Good morning.
Texas national guard troops arrived in the Chicago area on Tuesday, marking an escalation of Donald Trump’s crackdown on the city, in a move condemned as “military invasion”.
Chicago has seen a ramping up of immigration enforcement in the past few weeks, as well as increasingly violent altercations in the suburb of Broadview, where law enforcement has been filmed deploying teargas and pepper gas against protesters.
The latest military presence comes after a district judge refused to block troops from entering the city amid a pending lawsuit from the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago against the Trump administration’s actions.
How are elected Illinois officials responding to Trump’s incursion? The state’s governor, JB Pritzker, decried the move, saying: “Any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don’t belong unless there is an insurrection … I’m going to do everything I can to stop him from taking away people’s rights and from using the military to invade states.”
Pam Bondi and Senate Democrats clash before ex-FBI director James Comey’s court appearance
The attorney general, Pam Bondi, sparred with Democratic senators on Tuesday, over her involvement in Trump’s crackdown on political opponents, the deployment of national guard troops to cities nationwide and the handling of the Epstein files.
The clashes at an annual Senate judiciary committee hearing took place after months of warnings raised by Democrats that Trump has compromised the justice department’s traditional independence and is chasing political opponents.
The former FBI director James Comey is due to make his first appearance in court on Wednesday in connection with federal charges that he lied to Congress in 2020.
How has Trump tried to weaponize the attorney general’s office? The president has overtly piled pressure on Bondi to more aggressively pursue senior public officials he regards as his political enemies, including Comey.
How did Bondi respond to Democratic senators’ questioning? When pressed during the five-hour hearing, she personally attacked several senators or invoked the ongoing government shutdown to depict them as negligent.
Israelis gather to mark two years since 7 October Hamas attack that killed 1,200
Israelis gathered across the country on Tuesday to mark the second anniversary of the 7 October attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages during an assault on southern Israel.
The attack was the most brutal in Israel’s history, shattering the country’s sense of safety and prompting Israel to launch its war in Gaza, which has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians and left Israel accused by a UN commission of inquiry of conducting genocide.
What was the national mood like? The lingering trauma of the 7 October attack was plain to see, writes William Christou. At the site of the Nova music festival, where more than 370 people were killed and dozens taken hostage, relatives returned at dawn to mourn the dead. At 6.29am – the time Hamas launched its attack – there was a minute’s silence.
In other news …
The White House is arguing that furloughed federal workers aren’t entitled to back pay, Axios reports, amid the government shutdown.
The supreme court appears poised to overturn a Colorado law banning “conversion therapy”, after questioning the state on free speech grounds.
The Danish prime minister says the country will ban social media for under-15s, accusing phones and social networks of stealing childhood.
A New Orleans couple found a roughly 1,900-year-old Roman grave marker in their garden, sparking a mystery over how it got there.
Stat of the day: Israeli bombing has damaged or destroyed 90% of Gaza’s schools
Since October 2023, 745,000 students in Gaza have been forced out of school for more than two academic years, as 518 schools (90%) have been destroyed or damaged by the Israeli bombardment. Ceasefire talks are under way in Egypt as Israel continues to strike Gaza City. Here are some other stats from a Guardian interactive piece, The ruin of Gaza: how Israel’s two-year assault has devastated the territory:
67,074 Palestinians have been killed and 168,716 injured in Israeli attacks.
18,457 children have been named and identified as killed (as of July).
436,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed (92% of the total).
2.1 million people have been displaced (95% of the population).
654 attacks have been recorded on Gaza’s healthcare facilities.
More than 1,700 health workers have been killed.
400 malnutrition-related deaths have been recorded (101 children).
Just 1.5% of Gaza’s cropland remains accessible and suitable for cultivation.
Don’t miss this: The Pushkin job – unmasking the thieves behind an international rare books heist
Between 2022 and 2023, as many as 170 rare and valuable editions of Russian classics were stolen from libraries across Europe. Were the thieves merely low-level opportunists, Philip Oltermann explores for the long read, or were bigger forces at work?
Climate check: Glacier melt will lead to ice-free peaks in California for first time in human history
Deep in California’s Sierra Nevada, massive glaciers are disappearing and are projected to melt away completely by the beginning of the next century, leaving ice-free peaks for the first time in human history, according to an article last week in Science Advances.
Last Thing: ‘I was lost in the infinite scroll – until a small ritual renewed my love of reading’
Growing up, Emma Loffhagen devoured books until her eyes blurred. “But in recent years, I’ve watched that capacity for intense concentration dissolve into infinite scrolling,” she writes. “About a year ago, I made a small vow: every time I came across a word I didn’t know, I would look it up and write it down. … The list now spans almost 20 pages, and this tiny ritual has been quietly transformative.”
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