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Civil rights inquiry opened in connection with civil right activist’s death at Charlottesville rally

White House condemns violence after president criticised over muted response to march by white nationalists in Virginia

The US Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the death of a woman killed this weekend when a car smashed into anti-racism protesters. The move came as politicians from all sides rounded on Donald Trump for failing to explicitly condemn white supremacy groups or label the violence domestic terrorism.

On Saturday the president had condemned hatred and violence on “many sides” in his remarks but had not directly singled out the white supremacists whose attempt to hold a major rally in Charlottesville, Virginia resulted in the governor’s calling a state of emergency. Disorder including clashes with counterprotesters left more than 30 injured.

The Guardian view on Donald Trump and racism: a moral failure that shames America | Editorial

No previous US president of modern times would have failed to condemn his country’s white nationalists. This one did

As George W Bush’s speechwriter put it this weekend, it is one of the “difficult but primary duties” of a political leader to speak for a nation in traumatic times. A space shuttle explodes, a school student goes on a shooting spree, a terrorist flies a plane into a building, a hurricane floods a city. When such things happen, Michael Gerson wrote in the Washington Post, “It falls to the president to express something of the nation’s soul.” Yet if Donald Trump’s words about the violent white extremist mobilisation in Virginia on Saturday – which an under-pressure White House was desperately trying to clarify on Sunday – are an expression of its soul, America may be on the road to perdition.

The original United States of America was built on white supremacy. The US constitution of 1787 treated black slaves as equivalent to three-fifths of a free white and gave no rights at all to Native Americans, who were regarded as belonging to their own nations. After the civil war, Jim Crow laws enforced segregation across the defeated south and comprehensively disfranchised African Americans for nearly a century. Writing Mein Kampf in the 1920s, Adolf Hitler praised America’s institutional racism as a model from which Nazi Germany could learn. Only in the postwar period, and then slowly and incompletely, was meaningful racial equality pursued by the land of the free.

Woman killed at white supremacist rally in Charlottesville named

Heather Heyer, 32, a legal assistant from Virginia, was one of 20 people struck by vehicle that was driven into a crowd of counter-protesters

The woman who died when a car rammed a group of people protesting against a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville was named on Sunday as Heather Heyer, a 32 year old legal assistant with a law firm in Virginia, who repeatedly championed civil rights issues on social media.

Heyer, whose Facebook cover photo read: “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention”, worked for the Virginia law firm Miller Law, and regularly drew attention to cases of police malpractice and racism, as well as posting her support for Bernie Sanders in his presidential campaign.

US PGA Championship 2017: final round – live!

Updates from Quail Hollow | Official leaderboard
Third round: Kisner leads but players make hard work
And feel free to email scott.murray@theguardian.com

11.50am BST

OK, so the 99th PGA Championship might not have turned a stone-cold classic yet. But it hasn’t been half bad either, with plenty that will live long in the memory. Brilliant 64s for Hideki Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari. Rod Pampling’s selfless Adam Sandler tribute act. Graham DeLaet’s birdie-eagle-eagle-birdie run. The emergence of 23-year-old local hero Grayson Murray. Jason Day’s decision to hook a big one round a tree trunk last night instead of taking his medicine and chipping out, the most preposterous way anyone will ever play themselves out of contention in a major, even if they keep staging these things until the rapture.

Then there’s been the steady brilliance of Kevin Kisner, another local boy, sort of, from Aiken, South Carolina, a two-hour drive over the border. A regular visitor to Quail Hollow, he’s threatening to win this tournament wire to wire, a little local knowledge going a long way. And what about the heart-warming story of Chris Stroud, a 35-year-old Texan who recently decided to give up pushing for his elusive maiden Tour victory, immediately won the Barracuda in Reno last week, and is now in the hunt for a title that’d catapult him into the Daly-Beem-Micheel category of shock PGA champions.

Charlottesville: man charged with murder was pictured at neo-Nazi rally

Pictures from earlier on day of clashes show James Fields with white supremacist group Vanguard America

The man accused of murdering a woman by deliberately driving into her during protests over a far right rally was photographed earlier in the day standing with the white supremacist, neo-Nazi group Vanguard America.

