1. Damming report finds police too slow to react in Uvalde mass shooting
The horrific scenes at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas in May after an 18-year-old gunman took 21 lives have been compounded by a new investigative report that found almost 400 law enforcement officials took over an hour to enter the school and potentially save more lives.

“Law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritise saving innocent lives over their own safety,” the report said.

The officer coming under the most scrutiny is the Uvalde school district police chief at the time, Pete Arredondo who wasted precious time searching for a master key to the classrooms, but no one ever bothered to see if the doors were locked, according to the report.

“Arredondo’s search for a key consumed his attention and wasted precious time, delaying the breach of the classrooms,” the report said.

The report criticised as “lackadaisical” the approach of the hundreds of officers who surrounded the school and said they should have recognised that Mr Arredondo remaining in the school without reliable communication was “inconsistent” with him being the scene commander.

The report concluded that some officers waited because they relied on bad information, while others “had enough information to know better”.

The committee didn’t “receive medical evidence” to show that police breaching the classroom sooner would have saved lives, but concluded “it is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue”. (AFR)

2. Treasurer warns Aussies of impending inflation
Australia’s July economic update will contain “confronting” news about lower growth projections and higher inflation cutting real wages, Jim Chalmers has said.

The treasurer said the update to be delivered on Thursday 28 July comes as the global economy is in a “difficult if not dangerous place” due to high debt and rising interest rises to combat inflation.

“On Monday Chalmers told reporters in Canberra that the Albanese government had inherited ‘the trickiest set of economic conditions that a new government has inherited in living memory’ due to $1tn of public debt and inflation, which the Reserve Bank has warned is headed towards 7%,” The Guardian reports.

3. Zelenskiy fires Ukraine’s spy chief on grounds of treason
Head of the nation’s security agency, the SBU, and childhood friend of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ivan Bakanov has been fired for conspiring with Russian officials. Prosecutor general and key figure in establishing war crimes against Russia, Iryna Venediktova has also been fired on similar grounds.

In a Telegram post, Zelesnkiy said “651 cases of alleged treason and collaboration had been opened against prosecutorial and law enforcement officials, and that more than 60 officials from Bakanov and Venediktova’s agencies were now working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territories,” The Guardian reports.

“Such an array of crimes against the foundations of the national security of the state … pose very serious questions to the relevant leaders,” Zelenskiy said. “Each of these questions will receive a proper answer.”

4. UK’s infrastructure struggles under                 
With temperatures forecast to hit a record 40C, Britain saw a number of train companies cancel services, schools close early and ministers urge the public to stay at home.

“Flights were suspended at London’s Luton Airport and the Royal Air Force’s Brize Norton base with reports that sections of runways had begun to melt,” the AFR reports.

“The UK’s Network Rail reported a kink in a section of the rail tracks in central London, noting that its temperature had reached 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit).”

5. ASX to drop in tech stock rout
ASX futures were down 27 points or 0.4% to 6554 near 6am AEST, with the AUD +0.32% to 68.15 US cents.

On Wall St: Dow -0.7% S&P 500 -0.8% Nasdaq -0.8%.

In Europe: Stoxx 50 +1% FTSE +0.9% DAX +0.7% CAC+0.9%.

2-year yield: US 3.16% Australia 2.62%. 10-year yield: US 2.96% Australia 3.43%.