12 injured, 3 detained in shooting at South Carolina mall
Twelve people were injured during a shooting at Columbia Centre mall in Columbia, on Saturday and three people have been detained, according to police. None have died from the shooting. Of those 12 injured, 10 were hit by gunfire and two others were hurt as people fled to exits, Columbia Police Department Chief Skip Holbrook said at a 5 p.m. news conference in Harbison, where Columbiana mall is located. Eight of the people hit by gunfire were transported to area hospitals, with two in critical but stable condition. Two other gunshot victims took themselves to a hospital, Holbrook said.
USDA identifies new bird flu cases in Pennsylvania, Utah
New cases of bird flu have been detected in a commercial chicken flock in Pennsylvania and a backyard flock in Utah, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Saturday, in what is one of the worst outbreaks in the country’s history. Avian influenza has affected more than 24 million wild, commercial and backyard birds since mid-January and the virus is pushing the price of eggs and poultry higher.
Days after setting an execution date, Texas prosecutor reverses course
When a Texas judge this past week set an execution date of Oct. 5 for John Henry Ramirez, it seemed like the end of the road. Ramirez, who was convicted of a 2008 murder, appealed his case to the Supreme Court, asking to have his pastor pray out loud and lay hands on him in the execution chamber. Last month, the court ruled in his favor. But on Thursday, District Attorney Mark Gonzalez filed a motion withdrawing the death warrant for Ramirez, citing his “firm belief that the death penalty is unethical and should not be imposed on Mr. Ramirez or any other person.”
The unseen scars of those who kill via remote control
Drone crews have launched more missiles and killed more people than nearly anyone else in the military in the past decade, but the military did not count them as combat troops. Because they were not deployed, they seldom got the same recovery periods or mental-health screenings as other fighters. Instead they were treated as office workers, expected to show up for endless shifts in a forever war. Under unrelenting stress, several former crew members said, people broke down. Drinking and divorce became common. Some left the operations floor in tears. Others attempted suicide. And the military failed to recognize the full impact.
Trump’s focus on 2020 election splits Michigan Republicans
In Michigan and other battleground states, former President Donald Trump’s chosen candidates have become megaphones for his election claims — frustrating some Republicans who view a preoccupation with the 2020 election as a losing message in 2022. The root of the rupture in Michigan can, in part, be traced to endorsements made by Meshawn Maddock, a co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party and a Trump confidant. One raucous scene, in Macomb County, exploded after months of infighting that roiled the state’s GOP, pitting Trump loyalists who continue to promote Trump’s lies of a stolen election against a cohort of Republicans who are eager to move on.
Where Russians turn for uncensored news on Ukraine
As Russia has silenced independent news media and banned social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the Telegram chat app has become the largest remaining outlet for unrestricted information. Since the war started, it has been the most downloaded app in Russia, with about 4.4 million downloads, according to Sensor Tower, an analytics firm. (There have been 124 million downloads of Telegram in Russia since January 2014, according to Sensor Tower.) Opponents of the war use the platform for everything from organizing anti-war protests to sharing media reports from the West.
India is stalling WHO’s efforts to make global COVID death toll public
An effort by the World Health Organization to calculate the global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has found that vastly more people died than previously believed — a total of about 15 million by the end of 2021, more than double the official total of 6 million reported by countries individually. But the release of the estimate has been delayed for months because of objections from India, which disputes the calculation of how many of its citizens died and has tried to keep it from becoming public. A WHO spokesperson told The New York Times, “We aim to publish in April.”
A Nazi soldier stole a watch in 1942. It turned up 80 years later.
After nearly 80 years, a watch that was taken by a Nazi soldier during World War II, lost in a cornfield and later hidden in a clock on a farm in Belgium, has been returned to the grandchildren of its maker. The pocket watch was crafted in 1910 by Alfred Overstrijd, a Jewish man from the Dutch city of Rotterdam. He made it as a gift for his brother. An inscription on the back of the watch includes Overstrijd’s name and the place and time it was made as well as the fact that it was intended for his brother.