James Fields, 20, of Maumee, Ohio, allegedly killed Heather Heyer, aged 32, and injured 19 others when he rammed his car into a group peacefully protesting against a far right rally on Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia.

International Left-Handers Day: why some lefty athletes gain an advantage

Approximately 12% of the US population are left-handed – but standing out in a co-operative world can help some thrive

Athletes could help us understand why most people are right-handed (and that seems worth understanding today, on International Left-Handers Day).

In the United States, despite scientific agreement that it’s partly genetic, the rate of left-handedness has fluctuated over time. According to a 2009 paper titled “the history and geography of human handedness”, American left-handedness declined before 1900, then picked up again, reaching approximately 12% – possibly because left-handedness is no longer “corrected” in schoolchildren.

Marshawn Lynch follows Kaepernick’s lead and sits out national anthem

Oakland Raiders running back sits during anthem in pre-season game
Colin Kaepernick protested against racial injustice last season

Colin Kaepernick says he will stand for the national anthem this season – if he manages to find a team – but his message lives on.

Prior to Saturday’s pre-season game against the Arizona Cardinals, the Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch appeared to sit out the national anthem. Kaepernick did not stand for the anthem last season as a protest at racial injustice in the US, and several other players followed his example. Lynch was not one of them – the 31-year-old had retired from the NFL and did not play last season but chose to return to his hometown Raiders earlier this year.

One dead after car rams into anti-fascist protesters in Charlottesville – video report

A woman has died after a car rammed into a group of anti-far-right protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday. It marked a day of violence after clashes between far-right nationalists and people protesting against them. Donald Trump condemned the ‘violence on all sides’ but was criticised for failing to directly denounce the white supremacists

Man charged with murder after car rams anti-far-right protesters in Charlottesville

How Trump’s paranoid White House sees ‘deep state’ enemies on all sides

Internal document shows the ‘alt-right’ Steve Bannon wing of the administration’s fervent belief that America is at risk from ‘the Opposition’ – a cabal of bankers, globalists, the media and even Republican leaders

An extraordinary memo by a former national security official contains a list of Donald Trump’s perceived enemies within, offering an insight into paranoia gripping the White House.

The author, Rich Higgins, was ousted last month by the national security adviser, HR McMaster. But the president reportedly saw the memo when it was passed to him by his son, Donald Trump Jr, and was said to be “furious” at Higgins’s forced departure.

How Trump v Kim can wreck the world economy without a shot being fired

Tension is more likely to spark a US trade war with Beijing than a shootout with Pyongyang. China’s debt bubble will then burst, with major global economic consequences

Full marks for timing, Mr President. Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the start of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, making it an appropriate moment for Donald Trump to threaten North Korea with obliteration.

One of the few achievements Trump can point to in his first six months in office is that shares on Wall Street have been steadily rising since his election victory last October. The “fire and fury” remark and the inevitable counter blast from Kim Jong-un gave the markets pause for thought. But not much more than that.

Donald Trump condemns violence ‘on many sides’ in Charlottesville – video

Trump says hatred and bigotry ‘on many sides’ must stop in wake of the violent protests in Virginia

Kevin Kisner leads US PGA but players make hard work on day three

• Chris Stroud and Hideki Matsuyama one shot behind Kevin Kisner
• Struggles illustrated by lack of a single birdie at 1st hole on Saturday

The 99th playing of the US PGA Championship has sporting parallels. There is, for example, the grim scoreless draw that football hipsters insist is wonderfully entertaining on grounds of defensive performance. Factor in a dour five-day cricket Test that ends without a winner and a fuller picture can be drawn.

Somebody will prevail at this major – eventually – but the event has already triggered a debate. Those seeking spine-tingling entertainment need look elsewhere. On a tense third day, during which standing still was valuable to many of those in the upper echelons of the leaderboard, golf purists insisted this is what major championship play should be all about. It is, though, a hard sell. The margin between good and bad shots has at times been impossible to decipher.