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Protests at NRA’s first annual meeting since Parkland
Gun control activists are to meet 80,000 National Rifle Association supporters in Dallas this weekend, where the gun lobby is hosting its annual three-day meeting.
The convention is being held less than two months after the push for gun control drew thousands to protests across the country and inspired one of the largest student demonstrations in US history. An additional stressor for the NRA is the impact these actions and Donald Trump’s divisiveness will have on the Republican party heading into the November midterms. The Guardian’s Lois Beckett has done a great breakdown of the six threats facing the NRA here and will be reporting from the convention all weekend.
Trump, whose campaign accepted more than $30m from the NRA in 2016, spoke Friday afternoon at the first day of the convention. “Thanks to your activism and dedication. You have an administration fighting to protect your second amendment and we will protect your second amendment,” he said.
And if you’re wondering why the NRA is so powerful, the Guardian US business editor, Dominic Rushe, has the answer here.
Teacher backs immigrants and refugees in moment with Trump
At the White House this week, the National Teacher of the Year staged a silent protest by wearing overtly political badges, including one with a poster for the Women’s March, when she accepted her award from Trump.
Mandy Manning, who leads a classroom for teenage refugees in Washington, also wore badges that supported the LGBT community to the annual ceremony.
Manning told the Associated Press that in a private moment with Trump she gave the president letters written by her students and the community that she hoped would convey what coming to the US means for refugees and immigrants.
Immigration lawyers have warned repeatedly that White House policies are slowing immigration to the US. And refugee groups have been sounding an alarm about the the fall in refugee admissions this fiscal year. Only 10,584 people have been admitted in the past six months, compared with 39,000 refugee admissions in the same period in 2017, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
The annual ceremony took place against the backdrop of teachers’ strikes in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Oklahoma and West Virginia amid complaints over stagnant pay and shrinking pensions.
What we’re reading
- Puerto Rican police fired tear gas at protesters on Tuesday during May Day demonstrations in the capital, San Juan. The peaceful march was held in response to austerity measures placed on the island by a controversial oversight board. The role of the board has become even more contentious as the island is still far from recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Maria in September 2017. “I don’t know what we will leave our young daughter,” one protester told NBC News. “This is just such an ugly panorama right now.”
- Over at BuzzFeed, Scaachi Koul goes deep into the college Republicans’ internal struggles in lefty California, where some fear opposition to Trump will give Democrats an even greater hold on the Golden State. Koul writes how this young segment of the GOP reflects the broader struggle in the party: “Do Republican politicians need to be bold, unapologetic, and often wildly offensive, to be effective? Or should they return to the decorum and professional tenor formerly expected in politics?”
