First Thing: Ted Cruz faces backlash after deadly Texas mall shooting

Senator ‘should advocate for gun controls rather than invoking prayer after mass shootings’. Plus, King Charles’s ‘moans’

Good morning.

Texas senator Ted Cruz’s comment that he was “praying” for families of the eight victims killed in a shooting at a shopping mall in his state has sparked outrage as many critics say the Republican should advocate for meaningful gun control rather than repeatedly invoke prayer after mass, deadly violence.

The backlash came as President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass gun control bills after Saturday’s attack, in which the gunman was also killed, in Allen, Texas.

Criticism of Cruz grew several hours after the shooting when he tweeted: “Heidi and I are praying for the families of the victims of the horrific mall shooting in Allen, Texas. We pray also for the broader Collin county community that’s in shock from this tragedy.”

Shannon Watts, founder of gun safety group Moms Demand Action, said on Twitter: “YOU helped arm him with guns, ammo and tactical gear. He did exactly what you knew he’d do. Spare us your prayers and talk of justice for a gunman who is … dead. The only accountability we can hope for is that gun extremists like you are thrown into the ash heap of history.”

The Star Trek actor George Takei added: “You’re worse than useless.” Another Twitter user said thoughts and prayers “are nothing but blasphemy and evil”. Yet another quipped: “Have you tried turning the prayer machine off and back on again.”

• ‘Rightwing death squad’. The alleged shooter wore a patch on his chest communicating the phrase when he was killed by police. Federal agents have been reviewing social media accounts they believe he used and posts that expressed interest in white supremacist and neo-Nazi views, according to an official.

• In a separate potential attack elsewhere in the state. Eight people were and 10 others wereinjured after a car drove into a crowd outside a shelter serving migrants and homeless people in Brownsville, Texas, yesterday, and investigators believe it may have been intentional.

King Charles complained ‘we can never be on time’ at coronation, lip reader claims

King Charles grumbled “we can never be on time” and “there’s always something” at the start of his coronation, a lip reader has claimed. The monarch and Camilla arrived at Westminster Abbey early and were forced to wait outside, sat in their diamond jubilee state coach.

The Prince and Princess of Wales – accompanied by Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis – were reportedly late, and forced to join the king’s procession through Westminster Abbey, instead of entering before Charles.

A lip reader for Sky News said that Charles complained: “We can never be on time. Yes, I’m … This is a negative. There’s always something … This is boring,” Charles said during the tense buildup to his coronation.

William and Kate were due to arrive at 10.45am, while Charles and Camilla’s arrival had been set for 10.53am in the carefully organised schedule, planned months in advance.

• If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. It is not the first time Charles has shown an outburst of emotion during stressful situations in his reign as king. While signing a visitors’ book at Hillsborough Castle, shortly after Queen Elizabeth died, he got upset at a pen after it appeared to leak, telling aides: “I can’t bear this bloody thing”.

Jeffrey Epstein scandal rolls on as new names emerge

The scandal surrounding the late sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein has seen more names emerge from legal documents amid fresh details of his daily itinerary of meetings with prominent government, financial and cultural figures.

The latest boldface names to emerge from a series of Wall Street Journal reports include the director of CIA, Williams Burns, and Kathryn Ruemmler, White House counsel under Barack Obama, alongside lesser figures including the leftwing professor and activist Noam Chomsky, billionaire venture capitalist Reid Hoffman and Lawrence Summers, former Harvard president and director of the National Economic Council under Obama.

And then there were the figures from arts and letters. Woody Allen was scheduled to visit the studio of Jeff Koons with Epstein. Another was Dr Helen Fisher, an anthropologist of human behavior. She was invited to speak to his staff.

“If you invested money with him, he’d get you laid,” a source said. “They were young pretty girls with no contacts, who they had no ability to meet. It was like a dating service and the girls were like the candy on a stick.”

• Anarcho-syndicalism or capitalism? When 94-year-old Noam Chomsky was asked about his relationship with Epstein, he responded: “First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone’s. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.”

In other news …

• It took three separate waves of modern humans to colonise Europe from western Asia between 54,000 and 42,000 years ago, scientists studying caves in the Rhone valley have concluded. “After that, modern humans took over in Europe. The Neanderthals, who had evolved on the continent, died out.”

• Germany’s culture minister has been forced to intervene over reports of a “climate of fear” dominating the country’s film sets after numerous allegations of bullying and abuse were made against one of the industry’s biggest stars, Til Schweiger, a multi-award-winning actor and director.

• Vietnam has reported a record-high temperature of 111.38F (44.1C), with people warned to remain indoors during the hottest parts of the day. Scientists have said the climate crisis is aggravating adverse weather, after neighbouring countries recorded record highs last month.

