Good morning, NBC News readers.
Tensions are high after several incidents sparked panic days after mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, a secretive Christian group at the heart of D.C. politics gets ready for its close-up, and Beatles fans come together for an Abbey Road anniversary.
Here's what we're watching today.
Families ‘anguished’ after massive ICE raids in Mississippi
A day after massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Mississippi swept up nearly 700 workers at food processing plants, family members are still shaken by the arrests and anxiously awaiting news about loved ones.
"What I saw was traumatic, painful," said Elizabeth Iraheta, who witnessed the raid on a food processing plant where she works.
"I'm thinking of the separated families, fathers and mothers deported, children left alone because their parents were arrested."
Armed Trump supporter detained and released at El Paso immigrant center
Witnesses said they called police after Thomas Bartram, 21, made threatened people and brandished a knife while sitting in his truck outside of a community center for immigrants in El Paso, Texas, just days after a mass shooting that killed 22 people at a Walmart in the border town.
His truck was emblazoned with pro-Trump banners and bumper stickers promoting InfoWars, a far-right conspiracy website and radio show.
The El Paso Police Department said that Bartram was "detained, interviewed and released after it was determined that no criminal offense had been committed."
There is no law that covers 'domestic terrorism.' What would one look like?
The FBI Agents Association and some former federal officials have long called for federal law criminalizing "domestic terrorism."
But civil liberties groups have expressed opposition, fearing federal overreach and infringement on free speech.
"The devil's in the details on this one," said Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. "These are sticky issues."
Shake-up at top of U.S. intelligence
Sue Gordon, a career CIA official who is serving as the principal deputy director of national intelligence, told the White House she would leave her job on Thursday after she learned she would be passed over as director of national intelligence.
President Donald Trump announced in a tweet that he would be naming Joseph Maguire, the current director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as acting director of national intelligence.
A source with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC News that National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, who is retiring on August 15, had recommended that Gordon replace him. But White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told him the White House had someone else in mind.
The Week in Pictures
See more of the most striking images from the last week.
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Plus
- A man in body armor and armed with a rifle sparked panic at a Missouri Walmart.
- A secretive Christian group at heart of D.C. politics gets ready for its close-up with "The Family," a new Netflix documentary series.
- A Vietnam War pilot's remains were finally returned to the U.S. in a plane flown by his son.
- Rosie Ruiz, the infamous Boston Marathon course-cutter, has died. She was 66.
THINK about it
Plastic bags feel integral to modern life. But they're a relatively new addition we could do without, Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner writes in an opinion piece.
Science + Tech = MACH
Good news for guac lovers: Scientists just sequenced the avocado genome.
Quote of the day
"Mr. President — I offer this letter as an act of respect & patriotism, not preference. You should have your team. Godspeed, Sue."
— The handwritten resignation letter Sue Gordon, principal deputy director of national intelligence, sent to President Trump.
One fun thing
They came together in the thousands Thursday to recreate the world's most famous album cover: The Beatles' stroll across London's Abbey Road.
The iconic image was shot outside the band's recording studio fifty years ago on Aug. 8, 1969.
Less than a year after the photo was taken, the band broke up. But the crossing lives on.
Some American fans flew in just to be there for the big day.
"It's nostalgia to me,” said fan Bruce Spizer. “But it's damn good music, still!"
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Thanks, Petra
