Your Weekend Reading: Texas Police Try to Explain Delay at School Attack

A diminished National Rifle Association went ahead with its gun industry convention this weekend as more grim details emerged about the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. Texas police agencies sought to defend against public fury over their delay in confronting the gunman—and the young lives it may have cost—with a series of sometimes contradictory explanations. These included that local police believed the assailant was barricaded alone—despite 911 calls from children begging for help from the classroom. Across the state in Houston, the NRA convention went on amid protests, though the company that made the rifle used in the massacre bowed out, as did other speakers and entertainers. Even Governor Greg Abbott, a staunch gun advocate, was to appear only on video. Among the few well-known figures speaking in person to the gun lobby was Donald Trump. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and his wife are to travel to Uvalde on Sunday to meet with the families of those murdered this week.

Shortly after Biden wrapped up his alliance-building trip to Asia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a much-anticipated speech that China is seeking to dominate the industries of the future. Under Xi Jinping, China “has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad,” Blinken said. The top US diplomat’s comments were direct, though rhetoric is unlikely to go far, Mihir Sharma writes in Bloomberg Opinion. To beat China, the US can’t be afraid of increased trade and investment in the region, he says.

Investors and consumers alike appear to be picking up on a potential break in the US inflation clouds. A week after a brush with bears, markets snapped seven weeks of declines. Wage growth may be peaking—a welcome development for the inflation-wary Federal Reserve if not for some workers. In addition to rate hikes, Fed officials (like their central bank peers in Europe, England and Australia) will begin shrinking balance sheets. “If the backbone of the financial system starts to crack, expect the Fed to alter its course,” Jenny Paris writes in Bloomberg Opinion.