Good morning. Charlie Kirk, the millennial conservative activist and influential ally of Donald Trump, has been shot and killed in what is being described as a political assassination. At time of writing, a nationwide hunt for the killer is under way.
Kirk, the founder of the rightwing youth group Turning Point USA, was fatally shot while speaking at a university campus event in Utah before an audience of 3,000 people. Video footage posted online showed him being questioned about mass shootings moments before gunfire rang out. He was transported to a nearby hospital, where he later died.
The suspect was caught on video jumping off a roof after firing one shot. The individual then fled into a nearby neighbourhood, according to officials, who said investigators had recovered a high-powered bolt-action rifle they suspect was used in the attack.
The killing has drawn condemnation across the political spectrum in the US, UK and beyond. Donald Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-mast in Kirk’s honour, and the US president vowed a political crackdown.
Is this a watershed moment for a country long mired in political violence and polarisation? To answer this question and more, I spoke to Cas Mudde, a Dutch political scientist and leading expert on populism and the far right who is based at the University of Georgia. That’s after the headlines.
Five big stories
UK news | Keir Starmer has sacked Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US over his association with Jeffrey Epstein. The Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told MPs that Lord Mandelson had not disclosed the extent and depth of his friendship with Epstein, a convicted child sex offender, when he was appointed as the ambassador.
Brazil | Former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for plotting a military coup in Brazil and seeking to “annihilate” the South American country’s democracy.
Southport attack | A teenage girl who was stabbed twice in the Southport attack has described staring into the killer’s “possessed” eyes and reliving that day “like a horror film on repeat”.
Ukraine | Prince Harry has made a surprise visit to Kyiv, saying he wanted to do “everything possible” to help the recovery of the thousands of military personnel who have been seriously injured in the three-year war against Russia.
Gaza | An official in charge of nearly three decades of archaeological finds in Gaza has described how the artefacts were hurriedly evacuated from a Gaza City building threatened by an Israeli strike.
In depth: ‘The youth whisperer of the Maga movement’
Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old father of two and far-right activist, founded Turning Point USA at the age of 18 shortly after dropping out of university. He went on to build it into the largest rightwing student organisation in the US and became known for combative viral videos in which he sparred with students on college campuses.
Cas Mudde told me he saw Kirk speak twice at the University of Georgia, where Mudde is a professor: in 2018 and 2024. The first time, during Donald Trump’s first administration, Kirk was viewed as more of an oddity. There was a decent-sized crowd comprising equal parts curious individuals, supporters, and opponents, Mudde explained. Kirk and Turning Point USA at the time focused on issues around government overreach, the free market, free speech and defending the second amendment (the right to bear arms).
A lot had changed by the time he came back in 2024. “Turning Point set up a tent, handed out hundreds of Maga hats, and by the time I got there straight from class, it was a sea of students in red hats. I had never seen that before on my campus,” Mudde said.
The events suggested two things to Mudde: how good Kirk was at boosting rightwing students’ confidence, and how normalised Trump had become among young people.
This made him crucial to Trump and his Maga movement. “Most conservative and far-right movements struggle to reach young people, particularly in the US, but Kirk has been very good at selling the message. He is their youth whisperer,” said Mudde.
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Trump’s small inner circle
Trump was one of the first people to release a statement after the announcement of Kirk’s shooting, posting: “We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!” Trump then followed up with a video. For Mudde, what was notable was how clearly Kirk’s killing had affected the president.
“I think it’s really telling because Trump rarely shows empathy for anyone else,” Mudde said. “Kirk was someone in Trump’s very small circle, someone he has known over a long time personally, and who was very close to one of his sons, Donald Jr. Kirk has also been extremely loyal, and that is crucial. Kirk was on TV all the time and was one of those few young people that defended Trump.”
In the video, Trump recited a list of incidents he described as examples of “radical left political violence”, including last year’s attempt on his own life – which, it turned out, was enacted by a shooter with a complicated political past, having made a small donation to the Democratic party when he was 18, while also being registered as a Republican voter. Notably absent from Trump’s speech condemning violence were attacks against Democrats, such as the murder of Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, who were shot at 17 times by a gunman in June, and the shooting of another Democratic legislator and his wife in that same month.
