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The Loop: Joe Biden called out on gun laws, 'brutal' Tour de France injury, Boris Johnson's replacement

Hi. It's Tuesday, July 12 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.

Let's start here

A man whose son was killed in a 2018 school shooting in Florida has interrupted a speech by Joe Biden at the White House in frustration.

The US President was speaking at an event to herald the passage of the first major federal gun safety law in three decades.

Manuel Oliver — whose son, Joaquin, was murdered in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre — shouted "we've already gone through this for years and years" during the speech.

After initially telling him to "sit down", Mr Biden urged security to "let him talk", but Mr Oliver was escorted out of the event by security just moments later.

Mr Oliver told reporters outside the White House that he was disturbed that some had called the White House event a "celebration".

"What am I supposed to do today? Clap and be happy and be part of a celebration? Not me," he said.

Something you'll be hearing about today

PM Anthony Albanese will be speaking at the Sydney Energy Forum today (and he's kind of in damage-control mode).

The forum is co-hosted by the Australian government and the International Energy Agency, with the aim of bringing government and industry leaders together to advance the development of clean energy in the Indo-Pacific region.

Mr Albanese is expected to try to restore Australia's reputation after years of limited climate action, with a vow to "once again be a trusted global partner" in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

ALSO HAPPENING THIS MORNING: 

US President Joe Biden and NASA chief Bill Nelson are set to reveal the first image from NASA's new space telescope, the deepest view of the cosmos ever captured.

Follow all the updates in our live blog.

News while you snoozed

  • Australian yellow jersey hope Ben O'Connor has withdrawn from the Tour de France with a "pretty brutal" buttock injury, revealing he's torn a glute muscle. He says it's "like having a knife in your arse, more or less." Yikes.
  • Speaking of brutal, that's one way you could describe Australia's flogging in the second Test in Sri Lanka. Despite a promising start, the Aussies lost by an innings and 39 runs to the home side.

What Australia has been searching for online

  • Roger Federer. The 20-time grand slam winner has dropped out of the ATP rankings for the first time in more than two decades. The 40-year-old has been battling injury, but did say in an interview during Wimbledon that he hopes he "can come back here one more time".
  • Monkeypox. ICYMI yesterday, the viral infection has been detected in Queensland for the first time, but authorities say the health risk to the wider public is low. The infected person is in isolation at home.

One more thing

September 5. That's the date Britain's new prime minister is set to be announced after Boris Johnson's departure.

A whopping 11 candidates have thrown their hat in the ring for the job so far, and the 1922 committee of Conservative members of parliament — which organises the leadership contest — says hopefuls would need at least 20 nominations from the party's 358 lawmakers to even proceed to the first round of votes.

It's already a fairly heated race: One of the candidates, former finance minister Sajid Javid, has criticised what he called "poisonous gossip" and "attack memos" delivered by colleagues over the weekend.

"This isn't the 'House of Cards' or the 'Game of Thrones', and the people who are here just because they enjoy the game, they are in the wrong place," he said.

You're up to date

Thanks for reading.

ABC/wires

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