First Thing: Man who killed Black Lives Matter protester pardoned

Texas governor pardons Daniel Perry, who has been serving a 25-year sentence for murder. Plus, more David Copperfield accusations

Good morning.

A former US army sergeant who was convicted of murder for fatally shooting an armed demonstrator in 2020 during nationwide protests against police violence and racial injustice has been pardoned by the Texas governor, Greg Abbott.

The Texas board of pardons and paroles made a unanimous recommendation that Daniel Perry – held in state prison on a 25-year sentence since his conviction in 2023 – be pardoned and have his firearms rights restored.

A jury in Austin convicted Perry of murder in the death of 28-year-old Garrett Foster, an air force veteran who had been legally carrying an AK-47 while marching in a Black Lives Matter protest. Perry was working as a ride-share driver in July 2020, when he turned his car on to a street crowded with protesters and shot Foster before driving off. Perry’s case had become a rallying point for conservatives, who called on the governor to ensure his release.

Prosecutors argued at trial that Perry could have driven away without opening fire and witnesses testified that they never saw Foster raise his gun. The sergeant’s defense attorneys argued Foster, who was white, did raise the rifle and that Perry, who is also white, had no choice but to shoot.

Who is Daniel Perry? Court records showed that in the weeks leading up to the murder, Perry sent racist messages about protesters, shared white supremacist memes and talked about how he “might have to kill a few people” who were demonstrating outside his house. He compared the Black Lives Matter movement to “a zoo full of monkeys that are freaking out flinging their shit”.

Were other people killed during the Black Lives Matter protests? The shooting was one of at least 25 killings of Americans during political protests and unrest in 2020, amid thousands of overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd.

University president in California on leave after agreeing to campus protesters’ demands

The president of a public university in California has been placed on leave for “insubordination” after he agreed to student demands for an academic boycott of Israel, prompting a backlash from pro-Israel groups and the wider California state university system.

Mike Lee was suspended from Sonoma State University after an announcement that the liberal arts college north of San Francisco had agreed with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to become the first US university to refuse to work with Israeli academic institutions.

“None of us should be on the sidelines when human beings are subject to mass killing and destruction,” Lee said in a message to students announcing the move. He also said the college would review its investments to find “ethical alternatives” to Israel and set up a Palestine studies programme. However, following criticism he apologized for agreeing to the boycott, saying it “marginalized” other students and caused harm.

The backlash. The move drew immediate criticism from pro-Israel groups, who accused the SJP of glorifying Hamas and discriminating against Jewish students. The Anti-Defamation League told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that “Lee capitulated to protesters and agreed to a dangerous set of demands in one of the most offensive and outrageous agreements to date with encampment protesters.”

Senator weighs in, too. California state senator Scott Wiener accused Sonoma State of aligning the campus with the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which he described as “a movement whose goal is the destruction of Israel.”

Former teen models accuse magician David Copperfield of misconduct

Five former contestants of 1991’s Look of the Year, a prestigious modeling contest, say they were subjected to behavior by the celebrity magician David Copperfield that they now regard as inappropriate or worse. The women – who were all teenagers at the time – met him at the New York contest in 1991 or three years earlier in Japan, when he was also a judge. Others who attended the events also say they witnessed Copperfield behaving inappropriately towards the girls.

The claims include allegations of unwanted sexual touching and sexual harassment. In one case, a former contestant alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Copperfield in the months after the competition. She was 17 years old at the time, she says.

The claims follow a report in yesterday’s Guardian US, which detailed allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior by Copperfield from women who had met him in connection with his performances.

Copperfield’s response: In written responses to questions from the Guardian, lawyers for David Copperfield denied all the allegations of misconduct and inappropriate behavior. Copperfield’s lawyers said he had “never, ever acted inappropriately with anyone, let alone anyone underage.”

In other news …

Tokyo is battling a surge of destructive raccoons that went from pet to pest, setting up a hotline to report sightings after numbers of captures increased fivefold in decade. Raccoons became popular as pets after the success of a 1970s TV anime series, but there are now concerns about the damage the animals are inflicting on the local ecosystem.

Police shot and killed an armed suspect who appeared to be planning to set fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen, France’s interior ministry has said. The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, thanked officers for their “reactivity and their courage” in a post on X.