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The making of a martyr
Over the past 13 years, Kirk has shifted significantly towards Christian nationalism, putting his faith at the heart of his far-right polemic, Mudde said.
Kirk launched faith initiatives and embraced the idea that the United States is a Christian nation that should be governed on biblical principles, Mudde explained. This theme was less prominent in his early college tours, which focused more on campaigning for Trump.
He will therefore become a martyr for the Christian right in the US, and, Mudde explained, his death will “galvanise the far right”, many of whom have long complained that they are the real victims of political violence (echoing Trump’s video).
“For a long period of time, whenever there is an attack from the far right or other types of violence linked to the far right, the response from them will be, ‘Well, you killed Charlie Kirk,’” Mudde said.
It is worth noting that at time of writing, as well as the identity of the killer, the motivations for Kirk’s killing is unclear.
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A watershed moment? Not quite
For some, Kirk’s killing marks a watershed moment in the politics of the US, a country long defined by deep polarisation and periodic outbreaks of violence. Not so for Mudde.
“This is an incredibly violent country. Yesterday, there was a separate mass shooting in a school where three students were killed,” Mudde said, pointing out that more than 300 incidents have been recorded so far this year. “Just remember that Trump was almost killed when he was a candidate and it didn’t change anything.”
That of course might be different now – he’s far more equipped to make changes related to this shooting now he’s president than he was when he was running for office.
But Mudde believes the current climate around gun violence in the US means that real change might still be hard to come by. He compares the US to where he grew up, the Netherlands. In the latter, the rightwing politician Pim Fortuyn, who led his anti-immigration party to a position of prominence in the Netherlands, was assassinated in 2002.
“The assassination of Fortuyn transformed the Netherlands in many ways. It helped normalise the far right, made Fortuyn a martyr, and created an anti-left backlash,” Mudde said. “I don’t think that you will see the same effect here because it is just not so remarkable, sadly, that a prominent person is being assassinated.”
To his point, Reuters released an investigation in late 2024 identifying more than 300 cases of political violence in the US since the January 6 insurrection – the biggest increase in such threats since the 1970s – only now more bloody, targeting people rather than bricks and mortar. But little has changed by way of policy since then.
Will Kirk’s death change this? Mudde argued that the Trump administration will continue their unprecedented attack on democratic institutions and norms in the US (and would have done so had Kirk been killed or not). But just how far the administration is able to go remains unclear.
Many of the Trump administration’s most far-reaching orders have been halted by the lower level courts, but some have been pushed through by the rightwing supreme court. “We’re living in this weird period where there is still a functioning, if imperfect, democracy, but with an authoritarian leader,” Mudde said.
What is clear is that the struggle over America’s democratic future is far from over.
What else we’ve been reading
Bangor Cathedral is back in the naughty corner – this time the choir has been benched for performing a protest song about job cuts mid-communion. Earlier this year, the Welsh cathedral was criticised for a culture of excessive drinking and inappropriate banter in the pews. Phoebe
It is chilling to see how US professors advocating for Palestinian rights are facing unprecedented repression as the Trump administration uses civil rights legislation into a cudgel to root out progressive politics on US campuses. Aamna
I guess this is schadenfreude talking, but I did enjoy this absolute takedown of Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book. Gilbert is an author who I generally really admire – but no one can be perfect, eh? Phoebe
Labour faces a political choice in the upcoming autumn budget, but as Larry Elliott argues, there is a different path available than the one sketched out by rightwing doomsayers. Aamna
Any readers considering getting a mullet should think long and hard about whether they can actually pull it off. That is one of 12 top tips from hairdressers looking to save you from yourself. Phoebe
Sport
Football | Chelsea are expecting to be hit with a substantial financial sanction for transfer misdemeanours, after the Football Association charged them with 74 breaches of its rules relating to the use of football agents.
Athletics | A new scientific study has predicted that Usain Bolt would have run the 100m in 9.42sec in super spikes – an astonishing 0.16sec faster than his current world record set in 2009.
Football | The Sheffield United women’s head coach, Ash Thompson, has been suspended from his duties as the team prepare for their second league match of the season. The reasons behind Thompson’s suspension were not made clear.
