Politics
The FBI began an investigation into why a 20-year-old man tried to assassinate Donald Trump. Questions were raised about how Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to get so close to Mr Trump at a campaign rally in rural Pennsylvania. His volley of shots from a nearby rooftop came close to killing the Republican, grazing his ear. One man was killed and two seriously injured. Secret Service snipers shot Crooks dead. The motive for the assassination attempt was not immediately clear. Crooks was a gun enthusiast and described as a quiet loner, but with no mental-health issues. Mr Trump left the stage exhorting his supporters to “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
“A working-class boy”
Two days after the shooting Mr Trump, his ear bandaged, attended the Republican convention in Milwaukee and chose J.D. Vance as his running-mate. Mr Vance, a senator from Ohio for just 18 months, is best known for his “Hillbilly Elegy”, a memoir of growing up poor surrounded by drug-addicted relations. If Mr Trump wins in November Mr Vance, as vice-president, will have the deciding vote if the Senate is tied. He is notably a firm opponent of aid to Ukraine.
Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, who opposed Mr Trump in the primaries, fully endorsed him for president. And for the first time a president of the Teamsters union addressed a Republican convention, giving a speech that criticised big business (the Teamsters have not yet endorsed a candidate). Republicans are reaching out to unions with their populist anti-globalist messaging.
The judge overseeing legal proceedings against Mr Trump over his misuse of classified documents dismissed the case, finding that the appointment of the special counsel who laid the charges was unconstitutional. The ruling could upend the Justice Department’s ability to appoint special prosecutors to investigate specific acts of misconduct.
Adam Schiff, a prominent Democratic congressman, called on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race. Democratic apparatchiks want to make Mr Biden’s nomination official before the party’s convention, even though two-thirds of Democrats want him to stand aside. Mr Biden, meanwhile, caught covid again and is self-isolating.
A jury in New York found Bob Menendez, a senator from New Jersey, guilty of accepting bribes in return for supporting military aid to Egypt, among other things. Mr Menendez, a Democrat who is running as an independent in November’s election, said he would appeal against the verdict.
Israel bombed a compound targeting Muhammad Deif, the commander of Hamas’s military forces in Gaza and mastermind behind the attack on Israel on October 7th. Israel said the strike killed Raafa Salamah, a Hamas commander, but it was not clear whether Mr Deif was also killed. According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, around 90 people died in the attack.
Louisa Hanoune, an opposition leader in Algeria, dropped out of the presidential race citing “unfair conditions” in an election scheduled for September. She had been running against Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the incumbent, who is favoured to win.
Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, won 99% of the vote in an election after several of his opponents were barred from the race. The 66-year-old has held power since the end of the Rwandan genocide in 1994.
Gabriel Attal formally resigned as prime minister of France, as did his entire cabinet, following gains by the hard left and right in the recent parliamentary election. Mr Attal and his ministers are staying on in a caretaker role until a new government is formed. With parliament hung, the parties are bickering over who should get his job.
Britain’s new Labour government laid out 40 bills for its first parliamentary session. The ambitious agenda includes streamlining the planning process for housebuilding, boosting renters’ rights, creating a state-owned green energy company, re-nationalising the railways and new workers’ safeguards. Labour also announced an early-release scheme for prisoners to ease prison overcrowding.
No welcome in the valleys
Labour’s Vaughan Gething quit as first minister of Wales four months into the job. His leadership came under strain over a campaign donation from a company run by someone convicted for environmental offences, and other issues. Mr Gething had refused to resign after losing a vote of confidence. The final straw came when several ministers in the Welsh cabinet resigned.
It emerged that a North Korean diplomat defected to South Korea last November, an embarrassment for Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s dictator. The high-ranking official was based in Cuba.
Six people were killed in Bangladesh amid protests against quotas for government jobs. Around a third of the jobs are reserved for the families of Bangladeshi veterans who fought for independence, which critics say is discriminatory. Schools and universities across the country were closed until further notice.
The Pakistani government said it wanted to ban the political party of Imran Khan, the country’s former prime minister, who was imprisoned a year ago. The attempt to outlaw Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf comes after the Supreme Court ruled that it was eligible for 23 extra reserved seats in Parliament. Mr Khan’s aide said the ban was “a sign of panic”. Separately 28 people were killed by militants in two attacks on an army base and a health centre.
The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party held a long-delayed four-day meeting in Beijing. A communiqué said the meeting decided to “place reform in a more prominent position.” It accepted the resignation from the Central Committee of Qin Gang, a former foreign minister who disappeared from public view a year ago.
The Chinese and Russian navies held joint manoeuvres off China’s southern coast. The drills, including air- defence and anti-submarine exercises, followed a joint patrol by the two navies in the north Pacific.
In Venezuela 77 opposition activists have been arrested since the start of official campaigning for the presidential election on July 28th according to Foro Penal, an NGO. Polls show that the opposition candidate, Edmundo González, would easily defeat Nicolás Maduro, the authoritarian incumbent, in a fair vote. The detainees include the security chief of María Corina Machado, the opposition’s leader.
A court in Ecuador sentenced two of the organisers of the murder last year of Fernando Villavicencio, a presidential candidate, to long jail terms. One was a leader of Los Lobos, a criminal gang. But Mr Villavicencio’s family believes others, including politicians, may have been involved.
Argentina won the Copa America with a 1-0 victory against Colombia. The match was held in Miami and delayed for 82 minutes because of chaotic disorder in admitting football fans to the stadium. America will be a joint host of the World Cup in 2026. In Berlin Spain won the European championship, beating England 2-1.