A 29-year-old Dutch woman is expected to end her life in the coming weeks after being granted her request for assisted dying on the grounds of unbearable mental suffering. Zoraya ter Beek received the final approval last week for assisted dying after a three and a half year process.

Russia does not have sufficient forces on the ground to make a major breakthrough in Ukraine after launching its offensive in the Kharkhiv region, according to Nato’s supreme allied commander for Europe, Christopher Cavoli. “More to the point they don’t have the skill and the ability to do it.”

Don’t miss this: Billy Idol: ‘I stole the master tapes for Rebel Yell – and gave them to my dealer’

The Generation X punk turned arena rocker answers Guardian reader’s questions on near-misses in Hollywood, his overlooked electronic period and how Marc Bolan helped launch his career. Asked whether it is true that he stole the master tapes to the Rebel Yell album during a spat with the record label, he reveals that it was because of an issue with a picture used for the cover.

“I was saying: ‘There’s a flaw in this picture, and if we blow this up it will get worse.’ The record company started to say: ‘We’re leaving it. It’s not that bad.’ I just thought: ‘I’m just not going to let this happen. It’s so silly. They just need to reprint the picture. I’m not listening to what the record company guys say. In fact, I’m gonna blackmail them.’

“So I went down to Electric Lady [studios] in the middle of the night and got to where I knew the tape boxes were. I took them and left the studio and gave them to my heroin dealer. And then I phoned the record company and said: ‘This guy I’ve given them to, he’ll have them out on the street bootlegged in a couple of days if you don’t change this picture.’ And they relented. Don’t let them walk all over you.”

… or this: the artist behind the portal linking New York and Dublin: ‘People got carried away’

Benediktas Gylys, the artist behind the Portal art exhibit that visually linked New York and Dublin in real-time, but was then closed due to rowdy and extreme behavior by the public using it – culminating with an OnlyFans model showing the Irish her breasts – has admitted he was surprised by the reaction. But he has vowed to continue with his project, with the aim of connecting people and communities all over the world. It is hoped to reopen soon.

Gylys says he and his small team were so focused on getting the 8ft-tall sculpture installed and connected that they hadn’t given much thought to how it might be used – or misused. “We were thinking about some potential incidences, and took some approaches, but now we see they were not enough,” he told the Guardian. “But for me it is just us, the human species, building this artwork together and a representation of our current state of humanity,” he added. “We see a lot of love, light, smiles, a marriage proposal was made a couple of days ago, but we also have some darkness, attention-seeking, people who are only thinking about themselves, trying to jump on the narrative to get more views and followers.”

Climate check: Ron DeSantis signs bill scrubbing ‘climate change’ from Florida state laws

Climate change will be a lesser priority in Florida and largely disappear from state statutes under new legislation signed by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, in a move experts say ignores the reality of Florida’s climate threats. The legislation, which comes after Florida had its hottest year on record since 1895, also bans power-generating wind turbines offshore or near the state’s lengthy coastline. Florida is facing rising seas, extreme heat, flooding and increasingly severe storms.

The legislation takes effect on 1 July and also boosts expansion of natural gas, reduces regulations on gas pipelines in the state, and increases protections against bans on gas appliances such as stoves, according to a news release from the governor’s office. “This purposeful act of cognitive dissonance is proof that the governor and state legislature are not acting in the best interests of Floridians, but rather to protect profits for the fossil fuel industry,” said Yoca Arditi-Rocha, the executive director of the non-profit Cleo Institute, which advocates for climate change education and engagement.

Last Thing: can shame make you a better person?

In the ancient philosophical tradition of Confucianism, shame is a crucial tool that leads you toward your best self, and you have more power over it than you know, writes Shayla Love. Shame can guide people towards righteousness, since righteousness is connected to our sense of shame. Shame doesn’t feel great at the time, but longer term, it can prompt you to behave in ways that you’re proud of in the future.

“It allows you to make moral progress,” said Jingyi Jenny Zhao, a philosopher at Needham Research Institute in Cambridge, and author of Aristotle and Xunzi on Shame, Moral Education, and the Good Life. “It’s one of the core features of being a human being.” This is also an optimistic takeaway from the Confucians: we are all capable of betterment. “Don’t think of yourself as this fixed thing that never changes,” Zhao added. “Rather, shame helps you review what’s gone wrong – preserving the good, and getting rid of the bad.”

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