeanors, in November. It is extremely rare for the justice department to pursue such charges – before Bannon, the last contempt prosecution was in 1983. Bannon faces between 30 days and a year in prison if convicted on each charge.
Has anyone else from the Trump administration faced a criminal trial for refusing to participate in the January 6 investigation? Bannon is the first. From the moment he was indicted, he has pledged to fight the charges, saying on his podcast recently he was going “medieval” and would “savage his enemies”.
In other news …
As police crack down on homelessness, increasing numbers of unhoused are ending up in the Mojave desert. On the edge of northern Los Angeles county, at least 200 people are now living in tents and trailers on remote, harsh terrain. ‘They treat us like we’re a lost cause,’ one resident said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has fired the head of Ukraine’s powerful domestic security agency, the SBU, and the state prosecutor general, citing dozens of cases of collaboration with Russia by officials in their agencies. He said 651 cases of alleged treason had been opened against officials.
Sri Lanka’s acting president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has declared a state of emergency as his administration seeks to quell social unrest and tackle an economic crisis gripping the island nation. Wickremesinghe had announced a state of emergency after former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country.
Rapper Kodak Black has been arrested in south Florida on charges of trafficking in oxycodone and possession of a controlled substance. The rapper, whose legal name is Bill Kapri, was previously pardoned by Donald Trump on the last day of his presidency for a previous conviction on a weapons charge.
Don’t miss this: ‘My mother locked me up in an institution at 13. Boo hoo! I needed it’ – Drew Barrymore
Imagine you were a Hollywood producer pitched the following idea: a baby girl born into an acting dynasty is put to work in a dog food commercial at the age of 11 months. At seven, she’s a film star pouring Baileys over her ice-cream, at 11 she develops a drink problem, at 12 she’s a drug addict, at 13 she cuts her wrists and is hospitalised, and at 14 she’s legally divorced from her parents. Of course, you wouldn’t make the movie. Too far-fetched. But you’ve not heard the half of Drew Barrymore’s story, writes Simon Hattenstone.
… or this: how a same-sex couple became one of Germany’s first to adopt
“A woman in our adoption preparation classes had told us she saw stars when she got the call. For me it was more like pressing the pause button on an old VHS. Everything stopped, went silent, juddered a little. I started taking notes in red pen on the back of a vocabulary card, the scratching ballpoint loud in my ears. “Boy,” I scribbled, “four weeks old.” But that was the sum of the information she could give me over the phone,” writes Ben Fergusson.
Climate check: China floods leave at least 12 dead, with thousands evacuated
Flash floods in south-west and north-west China have left at least a dozen people dead and put thousands of others in harm’s way. In the south-western province of Sichuan, at least six people have died and another 12 are missing after torrential rain triggered flash floods, state-owned news outlet CGTN reported on Sunday. About 1,300 people had been evacuated as of Saturday, the report said. Experts say such extreme weather events are becoming more likely because of climate change. Warmer air can store more water, leading to bigger cloudbursts when it is released.
Last Thing: Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck get married in Las Vegas
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck got married in a Las Vegas drive-through chapel late on Saturday night, culminating a relationship that stretched over two decades in two separate romances and headlined countless tabloid covers. Lopez announced their marriage yesterday in her newsletter for her fans, On the J Lo, with the heading “We did it”. “Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient,” she wrote in a message, signed Jennifer Lynn Affleck.
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