• The billionaire investor Warren Buffett has said executives who led the US banking system into crisis should face “punishment”, as the American economy grapples with the worst series of bank failures since the 2008 financial crash.

Stat of the day: Nearly 50 news websites are ‘AI-generated’, a study says. Would I be able to tell?

Celebritiesdeaths.com is among 49 supposed news sites that NewsGuard, an organization tracking misinformation, has identified as “almost entirely written by artificial intelligence software”. The sites publish up to hundreds of articles daily, according to the report, much of that material containing signs of AI-generated content, including “bland language and repetitive phrases”, writes Matthew Cantor.

Some of the articles contain false information and many of the sites are packed with ads, suggesting they’re intended to make money via programmatic, or algorithmically generated, advertising. The sources of the stories aren’t clear: many lack bylines or use fake profile photos. In other words, NewsGuard says, experts’ fears that entire news organizations could be generated by AI have already become reality. What do these sites look like – and would AI articles always be as easy to spot as the report of Biden’s death? This writer spent an afternoon in the brave new world of digital nonsense to find out.

Don’t miss this: Can monarchical drama really hold a modern audience’s attention?

It is unsurprising, writes Charlotte Higgins, that Harry Potter emerged from a nation steeped in the kind of batty imaginarium that contains a ceremonial orb, “bracelets of sincerity and wisdom”, a rod of equity, a blunted sword of mercy, and a princess riding behind a gilded carriage in a cocked hat, bearing the title “gold stick in waiting”. Welcome to the coronation of King Charles III!

But while BBC viewers this weekend were told the ritual dates back to even before the 1066 Battle of Hastings, it was in the 20th century that the royals began to “do” coronations with a pomp and circumstance not seen since the middle ages, offsetting the rise of democracy with a show of royal glamour, pageantry and “conscious archaism”. Can a modern audience’s attention really be held by the drama of monarchy when protesters are being rounded up outside, when the people are queueing at foodbanks, when the nurses and doctors are on strike, when the country is sinking?

… or this: Are you a mosquito magnet? Help may be at hand

When mosquitoes begin their hunt for blood I am reminded, via a blanket of red blotches that have more than once swelled to the size of a golf ball, that mine is a godlike nectar, writes Charlotte Lytton. But there are signs that a solution for the 20% of the population who receive above-average numbers of bites may soon be at hand. Earlier this month, researchers developed a new repellant capable of reducing the number of mosquitoes feeding by 80%.

A new malaria vaccine approved in Ghana and Nigeria this month may go some way to changing the course of the rise in cases, it is hoped, although the WHO has yet to recommend it for use. Last month also saw the release of Mosquito Alert St Louis – an app using citizen science to combat the spread of the insects in Missouri. Users are charged with taking photos of adult mosquitoes and submitting them, along with information about their size and location, with volunteer experts on hand to help label each species. Creating a database will identify mosquito hotbeds and determine their disease-carrying potential, allowing locals to better protect themselves.

Climate check: US agency takes unprecedented action to tackle PFAS water pollution

The US Environmental Protection Agency is taking unprecedented enforcement action over PFAS water pollution by ordering the chemical giant Chemours’ Parkersburg, West Virginia, plant to stop discharging extremely high levels of toxic PFAS waste into the Ohio River. The river is a drinking water source for 5 million people, and the EPA’s Clean Water Act violation order cites 71 instances between September 2018 to March 2023 in which Chemours’ Washington Works facility discharged more PFAS waste than its pollution permit allowed.

The agency also noted damaged facilities and equipment that appeared to be leaking PFAS waste on to the ground. The chemicals are ubiquitous and linked at low levels of exposure to cancer, thyroid disease, kidney dysfunction, birth defects, autoimmune disease and other serious health problems, writes Tom Perkins. The step by the EPA drew praise from some environmental groups, but at least one noted the permit still allows high levels of PFAS pollution and may not adequately protect the environment and human health.

Last Thing: The photographer detoxifying the nude

Inspired by what photographer Sarah Piantadosi calls a “generational shift” at the start of the pandemic, she set out to photograph more than 50 twentysomethings in London and Paris over a year and a half, using the nude as a way to explore ideas of agency and empowerment. “I just felt that the generation younger than me were taking a stand in a way I hadn’t seen before,” she says. “They don’t want to be silenced. They want to be seen. They want to be heard. They want more autonomy. That’s super powerful.”

Most of the subjects – a term she insists on instead of “models” – are working musicians, writers and artists, writes Safi Bugel. “I didn’t want to just photograph a bunch of models from an agency or from the runway. I was more interested in street casting and capturing this generation working within culture. As a society, we really need that. We need to see variety to feel normal and healthy in ourselves.”

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