The front pages
“PM faces questions over judgment as he is forced to sack Mandelson” is the Guardian’s splash while the Times has “Mandelson: I was clear about links to Epstein” and the Mirror says “Mandelson sacked … Home in disgrace”. “Starmer ignored string of warnings” – that’s the Mail, and the Express has “‘Weak’ Starmer under fire for Mandelson ‘fiasco’”. The i paper runs with “Mandelson exit leaves weakened Starmer facing wrath of Labour” and similar in the Telegraph: “Starmer faces MPs’ fury over Mandelson scandal”. Regrettable effort in the Metro: “Mandy: It all ends in Keirs”. Just the straight dope in the Financial Times: “Mandelson dismissed as Britain’s US ambassador over Epstein links”.
Something for the weekend
Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now
TV
The Girlfriend | ★★★★☆
“This one’s different,” a son says to his mother when she teases him about his latest girlfriend. Clever, he says. Stunning, ambitious, funny – “you remind me of her”. Something flickers across Mummy’s face. “She reminds you of me?” she says, and it is not really a question. Welcome, friends, to The Girlfriend, an adaptation of the excellent psychological thriller by Michelle Frances, available on Prime Video. This brilliantly slippery beast of a drama pits an adult son’s girlfriend against his mother in all-out war. Just how much of an incest vibe can one TV show get away with? A lot. Lucy Mangan
Music
Jade: That’s Showbiz Baby! | ★★★★☆
Former Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall offers a wild ride through electroclash, Eurovision drama and emotive synth-pop. Jade’s lyrics are spiked with very her, very British moments without overdoing it: Midnight Cowboy has the excellent triptych, “I’m a real wild bitch, yeah I’m mental / I’m the ride of your life, not a rental / I’m the editor, call me Mr Enninful.” If there’s a theme amid the madness, it’s finding the freedom to be exactly yourself – at work, in relationships, in bed. Laura Snapes
Film
The Man in My Basement | ★★★★☆
The setting is the 90s, in which half-heard stories on the TV news about Rwanda and OJ have an unstressed racial dimension. We are in Sag Harbor in New York state, a neighbourhood with strong African American community: Corey Hawkins plays a troubled black man called Charles Blakey who lives alone in a handsome but neglected house. He desperately needs money and it is at this moment that a mysterious, charmingly persuasive yet sinister white businessman called Anniston Bennet, potently played by Willem Dafoe, shows up at his door, offering him $50,000 in cash in return for renting his basement for a couple of months. Charles feels he has no choice but to agree, and to allow Mr Bennet, and his strange luggage into his home; an arrangement which is to lead to a nightmarish psychodrama. Peter Bradshaw
Theatre
The Last Stand of Mrs Mary Whitehouse (Nottingham Playhouse) | ★★★★☆
Culture warrior before her time, Mary Whitehouse was a mid-century media phenomenon. A housewife activist fulminating against sin, she backed forcefully into the limelight while cooing that she was just “a grandmother who collects pebbles for a hobby”. Why gift her another moment in the spotlight? Homophobia and evangelical legislation have newly sharpened teeth, so Caroline Bird’s witty new play feels timely, as it peers under the bonnet of the campaigner’s self-promotion and asks what it feels like to be running on moral conviction. Bird uncovers a moralist who is a stranger to herself, impervious even to her own pain. David Jays
Today in Focus
The lucrative secrets of Boris Johnson
An investigation based on leaked data from Johnson’s private office has unearthed a trove of information. Has he broken the rules again? Henry Dyer reports
Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Stamford Hill in north-east London is home to the largest Haredi Jewish community in Europe, numbering 30,000.
Facing leafy Clapton Common is the country’s first council housing project built specifically with the needs of this ultra-orthodox community in mind – but its generous proportions and outside space for religious observance are a boon for all residents.
It includes features such as Shabbat lifts (which don’t require manual operation on the Jewish Sabbath); plumbing for an extra sink outside the bathrooms (Haredi must wash before and after using the bathroom); a big wall to accommodate cabinets of religious books; and bedrooms with enough space for several bunk beds. Homes have two sinks in the kitchen, with sufficient storage for separate meat and dairy utensils.
The project – which was 10 years in the making – has just been shortlisted for the RIBA’s Neave Brown award for the best new affordable housing in the country.
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
