Parkland Shooting trial opens with chilling video: ‘It just wouldn’t stop’
After unleashing six minutes of horror in the hallways of his former high school, where he fatally shot 17 people and injured 17 others, Nikolas Cruz fled to a Subway down the street and bought himself an Icee. It was the afternoon of Feb. 14, 2018. A Florida prosecutor recounted those and other wrenching details Monday during the government’s opening statement in the sentencing trial of Cruz, now 23, who has pleaded guilty to 17 murders and 17 attempted murders. He now faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
COVID rises across US amid muted warnings and murky data
COVID-19 is surging around the United States again in what experts consider the most transmissible variant of the pandemic yet. But something is different this time: The public health authorities are holding back. The latest surge, driven by a spike of BA.5 subvariant cases in this country since May, has sent infections rising in at least 40 states, particularly in the Great Plains, West and South. Hospitalizations have climbed by 20% in the last two weeks. More than two years after the pandemic began, though, public health officials are sounding only quiet warnings amid a picture that they hope has been changed by vaccines, treatments and rising immunity.
Rare in US for an active shooter to be stopped by bystander
Police are praising an armed shopper who killed a gunman at a suburban Indianapolis shopping mall. It was a rare occurrence of someone stepping in to try to prevent multiple casualties before police could arrive. A 20-year-old gunman killed three people and wounded two others at the Greenwood Park Mall on Sunday before he was fatally shot by 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken. Greenwood police Chief Jim Ison says “many more people” would have died if Dicken hadn’t intervened. Only a small percentage of active attacks in the U.S. end with a civilian firing back. Indiana allows adults to carry a handgun in public, through private property owners can prohibit firearms. The Greenwood mall has a ban on weapons.
Jury selection for ex-Trump adviser Bannon heads for 2nd day
After a day-long court session, final jury selection will stretch into a second day in the contempt-of-Congress trial of Steve Bannon. The longtime adviser to former President Donald Trump faces criminal charges after refusing for months to cooperate with the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection. By the end of Monday’s opening day, 22 prospective jurors had been identified. The trial will resume Tuesday morning as lawyers for Bannon and the government whittle the list down to 12 jurors and two alternates. Much of Monday’s questioning of potential jurors by Bannon’s lawyer centered on how much of the wide coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings they’ve watched and whether they have opinions about the committee and its work.
Fauci says he will ‘almost certainly’ retire by January 2025
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has repeatedly brushed off speculation that he would retire, says he has a time frame in mind for the end of his long government career. But those who are eager for him to go may have to wait a while: His plan is to leave by January 2025, the end of President Joe Biden’s current term. In recent months, the will-he-or-won’t-he-step-down conversation has dogged the 81-year-old Fauci — perhaps the best-known doctor in America. The issue comes and goes in direct proportion to how much Republicans are attacking the man who has been the top medical adviser to two presidents during the pandemic.
Japan’s leader tries to honor Abe’s legacy, while building his own
As much as Shinzo Abe’s death, geopolitical circumstances will dictate the political choices of Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister. The war in Ukraine and rising military threats from China and North Korea have prompted Kishida, who had previously cast himself as a liberal-leaning, dovish member of the Liberal Democrats, to take on a more hawkish mantle. In polls, a majority of Japanese back increasing the defense budget, and although the public once vociferously opposed revising the pacifist constitution, surveys indicated that a majority would now consider it. Abe was assassinated on July 8.
Europe broils in heat wave that fuels fires in France, Spain
A heat wave broiling Europe spilled northward to Britain and fueled ferocious wildfires in Spain and France. French authorities evacuated thousands of people and scrambled water-bombing planes and firefighters to battle flames the Monday. Two people were killed in the blazes in Spain that the country’s prime minister linked to climate change. That toll comes on top of the hundreds of heat-related deaths reported in the Iberian peninsula, as high temperatures have gripped the continent in recent days and triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkan region. Climate change makes such life-threatening extremes less of a rarity.
Sri Lanka acting president declares emergency amid protests
Sri Lanka’s acting president has declared a state of emergency that gives him broad authority amid growing protests demanding his resignation two days before lawmakers choose a new president. Ranil Wickremesinghe became acting president on Friday after his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled abroad and resigned after months of protests over the country’s economic collapse. Wickremesinghe’s state of emergency imposition comes as protests demanding his resignation have continued. Wickremesinghe says bailout package negotiations with the International Monetary Fund are nearing conclusion. The IMF hasn’t commented. Lawmakers will meet on Wednesday to elect a new president.
By wire sources