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A person of interest in the mass killing that targeted a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park has been taken into custody, the Highland Park police chief said yesterday evening.
More than 100 law enforcement officers had scoured the suburb and surrounding areas after at least six people were killed when a lone gunman rained down bullets on the town’s independence celebrations yesterday morning.
Thirty people were injured in the attack, with ages ranging from eight to 85, said Dr Brigham Temple, medical director of emergency preparedness at NorthShore University health center, where 26 of the injured were treated. At least four of the injured are believed to be children.
On Monday afternoon, the police chief, Lou Jogmen, identified 22-year-old Robert E Crimo III as a person of interest in the shooting, and cautioned that the man should be considered armed and dangerous.
Is Crimo the person in custody? Police are still investigating Crimo’s connection to the shooting and declined to immediately identify him as a suspect. But they said identifying him as a person of interest and sharing his name and other information publicly was a serious step.
Who were the victims? Among the victims was Nicolas Toledo, a 76-year-old grandfather who was identified by his family. He was watching the parade from his wheelchair when gunshots rang out. The other victims have yet to be named.
After Roe, are Republicans willing to expand the social safety net?
Republicans across the US cast the supreme court’s decision last month that allowed states to ban abortion as a victory for “life”. Left unsaid was the quality of life that families and mothers set to be left dealing with unplanned pregnancies might have.
For years, the Republican party has pushed to ban a procedure that is mostly sought out by people who are poor, while showing much less enthusiasm for efforts to permanently expand the country’s social safety net. Critics have labeled the party’s stance as caring a lot politically about unborn fetuses, but losing interest in them when they are born as American citizens.
Twenty-six states are expected to ban abortion entirely following the supreme court’s ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and following November’s midterm elections, Republicans could gain control of one or both houses of Congress, and make gains in state legislatures.
That dynamic could give many more Americans a close-up look at what the party’s policies mean for women and families dealing with any wave of unplanned pregnancies, and there are signs Republicans are worried about what they will see.
What has Planned Parenthood’s chief said about the fight for abortion rights since the supreme court ruling? Alexis McGill Johnson, the president and CEO of the US’s largest abortion provider, outlines the three goals she has to get women the access they need.
Trump 2024 run could upend midterms – and deflect risk of prosecution
Speculation is swirling in the US media that Donald Trump is considering announcing a 2024 presidential run as early as this summer and in the face of ever more damaging revelations from a congressional investigation of his role in the 6 Januaryattack on the Capitol.
Irrespective of Trump’s chances of winning a second term, another presidential campaign under consideration – as reported by the New York Times, CBS and other US outlets – could give the former president a multi-year shield to deflect the attention of prosecutors.
The reports have come after committee hearings into the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot that could lead to the congressional panel itself recommending Trump face criminal charges for his role in an attempt to thwart the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral win. Or the justice department could charge Trump via its own investigation of the scheme.
In testimony to the panel last week, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, strengthened a potential criminal case when she alleged that Trump knew his supporters were armed when he encouraged them to march on the Capitol.
What would happen if Trump were to run for a second stint in the White House? Most experts believe it would – at the very least – complicate any decision to criminally charge him. It would also be likely to bolster his support in the Republican party, which has begun to ebb slightly in the wake of the 6 January revelations.
Special event: What will the end of abortion rights in America mean for the world?
The supreme court decision overturning Roe v Wade reverses a historic victory of the global women’s movement. What comes next? Will we see increased criminalization of abortion in the US? Will other rights, such as marriage equality and IVF access, be targeted next? Our panel, moderated by Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi, will discuss what the court’s decision means for the future in a live discussion on Wednesday, 6 July, 3pm-4pm ET. Book tickets for this virtual event here.
In other news …
The detained WNBA star Brittney Griner made a direct appeal to US president Joe Biden for her freedom in a handwritten letter that was delivered to the White House yesterday morning. Griner, one of America’s most decorated women’s basketball players, was detained in Russia in February.
Governor Gavin Newsom of California has aired a commercial in Florida over the Fourth of July holiday weekend urging residents there to fight for freedom, or move to his state to find it. The ad – which pits blue state California against currently red state Florida – exemplified the growing divides in the US.
Jair Bolsonaro’s demolition of Brazil’s Indigenous and environmental protection services and “surrender of the Amazon to crooks” played a direct role in the murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, the politician leading a congressional inquiry into the crime has claimed.
Family members of several US nationals who are being held in Saudi Arabia and Egypt were not invited to attend a recent call with Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, in a move that was called “infuriating and discriminatory” by one critic. The apparent decision to exclude the families was made weeks before Joe Biden’s controversial trip to the Middle East.
Oklahoma is planning to execute a prisoner on death row nearly every month starting in August through 2024 in a move likely to cause outrage among opponents of the death penalty. The Oklahoma court of criminal appeals set the execution dates on Friday for six inmates, who have all exhausted their appeals.
Stat of the day: Ukraine lays out $750bn ‘recovery plan’ for postwar future
The eventual restoration of Ukraine through a $750bn (£620bn) recovery plan is the common task of the entire democratic world, the Ukrainian president said yesterday at the first detailed event to map out a physical future for the country in the event it survives as a western-facing nation after the Russian invasion. Speaking by video link to a high-level conference in Lugano, Switzerland, Volodymyr Zelenskiy admitted the task ahead was colossal, claiming the war was a battle of outlooks in which Russia was determined to destroy his country’s physical and moral fabric.
Don’t miss this: US drag queens stand their ground amid intimidation by the far right
The drag queens were out in force across New York’s recent Pride parade triggering cheers and waves with their flamboyant and extravagant costumes. But this year, the world of American drag has been marred by fears of violence and intimidation as they have been specifically targeted by conservatives and extremist far-right and militia groups amid a general rise in anti-LGBTQ hate. Drag queens themselves, however, are standing their ground, writes Edward Helmore.
… Or this: Public lands are Americans’ birthright. It’s our duty to defend them against new landgrabs
“This is your land we are talking about,” the firebrand historian and conservationist Bernard DeVoto wrote in 1947, paraphrasing Woody Guthrie’s fresh folk classic. Bernard and his stylish, sharp-witted wife, Avis DeVoto, had returned from an epic road trip across the Lewis and Clark trail. On the road, they discovered a plot – birthed by the Nevada senator Pat McCarran – to sell away nearly all of it. This is the story of how one couple helped save vast areas of wilderness in the 1940s – and provided a map for protecting them today.
Climate check: Methane much more sensitive to global heating than previously thought – study
Methane is four times more sensitive to global warming than previously thought, a study shows. The result helps to explain the rapid growth in methane in recent years and suggests that, if left unchecked, methane related warming will escalate in the decades to come. The growth of this greenhouse gas – which over a 20-year timespan is more than 80 times as potent than carbon dioxide – had been slowing since the turn of the millennium but since 2007 has undergone a rapid rise.
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